Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Tonight, I am a Duchess

In the distance, a cry for help echoed through the forest. I jumped instantly on my horse and raced towards the sound. It led me through the dense forest and over a river, but soon I found the one who called for me. Leaning out the window of a small forest manor was the beautiful Countess Jennifer, my best friend of six years.

"Duchess Madeline!" she exclaimed happily. "You've come to see me at last!"

Dropping down off my horse, I smiled at her excitement. She rushed to open the front door for me, and as I stepped inside, I asked, "How are you, Jenn? Are you feeling any better?"

She told me she was and that she was very happy I had come to see her--but I supposed that was because I had picked a gift up for her before coming.

As Countess, she had many duties to attend to so we spent most of our time catching up around her work. It had been some time since last we had spoken thus we had much to say. Her work often remained untouched as we got ourselves wrapped up in stories of our lives as Countess and Duchess. Time flew by and soon our fun had to end for I needed to return to my own fortress far east of her home.

However, to my home, I did not go. I went, instead to the training garrison near my home to continue my lessons for battle. My father had suggested I take them when I was young, but I did not continue with them which I now know was a mistake because I do very much enjoy them and they are very beneficial, especially to me, a woman.

The lesson dragged on for today the men fought hand to hand combat and I had to sit out for I had recently been ill and therefore unable to take the exercise. Though, soon enough, we did simple enough drills that I participated in gladly, and then, before I knew it, the lesson was ending.

I returned home exhausted yet in high spirits to replace my fighting clothes with lighter night clothes and finished off a wonderful day reading an exciting novel before falling blissfully asleep.

In the Army Today

I awoke early this morning to a bomb exploding near my head. Ignoring it, I merely rolled over and fell back asleep. This happened all the time, and I was too tired to put up with it.

Less than half an hour later, though, my commander came in and told me it was time to wake up just before another explosion went off near my head.

"All right, already," I sighed as I finally kicked off the covers.

The maze of building material near my tent is becoming unbearable. I am so sick of having to maneuver it just to get to the freaking bathroom. Hopefully, by the end of the week, we'll have the new wall finished, and I won't have to put up with it anymore. Anyway, I found the short cut through it and somehow got to the bathroom in one piece. It was only after I got there that I remembered I'd forgotten to grab my uniform so I went back through and pulled out today's battle ready gear. Anything could happen at any moment so it was always good to be prepared.

I arrived early for training to find that nothing was happening yet so I sat down to read in the rare moment of quiet. Soon enough, however, a comrade of mine, Private Jason, came and sat at my table. He filled me in on what I'd missed last week, and we discussed our plans to overthrow Captain Bruggemoron by using his own upcoming examination against him. Of course, the captain arrived at that moment. We silenced our conversation for now to resume it this coming Monday--before the examination.

After a brutal and useless hour of training, I joined Sergeant Major Pirkl in the mess hall for breakfast, and we discussed finishing the building of the new wall to get the maze out of the way of my tent once and for all. He also asked me how training was going under Captain Bruggemon. I told him my plans with Private Jason, and he just laughed for he, too, disliked our training captain.

Once breakfast was over, I had a short break until after lunch during which I caught up on my sleep. Then when lunch time arrived, I joined a few of my comrades, Privates Melissa and Dan, in the mess hall. We spent our time reminiscing about our childhoods and life outside the army.