Searing 2, 122
Chieftain Boraba and returned back to the city to check in on the recruits. It was time to bring everyone back home to Ounokt Nora. Norani, and all of the other recruits, had been spending their time in the city learning exactly how the primary military of Ecith functioned. Being from the villages, they knew nothing about how the forces were structured, what their responsibilities and expectations were. They shadowed other soldiers, from entry levels to generals. They were allowed to ask as many questions as they wished, they participated in the daily trainings each put in.
They learned that to rise in the military wasn't a title where one could grow old and fat and serve the military from a desk. The generals put in more, and higher quality training, than all of those below them. Serving to protect Ecith and the people of it never got easier. It got more difficult and you did it by choice. Norani studied hard, she struggled in the trainings, but she did them. Some of what the generals she shadowed did an hour, took her twelve hours to accomplish. But she did it.
Most nights Norani was the last to almost crawl her way into the open room at the inn, the same one in which she'd met Yeva, that first day in Drathera as an adult. Her everything hurt. She could feel muscles she didn't know she had. And trying to find room in the communal bed was difficult. Several nights she had to take the outermost edge, laying upon the outer corner of the frame, uncomfortable but still falling asleep out of sheer exhaustion. Other nights she slept on the floor, her pack as a pillow. If she was too frustrated, she went to the Aerie and slept in the nest with Ruvaf. Those were the better nights more often than not.
The best days were the ones where she was told, usually by the cook at breakfast, to take a resting day. And no one refused the orders of a cook in Ecith. Those days, she would find Yeva, which wasn't overly difficult considering everyone in Ecith shared information freely, and Yeva was particularly easy to find. On those days, Yeva and Norani simply enjoyed the city, and each other's presence. They explored together shops, art, learning the city culture. Yeva taught Norani many things from her own life and experiences abroad, and Norani taught Yeva more Ecitharese, more ways to better adapt into Orkhan culture, at least from her own limited, country bumpkin perspective.
Norani and Yeva were friends now. Without a doubt. On these rest days of Norani's, the pair managed to get back to the open rooms at an earlier time, finding space in the bed. Yeva was still tentative to the idea, very tense at the concept of sharing a bed. Norani didn't understand why. There had been a late night discussion, the pair of them sitting against the baseboard of the bed, talking about it. Norani had grown up sharing the same bed, not just with her parents and siblings, but with friends and neighbors. Orks usually preferred that skin to skin contact of those they trusted, which was everyone in their culture. That was the connecting factor. Norani didn't know that abroad, people often only shared the bed with those they had sex with or were romantic with. She had asked what people do before they found those others? Sleep alone?
Norani hated it.
Sleeping alone sounded cold, disconnected. If not for the arms of those around her, and hers around someone else, what would keep the Unknown from snatching her away in the night? Orks survived the millennia by finding strength together. Not going it alone. Norani didn't press it if Yeva refused, but if she allowed it, she would find a spot for them in the middle of the communal bed. And she would hold Yeva, the elf's back against her front, Norani's arms around the woman. And Norani would wait until she could tell that the redhead fell asleep before allowing herself to fall asleep.
She wanted Yeva to feel safe and accepted here in Ecith. As everyone here should. As Norani grew up feeling.
But on this morning, a morning after one of her resting day, they were to make their way to one of the landings, for Norani and the recruits were being called home. Norani was up at sunrise, as usual, and she was out on the landing, prepping the straps for the flybags on Ruvaf. He was still getting used to the idea of having things tied to him so he wasn't the most comfortable. But his and Norani's trainings, and the improved diet in the city and having joined the military, he'd grown quite large in the last season. He was big enough now to carry Norani, Yeva, and their gear comfortably.
Still, he was fidgeting with the straps and Norani was working to calm him down, just as the other recruits were as well. It was a tale as old as time here in Ecith, and Chief Boraba smiled, watching them as she sat on the ledge next to her own, massive Ci'uvan, mother to most of the smaller ones here. She had been in their position, not too long ago. And one of them very well might replace her one day. And the idea brought her comfort. That was how things were supposed to be.
