The Sound Of War

It all started with the sound of tolling bells. Nefaaya and Renaeril both looked up at the same when they heard it. It destroys the silence that shielded their village. The two stopped from their sword practice and turned at the direction of the bells.

Learo was sitting comfortably near a wooden chair, peacefully sipping his morning coffee while Nefri was humming a song as she tended on her fields. But on the sound of the bells, the two immediately stopped. Her father stood upright, looking straight. At first, she thought that he was looking in the direction of the church. But then she realized that her father was looking at something at the far horizon, seeing and unseeing something that she couldn't grasp. There was nothing there but the flatlands that lay below their village, passed it another Feyrin village and the Adrinal Mountains that shield them from the rest of the nations in the Southern Continent. Then his eyes flickered to Nefri, who was already looking at him already. The two remained in that position, talking in a language that only the two of them could understand. Her mother did the gesture to ward off whatever evil she was sensing.

Nefaaya turned in the direction of the chapel. The village people opened their house and made their way towards the direction of the chapel. In their village, news of importance were usually announced in front of the church, usually it was a new royal decree, an announcement about a new king or the beheading of a traitor.

His father clapped, "we're heading there."

He put on his sword belt and since the two still had no belt in them, they just carried their wooden swords. Her mother swatted the dirt on her hands and started following them from behind.

On the way to the church, they met the other curious folk. But they had not so much as glanced at the other people, but their treatment of Nefri and Learo was different. The people around them looked at the couple with evident wariness.

*What is happening?* She asked herself as she stared back at the people looking at her parents. When her father saw what she was doing, he immediately put his hand on her head.

"Eyes on your front, you'll trip if you continue to walk like that," he said and motioned her head forward. Nefaaya didn't bother to argue. But she reminded herself that she would ask Nefri about it later.

As they made their way on the stone stairs, Renaeril's mother, Reina came running at them together with a man who seemed like Renaeril's father, whose eyes were unfocused.

*Drunk, at this time of the day?* she thought.

"We both came running as soon as we heard the bells," Reina said worriedly. Her hands were still wet. Nefaaya could still smell the soap that she was using for her laundry.

"Perhaps, it's just some new tax law or a report about a new king," her husband grunted.

Nefaaya saw her father twitching at the smell of his breath but still he maintained his distance to him as he smiled and said, "I hope so, but I also wish it's not about the tax. Our village had suffered much this past autumn and winter. It's too early to change it."

"Then we just hoped it's a new ruler," an old man said as he moved slowly on the stairs crowded with people eager to reach the chapel. "I still remember King Juliel, three generations ago and how the kingdom had flourished during his reign."

He spat, "when his son took the throne it stopped and slowly died. From his son until this current king, there's nothing but tax and famine."

The two men didn't pay him any attention. While Nefri and Reina continued to talk about their worries.

"...how's my son doing," Renaeril's father asked. Nefaaya turned at them.

"He was great at swords," Learo started. "And he was also good at his studies of writing and language."

The man sighed heavily, "I thought we would be wasting money on him," he shook his head. "That kid was very sickly when he was young. That I thought he was defective."

Nefaaya looked at the man, and it was all she could do to stop her mouth from hanging open. She turned at Renaeril, standing uncomfortably beside her, his interest was on his muddy boots. Through the months of winter, Renaeril had a growth sprout that had made him taller than her. Nefaaya was kind envious of that. But right now, standing beside her, she could feel how small he felt when his father spoke about him being defective.

As she watched the man sneered, Nefaaya grabbed the boy's hand. She didn't know what prompted it. But she felt a need to reassure him that he was doing great—and that his father's opinion of him didn't matter.

Learo saw her do the deed and he smiled proudly at her. "Come on Marrius, the kid is here. Let us not let them hear about this... Oh, look, I think the meeting was about to start."

He pointed and grabbed the shoulder of his two students as he made his way downward. Nefri and Renaeril's mother followed them immediately, still engrossed with their talks about the pie that had been stolen last week.

But upon searching for Marrius, she saw the hard look being given at her father. He spat.

"Nefaaya," Learo started. "You did the right thing."

She looked at him and whispered, "he was giving you a hard look... why is everyone giving you a hard look or wary of you... and Mother?"

He smiled, "because I and Nefri had seen things that they hadn't. Because she and I bore marks that none of them had seen in their entire lifetime. When I was your age, I left this village and hadn't come back until the time I met Nefri during the Narrieth Invasion in the west. She was also a runaway from this village. And when the two of us decided to settle, nine years ago. They're all wary of me because the people didn't know what to think of me. A Feyrin with tattoos, carrying a sword around him. It was not just the way of us, well atleast in this place. Trust me they have improved in the last nine years, the treatment we received before was much worse."

At that moment, Nefaaya felt that he had managed to learn more about his father. She reached for his hands and squeezed it, assuring him that no matter what happened, even if all the world turned against him, she would always be on his side.

The two arrived on the front of the chapel quietly, she was still holding his hands as the three of them listened. And she held him much tighter when the announcement came.

The Empire had declared war on the Alliance Of Southern Countries which includes their country.

Nefaaya didn't know what to think at that time. But she felt the uneasiness sinking in the minds of the crowd. But she knew that what she was feeling was only half of what they felt. *In our world, war was almost a distant memory of the past... and I haven't seen one myself aside from the clips shown to us in history class.*

Many didn't finish the announcement and immediately made their way out of the crowd. Nefri covered her mouth and Learo had to drag her out as the people started shouting their questions and concerns.

As they found their way out of the commotion, Nefaaya heard something that had made her feet tremble.

"Each family was to send an able man or woman to help in the wa-" and the man's voice was cut by the sounds of grieving people.

The tension in the village had risen to something that she couldn't imagine. Nefri was still dumbfounded as she sat on the wooden chair where Learo sat earlier. Behind them, Renaeril and Reina stood uncomfortably.

"I'm going to get her some water," she volunteered.

"Thank you," Learo said. He waited for her to get inside the house before she turned at her listless wife.

"I'll join you in the front," she said as the sunlight reflected back in her eyes. "I have a Bless for Healing, I would be valuable."

"Please," she pleaded, as her eyes started to shine in tears.

But Learo only smiled at her as he hugged her tighter than she had seen that the two of them did for one another that day. And as she watched, something crossed her mind. Almost at random that had made her utterly terrified.

It was the thought of their death, something that she hadn't thought before. She finds herself walking at the two, standing beside them, unrealizing.

"The front is cruel," he said.

"But I've been in the front a few years ago," she said. "Remember?"

"But now it was different," he said. "We have Nefaaya. If one of us di- "

"Don't say that word!" She hissed and pleased. "You'll go there and you'll go back here. That's a promise."

Learo nodded and sealed the promise.

That night Nefaaya slept listlessly, dreaming of the day of the accident that brought her to this world. Nefri had stayed gloomy during the day and their father seemed less enthusiastic in their classes.

A week had passed after the announcement, and just as the village folks thought that it would take a month before the enlisting took place, a general of the army had come to their village.

Listing of all abled soldiers and possible Flowmages starts. And in three days they would depart to the capital.