Story Excerpt - Stumbling Through Together

22 TA - Kailia

Clik was sitting at the back of the caravan, armoured legs dangling off the edge, as it trundled over the dusty ground. Her brows were furrowed, and a frown replaced the almost constant grin that graced her features. Thoughts were tumbling around in her head like an explosion set off in a hurricane. So much so, that the ever-attentive ginger missed the sound of footfalls leaving the loud conversations of her fellow soldiers. Her brothers-in-arms. She didn't register his presence until Captain Ciel’runor Irwin sat down next to her.

 "You look serious," he stated, "Are you okay?"

Clik looked up at him and managed a smile, "I was just thinking..." She trailed off, looking back out to the road. Ciel gave her a moment, removing his helmet and subtly adjusting the caravan cover, Clik wasn’t like him, her ridiculously pale skin would fry in this sun. His silence prompted her to carry on, "What's going to happen when the war’s over? Really and truly over?" Her legs were swinging as the road faded over the horizon. "What'll happen to us?"

She looked back up at Ciel as he considered her question, hoping he understood what she meant. After the war, after everything had calmed down, what would happen to the people forced into the army? What would happen to people, like herself, who hadn't known anything but war? What will happen when they weren't needed anymore?

"Honestly, I don't know," Well, that was about as comforting as the sight of the usual pristine Captain in amour that had clearly seen better days, marked and dust-covered, there’d be no point in polishing it with the threat of the battle they were headed towards, "They will go back to their families, start new lives, build new futures. It should be the same as before, that’s the promise,”

They sat in silence for a moment. Clik still swinging her legs as she thought, left, right, left, right, left, right, left...

"But it won't be, will it? They have those memories now, those scars, habits that will remind them of this. And how can a peaceful future be forged if", she paused, "if one can't remember a peaceful past, I mean, half of you hadn't even had cake before I came along!" She pointed out. Three years may not have been so long to others, but to her it felt like an eternity. Her whole life had revolved around the war, and she could tell that she wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

For once, she prompted a laugh from Ciel, quiet and short, but a laugh, nonetheless. She smiled for a moment, and for that short time she could imagine peace.

"In our defence, cake isn't exactly healthy," She had to concede him that point, "I know what you're worried about, Clik, I do, but if life, as you've said, is a story, I don't think we're on the final act yet. Tell you what, when all - this - is over, I'll be more than happy to help you stumble through life," He smiled at her, and Clik's grin returned.

"Stumbling through life, I like that," then straightening up and putting on the worst serious face in the entirety of Racë she faced him, "I am happy to extend the same offer of help to you, Captain," the collapsing back to herself, she held out a fake tankard "to stumbling through life together!"

Obliging her, Ciel mimicked her gesture. Maybe the future wasn't as bleak as Clik had let herself believe. As she looked over at her friend, she knew that she could see more than a glimmer of hope.