on the wings of valkyries - ALL ARMY

[Valkerine]

there's a moment we make a decision
not to cower and crash to the ground

The meeting crowd thins and a mare calls for the army to hang back. Being that she's just pledged herself part of said army, Valkerine obeys, lingering near the grey mare and the others who gather. She is both young and new – not the gangly, embarrassing youth of a foal, but a far cry from adulthood. She is a strong girl, with a body built for battle. Her mother's daughter through and through, from her chestnut coat to her unremarkable brown eyes.

She joins the group among the last, and as she looks them over in this smaller group, she notices Nayl's eyes for the first time. Her own eyes go wide with realization – because how could it be anything else? Those eyes are her father's signature, passed down to her sister, and apparently passed down to this girl as well. If she weren't still half-numb with loss she might've stopped dead in her tracks or reacted strongly, questioning the girl as she introduces herself. But as it is, Val does little but catalogue the information and wait for another, more appropriate time to approach the girl about it. Nayl, she reminds herself, Nayl.

At that moment the conversation falls a bit, and Valkerine realizes she's the only one who hasn't introduced herself. "I'm Valkerine." she offers simply. "I want to join the army to help defend the jungle." That's a major motivation, but it's far from the only one. She wants to join the army because fighting is in her blood, because she hopes that the training exercises, the clash of bodies will help drive the memory of the bodies of her mother and her father, dead on the beach. She wants to join the army because she doesn't know how to pace herself, because she can't serve a kingdom without giving herself to it, heart and soul. She wants to join the army because she is her mother's daughter, because she is her father's daughter – because the army is the only place she should ever be at home.

"And I'm all for mocks."

valkerine

sad tomboy daughter of covet & librette

Image credit MultiCurious