Snippet #1694728

Lana sat in her newly-appointed, plain little room, polishing and sharpening her prized axe. At 17, she was the youngest on her new soon-to-be squad. She was accepted early from Combat school due to exceptionally high performance and recommendation, but sadly being the youngest took its toll. She wasn't exactly taken seriously and was usually overlooked as weak. It didn't help that she was teased for being fragile. Of course, they wouldn't tease her if they actually knew she was a girl. They thought she was just a little boy who could barely lift the axe that he wielded. But Lan was okay with this. It's what she wanted. A new identity, free of the shackles of her previous life.

The ex-communication wasn't entirely her fellow students and new teammates fault though. Lan brought a lot of it on herself. She stayed quiet and kept her head down most of the time, and only talked when spoken to. She would rather be seen as weak and then strike out when the situation called for her too. She also enjoyed the privacy because in her eyes, company meant more people around to discover her secret. She was sure nothing would happen to her, but maybe they would call her ex-guardians or kick her out of the Defense Force and League team altogether. That would ruin everything she had planned out in her narrow little mind.

Finally, she set down her axe and stood up to look at herself in the mirror. She saw all her slender curves and soft feminine features and wondered how in the world she hadn't been found out already. Her eyes were big and round reflecting the stormy gray of her heart and her short auburn hair was laying randomly a tangled mop. It was always messy. Used to, she would be annoyed and try to fight with it, but she had realized it gave her an extra boyish look so she usually kept it the way it was.

Suddenly, she heard a voice yelling out and a heavy knock on her door. "Spawn attack! Ready your weapons, Lan, you're needed on the front line!"

She threw on her breastplate and roughly grabbed her axe and helmet. Then she threw open the door to reveal a frantic young trainee, Jered, she thought his name was. "Where?" she asked him sternly.

"Just to the west of the northern front. They haven't made it to the city yet, but there's loads of them. Commander Jax told me that he needed you to lead a small front line to attack head on, while he leads a larger group around their right to flank them," he spoke quickly and in a grave tone.

"Thanks, soldier," Lan said as she quickly ran through the hallways, footsteps pounding in sync with her heartbeat. Spawn attacks always exhilarated her, sent burning adrenaline rushing through her veins. She loved the feeling of her axe burying deep into the heads or chest of whatever monster she faced; each time she destroyed a creature she felt that she was one step closer to avenging her beloved family. Besides, this was her last mission as a regular Defense Force soldier. Tomorrow she would officially be part of the Red Lances. She just had to live that long.
~~~
The next morning, Lan woke, exhausted from the bloody battle of the previous night. She lay in bed for a while, replaying the brutal scenes of death and torment in her mind before she got up and got dressed, her usual outfit of tightly fitting black cloth pants and a lose sweater with the sleeves rolled up. Luckily, her legs were fit for a boy but she had to hide her chest with lose clothing. "Damn, this is a pain." She thought as she adjusted her shaggy hair a little and shoved her dagger in its sheath around her waist before walking out of her room through the halls to where the new squads were meeting.

When she got there, she examined her new teammates. She noticed a large man with un-swaying confidence whom she assumed to be the Commander of the Red Lancers. She also noticed two young looking men to be about in their twenties, one laying cockily on the couch, the other looking like he was about to cut the first one. The second man looked calm and official, and also carried what appeared to be a medical bag. She predicted him to be second in command. She usually had a pretty good sense for things like that.

She took one last look at the rag-tag group before walking slowly forward, quietly with an air of something between confidence and intimidation.

"Private Lan Haringer reporting sir," she saluted to the large commander. This was going to be interesting