"What are we going to do with the civilians?" Lewis Burke asked a fellow private, Pvt. Nick Howard.
"Dunno man, that's not for us to think." He replied as he passed the cig to his friend.
"Christ, did you see what they did to them? Most if not all of the female civilians here are scarred for life."
"Yeah man, fucking barbarians."
They were watching the vicinity where a temporary aid station was set up at Camp Knight, Captain Jonathan decided it was best to help the civilians as they had nowhere to go and brought them back to base.
Command wasn't happy at first though, but after explaining to them how valuable information from the locals could be they relented.
Lewis took a drag from his cigar, then heard a shuffling of feet near him. He turned to see the girl he saved when she was about to be raped by a bandit before he buried a bullet into his head.
"Thank you, I do not know how to repay you for what you did." She said in a meek tone, the two privates only understood the thank you but everything else needed no words, she was grateful.
"Just doing our job ma'am, to serve and protect." Lewis said to the girl who could be more or less fifteen years old, he felt relived that she didn't have to experience what other girls have. Although they tried, tried to save as many as they can from that fate, sometimes, you just cant save as much as you want. But to see this girl smile was enough to reassure the private that he did good today, that he did his best and this was the result; A girl saved from a horrible fate and is smiling.
The girl didn't understand what the soldier said but the warm smile from his face let her know that her thanks was well appreciated. She pointed at spot to sit beside them, the two soldiers took a moment to realize what she meant before nodding and inviting her to sit down.
She introduced herself as Rani, the daughter of the a traveling merchant who was resting at a local inn when the bandits attacked, her parents fortunately survived. She expressed her interest in learning the language which the soldiers spoke and awaited the two soldier's reply.
"Well, command did say that we should build up local relations." Nick said after Lewis translated what Rani said.
"We should get started then, Lemme clear this with command first though." Lewis looked at the girl and nodded his head before leaving for the command tent.
A few hours later...
Rani was laughing at the ridiculous attempt by Nick at Valecan, she was at first trying to contain her laughter at the attempts of the two soldiers in order not to offend them, but it was just too much for her and she started laughing.
"That was so wrong!" She said in an accented English that she had been taught by the two.
She enjoyed the soldiers company, she never had a time to laugh like this ever since the time when she was a child, when she could be carefree and be free from the responsibilities of an adult. At thirteen years of age a child was to be already considered a young adult, and sixteen as a proper adult. Rani was sixteen years old and is already feeling the weight of responsibility on her, she was glad to have time to relax and enjoy how dumb the soldiers sound when they try to speak her tongue.
"Hey don't go around laughing at me, I'm trying here!" He faked an offended looked which only made Rani laugh more.
"Oh my... I'm so sorry, you just... sounded ridiculous!" She said catching her breath.
Lewis was doing fine with his basic knowledge of Valecan, though Rani will still make a big deal out of his minor mistakes and laugh like a madman when he pronounces something wrong.
"Hey Rani, isn't it getting late?" Lewis asked as Rani re-composed herself.
"Hm? Oh, I almost forgot that I have to go home soon! Thank you for giving time to my humble request and again, thank you for saving me." The two soldiers smiled and nodded at her.
"We're just going to be hanging around here when its around the time when you came to us, we'll teach you more of our language while we learn yours." Lewis said.
The girl nodded her head eagerly. "I'll be sure to stop by again!"
And with that, she got out of the tent to return to the temporary shelter area.
"Oh man, maybe the people here aren't so bad after all." Nick said as he sat down on his bunk bed.
"Well, there will be always the good ones in the crowd of monsters." Lewis stretched his arms out and yawned before laying down and closing his eyes.
"Goodnight darling."
"Fuck off Nick."
And with that, two soldiers lied down on their respective beds and drifted off to sleep.