The flight lasted about 3 hours before their plane began its descent into Aides, Iarterre.
Surfing through the clouds, it was at one point where the ground peeked through the mist of nothing but the light grey.
The plane continued to descend as the dullness from above them spread across the terrain. Darkness, rain.
The lower and the slower they got - in preparation for landing - more and more of the rain's droplets hugged the aircraft. They ran their way past all the windows of the plane.
"What is happening, Captain? Are we going to land now?" Claire questioned, turning her head towards Gabriel.
From looking out the window, his gaze landed on her. A small smile appeared on his lips. With a slight nod, he replied, "Yes, we are going to land very shortly.".
And just as he said, the plane lowered more and more. The ground and all the cars, buildings and - in some instances - the people seemed to become bigger.
Suddenly, the cars, buildings, the people were gone. They were no longer seen. All that was replaced by a huge field of simply grass.
They have entered the airfield.
Moments later, the tarmacked runway below them came into view. It approached closer and closer to the aircraft right before a slight thud vibrated throughout the whole plane.
Touchdown.
With that, Claire turned her head and looked at Gabriel, a surprised expression on her face. "That's it? We are on the ground, right?".
Gabriel let out a chuckle or two to her words. "Yes, we are. That's the flight over.".
It took Claire a moment to realise that she just completed her very first flight.
The airplane slowed down before it taxied off the runway and onto the taxiway. From there, the plane followed the yellow line, navigating its way to its assigned gate.
Outside, in comparison to minutes ago, the rain lightened to a slight drizzle.
Then, with the stopping of the plane at its gate, the engines shut down. The cabin crew opened the door and one by one, the passengers disembarked the plane.
When Claire exited the plane right behind Gabriel, she instantly felt the cold breezes of the Autumn air in Iarterre hit her. Something she wasn't used to at all.
Quickly, they entered the terminal building before exiting the opposite side where busses awaited their arrival.
Being separated back into their two groups, each of the soldiers boarded one of the two busses. From there, the busses headed down towards the south of the capital.
Upon exiting the big city of Aides, the countryside took over the view. With the greyness still looming over them, seeming as if it were to be following them.
---
About two hours pass, it's already a little bit past 4 in the evening when the two groups began approaching their destination. Another army base that would serve as their home for the next few months that were to come.
Closing to the base, the sky began to show ever so slightly through all the clouds. The clouds themselves began to disintegrate, break apart.
The busses halt where they were told, allowing anyone inside to step out.
Claire looked around and saw both Gabriel and Mason talking to three armed soldiers. Each had a big rifle in their possession.
With a smile and a nod of approval, both Gabriel and Mason faced their groups.
"Alright, everyone, follow me!" Gabriel shouted, and everyone did as instructed.
---
About five months in. It's the beginning of April.
Christmas and New Years Eve went by just fine, but it was nothing like Claire was used to. At home, it would have been a huge celebration, lots of joy, happiness. Laughter. If she was to be home, she would have had a family to celebrate it with, though it wouldn't have been whole.
It was that thought that rang within her. That caused her heart to ache that bit more. If she was to have stayed at home, she would have given up an opportunity for a chance to reunite with her brother in a time where she wouldn't have seen him at all.
'And if I was to have stayed at home, I wouldn't be here right now, surrounded by all of these people. I wouldn't have met Frank, nor would have I met... met our beloved Trina...'. A pause followed as she recited the memories she shared with that person, that person who is no longer around. 'It's still so hard to believe that you are really gone, Trina. That two seasons have almost passed ever since you went away. May your heart and soul rest in peace. May you rest alongside your beloved brother.'. A slight lump began to grow in her throat, indicating that it was time for her to mentally change the subject of her throughs. Unless it was a flood of tears she wished to happen.
She looked around her, her eyes coincidently landing on a girl she recently acquainted herself with. Danielle.
For many of the new soldiers that just came in, practised were held in the military grounds. These were like workshops.
Claire was in the same group as Danielle for a certain practice where they were broadening their knowledge about different types of medicine and painkillers, and how each worked. And though they shared many other practices, Claire sadly wasn't all too frequently in the same group that Danielle was.
Since they were both in the medical sector, it was bound for them, sooner or later, to work more often together.
Danielle saw Claire and began approaching her. Swiftly, she sat on the bench across from Claire. She pointed her finger at her, colloquially. "Don't tell me... don't tell me," Danielle instantly spat out. "I know your name. It's... Claire?".
A small smirk grew on Claire's lips. "Yeah. And you are Danielle, is that right?". And although she knew for certain her name was Danielle, she proceeded on making it sound like a question. It was in hope that if anything, Danielle wouldn't feel too bad that she didn't fully memorize Claire's name, yet Claire remembered Danielle's.
Danielle nodded her head as a small smile too evolved on her lips.
From there, silence descended upon them both. But this silence wasn't the type she got used to sharing with Gabriel. The muteness between her and Danielle turned to the sort she dreaded the most. The awkward silence.
Suddenly, as if Danielle thought of a new topic, she took a sudden rush of air, grabbing Claire's attention.
"What do you think of the parachuting practices?.". Claire mentally thanked Danielle for thinking of something to chat about.
"Well..." Claire began. "The first time I hated it... correction, at first, I hated it. And now I like it.". A brief break followed. "Even though I felt like I might have gotten a heart attack every time I stepped off the plane, the feeling after is something... something that cannot be compared with anything else.".
Danielle nodded. "I know what you mean. I feel the same way... except on a much smaller scale," she began. "I hate flying, never found any appeal in being hundreds of meters above the ground.".
"Oh?" Claire reacted.
"Yeah..." Danielle answered, steering her gaze to the table that laid in front of them before looking back at Claire. "It's like most things. Some love it and some may like it but others not so much. Me being that person who doesn't like it all that much.".
Claire nodded. "Of course, yeah.".
Once more, silence descended upon them both.
Claire took in a deep breath. "Where are you from?".
As if Danielle was content with the question asked, she smiled ever so slightly at Claire. "I'm from Veursau.".
Instantly, Claire's eyes widened. "Veursau?". Garrett instantly came to her mind. Her brother was there many times before. Anything and everything about Veursau, she heard it from him.
A lump grew in her throat as she remembered the sensation of Garrett's hug.
Danielle pressed her lips together before she nodded, the small smile managing to remain on her lips.
Against her will, Claire heard Trina's words as they echoed and bounced around in her head. 'I'd love to go and visit Veursau one day...'. Her heart wrenched at her words. The fact that her brother too went to Veursau. 'Maybe once this shit is all over, we can go there together, with our brothers!'. She tried to stop her tears, the lump in her throat. 'It was all false hope...'. Closing her eyes, she allowed a tear or two to emerge from her eyes.
"Claire?" Danielle's voice pulled Claire out of her trance. Her voice let Claire acknowledge where she was. That she wasn't kneeling on the road, with Trina in her hands. Or that she wasn't at home, being held by her beloved brother. "Claire? Are you okay?".
Quickly, trying to get a grip of herself, she tried to make her nod seem as convincing as she possibly could. But she knew that the tears that her eyes still held, the way her chin trembled. Her overall body language made it seem anything but convincing.
She knew this all too well. She felt as if Danielle caught onto this. So sparing her from posing more questions, she began, "My brother went to Veursau. Many times. And I want to go there too when all of this is over. Everything I heard about Veursau, I heard it from him.". A pause. "I just... I miss him so much. I want to find him so badly... Also, there was this other soldier whom I befriended very quickly...". Another moment of silence followed as Claire thought back to when both Trina and her first met. A small smile found its way to her lips, but it was soon to be replaced by a frown. "Her name was Trina. An absolute sweetheart of a person...". She tried swallowing the lump in her throat. "I cannot believe she is dead...".
Though she was quiet, Danielle couldn't help but furrow her eyebrows at Claire's words. With that, she lowered her eyes from Claire and down to the brown, wooden table.
Claire had her eyes elsewhere. She didn't have enough strength to look Danielle in the eyes while she was talking about all of this. About her brother and about Trina.
Just as she expected, another odd tear managed to spill out of her eye. Wiping it quickly with her hand, she continued, "At least she is in a safer place now... I-... it just really hit me when I heard you were from Veursau. We had a plan to visit that place when all of this was to finish...".
Finally, she let her head drop ever so slightly as a sheepish smile evolved on her lips. "I'm sorry. This wasn't what you were-" but before Claire got a chance to finish, Danielle interrupted her.
"No... no, I-... I-..." she tried to form a word, a sentence, anything comprehensible, but all that came out was a silent sob.
Claire looked up at her, noticing her sudden change in emotion.
Danielle's eyebrows quivered and so did her chin, allowing for her tears to roll down her face. "I-It's fine..." she whispered through her sobs.
Moments passed before she managed to get a slight hold of herself. And when she did, she let out a rush of air through her closed lips. "Oh god, I am so sorry...".
Swallowing down wherever was in her mouth, she also tried to cure away the lump that was in her throat.
"I am so sorry... for your loss, because...". Danielle knew what words were to follow, and they left a feeling of heaviness, yet emptiness in her chest. "I know how it feels.". With that, she couldn't help herself but let go. Let hear tears break the barrier and fall down her face.
"I-I know how it feels because... because I too lost someone in this war. I lost my best friend, my love.". She took a pause, lasting a few seconds. " He didn't know... he didn't know I liked him that way. That I felt more about him than he could have imagined.". Another pause followed. "A... a letter, I found out through a letter that he went. That he is gone and he'll never come back. That he'll never come back to me.".
Danielle softly hitched a breath. "It hurts. It hurts because... because he'll never find out how I felt about him when he was still alive, how I still feel about him. Even though he is gone, he'll always live for me, in me...". From there, she raised her hand before placing it on her chest, right above her heart. "Here's where he'll always be.".
"No matter where I am, he'll always be somewhere with me," she added.
Something about her words caused a feeling to spiral in the pit of Claire's stomach. The feeling of hollowness in her chest grew more intense. "I-I know what you mean.".
Thinking back over Danielle's actions, Claire pictured her mother. The smile her mother had, the tears she cried. The hugs she gave and the brilliant man she got married to.
Slowly, Claire crept her hand right up to her chest, right above her heart, before grabbing a fistful of the fabric she wore. Simultaneously, she clenched her jaw, gritted her teeth, in the hope to relieve the pain she felt in her chest. More tears swelled in her eyes as she repeated, "I know what you mean.".