19th Century
Almyra slowly reaches for her revolver, but once her hand touches her hip, she realizes that she left it in her tent. She starts to become agitated, knowing she has nothing to protect her against whatever is hiding within these dense woods. Taking a deep breath, she starts to walk back along the path that led her to the creek.
A sudden splash in the water behind her caught her attention, but when she turned to check it out, there was nothing there. She instantly hears a branch snapping in front of her, making her turn back around swiftly just in time to see a branch falling from above. She stumbles back, falling onto the ground as the branch lands in front of her feet.
"What the fuck is happening?" Almyra shouts as she hears faint laughter in the distance. She decides to make a run for it back to camp. Running as fast as she can along the path, barely able to see anything in front of her as the trees block the moon's light.
All she can hear is the sound of more branches snapping, leaves crunching, and running footsteps, unsure whether it's her own or someone else following her. The echoes of wicked laughter closing in on her when she finally starts to see a few tents. Relief floods through her as she realizes how close she is to the camp.
"You think you can outrun me?" Someone whispers in her ear as she starts to run even faster, not knowing how someone could even be so close.
Glancing around as she darts in between trees, trying to get away as fast as possible. She hears something very close behind her and turns her head towards the sound, causing her to crash into someone, making them both fall to the ground.
"Damn Almyra, why are you running so fast?" She looks up and sees that she crashed into William. Shaking her head, she stands up and reaches her hand out to help him to his feet.
"Oh, um. It's nothing. I just thought I saw something." She says, trying to laugh it off. William watches her closely, knowing something is wrong, but he doesn't pry as he looks back towards the tents.
"Okay, well. I can walk you back to your tent, if you'd like?" He asks. She nods, taking one last glance towards the woods, a shiver running down her spine as she thinks of the voice she heard. She shakes her head, trying to clear her thoughts before they start walking towards her tent.
What was that? Why did it seem so close, but she didn't see anything? Her head swimming with thoughts as they get closer to her tent. Distracted, she walks right into her tent, leaving William alone.
"Well, goodnight I guess." William muttered, shaking his head and heading back to his tent.
Almyra went straight to her cot, laying down. All she could think about was what happened in the woods. She rolled onto her stomach, trying to fall asleep, knowing tomorrow was going to be a long day. However, everytime she was close to drifting to sleep, she'd hear twigs snapping or leaves crunching and it would startle her back awake. Groaning, she sits up.
"I guess I'm not getting any sleep tonight." She murmurs to herself as she stretches. She gets up from her cot, going to her trunk to grab her journal. Kian suddenly crosses her mind, causing her blood to boil at the thought of his murder. How could she have forgotten? She sits back down onto her cot and opens her journal, turning to the page with the list of names she wrote.
"Who was dumb enough to murder you, Kian?" She whispers to herself, trying to remember Kian's whereabouts the day before. She needed to remember who he had interacted with and narrow down suspects. She knows she might have to enlist in some help. At the rate she's going, she hasn't learned anything new and the days are going by with Kian's murderer roaming free. Irritated, she falls back and covers her eyes with her arm and lets out a deep breath.
"We have a lot of work to do." She yawns. Soon she drifts off to sleep, her journal still open with a pen in her hand.
***
"Knock, knock." William said, walking inside the war tent. Almyra glanced his way before returning her focus to looking over war plans at the table.
"What do you have there?" He asked, heading over to where she's standing.
"War plans. I'm trying to see if I need to change anything or if things will go accordingly." She responded firmly.
"Let me take a look at it." He said, leaning over the table to observe everything, "Okay. Well, everything looks good, except for this." He pointed towards a section of her plan. She quickly scanned over the area where he was pointing.
"What ab-" Almyra started to say before being interrupted by someone rushing into the tent, yelling.
"Almyra, we need you out here immediately!" Alexander said, visibly concerned.
"What? What's happening?" She asked with a puzzled expression, turning to look at William. He shrugs, going back to looking over the plans.
"Let's go." Almyra says, now looking at Alexander. He starts to walk quickly out of the tent as she walks after him.
When she steps outside of the tent, she notices two unfamiliar officers being surrounded by her men. She instantly puts on a blank expression as the officers notice her, their faces twist in confusion.
"Um. We asked to see a General, not a useless nurse of some sorts. Is this some kind of joke?" One of the officers say as he flails his arms around in frustration. She steps forward, her men taking a step back, knowing something is bound to happen any minute.
"I am the General." Almyra says boldly as she places her hands on her hips, watching as the officer's expressions change from confusion to shock.
"They… They let a girl be their General? What a bunch of sissies!" The taller officer says as they both burst into hysterical laughter. Almyra, now furious, starts to slowly inch closer to the oblivious officers as her men start to back up further. She's about three seconds away from exploding on the officers and everyone knows it.
"Someone needs to go get William." A soldier whispers faintly as murmurs start to grow throughout the crowd.
The two officers stop laughing, noticing the crowd's behavior and look around aimlessly, confused. Almyra stops inching closer once she's right in front of the officers, causing them to become very nervous.
"Are you insinuating that girls can't become Generals? Or that these men are weak because I'm their General? Please. Explain to me how that even makes sense, I'm honestly curious." She says as she gets right in one of the officers faces. Hearing the other one snicker, she moves to face him.
"You think this is amusing? I didn't even realize I said anything funny." She said as William was making his way through the crowd, walking faster towards her. Before he made it to her, the shorter officer slapped her across the face.
"That wasn't a good idea." William whispered to himself as the men within range agreed. Almyra was pissed as she drew her gun from the holster and pointed it towards the officers.