In the early weeks of winter 1789, our battalion, the Second battalion of the 25th vanguard regiment, was given a few days leave to the nearby town of Parvus, which was some thirteen miles from the front.
At that time we had already been deployed on the front for four months. In those four months I had been shelled more than I could count, we were nearing a breaking point, and this could not have come at a better time.
While our mental health was at an all time low, surprisingly none of us had been injured in the slightest. This has been an anomaly on the line as most squads have had at least one injured.
We were huddled up in the back of a hay carriage, one that the Legionnaires repossessed from the local O.R farmers. We were as clean as we could be, having lived the past four months in filth. There was not much we could do to rid ourselves of it, but we tried our best.
We were wearing the famous Legionnaire trench coats, one of the many discerning factors that distanced us from the Auxilerys. We wore those coats with pride, as we had earned them. The coats were olive green, with a black Star of the dawn on the right side of our chest, and the left had the black skull and white background of the ninth Legionnaires.
The Auxiliary coats were gray with no markings so we always stood out in the overcoats. Ours as well were dirty, from wearing them on the line in the past couple of weeks, when it had begun to get cold. The bottoms of the long coat turned brown to match our boots, we wore this as a symbol of our time on the Line, showing that we had taken what the enemy had thrown at us.
"What's the … first thing … you're gonna do … when you get there…Luca." Carlo shivered out as his teeth chattered, his arms wrapped around his knees trying to preserve some body heat. I flipped up the collar of my trench coat to cover my neck from the cold wind and crossed my arms to try and stay warm.
"Find a warm bath" I muttered through my teeth. Carlo smiled and chuckled softly. "I feel ya". Felix was mirroring Calro. "I swear it's never this cold this time of the year". Adrian hunched his upper body over. "Apparently it's a record setting year". Bruno smiled wryly "Lucky us". We all chuckled.
In the distance we could see Parvus. It was the holy land for soldiers on the front. The one town that was easily accessible when given leave, it took only a couple of hours to get to. Being a former O.R town, it was originally under martial law, but over time the town adapted to now be a hub for soldiers stationed in the area.
It had everything a tired soldier needed after being on the line for too long. We eventually arrived in the carriage, went to our assigned board rooms in one of the buildings taken over by the Legionnaires. Me and Carlo promptly split up from the rest of the guys and went to a hotel that offered a bath.
I spent many hours relaxing in that bath, I put a hot towel over my face and leaned back. My mind started to wander, thinking about the four months I had spent on the lines, and more so, my home back in Rus.
I thought of my younger brother, if the war would go on for long enough for him to be of service age, another four years, that was a scary thought. I had turned seventeen in the trenches, but there was no celebration. Marco was able to get me some bootlicked liquor and I spent my seventeenth huddled around the rest of my guys in the service trench. Seemed like such a long time ago, but that was only two months ago, Octo thirty-first.
In four years, I would be twenty-one, would I still be alive in four years, if the war kept up. I have been lucky so far, but luck ought to turn sooner or later. I didn't want to think about it, I forced myself to think about my parents, my friends, but it kept coming back to death. I had seen death first hand, I saw men get their souls ripped out of their chest from shrapnel. I have seen men get their limbs dismembered, yet here I am.
I dunked my head in the hot water. The once clear water got cloudy from the soap and the dirt that had been at first baked, then frozen into my skin. In reality I have done very little. I had only taken pot shots at flashes in the dark, I had heard raiding parties down the line, but we have been spared the worst of it.
We were apart of the 25th Vanguard regiment, the spear of the assault, why were we on such a quiet sector, relatively. It did not bode well, either high command was planning something, or they expected action, why else would they have a Vanguard regiment here. Maybe they thought a counter attack, to take back Parvus, was imminent. I didn't know, I couldn't know, I could only try not to think about it. I closed my eyes.
There was a loud thump. Reminiscent of the many thumps I experienced cowering away for the enemy artillery in the slit. I jumped awake sitting up in the tub. The thump was really someone banging on the door.
"Luca, let's go, times up". It was Carlo. I stepped out of the warm bath and dried myself. I stepped into my cold uniform and left. "Got word from the guys, apparently they found something" He told me as we descended the creaking stairs of an old hotel. "They tell you what they found?" "Nope, Bruno left a message at the front desk lady for us, guess it's a secret" Carlo Shrugged. "Wonder what it is". "Dunno, the guys said they were gonna explore the town, maybe they found something" "Hopefully, or I'm gonna spend the rest of my time here" I chuckled.
We walked down the stairs to the reception area. It is a very nice room, with architecture that looks like a palace. Guess it was a luxury hotel before the war. There were some couches in one corner. I walked over with Carlo and sat down.
It was interesting to think about how in just a couple of months something as little as sitting on a couch would seem like a luxury. Me and Carlo sat on the couch as it sank into its comfy cushions. After testing out the cushions on the couch we went to the receptionist to pay. The receptionist was a pale lady, I could only guess around my age. She had long blonde hair that fell down towards her back.
She was quite beautiful, though my standards had definitely been skewed by being around dirty men for the past four months. She almost didn't seem real, too far away from the world I lived in, a world of constant fear and tiredness. It seemed as if she wasn't living in an occupied town. I didn't even know if she knew there was a war on. She had a smile greeting me that I had not seen in a while, a kind hearted one. Not smiling in spite of something, but just smiling.
We paid and returned to our boys, though the face of the receptionist stayed in my mind. The great discovery that we were told they found was a local house on the edge of the town that had chicken in a coop. Being a bunch of boys who hadn't had a proper good meal in months we jumped at the opportunity to get some fresh chicken and eggs.
We spent the few days off doing what most boys did, when given freedom and the money to pursue it. We drank, to access, we ate good, at least what we could afford. We would go out to underground clubs made for soldiers where we would dance and drink into the morning with the local town girls.
Some of my friends got intimately familiar with some of the easier ones. My mind stayed on the one receptionist, her friendly smile still etched in my brain, but those nights dancing and drinking were some of my few highlights of the war.
For some moments, the world was simple. I wasn't thinking about if I was going to get bombed by artillery. When I was drinking I stopped worrying about all of the horrors, and worries that followed me, I could enjoy the moment. Recovering from our nights out we would sleep until the afternoon, then we would repeat it for the days we were off.
I revisited the hotel the day before I left, only four days after arriving. I took my final hot bath before returning to the front. I went down to the receptionists after I was done, and the same girl was there from the day before. "Enjoying the baths," she said in a sweet voice, though in a slightly sarcastic tone.
"Got to get 'em while I can, heading back to the lines tomorrow." I returned with a smile. "Most soldiers would be drinking themselves to death the day before" "There's still time left in the day" She chuckled, and I followed.
"Say, your accent is pretty good, are you a Native". She smiled solemnly "I am from all over the place, my family has spent time in places from the Empire to the Sultanit, my father was a businessman, we just settled here a year before the war broke out".
I had realized my mistake. "Ah Im sorry, that was a bad question" She waved it off "dont worry about it, it's not like worrying will change anything, it's just how things are" "Life is unpredictable" I said as I leaned my hands onto the counter on the other side of where she was sitting. "Hell a year ago I was still in Secondary school, now here I am fighting in a war" She chuckled dryly.
We talked for a while, as long as two people talk for the first time. Her name is Anya, she had lived here for a short time before the war broke out. Her father was sick, and mother died a couple of years ago, so she could not leave. She was stuck here, as was I. She had no choice in her future, and she lived in the same state of fear as I did. After all, war is unpredictable, as is life.
"Are you doing anything tonight?" I finally asked as the conversation was coming to its natural end. It was a forward question, but if not then, when. Her eyebrows raised a little. I added "Me and some of my guys are going to go to some of the military clubs in town, you know, drinking to death… if you want to join".
She smiled at me with her very charming smile. "Sounds like fun, but I need to run some errands for my father tonight" My smile turned slightly down into a frown. "I know you're leaving tomorrow, but if you find your way back here at some point, I would love to go". I forced a smile. "Next time then." "Next time". That was how I ended my last night back in civilization, getting drunk with the sting of rejection in the back of my mind, but I quickly forgot it in the booze and women that always were abundant at the military clubs.
Just as soon as we were here, we had to leave. It had seemed like a flash. We had either been sleeping or relaxing or drinking. And as most breaks do, came to an end abruptly, and there we were, huddled together on the back of a hay carriage, heading towards the sound of artillery.