That day Spencer made Ophelia run a few laps around the camp as punishment for treating the commander and generals rudely. The laps didn't bother Ophelia, it was the hour-long lecture that followed afterward. The lecture only ceased when Ophelia managed to duck away when Spencer got distracted.

Finally having some free time and feeling gross, Ophelia grabbed her supplies and a fresh uniform to go clean up. Finding a river and lighting a fire, Ophelia boiled the water and cleaned herself off with a cloth and some lye. She pulled her hair out of her ponytail freeing it. She slowly stripped her clothes only removing what was needed, after all, it was cold. As she cleaned she dressed in fresh clothes leaving her tunic off not wanting water to get on it from her hair. She redressed herself in her breast bindings after cleaning her chest off. 

Dumping the dirty water on the ground, Ophelia refilled the pot carefully measuring the heat so she could wash her hair. As she waited she carefully combed through her hair removing any dirt or filth as well as any knots. Once the water was ready Ophelia removed the pot from the fire setting it on a stone she cleared off, adding in some cool snow to bring down the temperature. She carefully dunked her hair into the pot rinsing it. Pulling away she began quickly scrubbing her head with lye soap massaging her scalp carefully. The scent of rosemary filled the air, once Ophelia was satisfied she rinsed her hair in the pot once again. 

Once free of soap Ophelia carefully dried her hair with her towel. Patting and squeezing out water. Ophelia then pulled a small bottle of olive oil out of her poach, it had been expensive to get but she couldn't stand it when her hair got too frizzy. She also didn't like the feeling her hair had when she used walnut oil instead. Using a reasonable amount Ophelia ran her fingers through her hair before combing her hair once again to spread the oil. 

Finally, once she was done, Ophelia put her tunic back on and sighed feeling relieved. The scent of blood no longer lingered on her and was replaced by the smells of rosemary and olive oil. She quietly sat by the fire giving herself a few minutes to dry off. Once she was done, she packed her things up and used the leftover water to put out the fire. 

She made her way back to camp with her hair hanging loose instead of pulled back like it usually was. Making her way to the cook's tent, Ophelia noticed the others staring at her. Feeling confused she ignored it while waiting in line. That was until Lionel came up and smacked her on the back. "Looking, awful spiffy kid!" Lionel laughed, "It's called bathing. You should try it sometime old man." Ophelia retorted. Lionel grinned, "Come on kid this is a smell of a grade-A alpha!" Lionel patted his chest proudly. "I could barely keep omegas and women from me back in my hometown!" 

"Can I assume the name of your hometown is Pigsty?" Ophelia sneered disliking the sweaty grungy scent coming from the alpha. Lionel chuckled putting an arm around her shoulder, "Are you sure you getting cleaned up wasn't to impress a certain commanding omega?" he teased in a hushed tone, Ophelia stared blankly at Lionel.

"It was because I don't enjoy smelling of blood and sweat," Ophelia replied flatly. Lionel made a sour face, "You're no fun!" he complained letting go of Ophelia. The alpha woman rolled her eyes moving along in the line. She picked up a bowl from the stack waiting for her turn to be dished out the elk stew that the chief had made. 

"So why is it that you two flirt every time you see each other?" Lionel questioned standing behind her. "Don't generals have different meals prepared for them?" Ophelia avoided the question. "I already ate that," Lionel replied, Ophelia, shot him a dirty look. "Greedy old bastard." She complained, "You're as big as me, you know how much people like us need to eat!" Lionel defended himself. "I'm not a damn pig about it." Ophelia snapped annoyed, "Well apparently someone thinks my hometown is called Pigsty." Lionel responded both of them were served their food at the same time. 

Ophelia and Lionel left the line and she started to make a beeline to her tent but Ophelia was grabbed by the back of her collar by Lionel. "Don't think you're getting away that easily punk!" Lionel laughed dragging her. "Damnit," Ophelia swore with gritted teeth. Due to the relatively equal size to Lionel, Ophelia stood no chance of digging in her heels or overpowering him to get away. So she found herself sitting next to Lionel at a table in his tent. 

Not the first time she had been dragged here by the old man. But this time, rather than being the usual reasoning of 'it not being good to eat by yourself,' the old bastard wanted to grill her about Darius. "You know the commander was in a good mood after you left for quite a while." Lionel teased wagging his spoon at her as he spoke with a mouth full of food. "kept humming to himself while filling out paperwork." Lionel chuckled.

"Chew with your mouth closed, you're not a damn animal." Ophelia scolded, "Stop avoiding the topic kid." Lionel snapped back instantly, "What do you want me to say?" Ophelia snapped, "That I find the commander attractive? Everyone does, that's why a good chunk of the recruits joined." Ophelia deadpanned taking another spoonful of stew in her mouth. She chewed and swallowed, she considered her words. 

She didn't want to sound like she was shaming the commander. So she spoke up again, "Not that I blame him, using the implied reward of being with him is rather clever and a great way to motivate people to join other than the other benefits." Ophelia remarked thoughtfully. 

Lionel stared at Ophelia chewing with his mouth closed listening to her. Seeing the look on the old man's face looking amused. Ophelia gave him a sour look, "What?" She asked glowering at him. "That's the most I've heard you talk kid." He chuckled, and Ophelia felt her cheeks burning. "Shut the hell up." She snapped taking another bite of her food. 

Ophelia took another bite and Lionel spoke up again, "you know he doesn't always act that way during recruitment speeches right?" He informed Ophelia, and the alpha woman tilted her head feeling confused. "What are you saying?" Ophelia questioned carefully. "The others might think I'm an idiot. But even an idiot has eyes." Lionel grinned at Ophelia, "What do you mean?" She questioned, Lionel's grin grew, "I saw you two flirting before he even got on stage." Lionel leaned his face onto one of his hands as he rested his elbow on the table. 

Ophelia's eyes widened, "We were not flirting." Ophelia retorted looking away. "You might not think so but Darius did." Lionel chuckled, "The little man was strutting around like a peacock to show off in front of you!" He cackled at the surprisingly distant memory all things considered. "not that you're any better." Lionel narrowed his eyes at Ophelia, "When have I ever shown off in front of him-!" Ophelia defended herself but Lionel cut her off, "You pulled a damn cart up a hill!" Lionel practically shouted, "I've never seen Darius have his horse chase after anyone so fast outside of battle!" Lionel bellowed cackling. "He was there one moment and the next moment there was just a dust cloud!" 

Ophelia felt her face grow hot, Lionel who had leaned back to laugh looked back at Ophelia and went into a laughing fit seeing her expression. Ophelia moved her bowl to the side and folded her arms on top of her head feeling mortified. This, of course, only caused Lionel's laughter to be louder. 

Ophelia practically ran out of Lionel's tent when she was done eating. The old alpha man could barely eat from how much he laughed. It was mortifying but honestly, Ophelia didn't take it to heart. Lionel wasn't the sort to do that for pure meanness, instead, he passed along the message to not go off by herself because Darius was 'three seconds from jumping her.' Ophelia told Lionel he was an idiot as she left. 

"Fine don't believe me." The general waved her off, Ophelia made a beeline to her tent passing by the strategy tent as she did. Ophelia felt her cheeks still burning feeling a tad embarrassed. Maybe she had been flirting with Darius, but it didn't give Lionel the right to point that out! Besides, it wasn't as if the commander thought anything of it. Even if he did find her attractive just like she thought he was. That didn't mean it was going to amount to anything.

Back in Flat Trench plenty of omegas thought Ophelia was attractive. Her dark skin and dark hair made her stand out from the otherwise pale crowd in the village. She had been the subject of flirting with omegas countless times. Almost never did they ever develop into anything.

Regardless, why would she and Darius ever have anything to do with each other? He was some noble and she was a commoner from a backwoods village. Ophelia ran her fingers through her hair and pulled her hair back into her hair tie. "Crazy old bastard." She swore feeling annoyed that Lionel had put those thoughts in her head. 

Approaching her tent she saw some troops being led by General Duval headed south of the camp towards the forest where Ophelia had dispatched the scouting unit. Ophelia stopped and watched for a moment silently deciding that Duval was likely given a mission to do a raid on the unsuspecting Snowfel army. Earlier when she was headed off to bathe, she heard in passing soldiers complaining about cleaning up the mess in the woods. 

The clean-up crew was likely to prevent another scouting unit from finding what Ophelia did. It was better that they thought their men deserted rather than them being beheaded. Seeing the state of the bodies would clue the Snowfel army in on there being an enemy close by. 

Ophelia watched for a moment as the troop of soldiers disappeared into the night. Duval's troop usually wore darker red tunics and were often used for reconnaissance operations. She almost felt sorry for the poor Snowfel soldiers. Almost, but not enough, headed into her tent Ophelia stretched and yawned finding she felt tired. 

Flopping down on her bedroll, Ophelia curled up against her pillow keeping her boots on. It was best to, after all, there was a possibility of a raid. Especially with Snowfel poking around, Ophelia's heavy eyes slowly shut. It was possible they had the same idea as the Imperial army...

Ophelia fell asleep shortly after laying on her bedroll. Her mind was filled with the sounds of music and laughter. In her dreams, Ophelia saw dancers dancing around a bonfire as everyone laughed and clapped along to the music. 

Tiny hands clapped out of time with the music despite her best efforts. Feeling frustrated, a smaller Ophelia scrambled to her feet. She looked around the crowd looking for someone among the dancers. Then the vision of a woman with dark curly hair just like hers appeared. She danced around and around, her movements were graceful and playful. She heard the sound of beautiful laughter leave her painted lips. 

Ophelia stood there watching her finding herself smiling, she had this dream often as a child. While she never saw the face up close, Ophelia knew... She knew exactly who that beautiful woman was. She was her mother and just as the music stopped, the woman stopped dancing taking deep breaths. Another laugh left her as a large alpha man approached hugging her. His skin was darker than Ophelias and he had twist-out curls on his head. 

Her father... 

Ophelia took a step wanting so much to run up to them. They were so close, she reached her hands out and a child-like voice shouted, "Tata! Mama!" She shouted, her mother and father leaned down with open arms to welcome her in but just about when Ophelia was able to run into their arms...

Her tent collapsed on her in the middle of the night. Ophelia woke with a gasp surrounded by darkness. The canvas of the tent lay on top of her, being a stomach sleeper Ophelia still had room to breathe. Feeling her way through the dark, she struggled until she was able to find the exit. She lifted the fabric of the tent seeing finely crafted boots first. 

Confused Ophelia followed the legs until she was met with the sight of Darius standing there with a wooden stake in his hand. "You know," he said grinning at her, "The darndest things happen when you kick something hard enough." He teased in a playful tone.