Header: https://imgur.com/bBvJcZh

...and the bow pretty much exploded. Splinters everywhere. One of them almost hit my eye, you can see it right there. Mom gave me crap about that for a week. Something about ruining a lady's skin, and how I'd never get married if I kept doing all that stuff.

You can see how that turned out.

The one along my collarbone? Yeah, I got that from...running into a fence? Ran straight through, broke all the boards and everything. In my defense, I was aiming for this guy, but uh...

No, I don't make a habit of hitting random people. I was trying to get into the army. I was a kid. Sixteen, maybe seventeen years old. I mean it worked. Had to fist-fight Ronan, the commanding officer, and in the end I got my ass kicked, but it got me respect, too. When you're a girl in a man's world, you take all the respect you can get.

The boys thought I was there to be an army wife. Earn some money, find a guy to shack up with. Well, I wasn't looking for a guy. And I knew the real money was in being a soldier. It's not that great when you start out, but if you work your way up the ladder, make it to ranking officer, and you're set. Hack it for long enough and they even give you a pension.

That's what I told my mom, anyway. Not that it helped. That night I came home with a black eye the size of an orange, all covered in cuts and bruises, but from the look on her face, you'd think I was the one who hurt her. She makes me sit in the kitchen, pulls out this giant bag of medical supplies she had from when she worked as a healer, and gets to work. She asks me what happened, and I say I got in a fight in the army camp. She gets mad, asks who did it. I tell her, and then she got really mad. The quiet, intense sort she only got when stuff got really bad, but I didn't see what the problem was. It's not like I was leaving town or anything.

I don't know if you've ever been treated by an angry doctor, but there's always two bottles of stuff they use to clean the wounds—there's the one that's not too bad, like the stuff you used for my hand, and there's the stuff that stings. You can guess which one she used. Lots of it too, and none too gently.

By the end of it, I was hurting worse than I'd been in the fight. To make things worse, the entire time, she's going through her usual sermon. Not ladylike, not safe, think of what it'll make your brother look like, he's got his career to think of, and how she didn't spend all this time and money keeping me safe just so I could go and smash myself up with my stupid plans.

I heard it enough to know I can just kind of tune it out, nod at the right times. My face is all wrapped up and swollen, so she can't really tell if I'm looking at her or not.

She's right about at the end of her sermon, so I reckoned I had maybe five minutes left before I was home free, but suddenly she kind of holds me by the shoulders and leans her forehead against mine, and she says... "Liana, my stupid little fireball. What am I to do with you?"

And, uh...

Yeah, I didn't really know what to say to that, so I just kind of nod and hug her, and uh...

Sorry, what was I talking about? I kind of lost the thread there.

Right, right, the army.

Well, in the morning, I take some of my stuff and I start living at the army camp. The quartermaster, this big hairy guy called Benson didn't really know what to do with me, seeing as there's never been a girl in the army—

Yeah, I know there's women in the army in general, but at that time, in Sweetroot, there was just me, and like, thirty other men. All living, eating, and sleeping in the same big tent, and Benson says he doesn't know where to put me, says there isn't enough room. Of course he knows where, and I tell him as much, but he doesn't budge. I'm this close to making him when Ronan, the commanding officer comes in, all smiles and hair and he says it's already been taken care of.

As it turns out, they set up a little tent for me, right across from where the big boys live. It's like half the size of my room at home, barely enough room to stretch my arms out. Ronan smiles and says it's only until they build a section for the women, seeing as they're trying to be more inclusive. Bullshit. I stayed in that thing right up until I left. I guess that should have been the first warning.

Still, once I found out what the men's tent smelled like, I couldn't really complain, eh? You'd think all they wore was socks and dirty underwear...

But it was the start of a new life for me, you know? I was excited. I had plans, and the army was going to be the first step to bigger things. I knew I had something good, something no one else in town had, and I just had to work hard, take the opportunities as they presented themselves, all of that stuff.

The thing was, they didn't. In a town like Sweetroot, nothing really happens. Turns out, most of the people who get assigned all the way out here are washouts from other camps, kids from here who couldn't make it as a farmer, or old soldiers just looking to take it easy. Not a lot of chances to advance. Not much to advance from. Most days started with training drills, cleaning the camp, and then guarding the town perimeters, which basically just means walking around with a buddy until the sun goes down.

Sure, every once in a while I had to throw down with the occassional jerk who thought he was slick enough to hit on me, but even that got boring quick. The only one who could take me on was Ronan, but he never picked a fight with me after that first one. Pretty much the only thing he did was...

Hey, pass me the flask. I'm getting thirsty from all this talking. Your turn. I know you're not from here. Everyone would know you if you were. You with that party that came in?