Leanna spent the night sleeping awkwardly in the corner of one of the bunkers among other soldiers. The armour she stole from the guard was uncomfortable, awkward and heavy and she wished she could just stroll up and order someone to make her something nicer, but she knew that was impossible. She tried her hardest to be invisible for now, hiding from all the Castle staff and deliberately training, eating and sleeping alone. She felt awful and slightly depressed, especially considering how close Cole was to her, she'd see him every so often - walking around with a face like thunder.
There was a call out to all of them, that everyone would be heading out in two days. The young princess felt so unprepared, all the soldiers around her all knew what they needed to do, most of them were front line soldiers, archers and of course, the Dragon Knights. There were only a few, as far as Leanna could tell - including Cole, and she wondered if perhaps she could somehow convince Azutri to follow them from behind, keep them all safe. Leanna let out a sigh as she helped clean a number of weapons, whilst looking into the water she noticed the ink in her hair was beginning to fade, turning an even weirder green colour. And it was so short - she briefly wondered if Cole would still find her attractive with short hair like this...
As the sun started going down, Leanna headed to the shacks where Dramor and Azutri would be. The male dragon seemed agitated by something, but calmed when seeing her. "Hey gorgeous" she whispered, her false appearance not fooling the dragons in the slightest. She ran her hands over Azutri's scales, feeling the warmth that radiated from her, "Come with me... Please. I wont be able to do it alone, and I need to know there's someone else looking out for Cole" Leanna pressed her forehead against the dragon, feeling the bond between them as Azutri pushed back, both enjoying the small time they had. Leanna then went to Dramor and attempted to see what was making him so anxious, he was restless, like he had been spooked.
Once the sun went below the horizon, Leanna headed back. The armour she wore was wearing down on her so she first went to see if there was something else she could wear. She began rummaging through some of the spare parts when a voice caught her by surprise. "Hey! What are you doing in here?" he called, standing in the doorway, "Do you need something?" He didn't seem overly threatening, but not exactly friendly either. "I-uh, was looking for some better armour... mine is, uh, not very well fitted" she said, trying her best to change her voice. The man looked her up and down, "Alright. Here, I'll help you." He walked over and reached to a box at the back, picking out some lighter pieces for her to try. "I'm Mikhel, by the way" he said, extending his hand, "I'm... Syd. New here." Mikhel laughed, "Yeah I can tell. You've got a weird accent too"
They looked together for a little while, "Here try this set, the arms don't match but it should work." Leanna accepted them and took her current set off. Her mind didn't work thoroughly as she simply stripped down, the black full-length undergarments not hiding her figure, or gender. "Oh -WOAH, woah!" Mikhel yelled, covering his eyes. "Y-you're a girl?" Leanna squeaked a little. "P-please don't tell anyone!" she pleaded, quickly putting the other, mis-matched set on. "I have to keep it a secret." Mikhel peeked through his fingers, just catching a glimpse of her waist and bust before looking away again. "Y-you know girls can join if they want right? It's not a male-only thing..." Leanna sighed, "I know but I- I'm not supposed to be here. I defied my parents in order to protect my kingdom and my lo-" shit, she can't say lover, -"Brother. My brother."
Mikhel finally removed his hands, green eyes scanning her new outfit and his face slightly red, "That's a pretty noble thing to do. Are you sure?" Leanna nodded fiercely. "Very much so. Please, Mikhel, please promise you wont tell anyone." Mikhel put one hand up in defence, "I promise.". They smiled at each other. Together, they headed back to the sleeping quarters, "You can come stay in our room if you want. For some reason they've put all the weirdo's on one tent. There's this one guy who is super moody and beat up a guy on his first day so try not to get on his bad side." Leanna chuckled nervously. Mikhel brought her into a dimly lit room filled with guys all drinking beer and laughing loudly. They were all pretty gross in her opinion, burping and spitting, being generally unhygenic.
But she pressed on, and stuck close by Mikhel who offered her a drink, sitting away from the loudness of the others. They began chatting about various things, thing they liked and Leanna kept most of her personal preferences quiet. The tent was slightly warm, making her feel hot and being to sweat, she was afterall still wearing her full set of armour. "Come on, I'll give you something to wear" Mikhel offered, passing her a large tunic. "Thank you." she walked to a hidden corner the covered herself quickly. The tunic didn't really do much to stoop her from looking so feminine, but it helped. When she sat back down she noticed Mikhel giving her a weird look. "Uhh, look I don't mean to be rude but..." he placed a hand on her hand, making her recoil, and when he drew it away his fingers were covered in ink.
"Oh no..." she whispered, knowing all too suddenly that her sweat was making the ink run. Leanna bolted from the tent, into the air. Followed by Mikhel, she headed back to the water to see the ink leaking just as she feared. What was she going to do? She had thought ink was a good choice, but clearly it was not suitable. "H-hey.." Mikhel said sheepishly, "Uhh, look I won't ask what's going on but if you want to dye your hair you know you can use nemgrass, right? It's that weird red-ish plant that grows literally everywhere." Leanna wondered for a while before she and Mikhel headed out to gether some. He laughed with her about using ink, and helped her re-dye it to a more natural red-ish brown colour. Leanna was worried about him noticing the colour of her natual hair, but he didn't comment on it.
"Come on, all done. Now it's like midnight and I'm exhausted. We should sleep." As they walked back Leanna spotted Cole, alone, and wanted so badly to go to him. He looked sad, although the way he moved told her he was really angry about something as well. She swallowed a lump in her throat, ignoring the pain in her chest, and followed Mikhel back to sleep. Tomorrow would be a busy day preparing to move out.
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