Marrie Ashta twirled the white and blue flower in her hand, her eyes glazed over as she was deeply lost in thought. The Vanyan army had come to a complete stop. In order to help patch up their heavy losses, Marrie has ordered another Vanyan army to meet them up and merge with them. By her feet lay the headless bloodied corpse of a Vanyan soldier. Around her lay twenty nine other dead Vanyan soldiers. All of them paid the price for failing to keep up in the harsh training course Marrie set up after she and the Vanyan soldiers recovered from their fight.
It would have been thirty four soldiers but Marrie realized that the four were trying their best. The other thirty, by her standards, weren't trying their best. So, she waited a day for them to rest up, rounded them up, and then told them that they were going to "spar" with her. Before they could even give her an answer, she attacked, punching one harshly in the head. As the fight went on, Marrie stopped "sparring" and started fighting, killing the soldiers quickly and in more brutal ways. Unlike when she is in battle, Marrie focused on killing the Vanyan soldiers in brutal ways to not only scare the other soldiers, but teach them a lesson as well. Even throughout the one-sided slaughter, Marrie kept on giving comments on the soldiers' performance.
When there was one soldier left, Marrie grabbed him and tore off his head. Now, she stood in the middle of a crudely made arena with her bloody long axe in her left hand and a flower in her right. For the Vanyan soldiers who fought with Marrie before, especially those who have lost a battle with Marrie, this wasn't a common sight but it wasn't a rare one either. Marrie wasn't one for failure.
"Marrie, I think-" Jacob, one of Marrie's Commanders who was nearby, started, walking towards Marrie.
"SHUT UP!" Marrie snarled, turning and pointing her axe at Jacob in one smooth movement. Her eyes were wide and wild. Jacob stopped and backed off, Marrie growling at him while he did so. When he was far enough away, Marrie's eyes settled and she looked at the flower in her hand again, her breathing going back to normal and her muscles loosening up.
"Tuhāḍē tōhafē la'ī usanē mainū ditā, maiṁ tuhānū kadē iha nahīṁ dasi'ā ki maiṁ tuhāḍē nāla pi'āra karadā hāṁ."
Jacob perked up. It has been a while since he has heard Marrie speak Punjabi. Three years ago to be exact. She only uses it when she is truly stressed out. Maybe he is wrong about Marrie's current situation. He just thought Marrie was angry but, maybe it is more than that. In fact, Marrie doesn't look angry at all.
"I have a message for High Commander Bloody Marrie!"
The Vanyan soldiers froze at the voice of a messenger. Said messenger realized that, if Marrie wasn't with the rest of the camp, she would be where the large crowd is. He made his way through the crowd and came upon a makeshift arena. Standing in the center of this makeshift arena was a pretty young maiden weilding a bloodied long axe. He instantly knew that this was Marrie. Undisturbed by the pile of dead bodies surrounding her that were clearly her own soldiers, he walked forward unafraid.
There was a reason for his fearlessness. His attire was black and red and his eyes dark brown. His hair and beard were a lighter tone of brown. He wasn't of Vanyan descent. No. He was a Viking. He wouldn't be put off by something like this. From birth, Vikings were raised to be fearless. To accept death as a way to be welcomed into Valhalla. If he gets killed by Marrie then so be it. He still has a job to do.
"High Commander Bloody Marrie, I have a message for you."
Marrie turned to look at the Viking, her eyes intense yet emotionless. She stared at him for a few seconds before she dropped her axe and held out her hand. The messenger shook his head.
"It is one of words," He said. Marrie nodded and picked up her long axe.
"Then speak thy message," Marrie told him briskly.
"Your reinforcements are here but they had some troubles along the way. They don't have enough supplies to support themselves for long."
Marrie slightly cocked her head, her eyes narrowing a bit, before she turned around and looked at the ground.
"Tell them that I will be there shortly."
The messenger nodded and quickly made his way out of the makeshift arena. Once he was gone, Marrie walked out of the arena herself, the crowd parting for her. She made her way into her tent where she put the flower she was holding down onto a wooden desk and started biting her fingernails, pacing around nervously.
"Dammit Hawk! You had one job and a massive army to boot! With most of my Commanders there and a force of two hundred thousand Vanyans, how do you lose most of your supplies!?"
The sound of footsteps approaching quickly got Marrie out of her little rant.
"Who is it?" Marrie asked, her voice back to being emotionless and cold.
"It's me, Jacob."
Marrie loosened up at hearing who it was.
"Come in. Tis windy out, is it not?"
Even though none of the Vanyans were bothered by the cold or the wind, Marrie knows that saying that can be seen as a joke in some culture. It was also something Cherry said to her often. Marrie guessed she got used to hearing it be said all the time and said it herself.
"Indeed it is," Jacob told Marrie as he entered. He saluted, putting his shield in front of him and his sword in front of his shield. Marrie saluted back, only she did a different salute. She put her long axe in front of her, the hilt on the ground, and lowered her head slightly. She was, after all, in charge of Jacob.
"I'll get right into what I want to say, if that is okay with you?" Jacob asked, Marrie nodded, a little glad he got right to the point.
"I will like you to let me visit the reinforcements and Hawk first."
Marrie blinked in confusion. That was....an odd request to say the least.
"Sure, but if yee do that then at least make sure that thee are presentable."
Jacob nodded and got out of his salute, which Marrie feeling embarrassed when she remembered she didn't tell him to stop. After he left, Marrie let out a sigh and leaned her long axe against the wall. She went over to the desk in her tent and picked up the flower.
"White and blue..."
________
Jacob made his way down the ridge to the army down below. As usual when a Vanyan army is present, the air was tinted a light blue color and it seemed like a bluish white mist has set in. That didn't bother Jacob. He was a Vanyan after all. He easily spotted Hawk among the army's front line and swiftly walked over to him, calling Hawk's name.
Hawk was a Vanyan right brown hair. He was taller and large than Jacob and he dwarfed Marrie. He also was one of the Commanders with Johnson and Jacob who have beaten Marrie in a fight before, with Hawk being the one who has beaten her the most. Still, to the other Commanders who work under Hawk, he was seen as an arrogant person prone to aggression without thinking. While all Vanyans are prone to aggression, especially Marrie, they all think it out first, Marrie especially.
"Hawk! I need to talk to you," Jacob told him, walking up to Hawk.
"In private," He added, eyeing the score of berserkers Hawk commands. Hawk, after a couple of seconds, nodded and walked away from his soldiers.
"What is it?" He asked, his arms crossed. He had been on the march for three days straight to not only meet Marrie's sudden request and because they were running dangerously low on supplies.
"Marrie's army, as you know, has been ambushed by a much larger army. If it wasn't for Marrie, there was a high chance that we would have lost that fight."
"Yeah, I figured. I read the more detailed report on the fight," Hawk said. He wished he was in that fight. While he and Marrie had their differences and occasional fights, he does respect her. If he was there, he would have been able to defeat the enemy with Marrie faster and with less loses.
"It was her first time experiencing the old Vanyan fear of magic blindness," Jacob told Hawk, hoping he would catch on.
"Hah! So I'm gonna assume that got to her? I thought Marrie was immune to those kind of fears. She definitely acts like she doesn't share the Vanyan fears."
Jacob waited for Hawk to stop his laughter and realize that he has more to say.
"Marrie had to use her armor to fight on...and she isn't her usual self right now."
Jacob leaned in closer to Hawk just in case no one hears him.
"I know you and Marrie don't get along, but please. Don't challenge her. She's not in her right mind. If you provoke her, you'll probably die."
Hawk was silent for a moment before he scoffed.
"Hah. That's what I was told when I was told I was going to work under Marrie for the first time!"
Before Jacob could say anything, both the Commanders felt a chilling presence. They turned and looked up at the ridge just as Marrie stepped into view, a large portion of her army behind her. She wasn't in her blue dress anymore but instead wore her Warmonger armor. On her hair to the right was a small white and blue flower.
Marrie's eyes were cold and impossible to see through, looking down at the army. Down below, Hawk swallowed nervously.
"Don't piss her off, right?" Hawk said in a joking tone, but the nervousness in his voice gave away that he was serious. Jacob nodded.
Under almost every circumstance, Marrie would never wear her Warmonger armor. The fact that she had it right now despite not being in any kind of battle scared almost everyone here.
Marrie's eyes searched the army, settling on Hawk's berserkers for a couple of seconds before moving away. Finally, they settled on Hawk and Jacob and lit up slightly. Marrie jumped down from the ridge and made her way slowly over to the two Commanders, who bowed.
"Get up, both of ye," Marrie told them fridgely. They did and Marrie studied Hawk for a couple of seconds.
"Hawk, can I get a detailed report on how thee lost most of their supplies?" Marrie asked, causing the tension in the air to rise.
"U-um, w-well, we ran into a small forest in the middle of our travels," Hawk explained to Marrie.
Marrie and Jacob paused. No one from Marrie's army has heard the reason why Hawk's army lost their supplies.
"You lost your supplies to a forest near the very middle of Nostalisk?" Marrie asked, each word dragged out.
"U-um, y-yeah-"
Marrie cut Hawk off my lunging forward and grabbing the man, hitting him hard in the gut with the head of her axe before punching him in the face, sending him to the ground. Marrie lifted her axe in the air, twirled it around, and pointed the head of her long axe at him.
"ARE YE AN IDIOT! YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE A FUCKING EXCUSE LIKE THAT!?"
Before anything could escalate, three of Marrie's Commanders rushed forth.
"Marrie, wait!"
Marrie slowly turned her head to look at the three Commanders, the annoyed look on her face growing.
"What?" She spat out, her voice laced with venom.
"I-It's true. There was a forest in the middle of Nostalisk. It looked to be an eleven forest," Artary explained.
Marrie was silent for a long time until, finally, she backed up from Hawk and turned to face the three Commanders.
"Really? Well, we'll see about that," Marrie told the Commanders before turning around and pointing her axe at her army above.
"Get ready! We move towards that forest at once!"
Her army ran off and Marrie turned back to the Commanders.
"If yer covering for thee, then you better come clean. Lying about something like this may very well cause ye all to be executed,"
Marrie waited but, when none of the Commanders said anything, snarled and turned around and marched back to her camp.
