Borealia Military Academy | 2 weeks earlier
Alba awoke to the morning reveille that played all across the Borealia Military academy. Looking to her side as she stirred awake, she spotted her roommate, Helena, doing much the same. She had no idea why they had paired her with the feline woman but she wasn’t complaining, Helena was nice enough and they didn’t get in each other’s way.
Helena was the first to properly sit up in bed, clad in nothing more than a shirt from the band Evocati, depicting a heavily scarred legionary with vintage gear from the times leading up to the convergence and a pair of plain black panties. Helena’s build was lean and fit, with curves where it mattered as was common for most of her subspecies. As far as felines went when Pelasdeanians were concerned, she was on the mellower side, mostly carefree and well humored. She was also slightly shorter than average for her race, standing a head shorter than Alba.
“Alba, what classes are we having today ?” The leopard woman asked groggily, taking her time to make it out of bed as she put on some BDU pants with the blue gray and black winter camouflage which was used in regions like Borealia.
Alba would sit up herself, clad similarly to Helena but trading the shirt for a white tank top as she too went about getting dressed for the day before responding to her feline roommate. “Ehh . . . Small Unit Tactics, Doctrinal Theory and Weapons Instruction for the morning, Practical exercise for a second SUT class in the afternoon and then we get training and athletics until dinner.” She said as she tied the laces on one of her combat boots before tucking it inside the boot itself.
“Neat, no boring classes it seems, that’s always welcome. Heading down to the range today or are you sparring again ?” Helena asked, fastening her battle belt, sword sheath on one side and holster and bayonet sheath on the other, pouches for grenades and magazines currently empty.
“As much as I’ve been missing the range a lot, sparring is just so much more fun, I might keep to it and try to make it into the leaderboard.” Alba responded, donning her own battle belt, similar to that worn by Helena before slotting the messer style sword given to her by her mother into its sheath, followed by her pistol and bayonet in their respective spots before grabbing a hold of the present her father had handed her, a Type 82M3 battle rifle from the time of the Convergence, still perfectly functional. Each of these weapons probably had a kill count in the hundreds, but she decided not to dwell on it at the moment.
“You’re really gonna risk your range score biting the dust over a chance to compete with the veterans ?” Helena asked, and when Alba just nodded confidently in response, she groaned in annoyance as she finished sorting her kit and donned her BDU’s blouse, the cadet pins on the shoulders and collar easily visible.
Helena would be the first to head to their dorm’s shared bathroom, followed shortly by Alba, as one brushed their teeth, the other applied their makeup to maximize their efficiency, after all, arriving late to breakfast might mean missing out on some of the best items in the menu.
Alba eyed herself in the mirror as she applied her minimalist makeup, the small touches of it here and there enhancing her already handsome facial features, the whole tomboyish look aided by her height and sporty build, although much like Helena, she had no lack of curves, as expected of a wolf of her background.
As the two finished their preparations, they left for the mess hall, heading into the bustling corridor of their dorm, a stream of cadets with swords at their hips and rifles at their backs heading in the same direction as them, from cadets with tails and ears similar to Alba and Helena’s to ones with wings on their lower backs and tail feathers.
The two managed to make their way to the mess in time, with sweet sandwiches of buttered bread with jam making up the main dish accompanied by cappuccino and several flavors of gelato as a dessert to pick from. Alba got 3 sandwiches and a cup of cappuccino with a spoon of mint gelato on the side, Helena got much the same, changing mint for chocolate and hazelnut before they settled down at the end of a table to eat.
The breakfast was going fine for both girls, with them making some small talk here and there. That was until Emilia decided she was going to sit right next to Alba. The blonde lion girl stood as tall as the wolf, blonde hair and golden eyes in contrast to Alba’s white and blue, their builds were very similar, the biggest differences between them being the tails, Alba’s being a meter long fluffy wolf tail while Emilia’s was a shorter lion tail with short fur.
“Oh hi there doggy~ Didn’t see you here~” Emilia started as she grinned at Alba, the entitlement dripped from her voice as if she was talking to the lowest of peasants even if they were both of equal rank. Emilia reached for Alba’s plate, intent on stealing one of her sandwiches and fuck with her rival at the academy in the very first hour of the day.
Alba on the other hand, wasn’t having any of it, slapping Emilia’s hand away with a noise that made a few people turn their heads to look at the source of the sound and quickly dismiss it as it seemed the two were at it again. “If you try to touch any of mt things again I’m breaking your fucking arm.” Alba all but growled in response.
“Oh, you hurt me like this!~ I’d like to see you try though. Even you should know for a fact you’re not beating me in a fight~” Emilia kept teasing, finding enjoyment where Alba found annoyance.
“Show up at sparring practice during free time this afternoon and we’ll see, you overgrown house cat.” Alba responded, her voice dripping with spite as the source of her annoyance gloated about her supposed prowess. In truth, Alba had never seen Emilia fight, but even if through sheer hatred, she was dedicated to wiping the floor with her.
As the little confrontation, if it could even be called that, settled down, Emilia and Alba resumed eating, with Helena having never even stopped, taking in the free entertainment afforded to her. Emilia tried and time and time again to annoy Alba through the meal, mainly by hitting the Wolf’s back with her tail, and to her credit, it did earn her some growls from Alba before she trapped the Lion’s smaller tail by wrapping her own around it and ended further pestering until the meal was over.
The rest of the day went swimmingly, with some minor incidents with Emilia slightly inconveniencing Alba but otherwise nothing out of the norm. The amazing lunch, much like most of the food at the academy’s cafeteria, was an incredible mood boost to Alba. After the day’s official activities were finished, she headed straight for the sparring arena.
Several cadets and teachers alike were present, with the Academy’s arena being a popular option to de-stress and train alike. She went about finding sparring partners as she waited for her query to arrive, even managing to best one of the 4th year veterans in a spar before the Lion made its appearance.
As her last opponent left the ring, Emilia made her way there in their stead, drawing her sword as Alba beckoned her to come at her with a hand motion. “Ready to eat your words, kitty cat ?” Alba teased, a smirk on her face as she saw Emilia’s eyebrow twitch at the nickname.
“I’ll wipe that smirk off your fa-“ Emilia tried to say, pointing her sword at Alba before being cut by an announcement from the PA system.
“Alba Amata and Emilia Clara, first year. Your presence is required at the superintendent’s office.” The PA system blared, many glances across the arena turning to them as both uttered a single sentence in uncanny synchronicity, especially for people who hated each other.
“Well, shit.” Were the only words to escape both their mouths upon hearing this.
The two made their way to the superintendent’s office, a remarkably silent endeavor as they were too busy trying to rationalize why they were called over the PA system. As far as they knew, they hadn’t done anything warranting such a public call for them. That was very much a cause for concern for Alba and Emilia alike.
Alba and Helena arrived at the reception for the Superintendent’s office only to find it completely empty. They walked in cautiously with Alba taking the lead as her hand slowly drifted towards her sword in case anything had gone wrong. Emilia was much the same, instinctively reaching for her pistol just in case.
A hand landing upon each of their shoulders snapped them out of it. “You girls won’t be needing either of those, the receptionist simply took a break, it’s nothing bad in there either, no need to be so on edge.” A female voice said from behind them.
Knowing better than to make any sudden movements, the two slowly craned their heads back to gaze upon the woman who had managed to both sneak up on them and grab them without making a single sound.
When they saw the purple armband, black uniform and plate carrier coupled with the half mask that the gray haired wolf woman had on, it was clear why. A Praetorian was the one to ‘greet’ them, no shame to be had from not noticing them.
The Praetorian retracted her hands before nodding towards the door. “Go, he’s waiting on the both of you.” She said before walking back towards one of the corners of the room and phasing out of sight into the shadows cast there.
The utterly spooked look they both gave towards the place the woman seemingly disappeared into earned them a chuckle, which didn’t seem to come from that specific place but the whole room.
Alba was the first to move towards the door, eliciting to simply face whatever it is the superintendent had for her and leaving the place as soon as humanly possible. Emilia followed her example.
And then Alba opened the door, braced herself for the worst and made her way inside the room, Emilia following closely behind.
The visage of Legate Tiberius Solanus was the first thing they noted in the decorated, although not overly so room, with elegant but not over the top furniture. The Legate was seemingly in his 40s, although anyone who knew anything about the academy was certain that he was much older than that. He bore several scars from past campaigns, although, unlike what both girls expected, he seemed to regard them warmly rather than sternly as he motioned for two chairs in front of his desk. “Take a seat, the both of you.”
