My main thread: here
This took way too long to write (it didn't help that I spent forever procrastinating...)
Didn't really know where I was going with this, but at least I'm having fun experimenting with first person narrators. I like exploring how the different characters' narrative voices sound. (I wrote something from Scorpia's POV before... This one's from Adora's.)
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I wake up. No Horde soldiers, giant spiders… I can’t remember exactly what was happening in the dream, and I don’t try.
It’s still dark out. My blanket is tangled around my legs. I must’ve been— sleep-fighting. That’s what Glimmer calls it. Catra used to tease me about it too. Catra… She used to sleep curled up at the foot of my bed. I accidentally kicked her in my sleep a couple times. Once, she nearly woke up the whole barracks. She was so adorable though, curled up like that, and...
No. Don’t think about Catra. Think about… sleeping. Need to sleep. How long until morning? I look out the window, but all that tells me is that it’s night. Not getting light out yet.
It’s nice having a window. Though I wonder if anyone would be able to break through it… Is that why there were no windows in the Fright Zone barracks? No, that’s silly; no one would be able to get that close to the compound anyway. And if they could, there are other entry points they can find.
And no one can get to Bright Moon, not with the Whispering Woods in the way. Still, even as I remind myself of this, I’m getting up and peering out the window, just in case. No, no one climbing the wall up to my window. Of course not. Silly.
I go back to bed and lay back down. Come on, go to sleep… I squeeze my eyes shut. How do you make yourself fall asleep? I open my eyes. I remember Bow said something about counting… What was it? Some animal. But there are no animals in here to count, so instead I start counting crystals. Three crystals over there, and there’s another five…
I’m already bored. This is stupid. If I’m going to be awake now, I might as well be doing something useful. I get up. I can get in some practice now… I throw a couple punches at my punching bag, then go in for a roundhouse kick, but slip in my socks and hit the ground.
I get up, grunting. Crap. Should’ve taken my socks off.
There has to be something to do. If I got Glimmer or Bow, they’d have a sleepover, but I don’t want to bother them. They need sleep too.
I would try and plan strategy, but our war meeting isn’t for another couple days, and I don’t know what I need to be strategizing about.
I tiptoe out of my room. Maybe the guards could use some help? When I get near a pair of guards in the hallway, one of them elbows the other, who jolts awake, muttering, “Huh?”
Slacker.
Both guards resume standing up straight and looking straight ahead. At least, they’re facing straight ahead; even if it weren’t dark, you can’t see where their eyes are looking through the masks. I think those masks have to obstruct their vision, but Queen Angella didn’t seem to appreciate me pointing that out.
Anyway, I can’t tell if they’re looking at me. I salute them, and they glance at each other. One shrugs.
“Hey,” I say. “Do you guys… need any help with anything?”
One guard shakes their head. The other one yawns.
“‘Cause, you know… I am a trained soldier, as well as She-Ra.”
One of the guards — the one who had fallen asleep — mutters something to the other one, who shakes their head firmly. I can’t see through their helmets, but I can imagine the look of disapproval they’re probably giving their partner.
Then I hear footsteps approaching. Slowly, like they’re just passing by, not with the purpose of someone coming to tell you off.
It’s the Bright Moon general. She looks from the two guards to me. “Trouble?”
The guards shake their heads. “No, ma’am,” I say.
She nods curtly, then looks at me. “Why are you out of bed?”
“I was awake, and I was wondering if you needed some help,” I say. She looks skeptical. “And I think your guards need it,” I add, almost smirking (don’t get too cocky). “I caught this one” — I gesture to the guard on the left — “sleeping while on duty.”
“I wasn’t-!” the guard protests. The general sighs and rolls her eyes, and frowns at the guard.
“I know how to stand guard,” I continue. “I was trained as a soldier, I know how to-”
“Look, kid.” The general cuts me off. “I know how to do my job. And-”
“I wasn’t saying you didn’t,” I add hastily. “I just meant-”
“I get it. You want to help.” She sighs again. “You’re friends with the princess? You sound like her. Always asking to fight, wanting to do something. But you’re, what, sixteen?”
“Seventeen.”
“I have plenty of trained guards. They can do their job. Even if some of them” — she glares at the guard on the left — “need reminders how to do it right.” She sighs a third time. She looks tired. “I’m on my way to bed now. I suggest you do the same.”
She walks past me. I hear her muttering what sounds like “Poor kids” before she disappears down the hall.
I sigh. She’s probably right. I take her suggestion and head back to my room.
What’s she doing up so late? I must’ve went to bed hours ago; I just woke up again. Planning, maybe. She is the general. I should be staying up like her, strategizing, checking our defenses… Too late now, though. I don’t know what needs to be done, and she just went to bed.
I lie down, and keep thinking about the general, and then military strategy, and everything that’s at stake… I don’t know how much time passes. But before it starts to get light out, I guess I do eventually fall asleep.
