The First Day Begins
Julian had scarce sat herself down when she heard movement from the neighboring rooms, noting with surprise that despite how early she herself had awakened, it seemed she'd only barely been first out of her room. Emerging in ones and twos, the rest of the squad awoke in various states of preparation. First to arrive were Dot and Elon -- the taciturn Valeforian boy in the middle of what appeared to be some sort of dispute, and the shorter, raven-haired Dot merely nodding along and awkwardly trying to put whatever the argument was behind him. It didn't seem to be too serious -- at least, not compared to the little discussion she'd had with her own roommate -- but she nonetheless gave Dot in particular an understanding, wry smile as she waved silently in greeting to the two of them.
Just a few moments later, a by-now fairly familiar shadow fell over her where she was lounging on the couch, and she craned her neck back to look up at the towering young man who cast it.
"Ah! Good morning!" She shot up a cheerful grin while wracking her brain to remember his name. She'd never really been good at that sort of thing -- or, rather, she could never really remember the names of characters in books particularly well, at least. She wasn't sure about people, since aside from Emma, she'd never really --
A sour taste rose up in her mouth, and she shook her head slightly as she sat herself up, as if that would help her forcefully dislodge the uncomfortable memories that threatened to take root there. As if the dreams weren't bad enough, she couldn't stop thinking back even when she was awake... Despite that, though, she merely shrugged at Signar -- right, that was his name! -- Signar's question.
"Eh, as well as ever. Those bunks are pretty tiny, though." She gave another one of her usual nervous chuckles while slightly rubbing her forehead, which must have knocked up against the wall at least three times as she tossed and turned during the night.
"How about you? That bed they rolled in for you must be at least a little comfier."Around this time, another door opened -- not that of any of the individual rooms, but rather, the front door of their suite, and in strode their illustrious royal commander, his pale locks still dripping with moisture. He must have gotten up even sooner than her to bathe -- a deduction that was made quite easy by the fact that she hadn't seen him go, and on account of the flowery scent that had wafted in the moment he entered the room. That, coupled with his somewhat dangerous appearance, almost made her forget that it was proper manners for a soldier to stand up and greet her commander even if said commander
wasn't a royal. Those languid eyes, that silky hair, still shimmering with the faintest hint of moisture... Seriously, he might have been a prince, but wasn't this level of sparkliness just unfair? She could hardly look directly at him even as she jumped to her feet and gave a hasty salute.
"Good morning, Captain! Er, I mean, Your Highness!" She stammered out with... well, at least it was an
attempt at discipline.
"...Wait, which is it?" Trailing off into muttering as she pondered which role took precedence in this situation, she thankfully didn't have time to make a fool of herself since their squad's Third Seat at that moment decided to do that instead. Bursting out of his room like a blue tornado just as her own stonefaced roommate went to wake him -- and nearly running the jerk over in the process, heh -- the doglike boy Kaiser began to dash around the room making a tremendous racket before darting past the prince and out the door, evidently making a beeline for the mess hall. Well... she couldn't exactly fault him for that. The food last night might have been nothing special to all these spoiled nobles, but by her (extremely low and half-starved) standards, it had been a veritable feast, and as it would happen, she was still pretty hungry herself.
The third Valeforian -- Zen-something or other -- stumbled out of his own quarters a moment later, evidently still pretty rattled by the unexpected noise a moment earlier. The blonde gave him a small wave and a grin.
"Mornin'! Seems like we'd better hurry up or our Third Seat's gonna get all the food." Ordinarily, that'd be a pretty stupid joke -- but seeing how he'd managed to snarf down his portion on the prior evening even faster than her, and she'd been quite literally famished at the time, the threat of Kai devouring their breakfasts before they had even arrived somehow seemed a lot more believable.
So... seeing as one of their officers had already run off, and the Prince himself had already said he was leaving... that meant it was fine for her to go too, right? So, she slipped past Rossweine in the confusion and out into the hall, peeking back through the doorway and calling back one final time before darting off in the wake of the little blue bolt of destruction that had departed a moment prior.
"I'll save you a spot in line, Sig!"One good turn deserved another, after all -- and since he'd been so welcoming to her the day before, she could find the magnanimity within her to repay him with a small favor or two. Who wouldn't be happy getting food a little sooner? Nobody, obviously. So, with a broad grin, she merrily trotted her way down the stairs and along the corridor to the neighboring building, where a delectable meal no doubt awaited...
