A Fawn's Journey

Elain aimed the rifle, concentrating as much as possible on her target. After several heartbeats she pulled the trigger and the bullet was fired, hitting the target right in the center.

"Not bad, you finally learned how to aim" Rainer scoffed.

Elain grunted. "Come on, that happened long ago!"

"And yet I have never seen such a scolding from a superior" He sniped.

Freya and Astrid were sitting near them, the squad was alone in the shooting range.

It has been about three months since military training officially ended. However, the Kingdom of Olenia suffered from an exorbitant deficit in military equipment. The base had not acquired sufficient rifles for each recruit until several weeks later.

"So tomorrow we will be deployed" Astrid reminded as she laid on her back.

Freya slightly smiled as she narrowed her eyes at the rifle she held between her hooves. "Oi, Astrid"

"Hm?"

Freya begun with a weak voice. "Promise me that we will go home together when this ends"

Elain was aiming for another shot, but then she glanced at Freya.

Astrid chuckled. "Don't tell me that now you're going to get sentimental. We will be fine"

"Right . . ." Freya cleared her throat, then shook her head.

Astrid got up and approached her. "I'm sorry, I know this is more serious than we would like. I promise we will get through this together"

Freya suddenly hooked her hooves around Astrid's neck, hugging her tightly. Astrid reared her head back in response, but then wrapped her left hoof around Freya's back. Both of them remained silent for several seconds.

Wow. I have never seen Freya acting like that Elain thought, her rifle pointed to the ground due to her distraction.

"Nice theater, but we don't even know where are we going" Rainer said, opening the way to uncertainty. Astrid glared at him.

"Why do they refuse to tell us?" Elain cocked her head to her right as she lowered the weapon.

"I have no idea" Rainer spat. "You have already seen that the organization is terrible, it took them six months to bring us how many rifles? Five hundred?" he sat on the ground and crossed his forehooves. "It's their fault we haven't already won the war. Surely they don't even know where to send us"

Astrid broke away from the hug and looked at Rainer. "Assume it, no matter how patriotic you are, Olenia is not the empire it was centuries ago, we have adapted poorly and we don't have enough industry" She confronted him as she walked foward.

Rainer closed his mouth and frowned at Astrid.

"We have to play with these rules, if we can't compete against changelings in production then we have to be smarter than them"

"And that's what we are doing, the front line is stagnant despite the amount of panzers they bring us" Rainer finally replied.

Freya quickly recovered her enthusiasm and pulled herself together. "We are smarter than a bunch of bugs, we will eventually win!" She cheered before another argument could break out.

Rainer cocked an eyebrow and Elain stared confused at Freya, Astrid just chuckled, she didn't even glance behind her.

"My turn!" Rainer took the rifle Elain was holding and aimed towards the targets.

Elain resisted rolling her eyes. Oh fuck off She wanted to say, but the words remainded in her head. She stepped aside and stood up, then approached Astrid to join the conversation. "This is far from over" She sighed. "Who knows what have they done with my parents, or my brother and with the rest of the fawns, there was none where they sent me"

Astrid and Freya froze for several heartbeats, Freya broke the silence. "Wow, that's right, you have been separated from your family half a year ago! Are you even sure they are still al-" Before she could finish the sentence a snowball hit her squarely in the face, she fell backwards on the ground.

Elain flinched and turned around. Astrid was in a throwing position, with her hoof pointing at Freya, She made eye contact with Elain and quickly concealed by lowering her hoof to the ground, her facial expression remained neutral.

This situation had been repeated many times over the past months and Elain was already used to it. Elain covered her muzzle with a hoof and closed her eyes in a giggle. "Thanks, I guess"

After a few seconds, Elain had all eyes on her, again that pious expression on their faces. The situation had changed in an instant. Also, Freya's comment felt like a block of ice falling on her stomach. The discomfort caused by the combination of both things made Elain only think about getting out of there. "uh. . . Excuse me" She hurried to get out of the shooting range, passing between Astrid and Freya as she avoided eye contact by lowering her gaze.

Elain trotted towards the building and back to her room, once she got inside she closed the door and threw herself face down on the bed.

Her cyan coat was hanging on the same hanger with some dust.

What's wrong with them? Why do they have to do that every time the topic comes up? She asked to herself as she extended a hoof under her pillow to grab a paper. She rolled face up, holding the paper sheet upon her between her hooves, It was a drawing of Elmer and her parents made with a pencil, Elain wasn't good at drawing but that was the closest thing to a photo she could get. Maybe I look too weak? What can I do? She looked at the tall stag with wide antlers, the drawing staring back at her. Then she looked at the fawn drawn on the left side with a frown. Definitely things must change, I can't continue being like this

"I promise I will rescue all of you" She said out loud with a slight frown when suddenly someone knocked the door. Elain flustered and hurried to hide the drawing under the pillow, the abruptness with which she did it caused the paper to tear, she winced at the sound.

She sat up straight on the bed and cleared her throat as the door opened.

Freya stood beneath the doorframe. "Hey, uhm. . . Sorry, I forgot to pack my stuff" she said apologetically. "And also wanted to say sorry"

Elain offered her a warm smile. "Oh no, it's fine! Go ahead"

Freya looked confused after her response. "Uh, Really?" she coughed. "I mean, alright"

Elain jumped off the bed and grabbed her coat from the hanger, that would be the only thing she would bring to the frontile apart from her military uniform. She grabbed a small white suitcase from under the bed and unzipped it, When she opened it, there it was, the thick pastel blue coat along with a cap of the same color, its logo was a pair of white antlers, there was also a brown saddlebag and a pistol with its holster. Elain had a brand new uniform in her suitcase, she wasn't excited to wear it either.

Freya was very quiet, which was really strange. Elain suspected and tried to guess what was she thinking about. "I'm fine, really" She broke the silence.

"I didn't say anything" Freya looked up at her from the other side of the room.

Elain glanced up at her with a cocked eyebrow before fixing her gaze on the suitcase.

Freya sighed. "Okay, I'm sorry! You know I didn't mean to-"

"And I said it's fine" Elain interrupted her, then giggled.

"But you just ran away" Freya tilted her head.

"Don't worry about that, I just forgot to pack my coat" She lied. "You know how important it is to me" Elain was just trying to hide her feelings, so far it seemed to be working.

Freya smiled back at her with a sigh of relief. "I thought I fucked it up again, I'm glad you didn't mind about me saying-"

"Yeah! I don't need to be reminded tho!" Elain cut her off again with a forced smile.

Freya shrugged, then started packing her clothes.

Elain was relieved, she took one last look at her coat before folding and packing it along with her uniform.

The sun was beginning to hide behind the horizon and the orange rays of the sunset crossed the bedroom window.

Freya raised a hoof eagerly with her suitcase half prepared. "Dinner time!"

Elain chuckled. "Do you ever get tired of doing that?"

"No!" Freya answered with a grin, trotting towards the door.

Elain rolled her eyes in amusement and pushed her suitcase under her bed before getting up and leaving the room along with Freya.

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The next morning, the entire brigade was marching through the capital on its way to the port. The sidewalks of Hjortland wide streets were filled with civilians, at some point they started cheering on the recruits. The crowd whistled and shouted energetically, fawns watching from balconies with awe and admiration. Elain's eyes were wide open. She had never heard so much noise in her life and her head was starting to hurt. Please, can someone make it stop?

Elain was carrying her almost empty suitcase, it was of little use to her to pack, since she was ordered to unpack and wear the full military uniform before leaving. Now she also had a rifle tied to her waist. The coat was thick and warm, it felt quite comfortable in a freezing place like anywhere in Olenia.

Elain did not expect such a reception at all, especially after seeing those reactions when she arrived in the city as a refugee. However, the real surprise came before leaving the base, when she and her friends were informed that they would be going via convoy to support a naval invasion in the northeast, right in the port of Vaverfront. That would leave Elain very close to home.

Elain glanced at her left, Rainer and Astrid seemed to be talking to each other. However, she wasn't able to hear anything beyond the roar of the crowd. She focused her gaze on the fawns from the sidewalks most of the time, their tiny size and the hopeful sparkle in their eyes kept reminding her of Elmer. Elain looked back at them with determination as she walked forward.

After several minutes She finally left the last street, he sound was slowly fading as she got closer to the coast, fewer and fewer civilians as they walked towards the sea. Elain closed her eyes and sighed in relief. Her mind finally had a moment of peace.

"Look! I can see the sea!" Freya yelled from behind. Elain looked up and gaped at the horizon. Elain had seen the sea several times, but the ships were new. Great, towering steel monsters all over the sea, whose tide was not strong enough to sway them, the national flag of the deer with the two swords hung from the top of some ships, moved by the soft breeze. Olenia had concentrated its entire fleet in Luna Bay, the gulf that separates the snowy kingdom from the west coast of Equestria, in order to ensure the security of convoys, both for troops and for resource trading with Equestria. Although this would make the rest of the kingdom dependent on a coastal defense.

"We don't have better infantry but also better navy!" Rainer spat as he looked proudly at the ships.

Astrid groaned in annoyance. "The changelings have tons of submarines, we literally have our whole fleet here just to secure a sea!"

Both deer began to argue about more military stuff that Elain simply decided to ignore. Those ships, under the sun of the clear sky, were reflected in her cyan eyes.

"No one is gonna comment what just happened on the streets?!" Freya asked them, however, she got ignored.

"Right, It's the biggest crowd I have ever seen" Elain affirmed after several seconds. "However, it makes sense since we are protecting them" She argued doubtfully, her sentence ending with a questioning tone.

"Aw come on! That was so cool!" Freya jumped with excitement.

"Save that energy for when you're in the trenches, you're going to need it" Astrid sniped.

"I just hope this doesn't end too badly. . ." Elain murmured with a scrunched muzzle.

Finally everydeer arrived at the docks, anxious and bewildered by what they will encounter from now on while they were organizing to start boarding.

"Hey, Eli" Rainer called her out. "Do you get seasick?" He asked.

Elain turned back and stared at him concerned. "Uh. . . I don't know"