𝑺𝒎𝒐𝒌𝒆 | 𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝑲𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒏 𝒙 𝑶𝑪

Twenty-Eight

50K???? I WISH I WAS A TEACHER AND COULD GIVE YOU ALL A PIZZA PARTY

"What are we going to be doing for our first real day of training.... Miss Baghra?" 

Baghra always had a pinched look on her face but somehow the pinched-ness increased.

"Please sit down," Jolana listened and Baghra sat across. She began stirring a drink.

"If you spiked it with some hallucinogen, please just tell me," Baghra stopped stirring, "Alina told me about what happened with her training so I thought I'd just put it out there,"

"How well do you know the General?"

"I.. don't know him that well," Jolana wasn't sure if she was lying or not. Part of her felt like she knew him so well like he was part of her. A demented pair, the two of them. Then again, if she knew him so well, why did he confuse her all the time?

"Well considering you were working with him for so long, and I know you don't have many friends-"

"Little harsh don't you think? Maybe get to know me before calling out my friendlessness," Jolana turned away in a huff.

"It's simple information I heard, nothing personal. If you want truth from me, I want truth from you,"

"That is the truth," Jolana turned back and met her eyes once again. Baghra seemed very analytical, "Why would I lie? You should ask Alina if you want information on Al- The General. They are together after all,"

Baghra very much noticed her little slip-up. "How do you know his first name?"

"Alina said it before, that's how she refers to him,"

"Why lie?" Baghra asked. To be honest Jolana didn't know why she was lying either.

"I'm not lying," Jolana remained nonchalant as she lied through her teeth

"So you barely know the man, that's the story you're sticking to?"

"It's the only true story,"

"If you lie to me we won't get anywhere,"

"Why don't you just slip something in my tea?" Jolana said in a cutting tone

She handed the cup she had been stirring, "There's nothing in the cup besides tea,"

Jolana didn't trust Baghra just when she put the cup to her nose, it smelled normal. So she took a sip. She felt fine until she didn't,

"You're not the only one who can lie, little girl,"

Jolana felt off-balance despite her butt being firmly planted in a chair. 

"What do you see?"

 She heard Baghra's bodiless voice, she ignored her and stayed quiet out of rebellion.

Then she saw a familiar face.

She saw herself, she was tiny. Her short carrot top hair and her old handmade dress made from random swatches of cloth. She had made it herself. She didn't know exactly how old she was until she saw her brother. 

Her brother looked tired, he had gotten back from work just now. He had blonde hair like she had heard her mother had. 

Her brother lifted her young self up and spun her around. 

"Again! Again!" young Jolana chanted and her brother obliged.

"You're growing so fast! Next time I see you, I might not be able to lift you up," the young version of her didn't understand what her brother did for work. He was a smuggler, he wasn't a leader or anything, he just was on a crew, and he made enough wages with each trip to be sure Jolana didn't get too skinny.

"You back already? How much did you bring home, Ambrus?" their father asked, he didn't much care that his son was home, just the wages so that he could drink himself away.

"I wasn't able to bring home any, I was robbed on the way home,"

"That's why you need to learn how to fight, can't have random people robbing my  son,"

"That's one of the failures dealt by the universe," Ambrus muttered to himself, his father didn't hear but both versions of Jolana did. Only the older one understood. Jolana ran to her room, dragging her older brother with her. She opened up the can she hid under her bed behind her toys which were hidden behind her clothes. Her brother shoved the money in there and she giggled. 

"Read it again!" 

"Aren't you tired of it yet?"

"Nope," Jolana looked at her brother with a smile

"Okay then," he began, "What is the difference between the sun and every other star. The difference is the sun is not as far. Most stars burn just as bright," the next part surprised the older Jolana. She knew what the next line was, 

The blue burn brighter, but the suns grasp is just tighter and tighter

But that's not what came out of her brother's mouth, or rather it was. He said it in Fjerdan. It was Fjerdan like she had heard on the border. She didn't understand why her brother would be speaking that language considering he smuggled to Kerch, not Fjerda. Young her didn't notice at all, and the next part truly surprised her. Younger Jolana started continuing the poem in Fjerdan. 

The same rhythm as the one Jolana was now used to, just the words were different.

Jolana remembered learning Fjerdan when fighting them, not when she was a kid. She was about eight, and she spoke it much more cleanly than she could speak it now.

"Don't speak that tongue in this house!" she heard their father call from the other room, "If I'd known your mother would teach you this, I wouldn't have married her," she could hear him mumbled before he took another drink

Jolana's father had always been cruel, he got worse as Jolana aged. He was mean before but after her brother died, there was no one there to protect Jolana. No one to stop him as he raised his hand to strike her hard across the face. 

She wanted to know more, she needed to know more, but the tea wore off.