The Little Crow

Chapter Seven - [The First Day]

Thea knew she should have expected all the paperwork, of course there would be an unbelievable amount of paperwork involved with getting a job with the State Military, but she hadn't expected to be filling out forms for pretty much the entire train ride.

It also didn't help that the looming presence of Captain Brayne sitting right next to her made her feel quite uncomfortable. The tall, broad shouldered man was watching her every move, somehow managing to make it seem like he was following her eyes the entire time as he pointed out things she missed and clarified anything she didn't understand and lingered on for too long.

General Killian on the other hand worked on his own. Reviewing every form that she had completed and initialing them once he was done.

One by one, the forms were completed and signed, and by the time Thea had a moment to look up out the window again, she could begin to see the cityscape appearing off in the distance as the vast green lands of the countryside began to fade away behind them.

They were almost there.

Almost at the Capital. Acteonia City.

Despite having spent two not so pleasant years of her life there, the sight of it off in the distance still filled her with a sense of awe. It was different from anything they had in Elore, which consisted mostly of towns and villages. The closest thing that Thea could compare to Acteonia in the Elorian Province was probably their own capital, Gaila, the home of the University of Elore and the Elorian Times Headquarters... but even that was maybe less than a quarter the size of the Aiverian Capital.

The Aiverian Capital was another of the many examples of the differences between Elore and Aiveria, and for once, it may have been one of the differences where Thea quite preferred Aiveria over her own home.

A bustling city with cobblestone roads, buildings crowded so close together, hundreds of shops, bars and cafes, dozens of libraries and thousands of people just rushing around with their own lives... it was the excitement of all of that that made her want to come to the Capital to get her university degree in the first place.

Unfortunately for her, however, things didn't go as smoothly as she would have liked, and her memories of her time in the Capital were not as pleasant as she had hoped.

She took a deep breath.

Maybe her stay here this time around would be a little different.

She wasn't a naive child anymore... and Captain Brayne's words to her grandma ringed through her mind.

"You have your identification card, right?" The General asked her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Yes," Thea said as she rummaged through her purse and pulled it out. Though he didn't ask, she handed it to him.

He took it and looked down at it, his brows furrowing a little. "It was issued four years ago..."

"Yes," she responded, a little surprised that he seemed concerned. It was Aiverian law that all citizens had to carry identification cards. Unlike Aiverians though, who only needed the card after they turned eighteen, Elorians had to get their first identification cards at the age of thirteen, which would then expire when they turn eighteen. After that, it was meant to be renewed every ten years. "My old one expired on my eighteenth birthday, so I got this one a little before the old one expired... I still have about six years before it expires again."

"No, no, I know that," the General responded. "As an employee of the state, we need to get the State seal on it... I am just a little concerned because you don't really look like this anymore." He turned the card and let her look at it.