All is Fair in Love and War

Luz's (POV)

November 5th, 1918

Amity and I walk through the fields in a more cheery manner. Yesterday wasn't too awful, which had only consisted of tedious amounts of walking, little to no conversation because Amity "had to think", and like 4 crackers for dinner. I need at least 6 to function! But the day had ended with an oddly soothing night sky. The stars were so visible and pretty, and Amity had pointed out the constellation, Camelopardalis.

"It's literal meaning is camel and leopard," she had explained.

I had squinted my eyes so hard at the stars, trying my best to see what she was seeing. After a hot minute, I had given up and asked, "Why?"

"It's a giraffe," she had said it so disgustedly, I couldn't help but laugh.

"Why do you sound so disgusted," I had chuckled.

She had frowned. "I dunno. Something's just off about them."

I had never known someone could dislike giraffes, and why, I still didn't know. They weren't that bad, were they?

Whatever the case was, I hadn't been able to extort any more information about her dear hatred for giraffes.

This morning had gone by quickly, and now we've just had lunch which consisted of biscuits and wild berries we found while walking. And don't worry, I only tried to eat the poisonous ones once. Amity was pretty quick to slap my hand so hard it was sure to be engraved in both my hand and my brain not to eat the dark killers.

We're supposed to reach the camp by noon today, and judging by the sun's position, it was probably 10 ish in the morning. Oh, and I swear Amity said she had a pocket watch at some point, so I could just ask her.

"Do you still have that pocket watch?" Amity unfurrows her brows and glances over to me. She's probably trying to figure out what direction we're supposed to be traveling in. Although I swear it's north, Amity insists it's south.

"I gave it to you, remember?"

Did she give it to me? I shove my hand into my pocket, and feel the rickety thing. I then make an oh motion with my mouth and pull it out, staring at the little hands. The long one points to the 5, but the short one points to the 10, no like just before the 10. Or is the long one pointing to the 55? Or is that the 11, and the short one is pointing at also still the 10?

"Amity," I whine, pushing the pocket watch towards her. She raises her brow at me, almost like she's asking, seriously? But how is this not serious? We need the time to figure out how fast I have to walk! That's a very important matter too.

Maybe she's raising her brow because I can't read the time, but that's not fair because I've never been in school. Even if I was, I have a feeling I wouldn't do well. Amity says they teach 'practical' stuff like math and science, but I don't like either of those.

I like the fun stuff, like reading books that make no sense and befriending animals in the woods. The older nurse said what they teach in the books won't help in the real world, and I couldn't agree more.

I pout out my lip, and she outstretches her hand to take the small object. I happily hand it over, and she stares at it for a moment before monotonously reading, "9:46."

"That means we've got like 6 hours!" Yeah, we've got enough time for me to walk at snail pace, rather than turtle or sloth. I prefer sloth, but that's too slow for Amity. She prefers jackrabbit, but I've tripped over too many logs for it to stay anywhere near jackrabbit, so snail is a great compensation for both of us.

Amity cringes and hands the watch back. "More like 2 ish hours, but sure."

Oh, well not as much time as I had originally planned, but we can still do it.