Isekai

A Tree In The Woods

The clanking of their armor and rustling of leaves echoed as the demoralized and exhausted soldiers traverse the dense forest.

"I can't believe we were on a wild goose chase this entire goddamn time."

"Actually," said a soldier; "it was a boar so shouldn't it be a wild boar cha–"

"Would you please... SHUT UP JERRY!"

"Come on Moe," Jerry replied; "loosen up a little, we could use the morale boost."

"Not to be a wet blanket like Moe there but with jokes like that we'd be losing morale."

Some of the soldiers chuckled, its first sign of life in the entire trek.

"Ha ha very funny Fein." Moe said sarcastically. "Now if you're done prattling, get on with your marching."

"Ok mom." Fein answered, his colleagues controlling their laugher as to not get an earful from their 'commander.'

The soldiers continued their long to march back to Eldono, navigating through the rocks and foliage, their weariness started to show, basically dragging their feet as they carried their weapons.

"M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!" Jerry belted out. "M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!"M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E! M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S—"

"HEY JERRY!" Moe furiously shouted. "I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP!"

"Killjoy" Jerry mumbled.

"What were you thinking?" A soldier asked Jerry.

"Well, I saw some soldiers sing this on YouTube so I thought it would liven things up."

"Soldiers singing?" The soldier replied. "What type of army does that?" Asked another soldier marching beside him. "What's a Yu Chube?'"

"I'm not sure where they're from but in Japan soldiers have a contest where they march and twirl rifles like cheerleaders."

"Rifles? Cheerleaders? Japan? Is that where you're from?" a few curious soldiers asked Jerry.

"No, I'm from Kentucky."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Okay, now you're just making things up." Said the soldier, as the others start to lose interest

"I'm not, I'm sure at least one person here knows what I'm talking about."

"Alright then, let's ask... shorty over here." Said the soldier as he wrapped his arms around a shorter shoulder. "So, have you heard of this 'Kentucky' Kingdom?'"

"Actually it's a state." Jerry corrected him.

"...Riiiight, have you heard of this 'Kentucky State Kingdom?'"

"No, I haven't" said the petite soldier, grabbing the peak of his helmet to cover his face, his voice deep but unconvincingly manly.

"So you really were just making things up." The soldier said to Jerry continuing their friendly squabble as they march back to Eldono. Jerry constantly broke into song to break the silence or to join the birds, while some merry soldiers pitch in their own tunes, and Moe yelling at them for being noisy. When they finally arrived at the front gate, they were all exhausted. They dragged their feet past the stone walls as the suns starts to dip into the horizon, sluggishly making a beeline towards the barracks to get some rest before dinner.

Everyone split up to go to their quarters, except for one soldier who just stood there looking lost, her emerald-like eyes wandering restlessly like a lost child -it was Flora. She disguised herself as a soldier using the dead commander's gear, her cool green hair tucked inside her now sweltering metal helmet. Flora managed to sneak inside the town, but now she doesn't know what to do or where to go, so she just stood suspiciously in the middle of the road.

"What should I do?" She panicked. "How do I find  him? Where do I go now?"

"Hey!" A voice called out, interrupting her thoughts. "What are you doing just standing around?"

Flora froze up, her feet planted firmly on the ground and her hands glued to her thighs, scared of making one wrong move and being found out. "What if I turn around too fast? Will they find out because I was surprised? What if I already took too long to turn around? Maybe they already know, should I just run away?" Were thoughts that stormed through her head as blood rushed through her veins. She squirrelly turned her head around to see who it was, it was the jolly man from the march, waving his hand. He was with two other people, a lean man and a young girl, they were walking towards her.

"They know." Flora thought, her breathes growing shorter and shorter. Maybe her father was right... maybe she wasn't cut out for adventure if she's already lost her nerve. Her thoughts went haywire as sweat showered down her face. "Since when? From the start? Why else would they call me. What should I do, what should I–"

"Hey." The man said grabbing her shoulder. "Are you alright? You don't look so hot." Flora didn't notice him, her face turned pale as his large shadow loomed over her face while her knees buckled from all the stress. She was starting to lose consciousness, she could hear Jerry and his companions bickering but only listened to static. One of them picked up and carried Flora, it was probably Jerry, the strongest of the three, her last sight before blacking out being the silhouette of Jerry as he splits up with the other two.