A/N
Alina does NOT exist in this, my OC takes her place because I wanted a character that I could make into her own person.
I love Alina and I don't want to rewrite how she handled situations because she made those decisions for a reason.
My character is different so she won't make some of the decisions that Alina did.
If you don't like this idea then you don't have to read my story! But thank you to everyone who already has and thank you to those of you who after reading this will continue!
Okay now onto the story!!!
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When I was young, I was afraid of the dark. When I got older, I learned that darkness was a place, and it's full of monsters. I live in East Ravka, but I've never really felt like I belong. Part of that feeling stems from the fact that my father was Fjerdan, and well, the people of East Ravka aren't very fond of the people there.
Right now I'm sitting in a carriage, well that's a nice name for it, on the way to an army camp near the Fold.
"Ana, how can you do that in here?" the boy sitting next to me asks.
"Bumps help with texture" I reply with a slight smirk.
That's when the boy sitting across from me speaks up "The fold looks different on mine. I need to get a better view from your country."
I slowly look up at him through my dark lashes and flash him a sweet smile "I grew up here. Although, since you decided to say something about my lineage I'd be happy to bring you to Fjerda and see what you're really made of."
That shut the boy up real quick and for the rest of the ride he didn't say another word to me. It's not that I minded my father being from a different country, I mean, I never even knew him. I just hated when other people would make off-handed remarks.
It would have been so much worse if I were Grisha though.
At least I don't have to deal with that. I had always thought about what could possibly make the Fjerdans hate Grisha so much but my mind could never seem to comprehend hating someone for what they did not ask for.
The woman sitting outside of our carriage opened the flap that separated us "Cartographers, listen up. We're almost there. Pack up your stuff and be ready to leave. And if you lose anything, you will not be getting a replacement." she then moved her hand so that the cloth moved back to where it had been, separating us once more.
I quickly began packing up everything I had taken out, trying to make sure I didn't forget anything. Knowing me however, I would still probably leave something behind.
We all heard growling coming from outside and everyone stopped what they were doing to listen. I had never heard the Volcra before and I could have gone the rest of my life not hearing the dreadful noise they make. A chill ran through my bones and I shivered quietly at the thought of what the Volcra had done to some unlucky people who had entered the Fold.
I never want to enter that place.
The fold was an awful, dark place that my parents and many others had once tried to cross. I ended up in an orphanage so obviously their journey didn't go as planned. I had once asked Ana Kuya, the woman who mainly took care of us, why people didn't just go around the Fold.
It seemed like a completely reasonable question in my mind at the time, but one she told me that if anyone tried to go around they'd be met with the Shu Han or Fjerdan, I suddenly understood why.
I snapped back to reality as my ride rolled to a stop and when it was my turn to get out, I marveled at the sight before me. A wall of black smoke that extended as far as the eye could see was less than a mile away from where I stood. The chill in my bones was back again, and this time I couldn't cover the shiver that went throughout my body.
"We are never going to see it go away. This abomination is here forever." The boy I had been sitting next to on the way here walked up to me as he spoke.
He's probably right.
A girl then came back at him "You don't go to church. A Saint who can summon the sun will destroy it."
I had read about the Grisha that would rise up and destroy the fold, but I couldn't help thinking that it was a myth. The entire time the fold has been here and not a single sun summoner had been born? In my eyes it was just a story told so that people could still have hope that one day maybe we would be one Ravka again.
If you keep waiting for this Saint you'll be waiting forever.
Another boy spoke, breaking me away from my thoughts.
"I'd like to see one person who isn't scared of that."
There was one person who ran through my mind at that moment.
"I bet I know someone. Mal. He isn't afraid of anything" It was the same girl who had spoken about the sun saint who had taken the words right out of my mouth.
I smiled to myself then and chuckled lightly.
"You'd be surprised." I said quietly.
I had met Mal after I had been in the orphanage for a while, and being someone who had no friends, I was ecstatic when I saw him enter. We became friends quickly, and best friends even quicker. I remember one time when he brought a rabbit in from outside and I'd had to stand up for Mal to a boy who always bullied us. I had threatened to cut him that day, and I probably would have if Ana Kuya hadn't walked in and asked what was going on.
It's safe to say that we weren't very popular with the other children. It didn't matter to us though, because we had each other.
I was walking through the camp, trying to find my place, and also Mal, when I began to feel worried. I hope he wasn't fighting again. I hated when he did that. It was like he felt he had to prove to everyone that he wasn't afraid of anything because he didn't want to be the little boy from the orphanage who always hid.
I understood why he did it, but that didn't mean I had to approve. It was then that Mal ran up behind me and shouted my name. I turned around and felt a smile creep up my cheeks. He certainly looked like he had been fighting, but I could talk to him about that later.
Right now I just wanted to hug my best friend.
He began jogging towards me.
"When did you get in?" I asked while I stood where I was.
"Yesterday. Everyone's getting their assignments." He said with a smile as he got closer to me.
I felt the familiar sensation of butterflies in my stomach and the beating of my heart increase. I don't know when I had begun to feel this way towards him, but I knew it wasn't going away anytime soon.
He looks really good.
"Suppose cartography's going back south." I said with a small laugh as he finally got to me and threw his arm around my shoulders.
I felt my cheeks heat up a bit as we started walking together like that.
"Yeah, I found out 'cause they're putting my unit with yours again." He said with a smile, and I couldn't help but have a smile of my own when I heard that.
"They're looking for a way through the mountains." He continued.
"So we're back together?" I asked cheerily.
"They can't keep best friends apart for too long." He joked.
Of course, best friends.
"Corporal Oretsev, are you saying you miss me?" I joked right back.
"Well, I need someone to take the fall for my petty crimes, that's all." He said and I laughed knowing of course that I probably would do exactly that at some point.
"Oh they moved our tent." I noticed as we kept walking.
"Yeah, it's down at that end now." He said, pointing in the general direction of which our tent had moved.
"So many First Army here." I noted "We look like a halfway house accepting donations."
"Well actually, I won't be accepting any donations because I won this betting on a fight." He then pulls some money out of his pocket.
"Look at you. Flush with five whole...kruge?" I say while taking the bills from his hand and examining them while walking backwards so that I can look at him. "What will you do with foreign money? We're not in Ketterdam." I lightly joke.
"Alright don't crush my dreams." He laughs.
"Again! Inferni!" We hear a woman shout and quickly look to our right.
Grisha.
I see a Grisha pushing fire towards a fake body that is her target and the thing goes up in flames. Then another Grisha pushes air that makes the flames that had been roaring with life diminish down to nothing. The instructor tells them to do it again, and they do.
"This is why our tents got moved." Mal notes as we continue to watch "Grisha wanted more space."
Of course because the Grisha just need all the space they can get.
"Ugh. Grisha." I state, making my thoughts known.
"Show-offs." Mal says, which elicits a laugh from me.
"They're always picking on us when their general's not around."
"It's like home all over again." I say as I slightly lean over to him.
I start walking the other direction and he follows while beginning to speak "It wasn't all bad. We learned some good life lessons back then."
"Yeah? Care to share with the class?" I joke.
"One, don't cry in public." He says while holding up his pointer finger.
"Hide your emotional breakdowns for when you're alone. Obviously." I state back to him.
He then hold up two fingers. "Two, always carry a weapon on you."
"Always." I try to say with a serious face and end up laughing.
"There is a third I can't remember what it is." He says while elongating a third finger.
We then hear a soldier shout "Open her up, we're loading!" and we snap our heads to the direction of the voice.
I see an unfamiliar contraption that is rather large but looks like a smaller version of a regular skiff.
I wonder if Mal knows anything about it.
"That looks new." I say, hoping that Mal will fill me in on what it is.
"Brand new. Grisha call it ultralight. Made by their own Fabrikators, It's supposed to be faster." He states.
"What happened to the last one?" I ask out of curiosity.
He looks at me with a solemn face "Never came back."
Those poor people.
I know that I would never want to be on one of the missions where you have to cross the Fold. To me I can't understand why anyone would want to risk it.
"There he is!" a male voice says from in front of us.
I see two boys that look to be around our age running at us.
"I would have made a killing on you, but nah, he refused to loan me any money, so..." The fuller one says.
"That's because you're a child in a bigger child's body. You're shorter than I am" The smaller one jokes.
Mal steps in then "Okay. Dubrov, Mikhael, this is Anastasia." He introduces me.
I wave and give the two a smile.
"Your little friend from Keramzin? This is her." The small one I now know as Mikhael says as he gives me a small wave.
I don't know how to feel about him talking about me to his friends and using that term, and it shouldn't hurt as much as it does, but I can't help wishing he could talk about me as more than that.
Just friends.
It reinforces the thought that he doesn't like me the way I do him, and my smile falters slightly.
I decide to shove the hurt down and give Mal a playfully mad look "Little friend?" I say jokingly.
"How is that wrong?" He laughs.
Right, I forgot how clueless boys are.
"He talks about you all the time." Dubrov smiles and my heartbeat picks back up once again.
"What does he say?" I ask.
"Oh well..." Mikhael starts but Mal cuts him off.
"Don't listen to these two. They like to exaggerate, It's what they do."
And just like that my heart slows and the sadness creeps in again.
"Look at him!" "Oh he's so easy to rile." both boys joke while using high pitched voices.
Mikhael starts poking Mal "Oh is that bothering you?"
"Yeah? Alright. Come on you bastard." Mal spits out in a light hearted tone.
Mal then runs into the two and they start laughing, playfully punching each other, all the while I'm standing here wondering if they could act more like boys than they already are.
We hear a horn blare that signals we all need to group inside the main tent and Mikhael makes another joke I don't quite hear because I'm too busy looking at the boy who's too busy to look at me.
"What does he say about me?" I ask again while walking forward to catch up with them, hoping this time I'll get an answer. Of course I don't though.
We make our way to the tent and when we get inside there are so many people already there that it's tough to find a spot we can stand together.
A man steps up on something I cannot see so that he's taller than the rest of us.
"Alright, listen up." He commands and the room goes silent. Everyone turns their heads to look at him and I know what's coming.
"I know some of you have been on the road for a week, so I'll be brief." The man continues "Most of you will continue north to the Fjerdan Frontlines. Or south to the Shu Han border. The Second Army, however, has a shiny new solution to our food shortage, and it sails tomorrow for Novokribirsk. If this model works it means a full meal for everyone in this tent next week."
a murmur of hope ran through the room as the man kept speaking.
"It means bullets for your guns and sugar for your tea."
"How about some whiskey?" A soldier shouts from the crowd and laughter floated through the room.
"I'd love to get my hands on some of that" I quietly say jokingly to Mal which makes him laugh.
"Yes, that would be nice, but don't hold your breath. Of course, they need our help bringing those supplies back, so some of you will be assigned."
I felt the pull of nervousness in my gut. I knew they would need a tracker and I just hoped it wouldn't be Mal.
He turned to look at me as if he knew what I was thinking "There's nothing to fear. I will now be selecting names for what I call the nightmare lottery."
Mal was making this into a joke so I snickered in response, although inside I was shaking with nerves.
The man began speaking again.
Here we go.
"For the supply run across the Fold! Sergeant Yure Teplov."
Please don't call Mal.
"Tracker Malyen Oretsev."
My world crumbled before my eyes and I didn't hear any name said after that.
I finally found my voice "Did he...but you're in our unit."
Mal looks just as shocked as I do "Uh...it has to be an error. It has to be."
"It didn't sound like an error Mal." I say with a look of pain on my face.
We both look back to the front and I catch the last thing said by the man who called Mal's name "Dinner in one hour. Come back and line up by rank. Dismissed."
"Mal" I say in a hushed voice and look at him with concern.
"Well, if it does work, I'll get to visit Ketterdam." He jokingly replies in true Mal fashion.
My stomach flips as I think about Mal boarding that skiff and traveling across the darkness of the Fold, Volcra waiting for any sign of life so they can descend and snuff it out.
There has to be a way to stop this.
A/N - Hi everyone!! This is my first story ever and I hope you like it (if you do y'all should vote)!! I hadn't been able to find any darkling fanfics that I really enjoyed so I decided why not write one! Also the main character's name is pronounced Ah-nuh (like in frozen) just so y'all know!
If you'd like to make the cover for my book then feel free to comment here and we can talk about it (because I'm awful at coming up with covers)
I hope you like my OC and I made her be half Fjerdan because I thought that would be an interesting battle for her to find out she's Grisha knowing that where her father came from would have hated and killed her so there will be some internal struggle that you'll end up seeing. I did keep Alina's last name though because I love it so much.
I will also end up splitting from the script more and more (especially when I get to a certain part from episode 5) to develop Anna and make her different from Alina in many ways.
This will be based on both the book and TV show (mainly influenced by the show because I really did like the on screen adaptation)
If you have any suggestions for me throughout this process feel free to comment! As long as you're nice about it I will definitely take whatever you say and apply it to my story!
Also if you find any typos please please please comment where it is so I can go back in and edit it!! I re-read my chapters before I post them but I know I will probably miss at least one thing.
I'm thinking about adding songs and gifs to the chapters to enhance your reading experience but we'll see how that goes.
Okay sorry for making this so long but whoever is reading this thank you so much and I hope you enjoy my story!
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