The moment they reached the village they looked at each other for the first time in four hours. Well, they probably glanced a few times, but it was the first time they acknowledged one another. They took a deep breath and flew to the ancient oak. When they stopped in front of the gate the Royal Guards looked at them with surprise before opening the large wooden doors. They knew, if the guards knew then it meant the General was pissed. They swallowed hard and flew upwards towards the main hall’s door. They knocked and they entered when they heard “come in,'' from inside.

There were a few people in the large room, the Baile Ceann, the General, an Official and their under officer, they were the ones responsible for the armory management.

The General, who usually was very stern but very composed, banged his tall spear on the floor making it vibrate all the way to their feet.

Both Oliver and Chloe quickly walked towards the center and kneeled down. Not even daring to say a word.

“Do you have any idea of what problem you caused?” the General said, his voice almost a roar “you disappeared when we clearly gave you a schedule…and now you come back as if nothing happened, looking fresh and relaxed?” he continued. Yes, he definitely was very angry.

“We are so...” Oliver tried to say but his sentence was cut off immediately.

“I have not given you yet permission to speak!” the General spoke once again “We sent some soldiers looking for you even, and they had to come back when the rainstorm came this way. You could have put others in danger too, and we were ready to send someone all the way even under the heavy rain…so now, what is the reason for this delay?” the General thundered.

“I misjudged the time I needed for my task and ended up being late. When we looked at the sky we realized the rain was coming so we had to stop and sleep there,” Oliver spoke. He was kneeling down, his fist on the floor in sign of respect.

“You are an expert soldier, Oliver, I never thought something like this could happen because of you. And you Chloe, seeing that your colleague was struggling why didn’t you help him? The time we gave you was plenty, how did the two of you manage to waste more than one hour?" This time the General was looking at her and the only thing Chloe could do was lower her head and nod before replying.

“She has no fault General. I was the one slacking off, it was irresponsible of me,” Oliver said instead, stopping her from saying a word.

His reply, though, made the General even madder. His attitude was rude, especially in front of the Baile Ceann, and he was trying to justify himself when they literally could have put others in danger.

“Oliver, you don’t seem to understand the gravity of this situation. Two of our best warriors are out on a mission, they don’t come back, and it is safe to assume something must have happened. We’ve been worrying and wasting time creating a search party and then with heavy hearts we had to decide the rainstorm was too dangerous,” he paused “I can expect such mistakes from other soldiers, but not from you. If you two of all people can’t do your job properly, then maybe you really need to train way more to be considered worthy of your role!”

The last sentence the General said hurt a lot, it hurt her pride but it definitely hurt Oliver’s pride more. She glanced at him and saw him clenching his jaw. It wasn’t fair. “Oliver didn’t do his job wrongly, General,” she said looking up. She saw Oliver’s eyes grow larger but she had no time to look his way. The  General raised an eyebrow and mutely asked her to continue “Oliver… Oliver was done perfectly on time, but he was saving an egg and…” This time she saw Oliver turning around completely to her side and as she spoke those last few words she knew she messed it all up.

The outrage on the General's face was unbearable and was definitely worse than the disappointment he had shown until a moment before. “You did what?” he almost whispered, but his voice was the scariest ever. Chloe couldn’t even hold his look and had to divert her eyes.

No one was replying so the General cleared his throat making them understand he needed answers and finally, Oliver took a deep breath “I saved a bird egg from falling from the nest,” he simply stated still looking down, he was trying to show all his remorse with his very submissive position, but he still knew he did something wrong.

“It is severely forbidden to-” but the General voice was interrupted by a gesture of the Baile Ceann who stood from his throne and walked forward towards them.

“Oliver, you are a soldier of this court, you perfectly know we are not to interfere with the lives of other creatures unless it is done for a greater good,” the Baile calmly said, but his voice showed all the disappointment he was feeling. “You’ve broken one of the cardinal rules of our mere existence. We are here to serve Mother Nature, not to change her rules as we please,” the wise fairy ended.

Oliver simply nodded, still not daring to look up. Chole was kneeling next to him, glancing at him and felt like she messed up badly.

“You force us to punish you severely, soldier,” the General said “because you make me question if you are worthy of being called one at all,” the last sentence made her heart almost stop. What did he mean by that?

“But General, he saw a nest that needed to be fixed in order for the eggs not to fall, he didn’t interfere too much,” Chole said looking up, unable to keep quiet. Oliver was a great soldier, he was needed and if he was to lose his job it was going to be such a huge loss for the village.

She saw the other turning around to look at her with wide open eyes, he was gritting his teeth, but what scared her was the look the General gave her from his tall point of view, towering over them. He clenched his jaw and shook his head “Your behaviour Chloe is unacceptable. You are just as guilty as your colleague, therefore the punishment will be shared by both of you,” he said sighing, pinching the bridge of his nose “one week of suspension. You are forbidden to interact with other soldiers, to get closer to the academy and absolutely forbidden to use your weapons. You will be a civilian, and you will be referred to as someone who cannot by any means hold a weapon, in any circumstance!” his words filled the room in the complete silence of all the ones present. 

Everyone in that room knew how bad such a punishment was. The dishonour of being completely stripped of their role. One week in semi isolation, not even chatting with other soldiers. And their weapons, even if they didn’t carry it around every day, the thought of not even being able to train with them, felt like a piece of their heart was being ripped from their chest.

Oliver and Chloe both took a deep breath and when the General told them they were dismissed they stood up, bowed and walked to the exit. When the large door closed behind them Oliver simply walked to the edge of the large marble step ready to fly down. “Oliv…” she tried to say but when he turned around and shot her with one of the coldest glares she had ever seen, she couldn’t even finish his name.

She stood there, her arm slightly stretched to the front, as she watched him fly down and away from her sight. She really messed up this time. She felt so weak to her knees that she didn’t even feel like flying, so she took the stairs that went down in an elegant spiral, carved in wood. 

When she reached the ground she greeted the guards and went out. Before flying up to her hut, she walked a bit in between tall grass and little rocks, she really felt like shit and it was all her fault. She thought of justifying him, because it felt unfair for him to be called irresponsible… but she turned him into someone who deliberately broke the rules.

She sighed when she reached her tree. Chloe flew up to her hut and when she opened the door she found Elise inside. Her friend looked very worried and immediately ran to hug her “Chloe where have you been? I was so scared,” she said, tightening the grip.

Hugs always made Chloe feel slightly emotional but this one immediately broke her. She sighed and pouted before sobbing. Liz tried to ask her what was happening but Chloe just kept sobbing and not saying a word. It was only when she was pulled to sit on the bed and then on Elise’s lap that she finally calmed down. Her friend was stroking her hair gently and lullying her a bit “Chloe…you are making me worry,” she said.

“I was suspended,” she whispered when she was able to speak “I won’t be considered a soldier for an entire week. This is the first time ever I got a punishment, I never once did something that disappointed the General or the Baile Ceann this much,” she  said, biting back the tears.

Liz sighed and was silent for a moment before asking “what did you do?” 

“We got here with almost one day of delay because we didn’t do our job in time yesterday… we worried everyone and almost caused for a special search team to be dispatched…despite the heavy rain,” she explained.

“But this doesn't sound like a good reason to suspend you. There could have been an incident, the rainstorm was heavy even here, I can’t imagine how it was further from the village,” Liz said, looking down at her and meeting her sad eyes.

“Mh… but the reason we were late was… because Oliver saved an egg and I was trying to justify him and ended up telling the General” Chloe jumped down the bed and started roaming the small building while moving her hands in the air “but that’s strictly forbidden, so I just made it all worse, and since I can’t keep my mouth shut, I got suspended too as an accomplice…” she remembered to breathe before continuing “not that I don't’ deserve it, I messed up badly. And now Oliver hates me…and he is right, oh my god I’m a horrible person. This will ruin our careers, a suspension? It’s so bad.” 

She finally stopped blabbering when her friend grabbed her by the shoulders and looked at her in the eyes “you told the General that? Chloe…” she softly scolded her.

“I know!” she looked down and pouted.

“It will be fine. You are a great soldier. Use this week to reflect on what you did. It will be fine, your career won’t be tarnished I’m sure,” her friend said softly, shaking her by the shoulders lightly.

“But Oliver…” she tried to say. Those eyes, his clear eyes that were always mostly playful, despite her always being very annoyed and annoying, this time looked cold as ice. They weren’t friends, but still they had known each other for such a long time, and this was the first time he actually had looked at her with such disdain.

“Oliver was guilty of doing what he did… he cannot hate you that much, come on!” Elise caressed her hair and placed them behind her ears, “also, since when do you care about his opinion?”

Chloe looked up, her eyes grew larger as she took in what her friend asked, and she tried to think about a reply but all that came to her mind was how Oliver had looked at her that morning when it seemed like he had wanted to kiss her, and then how he looked at her after the punishment. She found herself pouting “I don’t…”

Elise opened her mouth to say something then she smiled “oh… you do care,” she chuckled softly and got closer, “something you are not telling me Chloe?”

“Absolutely not. I just feel very guilty because he was probably going to simply be punished with training but instead got suspension,” she looked down at her feet, the worst part was that she had no chance to say sorry.

“You should apologize then.”

“I don’t even think it is ok for us to talk… we are forbidden to chat with other soldiers too. Plus I think he doesn’t want to see me,” she sighed and sat back on her bed. Elise sighed and shook her head.

“I’d stay here more but I have some errands to do Chloe, if you feel sad you can come visit me later ok?” her friend said getting closer and kissing her forehead, acting like a big sister, as she always did. Chloe nodded.

“Thanks!”