• That morning, there had been a long line of men ready to enlist in the army, but the line was gone and General Dracotum was still sitting at the table, waiting for any last minute sign-ups for the day to show up.
    I and AJ walk over to the table. General Dracotum is preoccupied with a book.
    “Excuse me?” I say, “I would like to―”
    “Names, please.” She says, interrupting me in mid sentence.
    “Uh, Gega Athena.”
    “I meant your parents names.” She said with a slightly irritated tone in her voice.
    “Oh. My parents are Dragoon and Chani Athena.”
    General Dracotum sets her book aside and flips through a few papers. Then she looks at me and says, “According to these papers, the only male descendant your parents have is a little boy named Peecko, who is too young to join the army. Apparently, you are not here to enlist any siblings. Perhaps you are here to enlist a cousin of some sort?”
    “No, Ma’am. I’m here to enlist myself.”
    General Dracotum then stares at me, looking straight into my eyes. It feels like forever until she finally speaks, “Women elves are no longer allowed into the military.”
    “But we are in desperate need of new recruits! Can’t you guys bend the rules in the face of an emergency?”
    “Miss, we have plenty of new recruits, all of which are men that are of age. You however, are a girl that has not yet come of age. There is no possible way you can join the army. I am sorry.”
    Now I am suddenly filled with anger. “How could you turn me away? We are in a dire need of soldiers!”
    General Dracotum stands up from behind her table and looks me straight in my eyes with a cold stare. “You think I like this stupid law? Do you think I enjoy being one of the only twenty girls among hundreds of men? Do you think I find it enjoyable turning away perfectly good warriors just because they’re women? This law is an insult to all female elves and I have to spend my good time enforcing it! So I would appreciate it if you would not make my job harder than it has to be! Is that too much to ask, miss?”
    I am getting so mad when, suddenly, a brilliant revelation comes over me. So I look General Dracotum straight in the eyes, paint on a smile and say, “No problem. I totally understand and appreciate your awkward position. I’m really sorry for any trouble I may have caused you. C’mon AJ, let’s go.”
    With that being said, I and AJ turn around and walk away, me doing so with satisfied smile across my face.
    As we walk just out of the earshot of the General, AJ says to me “Why the heck did you do that? Your just gonna give up fighting in this war?”
    “Of course not. I still gonna fight in this war just as much as any man.” I say as we continue walking.
    “Well, if you plan on doing that, you better turn your big butt around and go tell little-miss-me–and-my-problems to enlist you.”
    “AJ, AJ, AJ! Don’t you see? I don’t need a uniform or a draft card to fight. If, say, I was to pack up a few belongings and some food, and, let’s say, I just so happen to walk onto a battle field, and, hypothetically, I just so happened to find an enemy and, maybe, I just so happened to fight that enemy and I, I don’t know, just kept doing that same thing over and over, who would want to stop me?”
    AJ grabs my arm. There is nobody around. We stop walking and she looks at me silently. Finally, she speaks, “You’re saying that you want to be a war vigilante?!?!”
    “That’s exactly what I’m saying! The war states that women can’t fight in the army, so I’m just gonna fight.”
    “But interfering in the war without government consent is against the law for everybody!”
    “But at least we have the choice to break that law. I couldn’t join the army even if I wanted to break the law, but there is nobody with a pen and clipboard telling me that I don’t have the choice to be a war vigilante, law or not. This is the only way that I can help my people.”
    AJ sighs, then looks at me and says, “Never in a million years would I myself even think about doing something like this. You have serious guts, Gega. And I know that you’re doing the right thing, law or not. If you need anything, anything at all, I am behind you a hundred percent!”
    “Thanks AJ. You’re a real friend. C’mon, let’s go to my house, I need to tell my family before I go.”
    I let AJ take the lead. As we walk back to my house, I notice two little red bumps on the back of her neck about an inch or two apart.
    “Hey AJ,” I say to her, “What’s up with those marks on your neck? You get bit by a bug or something?”
    “Huh? Oh yeah. A bug. Nasty little bugger, too!”
    “I know what you mean. Remember that one trip to the lake when we were six?”
    “You mean the one with the scorpion beetles?”
    “Yeah, that’s the one.”
    “I remember that. We accidentally threw our ball into a big colony…”
    “…and when we tried to get it back…”
    “…we got stung so bad we had to go to the hospital!”
    We laugh over how foolish we were when we were children. We always had something to laugh about. It was one of the many things that made us friends.

    Part 3 is on the way
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