Elana walked alongside Aries as the two girls returned from the common hall after finishing their lunch.
Unlike usual, Aries was quiet. No chatter, no light teasing. Just silence, stretched thin with unease. It was not Elana's presence that bothered her. Aries had long grown used to her friend's odd, almost detached demeanor. No, this tension came from somewhere deeper.
"Have you not heard it?" Elana said, glancing at her. "Love your ambition, or it will remain just that. An ambition for life. You will never reach it otherwise."
Aries let out a wry smile. "How rude of you to say that." She exhaled softly before continuing, "Do you even understand how difficult it is to enter the Northern Regime? I am an outsider. A girl, at that. I have no achievements to my name. Do you realise how impossible that sounds?"
Her goal was simple in words, yet daunting in reality. She wanted to be trained by the best. And in this world, the finest hunters and soldiers were forged only in the North.
