Malt collapsed into his bedroll, utterly exhausted. His skin, covered in countless abrasions, seared and his muscles ached violently. He felt as if his body was breaking down.

He spread himself out onto the thin fabric, going completely limp. Too tired to even soothe his parched throat he instead opted to fall into deep sleep, where he didn’t have to deal with the pain.

The night sky forced his eyes close, evening his breath. From there he drifted into a serene slumber.

Or he would’ve, but Henry had other plans. He sat himself down on a mat beside him.

“Have you eaten yet, Malt?”

The boy groaned, face still flat on the ground.

“Heh, figures.” He placed a wooden bowl filled with steaming gruel in front of Malt.

“I had a feeling this might happen, so I brought your share too.”

Malt propped himself up into a sitting position, crossing his feet.

“Appreciate it, I dunno if I could’ve worked out the energy to walk to the mess pot on my own.”

The two boys dug into their gruel. The stuff was truly bland. That was to be expected though, considering that there wasn’t any salt or pepper to spare. The texture was awful and the taste was nonexistent but to a near starving soldier, it was a feast.

Similarly, the small campfire in front of them was measly at best, but worked wonders to warm their chilled bodies.

While they were enjoying their meal, Alyss approached, similarly carrying a bowl of fresh gruel. She somehow seemed even more tired than Malt.

Alyss was very expressive, she seemed to have a different face for every situation. At that moment her lips were curved into an almost comical frown, eyes squinted and brows furrowed.

She stopped in front of the two.

“Mind if I join in?”

Malt patted the seat beside him,

“Go ahead.”

She sat down and let out a deep, troubled sigh. After stretching a bit, she also began eating.

It wasn’t hard to imagine why she preferred to eat with the two. Being around people the same age was a lot more relaxing than being professional around hardened soldiers.

After a few minutes of peaceful dining, Henry decided to break the silence.

“Being commander and all seems rough, ever get tired of it?”

It was a generic remark that everyone knew the answer to, but it was good conversation starter.

She let out yet another sigh, drooping her shoulders, “All the time. Finances, rationing, strategy, it’s enough to make a fifteen year old scream.”

Henry’s eyes widened slightly, “You’re only fifteen?”

She nodded, still picking at her gruel, “Yep. Just turned last month. How old are you guys?”

“Sixteen.”

Malt raised his eyes from the fire,

“Seventeen.”

Henry and Alyss turned their eyes to Malt in surprise.

“Eh? You look younger than seventeen.”

Alyss nodded, adding on.

“Yeah, I would’ve guessed sixteen or even my age...not to be rude or anything.”

He waved his spoon in front of him, “Don’t worry about it, I get that a lot in this world.”

They seemed confused at first.

“Ahh. Sometimes I forget you’re from another world.”

Malt nodded sadly, “I find myself forgetting that a lot too these days. Too much on my mind to be thinking about the past.”

Alyss tilted her head, “Say, what was your homeworld like anyway?”

A wry smile crossed his face, “Ooh, where do I even begin.” He placed his now empty bowl down and stroked his chin with one hand.

The other two were looking at him intently. It wasn’t every day that you could hear about these things, especially from an otherworlder.

“Let me see...it’s a world a lot more advanced than this one.”

By the look of their curious eyes, he realized that that much wouldn’t satiate their appetite.

“It’s got huge cities where every building is as large as a palace, giant steel machines that carry people across the world and through the skies.”

A little wave of nostalgia and melancholy washed over him.

“They’ve got it much easier over there. Almost everyone is free and has access to plenty of food and comfort. Everything you’d need is within arms reach of you. They’ve even got these little devices powered by...lightning.”

Their eyes were sparkling as fantastical images fluttered across their minds. A world that seemed so magical, so utopian.

Henry furrowed his brows, “Do they still have war in your world?”

“Plenty, but not as much as this world.”

“They still use swords and spears, no?”

Malt shook his head, “Nah, they’ve got weapons that you two can’t even begin to imagine. The most common kind is this...this device that spews out little pieces of metal faster that the speed of sound. Devices that can rain fire down from the sky. Even weapons that could destroy entire kingdoms in a second.”

Terrible vistas of destruction, weapons of mass efficiency, this was all so strange to the two.

Malt chuckled a little through his nose, “They stopped using swords ages ago.”

“Oh? So swords do exist in your world.”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. My world went through a time that looked almost exactly like this one. We called it the medieval ages.”

“...Medieval ages...how long ago did this age end?”

“Hm...four hundred, no, five hundred years ago I believe?”

Alyss’s face lit up, “Could this mean that you’re from the future of this world?”

Malt quickly shot her down, “Nope definitely not. We didn’t have dragons or magic, and the kingdoms around here didn’t even exist in my world.”

Malt furrowed his brows as he entered into deep thought. “...I hadn’t really given it much thought, but dragons and magic do exist in my culture, but they’re considered fantasies.”

The two also began thinking through the possibilities. It seemed like the logic of Malt’s situation was just getting stranger and stranger.

Alyss finally drew a conclusion.

“Could it be that this isn’t the first time people have come here from your world?”

“Yeah that’s what I was thinking. There’s too many similarities between the history of my world and this world. Some people had to have exchanged cultures and ideas, maybe they even migrated.”

The conspiracy grew even deeper, could they two worlds be more connected then they had previously thought? As the three teens were trying to make sense of the abnormality, Strimund approached.

“Come on now, better get some sleep in for tomorrow.”

Alyss stood up with her empty bowl, “He’s right, we’ve got a long day ahead of us after all.”

After exchanging farewells, Alyss entered her own tent a few feet away. Henry and Malt did the same, except they shared a tent. They crawled onto their sleeping mats, shifting into sleeping positions.

Then they laid there, neither being able to fall asleep. After a few minutes of silence, Malt decided to pop the question that was ebbing at his mind for the past couple days.

“...have you been in a battle before?”

Henry shifted in his bedsheet, “Only once. I was protecting my village from bandits.”

“...was it scary?”

He stared at the cloth ceiling for several moments before forming an answer.

“Extremely. I felt like running away the entire time.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

This time he answered quickly and confidently, void of hesitation.

“To protect the ones I cared for. There’s nothing else to it.”

A sense of hopelessness and confusion ate at Malt’s consciousness.

What was his reason for fighting this war, what was he protecting?

Nothing came to mind. He didn’t care much for the kingdom and its inhabitants, as cruel as it sounded. Although he did care about his classmates, they were far past needing his help. Anything Malt could do to help them, they were already easily strong enough to do it.

Henry looked over to Malt’s laying silhouette, concerned. “Troubled about something?”

He contemplated whether to tell Henry about his troubles, but in the end just decided to out with it. What am I getting all sensitive about? I might die in two days. Might as well get it out while I still can.

“...I’ve got some classmates back in the capital but I don’t know whether I’m strong enough to protect them or not.”

Henry rolled onto his back. “It’s not a matter of whether you can, it’s a matter of whether you want to. Everyone has their limits. As long as you fight with everything you’ve got then there's nothing else you can do.”

A slight smile crept up across Malt’s face. “You know for such a simpleton you sure say some reasonable things.”

“Oi that wasn’t a compliment was it?”

The two boys chuckled lightly to themselves before all went quiet again. This time, Malt forced his eyes close, drifting off into a peaceful sleep.