From Russia With Love

The next morning she was woken by Gerard shaking her shoulder. She covered her face with her arms and rolled over.

“What do you want?” she groaned. He was already on his feet, pulling his jacket on.

“Its first light, time to move”

“No one in their right mind would be up at this hour, its still dark outside, Gerard”

“This is war, Dominika, state of mind is irrelevant here” he replied. She rolled her eyes at his military-training-talk and pulled her cardigan back on. He offered his hand and pulled her to her feet.

“Thanks for the pep talk Sergeant”

“Thanks for the promotion but its Private Way to you”

She snorted and brushed off her knees, regretting her decision the previous morning of wearing a short-sleeved dress. The rough unpolished wooden floor hadn’t exactly been comfortable to sleep on and was a far cry from her queen sized, goose-down bed at home. How the mighty have fallen.

“I hope you enjoyed the lodgings last night, kid, because we’re going to have to go through the city today to get to the other side of the woods closer to the base, and once we’re in there we’re not going to be seeing anything anywhere till we’re pretty much at the front gates”

From wooden floor to forest floor. Could it get any better?

They left the clearing just as the sun cast its first rays through the trees and spent the morning navigating their way through the trees. Gerard was always in front, eyes and ears engaged in military training mode as Dominika trailed behind, dragging her feet. The air had started to grow cold with the end of the year drawing closer and she welcomed the warm light from the sun as it filtered further and further through the undergrowth, warming the ground beneath them.

When the sun was high in the sky directly over their heads, Dominika begged him to stop for a while and rest in the shade. She was tired, thirsty and hungry, she hadn’t eaten since the previous morning and only had small sips of water from her cupped hands at the little streams they had passed here and there. Gerard shielded his face from the sun and looked down at her with sympathy.

“I’m sorry” he said “I know this is hard for you, you’re doing great though, no one would even guess you’re a princess right now”

She laughed softly for the first time in two days and the noise was music to his ears.

“Is that an insult or a compliment?” she asked. He shrugged.

“Supposed to be a compliment” he grinned at her and a moment of wordless understanding passed between them.

He offered her his hand and helped her back to his feet. They started to walk again, slower this time, and he kept his steps in line with hers so they walked side by side.

“Is this the kind of stuff they made you do when you were away all that time?”

“What? Survival training?”

“Mhm”

“Of course kid, you gotta know how to rough it, never know when you’ll end up in a situation just like this. Paid off, huh?”

“I’m glad you know where you’re going because if I was out here by myself, I’d end up so deep in the woods no one would ever find me again”

He explained using his hands how he used the sun’s position in the sky to pinpoint their location and the direction they were going, like a compass. She was in awe of his knowledge, realizing she really knew very little about his time in the military.

“You know we’re actually very similar, I never thought about it before” she said. He looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

“How do you mean, kid?”

“I didn’t chose to be born into royalty, you didn’t chose to be born into your family, and we’ve both ended up following the pre-determined path set for us, that was set long before we ever came along”

“You mean the military?” he asked, confused.

“Of course”

He chuckled lightly “no one forced me into that, Domi, that was all my own doing, and your life is your choice too” he replied. She picked up the double meaning in his words immediately.

“I don’t feel the way I do because of obligation” he added.

“About me or the country?”

He smirked at her, ignoring the question.

“Come on, time to go now, only a few hours till sundown”

Notes

Thank you to everyone who has commented, rated and subscribed to this story, I'm so glad its been received well so far! It seems to have taken on a life of its own and the last five days my house is a mess because every spare second I'm madly typing out ideas! I have planned far, far in advance for this fic and so far have written about 15k words in 6 days :S I'm even waking up in the middle of the night to write new ideas down! These characters are apparently desperate to tell their story ;) Enjoy the ride, this is just the beginning!