The winter before, Irene remembered the novelty of being handed shovels to take care of the snow. She was so excited to race the others until the practice yard was clean.
However, that year was different in the way that she had no energy to get one of the shovels first. That also meant she was going to have to attend breakfast duty which she always dreaded because it meant she would eat last.
Even though she didn’t get a shovel first, she still had to push the snow away the next time one was available. As she did, her lower back ached miserably and she thought she was sick to her stomach.
Unwilling to allow the others to see her weakness, she managed to press on. Even through the rest of the drills and eventual sparring, she tried to keep her head up and at least go through the motions of what was required of her.
"Iro, are you alright?" Gunnar called from the front.
Seeing that all eyes were on her, she quickly nodded.
"Just fine," she responded. "A bit tired, sir."
Practice went on as it normally did, the only difference was how bad Irene felt through the entire ordeal.
Surprisingly, when it was over she was almost relieved to return indoors first so that she could help the others prepare breakfast. Meanwhile, the rest of the apprentices stayed outside and had fun with swords or in the snow.
An added layer to what she was experiencing was the tension with Leif and Felix. It was apparent the issue with Felix, but with Leif, he was simply quiet and uncomfortable because that’s how his other two friends were acting. Serving them breakfast only resulted in silence towards one another. Even sitting down led to silence.
However, no matter what Irene tried, she couldn’t bring herself to finish her meal which was very surprising when it came to her. Despite her short height and thin frame, there was always room for food somewhere.
Felix and Leif were finished eating and stood up.
"Are you coming?" Leif asked the younger apprentice.
"I will finish my food and be there later," she responded.
They were meant to be reorganizing the armory considering all the weapons they had found when hunting monsters in autumn. It was going to be a big undertaking.
Leif merely nodded and followed Felix out of the dining hall.
Sitting alone only made the girl more miserable. She agonized over what was going on with her body. She hadn’t been sick in ages. It was practically unfamiliar to her at that point.
Not knowing what else to do, she stood up and gave her bowl back.
Sir Gunnar sat at a table with the other knights and Irene approached him.
"Sir," she called to him a bit weakly. "Would that be alright if I go and lay down for a while? I feel very sick. I will return to duties when I feel better."
However, as Sir Gunnar looked up from his breakfast, he saw the pale face of his apprentice and a look of pure anguish that he couldn’t exactly ignore.
"Take off of your duties today if that’s what you need to do, Iro," he responded in an understanding way that made Irene feel warm despite how awful she felt.
"Thank you, sir," she uttered. "I will make it up to you."
"Unnecessary," he responded. "Off you go."
She bowed her head before departing the dining hall at least feeling alright that he was being understanding.
Her bed and warm room called to her. Nothing sounded better than lying down and forgetting the world for a couple of hours. Hopefully, her sickness would subside and she wouldn’t have to present herself so pathetically.
When she lay down after taking off most of her clothing down to the long underclothes for winter, she slept heavily for a while. The world was forgotten until she groggily came back to life.
She rolled to her side but then sat up quickly, causing pain to shoot through her lower back and stomach.
The girl scrambled to get up no matter how badly it felt. When she looked down at the light brown bedding, there was blood on the bed.
A gasp escaped her lips and her heart raced. She placed her hands over her mouth as she tried to come to terms with the situation.
She remembered vividly in her past life that she began her monthly bleeding around her thirteenth birthday. However, living as a boy made her forget all of the things that came with being a woman. It didn’t even occur to her to worry about this since there were so many other things in her life to focus on.
"Oh no," she whispered.
If a maid were to find her sheets in disarray like that, she would certainly be outed as a girl.
However, that wasn’t the only caveat.
In Sünstoian culture, a girl must seek a Völna during that time of their lives and get a protective tattoo on their body of three interconnecting triangles to protect themselves from spirits who targeted girls at this time in their lives.
It was a promise she made to her grandmother because her grandmother was the last living Völna. The source of this content ɪs N()velFire.net
All of a sudden, time felt like it was ticking unbelievably fast, but she needed to take a deep breath and figure out how to logically approach this situation even though she felt miserable and her emotions had been a wreck the past little while—having blamed it entirely on her father’s departure and not the very real fact that she was approaching a new Chapter of her life.
She looked around her room, but then realized how uncomfortable it was for her to move around with wet pants.
It was time to get dressed into something unsoiled and use one of the towels in the room to soak up the blood for the time being.
She then stripped her bed and cleaned up what she could before hiding it all in a heap on one of her tables.
There was one person she could go to for this.