• Footsteps bounced off of the tunnel walls. It was the sound of hardened, leather shoes pounding against a cobble-stone walkway. Sondra’s chest burned with the lack of oxygen as she raced down the secret passage. I have to make it, she thought. I just have to.

    She burst through the door of her house, immediately noticing the smell of lavender and the purple tinge to everything in the room.

    “Da?” she called. “John? Ty?” Her tone changed from desperate to hopeless. “Stupid war with the stupid draft and my stupid work,” she mumbled, tears slipping down her cheeks. She stood up from where she had fallen and pulled back her long, brown hair, fighting the urge to scream out. She went to her room and changed out of her oil-stained jump-suit and into shorts and a t-shirt. She went to her bathroom and, having already washed her face before leaving the factory, Sondra wiped the tears away and washed her arms. The factory was where everyone between the ages of 10 and 16 worked. Sondra and everyone her age worked hard everyday, sometimes coming home to family and sometimes coming home to lavender. That was life in Torsville, named after the founder, Henry Tors.

    She heard a knock at the door and heard her mother walk into the house. She ran out of the bathroom and into her mother’s arms. Her mother already knew about her husband and two sons being drafted, by the lavender scent of the army. The Purple Army that everyone was afraid of, even its own people. Everyone that is eligible to be drafted knows that it’s time when their eyes start to turn the lightest of lavenders.

    Sondra pulled away from her mother.

    “I have to go check on David,” she said as she went outside. As she shut the door, she heard her name being called.

    “Sondra,” the voice yelled. “Sonny! Over here!”

    Sondra looked around and saw Sonal, her best friend. She ran over to her and hugged her. She was all alone. Her mother died when she was little, Sonal was an only child, her father had been drafted years before and never returned.

    “I have to go check on David, to see if he’s ok. Wanna come?” Sondra asked.

    “Sure, I was just wondering if you were ok yourself,” Sonal said, putting an arm around Sondra’s shoulders.

    “I’ll live. Have you heard anything about the army?”

    “Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that, Sonny.” Sonal stopped walking and grasped her friend’s hands. “They’re starting to draft women. Any and all women.”

    Sondra’s heart stopped. “W-what do y-you mean women?” she stuttered.

    “I meant exactly what I said. The only difference is that the women are to take a test to see if we’re good enough.”

    “Sondra! Good to see ya again, las,” Freddy the Stable Man said as the two girls approached the stables. “How’s that mother o’ yours doin’?”

    Sonal, Sondra being too stunned, said, “We want to check on David. Where is he?”

    Freddy looked at Sonal and then at Sondra and took a deep breathe. “He’s over in stable 12 where he usually is,” he said.

    Sondra snapped out of her daze and ran to stable 12. She opened the door and stared into big, black eyes. She wrapped her arms around the big horse’s neck and gently spoke to him.

    “Hello David, I hope that you’ve been doing well. I sure haven’t. First, the boys are taken from me and then I find out about women drafts. I wish they would all just go away.”

    Suddenly, a bell started chiming. It was a very loud chime from a very large bell.

    Sonal ran over to the stable, “It’s a town meeting. I bet they’re going to announce the draft and start the tests or something.”

    “Oh, Al! What are we going to do?”

    “We’ll have to go and hope we fail.”

    ~~*~~

    As they walked towards the town’s square, Sondra and Sonal discussed what they thought would be on the tests.

    “I think there will be physical tests,” Sonal said.

    “But the men also have to use their heads, so I think there will be both physical and mental,” Sondra said.

    “Maybe they just want nurses.”

    “Or maybe spies.”

    “Excuse me, excuse me everyone. Be quiet! Thank you,” the mayor of Torsville said. “Will all of the women please move to the right side of the square? No, I meant my right. Men, please leave. I am sorry to say this, but there has been another draft.” The mayor sighed as he looked at the faces of the women. “This is a draft for the women.”

    The crowd gasped and everyone started to murmur to one another.

    “I know this may come as a kind of shock to you, but please bare with me, they are the Emperor’s direct order.”

    More murmurs from the crowd.

    “A few of the Purple Army’s representatives will go through the crowd and see who looks the best to fight. Now, just because they ask for your name, doesn’t mean that you will join the army. It just means that you will have to take a test tomorrow.” The mayor looked behind him and ten men, dressed in purple, came over to the crowd and started to talk to the women. “Once they have asked for your name, please stand over on the left side of the square. For some of you, they may just tell you to go over there, but whether they ask you to or not, please wait for everyone to be finished before you leave.”

    ~~*~~

    The next morning, men from the army went around town and gathered all of the women with their names on the list.

    “Today, you will take a test to see how eligible you are to join the Purple Army,” one representative said. “We will test you on your fighting skills, combat skills, cavalry skills, archery skills, and planning skills. Those of you that don’t pass these tests will be trained to be nurses or other various jobs around the army. Those of you that do pass will be trained further in the area in which you exceeded the most. Most of you will pass something. But for those of you that don’t, going back home without any dignity will haunt you for the rest of your life.”

    Sondra and Sonal looked at each other and sighed.

    “Which one would you rather pass?” Sonal asked Sondra.

    “Cavalry. What about you?”

    “Archery.” Sonal sighed again. “And some boys actually find this fun.”

    As the day wore on, the trainers began to criticize the girls.

    “Look at that one! She can’t run faster than a pig!” one said.

    “How ‘bout that un’? She aims like a fish catching a bird!” another said.

    Sondra saw Sonal’s eyes flash and began to worry. The trainers were barely armed and unprotected from an arrow. Sondra jumped off of David, whom she got when the training horse ran away, and ran over to Sonal to try and stop her.

    “Al!” she yelled. “Sonal, don’t do it!”

    But she was too late. The arrow left the bow like two same-sided magnets. It flew across the meadow that was being used for the test and zoomed right past a trainer’s head, hitting a tree right behind him.

    “Never criticize a shark hunting for sparrow,” she said, slowly making her way to the arrow. “She might bite.”

    The whole meadow, stunned by what Sonal had done, started talking all at once. The trainers gathered around Sonal as she pulled the arrow carefully out of the tree. The trainer she had narrowly missed, still standing in the same spot, fell down when the realization of what had almost happened, hit him.

    “Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I think she’s going to be an archer,” a rather small, but strong archery trainer said.

    Sondra sighed and walked over to the group and cut her way through the trainers. She made her way over to Sonal and put her arm around her shoulders with a bright smile on her face.

    “I think that’s enough excitement for one day. We should continue the training tomorrow,” said one trainer, looking up at the darkening sky.

    ~~*~~

    The testing went on for two more days, and the majority of the women ended up in one place or another, all with exceptional skill. Very few women ended up a nurse and even fewer went home.

    The women trained and practiced for weeks. Sondra was at the top in the cavalry group. Sonal was at the top in archery. Each week there were different trainers, and each were warned of how brave and strong the women were and how quick they were to defend each other. All of the trainers were from different places, and none of the women recognized any of the men. Each new group of trainers was higher ranked than the last. There were about thirty ranks of the army in all.

    Sondra stared out her window, rubbing her aching muscles. “This week’s trainers are really tough, making us do push-ups to ride horses,” she said to Sonal.

    Sonal grunted a response.

    “Only about two more weeks to go, and we’re ready.”

    “I can’t wait. Maybe I’ll get to meet my dad.”

    “Maybe I’ll get to meet John, Ty, and my da, as well.”

    The bell for lights out rang, and all across the camp, that the army moved the women to, the candles and lamps that were lit were blown out.

    Sondra lay in her bed and thought about the army and fighting for a while. Finally, she fell asleep. She dreamed of going into battle and fighting, along side the other men and women of the army, against the second most powerful country that was known to the Purple Army.

    In the dream, she fought hard, dodging and attacking and being attacked. She could smell the smell of battle and death and heard the sound of metal on metal and screams from horses and men. In the dream, she was struck from behind and fell off her horse. In her dream, she died by sword for her country. She died a heroine’s death.

    She woke up suddenly, sweat dripping off of her forehead, her heart pounding. She still felt the sword slicing her skin, still smelled the smell of battle, and still heard the sounds of death. She felt Sonal at her side.

    “Are you ok?” Sonal asked.

    “Yeah, just a dream,” she said.

    She lay back down, never imagining that her dream would come true in about two weeks to come.