[Location: The Jungle Edge] [Time: Day 3. Sunset.]
I found Captain Silas in a clearing about 500 meters from camp.
I expected her to be setting traps. Or practicing combat drills. Or cleaning her gun for the millionth time.
Instead, she was on her knees in the dirt.
She had cleared a small patch of ground. She had planted rows of local wildflowers—bright blue and purple orchids. She was carefully arranging rocks around them in a perfect circle.
I watched from the tree line.
Silas was humming. It was a soft, sad lullaby.
Sleep, little wolf, the snow is falling...
She looked peaceful. The lines of tension around her eyes were gone. She looked like the big sister she used to be, before the war took everything.
I stepped on a dry leaf. Crunch.
Silas spun around, snatching her knife from the dirt. In a split second, the gardener was gone, and the killer was back.
"Easy," I raised my hands. "Just me."
Silas glared at me, her face turning red. She looked at the flowers, then back at me. She stood up, dusting the dirt off her knees.
"It's... tactical," she lied, her voice stiff. "Camouflage practice. Studying local flora for toxicity."
"Right," I nodded, walking over. "Tactical flowers."
I knelt down and picked up a smooth white stone. I placed it in the gap she had left in the circle.
"My grandmother used to garden," I said. "She said you can tell a lot about a soldier by what they do when they aren't killing."
Silas stared at the stone. She let out a long, shaky breath.
"My sister," she whispered. "She loved blue flowers. We didn't have any on Mars. Just red dust. I promised her... if we ever got to Earth... I'd plant her a garden."
She looked at me, her eyes fierce and wet.
"If you tell anyone about this, Caelum, I will break your other arm."
"Tell anyone about what?" I shrugged. "I just see a soldier securing the perimeter."
Silas didn't smile, but her shoulders dropped. "Get out of here, Caelum. Go bother Vesper."