Where there is light...

[Evangeline Anovilis]

[b]Cetingrad, Croatia, near the German-Croatian border[sup]1[/sup][/b]

It was a sunny day in Cetingrad and the few houses, home to over 1% of all Croatians, rested peacefully within the few hills enclosing the village. A few people worked on the fields, were shopping for groceries at the local small-scale fruits and vegetables vendor, some crafted some furniture or repaired cars in their workshops and last but not least, a good handful of pensioners sat before their respective families' houses and just enjoyed the last few years of their lives. Overall, it was a bit idyllic. The people seemed a bit poor, but they were content. Still noone knew what would await them in their future.

[center][img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Cetingrad%2C_view_from_Cetin_castle.JPG/800px-Cetingrad%2C_view_from_Cetin_castle.JPG[/img]
[i]The small village of Cetingrad with its 2746 inhabitants[/i][/center]

Maria Pavlovic was the young daughter of the Pavlovic family, just turned 18. Like the rest of the family, also this day she worked on the pumpkin fields of theirs, raising small seeds to large pumpkins, for food and decoration.In the town. Maria loved pumpkins, they came in so many colours and shapes, from brown flat discs to orange balls to yellow lengthy ones. And they also were as flexible in their use. The Pavlovic family loved Marias pumpkin soup, but they also liked her pumpkin bread or Ivanas pumpkin vases and bottles. And altough the pumpkins weren't really growing all that much in the year before, everyone hoped for a good harvest this year. Sadly, this year she could not help in the first days of the harvest, as the letter from Karlovac already had called her to the next barrack (in Karlovac) to be ready for battle in the next few days. And then she would have to serve for at least two months, most likely as a light infantrywoman, given the authorities expected a farmers daughter to be atuned to nature and able to endure even long marches, should the Officer ask for it.

It was thus that she spent her last days before reporting in with farming, like this, saying goodbye to her fruit vegetable friends. Now she was still wearing her traditional dress, instead of the military uniform and as she thought about how to best preserve some for when she returned home, the military was nearer as she had thought. A shot rang through the air and Maria immediatly looked at the woods in the north, from where it had come. A military car had halted on the small road to the village, next to the Pavlovic fields and now two soldiers jumped out, and into the shrubs. Immetiadly Maria ran towards the vehicle, as the two carried out a wounded men. "Oh my god, can I help?" "Eh, well, thanks madame. Would you know a place where we could lay him down, until the doctor arrives?" one soldier answered. The man had blood all over his right leg, bleeding from some strange, but most likely not lethal wound. He pressed together his teeth, as it still hurt a lot. "Eh, sure, please follow to our house. B-but what did you people do to get that injured?" Both soldiers carrying the man looked at each others, before the speaker of before opened his mouth again. "Well, the Officer was making a quick stroll in the woods, as he gets sick really fast if sitting in the back, but then a wild boar attacked him. Gladly however, Karol," He pointed at the other guy "was there and shot the wild thing. Tomas is still in there, trying to gather the dead beast for tonight. He'll also inform the local forester and hunter about the boar. If you want and he agrees, we eat that thing tonight." A broad grin went on his face, as he imagined the delicious boar.

[b]OOC:[/b] My border needs more action!

[sup]1[/sup]It is 2.5 km away from Germany. Just to be precise.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Evangeline Anovilis