Sky Knights (11 page)

"I think I'll become a doctor," Ira said to Dounia, once she found her and Tanya again.

"A doctor?" Dounia asked, ears perking up. "Why? You said many times throughout the war that you didn't want to be a doctor. After all those times Doctor Glazova bothered you about it, and now you want to do it?"

"I keep thinking," Ira said. "If I knew how to treat wounds like mine and Tanya's, so many things would have gone so much more smoothly."

"Hey, we still made it," Dounia said, with a smile. "And Tanya is going to be fine, too. They're sending her to a hospital further back behind the lines."

"But what if I could help people like us?" Ira asked, waving one arm. "And you know, the war isn't always going to be on. One day, the war will be over, and what will I do with myself then?"

"No one said that you had to stop flying," Dounia pointed out. "There are lots of things you can do. Becoming a doctor would be hard."

"Becoming a doctor would be no means the hardest thing I've ever done," Ira pointed out.

"You're right. Basic training was definitely harder," Dounia said solemnly, but couldn't hold a straight face for long.

"Don't tease, I really am going to," Ira said, laughing. "Never mind anything that Doctor Glazova said."

With Tanya looked after, they finally got their long overdue debriefing, in which several officers asked them the same five questions over and over again, except with different wording. They couldn't seem to believe that she and Dounia had not only managed to survive the crash, but rescue Tanya from the Germans and then outrun a tank in a stolen jeep.

However, the evidence was indisputable, because no one could deny that all four of them, had, in fact, all made it back in one piece.

"Can we just go back to our own base already?" Dounia scowled.

"You know you'll be paired up with someone else until my arm heals anyway, right?" Ira pointed out. "I find it doubtful that they would make me fly with a broken arm."

"I wouldn't count on it," Dounia said, shaking her head. "You don't need both arms to use your navigation equipment, right?"

"I can't believe they're sending news of our story right to the top," Ira said. "I've never thought of myself as anything other than a soldier, doing my part for our country."

"Do you think they'll give us a medal?" asked Dounia.

"What, for not dying?" Meow asked. "Surely that's the point of war, right?"

"Medals are for bravery," Ira said, and laughed. "I don't feel all that brave. Do you?"

"I got mud on me," Meow said haughtily and stuck his nose in the air. "I feel like I deserve a medal on that count alone."

"Maybe they'll award us Heroes of the Soviet Union," Dounia said, bumping her shoulder to Ira's uninjured arm.

Ira rested her head against Dounia's for a moment while no one was looking and twined their fingers together under the cover of her uniform sleeve.

"I'm not a hero, darling."

"You're my hero," Dounia said, and she said it with such conviction that Ira was stunned.

It was the closest to "I love you" that the two of them had ever gotten. There was only one response for a declaration like that.

"You're my hero, too, dearest."

Alex Powell is an avid writer and reader of sci-fi and fantasy, but on occasion branches into other genres to keep things interesting. Alex is a genderqueer writer from the wilds of northern Canada who loves exploring other peoples and cultures. Alex is a recent graduate of UNBC with a BA in English, and as a result has an unhealthy obsession with Victorian Gothic literature. Alex has been writing from an early age, but is happy to keep learning to improve on their writing skills. Feedback and comments as well as any questions are appreciated! You can reach Alex at [email protected]