This was actually supposed to be homework for my composition class. The assignment was to write the vocab words in sentences or a story if you wanted to, and have them all have something to do with the military. I just went a little overboard. . .

The day seemed very wet.

Adara noted this on her way to the market without much surprise. It had been raining almost nonstop for the past week, and judging by the dark clouds overhead and the not too distant bellows of thunder in the distance, it was going to again.

"Why is it raining so hard, Mother?" Adara asked.

"The clouds are the forest's providers," her mother answered, "After the dry spell we just had, the sky is under constant toil to make the trees and flowers healthy again."

Adara walked carefully on the dirt road, avoiding the puddles and mud with her new shoes, yet trying hard not to tarry, lest the rain catch her before she got back home again. She shouldn't have been outside with the storm clouds looming so near in the first place, but her family needed for her to go to the market. Their best egg-laying chicken had just died, and with her mother watching her brothers at the house and no father to help, Adara had to leave. The chicken had actually died, been roasted, and eaten weeks ago, but now was finally when she could go into town again because the soldiers had left.

They had come into town three months ago, bearded men in strange purple uniforms who talked and laughed in a foreign tongue which Adara had never heard before. She didn't know what they said, but by the way her mother kept her away from them and the stories the other children told, it was something along the lines of bombing the village and obliterating everything for miles.

"Why do we let them stay?" Adara wondered aloud as she dried the dishes.

"Their armament is too strong for us to force them to leave," her mother answered, handing her another bowl. "But don't worry child, it's not us they're fighting." She was smiling when she said this, but her eyes said different.

Adara was close to the market now. The general hubbub of activity was heard long before the actual market was anywhere in view.

The market itself was a labyrinth of people and shops, and as she made her way through it all, Adara was careful to not let the oversized bag on her shoulder slip. She needed what was inside to get another hen; they didn't come cheap. Careful to stay away from the butcher shop and the piteous animal sounds that came from inside, she finally found what she was looking for: A cart in the middle of the market piled with cages full of hens and roosters.

"They finally caught the simpleton who kept forgetting to leave the door to the old man's barn shut, Sareh, " a man was saying to the woman at the cart.

"Well that's heartenin' news," Sareh answered with a laugh. "It was getting a bit tiring to see the horses and mules wanderin' through the streets. Not to mention I always had to help put them back!" She laughed again.

"Excuse me. . ." Adara said meekly.

The woman turned. "Adara! I haven't seen you in ages! What do you have there?"

Adara gave a shy smile and pulled from her bag a long roll of fabric. It was blue, and shimmered in the light.

"My, that's pretty," Sareh said, staring. "Where in God's green earth did you get that?"

"My mother. . ," Adara answered. "It literally took her months to weave it. I was hoping I could trade it for an egg-laying hen."

"Well for that, missy, you can have any hen you like." She took the fabric and let out a low whistle. "How long is this? Enough for a dress at least . . ."

"I'm not sure. . ." Adara answered.

"Hm. Well, don't just stand there, pick out a hen!"

Adara circled the cart. The chickens all looked the same to her, other than the obvious difference between the roosters and hens. . .

"Is that blood?"

"Hm?" Sareh tore her eyes from the fabric and looked to the stain at the bottom of one of the wood cages. "Oh, don't mind that, that's from a while ago. Those horrible purple men did it. Shot the them for fun. The kingdom's most acclaimed soldiers, I'm sure. . ."

Adara shivered.

"Oh, here, I didn't mean to scare you." Sareh reached toward the top of the cart and pulled off a cage with a hen inside. "This one's the best I've got right now." She set the fabric down gently and took the hen from the cage. It protested, flapping and clucking. Somehow, though, she managed to tie a string to the it's leg. "Alright here." She handed the hen and the other end of the string to Adara . "Keep that around your wrist, in case you drop the hen. But don't drop her on purpose, I'm not sure how taut I've tied the string and if it'll hold. . ."

Adara nodded. "Okay, thank you-"

There was suddenly the sound of gunshots, and someone screamed. Adara jumped and turned, somehow managing not to drop the hen. The soldiers in purple burst fort through the crowd, and in moments the busy market reverted to the ghost town it had been weeks previously.

"Adara, run!" Sareh hissed.

She obeyed, splashing through puddles, no longer caring about her shoes or the coming storm. It wasn't going to come now.

The dry spell had only stopped once the men in purple were gone.

In case you were wondering, the vocab words were bellow, taut, hubbub, piteous, meek, labyrinth, heartened, acclaimed, toil, revert, obliterate, armament, literal, simpleton, and tarry.