“Finn just asked you a question.”
“Sorry, I didn’t hear. What was it?” he asked, clearly forcing himself to concentrate on our little group.
Finn started to repeat the question, but halfway through, I could actually see Cirrus’s attention beginning to fade once more. Something was going on.
I knew Aurora could tell as well. She continually tried to bring him back into the conversation. He would start to talk with us again, but like clockwork, within a few moments he was back to staring across the room. This seemed to go on for the entire lunch.
Eventually Finn and Cirrus rose to their feet and as they made their way up to the front to return the trays, Aurora let out a soft sigh, beginning to stand as well.
“Aurora, wait a second.”
Lowering herself back down, she forced a bright smile. “What’s up?”
“Is something wrong?”
“No. Nothing. Why?” The tight smile remained in place, but it was her eyes that betrayed her.
She was lying. It was obvious.
But as I continued to watch her, waiting silently, the smile slowly faded, finally disappearing completely. She avoided my eyes, staring down at the surface of the table as she shook her head.
“I’m not sure. Something is upsetting Cirrus, but I don’t think it’s a big deal. Probably just getting used to being in a new place. Meeting new people. All of it. I’ll talk to him later,” she waved her hand dismissively.
At my lack of response, she shook her head. “Seriously Sage. Everything is fine.”
I nodded, knowing not to push. And the truth was, I didn’t have a right to. She hadn’t pushed me about the obstacle course incident but avoided the subject purposefully. “All right,” I replied, giving her hand a gentle squeeze, which she returned as a genuine smile finally appeared.
“Come on, let’s get going,” she said brightly, then rose and jaunted over to Cirrus and Finn, who were already heading towards the exit. Whatever was happening wasn’t phasing her. At least not yet. She was right though-- something was bothering Cirrus. But I didn’t think it was just being in a new environment
Something told me it had to do with the people he kept staring at.
Something was going on. Something that involved Rowan.
Chapter 11
The sun was shinning brightly as we stepped outside that afternoon, a slight chill in the air. I trembled, though not from the cold. It was because we were about to have our first combat training session.
My stomach felt as if it were in knots. Never in my life had I been in any kind of physical altercation with another person. Now I would be forced to fight someone. With weapons, nonetheless. I truly did not see how this could possibly end well.
As we headed down into the large grassy field towards a roped off area set up for the day’s events, I began studying my surroundings, realizing it was the first time I’d been outside since arriving here.
Pine trees surrounded the field on all sides, their thick, needle-laden branches climbing impossibly high. In the far distance the field pitched and rolled, transforming into valleys and hills and finally rising into mountains, dark granite monoliths topped with icy white peaks, the very tops disappearing into a scattering of clouds.
Beneath the soft grass of the field we continued through was firm ground, the dirt compact. I toed it with the tip of my shoe. Lots of shale. Poor for growing.
The thoughts instantly came into my mind, the knowledge my years of fieldwork brought refusing to turn off.
“Look up there.” Aurora’s voice cut towards me. Following her raised arm, I turned and looked back. Now that we were further from the buildings, I could finally get an idea what the Training facility looked like from the outside.
It wasn’t a pretty sight.
Rising up was a huge, imposing edifice. Gray, bleak, with block walls that rose several stories, it stood in stark contrast to the natural beauty surrounding it. Half the structure was buried into the hill it had been built upon, as if mother nature was trying to swallow up the blemish man created on her otherwise pristine land.
“Pretty dismal looking,” Aurora remarked, and I nodded in agreement.
We continued walking and to the left, far off in the distance, I noticed an enormous, white sphere. It stood high above the ground, perched atop a large cylindrical column. Surrounding it were multiple similar globe-shaped structures, though slightly smaller, all sitting on top of their own individual columns. The entire group of them rose above a massive walled in area. I nudged Aurora with my elbow and pointed in the direction of the structure.
“Look over there. I’ve never seen that before. What are those buildings?”
Frowning, she followed my arm, her eyes widening as they locked on the odd structures. “Oh, I’ve heard about that. You know those three Divisions that Eden mentioned this morning?”
I nodded, not understanding what she was getting at.
“Well, that’s where everyone who’s chosen to enter the Regent Division lives. Remember the picture of Elemental that Eden showed us? That circle in the center of the Societies?” I nodded, slowly recalling the diagram. “That’s Regent.” She indicated her head towards the various sphere-like buildings. “The surrounding structures are where all Regent members reside. The largest building in the center is where the actual governing occurs, where they create policy. Apparently, it is so tall, it towers above the walls that divide the Societies.”
And as I stared, I realized she was right. The walls leading away from those center spheres were the very same walls that formed a circle, divided into four quadrants.
It was Elemental. It was all four Societies. It was home.
Why, then, had I never been able to see it when in Earth Society?
“Supposedly it’s there to unify us, that kind of thing. But you know what?” she started to whisper, moving closer to my ear. “I think there is another reason they placed it there. Directly in the center. Certainly would make it easy to watch everything, to see everything. And therefore, continue their control on everything.” With that, she straightened and walked ahead confidently. As if those borderline treasonous words hadn’t just passed through her lips.
The way she was talking, maybe she wouldn’t fit into Regent so well either.
But how could she possibly know any of this? “Aurora? How…”
“After class today, I took a little longer to gather my stuff and overheard a couple of people from Water Society asking Eden about it,” she answered breezily. “They seemed very interested in the Regent Division.” She paused for a moment, pursing her lips. “Actually, now that I think of it, your friend Rowan was with them.”
“Oh,” I replied, digesting this. Rowan was asking questions about Regent? Why?
But there wasn’t any more time for me to contemplate this. We’d finally reached the end of the field.
✽✽✽
Surrounding the clearing was more pine trees, their distinct, sweet scent wafting through the air. Most of the trainees had already arrived and now surrounded Flint who stood in the center, atop a large rectangular mat.
He cleared his throat, glaring at us until there was complete silence.
“Today will be your first combat training session,” he said in his typical rasp. “The goal is to incapacitate your assailant, through any means possible. Now, before we teach you the proper moves and maneuvers to defend yourself during an attack, I want to see what some of you already know.”
My legs started to shake. How could he expect us to do this without any preparation? I knew nothing about defending myself from an attack. Maybe the trainees from Fire Society would be able to manage it. But unless protecting myself meant hefting a basket of dirt-covered potatoes at my assailant, I was woefully unprepared.
“So, who will be first?” Flint looked around coldly, staring at each one of us in turn. His gaze kept moving, slowly, until finally it came to a stop. Directly on me. Crap.
“You, with th
e curly brown hair. What’s your name?”
I sighed inwardly. “Sage,” I mumbled.
“Well then, Sage, why don’t you step up here and be the first trainee to practice disabling an assailant.”
Taking a deep breath, I pushed back my tense shoulders and walked forward, ignoring the stares I felt as Flint directed me to a spot several feet from him.
“Imagine me as your assailant. Your goal is to render me immobile. To do this, you will come at me and attempt to knock me to the ground. I’m going to try and prevent you from doing that. Understand?”
I nodded. It sounded simple enough. In theory, that was. In reality, I had no idea how I would be able to physically knock down this man heavy muscled man likely twice my weight. And from the look in his eyes, today glinting like a sharply honed blade, he knew it.
Taking another deep breath, I stared into that cold face one more moment before suddenly darting forward, planning to use the element of surprise to my advantage and knock him off balance in any way I could. But in the few seconds it took to reach him and put my arms out, preparing to shove him, he jerked his body to the side, gripping both hands around my upper arms and swinging me around. My feet left the ground as he twisted. And then he let go.
I sailed through the air. A heart beat later, too quick for me to even let out a scream, my body slammed into the ground, instantly knocking the wind out of me.
I lay there motionless, my forehead pressed to the rubber material that had barely cushioned my fall, trying to force air back into my lungs.
“Get up.”
I cringed at Flint’s sharp tone and forced my quivering arms to lift the rest of my body weight. Rising to my feet unsteadily, I kept my gaze down as I walked back towards where Aurora still stood.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I turned around in surprise. Flint stared at me, his meaty arms crossed firmly against his chest.
“Wh…what?”
“Do it again. Do it until I tell you to stop.”
I could feel my eyes grow wide with disbelief. Do it until he told me to stop? What kind of joke was this? But there was no hint of laughter in his face. Just cold calculation.
“But…”
One eyebrow raised at me. And my mother’s words rang again in my head, the ring tapping against my ankle. Follow the instructions they give you. Don’t ask questions. Be brave.
Taking a shaky breath, I returned to my spot on the mat.
Flint stood still, not crouching, not preparing himself in any way for my attack. Bending into a low stance, I circled his body slowly. One step, then another. Until his back faced me. He had the gall to not even turn around, thinking himself that invincible, that impervious to my attack.
Turned out he was right.
Darting forward, I grabbed ahold of his arm from behind, trying to pull him enough that he’d be thrown off balance and stumble to the ground. But it was like tugging on a stone statue.
Twisting around, his other hand suddenly shot out, shoving me backwards. I stumbled, tripping and falling, my back slamming to the ground.
Gasping, I righted myself to a sitting position.
As I sat there, trying once again to catch my breath, I glanced around. Everyone, everyone, stared at me. Sympathy marked Aurora and Finns’ eyes. Rowan observed me closely, shaking his head slowly. But as I moved my gaze back to Flint, my eyes fell upon the guy from Fire Society. The same one with the cobalt blue eyes. He stood there, observing what was happening, same as everyone else. Except, unlike everyone else, his mouth was pressed into a hard line, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. And instead of staring at me, his focus was now on Flint.
I didn’t have much time to ponder what any of it meant, though.
“Get up!” Flint’s sharp voice shot through the air again, pulling me from my thoughts. “Is that truly your best? You’re unable to incapacitate me? Even once?” He wore a malicious grin now, one that matched his mocking tone well as he ridiculed me.
A sudden rush of anger rocketed through me. This was his goal. To make me look pathetic in front of everyone. Weak. And I wasn’t! Every ounce of nervousness inside me instantly vanished as I rose to my feet, leveling my gaze with his.
He wouldn’t knock me down again.
Flint’s head tilted slightly, brows raising as he studied the look in my eyes. Slowly his grin faded.
Not adjusting my gaze, I contemplated my options. I was going about this wrong. I was attempting to use my force to knock him to the ground, but that was impossible. I’d fail every single time if I continued with that method of attack. But if I could distract him somehow, if I could get the advantage that way...
Inhaling deeply, I took off towards him as I’d done the prior two times. But just as he shoved his arms forward, attempting to grab me again, I leaped to the side, just out of reach, and whipped around behind him. Quickly jutting my leg out, I hooked it around his, catching his ankle with my foot. Off-balance now, he stumbled forward and so did I. My knees hit the ground as he continued to stagger. Knowing this was my only chance, I dove forward, looping my arms around his unsteady legs and yanked back with every ounce of strength I could muster.
As if in slow motion, his feet flew into the air and he pitched forward. His hands slammed to the ground, and he lay still, unable to hide the shock from his face.
A collective gasp went up from the entire group of trainees and echoed around me. But I didn’t turn to look at my audience. Instead, slowly rising to my feet, I stared down at him. Ragged hitching breaths ripped from my chest and beads of perspiration covered my forehead, but I just continued standing there, not breaking my gaze.
Eventually Flint rose to his feet as well, not an ounce of that prior sarcasm left on his face. He gave me reluctant nod. “That was...passable. For no real training. But come the final combat challenge, you’d better not need three chances to succeed. Now get off my mat and back with your group.”
Turning, I slowly moved away from him, inserting myself back into the surrounding ring of trainees and trying not to reveal how relieved I was that it was over. A moment later he called up another trainee, but I didn’t hear the name.
I felt a nudge in my side. Aurora’s elbow.
“I can’t believe they are making us do this,” she muttered, face dark as she shook her head in disbelief. There was a burning anger in those eyes now, one I wouldn’t have thought possible when I first met her. I was quickly realizing there was a lot more to Aurora than just the bubbly light personality I’d initially seen. There were layers to her. Maybe as many as I had. “But,” she added, turning and giving my arm a gentle squeeze, “You were incredible.”
Nodding, I managed a half-hearted smile. Facing the mat again, I finally saw who Flint had called up next. My eyes watched her face, wide-eyed, mouth open in a scream, as she flew backwards, hitting the mat hard. Ivy.
As we all watched, it became obvious she was making the same mistakes I had initially. She ran at straight at him, not once changing her direction. Flint could react easily, anticipate her every move. Time and time again.
After knocking her to the ground for the fifth time, he finally relented. “Get up and off this mat. And next time, you better be improved.”
Several other trainees were called forward to fight. Some fared far better than I, others much worse. But, just as I’d initially expected, every single Fire trainee that Flint called up to fight against him was successful, a few even knocking him to the ground on their first attempt.
After the last fight against a boy from Water Society, I noticed that the other trainers had begun to gather around the group of us.
Flint cleared his throat.
“For the rest of the session, several of you will be paired with a single trainer. You will spend that time learning proper form and technique and how to easily overtake an opponent without causing significant harm to yourself.” He paused briefly, then continued, “While the size of your opponent does play a par
t, it is not the deciding factor in who wins a fight. You can overtake that stronger, larger opponent if you know how to properly defend yourself. To turn their own strength against them. And that is what you are here to learn today.”
“You will also be practicing with several different types of weapons. So, utilize this time to get used to them. Learn how it feels to hold them, to swing them, the weight of them in your grasp and how you need to adjust your movements and stance. Trust me, you will want to have familiarized yourself with using them by the time the challenges commence.”
There it was. As soon as he said weapons, my stomach dropped.
Several trainers moved towards a cluster of nearby trees, lifting three cloth wrapped bundles I hadn’t noticed before, and bringing them forward to where Flint stood. He promptly untied them, peeling away the rough burlap material and revealing the contents.
A stack of swords. A pile of knives. A mountain of spears.
Swords. Knives. Spears. This had to be a joke. Maybe they were just made to look real but were in fact wood or some other benign material that we couldn’t accidently kill each other with.
But that thought was disproven immediately by Flint’s next move. He picked up a knife and rotated it in his hand, casually studying the sharp point. A heartbeat later, he launched his body into a twist, flinging the blade through the air and lodging it firmly in a distant tree. “Just in case there was any question about the lethalness of these weapons.”
And with that, we separated into multiple groups. I ended up with a trainer named Cliff. He was tall and lanky, and had a very plain face with a very plain, monotone voice to match. He had us start practicing with the knives, learning the proper way to grip it, to angle towards an opponent.
I breathed a sigh of relief once he said today’s lesson wouldn’t include actual combat against one another.
The idea alone soured my stomach.
After the knives, we switched to spears. Despite the smoothness of the wooden shaft, I was already beginning to feel blisters working their way to the surface of my palms after clutching the knife for so long. We practiced throwing the spears towards a massive, straw-filled target further down the field. I was appallingly bad, the spears not even nearing the edge of the painted cloth covering it. Relief flooded me, though, as I realized most trainees, that is to say, the trainees not from Fire Society, hadn’t managed to strike it with their spears either.
Awakening Earth and Fire: Earth and Fire Trilogy Book 1 Page 9
