Chapter 5

The next week passed in a blur of meetings and training. The monks still refused to let any of the warriors leave, insisting over and over again that they were all safer together.

Elaina began to get to know her fellow warriors from the North, deciding it was better to understand them than completely avoid them altogether. Although, there was one warrior she did avoid, Chase.

He had tried to talk to her the first day that training began, but Elaina had insisted that she had somewhere else to be and bolted out the door.

She hadn’t seen much of Charise either, the monks had made the other girl sleep in a separate room from her. The way the monks saw it the less ties any of them had to one another the easier it would be for them to fight when the time came. It wasn’t that they were being nasty, it was just the better choice for everyone, if you held attachments in battle you could easily end up killed by trying to help your friend.

Everything in the temple and the world of the warriors was simply fighting and defending the cause.

By the end of the week Chase had finally given up on trying to talk to Elaina, taking the hint and giving her her space.

Elaina was grateful and decided it was best to forget about him altogether.

Now as she sat idly in the garden enjoying the sun a shadow appeared over her, startling her from her memorizing some new battle tactics she had learned earlier in the day.

“Hey stranger.” It was Charise smiling and sipping on a bottle of water. “I feel like the monks have purposefully been keeping me away from you. How have you been?”

Elaina considered it, “I’ve been better I guess.”

It was the most truthful she could be with her friend. Despite agreeing to stick around Elaina was still considering sneaking away in the dead of night. “Just really sore from hand to hand training today. Those Northern warriors can seriously pack a punch."

Charise laughed sitting down. “No kidding, I was sure that Chase had given me a black eye yesterday, but I got lucky. My face as you know is my money maker. I need it undamaged.”

“Good luck with that.” Elaina murmured. “In our line of work scars and bruises come with the package.”

“I know that.” Charise shrugged and took another swallow of her water. “I was just saying that it would be nice to avoid it as long as possible. Although, with the way things have been going I’m thinking I may get lucky.”

Elaina shuttered, “Letting your guard down is the worst mistake you can possibly make. Never assume anything, nothing is certain.”

Brother Benjamin’s voice came unbidden into Elaina’s head telling her the exact same thing when she was much younger. After her parent’s death the beasts had stopped attacking, of course she had assumed that maybe they had finally gotten what they wanted and were done. A day later there was a massive attack on her old neighborhood again, what was left of her parents’ house was completely destroyed, nothing left behind. Whatever the beast had gone there for it hadn’t found it and had attempted to find it again.

Not for the first time Elaina wondered what exactly it was that the dark warriors had wanted, none of the other warriors’ homes had been attacked or destroyed. Just hers. Which led back to her wondering why exactly the monks felt it was best for all of them to stay cooped up at the temple.

No warriors' home was ever attacked, the dark warriors didn’t care enough about that, they preferred to attack them while they were unaware.

“Earth to Elaina.” Charise was waving her hand in front of Elaina’s face trying to get her attention.

She shook her head and smiled at her friend. “Sorry, I thought I saw something over there.” She said lamely.

Charise raised an eyebrow. “Of course you did. Anything you care to tell me?”

Elaina studied her friend's face, Charise looked very serious as she stared her down.

“Let me guess.” Elaina began sighing. “You have talked to Chase at some point this week and he told you all about my attempt at escape.”

Charise nodded, “Why would you even think of doing something that stupid?”

“Because, Chase said that the beasts had only come after me. They had absolutely no interest in the rest of you, so I figured if I took myself out of the equation all of you could go back to living your comfortable lives.” Elaina responded nonchalantly. “I was doing all of you a favor really.”

“Who are you trying to fool?” Charise asked, trying her best to keep her voice level. “You really think no one would care if you disappeared and happened to be found dead some day?”

“Not really…” Elaina began.

Charise cut her off with a glare, “You have been my best friend since before I could walk, I would absolutely be devastated if you disappeared. Chances are I would probably go out hunting you down, don’t you ever think of doing something like that, you hear me?”

Elaina studied her friend carefully. Her dark eyes blazed and her cheeks had flushed slightly. Her usual calm demeanor completely gone.

“Ok, I will stay here and be a good warrior. Better?”

Aggravated and ready to pummel Chase for talking to Charise about her, Elaina stood stretching. “I am going to head in. I have meditation soon and want to get there before all the good mats are taken."

Charise didn’t say anything, instead she simply continued staring Elaina down.

She knew that Charise would be one of the people upset, but she figured that she would get over it, like she got over her many boyfriends.

For a while things were great and then he would be gone. Charise would act upset for maybe a day or two and then go back to being herself again, heading out to the local club in search of the next flavor.

Elaina knew that their friendship was stronger than that; they had been through so much together.

Charise had been there when she mourned her parent’s death, and had fought and practiced alongside her. She knew all of Elaina’s secrets and knew her completely, something nobody else had ever achieved.

Looking at her friend one more time she hurried inside wanting to run away from the weird sensation running through her.

“Breathe in deeply and exhale, imagine something peaceful, something that brings you joy.”

Brother Isaac’s voice drifted towards Elaina whose eyes were shut tight.

She tried to do as she was told, tried to block out everything that was eating away at her mind.

Her talk with Charise still fresh in her head, the way her friend had looked when she had confronted her about trying to run away, the look of almost hurt that flashed in her eyes before anger took over.

Elaina knew that Charise would get over it in time, but she had never seen her look that angry, especially at her.

Then Chase came unbidden again, anger flared so white hot that Elaina had to take in a shaky breath to settle herself.

Nobody ever caused that much anger in Elaina, not even the brothers when they reprimanded her as a child when she messed up.

Usually their punishments involved paddling or isolation, depending on how terribly she had done.

She had been mad then, furious even. Once she had even punched a hole in the wall after having to stay in isolation for over an hour. That anger didn’t compare to the anger that she felt now, it was completely new and foreign.

“Elaina, concentrate.” Brother Isaac’s voice was right beside her.

Startled, Elaina's eyes flew open and she looked into the brother’s haggard face.

Brother Isaac was the oldest of the white warriors.

Usually the brothers lived to be at least a hundred years old, brother Isaac was bordering on 103 and he still seemed so lively. His glazed eyes watched her thoughtfully.

“Sorry.” Elaina whispered blushing brightly.

A few of the warriors sitting around her had stopped meditating and were looking in her direction. She shot them a look before closing her eyes and taking deep breaths.

Once again she tried to let everything flow out of her, all thoughts of anger and hurt flowing away like a river. She followed the soothing white light that was beginning to form in her head.

Soon she found herself drifting into a state of nothing. Little flashes tried to turn themselves into pictures, but Elaina didn’t allow them to come the way they wanted.

Usually when she meditated she saw things, things that she couldn’t quite understand and didn’t feel like discussing with anyone else. Flashes of a field, bright sunlight turning the grass such a bright shade of green it almost seemed unreal.

Her parents stood in front of her facing something. They turned to make sure she was distracted, which was, she was playing with a little white rabbit that had hopped up to her feet. Its whiskers twitching violently as she held her hand out to it.

She could hear whispers going around, but she continued to pay attention to the rabbit, so amazed by the little creature that she didn’t care about the dark man that her parents were talking to.

Every now and then she would hear a gasp and flinch slightly.

Finally she looked up as the man passed something wrapped in silk to her mother, who hurriedly shoved it into a pocket looking back at Elaina once again.

Realizing her daughter was watching her she turned white, all color disappearing completely.

The dark man caught Elaina’s eyes, his eyes flashing a bright red. He smiled showing razor sharp teeth which he chomped together causing a scream to escape her mouth.

Laughing he stood to his full height and spread immense black wings. They looked as if they were made of leather as the sun flashed off of them. With another dangerous smile he disappeared leaving only her and her parents in the field again.

Gasping Elaina opened her eyes, everyone was watching her now with looks of confusion on their faces. Her breath was coming in quick little puffs and sweat poured from her forehead. Brother Isaac knelt beside her holding her hand murmuring soothing words. Unable to really make sense of the scene around her, Elaina stood quickly bowing once before running out the temple, leaving questions unanswered.

She kept running until she found herself in the library, gasping desperately for air. Elaina slowed her pace and tried to think, tried to make sense of what it was that she had just seen.

Surely her parents hadn’t been conspiring with the dark warriors; it just wasn’t possible.

Feeling weak she collapsed into a chair, her head dropping into her hands.

“What was that?” A voice demanded from behind her.

Not now, any other time but now. Elaina thought desperately bracing herself to deal with Chase, who had happened to be there when she had lost it in meditation.

“Please go away.” Elaina said now not bothering to lift her head. “I really don’t want to be bothered.”

Footsteps sounded and then a chair was sliding out at her side.

She peeked over to see Chase sitting down beside her, a look of confusion on his face.

“What happened back there?” He pushed. “You started twitching and yelling, then you just got up and left.”

“I told you I don’t want to talk about it.” Elaina snapped collecting herself. “Are you dumb or just stubborn?”

Chase just glared, his green eyes flashing. “You’ve been avoiding me all week and then you just lose it in meditation, what is going on with you?”

“Why do you care?” Elaina yelled, turning on him. “You don’t know me and you aren’t a friend of mine. Why do you keep trying to bother me?”

“Charise is too scared to really sit down and talk with you, she cares about you, you know even if you refuse to accept it. If you can’t even talk to her then there is something seriously wrong.” A look of determination crossed Chase’s face and Elaina knew that he wasn’t going to drop it.

She sighed defeated, “What makes you think I’m going to talk to you then if I won’t even talk to my best friend?”

For a second Chase said nothing, he simply just studied Elaina as if she was something he had never seen before.

“I figured an unbiased ear would be better.” He said finally with a shrug.

“You figured wrong.”

“You know you aren’t fooling anyone.”

Shocked, Elaina shot Chase another look, who was this guy to talk to her like that? “What are you talking about?”

“This whole I don’t care and I don’t need anyone attitude you try to keep, you aren’t fooling anyone with it you know. I know underneath there is a terrified girl who is hiding from her problems.” He said standing. With another look he walked away leaving Elaina alone again.

Too shocked to say anything she watched until Chase disappeared between shelves of books.

Elaina didn’t know if she should be angry or grateful, at the moment she was feeling a mixture of both.

She knew somewhere that Chase had expected her to jump up and follow him demanding an explanation to what he had said about her, but Elaina wasn’t going to give him that satisfaction. Instead she simply stayed where she was trying her best to clear her mind.

Why, she thought now, why was everything happening now? For twelve years she simply fought minor beasts, easily defeating them. Nothing serious had ever happened, then out of nowhere all hell began to break loose, it just didn’t make sense. Maybe it had something to do with the joining of the warriors, but that still didn’t explain why the worst of the beasts were finally making their appearance.

Again Brother Benjamin’s voice popped into her head reminding her to never let her guard down.

There had always been talk of a massive battle between the dark and the light, but Elaina had just figured that that would come one day when she was too old to participate. She had told herself that she would always be prepared for it, but now that it seemed it was going to happen sooner than she expected she felt a twinge of fear, something that she had never felt before. Sure she had felt hurt and sadness, but she had never once been afraid.

After her parents death she had lost all will to live, not caring if she didn’t wake up one day. She threw herself into battles trying to block out all feelings she had and it had worked.

She had felt invincible like nothing could touch her, but after being bitten by a burlack beast and almost killed by its venom she wasn’t so sure that she was actually ready to die, ready to give up everything that she had. Even if all she had was the brothers and Charise, it was still enough to want to live for.

Standing Elaina stretched and shook her head once, all she wanted to do was go to her room and disappear into blissful sleep. She knew when the morning came she would have some explaining to do, the brothers would want to know what had scared her so much, but for the time being she took comfort in the loneliness that consumed her.

Walking slowly she left the library only looking back once at its book-filled shelves covered in dust, then she hurried upstairs where the dorms were, pulling her door open much too harshly and disappearing inside not bothering to turn on the lights. Still fully clothed she collapsed on her bed and shut her eyes