Chapter 2

2

 

After the speech, everyone was released back into their daily routine. Most sped out of the door in an anxious hurry, trying to protect their houses as soon as possible. I watched everyone leave; they weren’t the cheerful people that first entered the assembly anymore. Their eyes were wide with terror and dismay, their hearts beating faster than ever. 

Now, they relied on me and all other members of the Cerentine Union to ease their distress and return the land to peace. 
I intended to serve my duty as soon as I could, so I left the assembly as one of the first to leave. But on the way to training, a familiar voice lingered behind me.

“Aeryn.”

I turned around, half expecting it to be someone I disliked.
It was Artemis.

“Aeryn,” he said again, smirking and stepping in front me. He was blocking my path, taking any chance he could at getting in my way. I rolled my eyes and jabbed him hard in the stomach. 
“Get out of my way,” I growled, shoving him onto the ground. He snarled and cursed me, his friends yelling at me from behind.

“Some angels they turned out to be,” I muttered to myself. Not that I was any better.

I continued to walk, breathing in the cool calm air, until I arrived at the training camp. Today’s session was the first we had in a month, and I wasn’t particularly happy that we were back in training so soon. Wars were never supposed to be that frequent. Unless you had a crappy kingdom.

When I had first joined, they told me we would fight, but not every bloody month. But in my mind I kept saying, ‘its to protect your kingdom, that’s why you’re here,’ hoping it would convince me to keep fighting for this stupid place.

As I entered the gates, I saw battle angels of all sizes working their way through the weights and lifting bars. Warm-up time. Walking through to the gym, I grabbed and carried a lone lifting weight to the corner of the room. Almost everybody there cared how high you could lift the weights and how many press-ups you could do, and if you weren’t up to scratch then they’d move you to the beginners level. I wasn’t going back there. That’s where the weak ones were.

I lifted the weight up and down, not caring how high anybody else could lift it. Forty seconds in and there was a sudden applause from the other side of the room. I looked over and sighed heavily as everyone cheered for Artemis, lifting two weights at a time.
He didn't deserve that attention. I knew he wasn't even that strong.

He saw me looking and smirked. “Hey Aeryn, I heard you knew about the rumour before anyone else did. Did you plan to tell anyone, or were you going to keep it a secret and let everyone suffer?!"
My eyes flickered with shock; my cheeks went a hot red and I looked away. 

He knew I meant to protect the people, not to let them suffer, but nobody else knew that. They just believed every word that spilt out of his dirty mouth.

He continued. “That’s just sad. Who knew that an angel like you could be so unfaithful to the people of our kingdom? Maybe you should leave the academy, you mean nothing here!”

That was the final straw. I growled and picked up the weight, hurling it at him with incredible speed. He managed to dodge, just about, and grabbed me by the collar.

By this time, the whole academy was circling around us and cheering us on. 
“Fight! Fight!” They yelled at the top of their lungs, hungry for drama like a pack of wolves.

Artemis held me firm, but I hurled a punch at his stomach and sent him flying backwards into a window. Shards of glass spilt like rain all over the floor and made everyone’s eyes widen with excitement. He picked himself off the floor in a fit of rage, grabbing a kettlebell off the floor and sending it straight for my head. I couldn't dodge it. It was coming in too fast.

I closed my eyes and waited for the blow.

But there was none.

To my relief, the coach had intervened. He had caught it midway, shooting looks of disapproval in every direction.

“Care to explain?” He yelled, making eye-contact with everyone in the room. Nobody replied, either in fear or risk of tale-telling.  The coach sighed and figured it out by himself.

“Aeryn! Artemis! If I see you fighting again I will move you both to the beginners level! Is that understood?”
Both of us scowled at each other and exchanged looks of disgust.
 "Be the bigger man" I thought, "it will only help you. You can’t last in here, let alone the beginners level.”

"Yes sir,” I said, with Artemis following after. We then shook hands, as instructed by the coach, then separated ourselves to the opposite sides of the room. Finally ready for the main routine.

“Okay! Are you fit enough to run this routine?” The coach bellowed, “because if you’re not, you know what happens!”

We all answered with solemn confidence and raised our fists high in the air. 
“We are strong! We are brave! We are built to stand the pain!” The room chanted, over and over again. 

After proving our strength to the coach, we began our hard-core training. It started with running laps around the area. It was a competitive game; some tried to push their way towards the final laps with every bit of strength in them, others pushed by pushing others off the track, and the rest aimed at getting at least three laps done before passing out. Being of a competitive nature meant that I was not the only one there to compete for first place; there were plenty more who would fight for the places left in the upper level, as well as the coach’s approval. 

I ran as fast as I could, focusing only on the task ahead, while in the background I listened with pleasure as the sound of more and more people running out of breath got larger. A smirk crossed my face as I realised that Artemis was one of them. 

“I win again Artemis,” I thought, completing the final laps.

Author's Note

Tell me what you think!