Chapter 4

4

 

Before the next round of training began, all the students took a break. I made my way to the sidelines and took a seat on the grass beside me. Not losing was great, but it didn’t solve any problems. All the while, I sat thinking about the humans' uprising. Nobody knew any other details about it. Well, apart from the fact that the humans were coming for us. Without a date, time or place set for an attack, we were just as vulnerable as a soldier without weapons. 
The only thing we could do to protect ourselves was to train extremely hard and do our best when the time came. But somehow I felt that just wasn't enough.

I stared up at the sky. It was getting cloudier, the sun was disappearing and my mood was becoming more irritable. Anyone who came up to me now was asking for a death wish.
"Aeryn," I heard a voice call. 
"Can't you see I'm busy!? Go away, trash-face!” I yelled without meaning. 

Behind me stood the coach.

He stood there, his eyebrows raised to the top of his forehead. I covered my mouth and attempted an apology, but was pulled by the ear before I could say anything. 

"This behaviour is disgraceful, Aeryn!" The coach barked as he tugged on my ear, "What's gotten into you today?"

“Nothing, sir.”

There wasn't a point in arguing about the training anyway. The coach tried incredibly hard to prepare us for all sorts of battles, which most of the time I guess we would win. So I just said nothing, hoping things would ease up. 

"Aeryn, if I see any more of this behaviour, I will be having a word with the chief! Is that clear?" The coach yelled, letting go of my ear. I dropped in front of the rest of the students. They all stared at me in surprise, their mouths like gaping holes. 
As I lifted my head off the ground, I saw the horrid smirk of Artemis, who was whispering amongst the crowd. My eyes narrowed. I suddenly felt my body aching with a desire to attack.

"Is that clear?!" The coach yelled again, still waiting for my reply. 
"Y-Yes...sir..." I growled slowly, my eyes still targeted on Artemis. My whole body was shaking with anger; he was telling others what a worthless fool I was and everyone was believing him. 

Artemis looked at me, his smirk widening even more. "Awh, is little Aeryn getting a bit upset? Don't worry, the chief will change your nappy soon! Ha!" 
Almost everyone let out a chuckle, and some burst into fits of laughter. But I couldn't do anything. If I attacked him again, I would be suspended.

So I stood up and ran off. Staying there any longer would bring nothing but trouble.
I ran faster and faster, to nowhere in particular, all the while curses and trash-talk echoed behind me. Their words gradually faded as I moved further from the crowd. Very soon, I had gone so far that their insults were just tiny offensive whispers in the distance. I stopped running, out of breath but still filled with hatred. My head was still pounding with passionate fury and I had to get rid of my anger quickly. Keeping it bottled up wasn't healthy. 

I looked around desperately for a mental escape. A small building near to the training centre soon caught my eye. It was the place where boxing and bare-handed attack practice took place. Perfect.
It was the ideal place to blow off steam, as well as train some hand-to-hand combat. 
I ran over to the building without delay and forced the door open. The place was empty and nobody was around, so I helped myself to some gloves and a punching bag. It was recommended to start with small hits, but I wasn’t going for that. 
My fist lurched towards the bag, making it swing backwards violently. This first punch was the biggest it had been in a while. 

I continued, the force of the hits knocking the hell out of the bag. All my anger pulsated into my punches. My target rattled back and forth through the air and at some point, it nearly broke off its chains. That, I thought, was the signal to stop..
Once the bag had slowed to a halt, I took off my gloves. My whole body was sweating like mad; small droplets hung off my face and splashed to the floor.
"Damn...” I breathed, wiping my face.

At least I felt a little bit better. 
Now, I could go back in a reasonable mood, hopefully avoiding Artemis and his stupid gang of losers.

I put the gloves away and made my way to the door, which greeted me with a fresh breeze. 
Deep breaths of cool air filled my lungs, completely returning me to a tranquil state of mind. Almost everything seemed to be decent again. Except for the fact that my behaviour had left its mark in the academy and nobody had forgotten what happened. There were also high chances that I would become a laughing stock, but right then, I didn't care. I just wanted to finish training and earn myself a decent night's sleep.

Walking over to the training centre, I wondered if I had missed the whole next session. If that was the case, there would be a lot of catching up to do. But I had brought that on myself. 

I shortly arrived back where I started, catching the eyes of every student as I wandered over to the coach. They all looked at me with either a smirk or a look of disappointment. I refused to make eye contact with any of them but the coach. 
"Sir," I said, "are all the training sessions finished?"

The coach looked at me in disapproval, then answered. "Not yet. There is still one more session left. But you've missed quite a bit since you...ran off." He cleared his throat and looked away. "You'll have to catch up at some point."
I nodded and walked away to the rest of the students. It was so obvious that he was disappointed in me; he had every reason to be.

Once I had reached the others, the coach ordered us into lines and groups again, preparing us for the final training session. He yelled out orders on where to go and where to stand, moving us around at a constant rate. When he was finally happy with our positions, he listed the next set of instructions.

"Listen up! Our final session is going to be based on traps, which involves the use of ropes and nets. You are all in groups of ten; five of you in each of the groups will be tied up and the rest of the group will have to untie and rescue them. You will each be assigned one member of the groups. Whoever is tied up must jump back off the cliff and take the drop, and whoever is left has to fly after them and set them free. This test is about trust and acting fast, so I don't want anybody to mess around!"
Murmuring spread around; this was one of the hardest routines in the kingdom. 
"Sir?" A student raised their hand. The coach looked over. 
"Are you sure this is safe?" He asked.

At first, the coach looked a bit confused; all the routines were designed to keep us alive and well. 
"Yes, I am sure. But, because we haven't done this routine in a while, the ropes will be loosened slightly so that you can make an emergency escape and fly if you fall too far down without being freed."

Nobody else had questions, so we could go right ahead with the routine.
We got into partners in our groups, then those who were being tied up made their way to the edge of the cliff. I was partnered with a new student. He looked confident and seemed to believe that he had the guts to take the drop first, so I let him. 

At least someone was enjoying themselves.

Author's Note

Tell me what you think!