Letters of Red

Chapter 5; A knight's lesson

Chapter 5: The knight’s lessons.

I stood up, trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes. It didn’t work. Twisting the doorknob at a comfortable pace, I removed the doorway of its blockage.  I stared at my sleep- wrecker. Honestly, he never fails to surprise me. Ever.

I put my hands on my hips, and my overused scowl found its way onto my face once again. While nine o’clock at night wasn’t considered that late, I was sleepy and I wanted just that; sleep. It certainly didn’t look as if I was going to get any.

“Can’t you get a watch?” I asked, annoyed, before my interrupter had a chance to reply, I had already started asking the next question. “What do you want, Anthony?”

He shrugged, having the decency to look sheepish. Again, as he was not jumping up and down with happiness, I assumed he had left his cheerful mask behind. And I was very thankful for that too.

“We have detention, remember? Our combat teachers saw that we were half asleep last lesson on Friday, and well, you know how Ms Calicos and Mr Heave get,” he explained to me, warming my memory up. “They love night time detentions. Actually, they love anything that annoys us. They get a real kick out of it.”

I had completely forgotten about the detention. I was looking forward to a quiet night too. Well, no such luck there. I sighed, and walked back into my room. I looked down at my nightie- there was no way it wouldn’t tear by the end of detention. I decided to tell him as such too.

“Give me three minutes so I can change,” I told him, practically slamming the door in his face.

I quickly found a black long sleeved t-shirt and a pair of jeans from my top drawer. I just grabbed them and practically jumped into them. It was warm, which was good. I didn’t like the cold.

I opened the door, to see him yawning. It was nice to know that I wasn’t the only one missing out on sleep. We wordlessly strolled down the corridor.

Because complete silence was unnerving, I thought maybe it would be less awkward if we were talking, so I started to talk. “Did the others tell who else got a red letter?” I enquired. There was always a chance that he knew more than I did. It was actually usually the case.

He gave me a grim smile. “Only a few, luckily. There’s Anya Strahovski, for one.”

I knew Anya. It was hard not to know her. She was a beautiful, striking blonde with hair like moonshine and violet eyes. She was tall too. Though she was very pretty, she wasn’t known for her looks, but her powers and her rather intimidating aura. She was sometimes called ‘the ice queen’ for her cold, creepy personality and her hunter skills. She was at least twice as strong as I was. To think she was defeated by the nightmarish red letter Auter was quite a shock.

He saw I was thinking, but decided to continue. “And then there’s Yue Wan.”

I knew her too. Despite being a few years older than me, she was the same height as me. She was a pretty thing, with features of an oriental porcelain doll. Graceful and elegant and petite. She was nice and well liked; she didn’t deserve to be one of the victims. She was around the same level as Anya; she was the Dragon Princess to her Ice queen.

“And Raban Massri.”

 He was a quiet person. Unless he was selling something (usually pots or vases) to someone, he didn’t talk much. Even so, he was very charismatic. He played with sands and warm winds, so he was called ‘the Desert king’.

Those three and Elias were the best of the best. They formed the group of the most qualified seniors chosen every year, called the ‘potentials’.  This was strange. They were all seniors and all powerful. It seemed to be too much like a coincidence.