The Crimson Assassin

Chapter 5

Elentiya never thought that anything could be worse than her master's training and she was right, but running with Castol felt like a close second in her eyes. In just two hours, they had run almost twenty-one miles within the compound.

When they reached the end of the run she saw Castol smirking; leaning against a tree as if he'd been waiting for hours.

Elentiya had expected it to feel like a light, gentle jog, like it usually was. She blamed her struggles on her lack of training. It had been a while since she had trained as a result of her punishment, but she still thought she could manage. Though she was clearly wrong.

When she approached him, she immediately bent double panting vigorously, desperately gasping for air.

"Are you alright?" He mocked.

"Yeah... I'm absolutely... peachy!" She panted, not wanting to show any signs of weakness, but failed miserably.

"Really, are you alright?" he asked again and brought his hand to her forehead, "You look a bit flushed."

For a moment she blushed, but quickly returned to being pale and sickly, when she felt her throat burning.

"I'll be fine... why don't you head back and I'll be there soon." She lied.

Elentiya could feel her stomach churning and immediately clutched it, "I just need a little rest." She lied again.

"Alright," he said as he left, looking a quizzical, "Don't be too long."

Finally he was gone and she felt something that was all too familiar to her. Elentiya kneeled near the tree and a pained expression emerged from her pale face. A sudden surge came from her stomach and vomit hit the fresh green grass; causing the air to slowly fill with a digested stench.

A gentle breeze blew across nape of her neck. Castol was holding up hair to keep vomit from getting to it.

As she turned to face him she gently pushed him away, "I'm fine."

"At least let me help you up," he said with a smile.

"I said I'm fine," she persisted. Elentiya didn't know what to think of him, which meant in her mind he had to be an enemy and she would never show any signs of weakness to an enemy.

Elentiya struggled to stand and staggered into Castol's arms as she lost balance. She hated her body's weakness from living on the streets; if any of the other assassins saw her like this, she'd become a laughing stock. To her this was a big humiliation which only death could relieve.

"I know we've not had a great start, but you know you can trust me." Castol said sincerely.

"Whatever," she replied, but didn't mean it. No one had genuinely said that to her apart from Tyair.

"Well you need some rest. I'll escort you to your dormitory."

"What about the training?" she asked.

"I'm sure an assassin as notorious as you doesn't need basic practice with weapons."

She produced a sound similar to an 'aw'. "But I love using weapons," she whined.

Castol sent her a crooked smile, "Well at least I didn't have to embarrass you, because we all know you would've lost."

"And just what makes you think that!" She tried to be more tough, but failed and ended up falling backwards.

"Just look at yourself," he said, helping her up, "You couldn't hurt a fly in this state."

"What are you doing?" Elentiya blushed as Castol lifted her up in his arms like a frail little princess. She tried to kick and thrash, but was too weak to do so.

"You're not strong enough to walk and you're slowing us down, plus the look on your face is just priceless." He chuckled.

Being carried back to her room felt like forever. To Elentiya it was a living nightmare being carried like a damsel, whilst all the other women gossiped saying things like, "Who's she?" and "I wish Castol would carry me like that." It was making her ears bleed.

She could understand why the girls awed him and were jealous. He was quite handsome. He had bright blue eyes which stood out amongst his short blond hair and for those women, a Captain of Terran was a hero. She would've thought he was handsome too, but this was too degrading for her and he was a massive jerk.

Finally they reached her door. "You can put me down now!"

"A thank you would be nice." He replied as he put her down.

She wobbled a bit and was still unstable, but she managed to stand.

"Don't push yourself too hard tomorrow," Castol yawned in his way back to wherever he was going to.

Elentiya crawled into her bed and lay there thinking. Kaiser had never let her do any jobs in Terran for some reason, so she knew nothing about the place - just that they were feared by many other nations.

She also thought about her situation: becoming one of the king's puppets or be executed and whether she could trust Castol or Hollin?

Hollin was going to be easy. To her, he was just a spoilt royal kid who was naive, but she still didn't know a thing about Castol. He revealed nothing throughout the whole day.

Elentiya couldn't help but smile; she knew her time in Terran was never going to be dull.