Lᴏɴᴇʟʏ Fᴀʟʟs || Tʜᴇ Cʜᴏsᴇɴ Eɪɢʜᴛ Bᴏᴏᴋ Tᴡᴏ

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴏɴᴇ || sᴜɴsᴇᴛ ᴛᴏᴡᴇʀ

Sasha

This is so stupid. I thought, frowning as I clipped my cloak around my neck. The green fabric flowed over my shoulders and to the ground, not quite touching, but low enough to be annoying.

Wait, no, not stupid. I searched for a better word as I tied back my long hair.

Useless, I decided as I fiddled with the pin in my bun. Completely, utterly useless. What's the point of journeying to get talismans if they're going to be taken from our own hands? There is no point.

A rumbling growl startled me from my thoughts. I whirled from the mirror, coming eye to eye with my jaguar. Delar was perched on my bed, his spotted fur sleek from grooming.

"What?" I snapped, "I'm going as fast as I can!"

Delar snarled and I flinched back. Even though he was my spirit animal, the beast still scared me.

Not only that, I thought, sullenly returning to my reflection, he doesn't want to bond with me.

A jolt of anger ran through me. Well, I don't want to bond with him either, I snapped internally, I'm supposed to be a Zhongese soldier! Not some Greencloak... puppet!

As the bell rang for training, I hurried out of my chambers. Delar loped beside me, his pads near silent on the cold floor.

Getting to the training room, I saw that it was empty. Stretching my legs, I picked up a sword and started running through the moves my father'd taught me.

"You're not bad with a sword."

I looked up, startled at the comment. Zay stood in the doorway, arms folded.

"Uhh... thank you?" I placed the sword back onto the weapons table, turning and mimicking her stance, "what are you doing here?"

"Can't a girl just come to training early some days?" She drawled, rolling her eyes.

"You're not early." I pointed out without thinking. "Everyone else is late. The bell rang ages again."

She narrowed her eyes at me and pursed her lips. "Hm." She shrugged. "Well, if everyone is late, then I'm still early." She said it so confidently it made me bristle.

Okay, well if you're so sure. I spat in my thoughts, how obnoxious can someone get?

"Just because you come early doesn't mean you have to block the doorway." Niko materialized behind Zay, interrupting any smart remark I'd wanted to through her way.

She huffed and moved out of the doorway to lean against the wall, making me wonder why she was early anyway. She obviously didn't want to train with us.

Niko moved into the room, giving me a quick nod that seemed almost amicable.

I scowled in return and turned away, practically tripping over Delar. He growled lowly and I silenced it with a simple glare.

The sound of footsteps approached, signaling that the others had arrived.

"Zay, Niko, Sasha!" At the sound of Ryan's ever-cheerful voice, I suppressed a groan.

The rest of the team followed Ryan into the training room, many looking groggy or just annoyed. A tiny bit of me was glad that I wasn't the only one who hated our guardian's cheerfulness.

Tyler came in last. He had bright eyes, but only a shadow on his lips compared to Ryan's blinding grin. "Morning, everyone. Today we'll be practicing some hand to hand combat."