Aeonia

Chapter Three

She gave him an award-winning smile and winked at him. He sprinted down the field and grabbed some of the paddles, returning moments later. Leilani thanked them and told Aelia the basics of the game, called 'Klovitch'. It was simple enough. By the sound of the rules, it was like football crossed with hockey, except the hoop was high, so you had to use the paddles to aim it into the hoops. You weren't allowed to touch the ball with your hands, except you were allowed to tackle other people for it.

It honestly just sounded for a reason to injure people.

"Let's give it a go, then," Aelia said, giving a short breath of laughter.

She jogged onto the field, her ponytail swishing in the cool breeze. She headed towards the blue team. Jaspa and Leilani followed after, however heading to the red team.

The people on the blue team were quite tall, Aelia noticed. That would give them an advantage, being able to reach the hoop better and run faster. Even at her tall height for her age, Aelia felt small.

"Hey!" One of the tall boys called out. "Are you coming to join us?"

He was tall and lanky, with toned brown arms. He brushed his messy long dark hair back with his hand as Aelia nodded. Walking over to him, Aelia felt intimidated, until he gave Aelia a welcoming grin.

"Aelia," She said, offering her hand.

A boy behind him whispered into his friend's ear, eyes widening.

"Malcom," He replied, shaking Aelia's hand, "You know the rules?"

"Yep, just tell me what you need me to do," Aelia smiled, eyes bright.

Malcom directed Aelia to be an attack, as she was shorter and thin, a great quality to weave through the masses of people. Nodding confidently, she lined up with the other attacks, noticing that the boy and friend from before were also in attack positions.

A whistle blew, signalling for the game to begin. Everyone began sprinting towards the small white ball in the centre of the oval. Aelia caught Jaspa's eye and ran forwards with a smirk on her face, her legs taking her towards the ball, cutting past the others. Aelia made sure not to hit any of her teammates with her klove, as she took off down the court. It was a good sprint – at least 50 metres – until either team was able to reach the ball. Leaving her teammates behind her, a single thought crossed her mind.

All those years of training to run at the orphanage finally paid off, Aelia.

Using her paddle, she scooped up the ball, resting it on the curved edge to hold it in place.

Someone called out to her, but Aelia was too caught up in the moment, wind rushing past her ears, legs cutting through the air, the breeze on her chest and hair flying behind her as she made her way up the field. A girl ran straight towards Aelia, a tank of muscles. Eyes wide in fear, she looked around, found one of the boys from before open and passed the ball to him. The girl was running towards Aelia too fast to stop, so Aelia ducked and rolled out of the way, protecting her head and making sure her paddle was far away from her body, so she didn't accidentally impale herself.

An ear-ringing cheer from up the end of the field signalled that her team had scored. Standing up rather shakily after exerting so much energy in such a short amount of time, Aelia released a shaky breath and walked over to where her team was, high-fiving each other and yelling about what a run that had been.

"Aelia!" Malcom yelled, running over.

She flinched with fear, the yelling of her name sending a wave of shock up her spine, waiting for an insult.