Demon's Within

Chapter 5

"I guess, but what happened?" Hato asked him as he made his to his friend sitting on a bed across the room. "One day you just came to school and did nothing but obey the rules."

"No-one knows what happened, except for my family of course." Kentaro hesitated to continue, his voice unusually shivering. "My cousin, my best friend, he was on a mission, five years ago." He paused. "He disobeyed orders to save his squad and died." Tears rolled down his chiselled features. "He died Hato, He died!" Kentaro slapped his mattress hard, grief overcoming his expression.

"I'm sorry." Hato said quietly. Yukna stirred slightly. "But, he did it to save his friends, right?" Hato paused to place his hand on his friend's shoulder to comfort him. "A friend is worth it, rules and regulations are important, but you shouldn't live by them 24/7 no matter what happens." Hato opened his arms expecting an embrace from his friend, but Kentaro slapped away his hands.

"I'll sleep it off." Kentaro said quietly. Kentaro fell down on his bed with a thud. He laid down quietly on his bed and soon fell asleep.

"Goodnight." Hato said to himself. He laid down on his floor mattress comfortably, but he found it hard to fall asleep. He had a lot on his mind; mostly about Kyona's wellbeing. Ever since she had left the village, he couldn't shake the feeling something horrible had happened. "I'll sleep it off." Hato convinced himself silently. Something was wrong, and it was coming fast.

"Good morning Hato." A cheerful voice said to him. Hato opened his eyes slowly, as he just woke from a restless sleep. As he sat up slowly and cautiously, he saw Yukna lingering over him, cheerful as ever. "Gross! Why are you sweating so much!" Yukna said disgusted as she grabbed his hand to pull him up from his bed. He patted himself and realised that he was covered on cold sweat. He shrugged it off and simply said he was worried. That was really all it was.

"Well, breakfast is ready, you're lucky we don't have to go to training today." Kentaro said coolly. He was running his fingers in his hair again while Yukna jumped up and down excitedly.

"Wait, it's a Tuesday, did something happen?" Hato asked confused. He walked over to the corner of the room where his clothes from yesterday laid and began to take off his shirt. He lent down gently and picked up his shirt to put it on.

"Well, Yukna seems to want to explain." He said calmly as he gestured elegantly to Yukna's excited form. She squealed with eagerness.

"Kentaro said we can go and find Kyona!" She said quietly but excitedly. "We're going to sneak out of the village undetected and..." Yukna continued to outline and explain a plan as she rolled out a map of the region on the floor, tracing their path with her finger.

"But we're going to wait for confirmation of her location before we leave." Kentaro added.

"How?" Hato and Yukna questioned.

"Her Trida of course!" Kentaro said in a matter-of-fact way. The others looked at each other confused. Kentaro recognised their confusion and elaborated. "Kyona's smart, she literally tamed her Trida yesterday and knows that she doesn't have enough experience with it." He paused to see if Hato and Yukna were understanding where he was going with it. "So if she can't fight with it, then the only other logical thing to do would be to send it on its way on Urata here so it can warn someone. So we just have to wait until it-"

Kentaro was interrupted by a loud knock on the door. The loud knock was then followed by a deafening thud of antlers on a brick wall. Then loud thumping of grass on hooves was audible.

"Whoever it is they're eager." Yukna said as she left the room hurriedly to answer the door.

"So Kentaro, when did you choose to disobey huh?" Hato said as soon as Yukna had left the room. He elbowed his friend in a joking manner.