The Price of Feathers

Survival 101

Once again, Raven woke up in an empty room with a massive headache. She quickly got ready for the day and tried not to jump out of her skin when she heard a knock at the door. The sight of bouncing blonde curls instantly calmed her, and she strolled towards her newfound dragon sister.

"Hey, sestra!" Dagne all but sang when Raven opened up the door.

She was definitely not used to receiving such a warm welcome from someone who was still a stranger. Even Sage took longer to warm up to her. It wasn't a bad feeling, but a part of her didn't quite trust it. Despite her inner struggle, she straightened the lapels of her leather trench coat and fixed her face from the previous evening.

"What's up, Dags," she said.

There was something about the Russian that felt familiar in a way that made no sense at all, but considering how messed up things were, she was not going to spit in the face of small blessings.

"Are you ready for today, Ash? I mean, you just got her, but you've really gotta try your best to survive today..." Dagne started.

"Wait, what? What do you mean by survive?" Raven's heart was pounding. Were they going to start the tournament today? No! That's too soon, right?

Dagne noticed the smoke coming from her friend's ears, popped the top off her water bottle, and threw the content at Raven's face.

"What the fuck!?" the silver and black-haired girl growled at the blonde before her.

Instead of shrinking away, Dagne shrugged her shoulder and said, "You were heating up ... so ... water."

She smiled again and dragged the fuming girl by her wrist towards the common area. Raven had to choose between maintaining her fury and preventing herself from tripping over her own feet as the shorter girl tugged her along. That decision was made for her when she slipped from Dagne's grasp and fell straight on her face.

There were a few people that burst out into laughter. The first voice she heard from the Silver's shy laugh. He approached her to help her, but before he could, the ever-brooding figure of everyone's favourite angel loomed over her and offered a strong hand. There was nothing gentle about how Lucifer yanked her to her feet with an exasperated sigh.

Silver waited a few seconds, then approached the girl, rubbing her bruised forehead. Now her ego wasn't the only thing that was bruised, but still, none of that set her at ease, considering Dagne's warning still whirled around her head.

"Thanks, Silver," she offered the boy a fist bump with her hand rubbing her forehead before turning on her heels towards the girl playing with her pointed black nails.

"Dags, why and what do I need to survive?" she sighed.

She lost all the fight in her once when her head met the concrete. Dagne opened her mouth to speak, but another blonde spoke up. The silver blonde-haired Leech spoke up, "Today is the first day of training for the tournament."

Where Leech was, he was probably only a few steps ahead of Aphrodite. He followed her everywhere, but with those long Irish legs, he always reached their destination first.

"Training?" she asked; at least she wouldn't die today.

"I know you're used to rocking up and kicking ass, sexy, but unless you want us all to die, you might want to learn another skill aside from pummelling everyone's face in until they give up and die. The Light team is expecting that," the ebony goddess piped up and turned the dragoness's face towards the door to the training room.

To say that the Light team had an advantage against the Dark would be an underestimation of the century. Compared to the state-of-the-art equipment in the glittering halls of the Light, the dank and obsolete equipment in the concrete Tuna can also be known as the Dark team's training hall. At least there was a semi-functional wrestling mat in the centre of the room. The only question was why the mat had so much black water.

There was a loud boom from all four corners of the room. Then a figure descended into view from the ceiling. A loud sigh and the apparition of Artemis in front of the Dark team followed holographic fireworks with a static sound.

"I really need to fix the sound system in this place," he said, looking around with a semi-disgusted face and dusting off his coat.

"Anyway," he said, clearing his throat and then, in a booming voice, made an MC's announcement, "Welcome to your first official day of training in Artemis – in MY playground!"

He smirked directly at Raven and then clapped his hands like the ringmaster at a circus.

Instantly the black liquid raised from the mat and formed a giant, floor-to-ceiling, metallic obstacle course with something that resembled a guillotine on the third level. The orphan gulped down the lump in her throat as she gazed at the obstacle course.

"They don't expect us to really go up that thing, do they?" she asked Silver.

Silver finally got to piped up, "Well, not exactly. We have to get through that course and then have a 1-on-1 sparring match against each other."

"What do you mean sparing fight? I thought that only happens when we enter the tournament," she said. She was not a stranger to getting into fights, but she had never had to practice fighting.

"I know this is all still sorta new to you, but there's no point in sugar-coating things. We don't have a single shot against the Light team, and we really need all the practice we can get. It's a fight to the death; whether we like it or not, someone will need to walk out alive. I don't know about you, but I really need to get home," that was the most she'd ever heard the blue-eyed boy speak before. His words rang true. She needed to get over her fear of heights and train her ass off to get her life back and get back to Sage in one piece.

Raven peaked over at Lucifer, who was already glaring at her and bit the inside of her cheek and thought, "I really hope she's not my first opponent..."