Raven

Chapter 13 - Questions

I peeled off the gauze on my left hand, glad to see that thanks to Kira's healing cream the cut on my palm was scabbing nicely. I leaned against the kitchen bench, taking a moment to relax. There was an apple beside me that I planned to eat at some point. Since the cover on my scab was fairly thick (what on earth was in that cream of hers? It looked like I'd been healing for a week, not a day), I decided to let the cut air for a bit, but left the bandage on my neck for now. I'd ask Kira about that later.

On my way out of the kitchen, I ran into Joel. Literally.

"Jesus Christ what is it with all of you and rock-hard shoulders?" I groaned, rubbing the side of my face. At least it wasn't my nose again. He cracked up laughing, a throaty chuckle that coaxed me to smile as well.

"You need to look where you're going more often, Stella. Or at least, where everyone else is."

"Ha ha. So why're you hurrying into the kitchen like so?"

"Would you believe me if I told you I'm making bread?" There was a twinkle in his eye, which I considered shrewdly.

"... No, no I wouldn't."

"Good, because I'm not. Just getting some cereal, maybe some Milo before Harley eats it all. Then I'm going down to the archery range to practise a bit."

"Oh what, you have an archery range here too?" Archery was a hobby I'd never really thrown myself into, but it was fun to do occasionally.

"Yeah. Far side of the hill in the bush, it's a little bit of a walk but I'm happy with it." He shifted his weight, and I could tell he wanted to do his thing. Taking the cue I turned back, picked up my apple, and darted out of the kitchen.

"You go, I'll stall if I see him. Ciao, Joel."

"Cheers, Stella."

I wasn't totally sure why, but I wanted to sit up in the tree. So after a minute or two I found myself perched in the branch I'd jumped from earlier in the week. From there I could see Kira and Ella sparring as I munched on my apple. I learned at that point that Kira was using a whip, and was very accurate with it. The way she moved was extremely graceful in contrast to Ella's quick, sharp movements and I could have watched the two all afternoon.

"Hi Tweety!"

Cazzo- I flinched at the sudden voice from right next to me, and nearly fell off the branch. I flailed around wildly for a minute, shock fuelling my movements. After that frantic time, I pulled myself back up with a little difficulty before throwing a half-hearted glare to the tall boy now hanging upside down from the branch above me. There was a pleasant smile on his face, which only grew when I flipped him off.

"That's not very nice."

"Neither is scaring the life out of me like that, so you deserved it. You made me drop my apple, look." I looked dejectedly at the fruit which had fallen to the ground, and Harley glanced down. "Oh hey, I forgot I had a question for you."

"After you so rudely flipped me off for simply greeting you? Sure, what is it?" I snickered at Harley's tone of voice, but held onto the branch for dear life as he unhooked himself and dropped down to sit at my level. At least I had his attention.

"Mostly about how I went yesterday. I kinda feel like I didn't do as well as I should have. I'm a commander, but can't even fight off a cat."

Harley laughed. He leaned back from laughing so hard, and I was almost about to slap at his leg for doing so when he spoke, sitting up abruptly.

"Tweety, that was your first mission, you're allowed to be inexperienced. God knows I used to be. I've been fighting with Briannon for years and can still only just beat her, she's ridiculously good at hand-to-hand combat. I had to use my guns, too. If she hadn't caught you by surprise, you probably would have been an even match."

"The cat's name is Briannon?" I asked, suddenly realising that I couldn't just call her "the cat" for the rest of eternity, now.

"Yep. I'll tell you the boys' names after we survive the fight that we meet them in. That doesn't mean you don't have a long way to go, either. So no slacking off, and don't you dare die on me. Don't need another one." His tone was light-hearted, but there was an edge to it in that last sentence that confused me. I would have asked outright what he meant by it, but decided on a more roundabout approach.

"I don't plan on dying anytime soon, Bolts. You've just gotta promise that you won't either, because I will personally go to wherever you end up and kick your ass back to the living."

Harley laughed, and extended a hand, which I took to shake. "Deal. I doubt any of us will especially while Kira's around, anyway."

"Damn straight." Kira leaned out the window, looking composed as ever despite the training she had apparently just finished up. "I'm not letting any of you die if I can help it; we may be the bad guys, but we're not the worst guys. We kill to survive-"

"Mostly," interrupted Harley.

"Just because you're a special brand of weird doesn't mean the rest of us are." Kira quipped back. "Anyway. We kill to survive, but a lot of other groups out there do it for fun. Like The Samurai, for example. Callum is a bloody psychopath, Jack cares about nobody but himself, and Briannon happily follows orders."

"Who're the first two?" I was asking a lot of questions today, apparently.

"Callum and Jack are Shadow Knight and Black Jack, respectively. Looks like you found out their names earlier than expected." Harley laughed. There was a few minutes of comfortable silence among the three of us after that, and I thought about the mission to come. There was an air of impending doom about it, for some reason, that I didn't like.

"Also, Joel's eating your Milo." Kira piped up casually, and winked at me. She knows, then.

"What?!" Harley shot up and vaulted through the window.

I swear, I had never seen a teenage boy move that quickly in my life.