Code of Shadows

Test 1 (Part 30)

We went around another lap, and the boy dropped to the first person in the middle group.

"When do we finish?" I huffed at Sera.

She grinned at me. "One more. Seven is always the lucky number."

The lap was over pretty quickly. When she stopped I made my way over to the water, then waited for the rest of Grianan to run in. The boy who had been running next to me had been the second one in. He was still huffing, and his face was red. As soon as we stopped running he collapsed, and started puking. The guys who came in after him did the same thing. The first girl came in, and stumbled to the water were I was standing, then promptly started to fall. I quickly pulled up beside her and supported her so she could drink water and not fall. She quickly finished the glass.

"Thanks," she slurred.

I smiled. "Any time." There was  a awkward pause. "Nice run 'eh?"

"I guess. If you call that nice," she said. She looked up at me for the first time. Her eyes were a little blurry, but I could tell she could see me just fine. She squinted at me, "You look like someone I used to knew... Although I hope that you are nothing like her. My name is Meredith." 

"Cait. Nice to meet you." We then faded into a comfortable silence as we watched the rest of the main group run in. As soon as there was an obvious gap between the main group and the stragglers I started to notice Sera and Sam moving to intercept the last group. I realized what they were doing, then I saw Dove, jogging along in the group.

"Sprint! Dove Sprint! Get past them before they cut you off." Dove looked up at my voice and saw them closing the gap. She panicked, and sprinted as hard as she could. The others in front and behind her saw what she was doing, and shrugged her off.

There was 10 yards between Sam and Sera, 20 between Dove and the mentors. 5-10. Dove sprinted harder. Dove slid through the 3 yard gap, and collapsed gasping. Sam and Sera finished closing the gap, and pulled the 20 or so kids that hadn't made the run into a small group off to the side.

Sera came jogging over to our group. "Great job those of you who made it. This will be the first of five tests, just to make absolute sure that all of you that survive are qualified to become guardians. If you pass these tests it doesn't mean that you will become a guardian, you will still have to work hard. But your chances are better. Besides only half of this group will make it past all five tests." Sera left the group on those words. Everyone felt the challenge. A few people smiled confidently, and a few shivered. I turned my attention to the group that had been pulled out of the original group. Sam was standing in front of them informing them that they had been cut out of Grianan so early because they hadn't run fast enough.

Dove came up beside me now.

"You know, I feel really bad for those people who just got discharged," I said.

"Don't be," Dove said. "They knew that they were suppose to be in their best shape when they came here. The academy warned everyone who came here that they needed to be in top physical shape to be a guardian. I didn't take that part serious enough, and I almost got cut."

"Yeah, I guess you are right." I turned from the group and saw Meredith laying on the ground. I cursed, then ran over to her. "Meredith, get up, you are just going to get cramps!"

Meredith groaned at me in response.

"I am serious Meredith, get up!"

Meredith groaned again, but slowly stood up anyway.

"Won't I just get sore anyways?" she asked.

I laughed. "Not if you stretch, which is something we probably should do, it may give us an extra advantage." Meredith sighed, then we all started our own stretches. Meredith, Dove, and I stretched in silence as the rest of Grianan started to move again.

Finally, Sera and Sam came back to our group. "Lets get moving again. We need to be in the dining hall in 5 minutes. I looked around at the field that we were in outside of the tower circle. We would make it to the tower in five minutes, but the 100 of us Grianan's probably wouldn't all make it up the stairs to the dining hall in five minutes. I groaned, why did everything have to be so much of a race here.

.........................

By the time that we had all reached the dining hall we were all 2 minutes late, but that was better than all of the other newbie groups, we were the first ones there, and the next group to come was 7 minutes late. Sera and Sam herded the new trainees through the food line, and over to several tables that were in front of the Grianan tunnel. All the tables were created to look like they were see through, just illusions of the eye, but I assure you they were quiet hard. I looked around to check out the other groups tables. Bethabara had rocks that looked like lava. Bromley had sweet little wooden tables and chairs. Aimon had a dark and peaceful constellation looking area. Peyton had chairs made of dirt and clay. Manuae had seats made of clouds, and Finally, Eaton had tables and chairs made completely out of water. Each was different, yet the same. Every section was easily identified, and each enterprise mostly stayed to themselves, and the same uniforms were shown through out. Each of the different specialty groups was easily identified, and almost never did you see a group with just one from one of the seven specialized groups. I stared down at my meal now, not very interested in it. I just pecked at it, and slowly tuned into Meredith and Doves conversation.

"You are really from the four isles?" Dove gasped. "I always wanted to live visit there! Tell me about it!"

Meredith laughed. "Wo there, they are not as great as they are told to be if you have lived there your whole life, but they still are pretty cool. Each island is at most an mile wide, and it is really easy to get from one island to another. We don't have a Cyclopos on every island, so we have to either swim there, paddle a boat, or walk on the bridges. The sands are all white, and the oceans look so clean and beautiful as aqua blue," Meredith sighed at that point.

Dove looked annoyed. "I don't want to learn about that, I want to now about the elders council!"

I laughed at this point, but my nerves were still on high alert. "Always seeking knowledge aren't you Dove."

Dove blushed. "Fine, I will just read about it in the library." The three of us were sitting at our own table that could have easily held 10 more people, but nobody wanted to sit with us, I didn't mind. The less people around me, the less jumpy I was. I had almost convinced my nerves to calm down when I heard a thump next to me. I jumped up, and turned to see what it was.

There I saw someone I had expected to never see again.

"Dylan!" I screeched.

What do you think? A surprise I didn't even expect. I thought that Dylan was just doing to be a character that didn't matter much, but maybe not so much.

Thank you so much for reading, and please vote!

Fermidog