Unequal

Chapter Five

Chapter Five- Baurindriel

I will admit something. Something never to be repeated or to be told to anyone. And that is that Servius is actually a strong warrior and now slightly intimidates me. Only slightly.

After he passed out, I ran in his and Izuk's direction, impressed with Servius' ability to resist the heat of the flames so well.

"Is he okay?" I questioned Izuk, not necessarily caring but figuring it was the right thing to do.

"He'll be fine. He's the sort of person who holds up quite well."

I nod and glance at Servius, his face red and lined with sweat. "He looks okay,  for the most part." I sling my bow over my shoulder. "Now what?"

"Vaughn will probably teleport us back." Scarlett answered.

"And what? Servius will go and be flopped onto the floor...? He's not standing like the rest of us..." With that said, the whole scenery does the fading, merging, swirling thing again and the four of us end up back at the academy. And we are the first ones. Headmaster Vaughn approaches us, Servius sprawled on the floor, Izuk bending over him and Scarlett and I standing awkwardly behind the two of them.

“Congratulations, you have showed your ability to work as a team. After a bit of shouting and compromising, you succeeded your test. I happily can call you true members of my academy.”

I muttered something relatively degrading, then looked Headmaster in the eye. “Sir, I...uh...don’t think I can work with him.” I gestured towards Servius. “Because..um...”

“If it is something personal, you’re going to have to overcome it. I’m not rearranging groups just because one person can’t tolerate another. I apologize, but you’ll have to learn to work with others. It’s part of being a warrior.”

I sighed. “Okay.”

Another group appeared in the middle of the room and Headmaster goes to talk to them. I shuddered, looking at the burns covering their arms and faces. It appeared as though they weren’t quite as lucky as we were were. One of them, a tough looking girl with cropped hair and a scar running from her forehead to her chin, glared at me and I looked away to engage in conversation with my “team mates.”

“We did fairly well, wouldn’t you agree?” Scarlett said.

I nodded and pulled my hair away from my sweaty face. “Fairly, I suppose. He’s still out cold.” I refer to Servius.

Scarlett shrugged. “Probably just strain. He’ll get back up soon, I’m sure. He did take the most heat.”

All I came out of it with was a small scratch across my knuckle. A scratch that I managed to give myself with my ragged nail. Seeing as Servius could have practically died, it made me feel slightly pathetic. Useless. I was determined that next time we had a challenge, I would face the problem head on, with my knives, rather than watching from afar, firing arrows now and then. Even though it was my job to be the archer, I still felt pointless with that job. I could use knives and I would use knives and I perhaps woulddied just because I was out of practice. Oh well. At least I would die with honour.

I rolled my eyes at myself. I was being illogical, of course. These challenges weren’t a one on one thing. We all had jobs and mine wasn’t to use my knives.

I’ll just become an even better shot. I thought to myself.

“Uh....Hello? Earth to Baurindriel? Anything in there?” Scarlett whacked me upside the head, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I shook my head abruptly. “What...?”

“He woke up.”

Servius stood, leaning on Izuk, collecting the rest of his strength.

“Hey.” He said raspily.

“I care because...?” I responded, fidgeting with the bowstring.

“I see you still hate me.”

“And I see you’re as wise as ever. Congrats.”

“You know, I could’ve gotten severely injured just to keep the rest of the team safe. You could show some gratitude.”

“Thanks.” I said sarcastically. Maybe I was the jerk...