When I entered the dorm, everyone was trying not to stare at me. Everything swirled and blurred together as I tried to head to my bed. I blinked. Things became even more blurry, the walls merging into one another and the people around me just mere blocks of figures.
I flopped on my bed, watching my classmates mingle around. They were clearly avoiding me, maneuvering in long circles around my bed and avoiding eye contact. I dug my head in my pillow and breathed it in. Breathed in. Breathed out. Until the pillow was hot and stuffy with my breath.
Everything was still blurry when I finally lifted my head to breathe fresh air. I blinked some more and noticed the tears. The tears that were leaking out of my eyes. I rubbed them but it only ignited a burning kind of sensation to my eyes.
A soft item landed on my hip. I turned around, every limb of my body screaming to rest and be still. The item almost fell to the side of the bed as I was turning, but I caught it in time before it fell off. It was a wet towel, so small and puny against the ruckus I had caused to myself. Someone was right next to my bed.
Sliding myself up to rest my back against the headboard, I feigned a passive face and lazily moved my head to the side. I didn't have to fake a passive face very much- I was already annoyed and tired from today's event.
Even after the competition, Logan's face was clean from injuries and his tanned skin was bright and lively. A line of sweat glistened around his hair line but that looked purposeful, a showing off that he had won fairly from the competition.
For the first time, I noticed the phoenix on his right hand. It was not glowing at all like mine, and looked like strokes from a black, thick, paintbrush, carelessly drawn in. Though, the symbol was the same drawing.
Without much thought and care, I picked up the towel and smacked it on my cheek and on the cut. The cool sensation made me want to use the towel more. So, I did, using it to wipe my whole face. I felt myself pant from the relaxed feeling as if I had so many burdens before and it had disappeared with just one wipe of a towel.
"Thanks," I said.
He didn't say anything about the competition. Just stood there silently, almost reaching out for the towel when I placed it on my lap. His hand was just an arm's length before he retracted it again and scratched his head.
"It didn't turn out as you expected again, did it?" Logan sat down on a stool next to my bed.
"Aaron said I didn't have to train anymore if I didn't want to," I replied. I couldn't stop staring at him, at his expressions, at his face. I sighed, leaving my hands on my stomach and feeling the rhythmic motion of it. "Somehow it didn't go the way I planned. Everything didn't. Was I really born so privileged I didn't have to train with a weapon in my life?"
A wistful look crossed his face. "You still made it in," Logan said, holding his hand out to his side. "People are going to forget about it sooner or later."
I turned over on the bed until I faced him. His eyes tilted down with my movement. "Does that even matter?"
Logan placed a hand on the bed. "Maybe not. Maybe it only matters that you made it."
"How am I going to face Aaron after this," I moaned, putting my head in my hands. "Not only that, but I'm also going to have to train extra hard."
"Iridian," he whispered. "I have a feeling it'll be better after a night's rest. Your Phluid is a lot more sensitive than you think."
He stood up, releasing his hand from the bed. His eyes were really dark, especially against the dazzling reflections of the wall mirror. Definitely a dark presence, yet there was something reserved and gentle.
"Congratulations and good night, Logan," I called out after him. "I look forward to training more with you."
A hint of a smile returned. "Thank you, Iridian. No matter how you think of it, you too."
Logan left after that. A few hours later, Aaron came in for another inspection. And when he did, I closed my eyes until I heard the creak of the scales wrapping around him to bring him up back on the beach. Only when there was still silence did I peek.
I checked to make sure he was gone-through the mirror-then got up, ignoring my injuries and moved away from the bed. My eyes felt puffy but still I could feel the weight of the darkness around me.
I needed to talk to Aaron. I needed to know what really happened in the arena. Why he did that and what he was expecting from me next. Following him was the best strategy to force him to talk with me. On that thought, I veered around my bed and tip-toed toward the target board on the ground.
✾✾
I was almost whisked away by the coldness of the night air. I had forgotten to bring a jacket with me and I could already feel the goosebumps rise on my skin. The torches on the beach were not lit but were smoking as if they had been recently extinguished. The waves gave off a noiseless lull while the wind whistled harshly around me.
Center Assemblage was constructed with Earth in mind. It almost felt like I was back on Earth, where I ran up and down the beaches' shores countless times with Crescent and Sean.
Rakde looked at me with a cocked head and its Auxiliary only nodded at me next to the pipe. I nodded back. Then, I took a step on the sand and immediately spotted Aaron not walking far away from the benches.
Careful not to give myself away, I crouched on my stomach and stayed there, hopeful that Aaron could not hear me.
Aaron's eyes darted around as if he sensed something lurking nearby. When he turned his head forward again, I raced toward another bench and crawled behind. My heart almost felt ready to explode as I skidded closer to each checkpoint. The wind began to pick up. My arm vibrated with shivers. The thin sleeves of my shirt brushed against my skin.
He looked back again. His shoes were light on the sand but it still left imprints to follow. When I raced to the next bench, I made sure to stomp on top of his footprints, destroying any trace of a follower. I continued to run, sweat beginning to gather across my forehead, until we came to the part where the beach paved out to the hill.
I followed him out of the beach and toward the hill where we always trained at. Each time I rushed too fast against a brush or a tree, Aaron would spin his head around and scan the area. But of course, his ears or eyes couldn't be that sharp.
Aaron had a sort of a tense stride which was different from his usual stroll. Many times, I had the urge to pop out and talk to him before he would move on, but there was something about his antsy behavior that made me restrain myself.
He pushed through the usual clearing that we trained at and entered somewhere I was not familiar with. I broke through the remainder of the trees and saw another clearing. It was completely empty; there wasn't the river in the middle I was used to. Instead, there was a deformed shack with moonlight slicing through the opening of the trees and filling the area with a silver glow.
I rushed to grab hold of his attention, but he had already entered the shack. I headed to the back of the shack and prayed he would go outside again, hoping he would not spend his nights in such a run-down place.
The shack had no windows, but as I headed closer and closer to the back I could hear a voice. Two voices. One was obviously Aaron's but the other was not distinctly human. It was a series of animal barks. I leaned closer to the walls of the shack, so close that I could smell the rust of metal coming off of it.
"Your turn to scout the area," Aaron growled. I heard a clang of materials banging together.
Scout the area? No time to ponder. I pushed my thighs forward and stumbled toward the trees, pulling myself short to hide behind one.
A dog-like animal pushed open the door and walked out, sniffing frantically. What I thought was a dog wasn't a dog. It was a full-grown black wolf.
The drilling yellow eyes it had twitched every few seconds as if it was wincing all the time. It had sleek fur, black, camouflaging with its surroundings but seeming to lighten under the pale moon. The body was sturdy and strong but as well as agile, I knew that, from looking at how its shoulder blades pulsed with each powerful step. It looked the same as a regular wolf; there wasn't anything mythical about it. I drew closer to the tree.
Even its gait was similar and the way it prowled was too identical to a wolf. But there was no way a mammal could be here on a Mythical Creature Island. The wolf sniffed for another minute or so before pouncing back inside the shack.
I made my way back toward the shack and pressed my ear to the crumbling, metal walls. The walls were very thin and I could hear everything that Aaron and the wolf were saying. I heard the wolf bark and Aaron sigh. The idea of me talking to Aaron about this morning's competition flew out of my mind. There was a wolf on a Mythical Creature Island. Here, on Center Assemblage out of all the Mythical Creature Islands.
"If he's going to keep this up, he'll get caught for sure," Aaron criticized. "Can't he be a little wary of who he's spending time with?"
His voice was muffled but then the voice responding to him wasn't the wolf. I inched as far as I could on the shack. If I made even a scratch, they could hear it on the other side.
"How long do I have to drink this? It hurts everytime I drink that shit. I don't even know what it is," a man replied.
"Relax, It's only chimera's blood."
"Yeah, but why did you want to turn me into a human?" the man's voice squeaked. "Couldn't it have been any other mythical creature?"
"Just shut up."
The wolf was Aaron's animal, transformed into a human with chimera's blood. I secured my hand on the shack's walls. What did this mean? How did Aaron get in here if he was actually a Wolf Auxiliary?
"I'm tired of waiting, just attack the poor soul," the other person whined.
"That defeats the whole purpose," Aaron groaned as if he was annoyed that he kept repeating himself to the man. "They need to get their animal and we need to let them get there as easily as possible. Once there, we can try to convince them as best as we can. It's a very delicate process."
"And then what?"
"We still need to test them on a few more things. There's something that's very vulnerable about them and if we can just grasp what that is, this process might go a little faster."
"Better be right."
I switched positions, making myself more comfortable to hear, but a voice piped up from behind.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
I spun with a million excuses in my head but when I fully registered who was in front of me, I almost sagged with relief. Ace's face was shrouded in darkness from the trees and through the darkness, I saw the guarded look on his face, warded off and devoid of expression. I pressed my back against the shack. My ribs suddenly felt raw and painful as if something was crunching against them.
"Ace," I said casually, leaning against the shack while crossing my arms and raising my eyebrows.
The expressionless face left and was replaced with curiosity, but the doubt still lurked. I was about to slip off the wall when Ace reached out and helped me stand up.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, trying again to lean on the wall.
"When trying to move stealthily in the night, you're just plain bad at it."
I snorted. "Alright. So, you followed me here."
I heard a crumble when his shoes shifted across the grass. His eyes darted to the side of the shack to see if anybody was looking. When he was satisfied, his eyes came back to me with irritation.
"No, I didn't. And I didn't come here to stalk Aaron either," he said, grunting.
I shot him a furious glare. "Shush, he'll hear!"
His eyes wandered behind me, gazing at the shack. Then, he looked back at my face.
"What could you possibly want to hear from him?" he snapped.
I avoided his gaze. "I was initially going to follow him because I wanted to know more about the battle this morning, but he started to get more suspicious."
"Suspicious?"
"I saw a black wolf come out of the shack which makes no sense. No mammals are allowed here. And also, when it went inside, there was another person talking with Aaron. He said he was using something called chimera's blood and making his friend drink it."
We were only a few feet away from each other, so near that I could feel his close presence in front of me. If we moved a little apart, there would be a high risk that somebody in the shack could hear us. Ace had to lean in closer to me to hear better.
"That's what makes people transform into whatever they want," Ace whispered.
"How does it transform people? Isn't chimera's blood illegal?"
Ace hesitated. It seemed like he was reaching a touchy subject, but then he grunted and answered, "Chimera Auxiliaries extract blood from their chimeras and sell them to the black market. It's usually sold with a doctor's prescription because in small doses, it alters certain organs so you can relieve pain in the organs you're transforming, but selling them to the black market allows anybody to get it and gives you no restriction to how much you can take."
"It affects the Phluid in the brain, then?"
"Yes, something like that."
"That means he's changing his animal into a human. How many doses is that for all the organs and physical appearances to change into a human?" I asked.
Ace didn't say anything. Kept pressing his lips together.
"Aaron was sent here to find somebody, Ace. He mentioned about attacking that specific person," I explained. "Do you think it's the Phoenix Auxiliary?"
I felt threatened as I voiced that question. If Aaron was looking for a Phoenix Auxiliary here, it could only be Logan or me. Why would Aaron have any sort of connection with such a big organization like Malanthe's and her Colludes? Nothing was making sense.
Ace leaned away from me. In a lower voice than his already soft voice he said, "Not my problem."
I tried to raise an eyebrow but stopped when I heard footsteps padding behind me. Directly behind me. I instantly turned and eyed the shack.
"Who else is in the shack?" he asked, looking over my shoulders again.
"No one," I said. "It's just Aaron and his friend. We should do something to prevent him. Somebody might get attacked from what he said."
Ace shook his head. "Don't care."
His voice drew my attention away from the shack. The footsteps had faded away, but no more voices.
"Thanks a lot," I grumbled. "Now they're not talking anymore."
Now, I definitely wasn't going to agitate Aaron by talking about my battle this morning. Whatever happened in the past was going to settle as the past. I had to leave. Now.
"Let's go back," I hustled. "Before they come out again."
I headed from the shack and started to hustle back on the trail to the housing. Leave. Leave now. Ace followed and walked by my side as we crossed the first clearing and down the beach again. The night air was cold, the wind freezing, whipping our shirts wildly. The temperature dropped discernibly when we got closer to the waves.
"You could be misunderstanding their conversation," Ace tried to reassure me.
"I heard what I heard."
"You're being paranoid."
I huffed, fully knowing that he might be right. I continued to march back to the housing.
"We're getting our animals next week," Ace informed suddenly. I stopped walking as he lightly bumped his shoulder to mine.
I almost didn't want to reply. I knew Ace was angry that I didn't admit my defeat to the public. I seemed more indifferent now that hours had gone by since my loss. But when he told me that we were getting our animals tomorrow, it almost seemed like he was reluctantly accepting my stay in a Mythical Creature Island as a Phoenix Auxiliary.
"What animal did you get from the Evaluation anyways?" I had no intention of remembering that failure.
"A Garvyn."
I kicked something hard and heard it fly across, hitting the sand with a muffled thump. "What's a Garvyn?"
"Hell if I knew."
"Are you worried?"
"Not as much as you are."
I huffed. "Please, you don't need to add more to the wound."
"Didn't think there was a wound there in the first place," Ace chided behind.
"I care about things," I turned around to face him. "Got it?"
We walked in silence until we saw Rakde and its owner again, standing like statues next to the pipe to the dorms. One look at Ace and I and its scales had already stretched out from its flesh and wrapped around both of us, not dragging us in the pipe but straight to the ground.
When we both had entered back in the housing, I felt a strange sense of quietness from the lack of chatter. Ace had already turned on his heels and drifted off to bed. The unsettling conversation I had heard a few minutes ago prevented me from moving any further. I watched the breathing of my classmates and felt even more violated.
Aaron was going to attack somebody in this group, but worse, somebody had hired Aaron to be a Mythical Creature Auxiliary trainer based on merit and experience. I headed over to my bed and eased in, letting my eyes flutter shut. Aaron had taken the job in guiding these people around me. What I once thought was toward the progress Iona envisioned or something only he had eyes for.