Chapter Ten: The Truth Revealed
I smiled as I felt the wind blow through my hair. "Ah, it's nice when wind blows through your hair, ain't it?" I joked a little, while still trying to be serious. It's probably because I was the wind elemental, and from my understanding, Elementals have interests affiliated to their element. One of mine is that I enjoy a nice cold breeze, the colder the better. "With that long hair of yours, you must like it," I chuckled.
"Hey," Cole tried defending himself,"Just because I have hair like this, doesn't mean I like it," we shared a short stare, then he laughed a little as well "Who am I kidding, it's pretty nice," I haven't seen many guys who could pull off long hair like his, but for some reason he could. There was Lloyd who had long hair, but it was nothing compare to his long hair. I had to admit, it was some awesome hair. "So, I'm wondering, what do you think about all of this?"
"Hm?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, about joining the team?"
"Ah," I still wasn't exactly sure how I should have felt, you could say I was having mixed feelings about it. I was surprised that it came to that. I was excited, too. And I was happy that it happened as well. It was a change that I knew would benefit me, and wasn't that bad. "It's gonna take some time to get used to, but it shouldn't be that bad. I feel like it's going to be fun, actually. From what I can tell, you guys are crazy, and I love crazy," I admitted. "I'm just going to add onto it."
"You have no idea what kind of crazy we have going on back at the monastery, but you seem like you can handle it," he was right, I could handle it, or I at least hoped. I grew up being friends with a crazy group of kids back in Jamanakai Village, so it shouldn't have been a problem. I watched as the village come into view, and heard Cole add "I don't know where your place is, so you're gonna have to show me."
He landed right on the edge of the Village, and the both of us jumped off the dragon before he let it vanish. "Okay, I'm not going to take that long. Just gotta get some things and explain things to my sister," I told him as I rubbed the back of my neck. I was still a little nervous about how she would take things, for all I knew she'd tell me I couldn't go. I cared about her so much, but I couldn't let her stop me from going. "You can wait outside, or in my living room if you want."
"I'll take your living room," we walked towards my house, and for some reason I dreaded each step that I took. It was one step closer to facing my sister and being forced to tell her the news. I knew that I was overthinking the situation, but I couldn't help it, there was no way in hell that it would go smoothly. We stopped at my house, and Cole got a good look at it. "Nice place."
"Thanks. It's technically not mine, it's my sister's house," I told him. She was the one who originally bought it, she just let me stay with her, mostly because it was the only way I could live near her. I opened the door, and once I got inside I yelled "Amanda, I'm home!"
I heard her jogging down the stairs. I saw her turn around the corner from the hallway, as she started to say "I'm glad you're home, it's getting late and I wasn't sure where you were-" She stopped when she saw me with Cole, and just continued to stare at him. "Oh, I didn't know that you were going to bring someone back with you."
I scratched the back of my neck "I know, neither did I. This is Cole, one of the Ninja, the one that helped me earlier, actually," I gestured to him, who waved a little. I wasn't sure what to say there, things just seemed to awkward at the moment, to me at least. "I've actually got something to tell you. I'm not sure how you're going to react about it, so could we talk in another room, just the two of you?" She nodded, and started for the room next to the living room. I turned my head so that I could see Cole behind me "You can just chill here for a bit. If you hear any yelling, which you might, just stay here."
I didn't wait for a response, and instead walked to the room my sister went to. "So, what do you want to talk about? It it about what happened while you were gone?"
"Yeah, kind of," I ran a finger through my hair, prepared to finally ready to come clean about it. I saw her expression, which was a mix of concern and curiosity. I could tell that she was wanted to know what I was about to spill, and possibly worried about what it was. "I know that you're not going to like this, but I'm leaving."
Her eyes widened "Wait, what?" I was just waiting for her to give me a long talk about why I should go, and how she wouldn't let me. I bet that she'd say You're not going, I'm not going to let you. I could feel bad for leaving her, but I already made the decision to, and I wouldn't even let her change that. "Why?"
I sighed "They asked me to join their team and train with them. I know that you probably don't want me to do that, but I agreed. I just think that it's best for me. You know how I've been wanting to start fighting again, and this is my chance, the opportunity I've been needing. Please, don't get mad at me. I know you probably don't want me to, and are going to try to convince me not to go, just don't-"
Out of no where, she pulled me into a hug. "You know what? I want you to go," I stood there dumbfounded as she had her arms wrapped around me. Did I just hear her right? That she wanted me to go? That wasn't how I thought she would react, it's a lot better than I thought that she would. She pulled away, and added "I know that you're my baby sister, and that I should be watching out for you, but I want what's best for you. If you think that this is the right thing to do, then it is."
I smiled "Thanks Amanda, I'm serious," I personally thought that the conversation about this would be a lot longer than it really was, but I guess that I was wrong. It was quick and simple, not long and complicated like I had predicted it would. I was just happy that she agreed and didn't argue about it with me, it made me feel better. "I appreciate it."
"No problem, Cass," She returned the smile. She gave me a pat on the back "Just one thing: I want you to try your ass off, don't push yourself past your limit, and have fun. Oh, and call me everyday, don't forget."
I laughed. "Don't worry Amanda, I won't forget," I assured her. I began to push her out of my room so I could get my things ready, "Now get out, go talk to Cole for a couple of minutes."
"Okay, okay." She walked out into the hall, and got one last look at me before walking back to the living room, leaving me alone.
I looked around my room, wondering what I would end up bringing. I had quite a bit of stuff in my room, and sadly I couldn't take it all. I reached under my bed and grabbed my two bags which I knew could hold everything I needed. It was a decent size, and I would have no problem fitting everything in them. The first things I grabbed were clothes. Clothes were those things that I didn't have a lot of, I just did a lot of laundry. Seven pairs of shirts, and eight of pants was all that I had, other than the other basic things. I only had three pairs of short, which I grabbed too. I stuffed my black pair of converse in the bag as well. Luckily I was wearing my boots, because they would be a pain trying to fit in the bag.
All of my clothes filled one of the bags, which left me with a smaller bag to put all of my personal belonging into. The first thing that I took, which there was no way I'd leave behind, was my sketchbooks. I had three of them which were all filled with drawings of mine. Something that not a lot of people knew was that I loved to draw, since I rarely showed anyone them (Besides my sister). Then it was my phone and the charged, there was no way I'd leave that behind. I also put in a couple of pictured. One of my sister and me. Another one was of our dad, her, and myself when she was twelve and I was seven. The last, was the only picture of my mom when she was still around. I ground at the picture before I quickly put it in my bag, not wanting to look at it at the moment.
I looked around again, seeing if I forgot anything. I was about to confirm that I got everything, but then I remembered something. I pulled a box out from underneath and smiled when I opened it. They others had really awesome Ninja Gi, so why couldn't I have anything? From back when I actually fought, I would always wear something that reminded me of my mom. She wore something similar to it, so it was special to me. She'd wear something purple when she was around and fighting, so I've adapted to wearing it too.
When I decided that I all that I needed, I started back for the living room. "Hey, I'm ready to go," I told Cole and Amanda. I knew that I'd miss living in Jamanakai Village, but I was just about to start living at a monastery. How is that not awesome? The two stood up, and I didn't hesitate to pull my sister into a hug. "Bye," I knew that I was going to miss her, but I'd still end up calling her almost every day. It was hard to leave because I just came back a couple of years prior, and I was leaving again. In this case, I was feeling a bit guilty about it.
She hugged me back. "Yeah, bye. I'll miss you," She told me before we both pulled away. I flashed one last smile to her. "Have fun," She finished. I could definitely promise her that I would have fun, I was already planning on it anyways. I wouldn't go if I wasn't going to try to have fun, no way in hell I would. "Well, it's getting pretty late, you should start heading back if you want to make it before dark."
I glanced at the clock on the side table and realized how late it was. It was already seven and it normally started getting dark around eight. It would probably take an hour or so to get back, so there was a chance that we could get back before then. "Yeah," I nodded before turning to Cole. "Let's get this show on the road," I adjusted the strap on one of my bags, that was slung around my shoulder, and started to walk outside.
When he was outside as well, Cole created his dragon again. Like before, I jumped on it's back and grabbed onto something that I could use to stay on the thing. I had my bags around my shoulders, so I didn't need to worry about them falling off or anything like that. Before I knew it, he flew off, and said. "It'll be interesting to see how things go in the next couple of days, like with having you training with us from now on. Oh, just so you know, you're gonna start tomorrow since you're officially part of the team. We train everyday, besides Sundays, for at least five hours. We get up pretty early, just so you know."
I sighed. "I'm fine with the whole training everyday thing, it's just getting up really early. Define what you call early," I would hate that because I've always been a person to sleep in, into at least eight. I could handle seven if I had to, but anything before seven, maybe six, would be out of the question. They'd either need to train without me until I got up or they'd need to drag me out of bed, literally.
"I mean six, no later than that," like I was dreading, they got up before six. It was going to suck, but I'd push myself to at least try it, it's the least I could do after they let me train with them. I was going to prove to them that I could handle anything that they threw at me, other than anything bug related, which was my biggest fear. I was terrified of them and if any of them even tried to get one close to me, they're going to get kicked.
"I guess that's fine," I told him, before adding "Just so you know, I'm really jealous of your dragon. I'm gonna have to learn this sometime, like, soon," I rubbed the back of the dragon, wishing that I'd known about that. It would be great if I knew how to use a so called elemental dragon because I'd love to fly. Like said before, I love the wind, and what's a better way of embracing it when flying?
He laughed. "Don't worry, it'll be one of the first things you learn," he informed me. It was good that it was going to be one of the things that I would end up learning, because I was getting excited for it, and I barely knew anything about that. I'd train so damn hard for it, and once I knew how to summon one, I'd fly everyday. We started to talk about things, mostly about what I should've expected in the next few days, as he started to fly the dragon faster. From what I heard, it'd be crazy for those days.