"You'll be okay, honey. Don't worry." My father tries to soothe me as he takes a bite of his pancakes.
"I hope so, father." I reply, nodding a little. My mother casts my father a glance that I can't quite understand, and my father only swallows hardly at it.
Cronan sleepily and silently eats away his breakfast as the strange and in-apprehensible glances between my mother and my father continues. When I run out of suggestions, I take it upon myself and ask them, "What's going on?"
My father snaps his head to my side before he smiles widely and answers, "nothing, dear."
"Why are you two looking at each other like that?" I ask, stuffing a bite of pancake inside my mouth, followed by a sip of orange juice.
"Nothing's going on, Tallulah." My mother snaps before rising from her seat and washing her dish.
I watch in silence her sudden change in tones, wondering what the hell is going on with the two of them, especially my mother. My father wipes his mouth with the white napkin before he, too, stands up and says, "I'm off to work, have a good day."
He places a kiss on my head and on Cronan's before he pecks my mother's lips and leaves the cottage. Cronan takes the last spoon of his cereal before he drops his head to the table and groans, "I'm tired."
"Get up, Cronan. Let's get you to school," my mother speaks, clapping her hands together as if to wake him up. He groans and gets up, taking his backpack and following my mother to the door. "Lock up behind you, Tallulah, and have a good day."
She closes the door and I let out a deep sigh before taking the rest of the plates off of the table and washing them in the kitchen. I'm quick when I take a shower and put on my training clothes that they gave us almost two days ago.
I'm not sure if I'm ready for my first training day today, but I think I won't be that terrible. I'm anxious and a bit afraid of what will happen there and what will we do there, but with those deep breaths that I keep taking, I think I will manage through this first day.
Louis and I have been texting non-stop ever since our first call a few days ago. We haven't been talking about something major because Louis thought that it would be best if we kept them to our date, though we kept talking about his parlour, the tattoos that he has and sometimes, he would tell me how much he misses seeing me, and that was the best part.
I slide the black tight pants – almost spandex – up my legs, wiggling and jumping a little bit to make it. The black tank top that I put on makes me scoff at their choice for these outfits. I look like I'm going to work out. However, the black jacket with the golden sleeves wins my approval. It looks perfect.
I brush my hair nicely, smiling as I remember what Louis said about liking it down. With a sigh, I take my small blue elastic before wrapping it around my hair in a ponytail. Stepping inside those black – almost like the army's – shoes, I turn off the lights of the cottage, the windows and doors before I head off to Esme's cottage as we decided to meet there.
As I walk to her cottage, I see the other girls and boys who are going to the training, some of them for the first time. Again, nervousness takes over my body as I take a deep breath and let it out. With two knocks on the door, Esme's mother; Siggy, opens the door with her kitchen apron on and a wide smile on her face.
"Ah, Tallulah, how are you?" She asks, giving me a small hug as she guides me inside.
"A bit nervous," I chuckle slightly as I tell her the truth.
"You'll be fine, don't think about it," she brushes me off as she heads to her kitchen. "Go in, they are inside."
I nod and go to Esme's room, finding both of them down on their knees as they pray to a statue of Lyara. I roll my eyes and sit down on Esme's bed as I wait for them to finish. I never believed in Lyara. Yeah sure, sometimes I would pray to her or call her name for help or in some situations, but that's only because I know nothing but her, there isn't any God that I was brought up knowing except for Lyara.
However, I'm positively sure that somewhere in this wide world, or somewhere in these skies above, there is something that is much greater and powerful than we are, I just don't know what. My little moment is interrupted when both of my best friends rise up to their feet and turn around to find me.
Rolling her eyes, Wren sighs and says, "Still a non-believer?"
I only shrug to her question as we all leave the room. Esme kisses her mother as she wishes us good luck and then, we head off to the first day of training. As we walk, Esme speaks, "I'm fucking nervous, man."
"The more you think about it, the more nervous you'll get." Wren replies, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.
"Well," Esme stares at her blankly. "That didn't help, at all."
"Just don't think about it." I say, chuckling a bit.
"We are going to it now, I can't just not think about it," she points out. "That's physically, mentally and emotionally impossible." She adds.
"Okay, shut up, Esme." I reply, huffing after I say so.
"Stupid dumb shits." She huffs.
As we pass the Sun Gate and the Lights Gate, we see loads and loads of people in the same clothes as us. Soon, we reach the main entrance of The Sector; where we train, fight and learn.
We stand in a big, long row, as one of the leaders of The Sector reads our names. Many boys and girls pass by and enter The Sector. Five men are standing in the same outfit as us, though their jackets are in red, which means that they are the ones who will train us, between them though, is Harry and Niall.
It's Esme's turn when I turn back to our row. The man who has been calling out for our names, puts a golden name tag on Esme's jacket as he calls out, "Esme Holland. Pass."
I have noticed that some of the people, who pass by the gate, already have a name tag on, so I assume they're not beginners. I suck in a deep breath when she passes the entrance and stands next to the others. The guy gives me a look before he places the name tag on my jacket, too, and says loudly, "Tallulah Lothbrok. Pass."
I walk in silence and nervousness until I stand beside Esme. From the corner of my eyes I watch as Wren also gets her name tag and the guys announces loudly, "Wren Rollo. Pass."
She walks over and stands next to me, not daring to open her mouth, but I'm not sure if that's because she is scared or what. My head turns slightly to the left as I look at Harry and Niall who are standing next to each other with the other three men. All of them have their legs open, their shoulders straight and their hands locked behind their backs as their eyes never blink.
I swallow heavily as we wait for this the line to finish, and soon, maybe after thirty or forty minutes, the line finishes as we all stand next to each other. The guy, who has been putting the name tags on us, walks over to us with a bunch of papers in his hands.
His appearance isn't old, he looks young and handsome, though his cold glare is nerves wrecking. He stands in front of us, heads up in the skies as he speaks, "I'm Aiden Blackburn. You'll only acknowledge me as Sir Aiden."
I bite down on my lip in fear as Sir Aiden walks towards the five men who are standing in the red jackets – Niall and Harry included – and points to them. "First, we have Sir Boyd,"
Sir Boyd is blonde, he is the most muscular between the other four, and his appearance is harsh and not kind at all, so I immediately decide that he is my least favourite. Sir Aiden moves to the next man and says, "Then, we have Sir Artair."
Sir Artair is handsome; his appearance is firm and serious but somehow kind. Again, Sir Aiden moves to Harry and speaks, "this is Sir Harry."
The Harry, who is standing there right now, isn't the Harry who has been pulling on Wren's hair a few days ago. His jaw is clenched tightly, and his eyes are a bit dark and his body is stiff and strong. Sir Aiden walks to next man and speaks, "Sir Carney."
Sir Carney is also a bit blonde, with blue eyes and a soft face. He looks really good, too. Sir Aiden finally moves to Niall, and much to my surprise, with a smile he says, "And finally, Sir Niall."
I guess Niall is the only one who is smiling between all of us. Sir Aiden walks to us again and sternly says, "I don't want anyone but the beginners in front of me. If you're not a beginner then I suggest you go to your own chosen house."
Immediately, half of the people who were standing with us leave, leaving only us; the beginners. When the last old person leaves, Sir Aiden once again speaks, "You will be divided into five houses. Each house is owned by one of your chosen Sirs. We will divide you randomly," he eyes each one of us before adding, "and we will start now."
I don't think I have ever been more scared in my entire life. I'm extremely nervous, my hands are shaking, my knees are starting to get shaky, too, and my teeth are digging into my bottom lip because of the fear and nervousness. Once again, I crave Louis' presence, because just the feeling of him next to me relaxes me and comforts me.
Sir Aiden flips through the pages before he starts saying out loud, "Nicholas Ahearn with Sir Boyd, move."
That Nicholas steps out and stands next to Sir Boyd, who gives Nicholas a hard glare before looking forward again. This continues for the next fifteen minutes or so, every Sir getting a good amount of us, then, finally, Sir Aiden calls my name.
I hold my breath in fear, praying to whatever Gods above or Lyara that I end up with Niall or Harry, someone that I at least know. However, my prayer goes unheard as he says, "Tallulah Lothbrok with Sir Artair."
Somehow, I feel relieved that I didn't end up with Sir Boyd. Sir Artair seems much softer and kinder, so I guess that's a good thing. With a deep breath – I seem to do that a lot – I walk over to Sir Artair. I'm not really sure what kind of house will we be staying in, but I guess we will manage.
"What's up, Tallulah?" He says in a hushed tone as Sir Aiden continues calling the names. A smirk is pulled at Sir Artair's mouth making me slightly smile.
"Hello, Sir." I whisper as I reply.
A grin spreads across his face as he says, "we'll have to do something about this 'Sir' thing."
I can't help the small chuckle the gets out of my mouth as I say, "okay."
"Esme Holland," my head snaps back to Sir Aiden when he mentions Esme's name. "With Sir Boyd."
My eyes widen as Esme huffs and walks over to Sir Boyd. She isn't scared, at all but she's angry..? I don't know why but she's not scared one bit. I watch as Sir Boyd smirks evilly down at her.
What is going on?
"Wren Rollo," Sir Aiden announces. "With Sir Carney."
Why didn't one of us end up with Harry or Niall? Maybe they know that we are all friends? Of course they know that, everyone sees us hanging out together almost every day.
After another few long minutes of Sir Aiden calling out other names and distributing them, he makes us stand in neat rows next to our house's Sir and speaks, "Sir Boyd's house is Blackfield, Sir Harry's house is Mettlesome, Sir Niall's house is Amiability, Sir Carney's house is Indulgence and finally, Sir Artair's house is Air."
Ironic really, how I'm put in the house with the easiest, normal name. I'm actually pleased with it. I don't want some strange and a hard-to-remember name, and I definitely don't want something that reminds me that I'm a different kind of human.
"You'll now follow your Sirs to your house, and there you will acknowledge your rules and your duties." Sir Aiden says before nodding and leaving.
Sir Artair turns to us and with a wide grin, he claps his hands together before saying, "alright, fellas! Let's start with this shit; Lyara knows I'll be damned when we start working."
Chuckles and laughs can be heard as we follow Sir Artair in another direction of the others, towards our house; Air.
"You ready for this, Lothbrok?" Sir Artair surprises me by saying as he smiles widely down at me.
"I guess...?" It comes out as a question as I chuckle.
"Oh boy, you'll have so much fun." He assures me and I can only pray that I do.
Hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading and please, don't forget to vote and comment :) x