Chapter 14: Jada
The bad news, my name is called, I’m in the game next week. I feel everyone shift from Abi to me and I feel Melissa hold me almost too tightly to breathe. The good news, I’m not alone. Clay, Katya, and Xain will be with me, so I guess I’ll be safe. The announcers continue on naming competitors in the game, but I walk away. I don’t care about anyone else. Why should I?
It’s only a short time—a few seconds—before I’m followed. It’s Xain who walks up beside me and looks straight ahead as if he doesn’t notice me. I freeze in my tracks and he stops ahead and turns to look at me. His eyes seem to be glinting in the lights as he smiles at me.
“What? Are you so nervous about me that you can’t even walk without stopping to catch your thoughts?” He nearly laughs.
I stand there trying to find something to say, but I just smile and continue to walk. We walk side by side for a few seconds, then I think of something.
“Where are all the others?” I ask, “Did they not want to come?”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Xain answers, still looking ahead, “When you left, they sent me after you to check and see if you were alright.” He pauses before adding, “We don’t want another accident.”
I don’t know why, but this actually makes me laugh. Xain is trying not to, but he still smiles.
“I’m actually glad that it’s you,” I say shyly. Xain looks at me out of the side of his eyes and smiles.
“Why’s that?” He asks.
“Because I just met you,” I answer him with a smile, “and we haven’t been alone yet.”
“There something on your mind?” Xain gives me his full attention now.
I look at the training area, grab Xain’s hand, and pull him through the doors. “I want your help on my skills, Clay said you could help.”
“I’ve actually seen you working,” Xain answers with almost little hesitation, “there’s much to do in a week.”
I’m a little hurt, but he’s right. We get to the archery station and I pick up a small bow and a quiver of arrows. I pick a target that looks like an actual man and aim straight for the heart. I slowly pull the arrow back, take a deep breath, and release it. It nails slightly off target, but is still a kill shot. I look at Xain, who has a bow in his hand. He shoots at the same target, hitting it square in the heart, before turning to me.
“Set it up again,” he says, “Act as if you’re about to shoot.”
I do as he says and draw another arrow from my pouch. I aim at another target—mid-section—and pull the arrow back. Xain comes and makes a few adjustments to my form—telling me to raise my elbow, loosen my grip, squares my bow, straightens my arrow—before having me fire again. This time, the arrow hits almost dead in the center. Xain smiles and says I’m ahead of most people he’s helped. I pull another arrow and fire it at another dummy. It hits dead in the forehead, which causes Xain’s smile to turn into a mixture of fear, confusion, and astonishment.
“You’re a very quick learner,” Xain looks at me, “How long have you been trying the bow?”
“A little over a year,” I answer, not sure if I should smile or not, “My friend Desi got me started.”
“Desi?” Xain repeats, “I only see you with Melissa.”
“She died about a year ago,” I answer as I fire another arrow at the same dummy I shot in the head. It hits in the abdomen as I continue. “She was barely three years older and a very skilled fighter, her specialties were the bow and short sword. She was so skilled that she was transferred to another skill so that it would be balanced. Before she left, she made me promise something.”
“What would that be?” Xain is focused on my shooting rather than me.
I lower my bow as I look at him and wait for him to look at me. He looks almost expressionless as he turns to face me. I hold his gaze for a couple of seconds, and then smile as I say, “She made me promise to meet you.”
Xain smiles, almost blushing, then says, “Desi Dawn?”
My mouth drops. He knows her name? “How did you know that?”
“She and I were in a game once,” Xain answers as looks at his feet, “We allied because both of our team mates were dead. Before she left for the other district, she laid a huge and unexpected kiss on me.”
“She never told me that,” I’m astonished, “She never even mentioned you.”
“I don’t think she mentioned you, either,” Xain smiles, and then he thinks to himself. “She did mention a girl named Willow a lot, though.”
“That’s me,” I nearly squeal in excitement, “It’s my middle name, but she always used to call me by it.”
We laugh as we place the bows back on the rack along with the sheaths of arrows. We walk towards the sword station and Xain picks out two swords about the length and width of my lower arm. I grab one from him and twirl it around in my hand. It’s amazingly light, only about two pounds.
“So,” Xain starts as he adjusts my hand around the blade, “where does Melissa come from in all of this?”
“What do you mean?” I’m confused.
“How’d you guys meet?” Xain explains as he walks to retrieve his blade.
I sigh as I recall our history. “Desi always used to visit the infirmary. Whether she was hurt or not, she would see Melissa. It was actually in the infirmary that I met Desi.”
“Hurt?” Xain comes back over with his blade, but just sits on the ground along side the booth. I join him and continue.
“It was the second day I got here and I had to go for examination. I was sitting in the wait area looking depressed, I guess, when she sat down next to me and began to speak to me. She asked how old I was, I was nine at the time, so she was twelve. She told me that it was unfortunate that I ended up as a warrior, but that I had to keep my head up if I wanted to survive. She also read my tag and started calling me Willow. She then gave introduced me to Melissa, who was just barely thirteen, and I just thought of her as weak and clingy. She nearly hid behind twelve year old Desi when a nine year old me wouldn’t smile at her.”
I laugh softly. So does Xain.
“I was a little angry that they let Melissa, as squeamish as she was towards people and blood, be a medic, but denied me all because I knew a little hand in hand and could climb, but I got over it. Melissa would always cling onto me and Desi every free moment she got, which always annoyed me. If it hadn’t been for Desi sitting right there, I wouldn’t have stayed. I avoided Melissa at every cost. Whenever Desi went to an arena, went to fight in another district, or just go on a summoned visit to the capital, Melissa would try and find me. She would sometimes go to my room, but I would hide out in Desi’s room sometimes. She eventually found out since she had a key. When Desi went away, she never let me be alone. It used to be that all three of us sat at a table with maybe a couple of others, but then it was just us, so we just sat in silence. We got news that she had died...”
I pause and sigh as I look away. I feel Xain’s arms come around me and look back at him. I don’t know why, but I just hug him back.
“When Desi died, Melissa locked herself in her room. She wouldn’t come out for anything—food, water, or even events. I went over to the infirmary one time and had heard a couple of the medics chatting about how she might be dead. I don’t know why, but at that moment, I volunteered to check on her. They didn’t hesitate to give me the key to her room, I guess they thought that an eleven year old girl could help them out better than a medic could. When I got to her room, she was asleep. I was annoyed, so I shook her until she woke. She told me that she had a dream that Desi was coming back to C-5, and I, without any sympathy, told her that Desi was never coming back and that she needed to get used to it. Melissa broke out in wild tears, covered her ears, and began to rock back and forth on her bed. I’m yelling, trying to get her to stop, but then I break out in tears for the first time since I heard about her death. We both just cry together, then we ended up asleep together. It didn’t end there, either. She wanted—needed—me to stay with her so that she could keep her mind off of Desi’s death.”
“So you became best friends through best friends,” Xain smiles.
“To be honest,” I start to bite my lower lip, “I don’t think I’m ready to call her my best friend, yet.”
“That’s okay,” Xain soothes me, “I didn’t call Izzy and Abi my best friends until I was fifteen.”
“She said that she wishes I could see her as my sister,” I look into Xain’s eyes, which look brighter. He smiles at me.
“Well, do you feel comfortable around her?” He asks. My face shifts downward.
“I actually kind of just started to see her as a friend a couple of days ago,” I answer back while still staring at the ground, “That’s when she told me about wishing I could see her as her sister.”
“Oh,” Xain says in a response. He looks away, nearly staring into blank space at first, but then examines his blade.
I hug my legs close to my chest and sigh, “She’s been through a lot, you know.” Xain looks at me, but I go on. “She needs me.”
“I’m sure of that,” Xain answers as he turns to look at me, “You’re pretty much her only friend.”
“I’m pretty much the only one who she can have a personal interaction with,” I sigh and lean back, “She’s...that way—non-trusting and fearful—because she’s the only surviving member of her family. She saw them murdered—her parents and younger sister—right before she was sent here. Luckily, she had good medical knowledge; without it, she’d be dead. She refuses to wear any clothing that doesn’t cover her legs and upper arms completely, that’s where she was cut and tortured.”
I would go on, but Xain looks as if he might be trying to imagine what she’d gone through. I instead grab my sword and stand up. He looks at me as I twirl it around and smiles.
“Let’s see what you got,” Xain stands and gets into a stance.
“Could we fight with fake swords?” I ask nervously. Xain laughs at me.
“These are fake, they can’t even cut flesh,” Xain laughs again, this time I join him, and then lunge forward and slam my sword into his. He bounces back a little and then smiles as he deflects my second attack.
“You’re a natural with the strength and speed of your attacks, but we just need to fix your form and stance,” Xain says as I get back into my stance.
Xain fixes me so that I’m more “balanced” and can easily dodge or ward off any attack. We spar for a little more before he stops me and tells me to follow my heart and instincts. Once I do, I feel my body move and swing like I’ve never felt before. I had no clue that I could move like that.
“You trained with Desi, didn’t you?” Xain asks me while he moves to the wall that he took the sword from.
“Yeah,” I say, trying to hide that I’m near out of breath, “she taught me a few things before she left.”
“You seem like you’re a great fighter,” Xain starts as he approaches me, “you just have to trust your heart and instincts more, and remember your training.”
“You think so,” I’m blushing, but I don’t know why.
Xain ruffles the top of my head. “Anyone who can pick up anything as quickly as you can is definitely a good fighter, just trust that you are.” I hug him around the chest. “Plus, not even Abi and Izzy were able to move like you at your age, and their father was a near legend who trained all of us.”
That just brought back my blush. We walk off to try and catch dinner, but I stop him on the way out and turn to the knife throwing booth. I ask if he could teach me, but he just shrugs.
“That’s a lesson best taught by Katya,” he says with a smile.
“You’re pretty good at it,” I say as we walk a little more slowly, “You hit a target almost every time.”
“But Katya gets the kill every time,” Xain puts his arm around me, “She was showing me her ‘skills’ one time, and no matter how quickly the targets popped up or where they were, she nailed a near perfect bull’s-eye.”
We get out of the training area and into the dining hall just as the rest of our crew is getting half way through their meals. It looks like stew and bread. They smile as we approach the table. They even have our food on the table ready for us.
“So what took you two so long?” Abi asks before we even sit down. She seems more cheery now.
“We just talked and trained and lost time,” Xain answers with a slight smile, “She’s a natural fighter.”
“Really?” Abi looks at me with a glittery expression in her eyes, “Have you ever trained with anyone besides Xain?”
I look at Melissa, who smiles a little. She also starts to look down a little bit.
“A friend of mine and Melissa’s, Desi Dawn, helped me some,” I say as Melissa looks back up.
“Desi Dawn?” Abi looks at Xain with a mischievous smile which causes Melissa, Clay, and Katya to look between both her and Xain in confusion.
“Did you know her, Xain?” Melissa asks with a confused look on her face.
Xain is blushing a little. “She gave me a kiss before she left.”
Melissa’s confused look turns into a look of astonishment. Everyone’s does, except for mine, Xain’s, and Abi’s.
“On the mouth?” Clay asks with big eyes. Xain nods, which makes Melissa’s expression look even more priceless. “Where’d she go?”
The mood quiets down as Abi explains that she died a year ago. Clay looks embarrassed as he hears it. Melissa’s face is back to looking down at the table. She looks a little sad. Clay gets up and hugs her from behind. This makes Melissa smile a little, but she’s still looking down for the most part.
“Xain, what’s wrong?” Katya says all of a sudden.
I look at Xain and see that he’s shushing Katya and trying to listen in on a conversation. I try to listen to hear what he’s. Listening to. I finally see the table that he’s watching. It’s a table just two rows behind with two boys at it. I only catch the end of it: “Can’t wait for them to see each other, this’ll be an epic rematch.”
I look at Xain and see that he’s uneasy about something. Everyone does. He looks up and around the table until he’s sure he has everyone’s attention, and then says, “Brute was drawn. He’ll be with us in the game next week, opposite team.” He looks at me and says, “Stay in my sight at all times.”