Aku:
I launched out my right fist. Than my left, A right knee, Left foot. Each one was deflected with smooth waves of Avol's hands. A left jab hit me in the right kidney. I buckled over. holding back a gag. Avol stood above me like a force to be reckoned with. The tattooed flames that licked around his face danced in the shadowy light. The Dark Flames. I had heard it whispered in my mother's tea lunches. Avol was the Dark Flame of the Royal Court. A kitchen boy from the castle born, with the god like abilities of the Elite.
"Get up, Aku, or is this all you have? I thought you would be stronger than this by now." Avol snipped. "You are as weak as the ground you lay upon. Letting people tramp all over you and doing nothing about it. Get up."
Snarling, I twist my leg back, still on the ground, and try to knock him off balance, but he sidestepped me easily enough. I scramble back to my feet, wiping the blood off my chin on the way. Avol looked no worse than when we had started. There were bags under his eyes and paler skin.
"What happened?" I asked finally.
Avol sighed heavily like he was waiting for my question, "Nothing for you to concern yourself with."
Knowing I wouldn't get anything else out of him, I ask another question, "I haven't seen Jax in a while. Where is he?"
Avol snarled at me. It was raw and untamed, like a beast. "You will drop this subject. It is out of your jurisdiction, boy." He grabbed his shirt from the floor and stalked out of the training room. It looked like the flames inked over his chest and down his back, were real, flickering like a live flame.
There went my lesson. I grimace. I sucked at hand to hand combat, but give me a weapon and I could knock anyone on their ass. Except for maybe Phoenix and Core. Giving the mat a longing glance, I see my new bright red blood stains start to sink in. I grabbed my shirt, that was thrown off by the doorway, and carried it back with me. The halls were deserted and quiet. It felt like I was back home. Father was always away doing something, and mother never even looked twice at me. It was a big home where you could go unnoticed for days at a time. Not acknowledged at mealtimes or expected to were fancy silk shirts.
"Hey Aku."
My name jerked my attention around to see Sain and Hex walking towards me together. I always got an odd feeling they hold a secret together due to their fighting. They had been fighting ever since Hex joined mid year, last year.
"What are you doing this far into the training rooms?" Hex asked.
I stopped to wait for them to catch up, "I had training with Avol. He got mad and ended it early."
"What you say?" Sain asked this time, clapping me on the shoulder. "He doesn't get mad very easily."
"I asked about Jax." I shrugged out of his hand, but kept my pace back so he could keep up, "I think he got fired for some reason and Avol is unhappy about it."
"We should get Phoenix to find out." Hex merges in, "She has a closer relationship to him then us."
"But how close?" I grumble out, "He likes her. In more than a friendship way."
Sain shrugged, "Than work harder to get her attention. Core does that enough."
"As do you." Hex murmured under his breath, but Sain heard. Sain's smile faded.
"I didn't mean to dream of her. She was just there and..." Sain trailed off, "I'm not interested. No matter what anyone thinks."
Hex huffed his disbelief. I was about to agree with him, but the look Sain gave Hex shut me right up. "Well I have to get to class or I'll be late." I comment, giving them claps on their shoulders before leaving down the hallway to fifth hour.
Sain:
I was leaning back on the outer edges of the pool, my hair dripping with the murky water. Hex was leaning against a tree a bit further back. I ignored him. If he was mad at me, then he could start the conversation. I was in no mood to pick a fight. Hex, it seems, was.
"So you like Phoenix" Hex sneered.
I shrug, "She is a fine girl," I admit. "What's it to you?"
Hex shrugged, "Nothing." A pause. "Didn't you date Alex? He is a guy."
I shrug, "Yeah so? I'll date girls too. What of it? It's not like I'm dating anyone right now."
We sat in quiet for sometime. Me, playing with the murky water and Hex watching.
"You're bisexual." Hex finally murmurs.
"You're gay." I shoot back.
Hex bristled, "What about it?"
"That's what I'm asking." I snarl turning in the water to face him, "You're not understanding that I can like both girls and guys. What's so different for that thick head of yours to wrap around?"
Hex curled his lip in a silent snarl before turning on his heel and marched away, head ducked low, hands shoved in his pockets.
Core:
I skipped fifth hour to trap back up to the rooms. Kuma was laid out on the rug in the main room. I walked over to the chair closest to him and flopped in it, letting my bags drop to the floor with a thud. Kuma didn't even twitch an ear.
"Hey, Kuma." I greeted him. It felt weird, but it had to be done. "You not going with Aku today?" Kuma huffed at me. "You know what I did." Kuma huffed again. "Can you forgive Aku for what he did because of me?" Kuma huffed for a third time and got up, not looking at me, and walked upstairs to Aku's room. "I'm sorry." I called after him, but he never even turned around.
It was like that for days. I went up every fifth hour to talk with Kuma. He eventually stopped tramping away and laid there the enter time.
Halloween was quickly approaching, and the halls became decked out in cobwebs, ghosts, and red jelly. People even decked out their beast partners. Aku turned Kuma into a hellhound, with contacts that turns eyes red and horns that went on his head. It was fun. The only downside was that I had to hear over and over about the halloween ball that was on halloween night. It was all Sabrena could talk about with everyone, including me.
"So, what are you wearing tonight?" She asked, filing at her nails. "I want us to match."
I inwardly sigh. Why do girls always have to match everything? But I told her, "The black suit, unless something happens."
She stopped filing to emphasize her point saying, "Nothing better happen."
I shrug, looking out over the rest of the room. We were on the top balcony again. "You never know. It just might go through a shredder." The guys around me laughed, but Sabrena was unimpressed.
"It better not." She said with a clipped voice and the guys around me shrunk back into their seat.
"It's a joke sweet thing. Nothing's going to happen." I give her a quick kiss on the cheek. She pushed the incident aside, but the cruel look of her eyes didn't change.
Aku came trapping up the stairs, books cradled in his hands.
"Hey brother," I bark out at him. Aku's gaze snagged on me and he smiled ever so slightly. At least I hadn't destroyed our brotherhood completely.
"Hey," Aku grumbles out sitting to my other side. "You know anything about the Red Ring Trials? Avol is being cruel and making us do a five page essay on it and who participates in it."
I shrug, "New to my ears. You ask Phoenix. She knows more than even Avol about these things."
Aku sighs, "Already did. She told me to find it on my own. She did tell me I would only find it in a book. Which, I was not told."
I huffed out a laugh. "Well you're duped. Good luck brother."
Sabrena cut off anything else we were going to say with a comment of her own, "You're friends with the dunce?"
Aku, bold as he is terrifying, looked Sabrena in the eyes and tells her, "Yes, and she is part of Avol's inner circle. Plus that dunce mangled you quite well without even trying."
Sabrena sneered at him, the scar on her cheek making her look menacing. Phoenix had broken her jaw in three different places that would never heal right without screwing them together. That ment she had surgery, and was healed as much as she could be. The scar was a darker color than her porcelain white skin and stood out like a beacon.
"She got one lucky hit when I was slipping." Sabrena snarled.
Aku opened his mouth to snarled something else, but I intervened before they became a full on fight. "Now, now. We know that Sweet thing. Aku is just frustrated with his essay." Aku gave me a look but said nothing else. He knew the importance of being on Sabrena's tolerated side, but I'm starting to doubt it. I hate her. I hate her so much that even one slip up and I might slit her throat.
Sabrena didn't look like she was going to let what Aku said, go. She opened that mouth, coated in too much lipstick, but only a squeal came out when the smallest roar I had ever heard cried out. Aurum perched on the railing, his claws digging into the varnish. He looked at Sabrena for the longest time, his wing flared out, and teeth visible.
"You need something Aurum?" I ask him.
The dragon snaps his attention to me and unflared his wings, settling down on the railing. "Phoenix sent me to help Aku find a book." Aurum grumbles out, "She said that Avol would be mad if no one knew what the Red Ring Trails are and give you a twelve page essay on not knowing your own kingdom."
"Sounds fun." I comment.
Aku gave me a steady glare. "If it is so fun, than you can do it."
I throw up my hands, "No thanks. You got this brother."
He snarled at me. I laughed, clapping him on the shoulder. He grabbed his things to go but stopped, "Oh, we are to come home for Christmas. Father wants us too, and he said we could bring anyone we want up."
My smile faltered, "Kay. I'll tell Avol. Maybe the others would like to come."
Aku squeezes my shoulder and whispers in my ear, "If you don't want to come, I'll cover for you."
I shake my head, "No. You already take too much of my blame. I'll go."
Aku agreed gravely, and my heart sang with love for my little brother. "Don't ever take the blame for me again." I growl at him, and he smiles grimly.
"This won't be pretty."
I grumble my agreement.
It was the clicking of claws on wood that got both our attention. Kuma was slowly tramping up the hardwood stairs. He looked like a slinky cat with a dog's face. He didn't even look at either of us as he flopped down next Aku, his muzzle resting on his foot. I huffed a laugh.
"Looks like you got a new friend." I snicker to Aku.
Aku didn't even look at me as he reached down to pet Kuma's silky black coat. Kuma opened one black, adamant eye to peer up at him.
Sabrena sneered, "Hey, tell that mutt to go back to his room. They are beasts to listen to one's command, not pets."
Aku's face became a blank mask and opened his mouth. I cut in before he could say anything, "He will do no such thing."
Everyone stopped breathing. Sabrena even had no words for a flash of a second, then her face turned a bright red. "What did you tell me?" Her voice was higher than it was before, and it nearly deafened my ears. Aurum, who was still sitting on the railing, flapped his wings in warning.
"He will do no such thing." I said again with bite. "You were disowned, banished, and stripped of any rank, that doesn't make you better than us. It should have taught you a lesson, but I guess it never sunk in." What the hell was I saying?
She gapped at me. I don't think she even knew I could talk back. "Core," She warned, but it was hesitant.
"Do you even remember a lesson of stairs? I hear it is the first lesson everyone is taught at the castle. Even the staff," She didn't say anything, so I went on, "a castle sits upon a hill so when the king decides to look down, he can see how far he can fall. As ones in the streets below can look up at how much they can gain." Complete awe. No one at the table looked at Sabrena. No, they were looking at me. "So Sabrena, I suggest you leave now, and don't sit here again, or get in my way. That would be far less painful than a tumble from a hill." I couldn't shut up could I? "Get going. I'm through with you." I turned away from her and listened.
She sat there staring for a good long while, saying nothing. Then, the most deafening roar rang out through the room. Not the weak one Aurum gave earlier. Sabrena leapt up, snagging her bag with her free hand before running down the stairs Kuma just walked up.
"She's in some hurry." Aurum said tucking his outstretched wings back into his body. "Wonder what's wrong?"
Aku barked out a horse chuckle.
Phoenix:
I looked up when the room went dead quiet. My senses were already on high alert throughout the day and I didn't know why. The beasts inside of me wanted to come out. One of them nearly took over in combat class when Sabrena started talking about her and Core at the Halloween ball. It took all my effort to look around the room and away from the two beasts that paced inside me.
Everyone was looking down at either their work or nothing at all. I peered up to the balcony to see a feral look on Core's face and a stunned Sabrena. They warn't looking at each other as Aurum built himself up to roar right in Sabrena's face. She was so startled that she grabbed her bag and darted down the stairs. She didn't realize what she had done until she was at the bottom.
You could see the rage seep into her face like a light slowly coming on. She peered back up the stairs before looking out at the people on the floor before her. She spotted me, and her features turned from rage to satisfaction. Great, just great. She was going to take whatever revenge she wanted on Aurum out on me. Just what I needed at the moment.
I felt it before it reached me. I sprang out of my chair like a frog, landing across the room before my chair burst to splinters. Sabrena visibly pouted, but she still had a cunning look in her eyes. This time I could see the spear of air launch towards me. I barely got away. Sabrena smiled. I inwardly grown, she was going to play with me.
One of the beasts inside me roared in challenge.
I got to my feet as another spear of air launch out. This time I didn't move. I was over with the act. The spear dissipated around me piercing the wall behind me in two different places. The smile fell from Sabrena's face, and she became feral again. She launched out air spear after air spear, but not one landed a scratch on me. Sabrena started to panic as I stalked towards her. She changed her magic at last second and had me tumbling back, slamming my head hard on the sheet of ice that she had summoned.
That was it. I screeched, more animal than human. I let go. Let go of any fear, of my sanity. Feathers rippled over my skin, bones cracked and reshaped. My pinky toe shrunk until it was nothing as my big toe turned the opposite way of my three other toes. My arms shrunk and stretched, more feathers branching out there than any place else. The black of my pupils took over my entire eye. I cried out again, this time without the barriers of a human throat.
My falcon's cry pierced the ear drums of anyone in the building, and then some.
Sabrena:
I was sick of being among these nobodies. The outburst from the bastard Core was unexpected. I knew he only was my boyfriend because he wanted something. Him snapping at me ment he was not going to play anymore. It left me stripped of any power over him. It was infuriating, and that dunce had something to do with it.
The white falcon in front of me was terrifying. The falcon itself was unimpressive, except for the size. It was three feet tall, with cold black eyes. I might have ran from a fire, but I just terrorized a snake and she was now going to strike.
I blasted out my air magic. It brushed right past the her. I snarled at the bird, but it just stood there on the sheet of ice, her talons locking her in place.
"Fine, you win." I sneered, "I'll leave." I took the last step down to the ground floor. The dunce lifted her mighty wings as she cried again. This one was louder than the last and I had to clap hands over my ears.
Fumbling back, I trip on that one dreadful stair and hit my ass on the floor. Talons were the next thing I saw, but they were whipped away before they could tear into my eyes. Avol stood above me, the dunce hanging upside down in his gloved hand. He sneered down at me before trudging off, calling to his lap dogs while he was at it.
Avol:
I was furious. What the hell was she thinking? Core and Aku trailed silently behind me, Kuma at Aku's side. I was too mad to be happy for Aku and Kuma's rekindled hope. Phoenix, who I held at my side, tried scratching at my gloved hand. She got up far enough to leave long, bleeding scratches from her beak on my forearm. I didn't flinch with any peck or bite.
"What happened?" I snarled out at the two imposing brothers.
Neither of them said a thing.
"What happened." I command this time.
They still said nothing, even as Aurum flapped up to perch on Core's shoulder and wrap himself half down his back.
It was Aku who finally murmured. "Sabrena had what was coming."
I gave him a withering look, but Core turned my attention. "Sabrena attacked first. Phoenix was in the right, you shouldn't be mad at her." His jaw feathered just slightly as he growled out, "I'm the one who made Sabrena mad enough to fight Phoenix."
"It's not Sabrena who made Phoenix fight back. Now what happened?" I snarled. Sabrena had to have done something to get under Phoenix's skin for her to fight her.
Phoenix cried out again in her falcon form. Her feathers, white as snow, looked to be dipped in the darkest black of nights at the end. She bit into the glove again, this time tearing at a hem, nearly unraveling it before I could switch hands.
"Damn it Phoenix, stop that." I snarled at her. She only screeched at me, flaring her wings out in emphasis, before picking at the new glove.
"You're saying Phoenix had a different reason than Sabrena just trying to kill her." Aku snipped at me in a tone I had never heard from him.
I stop with my hand on the wall to my rooms and look back to them, making them both meet my eyes, "Phoenix does not get into fights without a very good reason, and never, ever, turns into one of her beast forms when fighting with someone she does not wish to kill."
Phoenix stops pecking long enough to peer into my eyes. Pride shone gracefully through them, and I blanched.
"Sabrena did nothing to make her fight back." I mutter finally pushing open the wall to my rooms.
"What?" Both the brothers say at the same time.
"What do you mean?" Aku asked closing the wall behind him.
I throw Phoenix up to the ceiling. She uses the extra air to get herself right side up and perch herself on my couch. She dug her tallens in and gave me a satisfied look. I glared at her.
"What did you mean?" Core pressed.
I take in a shaky breath and brush a finger over Phoenix's silky feathers. "Jax is dead, and Phoenix could feel the power the killers used from his death."