Morningstar
Chapter XXIV: The Hunters

Kobo is sitting inside of Draconic 23. He saw Icarus on his way in. He was outside, looking at Tilray and Phoenix doing pushups. Kobo looked once at Icarus’s eyes and he quickly looked away. He thought that Icarus was scary at the assassin’s trial, but there was something in his look that made Kobo fear him more.

Icarus is standing by the window now, looking at the rain pour. Kobo then spots Tilray entering the room, almost dragging her feet. She is covered in mud, but she does not seem to care. She sits down next to Norm without saying anything.

“What are we going to do today?” Slier asks. She is the only one brave enough to ask. “It is raining.”

“That doesn’t mean that we will stop training,” Icarus says. He turns to face the class. “We are going swimming.”

“In the rain?” East asks.

“In the rain,” Icarus answers. “Leave your weapons.” He heads to the door.

Kobo takes his gloves off and leaves it on his desk. He takes a glimpse of Tilray, who Shin is offering to help her stand up, but she pushes him away. She is proud and stubborn. As they head out of Draconic, he spots Phoenix still on the floor. She has her eyes closed. Icarus does not care about her. He walks into the rain, over her, and continues walking.

Kobo lowers himself in front of Phoenix. “Come on,” he whispers. He is not surprised to see Moneo trying to make her stand. She opens her eyes as Kobo places one of her arms over his shoulders and Moneo does the same with the other.

“She is all right,” Rin whispers. “She is exhausted. She needs to rest.”

“There’s no time,” Moneo whispers backs as they drag Phoenix to where Icarus and the rest are heading.

“The lake is that way,” Shin tells Icarus.

“We are not going to be swimming at the lake,” Icarus says. “We are going to the coast.”

Kobo takes a deep breath. Swimming at the lake would have been easier. Swimming at the beach with this heavy rain is worst. The waves are going to be huge and constant. It would be almost impossible to survive in there.

They walk for minutes. Kobo is also getting tired of holding Phoenix’s weight. When they arrive at the coast and see Icarus stop, they let go of Phoenix. She holds her place, even though Kobo can see her knees shaking.

“Go on,” Icarus simply says. The waves are bigger than ever, and the sky hasn’t stopped sending rain. Fey begins to remove her armor. “No. With armor. In danger, you will not have time to take your armor off. You will have to swim with it.” He waits some seconds for someone to move. “I won’t say it twice.”

Slier is the first to move, followed by East. Kobo and Moneo walks their way to the coast. He sees Tilray move, but Icarus grabs her by the arm. “You and Phoenix stay.” Kobo does not want to know what is going to happen with those two.

“I hate swimming,” Fey says, standing beside Kobo. He knows that. Whenever it came to hunting fishes with only a net, she didn’t hunt. Beta always offered to do her and Fey’s share of the job. She has always been the best swimmer of the group.

“You’ll be fine,” Beta says. “Stay near me.”

Fey nods. “This man is angrier than ever. What’s the purpose of this?”

“To see if we survive,” Moneo says. He shrugs. “He is blowing off the steam that Tilray and Phoenix caused. Anyway, who is going first?”

Kobo looks at his friends. None of them seem eager. He looks back at sea. He is the first one to run towards it.

***

Fey runs into the sea, but it only takes a few seconds before she has to dive. The sea is angrier than ever today. It fits on Icarus’s feelings. She even feels the wave’s strength underneath the water. What is the real purpose of this training?

She liked Icarus. She liked how his training was simple but efficient. Most mentors use extreme measures to train their students. Icarus did not. He preferred to play it calm and slow. But this time, he is doing everything different. He is forcing them to risk their lives.

When Fey hits the surface, another wave comes. She dives again before it hits her. She goes up again after the wave. She looks around and another wave hit her, sending her under. Where is Beta? She said that she was going to be near Fey. She goes up again to search for Beta.

The next way comes and Fey dives again, but this time her feet feel heavy. She looks at her feet. Her boots are a little loose. The water is rushing in, threatening to sink her. She quickly pushes herself to the surface. She has to push harder and harder. She will not make it.

Then she hits the surface. She tries to stay afloat but an upcoming wave and her boots are threatening to sink her again. She must do what she hates to do. “Help!” she yells before the wave sinks her.

When she is down under, she tries to push harder, but she does not move. Her boots are heavier now. The water has filled them completely. She lowers herself and begins to untie it. She will take the boots off. She has too.

Halfway through her first boot, the current pushes her. She is getting out of breath. She tries to replace what’s up and what’s down before continuing with her boots. When she stabilizes herself, she looks again at the boot. She cannot see anything under the water now and she is running out of time. She tries to force the boots off, but she can’t. With the last of the air in her lungs, she tries to swim up.

She swims hard, moving all of her body. She will not make it. The surface is too far. She extends her hand to see if the surface is close, but it isn’t. She is sinking. She closes her eyes. She should not give up, but she knows when she is defeated.

She doesn’t think about anything as the sea claims her.

She wakes up when she feels her chest heavy and something against her mouth. She sees a face as it pulls back and places a mask on. Her vision is blurry, but she can guess that it is Icarus. He places a hand on her cheek and slaps it softly, trying to catch her attention.

“Look at me,” he says. He slaps her again softly. “Come on. Don’t close your eyes.”

Fey closes her eyes and smiles. “Harder,” she says. She hears Icarus sigh. She opens her eyes to see that she is under a tree’s leaves that is blocking the rain. She tries to sit up slowly. Her chest hurts. She looks down. She does not have her chest armor.

She looks around. Icarus is sitting next to her with his back against the tree. Tilray and Phoenix are also sitting near. She thought that he was going to punish them again, but apparently, he only let them rest.

“You should have tied your boots tighter,” Icarus says.

She knows that he is right. If her boots were tied tighter, the water would not have entered. There is no point in admitting that he is right. “Where is everyone else?” she asks.

“Still swimming,” Icarus says as he stands up. “I better check on them in case there is another incompetent student drowning.” He leaves without giving one last glance at any of them.

“Don’t worry,” Tilray says when Icarus is out of earshot. “He is in a bad mood today.”

“What happened with you two today?” Fey asks. “It should have been something big if he is in such a mood.”

“The usual,” Tilray says. Her face is still smeared with mud. “We got into a fight.”

“No, it had to be something more,” Fey says.

“We got into a fight in front of another mentor,” Phoenix says, still looking away from them.

“Oh,” Fey says. “You embarrassed him in front of a fellow mentor.”

“How so?” Tilray asks.

“One of the things that every mentor expect is that their students show respect for them and discipline,” Fey continues. “You decided to fight in front of another mentor, and I am sure that Icarus yelled at you to stop and you didn’t.”

“You are right,” Phoenix says as Fey moves to sit with her back against the tree.

Her body hurts. She is sure that Icarus tried to resuscitate her. Luckily, he did not break any of her ribs. Still, she can feel his lips against her. They were soft, which she didn’t expect that from him. She expected rough and strong lips. Maybe they turn rough when he wants them too, just how she likes it.

“He hates us,” Phoenix says.

“Tell me something new,” Tilray says.

Fey sees something on Phoenix’s expression, a hint of disappointment. She doesn’t like Icarus to be mad at her, but why? They used to yell at each other. She should be accustomed to it. Fey opens her mouth to say something, but someone approaches.

“Hi,” Wither says as he looks down.

“Why aren’t you swimming?” Tilray asks.

“Broken leg,” he answers. “Icarus doesn’t want me to swim with it. C-Can I sit down?”

“Sure,” Fey says. She looks at Phoenix. “Even though Icarus is mad at you two, he didn’t make you swim after those pushups that he made you do. He still cares about you two.”

Phoenix nods, but Tilray shrugs. “I don’t care if he does,” Tilray says. “I can live without that.”

***

Beta replaces Moneo underwater. He has bubbles coming out of his nose. When he sees Beta, he swims towards her. He smiles at her before going up. Beta follows him.

“Hello, honeybee,” he says.

“Fey almost drowned,” she says, even though she likes when Moneo calls her that. She asked him why he called her that the first time that he did. He said that she was like a bee. She only stings when she needs to, and she stings hard.

“What?” he asks, alarmed. “Is she all right?”

“She is fine,” Beta says. “Dive.” They dive as a wave threatens to cover them. When the wave passes over, they swim up again. “I heard her cry for help, and swam my way towards her, but Icarus was already beside her.”

“That’s a relief,” Moneo says. “Dive.” They dive again. When they go back up, he stares at her.

“What?” she asks.

“I-I think that I saw something,” he says. “The water seems to follow you. I do not know if they are my eyes tricking me, but I swear I saw it.”

“How can the water follow me,” she asks. “It is all around us.”

“I can’t explain it, but I swear.”

She nods. Why won’t she believe her true love? “Maybe it has something to do with that ability that Icarus mentioned that I have.”

She dives again ready to test it. She closes her eyes and imagines the water. She tries to imitate what she did with the wind. She imagines the water as multiple people swimming beside her. She imagines them pulling her by the arm and pushing her to the surface. When she opens her eyes, she replaces herself above the water. A whirlpool has risen from the water and is surrounding her from the waist down, pushing her up. She opens her mouth, not believing what she is seeing. The water then scatters, and she falls back into the sea.

“What was that?” Moneo asks once she is at the surface.

“I do not know,” Beta answers. “I mean, I did something similar with the wind, but it was not anything like this.”

“Beta and Moneo!” she hears someone yell. They turn towards the voice. Icarus is standing at the edge of the beach, looking at them. “Come here.”

Beta looks at Moneo. “He doesn’t sound happy,” she says.

“We better check.” He grabs her hand and they both begin to swim towards the coast. Once they are at the coast, they both walk out of the sea.

“What was that?” Icarus asks, looking at Beta. He has his arms crossed. He must have seen the water pushing her out of the sea.

“I don’t know,” Beta answers. “I think that it was my ability.”

“I made myself clear when I told you not to use it,” Icarus says.

“I didn’t know that I could do that.”

“I don’t care if you didn’t know. I told you not to use it and to not tell anyone about it. Now, you didn’t only used it, but used it in public. You are lucky that no one saw you.”

“Hey,” Moneo says. “She didn’t know what she was doing. She won’t do it again.”

Icarus faces him. “I repeat, I do not care if she didn’t know. You do not know what would happen if everyone knows what she is capable of.” He looks at Beta again. “Don’t use it again.” He turns to leave.

“Or what?” Moneo asks. Icarus stops. “You cannot go threatening everyone you meet. You cannot go telling everyone not to do something without explaining the reason for it.”

“You know what?” Icarus says as he turns around. “Do what you want. If you want to risk her life, then do it. I do not care. Tell everyone that they can get out of the water. I am done with you all for today.” Icarus walks away.

Beta watches him go, making himself smaller by the second. “What the hell happened?” Moneo asks.

“I… I think that we reached his limits today,” Beta answers.

***

Moneo is standing under a tree. The rain is starting to lower its intensity. Everyone from Draconic is under the tree also, except for East and Slier. They do not mind the rain.

“So that’s all that he did?” East asks. “He just gave up on us and left?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Moneo answers.

“Sounds like he is in his days,” Killam says.

“Don’t be sexist,” Rin answers.

“How can I be sexist if I am referring to a man?” Killam asks.

“You are using a woman reference that men use to give any explanation,” Fey answers.

“Now what?” Lexan asks. He must be trying to change the subject from Killam. “Are we just going to do nothing today and wait for him to be better tomorrow?”

“Maybe one of us can talk to him,” Moneo suggests.

“But who?” Beta asks.

“Someone whom he likes,” Slier says. “Any ideas?”

“He just got mad at Beta and I so not us,” Moneo says.

“Of course, I won’t,” Tilray says. “Nor Phoenix, nor Fey.”

“How about you, Slier?” Vil offers.

“That’s not a great idea,” East offers. “He got mad at us at the trial.”

“Then who?” Moneo asks again. He looks at everyone. This is the time for people like Ilya, Wither, Norm, Vil, Hakea, Agrion, Zanna, Xeon, Rin, and even Lexan to speak up, but they do not offer.

“Fine, we’ll do it,” Slier offers.

“We?” East asks.

“Yes,” Slier answers. “This is the problem with us all. We are divided. We do not work as a team, and that is what Icarus doesn’t like about us. We are at a constant fight against each other. We want to save our own asses and it blinds us from seeing that we have more chances of saving ourselves if we work together. So, fine, East and I will take the first step. We will make the first sacrifice for the team, our team. I just hope that you will all do the same in the future.” She turns and walks away, followed by East.

“What just happened?” Tilray asks.

“I think that we found a new leader among us,” Moneo says as he watches Slier leave.