Original Stories Fan Fiction / Realism Fan Fiction ❯ Aqua ❯ Assumptions ( Chapter 12 )

Chapter Twelve

Assumptions

 

 

Darain turned to look at Marin. “What happened to you today, you will never speak of to anyone,” he said in a low, threatening voice. He really wasn't in the mood to be jerked around by some brat girl. His mood must have been reflected in his eyes, because Marin turned pale white when she looked at him.

 

The second girl walked up to Marin and pulled her to her feet. “You'll need to get that checked by the school nurse when we get back,” she said calmly, knowing that the odd boy would do her no harm. The way she figured it, this boy was the reason the rumors had started in the first place and Aqua had just stumbled upon him by accident and had started taking care of him. Either way, it wasn't any of her business.

 

Looking back, she saw the boy staring in the direction that Aqua had taken off in. He must really care for her, she thought distantly as she slowly helped Marin to East High. Once there, all the teachers were instantly in an uproar over her state, considering she was the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in that state.

 

“Who did this to you?” they asked, instantly assuming that there was a guilty party involved. Marin winced as the nurse touched her broken cheekbone. When she didn't answer, they all rounded on the second girl and asked, “Who did this, Fay?”

 

Fay eyed the teachers apprehensively and said, “She started it by kicking the person in the ribs. It was only in self-defense when Marin wouldn't back down.” Now, she had everyone's attention as she continued, “It was Aqua. After the fight, she went deeper into Hangman's Forest than I cared to follow, so I took Marin back to the school.”

 

Muttering broke out among the people gathered in the nurse's office. “Broken cheek bone. That must have been quite a punch that little Aqua packed in order to break the bone clean in two,” the nurse said, nodding.

 

“I think she was holding back,” Fay said. “It didn't look like she wanted to do her any harm, despite the fact that Marin possibly cracked a couple of her ribs.” Fay was ignored in favor of discussing what could be done to find Aqua without going into Hangman's Forest. The next topic of discussion was what her punishment would be when they found her, with Fay trying desperately to defend her.

 

* * *

 

Darain paced around the perimeter of the lake, still mulling things over, waiting for Aqua to return. She had never shown any signs of being Letrangra before that fight. Aqua had always kind to him, had even saved him once. There had been many stores from his people on how every ten generations, or so, of Letrangra that were born, one in every fifty-thousand were kind, caring, and considered defective by their parents and immediately killed. Not one of those stories had a good ending for that child.

 

His pace increased as he became more and more irritated by the fact that an answer always eluded him. What other stories had he been told about the Letrangra when he was younger? Now he wished feverishly that he had paid closer attention to his history teacher when the old fool had been gabbing incessantly away about another boring story on their war with the Letrangra on how the Letrangra had been using a new method of raising single warriors from birth to be the perfect weapons…

 

Weapons?! That's it, Darain thought, stopping in his tracks. Aqua is one of those rare children that just never got the chance to develop. She's being raised by a Letrangra to be her race's perfect weapon. That would also explain why she mastered those spells that I taught her so quickly.

 

* * *

 

Rumors spread like wildfire once everyone heard that Aqua had punched Marin and broken her cheekbone. Marin, who still had the ability to talk, contributed her share of the rumors and layered onto most of the ones that were whispered within her range of hearing. She added on that there had also been a white-eared boy that Aqua defended before the fight and that the freaks were in love. Fay, however, denied that she was ever there.

 

As was usual, Marin was sitting on her usual table, surrounded by the usual girls telling her usual exciting tale. This was the first time that anyone had heard of the white-eared boy. “Now, as I was saying. I was walking along, minding my own merry business, when I saw a white-eared boy sitting in the shade of one of the tall oak trees-”

 

Clang.

 

One or two of the girls around Marin jumped in shock and screamed. Then they looked shame-facedly around to see where the noise had come from.

 

In the doorway of the kitchen stood Amber, mouth open in horror. “White…eared…boy…” she repeated. Her eye's shown with a fear that no one in the room could identify with, a fear that made them squirm nervously under her prolonged gaze.

 

Marin shrugged, eager to get the girls stare off of her. “What of it? You know the guy or something?” Marin half-heartedly teased the girl. Normally she would have sneered at the girl and then gone on with her story, but now…now she just wanted the girl to look anywhere else but at her. The longer Amber stared at Marin, the more uncomfortable the other girl became.

 

Finally, Amber turned back into the kitchens and took off her apron. Ignoring the bowl that she had dropped she made her way back to her rooms. She never noticed as Fay followed her, and listened outside her door as muffled voices could be heard from inside.

 

Then, Fay quietly snuck to her room and opened a drawer and withdrew a small box. Within the box was a silver plated ear-piece, which she stuck in her ear and said, “Fay, third Lieutenant of the Night-n-Gale Royal Guard,” as she sat back on her heels.

 

The earpiece glowed red and did a quick scan of the room to make sure it was secure. “Voice…recognized…Lieutenant Fay,” said a mechanical voice. “One moment… please…” A loud buzzing filled the air as the red light started blinking.

 

As the buzzing grew in intensity, Fay yelped and pulled it out of her ear as the buzzing hurt her sensitive eardrum. She held it at arms length and gave the machine a weird look. “What…is wrong with this thing?” she muttered to the air. Never had her earpiece acted up like this. Sure, it had malfunctioned before, but this time…this time was different, it had almost made her go deaf in one ear.

 

She cautiously placed her ear piece into her other ear and tried the entire process over again, but this time, instead of the buzzing sound, there came a beeping noise. “Perfect,” she muttered, relieved that the signal had gone through the second time around.

 

“Captain Lackardel? Captain Lackardel? Captain Lackardel?” she asked into the air, hoping that he would respond. When no response came, she again asked, “Captain Lackardel? Is everything alright?”

 

This time, there came a slight, barely audible groan in reply. “Captain Lackardel,” Fay shouted, bolting to her knees in concern. No reply came, in its place came the buzzing sound again, confirming her fears.

 

The only time a Night-n-Gale earpiece would buzz like it currently was, was when the person it was trying to reach was dead or their earpiece destroyed. Captain is dead, and the prince is stuck here on this planet, with only me to protect him and Letrangra on their way. Captain Lackardel was the only one that knew that I was on this planet in the first place, and my earpiece is only programmed to contact his, so I have no way for calling for reinforcements nor will any be sent if I don't return within the set time limits, she thought despairingly. The situation couldn't have looked any bleaker.

 

* * *

 

Amber switched her communicator off and then threw it against the wall with a muffled sob. She had had no choice in the matter, she was to report all comings and goings of the Earth directly to her handler. This was too important to let slid, as she had been doing with Aqua for the last couple of months.

 

She had been contacted less than five months ago and had been warned to be on the lookout for signs of the Night-n-Gale prince. In that time, she had watched Aqua turn from a cold, condescending person, to a being that actually had the capacity to feel something other than numb indifference.

 

Amber covered her eyes and tried to stem the flow of tears, but they just kept coming. She hated her handler more than anything in the universe, but there was nothing she could do. He was at least a hundred times stronger than her, and even if she did manage to break away from him, where else would she have to go. There was no family waiting for her somewhere on a distant planet, and she had no friends, of that much her handler had made sure of. There was nothing for her!

 

All she could do was follow the orders that were issued to her, even if it meant someone's getting hurt in the process. This time, that someone was Aqua. She knew that Aqua had been sheltering the prince these last four and a half months, but it had only been a vague suspicion, nothing she had to report, or at least, hadn't been required to report until Marin unintentionally confirmed her suspicions.

 

When her handler and his battalion came, Aqua and the prince would be taken away. Aqua would be used to control the prince and keep his power under wraps. They would be doomed to die.

 

* * *