The group walks back to their house in silence. At first Thana was worried that her group members would be angry or upset about her placement. However, no one said a word. She tried to explain that she didn't ask for it. Quinten just waved his hand to silence her saying that Marcus did what he felt right. Linkin added anyone that could manhandle Erzah like that should be placed first. The comment made Thana feel bad for the events taken place earlier. She started to apologize for that as well. This time Tegean silences her saying it was the best entertainment of the week. The rest of the walk was filled with silence.
When the group reached their house, everyone went their own way to shower and prepare for dinner. Apparently dinner is usually served at the main building, and that was were they would be going. Thana not having to train today dropped her weapon off in her room. She then went back to the living room sitting down and reading a book. After an hour or so Linkin came in as well. He was curious to what she thought so far. Thana answered honestly saying that she hasn't seen much but so far it was alright.
With the group slowly feeling up in the living room. They went around telling funny stories and catching Thana up on current gossip when the door flew open and in walked Thief. He coos and walks up to Thana. She strokes his beak and goes to the kitchen to give him a treat. Once he was done snacking, he races back outside and down the street. Thana quickly stands to try to shut the half broken door. Erzah groans and mumbles about talking to the commander about adding a griffin door to the house.
When it turned five oclock the group heads outside to the main building. The sun was getting ready to set, and with the dwindling sunlight the street lights began to flicker with life. It is another ten minutes before they arrive to the door. Once in Thana follows the group to a table. They each pick up a plate and go down the table grabbing food they want. Thana just grabs some bread and ham. Following Teagen to an open table in the back.
Teagen explains that there are currently 28 squads and that Thana needs to watch out for a few. Apparently squad 5 and 21 were very aggressive squads who would be most likely displeased for her rise in the rankings. Thana starts taking a look around the room. There were a couple of tables taking glances at her and whispering among themselves. A couple were not even trying to hide the fact that they were staring.
She pushes her food away from her, losing her appetite from all the eyes on her. She then stands going to grab another ale. She swiftly turns back to the table. Someone sticks their legs out trying to trip her. She stumbles but is caught by a hand on her shoulder. She looks to see the Quinten had caught her. The shock on her face was visible that Quinten would not let her fall. She mumbles a thank you and heads back to the table. Quinten follows her back. No one tries anything. Once she gets there she throws her hood over her head and finishes her ale in seconds.
Kolt who is sitting next to her raises his eyebrow, staring at Thana and her empty glass. She turns to him and gives him a wink while grabbing his glass and chugs it. She then slams the the glass down. She feels someone standing behind her. Turning around she is met with a burly man. He has one eye and a thick beard. She raises an eyebrow and crosses her arms.
"Can I help you?" She says
"Well princess, I heard that you are here for sleeping wi..."He starts.
Before he can finish his sentence, she swings. She smashes her fist into his throat. Thana then grabs him by the hair and colades his face to her knee. Ten others stand up ready to fight with the one eyed man. She throws him into two of his comrades. She picks up her glass cup and smashes it on one of their heads. She jumps onto the table grabbing a nearby attacker by the neck and knocking them on the ground.
Thana begins to half shift, stretching her wings out. She raises her head to the sky, letting out a roar. While she is distracted two others begin to sneak up behind her. In the blink of an eye she is up in the air. She falls back down grabbing one attackers by her legs and another by her arms. Thana then twists her body throwing them at opposite walls and knocking them out. She lands back on the ground.
Her squad mates watched the scene unfold from their seats. They were aware that this was bound to happen when Marcus chose to place her without fighting. All of them were also aware that she could handle herself. Even with this knowledge, Kolt was worried. After his encounter with Thana this morning he went to The Commander. When he told the commander what he knew, the commander placed him as her watcher. He offered to be the person to stop her when the half soul took over. As the fight went on, he could see that Thana was starting to become more animalistic than human.
Kolt was also worried that he wasn't the only person to start to notice. Quinten may not be the best fighter but his intelligence was off the chart. Neither him nor the commander where sure on how he would feel about Micah and Thana being mates. So, the commander had made me swear that Quinten was not to find out about it before she was ready to tell him herself. When he saw her go into a defensive stance walking around the circle of people forming he stands from his seat. Walking over to her, he grabs her wrist getting her attention.
"Enough, before it goes too far." He whispers to her.
Thana changes back to her human form instantly. Her eyes are watering but tears of yet to be spilled. Still holding her wrist he turns and starts walking. Pulling her along they head out the door. He goes around to the back of the building before letting go of her wrist. She collapses on the floor, curling her knees into herself. Burying her head into her knees, her shoulders start shaking from her silent sobs. He kneels down to her level, tapping her knee to get his attention.473Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3gmzRL8xmY
"Do you know what a watcher is?" He asks
Thana never hearing this term shakes her head no. Kolt then sits on the ground next to her and starts to explain what a watcher is. He explains that it is a binding spell to a half soul and someone else. They would have to get tattoos of this certain symbol and then there would need to be a ritual but it could help her. The ritual would then bind their souls to help the side effects of her curse. It would make the emptiness go away and it would help with the illusions that come with the full moon.
Thana was silent the whole time. Taking this knew information in. However the minute he said bind their souls, she knew she would decline. She knew that it wasn't smart to decline but she didn't want to be bound to anyone but Micah. If not with him then no one. On the other hand she was shocked that Kolt would be willing to do this for her. She barely knew him, and she was never exactly nice to him. So she decided to listen till he was done talking.
When he was done, she stood up. Shaking dirt from her clothes. Turning to him she smiled and said no before walking out from the building. He shakes his head, calling out how stubborn she was, before standing up and following her back to the front of the building. They run into the other four who were looking for them. Erzah tells the group that Thana's ceremony is about to start and they need to get going to the training grounds. He then turns and waves the group to follow him.
At the training grounds there is torches all around and in the middle of the sandpit there was Thana's uncle along with Marcus. The group stops at the sand but Thana continues. She watches as her uncle stares at her before squinting his eyes. He grabs her cloak up pointing to a part that was still wet from blood of the fight.
"I didn't kill them, they are just unconscious for a bit." Thana says
Her uncles raises his eyebrow clearly upset that Thana didn't listen to what he said. At the same time he was well aware that one thing the girl was good at was breaking rules people set for her. His niece just shrugged her shoulders and gave him a smile, He lets out a chuckle before turning to the fire in between Marcus and him.
"I am not going to give the normal speech because I don't agree with the council's decision. However today you will be marked as a member of the Forsaken Legion along with a traitor to the kingdom. I am sorry Thana. Your mother will hate me for this." The commander says
He goes up Thana pulling her arms from under her cloak. Facing them upward into the air. He strokes her hand with his thumb before letting go. He then walks to the fire grabbing one of the brands from out of the fire. He then turns to Thana and walks back to her. He places it on her left forearm holding it down to brand her.
Even though it hurt Thana didn't flinch or make a noise. Nothing could hurt as much as the moment Micah had died. She also knew if she did her uncle would become even more upset then he was now. Once he was done with that arm he goes to the right forearm doing the same thing again. Once the marking were complete, he handed the brander to Marcus who in return gave him slab and bandages. He carefully covers the burns with the slab and bandages.
Once he was done he turned to walk away, Thana quickly grabs him and pulls him into a hug. He slides his arms around her, he hides his face on her shoulder not to let everyone see his tears. He has always seen Thana as a daughter and he wasn't able to protect her. It was starting to way on him.
"Mom wouldn't hate you, it's not your fault. It never was." Thana whispers to him before letting go.
She takes a step back and smiles at him. He quickly rubs his eyes and looks at the group. Announcing Thana as the sixth member to squad sixteen. The others let out whoops and cheers. They crowd around her patting her on the back and saying their official welcomes. Teagen waves her hand and the fire jumps up into the sky making makeshift fireworks.
They head back to their house. Linkin blabbering about how amazing it was to see Thana take all those people down at the cafe, and how she didn't even move when she was branding. He was jumping around the group shaking Erzah and Quinten. When they get to the house they all stop in shock.
Looking at the front door they see that it had been broken down. They heard clattering inside. Thana takes a step forward, kneeling to the ground she picks up a golden feather.
"Shit." she says.
She gets up and heads into the house. The group follows her in. Looking at the ceiling they see a hole where the air vent used to be. In the kitchen, the fridge was open on the floor empty. Thana sighs and turns to look down the hallway. At the end of the hallway she sees her griffin curled up on the floor surrounded by alcohol bottles and ripped up food wrappers.
"You alcoholic griffin." Thana shouts.
Her shouting wakes up the griffin. He shrieks at the loud noise. Seeing that it was made by Thana he coos and swishes his tail back and forth. Thana shakes her head storming down to the griffin. She starts to scold Thief. Linkin is on the floor laughing along with Teagen at the scene. Erzah goes to the kitchen picking up the fridge and placing it back in it's spot. Kolt picks up the unhinged door and places it in the doorframe. So that they could at least pretend they had a door. Quinten walks past the commotion and heads to his room locking it on his way in.
Thana gets Thief onto his legs and starts pushing him down the hallway to the living room. She clears a spot in the corner of the room. She tells him to stay and disappears into her room to return with all the towels from it. She places them on the ground and points to the makeshift bed. Ordering the griffin to the corner for time out. The griffin moves onto the towels with his tail between his legs. He knew that Thana was mad.
Teagen and Linkin help each other up from the floor. That was when they heard a knock and the door fell down onto the floor again. In the doorway is a very confused Commander. He looks at the door to the group back to the door. His eyes then see the griffin head size hole in the ceiling. He turns to Thana and then to Thief before nodding his head.
"Okay, so I'll get this all fix tomorrow." He starts.
"The more important question, is who thought the air duct was a safe hiding spot from Thief." He chuckles
Linkin immediately starts blushing and raises his hand. Erzah sneaks up behind him, giving him a wake to the back of the head. Linkin rubs his head, looking at Erzah like a sad puppy. Teagen is leaning on a chair laughing harder than before.
The commander enters the house and then lifts the door back in the doorway. He then pulls a bottle out from the bag he had over his shoulder. He tell Teagen to grab some glasses. She brings them back slamming them on the table. The commander then pours the shots. Everyone grabs one, but Thana. She grabs the bottle and takes a couple of swigs. Everyone else took their shot.
"She is why I bought two bottles." The commander said.
He pulled out a second bottle. Everyone cheered and Thana raised the first bottle bowing her head. She takes another swig before standing up and begins to pace. She turns back to the table and takes another couple of sips before slamming it down.
"I am only tell you this because I don't want you to hear it from someone else tomorrow. I slept with Micah." Thana blurted out.
The commander choked on his drink. Linkin had his hand covering his mind. He asked her to say that again. He thought that he hadn't heard her right. Teagen glanced passed Thana and her mouth dropped open. Kolt coughed and nodded past her. Thana turned around to see Quinten in the hallway staring at Thana. She grabs the bottle and shoves it to Quinten's chest. He takes the bottle and takes a swig before handing it back to her. She takes it and walks towards her room.
"Have the commander answer any more questions you have." Thana says
She quickly walks into her room, shutting the door. Once she is gone everyone starts talking at once. Quinten quickly moves to the commander demanding answers. The commander raises his hand, commanding silence. He runs his hair threw his fingers and takes a shot before facing the eager group.
"First things, that is not exactly what happened. Second off Quinten first. Any questions?"
"She slept with Micah?" Quinten asked.
"They were found kissing in the garden by her middle sister Eleanor." The Commander said.
"How did he die." Linkin asked
Everyone in the group turned to him. He just shrugged. He knew everyone wanted to ask but no one would actually do it. Everyone turned back to the commander waiting for an answer.
"It was at her execution. Micah was being held down by guards but got away and jumped in front of her. She was chained nothing she could do. However she still feels guilty." He answers.
Quinten swears under breath. Grabbing the bottle and pours himself another drink. Shaking his head he looks at the commander teary eyed.
"I knew they had a connection. They were stupid to get caught but it wasn't her fault he died. I need to do something. Excuse me." Quinten says quickly.
He stands up and walks down the hall. Quinten knocks on the Thana's door and then enters the room. He waits for his eyes to adject to the dark room. Looking around the room it looks like a bomb went off.
All decorations were thrown around the room. The mirror on the closet door was shattered. The desk was flipped. In the window nook Thana was sitting sipping on her bottle.
Quinten walks over to her. He pushes her legs off and sits next to her. He wraps one arm around the balled up girl. Taking a deep breathe he began to speak.
"Your uncle told us about Micah's death. How he jumped in front of you. It's not your fault. I don't even blame you guys for kissing. It was always clear that you two were very close. I'm sorry for my behavior."
"I miss him so much, if I could have taken his place I would have. I promise." Thana says
Quinten take a chug of his bottle. He knows that she would have. She was always a good person and it was wrong to think she would have actually meant to cause him harm. The whole thing seems really weird but he just figured it was the gried.
In the kitchen, everyone is silent trying to hear any of the conversation going on across the house. The commander had pulled another bottle from his bag and placed it in the middle of the table. They all were placing bets on what could happen.
Most of the table was waiting for Thana to drag a dead Quinten out of the room. So when Quinten emerged from the bedroom unharmed the table drew money from their pockets and handed it to the commander. Grinning he takes the money and stands up. He walks over the couch and collapses on it. He tells the rest of the group to start heading to bed because it tomorrow will be a long day.
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