The Great

Evay Maver: I laughed as their shocked faces hung in the air for a bit. I stood up and Lila gave me a big hug.

“So you didn’t die.”

“Yeah that part was surprisingly very easy,” I looked at Geon and he gave me a welcoming look.

“Nice, I thought you were going to die. You look like someone who would die, you know,” I laughed and he gave me a pat on the shoulder. I turned to look at Aurora and her gaze softened a little.

“Welcome back Evay. We missed you,” she gave me a gentle smile and a hug before handing me a stack of papers. “Also, you have about a month's work of homework and an entire battle plan spreadsheet to look at so….sorry.” She gave me the classic sorry grin and I couldn’t help but feel very….flustered. Her auburn hair and her captivating eyes seemed to draw me in closer, and closer each time I looked into them.

“Ah well, I guess that’s what I get for missing an entire month of classes,” I quickly looked in another direction and noticed it was still light outside. “Were you guys going somewhere? I don’t think you usually come in this early.”

“Yeah we were just going to go on a night walk. Come with us—there’s no classes tomorrow,” Lila sounded excited.

“Ok, when do we leave?”

“We just got back from a class so we have to freshen up a bit before we head out. Give us like…..ten minutes?” I agreed and I waited for them before they were ready to go.

We left the dorms and walked under the beautiful night sky. The multitude of stars in the sky were like specks of light painted across an eternal stretch of darkness. The moon gave off waves of light that washed over the Earth’s surface, and the cool air gave us a subtle summer breeze. We sat on a bench in the middle of the school park and enjoyed the view for a while. “It’ll be winter soon, so I hope we can do this a few more times,” Lila spoke in a soft voice and seemed to be admiring her surroundings. For the first time in a while, I felt at ease. No hard training, no death to deal with, just a home and some friends…..

It felt like for the first time…I could breathe a little. My reason for coming here was still in the back of my head but it didn’t really matter now. I had found a place to make some pleasant memories in, and I wanted to cherish that. I looked over at Geon who also seemed very relaxed but he suddenly turned his head. I looked at his face and he seemed to be concentrating on a particular spot in the woods. He stared a little while then whipped his head to the right.

Aurora was also looking at the same spot that Geon was before finally speaking, “I see something,” Geon and Lila both looked at her.

“There,” Geon pointed to where he was looking. “It’s like….a blur” Aurora nodded and sat up straighter.

“I see massive amounts of electric particles trailing some sort of….figure.” Figure?

Lila stood up and so did the rest of us. Suddenly I felt her aura change. Her physical body didn’t change but I could feel her strength and physical power go through the roof. Whatever she was doing, she was ready to fight. It was as if I could hear a pin drop. We were all waiting for something to happen. The breeze passed us and the hum of the insects, the song of the birds, and the rustle of the grass all rang in our ears as we waited. I felt a rush of wind blow towards us. I couldn’t see what was happening very well, but it felt like a high speed boar was trying to ram us straight on. I tensed and my barrier immediately went up. I had practiced making my barrier larger so it could encompass more people but it never found any use in individual sparring. Now that I wasn’t alone, my barrier seemed more practical. They were all shocked as none of them had ever seen this before–even Geon hadn’t seen my new and improved shield. Lila gingerly touched the barrier which buzzed slightly at here touch. She gasped a little and Geon and Aurora were still in awe of it.

But more importantly I saw the figure standing outside my barrier. He too looked in awe at my shield, and strangely….he was just a harmless student. We were all confused and I put down my barrier. “We thought you were going to attack us so if you aren’t going to do that, who are you? And why are you stalking us?”

He spoke, “Oh yeah my bad. Um well, time for introductions. To be honest I had no idea that you could even well…..see me.”

Aurora looked a little skeptical and asked more questions, “How can we not see you?”

“Oh well I wanted to meet up with Geon since we’re kind of in the same boat”.

“Same boat?” Lila raised her eyebrows.

“Yeah, we’re the only two students in decades to get a scholarship into Eden. Oh and yeah, my name's Savian, the fastest man on planet Earth.”

Oh that actually explains a lot. I looked at my friends and they had to process what he had just said for a moment.

“So you can move fast? How fast?” Lila kept a cautious eye on Savain. He put his hands up and zoomed to the bench behind us. He sat down as all of us jerked our heads toward his direction. He tossed an apple in the air and took a bite out of it. “You had an apple?” my confused voice rang out in the park.

“Oh what, this? Nah, I grabbed it from the fruit stand just now.”

“But the fruit stand is like all the way across campus,” Aurora stared at the boy, who didn’t give our remarks much thought.

“Anyways….I wanted to meet Geon before the Youth Warrior Championships” He put his hands in his pockets and stood up to face Geon. Savian was surprisingly tall, almost as tall as Geon. His slender frame was the one thing that made him stand out compared to Geon though—as Savian seemed to be much lighter in weight. He had very tan skin and firey red and orange hair that came down in bangs with a slight part in the middle. I could tell girls would like him. He had that…playboy face, and his large eyes as well as his very nonchalant appearance and attitude also contributed to my point.

“What about it?” Geon was still facing Savain and both of them had a calm and collected appearance on the outside. Geon’s eyes were cold—like when he was facing an opponent, and Savian took his hands out of his pockets.

Please don’t fight here…

“I think me and you are a lock to make the team for the tournament. The problem is that we might be on different teams. I wanted to scout you out–just in case I ever needed to fight you.”

Geon suddenly eyed Savian particularly closely while he was talking,

“You think you can beat me? No offense, but I’m not too terrified about someone that can run fast,” Geon smirked and stared Savain in the face. Savain maintained a calm expression, giving no reaction to Geon’s remark.

“You seemed to be worried when I was running around you a couple minutes ago,” Geon and Savain stared at each other with cold expressions.

Savain spoke again, “Good luck with your matches, I hope you and your friends make it,” Savain started to turn around.

“When we meet each other in the qualifier finals, I’ll kill you. Remember that.” He laughed a little and Geon looked at him with a calm expression.

“Just don’t go snooping around your competition before you get caught. Some people don’t let stuff like that slide.”

“Caught?” Savain said the word with a dry laugh, “Who do you think you're talking too?” He sped off without a trace and left us to ourselves.

“I think my head hurts too much now. Let’s call it a night,” Lila’s voice sounded fatigued and quiet as we agreed with her and headed back home.

We walked into our dorms and said goodnight to the girls while me and Geon both washed up and got ready for bed.