A normal life

Chapter 11: Charlie

Chapter 11, Charlie

When the words that the warrior, who had burst into the room sunk in, Father instantly started giving out orders and rounding warriors up. Thankfully while everyone else was getting ready I had enough time to change into a different T-shirt and jeans. It wasn't the best clothes to fight in but it wouldn't make me stand out so it would be easier for me to blend in with the humans meaning that I wouldn't be exposed since Rose Mall was near the school and could have students or Professors there. Not only that Maylin would more than likely be there with the Aven clan not that she didn't already know the truth but I couldn't let Mother, Bruce and Gloria know that.
"Charlie, I want you on the defence team protecting the humans, do not take Naga form and take it easy because of your wounds" ordered Father and I nodded. 

Heading to the mall as fast as we could I realised that some of our warriors were already there fighting probably the group that the messenger came from.
"What are you already doing here when I only gave the order to move out just now?" questioned Father angrily seeing as they either didn't follow orders or were here when the attack started without orders.
"When we got word from our allies that the leader of the Aven's was spotted here we told Milady straight away, she sent us out to scout just in case they were on the attack and then when we got here they attacked both our group and the humans" explained the leader of that warrior group. Most of the warrior groups for the clan were split into groups of five and each had a leader and a second in command.
"Attack to detain, do not kill and also make sure not to kill any of the humans they are innocent and have nothing to do with this" I heard a voice I had hoped not hear in this battle. Looking around I saw her, Maylin was standing behind the three elders who seemed to be protecting her while she gave the orders out to the clan. Even though she was on the other side of the battle, attacking my family and I had just taken a mission to get close to her to kill her, I couldn't help but think that she was breath-taking while giving out orders.
"Make sure not to be seen by both the Aven's and that leader if not everything will be ruined" warned Gloria and I nodded, falling back to help on defence like my Father ordered me to. When being on defence we didn't just defend the fighters that had been hurt but we also defended the humans to make sure that they weren't hurt or worse killed. It would also be our job after the battle, if we won, to use our abilities to change the memories of the humans to cover the supernatural world up. I don't know how the Aven's handled it when they had to clean up but the Naga's used a special blend of poison that we injected them with and changed their memories much like hypnotising. Even though we had done this each time we had to change the defence each time because using the right venom was draining, if you used it too much or used it on too many people you could end up passing out or even falling into a coma.
"Watch out" I yelled as I dove in front of a group of humans that had been attacked by an Aven warrior which I didn't understand seeing as Maylin ordered them not to attack humans.
"Found a snake scum in disguise, this will be your last day on this plain" smirked the man taking on his bird form, having claws on his hands and feet, on his back were large feathered wings and finally on his face where his mouth and nose had been was now a large orange beak.
"What do you think you are doing? They are humans, innocent people that have nothing to do with our world" I yelled with a glare allowing scales to coat my arms so that it would give me a little more defence without needing to take on my half form. I was glad that I had added the scales as he let out a squawk and flapped his wings sending wind towards me that was like blades but I managed to block it with my arms.
"They are useless and pathetic, they can't even both see what is right in front of them so they deserve to live unless they are slaves of course" answered the cocky bird.
"Then the same could be said towards yourself" I snarled, dodging the claw swipe that he aimed at me then I moved and punched him in the face. Before he could recover or even think I swiftly ran at him kicking his stomach and then grabbed his head slamming it into the ground. I made sure that he was only knocked out and not dead, sure he would have a killer headache when he woke up but at least he would still have his life.
"I told you not to attack humans and only attack to knock out, we are falling back right now" said Maylin with a frown and a glint of anger in her eyes. It wanted me to go up and soothe her, hold her in my arms and tell her that there was nothing to worry about anymore but I beat that feeling down knowing that I couldn't go to her.
"Princess you should go first" suggested one of the female warriors that was sporting an injured side.
"No, I am not going anywhere until I know that both the injured and dead are safe" Maylin explained as her eyes met my own eyes. Hurt flashed through her eyes before she closed them and looked away from me like it hurt to even look at me before she followed the last of the Aven warriors away.
"I will give her one thing even though she is our enemy but she is a responsible, respectful and caring warrior" said Samual, making me shake my head.
"No she is a responsible, respectful and caring person, she is not a warrior at all" I whispered to myself not knowing that Samual overheard me.
"We have won this battle now the defence team will inject the venom to change the humans memories to having a riot break out and then we will allow the human police to deal with the rest of the mess" announced Father and everyone cheered as some including myself got to changing memories around while others made sure there was nothing of the supernatural world left around. Once I finished doing the max amount of memory changes that I could do I helped clean up the mess from the supernatural world and believe me picking up feathers and scales were not as fun as one might think. Add into the fact that I was now sore all over not only from the battle but from the test as well so now that I wasn't moving around my muscles were crying out in pain.
"Charlie, why don't you head back home to get some rest you must be pretty sore and tired, don't worry too much we will cover for you" smiled Eric gesturing to himself and Samson. Shawn and Kieran were both still off injecting venom into humans to change memories.
"I should be fine to finish this before heading back" I protested.
"Your legs are shaking and look ready to give out on you, not only did you go through that course but you then helped with the fire and then you fought against me before this battle as well you should know you need rest. One of the most important things you need to be able to do when you are a warrior is to know when to rest and rely on the people around you" said Samson and I looked down and realised that he was right. If a warrior was tired then they were dead weight and wouldn't be able to help out in battles so warriors needed to know their limits and trust the allies around them.
"Okay then I'll head back, I owe you guys one when this is over" I promised heading back to the compound. Normally I would have fought them more on the fact but my college classes started up again tomorrow. They had taken a day of rest and no classes to assess the damage from the 'bomb' that was actually the campus battle. Since classes started tomorrow that meant tomorrow the hardest mission of my life would begin. Not only would I be making friends with Maylin, I would have to bury the feelings I had for her down deep since I couldn't get rid of them. That was what was going to be the hardest thing, being close to her while knowing that as soon as we were close enough instead of asking her on a date like I wanted to I would have to end her life. For the first time in my entire life I wished that I wasn't part of a clan, in fact I wished that both myself and Maylin were born human so we didn't have to go through any of this but I knew that it wasn't possible. Another thought that was also plaguing my mind was the mission I had been given and the warriors that were already at the mall. While my mother was married to the clan leader she had no power to send out scouting missions without Father knowing about it. She also wasn't allowed to hand out missions and since she was the one that gave me the mission to kill Maylin all I could think of was that Father was just too busy to give me the mission with everything going on. Either way I made a reminder to find time to speak to Father when we were both free so I could tell him about this and hoped he believed me. There was also the worry about the fire, something told me in my gut that it had nothing to do with the Aven clan that the forest just so happened to catch on fire when I was in the forest so I would have to look into that as well.  Once I got home the first thing I did was go for a shower then I changed the bandages on my back, putting the balm on the burns I then flopped onto the bed and before I knew it I was fading off to sleep dreading tomorrow.

"Charlie, wake up Charlie" called a voice as someone shook my shoulder, making me jump a little. On reflex, not only did I jump but I lashed out trying to grab the collar of the person only for my grab to be knocked away. Opening my eyes I saw that Samual was standing over me with a raised eyebrow not looking too impressed.
"Your going to be late for your first class if you don't hurry up since it's already nine also you have a bit more training to go through before you can think about beating me" smirked Samual but I shook off his comment as I jumped out of bed knowing it was more teasing them serious. Getting dressed in a rush I rushed to the kitchen to swipe a piece of toast that I shoved into my mouth as I raced towards the collage hoping that I wouldn't miss my first class. 

Luckily I made it just in time though the teacher shot me a warning look making me smile sheepishly and finished my toast off quickly.
"Now class as many of you have heard or even saw with your own eyes, this campus was the target of a bomb attack so" started the teacher before I blocked him out looking to see Maylin on the opposite side of the room looking out of the window. Most of the day I spent trying to figure out how I was going to approach Maylin after all she knew that I was part of the Wolven clan and that I was a Naga. That meant that I was one of her sworn enemies and not only that but we had already clashed in battle twice so somehow I didn't think she would want to share some milk and cookies with me. There were probably two different outcomes either she would ignore me or attack me but if I could manage to corner her with other people around she would at least have to listen to me. At lunch I saw my chance since two girls were talking to Maylin so I jumped up and headed over towards them ignoring the wolf whistles sent towards me from Ben and Paul.
"Sorry ladies but could I borrow Maylin for a moment?" I asked smiling at them which made them giggle.
"Of course, see you later" said one of them.
"And good luck" the other one giggled as they left us alone.
"What is it you want from me Charlie?" Maylin asked her eyes guarded and filled with caution which nearly made me flinch but I held it in.
"Is it so hard to believe that I came over to simply talk to you without some sort of ill feelings" I tried hoping that it would actually work but I could tell she didn't buy it for one second.
"After everything that has happened in the last few days and what is going on at the moment between the both of us then yes, it is hard to believe so I'll ask again what do you want?" Maylin demanded though I could tell there was no actual anger behind the words.
"To tell you the truth I want to get to know you and be a friend to you after all with everything that is going on you probably need a friend, someone to talk to about all of this" I lied wishing that I didn't have to lie to her and that she brought the lie I fed her.
"Yeah for some reason I am going to have to pass on that I am not stupid. You probably want to lure me into a false friendship and then stab me in the back while I am not looking" said Maylin with a sigh before she got up and left. Sighing I realised that next time I would have to try even harder if I couldn't manage it they would send someone else after her. So That is what I did. For three whole weeks every time I got a chance I would try and talk to her and show her that I could be her friend but every time Maylin would refuse. It probably didn't help that our clans were still clashing in battles nearly every week meaning we were standing on opposite sides each time. Even with everything going on the one thing that was bugging me the most was that Maylin was losing weight, her skin had lost the small amount of tan that she had and even her glasses couldn't hide the large dark bags under her eyes which grew darker each day. Every time I tried to get close to her was rejected but sometimes I wish she would accept just so I could make sure she was eating and sleeping well. Hopefully she would break soon and would allow me to be her friend if only just for a day so that I could take care of her. If that wasn't possible though I hoped that someone else would see that she was getting worse every day so that they could save her.