The white butterfly tango

Chapter XIV

"You ready?" Anna was already waiting for the girl near the academy gates all prepared for their evening run.

"I am." Esma nodded and put her olive dark hair into a high ponytail so that it wouldn't disturb her from the run. Anna had a little bun on her head, pinned with some kind of long pink needle. It reminded her of the little girl and she decided to ask right away. "Do you know where Sora was the whole day?"

"Her room." Anna sighed while answering but then took a step to the gates. "Run first. Then I'll see if I can tell you." She was speaking with her usual accent, where she always had too much pressure on her "r's".

"Just promise to keep the tempo." Esma joined her and in a second they both started running to the closest forest through the plain road. The plain seemed huge to Esma she could see the closest village, the academy, and the railway tracks with only one ghost train ever using them twice a day.

There was absolutely no way to get to the academy otherwise, only if you had own vehicle but she never once saw a car passing by, so even that seemed weird to her. In comparison to her city where she usually listened to the honks of the car at the closest highway instead of a lullaby every single night, this location was all about peace and perfect balance. No factory smog, no annoying neighbors, and even no crazy people on the streets yelling at the poor highschoolers and college students.

Fortressmain was its own kind of weird where the academy gathered various students with unique abilities under tiled one roof of the dormitory and towers of the main building. The girl didn't have the time to see it all yet but she was close to achieving that since that fortress was not that huge. Its stone walls made it look gigantic when in reality, they could barely fit this many students. Esma started counting... Along with her, there were 10 students, 4 teachers, 2 helping ladies: Miss Lynn and Miss Rigby, the Dean, and his wife Miss Hoover. Could it really be an educational institution? What if someone from the outside world suddenly decided in submitting their documents to the academy? Ather all, they had a perfectly working internet system with all the contacts. She got curious if there were ever such cases.

The girls ran without any rush. That was the best thing about evening practice as there were no following tasks ahead of them except for finally getting some proper rest. Anna was really well physically trained, while Esma didn't actually felt really well to run so much without any preparation but she was determined to finish anyway. She knew it will eventually get easier, she only had to continue.

They finished after the successful 20 minutes of intense leg training and also did some additional squats after Anna recommended them. The girls practically didn't talk but Esma felt that Anna was comfortable with that, so decided to follow her lead.

"I'm surprised you managed to keep up." As they were returning to the academy, Anna finally decided to speak up.

"Well, I did train a lot before dropping it," Esma stated calmly, trying not to fall from exhaustion that precise second.

"Why did you drop running?" Anna then asked her curiously, having no idea of why the girl would give up on training.

"Apparently, it was because of the curse." The girl explained it sincerely just as well as she possibly could. "I started to get really tired really fast and doctors couldn't diagnose me with anything."

"The curse?" The blonde girl curiously put out another question and Esma got a bit suspicious as it was usual to ask anything.

"Yeah... I remembered only when saw it again." She wasn't as sure now but answered sincerely about her observations.

"You saw it?" Anna couldn't possibly calm down hearing all that and now Esma felt scared. Maybe she shouldn't have been so open with the person she didn't know that well yet.