Mountain of The Moons • Book 1

Chapter 18

"Makio wake up!" I heard and I was jolted awake.

I sat up seeing Yami stood in the doorway. I saw students running behind him in the hall and his face was covered in sweat. I threw the blankets that had held me down off to the side frantically. I got to my feet and Yami grabbed my arm before I was even on my feet. He pointed to my shoes and I quickly slipped them on not even remember having taken them off.

"What's happening?" I asked frantically hardly feeling awake.

"There's been an accident in the court yard. Everyone is being rushed to the announcement hall." He said pulling me out into the hallways.

"What do you mean accident?" I asked I following along, but as soon as we made it to the exit I stopped right in my tracks.

In the middle of the courtyard there was usually a beautiful garden with several ponds and small creatures. Though now it just sat there up in flames. My hand flew to my mouth, but Yami didn't let me stand there long. He pulled me past the gardens and towards the temples announcement hall just past the ceremony chambers.

I watched as several Elite students accompanied Minoru in dousing the fire. I watched as they carried water from the small pond that typically hosted koi fish to the tree. I had seen the Elite students working on elemental manipulation, but I didn't think it had much application in the real world. The tree in the center that ironically was a Wisteria tree was lighting up the entire place like the sun.

My feet mushed through the few inches of snow that had accumulated over the last few days. I could hear cries and panic from all students, even some of the Elite. I caught a glimpse of Minoru looking right at me and his face looked like he had wanted to say something, but clearly he was busy.

"Get inside!" I heard an Elite student, Siena, yell towards us.

She was usually walking to and from classes with Jun as his partner. She normally was all smiles and quite talkative to Jun's dismay. Though now I saw her eyes wide open and filled with fear as she threw her arms to gesture us into the building. I looked back as we raced up the steps as I saw three bodies around the tree.

I tensed and looked to Yami who looked back at the scene in horror. I couldn't even see any defining features among the three of them laid out. As the fire was being put out the view of the bodies were now very easy to see. They didn't even look real they just looked like mummified corpses.

"Stop standing around get inside!" I heard her scorn again at us.

I pulled Yami inside because we needed to listen to them right now. I could feel the cold air outside pushing through my clothes and shaking me to my core. Everyone looked cold as we came inside and the hearths were on and crackling. Everyone was in their pajamas and half dressed clearly having been woken from their sleep suddenly.

I saw Uba stood up near the front of the hall and I saw Jo next to her. He looked worried as he spoke to her but she looked fairly calm though her arm was hooked into his. Chunami was stood over a young girl who was crying into her hands. I didn't recognize her but she had been yelling about a boy I had remembered hearing about in the elite class. She was clearly in distress about the boy and Chunami seemed to be trying to console her but even Chunami herself looked ill.

"We still have 6 students that are still unaccounted for." A man said to behind us.

"Make that 4." I heard Jun's voice say grabbing Yami and I's shoulder. I snapped around to see him covered in ash and soot. His eyes connected with me and I could see he wasn't happy but I saw his shoulders relax. "The other three are dead in the garden."

"Who's left then?" The man asked and I only saw Jun's eyes which were normally golden and bright get a little darker.

"Get nurse Gia!" I heard from the outside and I looked down and saw Minoru at the bottom of the steps holding a burned corpse that hadn't even seemed to be moving. "She's been badly burned! She still has a pulse."