"Adi, wait up!"
Daylight is fading fast as I turn around to see Jkahl running after me.
"What's wrong?" I ask, immediately assuming that I’ve forgotten something back at the burrow.
"Nothing, I just figured since it's kind of dangerous for you to be alone now..." He trails off as glare at him.
"I'm not a little girl, Jkahl, I can defend myself." I walk faster, looking straight ahead. Though Jkahl and I are good friends, sometimes he knows just how to offend me.
"That's not what I meant!" He dashes forward.
"Care to specify?" I say coldly.
"What I meant was if someone catches you I could say—"
"I don't need a bodyguard." I cut him off.
"Please just listen to me Adi." He pleads.
"I'm listening."
"No, you're not." He mutters and turns back. I move onward, determined not to miss supper again. Last time that had ended in too many questions.
"Good afternoon!" My mother calls as I approach the house. She's beating out the rugs on the front porch with a broom.
"Hello mother," I say dryly.
"How was Realms?"
"Same as it is every day."
"How is it every day?"
"Why does it matter to you?" I feel my temper starting to rise against my will.
"You're my daughter."
"So what?" I scoff.
"So I care about what happens in your life." She lays a rug on top of the pile.
Yeah, right.
"I have homework." I walk to the door.
"I'll help you," She offers. I resist the urge to turn around and run back to the bunker. I take a deep breath, grimace at her and walk into the house without another word.
I close the door to my room behind me and sit down on the old cot. Crossing the room to my small wooden desk I open up the drawer on the right hand side and wave my hand over it, closing my eyes in concentration. The Book appears and I give it something resembling a smile.
I remember the first time I found the book. I had been looking for a pencil to write a note to my mother saying I was running away. That would've been about two years ago, now. I stumbled and threw out my arm over the desk to steady myself, accidentally waving my hand over the drawer. The shock that had come with discovering the Book was enormous, almost as large as my gratitude.
I open up to page 73, where I left off yesterday. When my mother thinks I'm doing homework, I'm practicing the skills I learned in the bunker that day. Lai finds new information in her books and the rest of us put it into play, learning and working to perfect our techniques. We have thirty members so far in the Rebellion, where as the Ruler has all of Anthea. Even so, only a few show up each week, like Klayden or Blair. If we expect to have any chance at over throwing him, we need to train up and learn how to train others.
Unluckily for me, steiring is one of the hardest things I've ever had to learn to do. I've been trying ever since I found the Book and I'm still only on page 73 of 458. Others in the Rebellion have finished their Books entirely.
I refuse to believe that the reason I'm struggling is because of my age. Despite my youth I work harder and have more motivation than anyone I know, besides Jkahl maybe. That boy is persistent.
