The Heroes of The Elemental Academies Book 3 The Tides of War

Chapter 13: Darkened Skies

Seth

   Seth watched as line after line of agents marched forward leaving their make shift campsite and heading out towards the city-state of Durindal. He hadn't spoken with Rylee at all after his out burst and frankly he was still quite mad. The one thing he hated more than anything was being forced to do something he wasn't ready for. All of the higher ups Stratos and his mother included, treated him as if he wasn't able to recognize his own faults but that simply wasn't true. He knew at times he was just too impulsive but it wasn't something he could just solve overnight. So why? Why did everyone act like he should be able to? To add on to that he later found out that they had staged an attack as a way to teach him a lesson.

He slung his bag over his back heading for the last wagon to store it so he could leave with his squad. He quickly packed it away and headed toward the back of the column to where his squad mates were. He hadn't spoken to them since the ambush other than to check if they were okay and after his outburst he hadn't spoken to them at all. He felt guilty about it but he had been so muddle headed he had to focus on getting his head on straight first. He wasn't sure how he was going to respond next time he talked with Rylee but he definitely felt that he had been disrespected. He didn't like the feeling of being lied to. As he approached the contingent that his squad was he saw them lined up like all the others.

"Shhh he's coming!" Aisha was saying as she quickly tried to turn away to hide her smile from him. Seth said nothing at first. He looked each of them over Justin and Karta couldn't contain their smiles. Carla shifted herself behind Aisha something in her eyes didn't sit right with him but before he could say anything Leon stepped forward. But, instead of the smug mocking he thought he was going to get there was an unusual glint in the young nature agents eyes.

"You..." Leon paused looking down. "You were amazing Sir!" Seth shrugged unsure of how to respond to the praise.

"Yeah, well some people consider what I did reckless," He said finally. Leon quickly shook his head.

"I don't think it was reckless. It was cool. How did you condense your wind like that around your fist." Seth was caught off guard. Truth be told even if he wanted to say anything he couldn't he didn't know exactly how he did it. It just seemed like a good idea. Drills were good at well drilling and that's what he pictured in his head.

Not being able to answer Leon bother him for quite some time after they had set off. They marched a couple of hours in silence except for the odd remark from Aisha who he was coming to realize was a natural born fighter and trouble maker both." Carla the shy one had a knack for being a fierce fighter. At least that was the case from what he had seen of her during the battle. Justin was more cautious than the others but he had a knack for strategy, at least that was what Rylee had told him when she had assigned them to him. The rest of them he hadn't spent enough time with to guess their characters. He sighed stopping briefly to stare out at the outgoing columns of agents. He knew almost no one in this unit yet he was expected to fight and bleed beside them. Perspiration dripped down his face at the thought. Did he really thrust these people that much. In the last two years he had only ever spent time with Stratos, Jack, Rylee and the rest of the Disciples but he had refrained from mingling with most of the agents he didn't know.

As they exited the tree coverage and into an open hill dotted plain, he stopped to looked out over it and take in the sight. It had been nearly two years since he was thrown into this world, He had fought, he had killed, and he had learned to use his imagination to survive. But this... This was war and seeing column after column pass him by sent cold waves of shivers down his back as it dawned on him that with was probably nothing like he had seen so far. Seth caught a glimpse of darkening clouds in the distance. He had no way of telling the time other than to say the sun hadn't reached noon yet so if he was right it would rain before afternoon fell. He shook his head getting rid of the intrusive thoughts and ran forward to catch up with his unit.