The Warrior- Laila Nomon

9. Secrecy

'Why all the secrecy, though?', Laila asked, shifting her eyes from the doorway to Helena.

'All of the enchantments are placed here to keep something safe; you just need to look around and observe what.' Said Helena, walking into the room and spreading out her arms.

It was filled with Greek and Roman armor. Shields, spears, swords and bombs, axes, nets, heavy metal chains... weapons of every kind were in the room, hanging on walls. There were a few dummies in the middle of the room for practice. Laila mouthed 'wow' to Helena and went straight to a brass sword. She tried to lift it but she wasn't able to. Not one inch of it. Helena noticed that she was struggling and went to the sword (with Laila still tugging on it) and lifted it without much effort. Laila was looking at her with her mouth open; as if she'd lifted a mountain single-handed.

'How-the-mummy did you just do that? It's got to be at least a ton of metal.'

Helena just handed her a lighter iron sword from the wall and said, 'You've never held a sword?'

'No, actually, I've been running from monsters and fighting demons ever since I was three', Laila replied.

'Am I supposed to be amused?'

'Yes.'

'Fine,' said Helena and gave her a forced smile.

Then Laila remembered, 'Hey, have you been in the "Recruiting Party," yet?' She asked making quotation marks with her fingers.

'What's that?' Helena raised her eyebrows.

'I mean have you tagged along with Laura when they were recruiting someone?' Laila said.

'Not with Laura. But with the other Half-trained? Yes.'

'You mean you can go on your own?'

'If you been assigned the task. But you can't just sneak out and bring a couple of mortals saying they're Warriors, no.'

'I'll take that as a yes. So, when are you going to recruit next? You'll call me when you do, right? What do you need to do to prove you're worthy to recruit Warriors? How do you prove you're half trained? Do you take these swords and have a fight with Laura sometimes?' Laila peppered her with questions. But didn't wait for Helena's answer.

'You know, the sooner we get out of here, the sooner we'll be able to get to dinner. After, you know, you maybe consider closing the portal,' Laila said, gesturing at everything in the room.

'Sure.' Helena said with a sigh. I had to ask if she wanted to hang out. I'm an idiot. How do I always manage to surround myself with weirdos? Dammit.

After putting back the swords, they walked out of the room, Helena whispered a few words that seemed total nonsense gibberish words to Laila, and they set back.

'I've no idea how you pronounce that,' she said in awe. They both fell completely silent as they retraced their way.

'Where's your chamber?,' Laila enquired.

'Oh, mine's beside Erika's. You must have had an acquaintance with her till now. Mine's the one with the black door.'

'I've seen yours. Your door looks so cool.' Laila ignored the Erika part.

'You should see the inside, Half-trained accommodations.' Helena shrugged nonchalantly.

'What say we both freshen up and meet at the top of the stairs in ten minutes?'

'You bet.'

Ten minutes later, Laila and Helena were climbing down the stairs together, with Fedrick, Nick and a few more latecomers. They reached the dining area and sat down. To her delight, Laila found that they were having mushroom pizzas for dinner, using the ones she'd plucked in the morning.

Beforeeveryone started, they all uttered a chant, with Laila trying to lip-sync toHelena's words and then Laura stood up.

'I think that since we have a newcomer here, it's my duty to introduce her to you all. Laila- would you mind standing up?' She looked directly at Laila. She stood up immediately.

'Everyone, this is Laila Nomon. Laila, this is Dylan Lockwood.' She said, gesturing to a red-haired balding man beside her. 'Nora Gaur.' She said gesturing to her left, where a lady with a scar stretching from her top lip to the chin was sitting, arms crossed. As soon as Laura said her name, Nora gave a small nod to Laila. 'That is Jake McLain...' She said pointing at a man sitting beside Nora who seemed to be in his late thirties. 'And I am Laura Sean. We are the Leaders who will help train you starting tomorrow. A hearty welcome from all of us,' Laura completed and gave her a smile.

'Thanks.' Laila sat down after Laura had. She turned to Fedrick, 'Is it the way everyone is introduced here?

'Yeah.I was introduced the same way. It is humiliating.' Fedrick shrugged, taking a bite. A lady dressed in a green-brown gown came forward through a door at the far end of the room and set Laila's plate in front of her before turning around and walking back through the door again. Laila assumed there must be a kitchen behind it and that she was one of the helpers here.

A/N: Not sure if someone noticed, but I'm back with a double update! There's a treat for you since I haven't updated in about a month. Don't forget to vote and comment so I can get the motivation to do better and update faster!  Enjoy and thankyou for reading!