The New Prince

Chapter 14

14. Travelling the road to darkness

The next morning, Keith woke up feeling strangely angry. He thought the lack of sleep had finally made him moody. Dreams and nightmares of a place he both loathed and loved, at the same time, interrupted his sleep the night before. The thoughts continued tormenting him this morning. The voice he kept hearing in his mind continued telling him that he had work to do. What work? He asked to himself. He felt he wasn't thinking clearly, but he couldn't stop himself from acting.

Sighing, his mind went back to the dreams. Keith thought he dreamt of his father, but wasn't sure. The commander knew that he hated the figure in the dream, but felt obliged to devote and honor him at the same time.

He looked at his clock, five in the morning… time for practice. He rose from bed and instantly felt a pulsing in his head. Keith rubbed his eyes to clear it. It didn't work. He decided to quickly shower and shave, hoping that would ease the pain. It was when he looked in the mirror that he noticed his glassy eyes and flushed features.

"Great, I'm getting sick too?" he asked himself aloud. The commander snorted; frustrated with one more thing he had to deal with this morning.

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Keith left his room, forfeiting his normal early morning coffee. Instead, he headed straight to the control room. Coran began greeting him, but the commander quickly stopped him.

"Good morning Commander, I thought you'd -."

"Launch the dais Coran, I'm ready to go."

At that, the advisor turned around, a bit surprised by his tone, "Commander, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Keith answered in a short tone. "Tell the others to meet me at Arusian Falls for practice." He stare turned hard on the advisor, "Coran…the dais." He ordered.

Coran did as bidden, but continued to study the young man in front of him, "Commander, you're looking a bit ill. Maybe you should consider canceling practice today."

"Nonsense, I'm fine." He stated, ignoring the pulsing pain in his head, "I'll contact you from there."

VVVVVVVVVV

Lifting the visor from his helmet, Keith wiped the sweat running down his forehead. He had lowered the air temperature to the coldest setting, yet he was suffocating inside Black's cockpit.

The rest of the team had met him at Arusian Falls, an area full of rocks and cliffs. The land, too hard and rocky to build anything on it, was perfect to conduct lion practice and testing new weaponry. When the team met him, Black lion stood waiting for them on a tall cliff. Ignoring their greetings and questions, he quickly started giving them orders to start practice without as much as giving them an explanation for his behavior. Now, about forty minutes into practice, Keith's patience has increasingly dropped and he can't stop himself from not only shouting orders, but berating his team. He's notices the sweat trickling down his face and neck, the feeling of hotness all over him and the voice that won't stop repeating the same words over and over from the night before.

The commander ignored the heat and the voice continued training, "All right, diamond formation at 45,000 feet. Go!" He ordered harshly.

The team did as bidden, but all of them knew Keith wasn't in the best of moods this morning. They didn't understand why. He even purposely blocked his vidscreen to prevent them from watching him.

"Lance you are off by fifteen degrees. Veer your lion to the left."

Lance did as ordered, but frustration rose within him. The commander had barked orders all morning, pointing out every flaw and imperfection. Everyone held their tongues, but Lance would lose it soon, he felt it.