Ulva

Chapter 1 - The Ulva

Ceyla was sick of the heat.

An unusual heat wave had come over the island of Accfrith in the middle of May, when it was more than hot enough for her anyway. With every breath she could practically smell the heavy warmth that had lasted for weeks now with no sign of cooler weather on the horizon. There was no breeze for any kind of relief; the few wispy clouds in the sky remained practically motionless throughout the long, hot days. The streets felt dusty when you walked down them, as though the concrete was burning and you were constantly breathing in tiny specks of ash. Some people were concerned that the trees in the forests were getting too dry and a fire wouldn't be too far down the line. The last time anything like this had happened there was over sixty years ago, and yet life was continuing as normal.

Her school year was almost at an end; just a few short weeks and soon she'd have her four remaining exams out of the way and be free to enjoy her gap year in peace. She thought about travelling – getting off the island on a boat and going to a real city for the first time. Almost eighteen years old and she'd never crossed to the mainland. She might get a job somewhere interesting, and meet all sorts of new people. She could experiment, and learn, and figure out what she wanted to do before the year was up and she'd have to apply to university like most of her friends had already done this year. Yes, the next year was going to be an exciting one, filled with change and adventure.

For now, however, she was sat in a stuffy exam room, watching the clock. She'd finished half an hour early. For any other student, that would have been pretty worrying – it's likely they'd have missed a page by accident or skipped one too many questions they just couldn't figure out. With Ceyla, though, it was normal. Her mother always said she was a bloody fast writer.

"Fifteen minutes remaining, everyone, fifteen minutes." The invigilator's cold voice cut through the tense silence in the hall for a brief moment, before everything went quiet again. To her left, out of the corner of her eye, Ceyla could see another girl's writing suddenly speed up as she realised how close it was to the end of the time. Her hand moved frantically, darting across the page. Ceyla could sense the panic in her movements. She wanted to tell her that it was going to be okay, that she was doing fine, but she couldn't. Even a small, comforting smile could be seen as communication and end up getting them both disqualified.

Three minutes before the end of the time, the girl stopped writing, closed the paper and put down her pen. She then slumped over her desk, resting her forehead on her arms, which were crossed on the surface of the table. Her shoulders were shaking. It looked as though she was crying, although it couldn't really be clear through peripheral vision alone.

"That is all of the allowed time." Once again, the silence was broken. "Please put your pens down and don't talk until we've collected in all of your papers."

Row by row, three invigilator's wandered up and down the hall. Ceyla focussed on the rhythmic tapping of their feet on the ground as they walked over the wooden floor, and the subtle swish noise the papers made as they were swept off the desks and onto the growing piles in their arms. Despite the heat, she couldn't wait to get outside. She'd been cooped up in that exam hall for far too long.

Finally all the papers were in, and the students were finally going to be dismissed from the room.

The main invigilator for the exam, the one who'd been telling them all the information they needed before and during, stood at the front of the room. "Before we let you go, there's an announcement I've been instructed to make," she started. "If you are leaving the island for whatever reason tonight, please be informed that there is a mandatory curfew of 10pm. The Ulva will be closing the gates at that time for security reasons. They won't be reopened until they say the security risk has been cleared. We hope that this won't disrupt any plans."