Insurrection (Completed) [editing]

1. Meeting Keira

Chapter one - Meeting Keira
Keira woke up, startled and her night shirt clinging to her back and chest. Her body was hot and her breaths were jagged. She felt like she had been running forever and her throat was dry and achy with thirst. Keira tried to moisten her mouth with the little saliva she had, but it was no use. She rubbed her small delicate hand over her face - she had been dreaming.
Well, it had been more of a nightmare. The creatures and the world she had been in were extremely strange although not something she hadn't seen before. Their colours were vivid and their forms bulgy. The buildings all looked the same and her parents had appeared several times. Each time they looked a little different, like they had been clawed at or punched. The answer was in the back of her mind, but she let it slip out and stared at the nothingness above her.
What happened to her parents had happened long ago, and her dreams were too wild to be accurate. She did not believe, no, she couldn't believe that such mystical creatures could be so violent. They were so beautiful, fuzzy and innocent. How could they possibly be capable of what they were accused of?
The memory of a small creature she had kept as a pet aroused, the little thing had been so playful and gentle. It was a ferliobog, but she renamed it after she decided that the name sounded too dangerous to describe her wonderful little friend.
When Bo grew up, he was accused of attacking her neighbour's children. But it wasn't true, and she knew it. She had grown up with him and didn't see any signs of viciousness when she played with him. He had never laid a finger on her or done anything to hurt her.
It was their reputations that caused this, and it had hurt Keira how people jumped to conclusions. It was a rather big shock to her parents when they found out how close they were.
This was one of the reasons she had never wanted to be a guardian. She dreaded the day her parents had chosen to be guardians themselves, and wished that there were more volunteers in her region every year. She was sure that somewhere out there, there were brave boys and girls who wished to have the honorary position of being a guardian and 'slaying the creatures'.
However, if that had been the case, she would be living with her grandparents; who had chosen a much better path. Keira had wished to be helping out with barrier, armour and weaponry designs, as that was what she had wanted to do but alas her parents had been slayed and had left her the heavy task of having to fight and watch over her region.
She hated the fact that the beautiful bear-like creatures where whipped and used for entertainment. Against their will, they were dragged out of their habitat and forced to do what they were instructed to. Some of them were even used for help with guardian training. No one seemed to realize how dangerous they themselves as humans, were and how much fear the ferliobogs had because of the many times they had been wounded or watched a fellow creature die.
No wonder they were violent and monstrous, all the beauty and gentleness had been taken away by selfish men who thought they could make some money out of them. Really, it was their own fault that they took the ferliobogs out of their own homes and then they were expected to perform tricks, watch their kind dwindle away from the beatings and slaughtering.
How could they not expect them to fight back, to not trust any humans they had come across? It wasn't even in their nature to do so, but because of what they did, it had grown into their soft hearts - on pure instinct to survive.
Even when the creatures did not attack, she had heard that they were still slaughtered or caged. It was barbaric and it made Keira sick to her stomach to hear such stories and she had this hopeless feeling inside of her chest, to try and prove that they were peaceful and innocent creatures.
Gradually, her breaths slowed down and became softer. Her heart rate decreased and she could feel herself relaxing again. As soon as she was sure she was okay, she sat up and reached to the window beside her. After a few tries, she was able to open it. The wave of fresh air made her shiver and pull her covers closer to her body. She lay down again and felt herself spin and sink back to where she had come from.
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Adrian heard a scream from the room next to his, and with a groan he realised it was Keira. Again.
"No! Please don't hurt them, please just go!" Keira screamed in agony and Adrian sighed to himself and mushed his face with his pillow, hoping that the screams wouldn't penetrate his pillow. And with his luck, it didn't.
What was going on with that girl? Every night it was always the same thing. She would scream, wake up, cry, go back to bed and scream again. His roommates had told him that it was nothing and just the memories of her parents haunting her. Surely she couldn't dream about them all the time? a voice complained exasperatedly in his mind and Adrian shrugged, unsure of the answer.
It was strange how it affected her so much, he had lost his parents in the same time frame, and it had happened almost exactly the same way, yet he was just fine. There must've been something different concerning her situation. Even the younger kids who had been brought in had easily gotten over their losses. There was no space for soft, emotional people anymore. Harsh maybe, but that's how it was.
The way she was, didn't help her either. According to some they said that it was wrong to say that she couldn't be a guardian and that it was merely just stereotypes but her features and form did not do her any justice. Her sensitivity and shyness was way too prominent for a guardian in training. Like he had said, there wasn't any room for those kind of people.
Keira was a small, frail and pale faced girl with freckles and short brown hair. She had cut it in order to get through initiation. Unfortunately, all the good looks had gone to her brother, Adam.
Adrian, however was the exact opposite. He was tall, tanned and quite muscular. He seemed shy, but as soon as he opened his mouth, anyone would be able to sense his arrogance. He had known that he would take over after his parents died from the day he could talk. It was sad that they were gone, but nature had its course and he was sure that it was supposed to end that way.
Adrian seemed to accept and even like the fact that he was next in line to be a guardian, but Keira was clearly not cut out for it. The way she acted and talked was more suited for a nurse or someone who didn't do much fighting. There was no point in arguing about it, Keira wasn't and never will be suited to be a guardian.
Adrian heard her scream again, and he was sure that he was not the only one getting tired of it. There were five other people in the next rooms and they needed their sleep too. Angry, he got up from his bed and threw his bed covers to the ground. It was enough now, Adrian was not going to deal with this any longer.
Adrian walked down the hallway and faced her doorway and yelled,
"Shut up!"
Clearly she hadn't heard him because she was still begging whatever was in her dream to stop. Adrian huffed and stormed to her room, yanking the door open with such a force, the door slammed on the wall, waking a startled Keira.
"Can you not just sleep without screaming or crying like a little girl?" Adrian asked with a calm rage, his face flaming red. He didn't want to shout, it would probably frighten her more and she'd start crying again. He did not need her blubbering on top of her screaming. A guy can only deal with so much you know.
Keira shook her head and replaced her scared expression with irritation. He didn't need to open the door so hard.
"Why would you care?" Keira asked, her voice sounding crackly. Scowling, she quickly swallowed and wiped away her tears away from her face. She didn't want him to see her like this; it would just give him more things to mock her on. It was dark, but there was a chance that the moonlight shining in through her window could have given her away but she doubted it.
"Because I need my sleep Keira, and so does everyone else," he said, trying as hard as he could not to raise his voice.
"Yeah well, it's not like I can control it. Just get out, none of you understand," Keira said and felt the tears well up in her eyes. She turned her back on him, clearly gesturing for him to leave.
Adrian narrowed his eyes at her and her tone. Adrian spun on his heel and left the room, having nothing else to say. Before he left the room, he slammed it, taking his anger out on the door.
Keira winced and sighed at his actions. She inhaled trying to take in as much oxygen as she could. Keira coughed and spluttered, as she took in too much oxygen in the short span of time. Keira took slow breathes and rubbed her neck at her sudden intake of oxygen.
I bet that would make Adrian's day...a snide voice whispered to her.
Keira let out one more cough which caused Adrian to ball up his fists. Every sound she made was magnified and made ten times louder in his head.
Once Keira finally quietened down there was an eerie silence which rather pleased Adrian. Not wanting to test his luck Adrian stood still at the end of his bed waiting for the silence to break. When it didn't, Adrian flopped onto his bed and smiled satisfied. Adrian settled in his bed ready for the sleep to take over when he heard a cough.
Adrian shut his eyes and prayed that it was his imagination and he was allowed to sleep. However, to Adrian's dismay, he heard another audible cough.
Adrian ripped the sheets off his toned body and made his way to Keira's room. Why, why could she not sleep like a normal person?
"You're such a pest, you know that?" Adrian said, his patience was running out, and fast. He flicked her light switch on and the brightness of the bulb spread to every corner of her room.
"Who asked you to switch on the light?" Keira asked irritably and gave him what she thought was a death glare. The boy needed to learn some manners, who walked into a girls room without knocking and expected to come out alive?
"It's not like you're naked or anything, I just wanted to show you how annoying it is when someone wakes you up? Does that ring any bells?" Adrian said sarcastically and Keira rolled her eyes.
"Well I'm sure you can do it with the light off," Keira said to him annoyed and Adrian felt his patience fall short again.
"Fine," he said and flicked the light off.
In an instant it was dark again. They were both silent for a moment. Keira waited expectantly of Adrian to say something to annoy her, but he didn't. He couldn't possibly expect her to start speaking when he was the one barging in her room.
"Are you going to say anything or do you just like the feel of my room?" Keira asked finally, breaking the silence.
He ignored her comment and said to her,
"Look, I came here to ask you to be quiet. It's not fair on any of us in this dorm to have you screaming and waking us all up because you can't deal with some measly nightmares. I'm serious, if you don't I'm going to feed you to the creatures outside the boundary. Got it?"
"If I'm so irritating, get some ear plugs or move to another room, because you are the only person who is complaining. I can't help the nightmares, it's not like I enjoy dealing with them," Keira's voice got louder and louder as she spoke each sentence.
"This isn't my problem, you need to fix it. Drink sleeping pills or something, just get rid of the nightmares or whatever," he said, throwing his hands into the air with exasperation. Adrian folded his muscled and tanned arms over his chest and leant against her doorframe.
"You think it's that easy," she replied, almost laughing at how serious he was, "just go please, like you said, everyone needs their sleep. It would be great if you could stop storming into my room now, thanks."
Adrian turned around to leave and banged the door as he did. Adrian hoped it would scare her enough to stop dreaming. He had hoped she would listen to him, understand where he was coming from and she would profusely apologize. He did not expect her to argue back, cheek him and then order him out of her room. Did she not know he was?
"Doesn't matter Adrian she's a weirdo," he murmured, to make himself feel better.
His face was flushed with embarrassment and he went to bed cursing Keira and himself. He should have known she wouldn't have listened. She wasn't even intimidated with him! How could someone so small, make him feel like the biggest idiot in the room?
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A bell rang in the centre of the student compound; it was time for the students to wake up and to start getting ready for the tasks that their leaders would give them. Adrian woke up and put his pillow over his ears. The piercing sound of the alarm was driving him crazy. To make matters worse, Jake, his best friend barged into his room and punched him in the back to get up.
"It's time man; we don't want to be late," his friend said, "remember what happened to that guy yesterday?"
Adrian got up and rubbed his eyes. He yawned then stretched his arms and back.
"I'm so tired, I didn't sleep last night," he said. He got up and opened the door to his bathroom.
"That chick Keira kept me up all night," Adrian said without thinking.
He said the words before he could think about the right way to phrase them. It would be obvious what Jake would think. It wasn't the first time a girl had kept Adrian up, well like that anyways.
"Don't even think about what you're about to think about, not like that...she has these nightmares or something, and she wouldn't stop screaming," he said, warning his friend not to start any dirty innuendoes.
"I get it man, she's not your type," Jake scoffed and added, "at all. Anyhow, you've got a little under half an hour to get ready."
Jake said, trying to push his mind away from... Kiva? Not to mention, barely knew what she looked like, he didn't remember her at initiation or her name.
Jake walked out of Adrian's room and closed the door silently behind him. He bumped into someone and almost tripped over the person's foot.
"Oh my word, I'm so sorry," the girl said and Jake felt his irritation ebb away as he stared down into her eyes. The most magnificent and glowing eyes he had ever laid his eyes upon.
"It's okay," Jake said in a daze. He'd meant to say something else but her eyes had forced him to control his tongue. So mesmerizing, they had calmed him down and made him want to be nice to her, right off the bat.
"Jake," he introduced to himself and stretched out his hand, eager to find her name.
"Keira, nice to meet you," she said with a small smile.
Jake's eyes widened a fraction as he realised it was the girl that kept Adrian awake.
"Is there a problem?" Keira asked concerned. For a moment she thought she'd given him a heart attack by the way he was reacting.
Jake shook his head and turned around to walk away, too stunned to say anything. Keira was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He didn't remember seeing her at the orientation. She had probably been ahead of him.
In some way Jake found Keira attractive, her pale skin was striking and it matched her green eyes well. She was different; no makeup at all, her face was so clean and free of foundation that it made her look like one of the guys.
All the other girls he'd seen always had thick black eyelashes and plump red lips. Jake found it looked better without it and when he tried to picture her with it on, he blanched disgusted by the thought.
Keira watched Jake walk away and she frowned in confusion. Had she done something wrong?
Jake looked back and caught her gaze for a moment. It was short, mind you, but it was there. Keira brushed a hand on her cheek to see if there was something on her face. When she didn't find anything she sighed and grumbled to herself,
"This is going to be a long day."
Keira made sure to lock her door and made her way downstairs to the campus cafeteria. Her roommates were all gathered in the living room, having a meeting of some sort.
"Wonderful of you two to join us," one of them said and Keira recognized him front the bright red hair and the scary tattoos peeking out from his t-shirt.
The two of us? Kiera arched her neck backwards and came to face boy who had rudely barged into her room and started complaining.
"Oh, uh, sorry. I didn't know there was a meeting today," Keira apologised.
It had been a week and she had barely spoken to anyone, she had kept to herself and minded her own business.
"Maybe if you had made an effort to talk to us, you would have known," he said.
She scowled at him and took a seat next to a girl with long black hair.
The boy shook his head and turned to the guy next to her.
"Adrian, we were expecting you," he said and pointed at the armchair across everyone.
Adrian sat and began to address the roommates. He started with the rules and went on to chores and duties. Keira didn't pay any attention, she was too busy examining everyone and deciding who looked the friendliest. As soon as he was done, everyone got up and started to leave.
"Well, this is Keira," the girl she had been sitting next to her pointed out and said, "and I think we should all introduce ourselves."
Keira smiled; at least there was one person who tried to understand her situation, despite how quiet she had been. She liked the girl already and made a mental note to stick with her. They all turned around and looked at the girl as if she was crazy.
"I'll start," she said, ignoring the weird looks everyone was giving her, "I'm Melanie, you can call me Mel," the girl smiled and winked at Keira. Keira smiled back.
Melanie was obviously confident about herself and didn't care much about people's opinions. Her dark makeup and grey eyes made her seem scary, but her smile and the sparkle in her eyes showed how friendly she was under the makeup.
The next to introduce himself was Raymond. The boy with the red hair and the tattoo. He didn't smile, but made an effort to shake her hand.
The twins, Rae and Tae, each gave her a warm hug. The last person to introduce herself was Jennifer.
She was blonde, and had blue eyes that went a shade lighter when she talked to anyone. Her voice was monotonous and her words dragged, but it was easy to see that she was a cheerful person at heart.
Jennifer lifted Keira's hand and put a bracelet around her wrist. The bracelet was silver with colourful charms and the letter K in bright green, matching her eyes. Keira was shocked that the charm bracelet had objects symbolizing the things she was fond of.
She lifted her head up and looked at everyone else's wrists and from what she'd seen, they represented their characters. Melanie's was dark with a few bright pieces and the M was grey, the colour of her eyes. The twins, had matching ones but a few charms were different or in different colours.
"Is this a group thing?" Keira asked.
"No, It's just for the girls in this house, I just love making things and I thought that I could make a little something to show that we're roommates," she replied.
"Oh, thanks, that's really sweet of you" Keira said. She gave Jennifer a hug and moved the bracelet around her wrist so she could see all the charms that Jennifer had attached to it.
She turned to Adrian to shake his hand but he was gone. He hadn't bothered to introduce himself. He was already in the cafeteria getting some breakfast. When Melanie had asked everyone to introduce themselves he had walked out. He was already acquainted with Keira.
Melanie looped arms with Keira and they walked to the cafeteria together.
"Mel?"
"Yeah?" Melanie put a glass of milk onto her tray and turned around to face Keira.
"What's the other guy's name? The tall one with the long black hair?" Keira asked.
"Adrian," she replied, "he's good looking don't you think?"
"Well, yeah a bit," Keira said. She hadn't taken the time to actually look at him. The way he had talked to her had just automatically put him on her list of people to avoid.
Melanie raised her eyebrows and shook her head. She handed Keira a bran muffin and they made their way to the table where Melanie's friends were.
"Hey guys, this is Keira, I'm sure you've seen her around." she said as they both sat down.
"Hi," Keira said. They greeted her in unison and a few of them smiled at her.
She waited for them to introduce themselves but they went on eating. She shrugged and started with her cereal. She listened to their conversations and looked around. The past week had dragged, she had been sitting alone outside and she hadn't taken time to meet new people. Keira looked around, the different personalities, features and groups of people fascinated her.
There were little cliques everywhere. Her roaming eyes stopped in the middle of the room. Adrian and his friends were attracting a lot of attention to themselves with their loud voices and rowdiness.
She shook her head and took another spoonful of her cereal.
A feeling of uncomfortableness settled onto her, she felt like there was someone looking at her. She looked up and around the room to see who it was. Jake. She caught his gaze and raised her eyebrow.
A surprised Jake shook his head and quickly looked away.
"Such an idiot," he said to himself. He hadn't planned on getting caught. There was just something about Keira. He hadn't been able to resist looking at her, her eyes were so bright, they made everything else around her looked dull. They had a glow that made them look fiery. A glow that made him want to know what she was thinking.
Jake decided that he needed to talk to her again, and soon.
A few minutes after the cafeteria was closed, the students were called to assembly. It took nearly half an hour for them to fill up the grand hall. They sat in their rows according to their guardian levels. Keira and a few of the other new kids sat in the front. For a while, they sat and waited for the head guardian, Mr Walker, to arrive.
Some were busy on their cell phones, others were talking to each other, reading books and reading the boards that contained the names of guardians who had fought and died. Keira skimmed over the boards, hoping that her parent's names hadn't been put up yet. She didn't want anyone to know that she was the daughter of the great Parkinson's.
That would put more pressure on her and she would be expected to fill their shoes.
Keira didn't mind that the teachers and trainers knew but if her fellow students found out, her invisibility would disappear. Everyone would expect her to be just as strong and brave. She counted the wooden boards that had been nailed to the bright blue walls. Most of the writing was in gold, and the drapes on the stage were made of shimmering white lace with gold trimming.
Quite extravagant for a training camp, she thought to herself.
"All rise," a voice was heard from the podium. It was the Deputy Head guardian. Most of the students rose, others just continued on with their businesses. After a few shouts and threats, the students finally rose and applauded for the Head Guardian.
After a long lecture on discipline, the levels of disrespect and how disappointed he was in the students, he announced the day's tasks and the region festival that was to happen in a few weeks.
The students didn't dare make a sound until he had left. The calming silence soon turned to the shuffling of feet and the chattering of students.
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Author's note:
This might be a bit confusing and you might not understand a few things but you will later.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to fan, tell me your thoughts and ideas and to vote. It would make me so happy :D
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