Voiceless Bird

Chapter 21

|| Day 6 Semi-Finals||

The Real Question

"Good thing first year winners go straight to the Grand Finals." Robin commented idly as he played with the sheets that covered my bed in the infirmary.

After passing out due to exhaustion from the battle, I had regained consciousness to darkness outside with Meraella still asleep in the next bed over. But when I woke up in the morning, she had been gone.

I glanced at the empty bed again, wondering where she had went.

"Why're you so worried about her?"

Robin had caught me looking at what had been Meraella's bed. Instead of giving him any sign that I had heard him, I turned away. I hadn't forgotten what he did to Meraella just yesterday.

Putting her through that suffering and pain to win was barely worth the win. But seeing as Robin was heartless; I supposed that didn't matter to him.

Bringing the covers to my chin, I shuffled so that I was lying on the bed again, back turned to Robin. He pulled the covers back down and I huffed in frustration, crossing my arms and refusing to face him.

"Are you seriously throwing some sort of silent temper tantrum?" He laughed incredulously, "I can guess what you're angry about but trust me- that's the least of your concerns right now."

The least of my concerns? He had no idea that protecting Meraella from him was my number one concern.

I heard the chair creak as he stood up.

"You better be at training today- the Grand Finals are only two days away." I could feel his gaze trained on my back but I resisted giving any sign that I had heard him. His footsteps on tile echoed softly throughout the infirmary hall.

They paused for a moment, perhaps just by the ornate door.

"You know... she deserved it."

**

Robin's words echoed in my mind as I stared at the battle dummy. Its blank wooden eyes stared back at me, as though taunting me to practice on it.

Meraella... deserved it?

I sighed. I didn't trust Robin- there was no reason to ponder over his words.

I was in a discreet part of the training room, surrounded by a range of different training dummies. Robin had asked me to come but he was nowhere to be seen.

I half-heartedly hit the side of the wooden dummy, attempting to move it.

It didn't budge.

"You're going to have to hit harder than that."

I whipped around to the sound of an unfamiliar voice, eyes wide in surprise. A boy with chocolate brown hair stood at the door closest to me, a genuine smile on his face.

He was small and slight- almost smaller than me- and had unusual amber eyes. I felt like I had seen him somewhere before...

"I'm Kade Merain, pleased to meet you." He said walking towards me with his hand outstretched.

I tentatively accepted his handshake, wondering at the peculiarity of his greeting. This was the first time that a student from another year had approached me.

"Uh- I'm Nightingale..." I responded softly, trailing off as I let go off his hand.

Kade gave me another bright smile and I smiled back. He seemed like a happy guy... but what was he doing here at this time? The match between the fourth and fifth years were in progress now and being the semi-finals, it was rare to see that someone would miss it.