Raven's Will

15. Water, Mr. Black?

As far as rabbit stews went, this one turned out awesome. Or at least, Jett thought so. He helped himself to seconds, then thirds, and when everyone gave him a weird look and declined to have anymore, he scraped out the pot.

It had been a while since he had a proper meal, to be honest. Between whatever scraps he could find and some rations that he'd taken from Troit, he'd managed to survive well enough. Still, neither of those things could match up to real food.

He had taken his gloves off earlier when cleaning the rabbits and hadn't put them back on, which proved to be a wise decision, considering they didn't have anything along the lines of cutlery to eat with. Now he busied himself with licking his fingers clean. Once they were no longer covered in food bits, he wiped them on his thighs to dry them and pulled his white gloves back on.

Wow, he thought, that was awesome. The only thing that would have made it even better was if there had been another pot full of the stuff sitting off to the side. He didn't care that his belly was practically bulging outwards - if there was more, he would have eaten it.

"You must have been starving." Callie's giggle sounded bright and clear, bringing a smile to Jett's face.

"Yeah, I guess," he laughed awkwardly. Now that he thought about it, he kind of did eat like a pig.

"Didn't they feed you at Troit?" Mystery Man asked, a smile crinkling the corner of his eyes. He never did introduce himself, and Jett didn't feel comfortable asking. He got the impression that the man was there as a babysitter of sorts, because he didn't think Callie and Robbie's father would allow them to go visit the 'evil flyer' on their own.

Jett shrugged. "Some kind of mush. It was gross." The memory of it made him shudder.

"Mush?" Callie asked curiously. "Like porridge?"

"Worse than porridge. It was like lumpy dog vomit mixed with toe jam and hay."

"Eew," Callie exclaimed. She stuck her tongue out and made a face, to which Jett nodded in agreement. "And you had to eat that?"

"It was either that, or starve." Suil had said it was a nutritionally balanced formula designed just for trainees, but Jett figured Suil had just been trying to sound smart. There was no way that the slop he had to eat was healthy. It was probably just week-old leftovers from the other flyers meals. Of course, to disguise it as such, the cooks probably blended it all together and passed it off as some kind of oatmeal.

He nodded to himself, pleased at his deduction. Next time he saw Suil, he'd have to share that theory.

"No wonder you ran away!"

Mystery man shook his head. "I'm sure that wasn't the sole reason he left, Callie."

"Who cares? If I was stuck in that place, that'd be more than enough to make me leave."

Feeling somewhat embarrassed, Jett rubbed the back of his head. Long strands of hair slipped through his gloved fingers, causing him to realize that his hair had grown rather long. He normally kept it short enough so it didn't really touch his ears, but now it nearly tickled his eyelashes.

He frowned. I was stuck there for a long time, wasn't I? He stilled, one hand still buried in his hair. When he first was taken by Troit, they'd cut most of his hair off and given him a semi-permanent facial tattoo. Even though he wasn't awake for the process, he knew it was probably the only time they'd paid that much attention to him.

The rest of the time was a never-ending gauntlet of stress and pain and horror. Training? Ha. He merely survived one battle to the next. Raven was the only one who really tried, and maybe perhaps Lante, but the amount of actual care to his wellbeing was minimal. They provided food, and slapped bandages over broken bones, and left the rest to his own determination.