Raela

Chapter 12: I'm Not Snooping

The next day actually seemed to go smoothly. Leni, Cahn, and I all stayed out of the way of the crew, not wanting to get into another confrontation. To be honest, we didn't really do anything. There was nothing for us to do. I mean, sure we could have asked to help the others with whatever they needed, but let's be honest. They wouldn't have wanted our help.

Well, Clarke may have, but she was in charge of logistics, an area in which I was not extremely skilled in. 

Oh, but Kiros, you may say. You're so good at everything. How could you not be excellent in logistics?

Oh, stop it. I know I'm great at a lot of things, but thinking ahead of the problems and making solutions to them before they happen is not really my strong suit. At all.

But Clarke allowed me to hang out in her room, and even use some of her art supplies if I so wished. 

"Just don't break the chalk pastels," she had warned. "Those things cost a fortune nowadays, and I would seriously hurt you if you broke them. And don't waste the acrylic paints. Those are also very expensive."

Needless to say, she was very protective of her art supplies.

At the moment, I was sitting in her room, gazing around at the different paintings and drawings that she had completed. It was impossible to miss the insane amount of effort and care that went into making those art pieces. Every brush stroke, every colour was chosen and executed carefully and intentionally.

In the corner, I noticed a bunch of white and gray canvases. Frowning, I got up to inspect them. They were, at closer inspection, portraits of each of the crew members in gray, black, white, and one colour of her choice.

They had something that accented their appearance. I moved them aside to look at them all. Mason, Faline, Mikko, Alphi, I said to myself as I moved past each one. Finally, once I had accounted for each of the crew members, I saw that there were five more, the painting side of the canvas facing the wall.

Frowning, ideas flew through my brain. Was Clarke some kind of prodigy, and she had made portraits of myself, Leni, and Cahn? Was she some creepy stalker who already knew who we were and did this before we got here? Was she psychic and had done these far before she even knew who we were?

I squeezed my eyes shut as I flipped the first one around to face me.

As I opened my eyes, I was not greeted by my own face or the face of anyone I knew. Instead, the portrait was a woman I did not recognize, who held an alarming likeness to Clarke herself.

Realization dawned on me. It was her mother. The high cheekbones, the kindness in her eyes, the shape of her lips were all characteristics that she shared with Clarke. The other paintings held the same surprise, each of them holding an image of a member of Clarke's family, the last one being a painting of herself.

Her brown eyes were the only thing painted in colour, which made her that much more stunning. 

I gazed at the paintings in awe before my eyes pricked with tears. This must have been the only way for Clarke to feel like she had something of her family. She was torn away from them in a moment of conflict, and she hadn't had a moment to see them since.

All she could do was keep them in her memory and on a canvas.

"What are you doing?" a voice said.

I spun around and saw Leni standing at the door, leaning against the wall, his eyebrows furrowed. "Oh, hi, Leni."

"This is Clarke's room," he stated. 

I nodded. "I know. She said I could come in and use some of her art supplies if I got bored."

He raised an eyebrow. "Um, that doesn't look like using art supplies. That looks like snooping, Kiros."

Rolling my eyes, I straightened up. "I'm not snooping. I just noticed them and... I'm a very curious person."

"I've noticed."

I stuck my tongue out at him before placing the paintings back where I found them. "So, what's up? Or do you just check out Clarke's room for fun now?"

He ran his hands through his brown hair. "Cahn wanted to have a mini-meeting with the three of us to discuss what we're going to do once we're at their base."

Nodding thoughtfully, I said, "Okay. When?"

"Now?"

"Alright. I'll be right over. Thanks."

"No problem."

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I pushed open the door to the boys' room and saw that the setup was very different from my room. Theirs looked more like a cabin from some kind of summer camp than a room on a spaceship.

There were two beds on opposing walls, a dresser in between them, and two desks next to the dresser on either side. Both boys were sitting on their respective beds, looking at me expectantly.

"So, what's the plan?" I asked. "That is what you wanted to talk about, right?"

"Yes," Cahn said in his usual monotonous tone. "I wanted to cement a plan before we got there so we would all know what we were doing."

I nodded and closed the door behind me as I stepped fully into the room. "Alrighty. What are you thinking?"

"Well, for one thing," Cahn began, "you still haven't gotten a good grasp of your powers yet, and that is something that definitely needs to be fixed before we head off to Zyphin, and I think that this base is a good place to continue our training."

Leni nodded. "I agree. How long do you think we're expecting to stay there if that's the plan?"

Cahn shrugged. "That will depend on Kiros's progress. We'll leave when she's ready to finally face Kiyl and Kodi."

The three of us fell silent. To be honest, I was a little bit nervous. I mean, things were getting worse on Zyphin every day, and it was up to me to stop it. I had to get a grip on my powers, and I had to defeat the ruling class.

It just sounds... Intimidating.

And I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it.

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Dear readers,

Heyo. Here's chapter 12. What did you think?

If you knew Kiros, do you think that she'd be able to succeed?

-flygirl1

P.S. Don't forget to vote, comment, and love. ;)