War Bird

29. Stir Up Memories.

“But it hurts!” Every muscle burns with pain. Grace sits on my bed by my feet, face soft with sympathy.

“It will do,” she says gently. “You didn’t expect him to go easy on you, did you?”

“I dunno,” I retort, shuffling into a sitting position. It’s nearly tea time, and Finlay excused me from my first day of training just minutes ago. It had taken every bit of strength I had to walk out of the teaching room without crying. “I just feel like I learned nothing!”

“Well, you probably learned more than you thought you did,” Grace says. “Be more positive!”

“I’m totally serious.” We’d spent all morning trying to conjure stun spells called Incussus Uro, which were basically concentrated balls of pure energy designed to shock someone and make them feel so hot that their brain would overheat and they'd pass out. Leastways, that's the idea. Finlay had produced these spells like it was nothing, extending his arm like he was going bowling and producing these great big red-hot balls of energy. All I’d managed to do was get a massive headache. After lunch, we’d learned the ‘No Occulta’ (finding what’s hidden) and the ‘Occulta’ (hiding it again) which I’d actually managed to to complete. We’d then started on shields and my happiness at producing one had been short-lived when Finlay almost knocked me unconscious with an epic stun that wiped out my pathetic attempt. In short, I had been a complete failure.

“Oh,” was all Grace could say, after I’d given her the scoop on my day. “Well. I don't care what you say, I know you can do this.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I grumble, blinking back tears. I’d really hoped to impress Finlay and it’s only now, as I’m lying here wasted, that I realise how much.

“Well, this will make you feel better.” Grace hops up and runs to the dormitory door. “Come in boys!”

Asher and Ed sneak in with huge grins on their faces and bound over to my bed. Ed has his jumper all bunched up and his belly looks weirdly big.

“What’s going on?” I say, as they leap onto my bed. “Ouch, watch the legs.”

“Well, we heard you might be in need of cheering up.” Asher winks at me. 

“Oh Grace, come on man!” I can’t believe she’s been flapping her mouth about my crapness. If it gets back to Finlay, I’ll spew.

“Don’t look at me!” Grace raises her hands, the picture of innocence.

“So, we have something that might make you feel better!” Ed reaches under his jumper and out plops what looks like a bar of chocolate! It is, it’s a bar of Cadburys! The packaging looks totally different, and it’s called ‘ration chocolate’ but there’s no mistaking that logo. My mouth instantly fills with saliva.

“How did you get hold of that?” I demand, grabbing it off the bed. 

“Well...” Ed pops his collar, looking rather smug, but Asher grabs his arm.

"Nah man, she don’t need to know the finer details,” he says. “We er, we found it.”

“You-” I stop. The boys are looking at each other all cagily. “You nicked this from someone?”

“Course not!” Ed says, glancing back at Grace. “As if I would do something like that.”

“So then how...”

“Friends in high places, Princess,” Ed says. “Let’s just leave it at that.”

“So you ain’t gonna get chucked in the Cage then?” I say, even as I rip open the packaging.