Dark (Big Six)

Chapter 3

The day went by quickly. I spent a lot of it with Punzie and Merida, besides the company meeting when I just talked with Jack as he just bragged- but bragging kind of works on him. It's annoying but kind of attractive...
Tracking was pretty simple. Jack and I just froze everywhere though in attempt to find water, because we can make our own. It was more of us just doing it for fun but we claimed it was on accident.
"Elsa!"

"What?"

"You zoning out again?" Punzie laughs and I join her.

"Sorry,"

"No, it's fine. I just asked what you think combat will be liked." She explains lightly as we walk towards the arena, which is more lik a colosseum without an audience. It's huge.

"Oh, I don't know." I smile nervously and her and Merida begin to discuss what combat will be like but I can't focus. I feel a weird feeling in my stomach, like a fluttering that's got me all jittery. I'm so out of it that I hardly notice what I'm going until we're standing in the 'arena' as they call it. We're ordered to get into our company groups and I stand alone for quite some time as people walk past and stare at me. It's probably because I'm a freak of nature, so I just look at my hands embarrassedly until Jack struts up and smiles at me. He winks and greets me with a 'hey there, my winter princess' with a hint of sarcasm and I laugh.

"Your winter princess?" I shake my head. "Come on, frost boy you can do better than that." I say with false disapproval.

"Frost boy? So now you're making up nicknames," he floats on top of his staff and smiles down on me. "that's kind of my thing." I open my mouth to reply but Ace begins speaking and I have to put all my effort to listen in, the burning in my chest intensifying and it makes me smile. What's happening to me? I'm falling apart.

"You will now hear from Scorpio, our fighting instructor." he announces.

"Scorpio? What kind of name is that?" Jack whispers into my ear and the tingling increases sharply when his arm leans against mine.

I shrug and my giggle comes out louder than I expected, earning me some glares from girls who were already glaring. They keep watching Jack everywhere he goes and I don't think they like that he's friends with a nobody like me.

"Basic stuff today." Scorpio starts and a few girls gasp at him- he's very good looking. Maybe around 22? He's not a Frigus or Calor, I can tell already by his strong, tough guy vibe. Calor's are more arrogant than talented. "Get with a partner from your company," he adds.

Jack rests an arm on my shoulder. "Looks like it's you and me, darling." he grins and I chuckle, words not forming correctly.

"I will walk around and observe as you just do simple stuff. And please," he pauses as if reminiscing upon a humorous memory. "please do not injure or kill anyone." Scorpio says and someone objects.

"You're not going to teach us first?" a deep voice calls.

"I need to see where you're all at." he explains like it's a dumb question and waves his hand dismissively. I face Jack and he muses, telling me he'll go easy on me.

He raises his fists and just as he tries to lightly blow ice at me when I uppercut him with heavy snow and he catches himself with wind before hitting the ground. "Well then," Jack chuckles. "Feisty, aren't you?" he tilts his chin and I grin. We raise our hands again when a hand comes from behind me and adjusts my elbows, lifts my chin up, and repositions my lower back.

"Posture; once you've mastered that you will be a million times better." it isn't until Scorpio is directly behind me that I detect a thick accent lacing his words. I change to stand as he instructs and look up to see Jack glaring at Scorpio for some reason. "Try now." he breathes in my ear and I nod and blast at him, careful not to hurt him. We go at it for a while longer and I lose every time. I guess our first run was just my lucky shot because we ended so many times with his fist hovering at my neck or a shard of ice pausing directly in front of me.
It's close to the end, I think, and I finally have the upper hand. I'm close to knocking him over when I feel a burn crawl across my arm. I gasp and stumble to the side and Jack's eyes widen. He rushes over to me and grabs me by my elbows to steady me and I slowly turn my head to see who burned me. Two Calors stand watching.

"Shouldn't have been in the way, now should you have?" One challenges and I hear Jack grumble. They walk off pridefully and I look back at him, whimpering.

"I hate them," Jack mutters under his breath, observing my arm carefully. I wince and he apologizes quickly, stepping closer to me when someone approaches.

"What happened?" The english accent speaks. I look at him and he sees the burn and frowns. Jack doesn't make any move to step back.

"A couple of Calor idiots burned her." Jack explains and Scorpio inhales deeply.

"I'm sure it was on accident," he says but we can tell he doesn't believe it. Luckily combat is over anyway. Jack helps me walk out of the arena (even though I don't need much help, but I don't object at all). Punzie is at my side in seconds, huffing and out of breath.

"What happened?" She gasped. Jack explains shortly and she frowns.

"That's horrible!" But she looks as though she has a plan. "Come here," she whispers and we make our way out of sight, Jack not leaving my side. "Stay calm," she adds as she wraps her incredibly long hair around my arm. Jack and I watch confusedly and he kind of chuckles, but as she sings, her hair begins to glow he falls silent. When she unwraps it, my arm is completely fine.

"Rapunz-" I trail off in awe.

"How did you..?" Jack is speechless, too. She dismissively laughs and we walk back to main camp, Jack and I talking as she just grins and listens in.

We decide on heading to the Pit where everyone seems to hang out when they've got nothing better to do. It's getting dark so the Calor's must have lit the fire by now, which they do every night apparently. There's like a daily meeting there where most everyone decides to hang out before dinner, I guess. We walk a short while until we reach main camp. We join the large group of teens by the blazing pit and jump into random conversations with new people, but I mainly just watch. Jack disappears to find his friends and Merida eventually spots us, joining in.

For that moment, we were all having fun and it was peaceful-
But peaceful moments never last, do they?