Glorious

Runners: Chapter eight~ Creation

Earth.

-Kirat-

The cabin stays in silence, Rowan's words echoing even though she didn't utter them louder then a simple conversation.

"What?" Leilani asks, the room still plunged in darkness. Even though Kirat couldn't see the Greencloak girl, he could sense the tension in her voice, "you're a what?"

"Not are, was," Rowan corrects, "I was a Conqueror."

"Your people killed my parents," Leilani says, venom laced in her voice. Kirat was slightly more scared of Leilani at the moment then Rowan. The girl was usually loud and goofy and the sudden switch left him slightly shaken.

Light fills the room, and Kirat squints his eyes, the sudden light almost blinding. Tasha stands near the flame, a lit torch in her hand as she glares from the door. Kirat expects her to be glaring at Rowan, but was surprised to follow her eyes and see her gazed aimed at Leilani.

"And Greencloaks killed my sister," she confesses, the truth sounding like it was the first time she said it out loud, "but you don't see me burning up the cloak I currently wear, do you?"

Leilani opens and closes her mouth, for the first time lost for words. With a huff she leans back in the hammock, arms crossed.

"You're not the only one to lose parents in the war, my father was killed by a freaking otter and my mother by her own son," Rowan admits, a small laugh coming out as if she couldn't believe the irony of her parent's deaths, "war took something from everyone, and I'm just trying to fix the screw-up I caused as a Conqueror by being a Greencloak.

"Look, the last time I was in a group, I kept a lot of secrets, which ended up killing all of them," Rowan explains, "I don't want a repeat. Especially if it's a bunch of kids playing soldier."

Dawson narrows his eyes, "we are not playing soldier."

"You sure as hell aren't real ones though," Rowan snaps back, "I thought the same thing during the Conqueror war and thought I was all grown up and strong," Rowan leans back, head hitting the wall with a loud thump, "I was a gullible idiot who followed my father without question because I thought he would fill the stupid parental gap my mother tore through me." Rowan closes her eyes, her face twitching as memories probably came up from wherever she hid them in her mind, "I'll answer some questions, I'm too tired to answer all."

Kirat looks around the room, watching as each kid seemed to not have a question, or at least not want to be first. Finally Takoda sighs loudly, the monk sitting up and crossing his legs, "I'll bite, first of all, you have a really messed up past-"

"Thanks," Rowan mutters, clear that she was not thankful that Takoda brought it up.

"Secondly, why in the world did Olvan trust you to remain with the Greencloaks? Wouldn't he turn away someone who fought on the opposing side?"

Rowan opens her eyes, staring at the ceiling as if hoping the answer would he scrawled across it, "it's hard to explain. I became a Greencloak after the war, but I fought with them near the end. The final fight was my proving ground, to see if I was as trustworthy as I said I was. I guess I half passed, there was a Conqueror I couldn't fight, I didn't have it in me to bring harm upon him. Because of that, some of the Greencloaks thought I was still soft, and that's why my room is far away from the others. They don't trust me."