Crystalline Cavern: The Brigaders

Chapter 3

Tyler

      Forest pushed the door into the restroom with myself following closely behind. He stepped up to the urinal and began to do his business. I stood there in silence waiting for him to finish up until I heard the sound of his zipper and watched him walk up to the sink to wash his hands. "So, what's so important about Violet that you came with me?" I scratched the back of my head while looking at my reflection in the restroom mirror. My hair was still in its bed-head phase as the loose waves came down next to my right eye. My skin was looking a little pale recently, but nothing a couple of minutes in the UV room won't fix. A couple of sets in the gym wouldn't hurt either as I looked at my triceps that seemed to be lacking this time around. "Violet likes to talk to you about most of her problems, do you think there's something going on? Maybe something about her training or family-wise?" Forest dried his hands with a paper towel as he gave me a perplexed look. "Come on, if it was anything about Anthony then my job is to keep it from everyone else. Now, if it was something with her training or studies, you and I both know that that's a Rose kind of problem to handle."

       "You're right, but still, Vi likes to go to you sometimes and when it comes to me or Dark, she usually keeps to herself. You know I only ask because I'm worried about her. Lately, she's been spacing out in class, and when she's in the Training Facility, she doesn't spend as much time at target practice as she normally does." Forest stood in silence for a moment while staring at the floor. "Nothing really comes to mind. I mean she did seem a little spacey but nothing that I think should worry you too much. She does get stressed easily when she has a lot on her plate but then relaxes immediately after everything gets done." I took a moment to think. Maybe Forest is right, he knows her better than I do so I'm sure I should just take his word for it. "Alright, I'll give it a day or two, just to see if her behavior changes. It was just unlike her so I wasn't sure."

       "Don't worry dude, she's fine I'm sure, but if you're that worried, why not ask Ruby?" The idea itself sent shivers down my spine. I'm sure talking with Ruby might help, but she's not really one to expose any distress  Violet's having if it was something personal. "Maybe later, for now, we should get back to the others before they think we're doing something else in here." Forest chuckled and started heading out the door. "Agreed."

       When we got to our table, Violet had already come back, but this time, there were two bags of chips on the table.

Kai

        After sitting back down, I noticed there was a bag of chips on my tray. "What's this for?" Violet just continued eating her bag of chips. "So you won't take any of mine." She smiled and continued munching. "You didn't have to do that, but I can't really say no now." I opened the bag and started eating away. "Trust me, I really had to due to the fact that you always seem to want to eat half of my food when we come here." Rose had already finished and put her tray at the center of the table. "You know, she has a point Forest. Maybe you gaining that extra weight is the reason you didn't beat Dark in last month's Rank Rage." She was scrolling on her phone not making any eye contact as she spoke. "You know what Rose? You're right. Perhaps it's 'cause I learned it from you since you always seem to be the first one to finish their food." Her face instantly shot up from her phone as she made a face that one could describe as both disgusted and irritated. My eyes came in contact with hers while I smirked. Everyone laughed while making small comments in agreement. Rose just kept snapping back at them and returning to her phone afterward, probably trying to forget it ever happened. 

        Dark suddenly spoke up after being silent for about ten minutes. "Ocean, you ready for your Pathwa or what?" Ocean just paused for a moment. "I think I'll be just fine as long as I train well enough. Speaking of-" Ocean darted his eyes toward Rose, who surprisingly, was paying attention. "What?" Rose's nose scrunched up a bit as she raised her brow and tilted her head slightly to the side. "I was wondering if you could help me train before then since you helped Vi out so much for her Pathwa."

       "Why not just train with Dark? I'm sure he'd be a better partner to train with." Ocean looked at Dark, who had the same neutral, unfazed look on his face. "I'd rather not. No offense Dark, but your methods are a little...extreme."

       "That's fair." Dark crossed his arms and nodded. I tried volunteering myself afterward. "Why not train with me? I'm sure I can try to cut back on any extreme methods." I made sure to put air quotations when saying the word extreme. "Well last time we trained together, you mainly focused on running laps more than anything else so I feel as though Rose could help me a lot more all-around since her weapon requires a lot of both movement and target practice."

       "That's true. With your bow and daggers Rose, I'm sure this year you've put in a lot of extra hours in honing your targeting skills."

       "You've got that right. Took me forever to make the transition from an arrow to dagger with the Shift Activator as smoothly as possible too. Alright, I'll help you out Ocean, and it'll help me too since I try to take any chance I can get when it comes to target practice. I'm sure I can help you connect with your weapon again too during all this, so make sure you bring your A-game okay?" Ocean shared a wide smile as he continuously gave Rose his thanks. I turned to my head to see Ruby giving a rather concerned look toward Violet. "Hey Vi, you okay? You seem to be spacing out a lot today." It seemed as though Violet was just now brought back to reality since she kept reaching into her, now empty, bag of chips. "Huh? Oh yeah, I'm just really tired." She gave me a quick glance and looked at Ruby. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to get plenty of rest before my next class. Thanks to the Pathwa, I've been exempt from afternoon classes until two."

       "Talk about luck! Meanwhile, I'm stuck listening to another one of my history instructor's lectures about how certain ores were used for trading with other sectors to gain more territory. You'd think we'd be done dealing with that kind of stuff in today's day and age." Ruby crossed her arms and slouched back into her seat. Politics weren't really my thing, of course, it didn't stop Dark from giving his opinion. "You know things will never change. I heard the Eastern sectors took over another small one after their government shut down due to a huge decrease in material and funding. Apparently, stuff like this is becoming more common each day." Ruby just rolled her eyes and scoffed. I really hate it when this guy gets all political. Just imagine having to dorm with him. "Yeah well, as long as none of that lack of funds crap happens in Crystalline, I could honestly care less."

      "I doubt it, the higher-ups in Minas Ithil are pretty consistent with this kind of stuff and have been maintaining a good balance in materials. We should be fine." After a minute of silence from Dark, I looked at the time on my phone and noticed we had an hour till classes start. "We should get a move on, even though it's a little while till classes start, the academy likes to close the gates twenty minutes ahead of time." Everyone agreed and each of us started sliding out of the booth one by one while grabbing our trays and setting them on top of a nearby trash can. We then made our way down the stairs and headed out the door. While walking back down the rocky sidewalk, I looked over my shoulder to see Violet swaying a bit. Taking a few steps closer to her, I nudged her arm a bit. "You know, going finëa might help with the exhaustion." She shook her head. "Nah, you know I don't like going finëa in public. Besides, we're almost back at the academy and I don't like the looks the other students give me when I'm flashing my white hair and violet eyes at everyone. I promise I'll go finëa as soon as I get to my room, so you don't have to worry so much." She smiled and pushed me from the side a bit. "Worried? Who said I was worried?" I smiled back and we both laughed a little. Maybe Ocean had a reason to be worried, but overall, I think that she's gonna be just fine.