Soul Chains

Chapter 38: ID, Please

Once the sun rises, we gather our things and head out from the inn, handing the room keys to the attendant on the way out.

"Come on," Ayette whines as she has an arm draped around my shoulders while we walk down the street from the inn, "I wanna practice my new skills with you."

"Ayette, I already told you I wouldn't be a good training partner," I sigh and shake my head.

"Please," Ayette pouts, "Dimitri showed me some basic stances last night."

I glance over at Dimitri, who's walking beside Reine and Nathan with his hands shoved in his pockets, and he raises a brow at me as if daring me to question him.

"You would have a moderate amount of time to train on the, well, train," Reine almost laughs at the coincidence, "if you want, one of us could watch you two and give you tips."

"Right..." I clear my throat, "well...maybe..."

"Yay!" Ayette shouts joyously and lets go of me, throwing her arms up in the air, "thank you!"

"Did you also drug her or something?" Nathan muses towards Dimitri, "she seems even more animated than she normally is, and that's saying something."

"No, you twat," Dimitri snorts and smacks the back of Nathan's head, making him wince.

Mikasa giggles at the sight and I turn my attention towards her and Ciana. We exchange a small smile and I hope deep down that Mikasa eventually recovers from all that's happened to her and it makes me happy to see her have small moments of peace.

"Man, I hope they have good food on the train," Ciana sighs, "I haven't been on a train for years. I can barely remember the smell of the freshly ground coffee and the warm feeling in the dining area by the bar. Remember that one time we took a train to Sundown, Reine? Me, you, and Aislinn were worried about Dimitri, so we--"

"Ahem," Reine clears her throat and Ciana trails off, her eyes landing on Dimitri, who's now watching her with extreme interest.

"Oh...oops..." Ciana laughs awkwardly, "guess you never told him."

"Told me what, exactly?" Dimitri asks sternly.

"Nothing," Reine and Ciana say quickly and Dimitri narrows his eyes before he sighs and lets it slide.

"Where's Sundown?" Nathan asks.

"Sundown is a pretty village close to winter that has a giant waterfall that lets off rainbow mist and the entire area feels like summer even though it's surrounded by snowy peaks of mountains. It's really beautiful," Mikasa smiles fondly at the memory, "my family used to go there on vacation whenever Zen and I were little."

"That sounds nice, unlike where we're going," Ayette grumbles the last part quietly.

"I'm sure Aislinn is happy to be returning home," Ciana sighs, "I wonder how the others are doing..."

"I'm sure they're fine," I say reassuringly.

"Yeah..." Ciana breathes out, unsure.

We walk for about another forty minutes until we reach the train station, which looks...intimidating to say the least. The train station is simply a giant silver platform that stretches for miles at the end of Orina and has multiple turnstiles and booths where you buy tickets and pass through while waiting for the train to come. Beyond the elevated tracks is a vast hillside that goes on for miles and I have to raise a hand to cover my eyes from the bright pink-lit sky from the sun to see.

"Is there only one train?" Nathan asks, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion as we get in line at one of the turnstiles behind the mass of people already there.