In the World of Black and White

Nine-The Goodbyes and the Hellos

The next morning was tough. Have to say goodbye to Absil was terrible. I swear he almost cried, after all, we have been best friends since we were little. "I need to ask a favor of you." I told him before I said goodbye. "what is it?" he said with a very curious look. " I need you to look after Clover for me." he was silent. "I think she'll be fine without you. she doesn't need..." I cut him off " I swear on the gods that is she gets hurt while I'm gone, you won't live too see me return from recruitment." I guess he understood based on the anger in my threat. "sorry." I said looking away. "you're eyes. why are they purple?" I didn't even notice. I guess they changed back because Absil's look went back to normal. " have you said goodbye yet?" Absil asked. I didn't reply. after about a minute of scilence, a mysterious man appeared behind us. "we leave in ten minutes." And with that, he left. it guess it was time. Clover was at the lake throwing knives and daggers at trees. I didn't want to say goodbye but I had too. as I walked up to her, she rolled and aimed a knife at me. I smirked, " you don't want me to whoop you again right." she laughed " I'm better this time then when we last fought." I knew she had improved. "Clover, I have to tell you something." she looked puzzled. "I'm leaving." she was silent for a little bit. " so, you leave all the time. you'll be back." "not this time." she dropped the knife. "what do you mean not this time?" I paused. " I joined the Darkwood rangers." you're not after HIM again are you?" I looked down to the ground to see that I was on thin ice. " you won't find him. you have to let go." "well I can't let go! I can't let that murderer to live a happy life while she lays dead!" she stopped talking. " Listen Clover, you know I love you. I would never let anything happen to you. you were supposed be my little sister but this man stopped that. He killed someone we both love and I can't sit by and do nothing. I have to do this." she walked up to me clutching something in her hand. " take this." she handed me a ring. it looked like a sleeping cat wrapped around my ring finger. "It was her favorite ring. she would've wanted you to have it." I didn't know what to say. The ring touched my heart so deep that I swear my heart pushed its way into my stomach. "thank you Clover. goodbye." she gave me the biggest hug I have ever had. I swear she broke my rib cage in several different places. Once she let go, I left. It took us two days to get back to the headquarters. The nights were the worst part of the ride. I kept having that dream of Zeria. Why does she keep telling me to stop. When the trees separated, I saw a castle so tall the clouds above embraced it's presence. How is this castle not visible from miles away? We stopped at the front gate. We waited for about three minutes before the gate opened. "why does the gate take so long?" I asked Kazlar. " The magi in the tower do a full check to make sure we aren't impostors or wights." he told me riding to the stables. I followed. Kazlar led me to a room on the fifth floor in the castle. He opened a door and told me to walk in, so I did to find four other people in the room. It was a medium sized room with three bunk beds. "This is your squad mates and your new home. Welcome to squad Raven." Kazlar told me while closing the door behind me. Awkward silence filled the room and all of us. finally a girl sitting on one of the top bunks spoke. "So you're the one we've been waiting for. Hi I'm Aura." I replied " Hey, what do you mean by waiting for me?" "We couldn't start training until you got here. So now that you are here, let me introduce squad Raven. The guy reading at the desk is Castus. He's sort of a book worm and he doesn't talk much." He was a very tall man with leather armor and crowl. "Over there is Shrapnel. He doesn't talk much either." He was laying on his bed, sharpening his two knives. "Is your name really Shrapnel?" I asked him. He looked at me with evil in his eyes and held up his knives. "Not sharp enough." He said going back to his sharpening. "We call him that cause when he first got here, he shattered a soldiers sword with his hands." A voice came from the bunk next to me. I looked to see a girl in a cloak and Dark blue hair that looked like it was radiating a lighter blue. "Who are you?" I asked her. " My name is Iris and I am from the land of Orisan." she said jumping down from the bunk. " I'm Shadow." I said to her. " Well it's nice to meet you Shadow. Your bunk is the top one on the left. We start trainning tomorrow." She said going over to her nightstand. She picked up a small black book and hopped back up on her bed. Castus got on the bed above Shrapnel and Shrapnel still layed there sharpening his knives. I turned around to see Aura get on the bed under mine. I looked to see the empty bunk under Iris. Is someone else showing up? I didn't bother my busy mind with it. I jumped up onto my new bed and layed down. It was a lot softer than what I'm used too but it's nice.