Beyond The Past

Chapter Two

"Did the doctor tell you?"
"Yes, baby. He did." her mother, Rhea, said. "What happened out there?"
"Demons."
Rhea gasped at her daughters' words and what they meant. She had not only survived on an island alone for three years, she had survived on a demon infested island without completed training alone for three years.
"You can't tell them." Sera whispered desperately. Rhea knew she was talking about her many siblings, but she didn't know why she wouldn't want them to know how much she had survived and how strong she was. Yet, she respected her decision.
"I won't tell them."
Sera only hummed in response, still feeling a little weird being back in civilisation. But know that she was back all she wanted was to get on with life, like nothing had happened. To just move on...
But she knew if people really knew what happened out there then the pity would never stop, even if they didn't vocalise it, their actions and treatment of her would be different and she didn't want that. She didn't want people to know that 35% of her body was scar tissue and she had multiple burns and 23 factures that hadn't been set properly. She didn't want anyone to know about the extent of her damage, of her tormenting arduous expedition.
"How are they?" She asked, wanting to take her mind off things.
"Galena and Leo graduated, Leo only graduated recently."
Sera was proud of her siblings, they were a hunting family after all, known for being one of the best for centuries. To fail now was to fail generations. Which is why she knew her mother was going to put her back in school as soon as she could. She guessed that within a week she would be back in the academy and her mother would be out on the job again. They had never been close growing up, her mother was never really home, always out on jobs. Her mother and father were in the same unit, so they always went together.
As her mother filled her in on more, she found out that the uniting system had changed. There was now an ALPHA team, which were the best, that consisted of three warriors, one healer, one tracker and a joint specialist and technologist. From there went the BETA Units, who were the second best, but unlike the ALPHA team there were many BETA Units. BETA Units had five warriors, two trackers, two healers, one specialist and one techy. Below them it went to DELTA Units and then OMEGA Units, which would be the normal units, who weren't sent to do the worst jobs. They were the regular teams, not the specialists. Like the army compared to special forces, or the police to the army.
Sera spoke few words while conversing with her mother, before finally the doctor said she was free to leave after doing a few things. Gratefully, her and her mother left the hospital and hopped on a plane where Sera tried to sleep but found herself unable. Although she stayed there with her eyes closed and listened to her mother through the journey, making calls.
"Yes, I was hoping she could return." After a few moments of noise from the other end her mother replied. "Yes, that would be wonderful, thank you." The conversation continued with her mother discussing the terms of her enrolment back into classes. "I'm sure she'll be delighted, thank you."
"What was that about?" Sera asked.
"Oh, I hadn't realised you were awake." Her mother replied, before Sera just blankly stared at her. "That was the academy, they wish to speak to you before placing you back in classes and training, although they mentioned that you may not be placed at the level you once were."
Before the accident, or the crash depending on how you look at it, Sera was a deep. 'Deep' was referring to her shade. Each professional at the academy had a different colour, like warriors were purple and guards were pink as they weren't that different compared to the differentiation between warriors and healers, which were green, trackers who were brown and specialists red. There was a wide range of professions at the academy. The beginners started whites where they learned the very basics. Once they had mastered those, they would move up through pale, pastel, bold and then deep. It took years to complete and master each course, each one with more complexity and required skill than the one before. Once they had mastered deep, they would graduate and become a dark, and once they were deemed a master of their skill and experienced, they were given there black. Though very few ever earned a black, so those who had were highly respected and praised, not even her parents had blacks, before her father died.

Returning home was something rather foreign to Sera, for she had had no home but the island for the past several years. Despite this, it was a nice feeling, but something about it saddened her. Like it wouldn't be the same, like they wouldn't be the same. It had been three years after all.
Walking through the front door to their larger than most, due to the history and fame as warriors, home, or as most referred to as the Namsara Manor, was the most nerve-wracking bit. Seeing the grand wooden staircase that she used to slide down with Leo and the twins. Memories rushed in as she looked around the manor entrance hall, in all its glory.
Galena was the first to stumble upon them as she walked out of the downstairs gym and headed for the stairs. She was in a sports bra and spandex, a small towel flipped over her shoulder and one ear-phone plugged into her ear.
"S-Seraphina." She stood in awe and disbelief as she stared at her baby sister, the same one who had been dead for three years.
Sera's only response was a small smile.
"Uh, I-I need to go get changed. I-I'll be back down in a minute." Galena mumbled, still in a daze, and stumbled up the stairs at a slow pace.
"Your rooms still the same. I didn't have the heart to change anything, and then I didn't have the time." Rhea said, now heading for the kitchen.
"Mum, where are the others?" Sera asked.
"Probably at the archery range, they're trying to help Chloe with it." Sera knew they wouldn't be at the archery range to practice archery, they would be in one of the training fields. They liked being outside, Rhea probably assumed they would practice in the inside range.
"You going to see them?"
"Yeah"
Sera danced her way upstairs, mind flooding with memories. By the time she had made it to her room she had a tear carving a path upon her cheek. Taking in a deep breathe, she opened the door and stepped through. A room bathed in purple and small amounts of black.
After getting changed into some of her old clothes, including a dark hoodie she could hide her face with, she left the manor to stroll to the outside training area, where her remaining siblings would be.

By the time she had made it to the field she had received several odd looks as she had her hoodie tightly over her head, hands in pocket. It didn't take long to spot them, Madison and Mason, the twins who were 16, Chloe, 13, and Leo. Leo would be 18 now, Sera and Leo had always been close. She suspected he had been hit the hardest by her supposed death. But something was wrong, as she got closer, she heard they were having an argument with, who she thought, was Dorsa. Dorsa was a nasty piece of work; she saw nothing wrong with insulting others and stepping on others throats to make herself look better.
"Seraphina was better than you." Maddie replied to whatever comment Dorsa had made. Sera and Dorsa used to be in most of the same classes. They had started archery in the same class, but they had only been doing it a few months before the accident. Sera and Dorsa had been more or less evenly matched. Looking at the target that Dorsa was referring to in her next comment about being better, she was good at archery as her arrows were crowded in the middle, although she wasn't perfect. She had hit almost everywhere inside the inner yellow circle except for the small black cross that sat in the middle.
Too engrossed in their bickering, no one had noticed that she had walked up to them and picked up a similar looking bow to the bare recurve she had had on the island that she had found in the weapons and emergency supplies lower level on the carrier.
There were few weapons left on the carrier as most of it had been ripped apart and most things had fallen out. But she had managed to salvage few meagre supplies consisting of a sword, a few daggers and a bow and several arrows that had been scattered around the place. A gun would have been better, and she wasn't very good with a sword at the time, but she was thankful for anything she got.
She grabbed an arrow and placed in on the string, before turning around and placing three fingers below the arrow, she drew back, aimed and released in one quick fluid motion. The arrow cut through the air before embedding itself through the small black cross in the middle of Dorsa's target, the arrow she had grabbed was black where Dorsa had been using pink arrows, probably custom made.
All talking ceased immediately as they all turned to look at her, now placing the bow away. She pulled her hood off and everyone gasped except for Chloe, who threw her hands in the air and yelled "AHA! I TOLD YOU SERAPHINA WAS BETTER!" But no one was listening to her. Realisation finally dawned on her face.
"Wait, Seraphina..."

I'm rewriting this chapter because I don't feel like it flows very well and it just is awkward to work with so early on in the story.