"I swear I heard something."
Rounding the corner, I could hear Hera's voice before I saw her. The concern in her voice was new, and I wasn't sure what that meant. Hera was the most stable and calm person I had met in the Center so far. What could have gotten under her skin?
She was standing with Tria and Mire. Mire's hair had gotten longer in the weeks we had been here. It hung low over his eyes and gave him a rugged look. His eyes flicked up when I was within eyesight range. A small gesture with his chin alerted Tria and Hera to my presence.
"Maia!" Hera called. "Have you heard anything strange today?"
My eyebrows raised in confusion before I answered. "Like, heard as in people talking?"
Hera sighed in exasperation. "Did no one else hear the ground moving?"
"For the last time, no one heard it, Hera," Tria snapped.
"Tria," Mire said quietly as if scolding her.
Tria looked at him with narrowed eyes. She quipped, "She's my cousin, I can talk to her how I want" before she stalked off towards the dining hall. I looked to Mire and Hera for clarification.
"Vernon is avoiding her," Hera explained. "This behavior is nothing new, though it has gotten old."
I was confused by Tria's behavior, but more so by Hera's statement. "What do you mean you heard the ground moving?"
Hera looked tired like she hadn't slept in weeks. "I was up all night. The earth was moving all last night like something was pushing it. I almost broke curfew to go looking for the source."
Hera wasn't the type to break the rules. In the few weeks that the trainees had been at the center, I had not seen her break a single rule given, even when others were doing it around her. She wouldn't even skip someone in line if they were not paying attention. "This sounds serious."
Her eyes seemed to relax slightly with the agreement. "No one has believed me so far this morning."
"Let's forget about it, for now, Hera," Mire said. "We need to eat."
"I'm not hungry," she mumbled. She walked off without another word.
Mire and I shrugged at each other. We walked towards the dining hall, which was already filling with other trainees. The line for the food was going to take a good amount of eating time. I wondered if we would get to eat all our food before it was time for classes.
It was a muggy day; the air hung thick and it was more difficult to keep dry outside. The sun beat down, but Water was affecting the air today. Most of the trainees showed the same amount of annoyance towards the weather, but a few true Fires were especially upset about it. They likely missed the dry, arid weather of Fire instead of feeling like they were walking through Water. However, I noticed that I was rather upset about the weather today as well. Zen wanted to take me to the orchard, and this type of weather would make it less pleasant.
As if he heard me thinking about him, Zen appeared from behind a column like he had been waiting. He smiled when he saw me. "Hey, how are you?"
Slightly grumpy, I replied, "About as happy as a crab."
Zen smiled in spite of my tone. "Nothing a good meal won't fix."
We got through the line quicker than I expected, but we all still had to eat quickly. I hadn't seen Clarisse all day, but Mire said he saw her go back to her room. Something about feeling sick. I shrugged it off and kept eating. I had Division Culture today, and it was likely I would have a quiz. I wanted to run over some notes with Avanda, so I stuffed the rest of the rice down my mouth and excused myself.
