Stolen Truth

7

I wouldn't typically consider myself to be a violent person. I had fought plenty of people before, but generally it was for the purpose of training or survival. I had never attacked someone purely out of hatred for them. With Shark it was different, whenever I saw him or even just thought of him, I could feel myself physically shake with burning anger and hatred for him. There was just something about him that was particularly off-putting.

The second training session with Shark was even worse than the first. It had started and ended in a fight again, except this time we had both drawn blood. Needless to say, Viper was furious when she found out (or rather, I assume she was, I couldn't actually understand most of what she said when she was yelling). I had, as a result of our conflict, been sent to do the girls training session instead.

The supposed 'punishment' didn't seem all that bad at first as it meant I at least had Dove with me this time. After a few minutes into the training session, however, I soon realised why it was a punishment. Dolphin was just as bad as her brother, maybe even worse, although her attacks consisted more of snide remarks rather than blows to the face.

It was after my first training session with Dolphin that I figured I would just skip them until Bear got back, something that couldn't come soon enough in my opinion. At first, I had thought that Viper would yell at me again, but when she didn't, I suspected it was because she knew it was better than another fight.

After a week of skipping training sessions and gaining no consequences from that, I was surprised when Viper pulled me from my shared tent with Owl and said we 'needed to talk'.

I was even more surprised when I found out that this talk had nothing to do with skipping training, but a far more interesting topic.

"Do you remember ever hearing anything weird when you with the blanks?" She asked once we had gotten out of earshot of the camp.

"What do you mean by weird?" I asked curiously.

"Stuff about trying to find someone or losing someone?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"I'll let him tell you," she said, bringing me to a small clearing where Bear was stood with another guy who I had never seen before.

"This is Sparrow," Viper introduced, "He was the one that was captured. Bear managed to save him, and they came back with some interesting news."

"What news?" I asked, the question had been directed at Sparrow, but Bear answered for him.

"News about someone we've been looking for for a very long time now."

"Okay, but why tell me?" I asked, becoming increasingly more confused.

"Because we wanted to know if you had ever heard anything similar," Viper answered.

"I still have no idea what you're talking about though?"

"Have you ever heard of the royal family?" Sparrow asked. His voice was squeaky and annoying, just the sound of it gave me a headache.

"Dove told me a bit," I answered carefully, "But I though we – I mean the blanks – killed the king?"

"Well, a lot of people believe the prince is still alive," Viper started, "Because we wouldn't have any powers without a living member of the royal family."

"And?" I asked, I had already heard most of this from Dove.

"And Sparrow here claims to have overheard some blank generals talking about letting the prince live," Bear finished for her.

"That makes no sense, why would a blank, and a general no less, say something like that in front of a dark one?"

"I don't know," Viper answered, "That's only what Sparrow heard."