Exigent

(5) Tell Me, Hear Me

Chapter Five
Tell me, Hear Me

Two Weeks Later

“How long are they going to be staying here for?” Sera leaned over and whispered to her sister, who was sitting beside her on their back porch, her hair pulled back in a pony tail and her glasses resting on her knee.

      Olivia shrugged her slender shoulders. “Until we figure out what the Elders want with you.”

      “Okay. But why do they have to stay here?” Sera asked while looking at her sister.

      “Because I need to keep an eye on Yuri.” Olivia said, her tone sharp. “We’ve talked about this, Sera.”

      Sera huffed. She looked out over their skinny, fully fenced backyard. There was a shed tucked in the back right corner, the same shed that sat in each of the townhouses backyards. Other than that their yard was completely empty, save for Yuri who was practicing throwing knives at a old piece of fencing he had shoved into their grass.  Torin was sitting in the grass to Sera’s left, goading Yuri on his poor throwing skills.

      “You try it with a damn bionic arm.” Yuri snapped, frustration clear in his voice. He stalked over to the grass, where he had missed the board by a foot, and his knife was sticking out of the lawn. He snatched the knife with his new arm and moved back to his position thirty feet away, the length of their yard.

      Sera studied him. He was wearing dark blue jeans with a black muscle shirt and his heavy boots. Sera could see the definition of muscle in his shoulders and arm; it was enough to sometimes make her swoon and forget about how much of an asshat he was. But then he would talk and Sera would snap out of it.

      The arm Olivia had made for him was phenomenal. It was the same colour as his skin, a deep golden bronze, and at first glance looked like a real limb, until you looked closer and saw the differences. Olivia had even added muscle definition to match his other arm; it was truly a sight to behold. Yuri had seemed reasonably pleased with it at first.

      Until it came to testing his skill. Sera noticed quickly that Yuri’s dominate hand was his left—a few days after Olivia attached his arm he went to grab a glass of water and had dropped it all over himself. Sera laughed. Yuri, well, he didn’t. Suffice to say, her and Yuri didn’t exactly get along.

      Over the past week and a half Yuri had been practicing his combat skills. He wasn’t necessarily awful at throwing his knife but by his frustration Sera guessed that he used to be much better at it.

      “Just focus.” Torin said, his voice calm, even as Yuri shot him a glare and snapped, “I am focussed.”

      “Yeah, on your anger.” Torin shook his head, his blonde hair catching the sunlight. He had his hands wrapped around his knees, his fingers loose against his shins as he eyed Yuri. “Remember what Don told us? To always keep a calm head.”

      Yuri snorted. “Don was a twit.”

      Torin made a face like he agreed but didn’t say so. “Just calm down. Quit getting so frustrated. You’re not going to be an expert at everything right out of the gate.”

      Sera rested her elbow on her knee. Her hair was done back in a single braid, shorter pieces of silver catching in the slight breeze. Her grey tank top was loose on her frame and she had on a pair of black leggings where her sister was dressed in cuffed light blue jeans and a yellow tank top.

      A part of her wanted to goad Yuri, to ask him if he was even ever a expert at it but the set of his shoulders made her stay quiet. She didn’t know him very well, but she knew him well enough to know that when he had his shoulders set like that, it was best to keep her mouth shut. She wondered if he was always this tense or if it was because of his arm.