Jamaa Academy: The Return (Book Two)

Chapter 18

Beside The Shore

It was an uncomfortable night. Tossing and turning, overwhelming thoughts, heavy breathing, it was hard to sleep. The sky was dark, the stars and moon were at their brightest, and the kingdom was silent. Nobody was able to get a good amount of sleep, they could even oddly sense that the others were just as restless as they were themselves, though the room was silent, nobody said anything. A breeze entered a window, making the room a little cold, the friends shuffled underneath the covers, their eyes shut tight, trying to sleep. Images flash in their heads, terrifying images, ones they wanted to go away. Their minds finally made disturbing manifestations of their worry and dread, and they hated it. They tried to ignore them, until someone gave up.

"Gah!" Kyle grunted out loud, throwing his sheets off himself, everyone else sat up in surprise. Kyle breathed heavily in frustration, "Alright! I had enough of this, don't tell me everyone else got a wink of sleep!" He growled, sick of being sleep deprived, he was tired, bags were under his eyes like everyone else. Swift and the others were silent, they were tired too, they didn't expect their missions to keep them up. Kyle groaned and hopped off his bed, starting to pace. "You know, I wished our thoughts hold just leave us alone for one night, how can we even sleep like this?!"

"Kyle, keep your voice down." Izzy said in a hushed tone, hopping off her bed, the others on bunk beds followed, Kyle stopped pacing and aggressively rubbed his eyes. "Look, we all know that we're worried, scared, for what we're gonna do in a few days. But Raven already said we'll be relaxing tomorrow morning, until then, let's just.. try to keep our minds calm. It isn't good for our mental health." She added quietly. Kyle huffed, stopping his pacing.

"Won't that be a nice challenge?" Kyle said sarcastically, "You know, if only we could really forget about our worries that easily. It's driving me nuts!" He exclaimed in a quieter voice, Swift and Jake looked at each other worriedly.

"We won't know until we tried." Hunter added tiredly, he seemed to have darker bags than everyone in the room, and his fur was a little more messy. He let out a yawn, "Come on." The others followed, trying to get comfortable, Izzy nuzzled in close to him, they nestled into their sheets and closed their eyes, hoping that their minds will leave them alone.

Morning...

The morning went by slowly, the sun was rising, the sky turning orange, the stars and moon disappearing. Raven was up, semi trotting toward her destination, she had an uncomfortable night as well but she was able to manage. She hummed a tune as she skipped along, when she arrived at the door, she knocked on it a few times, waiting for someone to open it. Knocking again, she waited, this repeated until she realized that nobody answered. Her ears laid back in annoyance, she opened the door, about to tell them off, but stopped herself.

Everyone looked.. well, she hoped another word could describe them, but they looked horrible. Dark bags under their eyes, disheveled fur, and they were even sweating a little, their expressions were either stressed, frustrated, or worried. Maybe even a combination of all, Raven slowly entered, hesitating to even wake them up, they looked like they haven't had a great night at all. She felt sorry for them, guilty even, she sighed, they'd have another night like this if the beach day didn't work, and they had to get up. Guiltily, she spoke up, "Er, guys? It's time to get up.." They shuffled underneath the sheets, grumbling incoherent words under their breaths, Raven remained silent and prodded them again.

"Guys, I'm sorry but you have to-" Raven's eyes widened and she shrieked when suddenly she was enveloped in orange aura, and then thrown across the room, she yelped in pain, alerting everyone in the room. They jolted awake, looking around the room, Hunter took notice of Raven now in the room, groaning in pain, he sighed heavily. Raven grunted, getting up slowly and rubbing her head, her purple orbs met Hunter's red ones. "Well at least that worked."