The Zodiacs

4. A Chained Escape

Akil stumbled in surprise when a sudden pair of hands wrapped around his wrist, dragging him into an unknown room on his way to this morning's training. He only became more unsettled and bothered the moment he realized who it was that dragged him into the private area. "What do you want?" His expression fell with the emotionless grumble.

"There's no one here," Zahra showed him around the single room area to confirm their privacy. She grinned when she turned back to face him. "Now you can show me without worrying about anyone seeing you."

The older boy groaned, dropping his head back in growing impatience. "You know we're going to be late, right? And then Master Omari will slit both of our throats like he did to Soldier forty-seven on our first day. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty fond of the idea of my head being on my shoulders."

"It'll only take longer if you keep complaining. Just show me and then we can go together," she shrugged, leaning against the end of her bed and crossing her arms over her chest. They weren't wearing their armor today as per Master Omari's orders, so she was left wearing a basic black shirt tucked into loose black pants that the boy across her was also wearing; the only difference was in their body types.

Akil rolled his eyes, but didn't argue any further. Instead, he stepped back and focused his attention on Zahra.

She furrowed her eyebrows in partial worry, caught off-guard by the sudden shift of attention to her. "I mean...," she mumbled, stepping back nervously. "Don't do it on me, do it on something that-."

But a strong gust of wind surrounded her before she could continue on, circling around her and making the short black hair neatly set at the sides of her head fly with the movement's direction. She'd only begun to look around in wonder when the air suddenly fell, dropping her hair back onto her face in an unkempt mess.

"What?" She frowned, turning to glare up at the boy in front of her for stopping so quickly before she could get to witness more of it. "Why would you st... Akil?" She looked around the room: now by herself.

It wasn't very hard to see much of the room since it was only a seven-by-five foot space with a large window behind her, a bed, and her folded uniforms on a slightly elevated portion of the solid ground. With one look around, she'd already realized that the larger soldier was no longer present where he'd one been.

Did he really just use that as a distraction to walk out of the room and continue on his way?

Zahra flinched when a hard finger flicked the back of her head, making her stumble forward in pain. "Ow!" Her hand shot up protectively as she spun around expecting to see Akil there, but finding nobody once again. "Akil?"

"I am one with the air," his voice came from all around her, making Zahra's eyes widen in happy surprise when she realized what he meant.

"You're invisible?!" Zahra beamed excitedly, waving her arms around in hopes of capturing the man's unseen body. It was like feeling around a blackened room once your eyes were no longer useful; only, her eyes were wide open and the room was brightened dramatically by the morning sun, but she still couldn't see what she wanted to see.

Then she heard the sound that was quickly growing weirdly familiar from how much she heard it from the man: his bothered groan. "No, I...," he sighed. "Sure, yeah. If that's what makes you happy."

"That's incredible!" Zahra spun around the room, diverting her attention to every corner in case he was standing somewhere else. "You're an air sign then?"

"I'll be a dead sign if we don't get going," he spoke, making her spin around to finally see him reappearing by the door of her room, pulling it open and motioning for her to exit. Zahra nodded, excitedly walking out and turning back to him to continue their conversation. "No," he quickly lifted one hand up to stop her, before pointing around the hall and dropping his voice to a whisper. "The walls have ears in this place."