Victernus - Chapter 19
Athius walked along the street to his school, hoping
to find Namara before he found any of his friends. The way there was quite
simple, as the city wasn't very large - he simply had to take a left off of his
street and then follow the next one to the school. It met up with the one that
Namara had gone down. Fortunately, he knew that the wolf couldn't have gone far
- there weren't many places he could
go.
His back still ached and stung terribly from his
beating, and he was still a bit sour about it. His belly stung more, but only
when he or someone else touched it. Whenever he felt the pain again, he
clutched the handle of his bag tightly in an attempt to ease it. In an effort
to conceal most of his beating, aside from the lash across his face, he tried
walking normally - even though it hurt.
When he neared the school, he saw some of his
friends waiting outside on a wooden bench. They were in the grassy courtyard,
sitting under one of the hovering lights. He stopped to watch under a small
tree, reluctant to engage them. Was he supposed to speak with them, or would
they just get him in more trouble? He shivered and turned around, deciding
against it.
When he turned, he nearly ran into Gala. He jumped
and clutched his chest in surprise, only to wince and let go. She chuckled, "You're
jumpy today. Is everything alright?"
Athius waved it off, "Oh, it's nothing. I just wasn't
expecting you there."
She laughed and then asked, "Hey, what happened to
your face?"
He touched his hand to his face. "Oh, that... It's
nothing, I just tripped this morning." I
was also whipped more times than I can count...
Gala smiled sympathetically, "Ah, well I guess it doesn't
look too bad."
Yeah, not bad at
all. Not bad at all, Gala.
She pointed her thumb to their friends in the
courtyard, "Why don't we go sit down while we wait for school to start?"
He shook his head and waved his hands, "Nah, I'm
fine. I was just going to go walking for a bit."
She rested against the tree and offered, "Would you
like me to join?"
Athius continued to resist, "It's alright. I just need
to think about some things."
Gala frowned and crossed her arms, "Are you sure
everything's alright?"
He turned and walked away, "Yeah. I'll be back
later." He heard her mutter an annoyed "Bye" before he moved out of earshot.
After clutching his bag one more time, he realized that doing so could never
take away the emotional pain he was experiencing. Grumbling to himself, he
trudged along the sidewalk, staring at the ground.
Because it was still early in the morning, most of
the adults were not yet out and about. As exhausted as he felt, he used his chance
to scout for signs of Namara. He focused on the road and his surroundings, not
wanting to miss one sign of him. I guess
if I'm going to leave for good, I'll need to give it my all... I must find him.
He broke out into a jog while trying to ignore the shirt that was rubbing up
against him.
When he came to the point where the roads
intersected and led to the palace, he found him. Namara was standing there
seeming a bit confused, looking down at a map in his hand. Athius slowed down
to catch his breath and then called out, "Hey!"
When Namara turned to face him, Athius saw his face
light up. They both smiled at each other for a moment before Namara approached
and grew worried. He questioned, "What's wrong? You look... hmm..."
Athius sighed, "I'll tell you later... I need to find
a place to stay first. I decided to skip school today... I'm not going back
there."
Namara smiled and acknowledged, "Let's get going
then - I found a place," and then patted his shoulder.
He winced and sucked in air through his teeth. "Don't
touch me, please..."
Namara retracted his hand and apologized, "Oh,
sorry. Let's go."
Athius followed, watching the street to make sure
that nobody was near them. He didn't want to get caught with a strange creature
that wasn't supposed to exist, after everything he had already gone through. To
his surprise, they didn't walk very far. They travelled only a few houses down
before stopping. When they did, he checked his watch to make sure that school
had not started yet.
Three minutes. He was three minutes away from being
discovered missing. He shook and then asked, "Are you sure I'll be able to
hide?"
Namara nodded and then knocked on the door, "Nobody
will be able to find you - don't worry about it."
The door cracked open a few moments later and
Mahalia peeked through. She opened it wide and exclaimed, "You're back already?!
Is he here with you?"
Namara moved out of the way so she could get a good
look at him, "Yeah. This is Athius. He kinda just found me again."
Mahalia saw the marks on his face and then gasped,
pulling him inside, "Oh my goodness! What happened to you?"
Athius opened his mouth to tell her, but the more he
thought about it, the harder it became to speak. He stared down at the wires on
the floor and stopped, not wanting to sound weak.
Namara closed the door behind them and then said, "Well,
go on. You said you'd tell me when we got here."
He trembled
and started, "Last night, my dad..." He paused. "M...my dad... he-"
Mahalia could not bear it. She placed her hand on
his back and tried to get him to sit down. "Why don't we take it slow?"
He cringed, clenching his fists and
stiffening up. She saw this and then furled one of her eyebrows, directing
gently, "Athius, take off your shirt."
Athius trembled further and then
slipped his arms through his sleeves, pulling both of his shirts off carefully.
He held them shakily, unsure of where to put them. His fresh back was exposed
to them, and he felt like blood was still dripping down from some of the deeper
belt-wounds.
He heard both Mahalia and Namara
gasp. Mahalia walked around him, inspecting how far the wounds reached. She
asked angrily, "Your dad did this?"
Athius nodded, "He just got really
angry all of a sudden... He was waiting in my room when I got home. He wouldn't
stop..."
She grimaced at the sight. Each lash
layered over the others on his back like a lattice-topped raspberry pie. She
remarked, "That's not going to go away for a long time..." and then headed
upstairs. She told Namara, "I'm going to get a towel so I can clean that up.
Why don't you sit him down at the table?"
Namara agreed and then went to the
table where Theo and Kyon were sitting, preparing a chair and beckoning Athius.
He smiled, "Come on! These are just two more of my friends, Kyon and Theo."
Looking at Theo, he asked quietly, "Can they find him if he's here?"
Theo shook his head, "If he can see
all this stuff, they can't."
Athius sat down on the chair and
bent his back a little bit. He felt self-conscious because his skin was showing,
even though he wasn't particularly skinny. He glanced at Theo and Kyon and then
inquired, "So, I heard that you guys might be leaving somewhere... Where exactly
are you going to go? I was taught that there was nowhere to go and that the surface was unlivable still."
Namara chuckled, "I've been on the
surface, and that's quite the overstatement! But, I don't know what Theo has in
mind."
Theo smiled at them and teased, "Oh,
I have something in mind, but that's a surprise."
Athius thought to himself briefly
before remarking, "Huh... I wonder how much of what I taught was wrong."
While they were talking, Mahalia
reentered the scene with a hot, wet towel in her hands. She waved to get their
attention and then smiled. "You guys can keep talking; I'm just going to clean
Athius up a bit. It might sting a little..."
Athius put his forearms on the table
to brace himself. Meanwhile, he queried curiously, "So, what do you guys know
of what it was like before New Selania? You are all from that time, right?"
Theo affirmed, "That's right. It was
both good and bad..."
Kyon picked up when Theo trailed
off. He twirled an orange around on the table as he told him dreamily, "There
were billions of people, giant cities with buildings that reached up to the sky,
all kinds of animals that are mostly extinct now... It really was something to
behold. Of course, a lot of people didn't care."
Athius' eyes widened, only to shut
when he felt Mahalia press the towel against one of his lashes. He grunted and
then asked, "How could people not care about something like that? That sounds
amazing!"
Namara laughed loudly behind him. "When
it's what you are brought up with, you learn to take it for granted. The funny
thing is that while people thought everything would be fine and that nothing
would change, they were all contributing to their own destruction. You wouldn't
believe how lazy people became and how sick of all the 'Save the Environment!'
messages they got. A lot of people became addicted to entertainment... in the
countries that had it good, anyway. It really was disgusting to watch. They no
longer cared."
He raised one of his eyebrows and
questioned, "Didn't you try to do anything about it?"
Namara scratched his head and then
answered, "I was searching for my own thing, as you know... I was going to do something, but then Theo had to screw up with the stasis
thing."
Theo huffed, "It doesn't matter now -
we're all here. I suggest you do whatever you have been planning, Namara, so
that we can get out of here."
He agreed, "You're right... I should
probably go out again. Is there anyone else who you think might like to join
us, Athius?"
Athius sat up and stretched his
arms. His back was feeling much better. It was still sore, but it no longer
stung or bled. While stretching, he asked, "Could I come with you? There's
really only one person who I think might be interested... We could probably catch
her on one of the breaks. Then next one is in about an hour. Perhaps you could
go to the forum first and talk to some of the people there? I'm sure they'd be
interested in you. Just come back for me when you're ready."
"Sure! I'll be back soon, I guess."
Mahalia ran back upstairs briefly
and then came back down with a clean black shirt. She handed it to Athius, "Here,
take this."
He beamed at her, "Thanks!" Standing
up from his seat, he stretched again and then put on the shirt. "That actually
feels a lot better!"
She smiled, "I knew it would."
Namara grabbed his map again and then
headed for the door. "I'll be back - don't get into too much trouble while I'm
gone."
Athius
grinned and surveyed his new friends with a twinge of excitement. A sense of
belonging filled him for the first time in his life as he assured, "I think I'll
be just fine."