Kari Bree bowed in swift succession.
Once to her instructor.
Once to her father.
And once more to the school’s headmaster.
By the time she had assumed a reasonably disciplined posture, her hair had all but tangled around the multiple small horns protruding from the top and sides of her rigid head, a number of the silky black strands dangling down in front of her eyes.
As she brushed them away, the bearded headmaster slammed his cane down onto the cobblestone path with a venerable growl.
“Is this any way for an aspiring young student like yourself to arrive to your final lesson? Just because you are about to leave our presence does not mean you are permitted to shirk any of your crucial responsibilities. Complacency has no place among the mind of a future Iridonian Assassin. Isn’t that right, Master Bree?”
“Yes, Headmaster,” Kari’s father said, eyeing his daughter with abashed disappointment. “I will have to speak with her to make sure she is… unequivocally prepared for graduation.”
“Not until lessons are over,” Kari’s instructor, Master Devrin said, grabbing her by one of her horns and pulling her towards the other students.
She waved at her father as she winced with each jerk, “sorry father, it looks like our conversation will have to wait. I’ll see you after classes, tell your students I told them to study well so they can turn out like me.”
Her father simply stared at her, a slight annoyance in his eyes, hands tucked within the large sleeves of his robe. Kari was sure her mother had dressed him this morning as the overlapping portions of his uniform were almost perfectly spaced, one of only a few skills her father had never actually been able to master.
Kari finally managed to slip away from her master’s iron grip and quickly dashed towards the center of the dull green field. She assumed her position alongside the eleven other students in her class, standing at attention as to prevent any further disciplinary actions.
Some gave her brief disapproving glances, while others were far too stiff in fear of Master Devrin to even dare avert their eyes. Kari would be thankful when they all finally parted ways. What a miserable bunch, some of the finest students the school had ever produced, but miserable all the same.
Master Devrin let out a stern cry and Kari felt her hands instinctively secure themselves to her sides. Another shout and she found herself mid bow, head lowered slightly below that of her instructors, a sign of respect that spanned many worlds and cultures. One final sharp command and she was once again in ready position, prepared to start the day’s combat drills, just as she had for the past fourteen years.
The morning sun was already beating down on the group, and Kari could feel the first of many beads of sweat travel down a preordained path formed by the natural creases in her Iridonian forehead. The indented grooves formed a unique but symmetrical pattern along her face, similar but still vastly different to the patterned faces of her classmates.
Between jump kicks and spinning backhand strikes, Kari caught the eyes of her peers silently judging one another. All wanted to graduate as number one in their class, but all knew that they had also received the exact same training for most often the same duration, meaning natural skill and prowess would be the deciding factor in who came out on top.
Observing her fellow students, Kari saw Vessa Mardeen strike the air with an unbridled fury. She watched as Taron Chi’s feet gracefully met the ground following a difficult leap, producing not as much as a sound, nor even the slightest rustling of the grass underfoot. Agen Wroth movements were cold and mechanical, like a droid simply wearing Zabrack skin. And Vessa’s younger sister Aerin, who had unprecedentedly skipped an entire year, cut through the air as if thrusters had sprouted directly from her back.
These students both terrified and amazed Kari, and she hated them all. Well not all, at least not anymore. Recently at least two of the students had come to consider her a friend, although she was not sure she could fully return the sentiment.
One was a girl named Ett Palicosa, the youngest student in the class, but only by a few days. She was the type of person who seemed quiet until you got to know her, and then you could never shut her up. She shared Kari’s disdain for most of their classmates, but also just hated their curriculum overall, with no desire to become an assassin or warrior unlike the others. Kari often wondered why Ett continued to attend, but she could also sympathize with the girl, still ultimately unsure of where her own life would take her.
Kari’s other close acquaintance as of late was Dorun Marr, an intelligent young man with subpar fighting capabilities. You could often notice him slightly lagging behind the others during drills, and his squeaky voice annoyed Kari fiercely.
But he was honest, and smart, helped her pass her written exams, and he had kind eyes, so she made it a habit of keeping him close. If nothing else, he was a valuable asset to Kari. Although much like Ett, he also often gave off the impression that he lacked a passion for what they were ultimately trying to achieve as students of such a prestigious yet private assassin-centric academy. She briefly glanced back at him, noting he was moving especially sluggish today, most likely fatigued due to staying up all night researching whatever his hyper obsession of the week was..
Kari wondered why she chose, or at least allowed these two to constitute most of her social interactions, which were themselves fairly few and far between. They were definitely far from the best influences, and she knew her father had grown more concerned over her training because of them.
She realized now that she had been quite fervently daydreaming, although her body instinctively threw strikes and assumed stances with each command her instructor exclaimed. How much time had passed since they had begun drills? Minutes? Hours? She had no way of knowing as colossal clouds still obscured Iridonia’s lone sun.
Not that it really mattered, as drills had become all but innate now, almost as if she could set her body to autopilot to allow her mind some just a little bit of reprieve during the long hours of physical pedagogy. Combat, poise, and self-control had been ingrained in every fiber of her body practically since birth. The same could be said for her peers, although they had each accelled and struggled with different disciplines.
For Kari, it was cooperation. Teamwork never much suited her style of living, nor fighting. It wasn’t like she thought others “drug her down,” she was not as flippant as to hold such a prideful ideology. She simply just found that, after years of practice and experimentation with the combat arts, she could think clearer, move faster, and strike harder when unshackled from the need to be aware of those around her, whether they be allies in arms or defenseless liabilities.
Just as she turned to assume a new stance, she saw another one of the boys, Graeson Eberathi, lose his footing and stumble ever so slightly. Over a decade of drilling made sure he regained his balance almost instantly, but a quick recovery was not good enough for Master Devrin, who let out a shout causing all of the students to halt.
The instructor approached Graeson and stared into his eyes, the young student flinching and looking away. “Do you think your enemy will allow you to falter without taking full advantage of such a blatant window of vulnerability? I expected much more from you, Eberathi, especially for your final lesson. Have I been such a poor instructor to you all these years?” He looked up and glanced around at all of the other students who were standing at attention, not daring to steal a peek at their chastened peer, “Have I failed all of you?”
“No sir!” they exclaimed in unison, Kari briefly catching Aerin and Vessa glance at each other with a searing disgust having filled their eyes.
“Then prove it,” Devrin barked out, “twenty laps around the courtyard. We’re going to make your last day one to remember.”
While no visible sighs or groans were emitted, displeasure was more than displayed through each of the student’s bodies, save for the class’ resident overachiever, Ike Beredun, who seemed as excited as ever to display his impressive physical prowess.
The group of students trotted their way over to the stone path that encircled the shaded courtyard as they prepared to begin their run. The group’s collective mood was now incredibly dreary, especially for what was supposed to be such a joyous day, and Kari prayed that the rest of the day would pass as quickly as possible.
The students instinctively fell into rank based on strength, agility, and stamina, Ike and Agen taking the lead, while Dorun, Graeson, and another smaller girl named Malary Echravich promptly began to tail the group. Kari found herself firmly situated between the Mardeen sisters who were flanking the ever elegant and composed Taron Chi, and her closest acquaintance, Ett, who was practically breathing down Kari’s neck from behind.
Ett caught up to her, staring down the trio in front of them. “Since when did Taron get so chummy with the brats?” she asked between regulated breaths, “I feel like they couldn’t be more different.”
Kari never much cared for class gossip, and just shook her head, Ett continuing to focus on the triad of exemplar students running ahead. Pulling even closer to Kari, she elbowed her, which finally caused the asocial girl to deviate from her methodical running form and glance at her running mate. Ett motioned behind them, pointing her thumb at the runner in the very back of the line. “That’s not the only odd thing going on either. Look at Dorun…”
Rotating her neck slightly more, she caught a glimpse of Dorun Marr trailing far behind the rest of the group, a troubled expression engulfing his patterned face. Dorun was by no means the most athletic student in the class, but he had never once let himself fall so far behind. If he kept up his current pace, Ike and the others in the lead would soon pass him.
“Last day laxity?” Kari said, turning back to look at the path in front of her, a sizable distance now separating her from the next students up ahead.
“No way. If there’s one thing Dorun isn’t, it’s a quitter,” Ett said, visible concern now evident in her eyes.
“I didn’t realize you two were so close?”
Slightly flustered, Ett diverted her gaze from the struggling boy, “we’re not. I’m just… observant. And I think something’s up. We should fall back and see if he’s okay.”
Kari peered over at the girl quizzically, “you can’t be serious. Do you want to be out here running all day? Because a pace like that will make that wish a reality.”
“Look at it this way, would you really leave one of your allies behind if they were in trouble?” Ett pleaded.
“Yes.”
Ett sarcastically huffed at the blunt reply, “fine, let’s see how far that attitude gets you after graduation. Meanwhile, I’m going to tell Dorun how you said you’re okay with leaving him to die.” She began to slow her pace, falling back behind Malary and Graeson to let Dorun catch up to her.
Kari rolled her eyes, feeling a twinge of guilt creep its way into her mind. Dorun had helped her out so many times over the past few months, and she did probably owe it to him to check up on his well-being just this once. She couldn’t deny that he had come across uncharacteristically unenthusiastic all day, a stark contrast to how excited he had seemed about graduation every other day this week, so maybe an issue on more of the serious side was, indeed, afoot.
Before she could even decide whether or not to just let the boy be, her stride began to shorten, and it wasn’t long before she had fallen to the back of the pack. Ett was already asking Dorun what was wrong, and he weakly looked at the two girls with a half-hearted grin, his mouth hanging open and his eyes glazed over.
“I… I don’t know. Something feels a bit wrong with me, but I’ll be okay. We only have a few hours left, I think I can make it at least that long.”
His speech was slightly slurred, and he began coughing uncontrollably, slowing his pace once again.
“Hey, I think you might need to stop. You look really pale,” Ett said, placing her hand on his arm.
Dorun shook his head, taking a deep gulp as he hastened his step ever so slightly. His face had grown pale, and his movements more erratic, as if he was losing control of his own limbs.
Kari bit her lip, knowing the boy appeared to be showing signs of anemia, but she also respected his drive to keep running. She didn’t want to rob him of this one final accomplishment on his last day at the academy, but she also didn’t want to encourage him to damage his body.
“Hey Dorun, are you having any sort of chest pains?” Kari inquired.
And that’s when Dorun Marr went slack.
He faceplanted into the marbled stone path, flipping over twice over due to the speed at which he had been traveling prior to his violent tumble. Kari and Ett immediately slid to a stop as they had flown past the boy, Kari immediately feeling a stinging pain in her side due to the abrupt halt.
Ett rushed to Dorun’s side, flipping the boy over and patting his face before placing her ear on his chest, careful to not peirce him with her horns. The boy was bleeding from a split in his lip, as well as a few other gashes in his cheek, and it appeared that he had chipped the tip off of one of his front horns. While Ett gauged Dorun’s level of consciousness, Kari glanced around the courtyard in search of assistance. She saw most of the students beginning to slow to a saunter before stopping, quickly noticing their downed classmate. She also spotted Master Devrin, who was already dashing across the open yard towards them.
“C’mon Dorun, wake up,” Ett said, cradling him in her arms. “I wish I had paid more attention in our medical classes,” she admitted quietly through gritted teeth.
The other students began to crowd around, and Devrin had to push them aside before he could assess the situation.
He addressed the rest of the class as he knelt down by the boy’s side, “who said you all could stop running? Just because an ally falls in the field doesn’t mean the fight simply stops!”
Their instructor placed his fingers on the side of Dorun’s neck, and then pulled his eyelids up to look into the boy’s glossy, unmoving eyes. He then pulled a small comlink from his belt, “I’m going to need a stretcher out here in the main yard immediately. And tell Doctor Alain that we have a student down. Looks like severe dehydration and possible anemia.”
Devrim picked Dorun up and moved him off the track before looking around at the rest of the students and clearing his throat. “You know what, give me five more laps and then we’re going to call it a day. You have all worked very hard this year and deserve a little rest before the big day tomorrow.”
Displaying more curiosity and annoyance than actual concern, the other students slowly and warily broke away from the unconscious student to resume their jog, novel glances continually thrown at Dorun as two staff members arrived with a stretcher to carry him away. Their biggest competitor intelligence-wise had just been taken out of the hypothetical race, so Kari figured not too many tears would be lost on their fallen classmate. Still, Ett did take a little convincing from Master Devrin to actually continue running. Eventually she obliged, but Kari could tell she was holding back expressions of sorrowful concern.
Unsurprisingly, no one spoke for the rest of the afternoon, retreating from the courtyard one by one as they finished their assigned drill. Kari herself looked forward to a cold shower, hoping to clean both her mind and body. She finished her run shortly before Graeson and Ett, and waited for the other two to hit the five lap mark before she would make her way inside. A small but acceptable precaution, should either of the other two runners suffer a similar fate to Dorun during the final moments of their run.
Kari looked out across the now empty courtyard. Wind whipped over the short, dull-colored turf, which was overshadowed by what appeared to be oncoming storm clouds.The courtyard’s stone pathways and structures suddenly seemed so cold, causing Kari to instinctively shiver, and the usually peaceful rhythmic chorus of crickets chirping now sounded empty and haunting. What a dreadful ending to her last official day at the academy.
Now, more than ever, Kari desired to leave this school and pursue her own future free of the confines of its massive stone walls and maligning calloused peers. There was only one more day standing between Kari and the future she had worked so hard over the past fourteen years to make a reality. If one of her classmates spending a little time in the school infirmary was the worst thing that happened between now and then, then Kari knew she would be sailing smoothly into wherever the galaxy took her next.
And that gave her enough reassurance to finally follow the others inside and claim that long awaited shower. Kari still had a lot to do, so she might as well get started.
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