The Beast Within

CHAPTER SIXTY

Dawn came, bringing the new day with it.

Noelani was the one to alert the non-Mages about Tes’ death for no one could be buried in Thrika, the ground was too hard for that and Magic wasn’t allowed.

It was the same with the other Mages who died, their deaths were reported and soldiers came to hoist the bodies away.

He could not look when his mother was taken away, wrapped in a white sheet, unimportant, just another dead Mage to the soldiers.

Adrik, Haneul and Auris had gone to get water while he waited in the hut until Noelani came back accompanied by unimpressed non-Mage soldiers.

A white sheet was used to wrap her body and they wasted no time making scarce their leave, an expression similar to disgust on their faces.

Noelani called the children all together when they were back again, needing to talk to them before she would have to go over to the sewing pit.

Ceraun was an orphan now so that meant he could survive on his own just like Haneul and Auris but she chose to still keep them under her wings.

It had shaken her up quite a bit to learn that Auris and Haneul were both orphans, and although they shouldn't be her responsibility she found herself wanting to care for them still.

"It would be easier if we all lived together." She started to say, slow and cautious, occasionally glancing in Ceraun direction to get a read on his reaction to her words.

"It is purely your choice if you want to.” She added with a benign expression. “It should make things quite easy though if say you all came to live with me.”

It was truly the best suggestion for she doubted Ceraun could manage to survive all alone but she worried if he would want to leave his home, especially so soon after his parents died.

She also did not want him to be pressured into coming to live with her so she would let him make a decision.

“Ceraun, what say you?”

Ceraun averted his face from their questioning gazes and looked out a low window outside, he could see other Mages forlornly leaving to their daily duties, it was a gloomy image.

His mind was long made up, it would be what his mother wanted besides drowning in grief was not going to get him the revenge he craved.

“It’s a good plan, I accept to be a part of it.”

Noelani could not help the smile that nearly overtook her features, relieved that that was past.

With a welcoming expression, she looked to the others who were quick to agree, nodding eagerly.

Thus the decision was made. It was visible how the decision to properly live together brightened their spirits, tragedy did thicken bonds after all.

Noelan’s hut would be too little to house them all, same as Ceraun’s hut which was of similar sizes. Haneul’s and Auris’ huts too were even smaller.

They had the option to live in an entirely different hut, there were lots of empty huts and if they looked, they could find the right size to fit them all comfortably.

Noelani charged them with finding the right hut because she had to go over to the sewing pit.

Adrik stayed behind after his mother left them to discuss with the rest on how they would go about finding a suitable hut.

A tense silence fell as soon as Noelani left, no one willing to break into or step in to fill in the chasm her absence created.

Ceraun huffed, folding his arms and looking away at the same window.

"Stop staring at me like you expect me to explode into a storm of lightning."

"We're not looking at you like that…" Haneul started to deny.

"You can do that?" Auris asked simultaneously.

"You do actually look like that." Was Adrik's reply, they all spoke over themselves.

Silence fell again after Ceraun's question and their chaotic reply then Adrik sighed.

"Why do I always have to take the lead?" He asked in exasperation.

Haneul and Auris shrugged.

"It just seemed like what was done." Haneul added.

"No." Ceraun cut in in a hard voice. "It's because Adrik is so picky that it's best to let him do things himself."

"That aside, we need to get to finding a proper hut, clean it up, move and and somehow find the time to train." He explained in detail.

The other three Mages looked at him, scandalised.

"Is all of that not training enough for today?" Auris interjected, horrified.

She was already dreaming of getting some proper sleep on a pallet which was a far cry in comfortability than the cold, hard, ground.

"I also figured we would leave out training for today." Haneul supported, also looking unimpressed with the plans that Adrik had made.

"We missed out on training for a day, recruitment is in a scant two weeks, there is no time for breaks." He said sternly, looking unfazed by their protests.

Ceraun was very interested in getting some training done after sitting idle for the longest time, his body itched to train, lighting crackling just under his skin.

Auris and Haneul eventually agreed after grumbling protests, they didn't have much of an option because Adrik was right, there was simply no time for breaks.

"Now that we have settled that we need to move on to finding a hut, the faster the better."

"That's easy, I know the perfect place, it's a reasonable distance from the gate and the sewing pit and has very few neighbors." Haneul spoke up.

Adrik was not surprised on Haneul’s knowledge on the matter, he had been quite a very good spy for the non-Mage soldiers.

"That's good news." Adrik muttered, lost in thought.

The first step would obviously be to all go there so that they would be well aware of the location of the hut and to clean it up then they could all do their moving separately.

He relayed this information to the other’s and soon they were on their way to the new hut with Haneul in the lead.