Chapter Text
My feet pound against the forest floor, snapping twigs and startling the birds from the trees. Not daring a glance behind me, I vault over a large rock and land on the other side - promptly twisting my ankle and collapsing to the ground. Heart hammering, I flatten my back against the rock and peek over the side. I don’t see anybody yet, but I hear voices. A lot of them. Probably armed with pitchforks and fire and -
Calm down, Ruy.
I take a shaky breath and hunker down again, letting a flickering shield expand over me. There. I’m safe. Nothing can hurt me in here.
The pain in my ankle draws most of my concentration away from the fact that I have literally nowhere to go. When I was banished from the Lost Cities, sure, I was on my own for the most part, but I still had Exillium. But I had to go and mess that up, too. I can’t even return to the cave where I’ve been staying the past six months, because the Coaches probably know where it is. Great going, Ruy!
Suddenly, I hear voices just above me, on the top of the rock. I get as low as I can and compress the shield around me, trying not to breathe. I recognise the Ambi Hemisphere coach - the one I’ve grown the most acquainted with - by her voice.
“He’s most likely long gone by now,” she’s saying. “If he survives, I expect he’ll come crawling back sooner or later.” There’s a pause. “Not that it’ll make a difference. Exillium can’t afford a menace like him.”
“Should I report him to the Council, miss?” comes another voice - a student, probably.
“No need,” the Coach replies. “We’ll take care of him if he comes back.”
I wait until I hear their footsteps fade before sitting up. So I’m officially ejected, then - and barely got out with my life. I decide to stay where I am for the night and figure out what to do in the morning. Using the rock to pull me to my feet, I manage to stand…and then immediately collapse back down. Fantastic.
Gingerly, I lift up the hem of my pants and unlace my boots, wincing as I do so. As I peel off my sock, I can see that the exposed skin is red and already starting to swell. I must’ve sprained my ankle - which means that I’m going to have to figure out how to heal it before I do anything. I use my teeth to tear off a strip from my tunic and wrap it around my foot as a makeshift cast. It dawns on me that there could be trackers in my Exillium uniform - but they’re my only clothes right now, so I smash the crystal leading to today’s site and make a plan to return back to my cave for the rest of my stuff as soon as I can walk.
It’s a hot night, so I take off my jacket and put it under my head as a makeshift pillow. Exhausted, I let the shield flicker away and stare up at the sky. Every star is visible - it looks like somebody spilled glitter across a black tablecloth. I pick out a few constellations - the flying alicorn, the wooly mammoth. Humans have other names for them, but they’re all stupid. I mean, come on - does that really look like a bear?
It takes me a couple of hours, but I do eventually drift off to sleep. Life might suck at the moment, but I’m comforted knowing that no matter what happens, the same stars will always wish me goodnight.