A/N Hello my fellow aspiring authors! A couple quick things to read before the story:
1. I have to put a disclaimer here, right? Okay, so I am not Shannon Messenger, and I do not own kotlc. All I own is a few hundred books in paperback.
2. If you notice any errors in my story, please tell me! I am having this beta'd by a writer friend of mine irl, but that doesn't mean we can't both miss something really important. I appreciate all criticism (with the exception of flames, which are useless because I'm not gonna cry in a hole if you hate my story).
3. The story is not in line with recent canon events.
4. I am not promising updates at specific times yet because I am a way slow writer, and I probably won't have a plan for this for a few chapters.
Anyways, enjoy! Also, I'm sorry this is so long, I just couldn't get the words out of my head. I've been working on this one chapter for a while and I kept hitting blocks in my writing.
3rd person Callistra's POV
Sunlight peeked through the dense greenery of the woods, tracing patterns on the undergrowth Callistra trod on. The crisp morning air felt so good in her lungs, and a gentle breeze swept past her, tickling her nose and turning her cheeks pink. The woods were an escape to her, and she always wanted to be out there as long as possible. It was really too bad she had to be training right then.
Callistra held her breath and listened, not daring to move an inch until she heard a twig snap behind her and spun around, hesitating for a split second then launching a kick in the direction of the sound. She could barely glimpse a figure clad in a black cloak in front of her before they took hold of her leg and flung it to her side. Quickly loosing her balance, she thrust her hands behind her and landed on the fallen leaves with a soft thud. She groaned, exhausted from the hours of training with no luck and spread her limbs and head on the forest floor, trying not to care that leaves and soil were probably gathering in her dark brown hair. She sighed, closing her eyes, but it was short lived because the next second she heard heavy footsteps to her left. Callistra flipped over and saw a pair of dark boots jogging towards her, then stopping by her torso. A hand was extended down to her and she took it and helped herself up.
"Honestly Callistra, how do you expect to make it into the elite force if you can't stop me from following you?" Arabella asked, taking off her thick hood and flipping her wavy blonde hair behind her back. Arabella had been Callistra's friend ever since she could remember, and now they were going through Neverseen training together, called initiation. Initiation was the training from age thirteen to sixteen, and at sixteen the new members were put into one of the different forces.
Callistra answered, "I can detect anyone behind me, you know that. I just need to work on actually fighting, and I'll make it into the elite force. You can count on it." Callistra said this with false conviction; She actually didn't even want to be in the elite force at all. The elite force was the group that went on any missions where combat was necessary, and the fact that she was too hesitant to throw even a small punch obviously meant she wasn't cut out for it. But of course her dad thought otherwise. When she was seven, her mom had been discovered as a double agent and was killed, and now her dad was pushing her to do anything but undercover work. Especially things like elite force. It was actually hard to be around her dad because all he wanted was for her not to turn out like her mother, and he didn't even know Callistra as a person.
"Hello? Earth to miss McKornum." Arabella waved her hand in front of Callistra's face, startling her out of her thoughts. "You looked like you were about to fall asleep standing up, it was weird. It's almost mealtime. We trained overtime, so we'll need to hurry to get to the cafeteria."
"Right," Callistra said, nodding. Arabella pulled a compass out of her thick black cloak and turned to her left.
"The compound is back that way. Let's go."
They ran in the direction of their home, their feet pounding on the dirt as they weaved between trees.
Callistra and Arabella burst through the double doors to find everybody already eating at tables. The gray mush that supposedly provided essential nutrients to people training to fight was in the process of being put away, and the color of the meals matched the drab interior of the cafeteria. They hurried over to the counter and quickly took their trays, one of the initiates in lunch detention saying, "You're way late! You almost lost your lunch. I'm putting away the forks now, I'm assuming you'll use spoons?"
"Yeah," Callistra answered, not looking up while she grabbed her spoon and a bowl full of the meal she had for lunch every day. This was the only meal they were nutritionally regulated on. Callistra didn't like the slop, but it gave her an unnatural amount of energy, which paid off during grueling training sessions. She and Arabella walked towards the tables, and Callistra could barely glimpse a couple of older members who were bullying a younger initiate. She averted her eyes, not wanting the image of that in her mind while she ate. Yes, she knew cruelty was essential to be good at fighting, but sometimes it just didn't feel right to inflict pain on the people on her side. Callistra looked over at Arabella. "So are you going to ability detecting this afternoon?"
"Um, duh? Look Callistra, it's none of your business if I don't want to be a Guster. You know that you can't do anything with an ability like mine, except maybe cheat at disk catchers." She added a flourish of wind that swooped up her spoon and let it fall and clatter on the plastic tray for effect. Callistra took in everything she was saying while watching an older girl at another table push a young girl away, yelling something inaudible at the girl.
"Fine, fine. It's just I think this might be the only ability you get, so why not perfect it?" Arabella snorted.
"Perfect the wind? Like that's going to make me good at combat. It's fight or flight, and I choose fight. The wind can stay the way it is for all I care."
Callistra opened her mouth to argue, but Arabella speed walked ahead of her and sat down at an open table with a finality that seemed to say, 'This subject is over.'
She stood in one spot, then started over to Arabella's table, but the cloaked body of what seemed to be another initiate her age bumped into her and her tray's contents were spilled all over the floor. Her water bottle was still closed, but the bowl and what was inside it lay splayed out on the gray tile. She guessed the person had already rudely walked away to continue their lunch, so she ducked down to clean up the remains of her meal before anyone saw, her short hair falling in her face. Callistra didn't reach the floor though because her head knocked into what she thought was another person's skull and she heard a voice exclaim, "Ow!"
She scooted back, holding her head and trying to ease the sharp pain. Callistra looked up to the figure in front of her and her midnight blue eyes met bright cerulean ones set into the pained expression of a boy who looked to be around her age.
"Sorry, I was just going to help pick up..." He gestured to the mess on the floor. "I should really watch where I'm going."
Callistra shook her head, not wanting the guy to feel bad. After all, he was being kinder than any of the other initiates. "No, I wasn't going to eat it anyways. It's- "
"Disgusting, I know. What are the leaders thinking?" Her lips turned upwards at this, and she saw his smile as well.
"Yeah. I've wondered that too." They both sat there in thought until Callistra pulled her head back to reality and realized they were sitting on the floor of the cafeteria next to her lunch. She leaned forwards and scraped the food onto her tray with her spoon, and the boy reached over to wipe the rest of it up with a napkin. Now that the floor looked the same as before she picked up her tray and stood up, brushing the nonexistent dirt off her black leggings.
Callistra looked back up at the boy, and he was standing in front of her, holding out a hand. "My name's Emmett. What's yours?"
"Callistra. Callistra McKornum." She took his hand and shook it. Callistra saw that the boy had wild and messy black hair with cerulean eyes she had noticed earlier, and his hand was smooth. That was quite unusual for a Neverseen member, since they trained in the outdoors often. Callistra's hand were calloused from years of climbing trees, actually more so than others since nobody else climbed as much as she did. Climbing... was her way of escaping. In her spare time she would run out as far as she could and climb the tallest tree she could see, hoping she would see past the infinite expansion of trees, but the forest seemed to go on forever.
She heard a throat being cleared and remembered she was still holding onto Emmett's hand. Callistra quickly pulled her hand out of his grasp and forced an awkward smile.
"So, uh, I should probably go sit with Arabella now. She might give me some food to share," Callistra half told herself, turning her head around towards the table her friend was sitting at. Arabella looked over at her, and her expression was saying, 'What are you doing? Come over here!' She nodded her head at her and turned back slowly, saying, "Yeah, she'll give me some of her lunch. But thanks for helping me clean-" She stopped mid-sentence because Emmett wasn't standing in front of her anymore. What? He was here a second ago... I guess he went back to his table. She looked around, but out of all the tables full of initiates, she couldn't spot Emmett's head of messy black hair anywhere. Callistra decided she would ask Arabella about it, since she knew everyone in the compound.
"Callistra? Hello?!" She whipped around to see Arabella waving at her, motioning for her to come over to the table.
"Oh. Be right there!" She picked up her water bottle and sped over to the table, sitting to the left of her friend. Arabella picked up her spoon and scooped up some of the 'protein' to put it in her mouth, but the flimsy plastic utensil bent and it fell back into the bowl. She frowned, and Callistra stifled a laugh.
Arabella made a face. "Haha, very funny. Laugh all you want, we were late today because you couldn't get today's training down."
"That was not it! I just... lost track of time." It wasn't a total lie. She actually had kind of lost track of time, really. That was the idea. Arabella gave her a pointed look.
"What is with you, Callistra? You've been so out of it today, just spacing out for no reason," Arabella pressed.
"Um." Callistra noticed other initiates getting up to leave, probably going to their next training session. She didn't want to talk about the woods because she knew Arabella wouldn't understand, so she stuttered, "You know what, I think I have to go to my Conjuring class so see you later? Okay, bye!" She jumped up from the table and sprinted out the door, trying not to bump into other people. She didn't see Arabella's confused face or even notice that Emmett was standing out in the hallway talking with a certain green eyed girl wearing a mask.
A/N 2: Good? Bad? Really bad? Review and tell me what you think! Hehe now I know why authors love cliffhangers so much. They're so fun!