Selphie was sat in Delta's office looking through all the headmasters papers with tough scrutiny, she thought she almost had the reason why Trabia students seemed to lag a little behind Balambs'. She stopped and sighed, looking out the window. Zell was down in the quad putting a group of young fist fighters through their paces, twelve in one year group, even for a Garden with an intake the size of Trabia's that was good going, there were even more shinobu kids in the class she had offered to take this afternoon. Delta had been so grateful to her it had been ridiculous, that was part of Trabia's problem, they didn't have enough teachers to go around the kids, the student to teacher ratio was too high. Especially in the weapons training classes, Balamb had found the optimum class size was six students in that, but Trabia sometimes had classes of upto thirty. She shook her head and moved to the window to watch Zell demonstrating his moves. It had been two weeks since she had kissed him and they hadn't brought it up again. Neither of them had quite been able to go back to the way it was before, every time she saw him Selphie saw the look in his eyes and it brought her up short. Their conversation had been stilted and they had only managed to talk about work... and Rathi Makeri. She knew that he was a danger but she and Zell disagreed on the way to handle him, he wanted to go in with guns blazing, figuratively speaking, and she just wanted to bide her time, see what he would do next. Selphie was deathly frightened by him, the thought of doing anything to provoke him made her mouth go dry. So she and Zell argued, they had never really argued before and it wasn't really an argument now, it was just a means of communicating that wouldn't involve their feelings.
She gazed down at him, even though he had rejected her, she couldn't make what she was feeling go away and every time he wasn't looking at her she stared at him. Just as she was doing now. He was dismissing the class and he stretched with cat-like grace, he looked up and saw her standing by the window. He obviously paused and then waved to her, it was a good job he couldn't see the red shooting up her neck and onto her cheeks. She felt like she was a naughty school girl that had been caught eavesdropping... she gave him a small wave back and moved away from the window. She sat down and closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind, she had decided it was her time to look for Bahumat again, she had made it a thrice daily ritual and yet she was always disappointed when she couldn't find him. She looked at her watch, she was supposed to be accompanying a student through the ice caves today, Roo was coming with her as a guide because she hadn't been there in a while. Zell had gone through about three days before and he had passed the student with flying colours. The test now Shiva had disappeared was to find and fight a snow lion, she thought it was a little tough, she herself had, had a pop at Shiva when she was a weak GF, it had been a month later that someone had caught her and it had really niggled until the boy was caught by a blue dragon and had been killed. Shiva had then been taken to Balamb and assigned to Squall, as all unused GF's eventually were.
Delta poked her head around the door. 'How's it going?' She asked with genuine interest.
'Slowly, very slowly...' She smiled at her. 'What time am I supposed to be taking a student through the cavern?'
'In about half an hour, you up to it?' She asked with a grin.
'I've fought snow lions before.' Selphie said tartly. 'Not the easiest of battles but far from the hardest. I really should go and get my shinobu and find Roo.' Delta nodded.
*
Zell gazed up at Delta's window where Selphie had been looking down at him. It had surprised him when he had seen her doing it but it had brought a small thrill as well. He did sometimes wonder if they would ever stop being awkward around each other again. He looked at his disbanding class with a smile, all were enthusiastic and focused, if a little off with him, he had never met a class before where he hadn't at least gotten one grin off of any student. He was usually such a good teacher as well, he shrugged. He strolled across the quad and saw the large group of students that were getting ready to go on their field course with Rathi and Badier, he stayed clear of Rathi and strolled across to Badier who was organising everybody.
'Hey man.' Zell said with a grin and the Delta's assistant looked at him with a faint smile.
'Hey, I'm a bit busy right now. Can I talk to you later?' He asked, Zell looked at him and noticed he did look a little pale and green around the edges.
'Man are you okay? You're working yourself too hard.' Badier smiled and looked him in the eye.
'I can honestly tell you mate that I love what I'm doing and in a few days this training scheme will have run it's course after that I'll be fine.' Zell smiled and nodded.
'Anyway man I'd better jet, I told Selphie I'd check the books while she takes a student through the caves.' Badier's head came up and he looked at him.
'Is she going on her own? Certain sections like Shiva's old haunt have been sectioned off because the roof is unstable, I don't want her to be hurt.' Zell grinned at his concern.
'Don't worry man, Roo is going with her.' Zell took a look at Rathi, he was pulling his chain whip absently through his hands. 'Be careful yourself, keep your gunblade to hand 'kay?' Badier nodded and smiled. Zell waved at him as he jogged off. Rathi trundled over to him and looked at him questioningly.
'I think we should make our move tonight instead of waiting. We have enough people on our side.' Rathi nodded quietly.
*
Selphie looked at the young student that was waiting with Roo, she looked half scared and half defiant and she reminded her a little of Squall. She had read this students profile, Jillina Pride, one teachers comment had made Selphie laugh. 'Pride by named stiff-necked, bloody-minded, stubbornly proud by nature.' Her hair was jet black and she had bright blue eyes, she had refused to wear the female student uniform and had used the boys instead, which Selphie thought was entirely practical in this weather. Her test scores were excellent and she had chosen a fire elemental GF named Surami to take with her into the the ice caverns, she saluted Selphie when she arrived.
'At ease cadet.' She said snapping off a salute of her own at the young girl, she was only just fourteen and her instructors were reluctant to send anyone that young into a field exam situation, but they had sent her because they could not hold her back any longer, Selphie looked at the weapon in the girls hand and the quiver at her hip, the crossbow was extremely difficult to master and difficult to load but she had developed enough muscle tone to pull back a thirty pound load on the bow string in under a second. She was impressed with the girl and gave her a quick smile. Jillina gave her a shy smile. 'Are we ready to go?' She asked Roo who nodded quickly. So they set off to the south, towards the Ice caves.
*
The two garden instructors were standing at the entrance of the ice cavern as they would be most of the day. They stopped the trio. 'Who is trying to pass their field test today?' One asked Roo in a bored voice.
'I am, Jillina Pride.' They looked down their notes and asked for her student ID. '4854390' She said without hesitation.
'Pick your time limit please, you can have anything from 30 minutes to an hour.' The other said and paused to write something down.
'Twenty minutes.' She said without pausing. Roo went to talk to her but Selphie stopped her.
'Let the girl chose, she has the right to pick a challenging time doesn't she?' Roo stared at Selphie they both knew that their knowledge of their own skills was partially tested on the time limit they set themselves, if she completed the task she would get 100%.
When all the paperwork was done the three of the stepped inside the caves. The walls shimmered with a beautiful blue light, the caves glittered like crystal and Selphie smiled, some things never changed as she looked on the walls. Every student of Trabia who had ever took this test had carved their name on the side of the cavern as the departed. She remembered doing it herself and began searching for her own, but the other two were already way ahead of her, she would do it on the way back. These caves had never melted in the twenty five years that Trabia had been a garden and she doubted they ever would in her lifetime. Jillina strode confidently into the cave whistling, hoping to cause a snow lion to attack. Her weapon was raised and she had attached it to her wrist and at that moment she looked as she would have imagined Rinoa to look at this age, she had also chosen a projectile weapon. Selphie looked at the stopwatch she had been given to record Jillina's time. They were nearing Shiva's old cave already, Selphie remembered her own journey taking a lot longer than this but Roo whispered to her that Jill had been studying the maps of this caves for the past two weeks, god the girl was dedicated. When they reached the tunnel that led off to Shiva's cave it had a 'no entry' sign on it and Selphie looked at Roo questioningly.
'Badier cordonned it off when a stalagtite, or is it a stalagmite? Fell off the roof and injured a student nearly six months ago.' She explained. Selphie nodded when the growl came rumbling down the corridor, Jill looked round at them, joyously and the three headed off into the open area that was down that way. Snow lions were not notoriously quick creatures but Selphie's heart started punding when it jumped out of the shadows and went for Roo who fended it off with a sharp crack of her whip. Jill spun round and took aim with her cross bow, the lion howled when the shaft embedded it deep into it's thigh, the girl didn't use obvious fletchings and the shaft buried itself under the lions skin. It turned on the girl and Selphie gave it a sharp crack on the head with her weapon. It growled viciously and launched itself at Jill. Without being at all phased, she sighted down her arm through the sights on her crossbow and let the bolt fly. The crunch Selphie heard as it passed through the lion's skull made her feel sick. But the lion dropped nearly half a foot away from the now jubilant young girl.
'I did it! I really did it... what's the time?' She asked and Selphie looked at the watch.
'Twelve minutes and thirty seven seconds.' The girl opened her mouth in surprise.
'Damn I should have gone for fifteen.' She said but grinned happily.
'Come on.' Roo said to her. 'Let's go home, you will have several people wanting to congratulate you now.' So they headed home. They all paused at the front entrance hall, Roo to supervise Jillina carving her name on the wall with one of her crossbow bolts and Selphie to try and find her name. She remembered standing up on the left hand side of the tunnel when she did it, she smiled when she saw it, it had two little stars surrounding it. When she saw what was written underneath it she felt a lump in her throat. Recently carved in careful letters directly underneath her name, there were four little letters... Zell.
*
Author's note~ Just so you know I am writing as quickly as I can but the next chapter won't be posted until monday so be patient.