This will either be a short chapter, or an extremely busy one. I'm unsure yet.

What am I Doing?

Dark Ace

This was unusual… I've never been forced to work with a female student before. She was smart, too—compliant and quiet. I knew she'd do just fine at the academy. But her words got me thinking… If everything I had told her about the academy was true, did that mean everything she had argued in return was true?

I knew the academy was useless for tactical training. Everything you needed to know about being in the airspace would either come naturally or not at all. There were just some things that you couldn't teach. So if it was useless for tactics, did that throw the entire concept of the academy out the window? I knew boot camp would at least teach the students to listen, so it was at least useful for that purpose, but for anything else…?

Why I had decided to save the girl, I was truly unsure. I'd acted on a moment of impulse and followed my instincts which lead me to saving her. Maybe it was selfish? Maybe I really didn't want her to die purely for fear of it putting a dent in my reputation… Or maybe it wasn't her time to go and some force had put it in my head to pull her back up?

Either way, there was no taking it back now.

The decision to stay there in the dark all night was partially because I was lazy and partly because I felt it was more beneficial for her to sleep on the ground than in the academy, and that was saying something.

I managed to get restful sleep. For once in my life, I wasn't going to bed worrying about what I would do tomorrow. I wasn't stressing about who would die next. I was content with laying in the dark sleeping. However, waking up was another story. My eyes shot open, scanning the back of the young Talon's head. I was surprised the girl hadn't woken up earlier—the dim sunlight had filled the air for quite some time now.

Quickly realizing the position I was in—not only having stayed out all night with her, but the fact that I had leeched myself onto the girl, my arm lying over her stomach. I froze in my place. My mind told me to quickly rip myself off of her and run but I knew that would wake her up. I started small by moving my arm. Without sign that the girl had noticed, I inched away from her. No longer in contact, I shot up to my feet and backed away quickly. I let out a shaky breath and rubbed my face, yawning. My back ached from sleeping on such an unforgiving surface. Cyclonia's soil was made from a combination of compacted dirt, metals with odd properties, and soft clay—easy to dig through, not so easy to sustain life.

I looked over the cliff, noting some Patrol Talons were already taking their routes. I knew someone was looking for me by now. It wasn't surprising that no one had looked up here… it'd probably been at least a year since anyone had set foot anywhere near there.

Looking back toward the girl, I quietly whined, wondering what to do. This was the first predicament that I had been in that mixed both personal and business. I've never gotten close enough to a talon to have much of a conversation. The fact that she got any information out of me was astounding. Maybe it was because I felt sorry for her? No. She somehow broke through the wall I had tirelessly built and delved into my past.

The fact that I was stupid enough to mix personal with business, even if it was only for a moment, made me vulnerable. She now had an advantage over me. I bet she still had a foothold in the hole in that wall… Looking at her, my brows tugged together. Anxiety filled my chest. I turned and walked to the edge of the cliff, sitting down. I was careful—I wouldn't fall.

I closed my eyes and began to think. What next?