Anya didn't know what to think when Adrian didn't turn up in their next class. They had Physical Education with the boys, and even though he looked far too thin to join them in athletics, something about it felt off to her.

Adrian was an enigma. His eyes and posture was hauntingly sad, but his touch was repelling, and cold, and even worse, his presence completely aggravated Damian, putting him on edge and making him more irritable and annoying to talk to.

Anya shimmied into her gym shorts and tied her hair back into a high ponytail, enjoying the way that the curls of her hair bounced around her shoulders.

Beside her, Becky pouted as she finished clipping back her own hair in the mirror. "Aw Anya! You said you'd let me braid your hair today!"

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Anya huffed. "It's not just practical." She just wanted to exercise as soon as possible and sweat away the cold feeling she had around Adrian.

Becky hmphed. "Not even to impress your prince?"

Anya laughed. "Damian doesn't care if my hair is in a braid!" Besides, she was pretty sure that he liked her hair loose, so that the curls shone in the sunlight. She had caught him staring more than a few times.

Becky rolled her eyes. "I wasn't talking about Damian," she said like it was obvious, then she leaned forward with her hand cupped to whisper: "I was talking about Adrian!"

Anya's brain halted to a stop, before she physically recoiled. "Adrian?"

"Don't pretend that you haven't noticed him staring at you in class! He's clearly got a huge crush on you!" Becky briefly extended her arms to make her point, before returning to fixing her hair once more. Using the reflection of the mirror, she locked eyes with Anya and smirked. "One might say he's head over heels!"

Anya gaped at Becky, and tried to work out something to say, but only succeeded in opening and closing her mouth several times before spluttering: "I don't like him! So I'm not braiding my hair! So there!"

Anya ignored Becky's teasing smile, and stomped off in a hurry to get to the sports field.

She had been used to Becky's teasing, sure. But it was always about Damian, and for some reason that Anya couldn't quite parse, she didn't… hate it? Thinking about Damian made her feel warm, but Becky had never before insinuated that kind of tension with anyone else, and it left a bad taste in her mouth.

When Anya exited the changing room, her heart nearly leapt out of her body to see the boys already there doing their warm up exercises. Damian had been stretching his arms, and Anya's gaze followed to his exposed navel, where she could see the lines of his abs.

She nearly stopped in her tracks. Whoa. Since when has Damian been working out?

She shook her head and clapped her palms over her cheeks, trying to slap some sense into herself. Focus, Anya!

She could think about Damian later. But there was something seriously up with the Adrian kid that she could not wrap her head around. Why was it that she couldn't hear his thoughts? She had never experienced this before, except during the new moon, which was only two weeks away…

Damian paused mid stretch, and waved shyly at Anya, before blushing and recoiling at some comment that Ewen or Emile made.

Anya wished that she could read their minds from that distance, and figure out what they had said, but for that moment, she left them to their privacy. She looked around the sports field, seeing the obstacles that had been placed in front of each other. They blocked her path to the river, which bordered the Berlint forest.

They hadn't done an obstacle course in ages, and part of her was yearning to get on it and challenge herself with the new rounds. She had started doing physical training with her mother some years ago, so Anya knew that some of her reflexes had improved, and so did her strength and agility, but it would be great to finally get a chance to test that out and see just what she was capable of.

Although the kidnapping a month ago was difficult for both her and Damian, Anya wanted that feeling back - of the adrenaline in her bones. What a rush she felt when she held the gun, when she ran in to save Damian, when she was strategising with Twilight about how to get in and out, and making the peanut bomb to aid in the rescue!

A chill went down her spine, and Anya smiled at the memory. She needed to feel active like that again, needed to feel the challenge of her body and see how she could adapt to the situation.

The obstacle course in front of her looked fairly simple, although the equipment was a state of the art donation from Bill's dad (who she had heard was unhappy with the previous equipment).

There were bars, ladders, things to leap across, things to crawl across and run up and slide down, all concentrated at the river's border, and she just couldn't wait. Anya's eyes flitted between each of the obstacles, planning in her mind's eye how she would be able to accomplish any of it.

"Miss Forger! We're all waiting for you!"

Anya broke out of her thoughts with a start, and trotted over to where the rest of the class was milled around the teacher.

"Alright kids," said Coach Bobby. "We're going to be attempting this obstacle course today. So any of you who perform particularly well may be enrolled in the national obstacle course run. If you enrol on this and you get a good score, then you may be in for a chance of getting a Stella."

Anya's heart thudded in anticipation. If she could get another Stella like this, there may be a hope for Operation Strix after all, without having to rope Damian into Plan B.

"Who wants to go first?"

Although Anya's muscles ached to run, to move and flex and swing on the course, she held back from the initial round of attempts, so that she could get a better read of the other students who were attempting the course. She hoped to get much better than any of them, so if she wanted to do that, she would have to analyse their successes as well as their failures. She could afford to take a step fack for observation in the first instance.

She watched the first few students go on the obstacle course. She saw where they fell, where they were most likely to trip or slip or fall to the ground. Alice Paulette, while putting up an athletic front, unfortunately fell on the first beam when she misplaced her foot, and fell with an ear splitting scream.

"Out of the way!" boomed Coach Bobby as he ran towards Alice and picked her up in one fell swoop. "I am taking Alice to the nurse's office, meanwhile nobody move or touch anything! I will be back in a few minutes." He sprinted away with Alice still crying in his arms.

Anya and Damian's eyes found each other, but they looked away quickly.

The thought on the mind of every student was: What do we do now?

"Ugh, boring," said Becky immediately. "Who knows how long they're gonna take! We should just go and get a coffee or something, even going back to the dorms is better than just waiting around."

"I dunno," said George, as he fingered his football jersey. "Coach Bobby is always so fast, I don't know how he does it but I'm pretty sure he'll be back after he takes Alice to the nurse." Some others who also were on the football team nodded.

"The nurse is barely around these days," said Damian without thinking. He blushed once he had realised what he had said. "I mean, when I had to go and get checkups for my injuries, it took ages for her to ever come out and see me."

"So we could be waiting for a while then," Anya mused. She eyed the obstacle course longingly, and in her mind's eye pictured herself leaping over it and taking the challenge on. She wanted to beat the record, but how was she going to do that if the coach was away?

She wanted that Stella, that chance to succeed in Operation Strix without having to involve Damian…

Just then, there was a shout, and a bang, and the class was shocked to see a fox leap out from the fields and run under the course.

"What's happening?" cried Anya. The fear from the fox was so intense, that she could feel it trickle into her.

"Don't", said Damian, as he reached out a hand to stop her from moving any further. Anya didn't even realise that she had stepped out of the school grounds line. "They're on a hunt, if you get in the way you'll just get shot."

Anya's eyes teared up as she looked at the fox again, which was trembling with fear. She could feel it from all the way over on the school field.

"It's not right!" she cried. "What has that fox ever done? If they're trying to hunt it they should be ashamed of themselves!"

"Desmond's right, Anya," said Becky gently, and Anya turned to glare at her. "It's just their hobby, they've got specially trained dogs and everything."

"Since when are you on Sy-on boy's side?" Anya spat. "You have to know this is wrong! Don't you feel the same?"

Becky looked away, embarrassed. "It's a normal hobby, Anya, loads of rich people go fox hunting. It's practically a rite of passage."

Sometimes, Anya forgot that her friends had completely different life experiences and upbringings to her. Tears pricked at her eyes. It wasn't a 'normal' hobby at all she knew, but in the world of the elite, she was still just a commoner.

"No!" she exclaimed again. "It's not right!"

But deep in her heart, she knew they were right - if rich people thought this was a normal activity, then it was normal, even if Anya thought it was morally wrong. They were both right of course, and there was nothing she could do as she looked on at the fox. In the distance, the dogs sniffed the air and started barking.

"Look," said Becky evenly, clearly trying to calm Anya down. "I know you want to help but I'm begging you, please dont go over there. The hunters aren't allowed on the school grounds so you're safe as long as you stay over this side of the line!"

Another bang sounded, and the fox took off over the river, hopping on stones until it reached the other side, and disappeared into the forest.

Just then, Anya noticed a shadow moving in the trees. "Hey, do you guys see that?"

The shadow stilled, then started to run in the direction of the fox with a clanging metal sound.

"Hey!" Anya shouted, and sprinted towards the forest, and the cries of her classmates disappeared behind her.

Anya what are you doing!

Get back here!

Are you trying to get yourself killed, you idiot?!

Anya pretended not to hear them as she sprinted through the obstacle course: she leaped through the jacobs ladder, quickly arriving at the bars that overlaid the river in between the school and the forest. She grabbed at the first bar and swung, and launched herself to the other side of the river, skidding over the mud and grass. Anya righted herself quickly, before making a run for it directly through the trees, towards the shadow, and out of sight of her classmates.

The collective voices of the class faded into the distance as she suddenly found herself in the shade of the mighty pine trees that lined the forest beyond the school grounds. Anya steadied her breathing and went in.

She had underestimated the shade of the forest, as she plunged herself into its darkness. She tried to listen out for the shadow, and for the fox.

There was something about it that was familiar to her…

She heard a shallow whining sound, and Anya carefully tiptoed to where it emanated from. She saw the fox, whining, still trembling, and with blood on its leg. The fox stopped licking itself and growled at her once she came near.

"Shh…" She cooed, trying to soothe it, but she had never actually interacted with a fox before. Would it even know what she was trying to do? "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise…"

Anya tried to reach out a hand, but jerked back when the fox snarled at her, showing a perfect line of sharp teeth.

Anya got a mental image of the fox ripping into the flesh of her arm and stepped back.

"I'm here to help," she tried to tell the fox. It was so afraid, she could feel it. It only bared its teeth at her because it thought she was one of the hunters. She smelled too human to be anything else.

Anya cast a look around, still trying to see if the shadow from before was nearby, and started to crawl closer to the fox. "I'm not going to hurt you." she said again, in a low voice. "You can trust me. I'll get you out of here and get you somewhere safe."

The fox whined, and dipped its head. Not enemy, she heard it think.

Tears sprang to her eyes as she gingerly reached out and scooped it up, nestling it into the crook of her arms. The fox whined and nuzzled into her.

"You're hurt, I know," she whispered, again trying to keep the soothing tone of her voice. "I'll take you somewhere safe and we'll get you cleaned up, okay?"

A twig snapped behind her, and she jumped in surprise.

Adrian emerged from the trees, cool as a cat, but his face creased with worry and guilt. Anya took an involuntary step back.

"Trust me, you don't want to do that," he said quietly, although Anya could hear the subtle undertone in his voice that told her that she wouldn't be able to convince him to stay away. But she knew she would have to try anyway.

"Why not?" Anya responded with her gaze level. "It's not right. I'm going to keep her safe."

"That fox is supposed to be bait for the dogs, and for the hunters to hone their skills. If you get in the way, you might get in the line of crossfire."

"Excuse me?" Anya gasped. "It's wrong. It's an animal life, and why do you even care? What are you doing here?"

Adrian bit his lip as he stared at his feet, and lifted the metal clanger in his hands. "It's my part-time job. I work with the hunter groups, and I lead them to the animals. To their prey."

Anya thought she was going to be sick. "Is this a joke?"

Adrian tipped his head to the side with a sad frown. "Why would I joke?'' Then, he turned back to her. "But the hunters are after her, so I'm going to have to ask you to hand her over."

Anya clutched the fox tighter to her chest, and the fox squeaked in protest.

"Sorry, sorry," Anya gently apologised to the fox. Then she regarded Adrian with steel in her gaze. "If you want her. You'll have to get through me."

He sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn't say that." Then he brought out a whistle from his shirt, and glanced at Anya remorsefully. "I'm really sorry about this."

He put the whistle to his lips and released a sound so shrill, Anya winced with pain. "Ouch! What was that for?"

Adrian sighed again, and tucked the whistle back beneath his shirt. "I called the hunters over, so they know the fox is here. If you leave now, you won't get hurt."

"You've got to be kidding-"

The sound of dogs barking got closer.

"You have to run," Adrian begged her. "Please don't make this harder."

Anya didn't have a choice - she turned and ran.

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I know sometimes set-up chapters can feel like they are slowing the pace, but I promise it's all relevant...

Also, not Anya eyeing up Damian's body xD Trying to get that balance of her being oblivious but interested haha