MARINA

“Astro!” I yell from across the arena. 

I looked around trying to see if I could find him among all of the other soldiers training.

“Yeah?” I hear from the distance I try to spot him on top of all the heads and in the far back of the arena I see the beautiful locs of my Astro.

I go over quickly to see him training with Jace. 

“Hey Marina,” Jace says as he holds up training gloves while Astro punches them. 

“Hey Jace how's it going?” 

“Ah you know can’t complain much” he moves the gloves around to challenge Astro.

“You need to send your good wishes Marina, Brandy gave him the thumbs up to move into an active battlefield,” Astro says struggling to breathe.

“Is that true?” I turn my body towards Jace.

“Yep this should be my last couple of days here before I have to go” 

I know that the whole point of the Y.K.C is to train people into going to active battlefields but something about Jace leaving leaves me wondering. For the first time whilst being here someone I know is now leaving, with no guarantee of their return. I should be happy for him because he has worked hard to be where he is and although I'm sad for him to leave I know that this is what he truly wants to do, it's all anyone here wants to do. 

“That's great Jace I'm happy for you,” I hide my sadness behind a smile. 

“Thank you,” he said smiling but his eyebrows were down I could tell he was nervous. It was weird to see Jace nervous. 

“So what’s up Marina?” Astro says while grabbing a towel to wipe his forehead 

“Oh,” I had almost forgotten why I was here “Could you come with me to get boom berries?” 

“Hm…No” he says after a bit of thinking 

“Why not?” I whine 

“Because I don’t want to go boom, those things are dangerous” he chuckles under his breath and takes a sip out of his water bottle. 

“But it’s for pie!” I make my eyes big and smile to convince him to go with me

“It’s for pie?” He asks confused

“It’s for pie,” I confirm while fluttering my eyelashes

“Okay, I’m in!” Astro says while he grabs his bag and ruffles his hair to fluff it up. ”Jace, could you cover for me while I go get some boom berries for pie?” 

“She has her hooks in you huh?” Jace said jokingly 

“I do” I poke Astro to annoy him and he waves my hand away 

“I just really like pie” he shrugs "Wait, I get to have some right?"

"Of course!"

We start sneaking out the back in order not to be seen by anyone especially Brandy because if he knew we skipped a day of training he’d kill us. I can already hear him in my head ‘How are you supposed to go on a mission if you aren’t properly trained’ his usual normal Brandy talk. 

“Okay so tell me what do boom berries have to do with pie?” he asks 

“Remember how I told you about my new roommate” 

“Yes obviously”

“Well apparently where she is from there is this thing called boom berry pie” 

Astro stops dead in his tracks and looks over at me with the widest eyes I have ever seen him make. He shuffles his eyes before saying “Are you sure she is not trying to kill you?” 

I look straight at Astro’s eyes “I actually didn't think of that” 

Could that be the case had Lailah just been kind on the outside but she was just an evil villain in disguise?! Have I let a maniac into my house, have I put my entire family at risk? 

But then that thought in my head was overruled by the kindness and gentleness that Lailah had shown me that night. I could sense there was something real about her, something that couldn't be faked. 

“I'm sure she isn't trying to kill me, I think she just wants to share something with me from her culture” 

“I don't know Marina maybe we shouldn't get these things” 

Just when he says that I spot a familiar face sitting on a bench reading a book, her long flowing dress moving with the wind and her concentrated face as she focuses on the words she's reading. 

Astro looked behind him to see what I was looking at.

“Ohh!” He says while trying to get a closer look at her “That’s the girl we rescued before!” 

“Is it? I couldn’t tell I guess she looked familiar I don’t know” I cross my arms and smile at him.

“We should go say hi,” Astro says while walking over to her. I quickly jump up and try to stop him from coming any closer. 

“Are you crazy?” I say 

“What’s wrong?” He laughs nervously, and then stops and reads my face “Oh I see what’s going on here” 

“What?” 

“You nervous to go talk to her” he pokes my arm to mess with me 

“It’s not like that!” I move his hand away “I just don’t want to disturb her from reading I think it would be rude” 

“What no” he looks over at her again and this time she notices us. She smiles and waves at us and we smile and wave at her back. 

“Do you think she heard us?” I ask Astro 

“Maybe,” he says 

“Really?” 

“Since she is an animal spirit most likely” 

“Wait is she” My eyes widen and I can feel my face becoming hot. 

“She not” Astro tries to fight off his laughter. 

“Astro, that's not funny!” I punch his arm and when I do he can’t hold back his laughter anymore. 

“Hello” I hear a soft voice from behind 

“Ah hi Elle,” I say waving 

“Hello Marina, it's nice to see you again!” She smiles and hugs the book in her arms 

“Nice to see you too Elle” 

“Hey Elle I’m Astro I don’t think we’ve formally met,” Astro says stepping in front of me. 

“Nice to meet you Astro!” She chuckles “What brings you guys here? Are you two on a secret mission or something” 

“Actually, as a matter of fact, we are!” Astro says trying to seem more important than he is. 

“We are just collecting boom berries,” I say 

“That sounds cool, I didn't know that we had boom berries”

“We are going deep in the forest to find a bayou” I raise my shoulders as I squeeze the straps of my backpack. 

“We are?” Astro raises an eyebrow at me 

“Oh right, I forgot to mention that sorry!’ 

“It's okay I was fine with whatever” he shrugs and his eyes start to twinkle “I have an idea!” 

“What is it?” Elle asks

“Do you want to come with us to hunt boom berries?” 

“Yeah! You can be like our newest recruit!” I blurt out 

“Oh!” she starts looking around and eventually a smile appears on her face “Sure!” 

In just a matter of seconds, I am now presented with the opportunity to spend time with Elle in a casual setting. I don’t know whether to be excited or terrified. My mind roams the possibilities on how this could play out, it is very much possible that she ends up not having a good time or thinks that I’m weird. Maybe I think too much, I need to work on just going with the flow sometimes and letting go of controlling everything.

“Marina?” I turn around and my eyes wander down to Elle’s gaze where the way she is looking up at the sun’s light bounces off her eyes in such a pretty way. 

“Yes?” 

“Could I put my book in your backpack?” She holds her book with both hands while I slowly take off my bag. 

“Yeah of course no worries” I put her book in my bag making sure that it was safely secured. 

“Thank you!” 

“Okay let’s start heading out before it gets dark!” Astro says while leading the way.