Lunari - Part 7 - No More Running

I was sort of forced out of public school about a month later, and not for the reasons you'd think.

It started at lunch. I was sitting with Z and the rest, eating pizza again, and trying to understand algebra. I had gotten used to the flood of sound that always filled the cafeteria, but variables were beyond me.

"Okay, that's a letter. You can't add letters and numbers."

"No, it's not a letter-- well, it is a letter, but-- it's a representation of a number." Dantan was getting flustered, as per usual. I was beginning to think he was regretting his agreement to help me with math.

"What's a... that word you just used?" I was still learning the language, and the bigger words were new to me.

"It's a.. uhm..."

He was trying to find words that I knew to get the idea across, but about halfway through, something else got my attention. I felt something... something that made me feel uneasy.

"... Lunari, are you okay?" Oshio had noticed that I wasn't acting normally.

"Just... stop talking for a minute..." I stared off into space, trying to figure out what was wrong... The unease had started slowly, but now it was building fast, making me feel almost sick. Almost like...

Whatever was causing it, it was coming closer.

I stood up moments before one of the skylights in the middle of the room shattered inwards. People screamed, running into the halls and into each other. Some of the students who had been at the table underneath the skylight had ducked under it, trying to get away...

Standing on the table, surrounded by broken glass, were three figures, wearing black robes with a strange symbol on them. They stood, ignoring the fleeing people around them, seemingly looking for something.

Slowly, their gaze converged on our table. Dantan had fallen underneath it, tripped up by his chair, and Lerrile was trying to help him up; Oshio and Zala seemed to stunned to do anything.

The tallest figure, the one in the middle, pointed right at me.

"Run!" Zala cried, shoving my brother towards the nearest exit. Dantan and Lerrile were already heading there.

The dark figures, whatever or whoever they were, were coming closer, casting tables and chairs aside...

Oshio hadn't moved. "Go, you idiot!" Zala shoved him again. "Lunari, you too!"

"Lunari, come on!" Oshio motioned towards me... but I was frozen. This was all too much like...

People were screaming. People were dying. Panic filled the air. I clutched Kayru's stone to me. I clung to it so hard my hands hurt.

"NO!" I cried. "No more running!"

"What? Lunari--"

"No!" I looked my brother in the eye. "The last time I ran from something like this... It was..." I didn't have to finish that sentence. He already knew about my past, and how I didn't talk about it. "I lost everything! Maybe I could've stopped it, but I ran, and lost everything! No more running!"

I turned towards the advancing threat. "I'm done running! Now I fight!"

My declaration seemed to stun our attackers. They paused for a moment, staring at me.

Back on the colony ship, before the disaster, I was one of the best fighters in my swordplay class. It came naturally to me, as easy as flying. I didn't have a sword now, but I knew how to fight without one...

Take advantage of their pauses. My teacher's words were coming back to me. Silivarti are not big, or strong, but we are fast. Strike quick and strike first.

I launched a ball of energy at the one nearest to me, the one on the left. But I hadn't fought anything in a long time, and I was still weakened after my stint as a Popsicle. It took longer than I would have liked to build up the energy, and by the time it got to it's target, they had no trouble sidestepping it.

The counterstrike came faster than I was prepared for. A wave of darkness slammed into me, knocking me backwards and over one of the tables. Small shards of glass dug into me as I landed on the floor, stunned. I blinked at the ceiling.

Get up. I couldn't do anything. My body wouldn't listen.

I said GET UP. I gritted my teeth and slowly forced myself to my hands and knees...

It was utter chaos. The lunch room had been cleared out, except for those who had taken shelter under the tables. In the middle of the room, Zalasari was surrounded by the robed figures. She had been singled out and separated from the group; I couldn't see the rest of my friends. They were preparing some spell, and a spiral of darkness surrounded her.

"Zala!"

She reappeared behind me, grabbing my arm and pulling me to my feet. "They weren't after you, you idiot, they were after me! Now run!"

She took off down the nearest hall, pulling me with her. I didn't have a choice, not with her vice grip around my arm.

"Wha- what do you mean? After you?" I was still rather dazed after my run-in with the floor.

"It's a long story--" She turned a corner quickly, yanking me around after her.

"-- One I don't have time to tell--" We arrived at one of the outside doors at the back of the school, and Zala kicked it open.

"-- But now that you've attacked them like an idiot, instead of running like I told you to--" We ran along the side of the building, but I could sense the ones in robes approaching us quickly.

"-- They're gonna be after you too." We stopped, and I stood panting as Zala looked around. We were in a pretty secluded place, back by the dumpsters behind the gym. "Now what?" She muttered, looking around.

That was when they struck again. But this time, my reactions were quicker; I tackled Zala to the ground, the wave of darkness just clearing our heads.

"Yeah, now I'm pissed." We got up off the blacktop, and Zala turned to face them. "Also, technically, I'm no longer in the school, so Dad can't get mad at me for doing something about it." She held her arm out, and shadows flew from all around and into her outstretched hand, before quickly turning into a strange and ominous weapon (a scythe, I would later find out).

"And on top of that, now he knows that I'm in trouble." She twirled her scythe, sending a blade of shadows at the nearest enemy.

A quick and hectic battle followed. She told me to run again, and again I refused; besides, the robed guys were now trying to hit me, too. Between the two of us, we could almost keep them at bay; I was remembering more of my fighting class, and she was terrifying with her scythe, shattering the shadows they sent at us and sending her own in return.

But our luck was running out; I was exhausted, and we were still outnumbered. All it would take was one good hit to take me out of the fight, and I didn't know how much more Zala could dish out.

Just when I was about ready to collapse, one of them managed to land a hit on Zala. She fell to the ground, grunting, her scythe knocked from her hands. She tried to get up, but the shadows around her quickly surged up and tied her down.

"Zal-- UNH!" Pain exploded into my head, and I saw stars as I hit the ground. One of the robed figures stepped over me, joining the other two around Zala.

"Rgh, let go of me!" She was angry, and struggling against the shadows that bound her, but she couldn't get free; the robed figures went back to preparing the spell they had tried to use earlier.

I sensed something else coming. My first thought was No, not another one, but this was something different. This was bigger, and far more powerful; some ancient force, much larger than the three of them combined. And it was mad.

The last thing I saw was a large, flying shadow, smashing into the ground and sending out a wave of blackness that swept over me, knocking me out.