Fitting In

It felt good, as if I was in heaven. My neck, my head and my chest didn’t seem to pain any more. There was a divine warmth surging through my body, nurturing me, healing me. There was a goldenish glow somewhere close to me, my eyes were closed, I could see the blood flowing in flesh on my eyelid and the golden glow behind it that seemed to be surging through my body in separate pulses, energizing me to the core. I lifted my hand effortlessly and touched the sides of my neck, I could feel the wound but it wasn’t hurting. My head seemed light. Wait, what? Shit!

I knew immediately. A disaster had struck, I had lost a part of my body. My hair.

I sat upright, pain erupted all over my body.

“You dolt, do you have to be in such a hurry”

I squinted as I opened my eyes. I found myself wearing a light blue shirt and shorts, in a funny circular tent with blue and yellow triangles, which looked the like superlative degree of stupid. There were about half a dozen beds, which were completely empty, other than mine. The sheet was spotless white. I looked to where the sound was coming from.

I saw towards the left and slowly turned my neck towards that right and led out a yelp. The person beside me yelled too and then we stared at each other.

“It’s you”, I muttered. Suhani was squatted on a chair beside me leaning on the sides of the bed, with one hand on her forehead and the other holding my arm. There was a soft golden glow coming from her fingers. Which I presumed was the only reason I wasn’t pulling my hair out.

She looked at me as if I had just poked her between her eyes.

“What”, she asked, “why are you staring at me?”

“Oh”, I said promptly, “I didn’t mean to. By the way have you seen my hair? they seem to be shorter than usual”.

“I cut them”, she stated, blankly.

“Oh okay . . . - Wait! What?”

“I cut them”, she repeated herself.

As if it explained everything.

“- I understand you cut them. But, why did you cut them?”, I asked frustratedly, not able to believe someone could be so poky.

“Because I wanted to”.

“And why did you want to?”

“I don’t know-”

“Of course you don’t”, I said as I crashed my spine back on the bed.

“Slowly you-”, Suhani began.

“-When? When am I going?”.

She gazed at me, hardly at first but it softened down after a while. Maybe she wasn’t as scary as she tried to be. She sighed, “I called it off”, she said.

“-What? You can do that?”, I said, getting angry, she waited so long before calling it off. I could have died.

“Not really- I had to fight on your behalf, and that, officially made you a member of cabin eight”, she said softly.

“Oh”, I said immediately regretting my anger, “so, are you okay?”

She twisted her head, and lifted her maroon shirt slightly which had 'Go Atlantis' written on it. I saw a scary cut all along her flat muscular stomach, it looked like a painting, I could see the soft red flesh and hints of blue and red around it. It must have bled a lot, “You had weakened him pretty much, he lasted just a few minutes”.

“-Thank you”, I said nodding at her.

“Your wounds were much worse”, she said closing her eyes.

“Oh”, she didn’t seem to be paying attention to me. Her eyes were closed, I noticed her hand glow brighter, the little throbbing that I had been feeling, vanished.

“So that’s your Occult thing-?”I asked, “You can heal people”.

She went back to staring at me, “-No, I just make your feelings numb, so that you do not feel the pain. I can burn you also”, she added, “in case you were wondering”. Something told me she was putting special emphasis on the last sentence, and I for one was convinced I had no interest in getting boiled to death.

“Get up-”, she said, removing her hand from my arm, “that last pulse I gave you should be enough to keep you going for a while. Come on- now”.

I slid off the bed, my chest shrivelled up and throbbed. I felt her arm on my shoulder and immediately it felt better. We walked out of the circus tent which was actually the only hospital around for hundreds of kilometers, a tingling in my gut told me I would have to see a lot of this hospital.

I followed her down a walkway with black polka dots on the shiny white marble, Suhani walked uncomfortably close to me. But soon I realised it was doing me more good than bad.

I noticed a few kids playing Bowl the Hoop with garbage and a dustbin, they stared at me as we walked around.

Suhani smirked at them, “Sanitary duty, everybody hates it”.

“We have to clean the place ourselves?”,I asked, shocked.

“Of course”, Suhani replied, “What did you expect the camp wouldn't clean itself, or would it? While you stay here, with us at Cabin eight you will have to do the duties the cabin is assigned. Everyday we get a different duty the cycle repeats every twelve days, you will be briefed about them.”

“The Gargles then”, I said, “what are they for?”

Suhani stopped in her tracks and turned to face me, for a moment I could have sworn she wanted to smack me“ Gargles assist us and that doesn’t doesn't make them our servants. Atlanteans have provided support to the Gargles for years. The Gargles are here on their own request, it is their way to say thanks”.

“Oh”, I said, not understanding.

I was about to ask, 'protect from what?', but Suhani seemed to be in a hurry as she twirled and walked away, I trotted after her.

There was a narrow entry in the centre of the shed, and wooden railings till the end. ‘The shooting range’, I remembered seeing Suhani here the day before.

“Cabin eight to twelve have their shooting and archery practise”, Suhani said as we entered the stable.

To put it simply, the stable was big enough to fit an entire basketball court twenty times.

“Hold . . . aim . . . fire”

There was a soft sound, of the plucking of triggers -the whizzing of bullets and then the clang.

“Score evaluate- Next round”.

I saw Oblin standing at one end in front of a huge monitor, where the scores of the kids could be seen, “Hold . . . aim . . . fire. Ah-Bracer good to see you alive ”.

The campers turned around to look at me, I could see some of them mummering in each other's ears. Alph waved at me from his row, I could see Dream beside him, -but she was too busy talking to the third girl.

“Come on campers, don’t go staring away. Hold position for the next round . . . cabin captain’s, take commands. Give me a break- you too Suhani take your friend here with you”, he said looking at her and then at me. Suhani looked a bit uncertain but then, nodded at Oblin and led me away.

We paraded till the fourth row from the last, Dream was loading a rifle, which was tied to the table with a long black rope. Alph glanced at us and raised his brows to look at me, he handed Suhani a black and white metallic long-bow and a quiver filled with dynamic looking arrows, I had seen in movies.

“Strap a pistol for Bracer”, Suhani said looking at Alph, “Rifle might be hard for him”, she said glancing at me.

“Alright”, Alph said as he turned around to open a cupboard below the shooting pedestal.

“Welcome to Cabin eight”

The soft voice came from behind me, where the third girl was standing. I noticed her eyes were smaller than I had initially presumed. I could smell her cinnamon breath, but her face was expressionless.

“Thank you, I guess”, I wheezed.

She nodded at me, and moved back a few steps.

“Here Bracer-”, Alph said, as I turned, “Give it a try man- nice haircut by the way”, he said, handing me a pistol which was strapped to the pedestal.

I lifted the black and yellow striped pistol which looked like a lego gadget , it was heavier and bigger than the one I had been given earlier.

Suhani pressed a big red button on the pedestal and a target board appeared at the other end of the stable.

“Hold”, she ordered.

I cocked the gun and straightened my arm, “Impressive”, Suhani mused, “Natural, single hand grip. Very useful if the hand is dominant, but deadly if control is lacking”.

“Aim . . .”, she purred.

I aimed my pistol slightly above the bullseye and curled my finger around the cold trigger. The words of my father echoed in my mind, when he used to take my and my brother to the shooting range, ‘Shoot only when you are sure you will hit what you are aiming for. Remember you might run out of chances, or bullets”.

“Fire”, Suhani commanded.

Instinctively, I pressed the trigger. There was a mild boom as a pink bullet punched out of the gun and smashed into the target, slightly below the bullseye. Clearly I was out of practise, I sighed as I placed the gun down. Noticeably the rest of them did not think of me as a loser, they were staring at me surprised, wide eyed. “That was brilliant”, Dream whispered.

I didn’t see anything, brilliant in the shot. Dad would have been very cross with me, but I soon found out why they found the shot brilliant.

Dream and Yui, who was the third girl. Were simply atrocious even at holding the gun and their shots were nowhere close to the target. Whereas Alph barely managed to hit the board, as his bullet chipped off the edge.

Suhani, without a doubt, was simply flawless, Artemis in the making. She held onto her bow beautifully with her thin arms, her fingers were curled just below the socket for the arrow and she aimed, her soft brown eyes glistened in the sunlight, glued to the target. She plucked the string gracefully. With a soft hum the arrow slammed into the board, right in the centre of the bullseye.

She fired again and again like a well oiled crossbow, her arrows slammed into the target, shattering the target by the last arrow. Later on when a gargle fetched the board, we found out six out of seven arrows had slammed into the bullseye.

I managed to do a neat job myself, three nine's, two eight's and a lucky last ten point bullseye.

Next we had marketing techniques, I had attended only two classes till now, but I was convinced nothing could be as boring as this. It was taught in a big round cabin made up of the same kind of flimsy green plastic as Porta-potties. Marketing techniques attended by Hatchet, taught wouldn’t have been the right word as Hatchet just turned on the projector and went to sleep. I sat down with my cabin along a long wooden table, there were kids from three other cabins present in the room.

I sat next to Suhani, she insisted, which was a rather mild word. I tried not to show my uncomfort as she held my arm during the class. I was genuinely grateful to her as my body had started throbbing all over. Most of the blame could be awarded to marketing techniques, which was awfully boring. The only person who was even mildly intrigued with what was happening on the screen was Alph. He stuck his eyes out and glared at the screen, simultaneously making notes. It is important to point out the fact that the film had only half a dozen slides, on which Alph managed to write forty-seven pages by the end of the hour.

Next up we had an half an hour lecture by Oblin in the amphitheatre which was a brush up of the Atlantean laws for the others. I was the only one who had serious trouble catching up with what was going on. Alph and Dream did try to help me, but it only made matters worse, as they began quarreling on every third topic. Atlantean laws, or what I could make out of them, had a lot in common with the laws in human democratic countries.

“Bracer come with me”

So much for getting along with my cabin. I was sitting peacefully on the table under the ugly pink cloth, talking to the rest of my cabin, food was about to be served and I was famished. Finally I was getting something to eat, but Suhani had different plans.

“What?”, I asked, hoping I had heard her wrong.

“Come with me”, she hissed.

I was grateful to get away from Luna’s stare-O-death, but for God sake, I wanted to eat.

“You must have guessed, what I called you for is important”, she said, walking ahead of me.

I opened my mouth to answer, but then something told me she wasn’t asking my opinion on food. “Oh”, I croaked for the millionth time that day.

“You really don’t know anything, do you?”

“Not really”, I said, “ -how long will I stay here?”

Suhani looked at me, taken aback, “I was the one supposed to ask questions, but okay”, she continued walking. When I was sure she forgot my question, she opened her mouth to speak, “A year- sometimes less, then you get to go back home. But we have to return to complete our training”.

“So when do I get my turn?”

She twisted her face to look at me, murmured something which mysteriously sounded like, ‘idiot’.

“You do not get turns, at the end of March you get to go back home. Training resumes in April, a month is all you get, -that too if your family wants you back”.

“So you go back?”, I blurted out.

The look on her face told me, I had struck a nerve. We stopped before a metal railing, the cliff, down below, a stream rushed through the gap. Suhani ran her palm across the railing as she leaned on it, “No I do not go back home”.

“Oh -your parents, I didn’t know”

She plucked up a pebble from the ground and tossed it a couple of times in the air before throwing it in the stream, “It is not that, my parents are alive- I don’t want to go back to them”.

“Why?”

“My father, Krittle Vashist”, she said as if it meant something, it took her a while to realise, I was lost, “Of course you don’t know, stupid”, I planned on asking whom she was indicating at, but I thought better of it, “One of the most important members of the Atlantean council”.

Here I was thinking of her father as a dreaded gangster wearing a red shirt of white hearts and a necklace made of fingers, laughing like a lunatic. Seriously, what was wrong with her.

“What is wrong with that?”

“If I go back home, he wouldn’t let me come back. -He wants me to join Pixelur, he wants me to take up politics like him- he forces me”, she looked at me, I saw a hint of sadness in her eyes, “I don’t want to take up politics”.

“When was the last time you went back home?”, I got a feeling, her father did not want her to- but forced her to comply with his wishes.

“Four years”, her tone told me something had happened, four years ago. Something she was not yet ready to talk about.

“How come, your father hasn’t come to take you away?”

“He can’t”, she said, “Nobody can find Zubengeuse, not unless they haven’t been invited by Oblin himself. The location of Zubengeuse is a very strictly guarded secret, which cannot be given out for reasons other than military. -And even if somebody knows the location, they won’t be able to see the island, they will just see the ocean for miles around. At least that is what the people who’ve tried, say”.

“Well”, I said, “you should try to talk to him”. Then I spoke something I shouldn’t have, because it destroyed the moment, “now if we’re done, we could go back to have food”.

Suhani glared at me, “take out your rods”, she said.

“Why”, I said purplexed, surely she wasn’t planning on beating me to death. Headlines flashed into my head, ‘STARVING BOY, BEATEN TO DEATH, BY RUN-AWAY GIRL- FOR ASKING FOR FOOD’.

“Do it”, she insisted.

“Alright-alright”, I said, there was a soft screech as I pulled them out of the sheath. “What now”

Suhani removed her bow from her shoulder and clutched the centre tightly. I looked in awe as the bow whirred and straightened up, two knives came out of both the sides. She rotated the bow-stick in her hand like one of those female valkyries and dug one end in the ground. “If you are staying at cabin eight, I need you to fight. Training everyday, sametime, no-excuses”.

I wanted to yell at her and say, ‘NO’, what about my food? And most of all, ‘why weren’t the others invited?’.

Instead all I said was, “Alright”.

“Come on”, Suhani told me, “fight”.

I looked at her, probably the skinniest person I had ever seen.

We started with basic, slow stabbing and blocking. Suhani had a brilliant control on her bow-stick, it wasn’t difficult to guess, she would be one of the best fighters around. I for one was happy with what I was doing, since I wasn’t getting bored to death.

“Have you seen it?”

“Seen, what?”, I asked as I blocked her move.

“The Flame?”

“Which Flame?”

“Of Atlantis of course?”

“Oh no”, I snapped, “but I’ve seen enough bon-fires back at home”.

“Not a bon-fire, you dolt”, she said as she struck the blunt part of her stick on my leg, “Ow”, I whimpered in pain.

“The Flame of Atlantis”, she said as she landed another blow on my shoulder, “you fight like this, you will be dead even before the fight begins”.

I saw her bring down her stick for a third blow. I rolled away from her sweep, and kicked her slightly in the feet, she gasped as she lost her balance. My arms automatically caught hold of her back, and I brought my rod close to her face, with my spikes touching her cheek. I shook my head and winked at her, as I removed my hand from beneath her back. She led out a soft yelp as she made her touch down on the ground, just a few centimeters below her. “Let's not get over our heads shall we?”, I said brimming with pride. Even though deep down I knew the only reason my move had worked, was because Suhani was barely concentrating on me.

“I went easy on you”, she said trying to prove her point.

“Of course you did”.

“I”, she said, “am serious”.

“I never said you weren’t”.

“It’s enough for today”, she said as she let her stick fall on the grass and dropped beside it, “you shouldn’t exert yourself”.

“Yeah”, I mumbled crashing beside her. My body was yelling ‘FOOD-FOOD’.

“Here”, Suhani said, taking out a pear from her pocket. I did not ask from where she got it, neither was I concerned whether it was washed. I pounced on the pear, bit- and then chewed it contentedly, savoring its sweet taste as it went down my throat. The juice trickled out of the sides of my mouths and went down my cheeks. I wiped it with my sleeves, which attracted a disgusted ‘Ew’, from Suhani.

“You b-ere b-asking b-bout some b-Flame?”, I said with my mouth full.

“I don’t expect you to have heard of it?-”

“B-Not b-really”, I said, shaking my face.

“For god sake, -first finish the bite in your mouth and then speak”, she said disgusted.

“B-okay- B-okay”, I said pushing my bite down my throat, “So the Flame?”

“The Flame of Atlantis-”, she said, “-I contains the soul of Davidina Hybliss”, she turned to look at me, “of course you wouldn’t know who-”.

“I know”, I said, “She was the daughter of king Map-, no-no wait, king Atlas- yeah. She did the Atlantis sinking thing, which is not stupid- and wierd”, I added, “- Oblin told me”.

She nodded at me, “The Flame has been burning for thousands of years, guiding Atlanteans at every step. Showing us the correct path. Earlier, it was placed in the Octagon, in Notraade for people to see, and worship. However the Atlantean council soon realised people were using the powers of the flame for their own selfish interest, taking it away bit-by-bit. They locked it down, thousands of feet under the Atlantean council, guarded by the most dreaded monsters in history- allied with top-notch technology, it was used only when most important decisions were to be made. The security was so fierce that not even a wisp of air could enter the chamber without being scanned by hundreds of detectors-”.

“That”, I said, “is a bit too much for a fire-”.

“You don’t understand”, she said sighing, “It is no ordinary fire- It is the most powerful substance on earth. With the power to do just about anything, the Flame has a mind of its own”.

“-Sweet”, I interrupted. “Let me guess -then it vanished”.

Suhani looked at me shocked, “Well, yes. It did- but how did you know?- and wipe that smirk off your face”

“The Atlantean world has a lot in common, with drama-shows”, I said in an, as a matter of fact tone. Suhani looked at me as if I had lost my head, “Anyway”, she sighed, “the Flame vanished in broad daylight, with all detectors working. Everything was working -it just vanished”. I remembered Oblin, talking about something important vanishing.

“And you feel humans have done it”, I said interrupting.

“Absolutely, the Neomancers -it has to be them”.

“See”, I said, “I haven’t been here very long. But the way even your academies are armed, It will take thousands of human soldiers to step on this island-"

"-They can't", she cut me off, "they will never find the island".

"Yes, but if they do-"

"They can't"

"And if the Flame was guarded the way you say it was, I can guarantee you. No human country or organisation has the technology to break into that thing and make it out alive. It couldn’t have been the humans”.

Suhani looked at me unconvinced, “so you don’t know where it is hidden?”

“Seriously- I mean, it is impossible humans could have taken it. But even if I believe you for one second, those people won’t run around the world with drums celebrating”.

“So there is a possibility-”

“No”, I said firmly, “there isn’t”.

Finally, I got to see the place I was itching to see, our cabin. Yes, I had seen it earlier too, but not properly. “Here”, Dream said, handing me a silver card with the number, eight engraved into it, “It’s your keycard”. I had guessed that much, “thanks”, I said pocketing it.

Our way to cabin eight was a long, treacherous journey. After a somewhat normal dinner of camp-made brown chunky bread, and camp-grown soggy potatoes. Walking all around the ‘U’ of the lake to the other side, can be extremely tiring.

“Are you sure, we cannot swim across?”, I muttered.

“It wouldn’t help getting bitten by a croc, would it”, Alph whispered, “Even though it is very rare they wander over here. At night you can never be sure”.

By the time we reached the cabin, I was sure I was going to fall down. My body was throbbing all over.

“Not this one”, Alph called out, “the next one”.

“OH GOD”, I grumbled.

As soon as I entered the cabin it realised I had been pranked. Five pairs of eyes were staring at me suspiciously.

And then they jumped.

I walked back to the previous cabin, muttering furiously, Alph burst into laughter as I entered, even the rest couldn't help but chuckle. The cabin was certainly bigger from the inside than it appeared. There was red-velvet carpet all around the floor of the cabin. The thick metallic walls were unpainted and silver from the inside. The white three-legged round table, I had seen earlier was in the centre of the cabin, a few books untidily spread over it. The walls had a few shelves stacked with what appeared as white bed sheets. I looked around, the cabin was stocked with just about everything we would require, water bottles, lighters, flashlights kept in a stand. The two big rectangular windows on either side of the door had light blue curtains drawn across, light streaked into the cabin through their gaps. Two thin slits at the other end of the cabin, underneath the long rectangular window, which went along the length of the cabin spewed out icy, bone-chilling air.

“Who set the breezers too so low?”, Suhani.

“Alph”, Dream said pointing at him, “he was doing some experiment”.

“Well, Alph you better raise the temperature- before our blood turns solid and I beat you up”.

“Yes I was about to-”, Alph said hurriedly, scurrying away.

“Yui, show this guy”, Suhani said nodding at me, “his bunker”.

“Alright”, Yui shifted the brown table slightly. I saw a thick stainless steel, circular door slightly protruding out of the ground. There was a handle on one side, “this handle stays unlocked- mostly”, she added, “- so you can just open it anytime”, Yui spoke in her soft voice.

She clutched the handle and pulled it up, there was a soft hiss and air seeped out. Then the lid popped open automatically. There was a cylindrical column going down, the blue and white checked floor was just a meter below. Yui went inside the column and held the ladder tightly, “come on -in”.

I followed her down the ladder not knowing what to expect.

“Lavender perfume”, I sniffed.

“Suhani likes it”, Yui said, shrugging, which sort of explained everything.

The basement was- pentagon shaped, with five long, again blue- slide open cupboards. The ceiling around the cylindrical column was white and had circular LEDs fitted into them. “Your bunker”, she said, “should be that one”, she said pointing to one of the cupboards. I did not make the effort of asking, how she found out, since each of them looked similar. “All you have to do is, slide your finger on the door”, she did it, and the door slid open automatically. There was a neatly tucked bed in the cupboard, a single light bar illuminated it from the inside. I saw a crate filled with clothes and a few other things underneath.

Yui placed her palm slightly on the door for a few seconds. The blue color shimmered and the doors turned transparent all around me, “It’s better this way”.

I was half-way through setting my belongings when Alph and Dream patiently climbed down the ladder. Suhani, of course leaped and landed on the ground gracefully, she shook her head and flung her long black hair aside from her face. “Tomorrow”, she said, “we have farming with cabin seven”, she looked around at each one of us- gazing slightly longer at me.

“Lights out- in five”, she said walking away to her cupboard at the other end of the pentagon.

The rest of them climbed into their bunkers- I looked around. I did not feel alone anymore. I was at home.

“Almost”, I murmured to myself as I arranged my belongings in the shelves at the two ends of my cupboards. “Shoes- check, clothes- check, weapons- check”.

‘Click’, the light bar at the top of the bunker went off. And the circular LEDs dimmed, and went off a few seconds later.

I tried thinking about my parents for a while- my father mainly. His sacrifices- those nights when he used to read me out stories, and play games.

But then the soft humming of the little vent near my face- and the air softly touching my eyes, cause my eyelids to fall.

That was my first day at Zubengeuse.