Aeon Legion: Labyrinth (34 page)

Hikari attacked. Three tirones
were on the ground, bleeding, before the rest even reacted. When two
more hit the ground, Hikari's movements became even faster.

Terra had little time to watch
Hikari fight. A few of the tirones went after her. One Terra knocked
out when he left himself open. The other was more cautious as he
attacked Terra in quick bursts of speed she had difficulty blocking.
It was then Terra realized how much she missed her shieldwatch.
Likely the instructors had disabled it to prove a point. Never become
overdependent on technology.

Terra had taken two more
punches when the other tiro turned pale faced after looking around
him. She took a quick look around as well and saw that the camp site
lay littered with beaten tirones.

Hikari still stood with the
campfire blazing behind her like an aura. She panted near exhaustion
as the flames reflected in her eyes.

The other tirones fled after
gathering their wounded. Hikari moved to follow when Terra grabbed
Hikari's arm. On reflex, Hikari struck Terra, but Terra took the
punch with grunt before shaking Hikari.

Terra stared at Hikari.
“Hikari! You beat them. Let them go.”

Hikari glared at Terra while
still panting. “I don't need you to hold me back.”

“No.
You are exhausted. Besides,” Terra said, pointing to the campfire
which had spread to the dry foliage. “If we don't stop
that,
then we will both be running for our lives from a firestorm.”

With effort they both stopped
the fire from spreading, but Hikari had to sit while Terra finished
containing the fire.

“I still don't get you,”
Terra said as she moved the last stone into place around the
campfire, keeping it contained. “Why are you even here? You don't
seem to like anyone.”

Hikari reached to draw her
aeon edge. “This is why I am here.”

“Why do you want an aeon
edge so bad?”

“it's the perfect blade,”
Hikari said, as though it were obvious, while regarding her aeon
edge.

Terra sat across from Hikari
and began rubbing the bruises she took from the fight. “Okay? I
guess that explains why your being so protective of the thing. What
about that other sword you carry?”

Hikari drew the other blade.
“This?” Hikari asked before tossing it to Terra.

Terra almost missed the sword
being thrown to her. Hikari had been so protective of her aeon edge
that Terra hadn't expected Hikari to toss her the other sword so
casually.

Hikari leaned back, facing the
fire. “That was my father's old blade. It's broken now. Worthless.
Still I find myself holding it, for nostalgia I suppose.”

Terra inspected the sword.
Something had cut the blade cleanly near the guard, but what drew
Terra's eyes was the blade itself or rather the metal. It was not
shiny like a polished iron or steel sword, but had dark wavy ripples
through the metal. “Damascus steel?”

Hikari looked at Terra with a
furrowed brow. “What?”

Terra met Hikari's gaze,
speaking in an excited tone. “Damascus steel. It's what others
called this metal. Most in my time consider it a lost art of
metallurgy. Where did your father get this sword?”

“He made it.”

“He made it? Your father
knew the secret of Damascus steel?”

“He was a blacksmith. Once
he showed me the way he folded iron one hundred times over to make
this metal.”

“Wow. I bet it was hard for
him to find good iron for that.”

Hikari nodded. “It was. He
would often reject what miners would bring him. How do you know about
this?”

Terra shrugged. “I know a
lot about geology and how it relates to metallurgy.”

There was a long silence
between them.

Terra smiled. “Well I guess
there is one thing alike between us.”

Hikari almost looked as though
she would smile back. Instead she turned away from Terra. “There is
nothing alike between us. You could not understand what it is like to
be alone.”

Ten years ago.

“W
ake
up!”
Beth said, nudging Terra.

Terra groaned, rolling over in
her bed and covering her head with the sheets.

“We don't have time for
this. Get up!”

After more prodding, Terra sat
up and yawned. She was eight years old. In her opinion, eight years
was too old to be getting up at five in the morning. This was a
typical morning though.

Beth threw a pair jeans and a
shirt on the bed. “Hurry and get dressed.”

Terra stared at the jeans
unblinking. “Those are dirty, Mom.”

Beth stopped to look at the
soiled jeans and frowned. “How? I just washed those yesterday. Do
you wallow in the mud at school?”

After more searching, Beth
found a pair there were not as dirty and threw them on the bed before
walking out of the room.

Terra dressed and went
downstairs. Before she made it to the kitchen Beth shoved a backpack
in Terra's arms and a piece of toast in her mouth.

“Mernch merney,” Terra
mumbled with the toast still in her mouth.

“What?” Beth asked,
checking her pocket book before straightening her business attire.
She then took the toast out of Terra's mouth.

“Lunch money. You forgot
yesterday.”

“Sorry. Here,” Beth said
as she handed Terra a few bills. “That's my lunch money by the way.
You better appreciate it.”

“Ready?” Fred said as he
walked into the room. He was dressed in his factory work-clothes.

Beth sighed. “God, I don't
know. We are doing performance reviews today, and we are way behind
our quota.”

“It will be okay,” Fred
said.

They all walked outside the
front door. Beth locked the door before turning to Terra. “You know
where the front door key is?”

Terra pointed at the front
door light. “Behind the light on the rim.”

Beth nodded. “Good. You may
have to let yourself in again after school. I don't know what time I
will be home and your father is working two shifts again.”

“Ready,” Fred said,
checking his watch. “I'll see you all sometime tonight I guess.”

“Right,” Beth said before
walking to her car.

Fred watched Beth go with a
disappointed expression.

Beth then stopped, turned
around, and walked back to Fred, giving him a kiss before returning
to her car.

Fred smiled and hugged Terra.
“Try not to get your clothes as dirty today.”

Terra smiled. “No promises.”

∞

Terra hit the dirt hard which
soiled her clothes.

“Dirt girl!” yelled one
girl in Val's gang.

Terra scowled while she laid
face down on the ground of the schoolyard. She knew who had pushed
her. Not one of Val's clique or Val herself. She probably got a boy
to do it for her. Val would never dirty her own hands. With tears
forming in her eyes, Terra stood, facing Val and her three friends.

Val always wore nice dresses
and was eager to please the teachers. Terra thought that cute faces
and nice dresses had a way of blinding teachers to bullies. Cute
little girls could never be bullies, or so the ignorant thought.

Henry moved to join Val,
having completed his task of pushing Terra. Terra didn't hate Henry
though. He was another in a long line of Val's minions. Terra hated
none of Val's gang, only Val herself. Val dismissed him. She would
call on him again if Terra talked back.

One of Val's gang whispered in
her ear. Terra could just hear the word pig.

Val smiled. “She looks like
that doesn't she?”

Terra faced Val even though
Val looked down on Terra who stood in a small ditch. She had been
searching for stones, like usual, after finding dolomite yesterday.
At least she thought it was dolomite. She was still memorizing the
names of stones.

Val crossed her arms. “Maybe
if you didn't spend so much time in the dirt, you might actually make
a friend.”

Hannah passed by, holding a
book.

Val turned to Hannah. “Hey,
Hannah. Look at dirt girl here. She still likes to play in the mud.”

Hannah stopped and glared at
Val. “You're stupid, Val. A girl with a nice dress shouldn't be
mean to someone who can sling mud.”

Val scowled while Hannah
walked away.

Terra winced. That would put
Val in an even worse mood.

Val turned to Henry. “Henry!”

On cue Henry shoved Terra down
again.

Val and her gang laughed.

Terra began sniffling.

Val's smile returned. “Oh
look. Dirt girl is in the dirt again.”

Terra's sniffled turned into a
sob as she began crying. She knew that she couldn't just lay there in
the dirt. She had to keep standing. If she stayed down, it would
never end. Val continued to laugh even after Terra stood again and
felt something in her hand. She looked to see a small stone. As Henry
moved to push Terra down again, Terra stared at the small stone. It
was a bit of Haematite; an iron ore.

Terra realized she was alone.
No one was going to help her. No one was going to save her and it
would never end. Only she could stop it.

She gripped the stone in her
fist and narrowed her eyes at Val. Terra knew who the real problem
was. Terra lifted her hand and cast the stone at Val, forever
shattering the name Dirt Girl and replacing it with Terra the Terror.

∞

Terra sat in the seat,
swinging her feet in the air since she wasn't tall enough to reach
the floor. She waited just outside the principle’s office which was
right next to the school nurse.

Val walked out of the nurse's
room with a small bandage on the side of her forehead. She recoiled
upon seeing Terra.

The nurse stepped out behind
and patted Val on the head. “Don't worry dear. We won't let her
hurt you anymore.”

Val kept the nurse between her
and Terra. Just before Val left the office waiting room, she shot
Terra an ugly scowl that said this wasn't over.

Terra continued to stare at
the floor.

Principle Overton stepped out
of his office and looked down at Terra. “Well, your parents are on
their way.”

Terra ignored the middle aged,
balding man.

Overton waited for a response.
When none came he sighed. “Why is it always from the ones you least
expect?”

Beth and Fred soon arrived.

Overton nodded to them. “Mr.
and Mrs. Mason. Thank you for coming on such short notice. Please
join me in my office. Terra, you too.”

They entered the office and
sat across the desk from Overton. Terra noticed her parents remained
silent while Overton kept a grave expression. He cleared his throat.
“I am sorry to call you all here so suddenly, but I felt this
needed to be addressed immediately.”

Beth frowned. “Could you
explain the situation? Terra's teacher was near hysterical over the
phone.”

Overton sighed. “To put it
bluntly, Terra attacked and injured a fellow student.”

Fred and Beth both looked at
Terra with raised brows.