Call of the Starling

Chapter 2

I wake up to the sound of Jay’s voice coming over the intercom. “Wakey-wakey, 24-7! Meet in the practice battleground at 6:15- twenty minutes to get ready. Don’t be late!” With that, the connection is cut and, groaning, I drag myself into the realms of the living, rubbing my eyes as I do so. I know better than to lie there for another couple minutes; if I did that, I’d just fall asleep once more. I stand quickly, before I lose the willpower, and double over, putting a hand to my temples as a massive head rush hits me. 

Once my vision clears, I take one shaky step, then another. I reach the closet containing my Lightsuits, and pull one out, putting it on a moment later. I spin to look in the mirror, and run my brush through my hair, then tie it back into a pair of uniform braids. Satisfied, I glance at the mirror for confirmation, then walk out the door. 

When I enter the practice battleground, most of 24-7 is already there, talking in groups, or doing their own warm-up. The battleground is much like the track, with its amazing skylight curving over in a dome shape, allowing the environment inside the room to closely match that of a random stretch of nature in the outside world. I immediately walk over to a tall, familiar old oak. The first branch is about fifteen feet up. I brace myself against the tree, and scale it with ease, clambering past the branch, and up another ten feet before stopping on a thinner branch that just barely supports my weight. Then, I twist over to retain a sitting position, and light my eyes upon the gathering below.

Murre, Meadowlark, and Finch are talking, making a few large gestures, and looking around the battleground constantly. Eider and Avocet are arm wrestling the way teenage boys do. Jay is gesturing at a pair of his friends, Brant and Nighthawk. Grackle and Shrike are laughing about something. I do a quick head count- four people aren’t here yet. I think for a moment, and identify the missing bodies: Wren, Loon, Goshawk, and Thrush.

I check my watch to see how much time ‘till 6:15. It’s already 6:12. I feel a little bad for those who haven’t arrived yet; It isn’t fun to be publicly ridiculed by Jay.

Three minutes later, everyone’s arrived, and Jay does a quick head count to make sure. “Wait..” he says. “Where’s Starling?” I blush, realizing I wasn’t exactly clearly visible. “Up here!” I call. Everyone looks around in confusion, their eyes finally settling on my small frame perched upon the branch up above. They start murmur to each other in amusement. Jay finds me, and says, “Starling, get down here! You’re delaying our exercise!” Spurred by Jay’s words, I quickly roll onto my hands and knees, and scramble down the tree again, my weight supported by the grooves in the bark from which I was suspended. When I’m about two metres from the ground, I leap off the tree, curling into a ball and rolling to absorb the impact. That done, I neatly return to my feet, about three metres from Jay. “Sorry for the inconvenience,” I say.

Once Jay’s done lecturing me on my insolence, he says, “All right, team, today we’re going to play hide-and-seek.” We all laugh nervously; after all, hide-and-seek is a children's’ game. What good will it do a bunch of tweens training to kill each other to play hide-and-seek?

“No, I’m serious,” says Jay. “We need to learn how to better disguise ourselves from enemy teams. Everyone know how to play?”

A murmur of affirmative responses greet him. “All right then. We’ll have three Its working together for this, though. The first one each of them finds will be It for the next round. No leaving the battleground, no running away or attacking the It if they find you. Okay?”

Again, a cacophony of yeses follow his question. “Okay then. Our Its for the first round will be… Meadowlark,” he pauses, thinking, “Swift, and Loon. Come on guys, hide! You’ve got thirty seconds!”