Bound to the North {Complete!}

21| Ruthless

Finn POV      

I rubbed my eyes, trying but failing to stay alert. I'd gone straight from the forest with Serena to inspection, and was now trying to finish a drill in the West Woods on the human territory border.

Ozio was with me, but he was being as little help as I was. Our objective was to find the 'runaway' (aka Amara or Kahn), and capture (tag) them. I shivered. Winter was near. I didn't understand why we were doing such an amateurish drill this close to the end of the year, seeing that all our new recruits had almost twelve months of training now.

"Finn!" Ozio snapped.

I jumped a little and blinked heavily. "Wh—what?" Ozio never lashed out at me. We were equal in rank.

"Snap out of it, man!" he scolded. "It's been thirty minutes since we started the drill, and we can't even find Amara. Why are you so tired today?"

"Couldn't sleep," I lied. "It's so cold these days."

"Shh!" Ozio hissed. I stopped talking, and heard a little rustling noise in a bush to the left. Amara never was one for stealth...

We silently approached the bush. Once close enough, Ozio lurched forward and tagged...a jagged rock. He yelled in pain and jerked his hand out of the bush, scraping it on the thorns. "She's not there," he stated, holding his bloody hand.

"Really," I replied sarcastically. Then out of the blue, Amara dropped out of a tree above our heads and planted a hand on both our backs, sending us crumpling to the ground.

"Don't trust every sound you hear," she lectured, landing on her feet. "I dropped that rock on purpose. You're last, losers."

I got up slowly, feeling a jolting pain in my arm from where I'd fallen on it. "What that really necessary?" I questioned dubiously.

Amara rolled her eyes. "Don't question your authority, Finn."

I rolled my eyes. Amara had twice as much military experience as me, but we were still twins. She shouldn't have been able to boss me around like this. "This is supposed to be a peaceful drill," I argued. I didn't like how violent she'd been lately...

She came closer to me. "There's no such thing as peace!" she snapped with sudden intensity. Startled, I backed away. Her face went snow white, and sweat beaded on her forehead out of nowhere. It was forty degrees outside! Her eyes were wide open, and her normally blue irises took on a shade of greenish-grey. Her mouth opened slightly, and a wisp of green mist emerged from it.

"A—Amara?" Ozio stammered.

She buckled over before I could get to her. After a moment of nothing, Amara sprung suddenly to her feet. Her face and eyes had returned to their normal color.

"What the bloody hell was that?" I demanded forcefully. She said nothing. "Amara!" I grabbed her wrist.

"I'm fine!" she insisted, jerking her hand away. "Get back to the palace for your next instructions."

Obeying so she didn't go crazy again, I nodded to Ozio and we headed toward the castle. A moment later, I turned my head to glance at Amara, who was walking in the direction of the desert. I shook my head. What was going on with her?