lacuna [connor stoll]

XXXV. Meg the Communist

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: MEG THE COMMUNIST

The one day she had decided to slack off, of course an god had shown up.

The day had started off fine at first. Border duty was boring, but Ellie didn't mind too much as she always got to pair up with Connor. Morning shift always sucked, they were shaken away before the sun rose, but she didn't seem to mind.

She met at the spot a few minutes early. Her hair was tied up to keep it out of her eyes in case of a fight. Her chest plate, usually hung limply to the side, had finally been strapped the right way.

She yawned, leaning against the closest tree. The sun was still in hiding, causing the forest to have an eerie moonlight glow.

Security had been raised in the last few months. After Cecil had disappeared, Ellie and Connor both asked Chiron to let them look for him, but they were told that he was just sneaking around. After Ellis Wakefield, from the Ares cabin disappeared, Ellie had grown even more restless. But last night, Miranda disappeared, which sent Ellie over the edge. She had been such close friends with the girl, she would never do something like that.

She was about to eat the frozen granola bar she had packed. She pulled it from her back pocket, and peeled down the wrapper.

"Boo!"

Ellie let out a scream, quickly cut off by a hand over her mouth. Instincts took over, and she yanked on the hand, twisting it around and pinning the person to the tree behind her.

That was when she got a glimpse of who she had attacked, and sheepishly stepped away from the tree.

"Connor!" She hissed, smacking his arm. "You can't sneak up on me like that!"

Connor grinned, unfazed by her attack. He looked exhausted, he had stayed up late last night trying to write a letter to Travis. Since Iris messages were down, he was getting desperate to get into contact with him. He had resorted to letter-writing, although incredibly boring and hard due to his dyslexia.

"And look!" She huffed, pointing to her fallen granola bar. "You made me drop my breakfast."

"I apologize, m'lady." Connor replied in his morning voice, making her momentarily forget about her ruined breakfast.

They fell into a comfortable silence. Ellie's sword sat against a tree near her, and she leant casually beside it. Her eyes scanned the forest for any moment.

Connor was doing some kind of slow motion kung-fu fighting. If a monster attacked at that moment, he wouldn't be close to prepared.

"How'd you sleep?" He asked after a few minutes.

"Alright," Ellie shrugged. "Nightmares weren't too bad. How about you?"

Connor let out a short sigh. "Barely got any sleep. My hand cramped after writing so much! When will the stupid Iris messages come back? I'm tired of this."