Wolf at Heart

Chapter Sixty Three: A Day Off

In the end, after everything was done, we walked back together in silence. Sora held her head higher and stood straighter as if some great weight has been lifted. I supposed it had, in a way.

I fell back into my bed. Lately, I'd had too many midnight excursions and my body was aching for rest.

The next morning we were all sitting at the table, silently eating our breakfast.

Sora was the first to say something. "It feels weird without Alastar here."

I nodded. "I think we got used to training every day." We didn't know what to do with all the free time we now had.

Jinx got that look in her eye, the on that told me I should probably run for cover. "I know what we can do."

There was a collective groan from all of us.

"Don't tell me we're going to do something like what happened at practice that one time," Ash said, messing with his hair in an attempt to take it. I wanted to reach out and pat it down but restrained myself.

He was referring to one of the solo practice sessions we'd had before. Alastar had left us to work on our minute control and Jinx had gotten it into his head to pull another prank.

He thought it was a good idea to round up some wild critters and release them into the halls. When Alastar got back, he'd made us spend the rest of the night capturing them.

"No, not like that. This is even better," Jinx said and winked.

"Oh no," Sora muttered under her breath.

Jinx heard. "I swear it won't be bad! It's just a little activity for today and maybe tomorrow." Someone coughed. "Oh come on, what else would we do for the rest of the day?"

"Sleep," I responded with a grin. We all knew that we'd go along with Jinx anyway. If we didn't, he'd just bug us until we said yes.

"Alright," Jinx started, clapping his hands together. "I was thinking we should have a little free for all. A little tournament of sorts. We've all gotten stronger and better at using our abilities, so I think we should test them out."

"On what?" Sora asked, some of her competitive spirit returning.

"On each other," he replied, sending up a wave of questions. He held his hand up to stop us. "I'm not saying we kill each other or anything, it's just a friendly contest. And there are plenty of rules to keep us from hurting each other too badly."

Ash narrowed his eyes. "But we shouldn't use our special abilities. We all know what would happen."

A hush came over us before Jinx broke it, lightening the mood.

"Of course!" He exclaimed. "I wouldn't dream of it."

Over the past month, we'd tested different things to try to figure out what Jinx's ability was. It turns out that he could disappear.

No, not like figuratively.

He could literally turn invisible. Even I couldn't sense him then, besides hearing his footsteps. His scent would just fade away and all that was left were his footprints in the mud. It fit his prankster personality well. He never used it though, following our trainer's strict instructions to the word on that subject.

"So, are we all in agreement?" Jinx questioned.

I shrugged. "It's not like we have much of a choice, do we?"

He winked again. "You, my dear, are correct." He ignored me when I rolled my eyes and proceeded to announce the rules.

"Here's how it's going to work. First, there will be a bracket kind of set up. Sora and I will fight first and then Ash and Melody will." There was a mischievous shine in his eyes. "And then the winner of the two battles will fight and we'll see who's the strongest of us all."