Autumn had came and gone, whisking away the warm summer weather with cold breeze and with it, bringing the fall of beautifully coloured leaves of orange, maroon, brown and scarlet. Now, Winter was rearing it's frosty head to the young boys and girls of the academy, punishing them for their non-stop hard work. The entire first of three months of Winter was Winter break for Stirland's most prestigious academies, and early cold weather for the people of the island. It was a good thing too, everyone was beginning to grow tired of the school routine. Luckily, this was an easy prediction for Headmaster. Thirty nine students brought themselves miserably to the training hall. Grudge elevated himself and bellowed out to his students. "And so the second half of your Physical Year is ahead of you, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da! If you have listened well this will be of no great challenge to you, if you haven't, you're not only going to find this part difficult, but you're also a troublesome little sh--" He was interrupted by a loud bang, similar to a gong, that came from outside. He prevailed. "Outside, now!" All second year students left in rows of three, wondering to each other about their clear change in plans. Waiting was the assistant headmistress, a tall and very attractive blonde lady who looked more like a librarian than a teacher, and acted like one too. Her hair, being her most defining feature, tied back in a neat bun with a fancy curl hanging down the side of her face. She whipped out a teacher's pointer from her blazer pocket and drew a map of the nearest forest to her back. Then, she drew in borders that split the forest into eight groups. She flicked her stick and it expanded large enough in the air for the students to clearly see.
"For those that haven't caught on, these will be your personal training grounds for the rest of the year. That's about it. These areas are equally divided sections of the forest that go to each and every one of your teams. You do not trespass, you do not borrow. Your areas are your's alone. You should have the knowledge and skills to prepare yourselves for the late Winter exam. Am I missing anything?" She loosened her spectacles down her nose to look at them all through her perfect fringe.
One girl in the crowd put their hand up. "Other than trespassing, what are the limits?" She asked.
Headmistress Anne put her stick away. "Replant a tree where one falls, rebirth nature where it is destoryed. No collaborating with other teams, don't bicker over your land! Other than that, you're free to do what you want. Any other questions?"
Jack put his hand up. "Can we modify the terrain and our equipment?" His team looked at him weirdly.
"If you put it back. And, uh... yes! I think so. You'll have this week to familiarize yourself to the new terrain, before you break up for Winter festivities."

Between training during Academy hours, which had been extended to maximise the amount of work the students would do together, Jack had been planning and designing and creating. His ideas would put his team ahead of everyone. In his childhood, he'd read about Protectors' adventures, namely memoirs of the most famous ones to retire. A common theme in Protectors' issues is that they never have the right weapon, whether it be their current one had limited reach or the wrong shape for the task that would be suited for another kind of weapon. Because of this, the giddy idea boy had wanted to switch up and customize weapons for Protectors in order to make them more flexible. In a perfect world, he could create a weapon that transformed from one to another, or a magic bag that could fit the hundreds of different varieties that combat stores had to offer. But such a world was far from existing, and Jack had to work with what he'd got - which was surprisingly more than you'd expect. The final week before Winter break went smoothly, each team quickly adapted to their new terrain and training times. The leaders' skills were tested when coming up for individual tests for teammates, and the teammates' skills were tested when faced with the tests and the evil power their friend had over them. It went by rather rapidly, bring the snow in instantly with the end of the week.

The first festive month of Winter was looking to be a great success. With Alex back home to exaggerate his stories, Scarlet going home to her insanely large mansion in the nearby city and Black returning to somewhere the group hadn't even thought to ask about, Jack was free to non-chalantly skip between his new job at the blacksmith and his parents' home, his mother in which had just gotten pregnant not long after he first went away. She was roughly eight months in and gained quite the belly. Her father had even come down from his seaside cottage once or twice to help Jack's father deal with the stress a second time around. The return of Jack was celebrated as it was the year before, only the memories of last time made him feel more childish. His family had said it was because he was 'officially a man'. There was only one present, as usual for Blue celebrations, but Jack didn't know any better or any worse. In fact, it was likely that Alex and Black got nothing whereas Scarlet got a room full of top quality gifts. The Winter's were always freezing for the Blue's, only coping thanks to the efficiency passed down from Blue to Blue. Elderly Stirnish men and women were especially cared for with warm blankets and equipment, the grand-Blue's generously passed down spares to their descendents. However this Winter would prove bareable for the family, due to the kindness and warmth of a close friend. The first week settled nicely, gradually getting colder as it got darker into the month. Every other day, Jack's visit into the capital would get more and more festive, candles being utilized in the place of lights and Light Powered lampposts. Darker afternoons made for quite the sight, midnight blue streets softly blanketed in a light layer of white held the way for sunrise orange beads of warmth. Though not enough to block out the cold, his yearly winter gear (a forever shrinking navy blue winter coat) made for a somewhat bareable comfort. As he wandered aimlessly, he spotted a familiar shade of red positioned outside a clothing shop. Putting together the body measurements and the fact the shop's windows were engraved with a fancy gold italic handwriting, he inferred it was safe to call out to her, "Scar!" He announced, speeding up his walk to get over to his teammate, layered in a massive red fur coat and cosy leggings in a darker shade, contrasting her pleated skirt poking out of the great coat that she sunk into. Second guessing his estimate, Jack dropped his waving hand and cringed at himself - he'd just waved at a total stranger - a rich female stranger his age, the worst kind of Stirnish stranger. He saw the girl frantically look around, then zoom at him like a frightened cat, hooking him like her weapon and hiding him around the corner.

Scarlet panted in relief, her face flushed with embarrassment. "Sorry, Jack. Two younger brothers, I'd never hear the end of a boy knowing my stupid name." She mocked their childish tone and evil cackle, bringing a smile to the boy's face.
"I'm glad it's just that then, had a feeling you were in some kind of trouble." He scratched his head, accidentally getting her to notice just how short his coat was on him. Noticing her sympathetic stare, he relighted the conversation, "so what brings you out here? Festive shopping?"
"Yeah, my brother broke my other brother's present by dropping it from the third floor for trying to fly kick his parrot because it told him to choke on cat crap so my brother got one of my other brother's presents and set it on fire, so here we are!" She grinned sarcastically and tugged her hair. It looked good in the new style, a loose combed ponytail gently topped with white, long enough to pull out of stress, which she did.

"Sounds like you could use a break?" The boy stepped out into the street and extended a slightly shaking, chilly numb-red hand. Scarlet giggled at his remark before checking the way she came. Seeing it was clear, she began to smile more to being able to gladly take his hand and cinematically run away with him in the snow. Past strangers and left and right through similar streets, the two randomly jogged side by side until they knew Scarlet was clear of her family. Once certain, they stopped to breathe. "So, Blue, what brings you to the capital? I thought you lived in the countryside?"
She'd caught him off guard, no alibi. He stuttered, pointing all over the place. "Well, I-- uhh, I left something at the dorm! Came back to get it." Eventually landing on a good reason, he proudly posed for his mental capture of himself.
"Alright, well we probably shouldn't have ran this far away then. Come on." She tugged his arm playfully.
In a short spell of panic, he tugged back harder and started to drag her almost in the opposite direction. "No, I'll get it later! Plus I don't want to be carrying it around all night."

The girl finally gave up with an eye roll and let her teammate convince her to go his way - a way that ended up randomly walking together in the city talking. Many conversations came up: Black's whereabouts, Alex's ego and a lot of their thoughts and feelings about past events. However it ended, they always ended up agreeing, then wondering where they were.

A distant light would suddenly catch their attention. Floating gallantly across the trees, above the gentle snow and under the waving leaves. The breeze that came with it chilled the two teenagers to the bone - it felt more like a deathly mist than Winter's love tap. Jack and Scarlet could only stare as the moving light stayed in their field of vision, allowing them to adjust their eyes to its figure. A tall, thin, lady-like figure in a cloak; cradling someone in its arms. No, not cradling someone - cleaning a corpse's clothes! From shock, Jack's face fixated on a stern stare at the thing as its head rolled slightly to give them almost a sympathetic glare, signalling another harrowing breeze to wash over the woods the moment the boy and girl stepped in. "Jack, what is it?" The girl asked, worry in her voice.
"A banshee. Apparently whoever sees it is close to the one its holding - and whoever it's holding is going to die." He didn't stop at nothing to get by, trudging and stumbling in the snow to get to it. He had to know.
The sheer horror in Scarlet wanted to get her to turn around, and she almost did, the poor girl had never been so full of fear in her life, "Jack, I don't like this. It's just a horror story, we need to turn back."
Jack ignored her. The body was too big to be his unborn sister, too wide to be his mother or Scarlet, and too tall to be Alex or his father. That left one alternative and only made sense once he finally got to the terrifyingly ghostly light figure. In it's boney arms lay his body and in it's skin-worn hands sat a wet cloth, wiping clean the bloody chest of a ghost-like Black. Beneath the translucent cloth, a single sword stab pierced directly between his lungs - the very centre of his chest.

Jack would not believe his own eyes. Scarlet would soon join in his horror as she caught up to him. The banshee continued it's natural duty despite Jack telling it to stop. What could they do but stare? A common horror story on Stirland was that of a general who, before a great battle, saw hundreds of thousands of banshees, all carrying the bodies of his soldiers. Believing it was a mere nightmare, and the banshee legend an old wives tale, the general lead his men into battle and all of them died as foretold the night before. It was a story to deter those who came across it from being ungrateful and possibly to infer that not all mythical creatures are there to harm. But there was also another ending: in this ending, the general knows the legend and believes it. In his undying bravery, he cut down each and every one of the ghastly things, subsequently saving the lives of all his men. The battle was won the day after and not one of the men he saw cradled fell. That was the alternative ending Jack depended on being true. With tears racing down his face, he lifted his fist to punch the creature. As planned, his hit landed, but not to the banshee's terrifying screech. Black's body evaporated like dust in the wind and was replaced with a gigantic claymore sword, swinging in the direction of the brunette boy. He backed up out the way, but was taken further back into a tree in the clutches of the ghostly creature. Scarlet came to his aid, bashing the lanky figure off of him and turning it to her. A black-sleeved hand reached out from the darkness, gripped Scarlet by the coat and yanked her away. Her saviour continued to keep her and the thing apart, tossing a flaming stick onto the nearest tree and creating a blazing fire that would distract it long enough for the third person to order them to safety. They ran for a little over a minute before taking sanctuary in an average wooden cottage. Inside was more of an armoury than it was home to the rescuer, who tossed his blade onto a pile of others and flopped down on the nearest sofa in front of the warm fireplace under a painting of a beautiful bird eye view of the Stirnish islands - the most well-kept part of the room, which was still beside a low table enveloped with foreign blades and thick, ancient books and mysterious papers. Whoever this was, he was strange.

Scarlet asked, realising Jack had lost the interest to care, "thanks, but who are you?"
"Don't need to know my name, just how to get that thing off your back, right?" He snapped back before he raised his head lazily - all signs pointed to a boy their age.
"What do you mean?" She asked more.
The boy sighed. "You attacked a banshee, and now it'll hunt you until the day you die. It moves slow, so we have time, but it always catches up."
"Okay, that makes sense. But how could you see it?"
"Once you attack a banshee, it becomes visible to everyone because it drops whoever it's carrying." The boy seemed irritated at her questions - was she supposed to know absolutely everything about a creature only told about in campfire legends? "Let me find the guide, just go and make out or something in the corner."

Scarlet groaned at his rude remark, but did pull Jack into the corner. "Hey, how are you doing?"
"Not good, Scar, how am I supposed to feel?" Her leader and friend snipped at her, but dropped the intense look out of instant regret.
He tried to turn and walk away, but he was pulled back anyway. "I know, I'm sorry. Not how I wanted tonight to go either, I really enjoyed it up until that." Her gentle toned managed to lull his temper back down, though who could really just get over what they had seen? As much as he thought about saying something, he could see in her face that she too was feeling somewhat similar to him. They embraced each other gratefully and stood in silence. The creature alone was enough to keep a grown soldier up at night, the added scenes of their dead friend and it trying to decapitated and then strangle Jack would have unknown horrific side effects. The decision still stood at the moment - could Jack in his right mind kill an innocent creature at the unproven expense of saving his friends life? After a moment, they had both seemed to calm each other down. Jack pulled a brave smile and thanked her. "Thanks, I'm not sure what would be happening right now if you weren't around to help."
The girl matched his smile and punched his arm playfully. "For a big softie, you make a pretty good rock. We'll figure this out. Besides! We have Alex and Black's love child to help us out, right?" She referred to the boy, balancing an axe on the top of his head as he read from a dusty book. They laughed and looked around the room together, exploring the different kinds of swords, axes, spears and unique bladed weapons their temporary ally had lying around. The occasional flipping of pages, shuffling of the strange stranger and the fire awkwardly attempted to fill the silence, unsuccessfully. Finally reaching the unkept bookshelves crammed with books on who knows what, Jack turned to the boy in the middle of the room and said something. "What is this place?" He queried aloud.
"Rude! This is my house! Now sh, dad's busy." The boy out a finger to his lips to urge quiet and returned to his book. Jack gave Scarlet a puzzled stare. She gave one back.
"Banshee's can move as slow as they want, but at the end of day it'll still be faster than you helping us." She shifted the sofa to get his attention, much to his disliking.
"Listen, little red riding hood, I've got a lot of books and there are a lot of things to read about a lot of creatures. Help comes with patience, so please, shhh!"
"Little red--?"
Jack saw the tension build and strategically jumped in. He'd broken through the Alex's outer shell, how hard could it be to get through this one? "We're glad you're helping, but we don't have forever. At least point us to books that might have our answers?"
"Oh, dear Jack, you're little fanboy persona would get the better of you if you read these. Be a good pet and tend to your girlfriend, would you?"
Ignoring Scarlet's growing anger and the stranger's growing weirdness, Jack pursued another route with the boy before him. "How do you know my name?"
He got a short and simple answer, "you resulted fifth in the Protector's Academy first year. Not bad, but I'm not sure you had much competition."
"And how do you know that?" The team leader questioned.
"I asked the Headmaster to see the list, and I remember the first ten." He turned to Scarlet with a cheeky grin. "Seventh! I was rooting for you."
The girl huffed in response and crossed her arms over her chest. Jack continued his quizzing. "What made you eligible to see the list?"
"Because I asked? You're looking at first place, by the way." He winked to show the pride in himself - little did he know the array of emotion he just opened up.
"I haven't seen you all year, and you seem like someone who would have a lot to say out loud." Scarlet joined in on Jack's investigation into the identity of their saviour.
"Well, I dropped out before second year started, duh! No way I'm being shoved onto a five-person team." He grimaced in disgust just at the thought.
"So you're the missing student? Student Forty!"
"Call me Forty!" The boy extended his hand to be shaken, but retracted it so the two didn't actually make contact with him.
Scarlet tugged her ponytail and gritted her teeth whilst Jack placed the room, ambling out loud. "If you hadn't had dropped out, we wouldn't have go work so hard to catch up. All the five-person team activities we wouldn't have had to struggle through, the worry of being underdogs, the fear of completely failing the year! Why drop out?"
"Don't like people." Forty shrugged.
"Really?" Scarlet exclaimed, "you cut Protector training because you don't like people. Half our team despised us two at first!"
"Yeah, I see why. Too into each other." The missing student teased. Before Scarlet could drop him, he glanced back at the book and shouted. "Eureka!"

Jack sighed extensively and listened to Forty read the passage from the book: "disturbers of the banshee must allow it to become apart of them. They must bow to it's graceful approach and submit to it's passing into the body..." he scanned through the rest of the page, reading out small parts that may seem important, then snapped it shut. "Okay, number five, let's get this ghost off your back by letting it in your mind. Chop, chop!" Tossing the book away, Forty leaped over to the largest pile of weapons and dug out a sword variant - a Jian (a relatively small sword reaching up to eighty centimetres maximum, other than that it's very reminiscent of the common sword). He had Scarlet take hold of a spear and equipped Jack with a simple dagger - all just in case. In that short time, Scarlet and Jack exchanged an uneasily concerned glance, one that both of them had wished had lasted long enough to at least say something. They were whisked away back outside before they could, and the trio soon found themselves in the presence of the banshee in it's divine ghost-like features. Floating, gliding over the snow with a ripped and shredded cloak as a substitute for legs. Made of pure light, translucent and almost even transparent, but very much existing in their realm, the creature could touch and be touched by anything in it's field of view (which would explain why Forty's hand phased through it's back to save Jack). The great claymore sword still sat dormant in it's hands as Jack allowed it to approach. If the book was wrong, Jack had to be fast enough to block with his given dagger, or the other's had to be fast enough to attract it's attention. One wrong or slightly delayed move could result in the boy's life.

"Knees, Jack!" Forty shouted, and Jack got down on his knees. "Head!" Forty ordered, Jack bowed his head. Slowly, the claymore was raised in aim of Jack's exposed neck. It looked like the perfect execution. Jack shut his eyes tight, he could only admit to himself how scared he was. The moment the claymore reached peak height, it blew away into the breeze like the body it carried before, and only it's hands lowered to Jack's face, lifting it up to face the ghostly being. Before Jack even opened his eyes, their faces collided and the swordsman looked to be absorbing, or inhaling the misty light until any sign of it had been completely erased. It exhausted him, causing his muscles to collapse and have him fall back into the snow. Quickly to his aid, both Forty and Scarlet were over him. "Well done, squire! Mighty brave of you if I'm honest, not sure I would've been able to do it myself!"
"Oh, thank God you're alright! Don't go lashing out on ghosts again, okay?" The girl embraced his weak body, and he did his best to do the same back.

The Jian-weilder helped him up, staring curiously into his eyes. "You can still see it, though, can't you?"
Jack gulped as his weak figure pointed out into the distance. "Yeah."
"Don't fret, Blue, that's how it should be. Book says so, anyway, it's always gonna be there in the corner of your eye now. Try not to focus on it too much, could get you killed."

The group sat on the outskirts of the capital as they wait for Jack to regain strength. The two students explained to Forty what he would have missed, getting mostly rude or teasing remarks to irritate them. They were used to it though. Once able to move freely, the strange missing addition to Blue-Sabre piled a small number of books onto Jack. He said it was to 'avoid being killed by his own stupidity', but Jack and Scarlet both knew it was because they had broken through to him. They felt bad he was alone constantly, but he did seem to enjoy it. The presence of others only seemed to annoy him, that much was clear.

The pair wandered back into the city and to the academy dorm rooms. It was too late for Jack to return home, and too late for Scarlet to not return home. She escorted him to the building and exchanged a hug before goodbyes. "So tonight was..." He started.
"Traumatic, to say the least." His female teammate finished his sentence perfectly.
"Yeah. Are you going to be okay?" He asked, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Me? You had a ghost-thing go inside your brain, and you're asking me?"
"Well, I feel fine. It'll take some getting use to, but it's harmless. I think."
"Wow, way to reassure a girl." She scolded playfully, putting with her hands on her hips. It was amazing they could joke about the whole ordeal.
"I'm not worried, so neither should you be."
"I'll let you work on reassurance skills, stud."

"I've been meaning to ask you something," the brunette grasped her arm before she could get away. She turned back with a questioning tilt of her head, "why so you go by Scarlet and not Roselyn?"
The girl dropped her expression into a moody pout before following it up with an over the top posh voice, "Hi, my names Roselyn, it's nice to meet you." Dropping the impression, she returned to an exasperated pout. "Doesn't sound stuck-up or anything, does it?" She exclaimed sarcastically.
"Well, when you put it like that. How about Rose?" The boy replied, smiling proudly at the idea.
"It's the same, really, but there's something about the way you say it that doesn't make me feel like a rich girl stereotype. Maybe it's because you're dirt poor, who knows." She shrugged with a mischievous grin to his childishly pouty response. "You can call me Rose, if you like." The grin shifted into a heartfelt smile, which reflected on Jack.
"I'll take it. See ya, Rose."
"Right!" Beaming, the girl leaned up and pecked his cheek, lighting him up also like a festive tree. "Bye, boss!" She rapidly got away before he had a reaction processed.

A happy ending, no? The further the two got from each other, the more they began to feel the weight of the night's events. The negativity began to settle in and to no surprise, neither of them slept that night. Though Jack could distract himself with team ideas and weapon upgrade designs, Scarlet was left in a prestigious mansion like a stray cat locked in a cage. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, left to feel useless, weak and pathetic. A feeling that would only continue to grow over time.