ESKARINA

We all sat in the auditorium,waiting as the clocked ticked by. Our training with Nova was intense,tiring. Hours of trying to land a blow on someone who evaded our attacks with such ease he seemed untouchable. Nova's speed was incredible and I wondered how much physical training he had to undergo in order to move so quickly. He dodged every single one of my arrows mere seconds before it was about to strike him. 

He was like a ghost that one. So mysterious and strange. He'd be here one second and gone the next...when I put it that way he sounds like a bit of a creep but Nova was far from that. At least from what I gathered so far.

We sat in the sand,basking in the warmth of the sunlight which shone down through the open ceiling in the auditorium.

Amaani kept her hand above her head,sweat gleaming from her brow.

"How Aela's name do you guy's survive this heat?! It's killing me!"

"With our bodies? We sweat and that keeps us cool?"

"Although...we sure as hell don't sweat as much as that Amaani." I said.

Amaani sat up,groaning as her arms flopped lazily to her side. "I'm sooo thirsty! I'm going to dehydrate at this point."

"Think you might be over-exaggerating a bit love." I giggled.

Tyrese sat on his tail,which suprisingly kept the entire rest of his body up off the floor.

"How do you do that?" Amaani asked as she leaned forward to closely inspect his tail.

"My tail has a large amount muscle,the bones are also rather malleable so I can move it around and curl it. It's rather strong so it can hold my entire body weight as well."

"Huh..."

Amaani poked at his tail with her finger. "By the god's its fluffy!" She said as she prodded her index finger against it repeatedly.

Tyrese seemed to struggle,his body flailing slightly while he tried to maintain his balance. "Will you cut that out?!"

Amaani looked up,pouting. "But it's fluffy."

"It tickles."

"I kinda wanna touch it too." I added.

"Fuck no," Tyrese set his feet on the floor,lifted up his tail,then sat. He curled his tail up behind him,his face red and puffed up. "No more tail touching."

"But it's fun and your tail is cute."

"It is cute." I added to Amaani.

"Stop it. No tail. My tail."

Amaani giggled,giving Tyrese a friendly punch. "You're such a sucker. We were just kidding."

"I wasn't. I wanted to play with his tail."

"You're quite the team aren't you guys?"

All our heads turned to see Elena standing in her armour,her arm's folded.

Still didn't like that one...

"What are you doing here General?" Amaani asked.

Elena shrugged and sat down with us,entering our circle. "I got some free time...No idea what to do with it so I thought I'd come hang out with you guys."

"Don't you want to hang around with Nova?" Amaani asked with a smirk. "I figured he'd be with you."

A suprised look dawned onto Elena's face. "I thought Nova was with you guy's?"

"Hasn't been here for the past fifteen minutes or so."

"Nova's never late..." Elena stated,her eye's dropping to the floor.

"We know." The rest of us all said together.

"Come to think of it..." Tyrese said as his tail rose up from the ground and started wagging behind him. "You and Nova,you're almost always together. Is it true then? Are you two really getting down in the bed sheets?"

Elena's face turned into a tomato as her cheeks puffed up. "Of course not! Nova's my best friend! I'd never...want to do anything like that with him!"

Her head dropped down,hair falling down so we could no longer see her face.

"We're just friends. That's all."

Something about her voice was strange. Almost as if she were sad.

"Anyway..." Amaani began,who was strangely shaking. "I have to ask. Your sword and shield fighting technique is unique, are you willing to teach others the technique?"

Elena raised her head,raising her eyebrow at Amaani. "No...I only teach people what Nova taught me. The basics of Combat,physical training."

"Why don't you teach anyone?"

"Nova once told me that everyone has their own unique way of fighting. It doesn't really fall into a specific catergory or technique. Example is Nova himself. His sword fighting technique is rather unorthodox and unique to him. He holds his sword in the Ice Pick position,but instead of stabs he uses slices along with dexterity and movement speed to get up close to attack his targets and whenever he wants to stab he flicks the sword round into a normal straight position,back to the ice pick when he needs to deflect or defend from an attack. But Nova's fighting focuses mainly on aggression,he cares very little for his own safety in a fight. He'll even sacrifice his own body if it means landing a killing blow."

"That was...a really long explanation."

"But it was necessary. Nova's fighting style is different to my own. He focuses mainly on attacking,mine is a hybrid of both. I value defense and offense. I wear medium armour so I have some protection,but not heavy armour so that I don't slow down. I don't teach anyone my fighting style because there's no point. They'd eventually take their own spin on it and make their very own variant of fighting that their comfortable with."

"So...why didn't you just say the last part?" Amaani asked.

"Elena likes talking about Nova." Tyrese said.

"I will rip your head clean off your shoulders." Elena threatened,clenching her fists.

Tyrese held his hands up in defense,laughing as he did. "Calm it girl! It was a joke!"

Amaani gave Tyrese quite a hard punch to the shoulder,which wasn't exactly friendly. "Watch what you say to her. She's our general. We should have respect for her."

Tyrese looked at Amaani with the same suprised look that I had. "Alright then...sheesh."

Amaani was strangely protective over Elena.

I watched as Elena looked at all of us. Her green eye's scanned all of us,one by one.

"Where's the elf?"

"I'm right here. I'm not that short...am I?" Amaani asked.

Elena laughed a bit,her white smile was gorgeous. By the gods this girl was beautiful...leagues beyond me.
"Not you. I meant the POW. I don't know his name but I know he was meant to be Nomad's replacement."

"We haven't had the pleasure of talking to him. At least not yet. We will when we get the chance however."

Elena's eye's scanned us once more.

"Elena...you've known Nova the longest."

Elena focused on me and for a few brief moments I was intimidated. The feeling soon vanished however, and Elena answered.

"I have?"

"So tell us about him. His history. Who was he before the army? If he joined at such a young age,then did his parents consent?"

"I...I" Elena was drowned out by my questions.

I eventually stayed quiet,shutting my mouth to allow her to speak. Overwhelming her with questions would just cause her to not answer any of them. Best to just let her answer.

"I..." She began,leaving all of us to curiously lean in.
"I can't tell you."

"Why not?!" Amaani asked.

"Come on! You start off with a long pause,then don't say anything?! That's anti-climactic!"

"You can tell us." Amaani said,her voice softer now. "Your secrets safe with us."

"She's right Elena...we won't tell anyone."

"No I mean...I can't tell you anything because I myself don't know anything about Nova's past."

I'll admit,that caught me a bit off guard,but before I said anything,I let Elena continue.

"I've known Nova since I was a child. We trained together,fought together,bled together,killed together,but I've never once spoken to him about his past. Whenever I try to talk to him about it he never answers. Instead he looks away and stays silent for awhile,then talks about something else like I had never asked him in the first place. I tried broaching the topic about where he got all the scars on his body,but he said he didn't want to talk about it. He said he'd tell me some day though. Although I doubt that day will ever arrive."

We all sat in our little circle. My mind whirred with thoughts,questions. Nova had to have some past. No way he just decided to join the army. He had to have a reason. Motive. Everyone did. He was normal like everyone else was.

"I can tell you a bit about him though? Although he isn't very interesting as a person to be quite honest." Elena said,laughing awkwardly.

"No tell us" I insisted. "We wanna know."

Elena was taken aback by my insistency but she eventually answered. "Okay...I guess the first thing to know about him is that his favorite colour is black. Always wears it,prefers clothing over armour. He doesn't really eat much. I rarely see Nova eat,but he does eat in his spare time. Whenever I do see him eat,he's eating noodles,so I guess thats his favorite food to eat. He always wears the coat I made him,which is sweet. He has his moments. His voice is...naturally monotonous. I've never seen Nova smile before. Ever. I've never heard him laugh. Never seen him cry. I've only seen Nova angry,when he is he's usually more silent than normal and whenever he talks he has this...sinister tone which echoes from his throat. He's quiet,doesn't talk very much,only when he absolutely has to. He isn't very social,prefers to stay inside. I've seen him draw,write in a diary too,but I've never seen his drawings or read his diary. He has nightmares every night...but he never talks about them. His body is ridden in scars and-"

Elena stopped suddenly,taking a deep breath before she exhaled. "That's about all I know about him. Only assumptions. Habits. What few things he does in his spare time. Favorite colour,but thats all."

She rested her chin on her palm as she leaned forward,her arm held up as her elbow perched itself on her knee. "Like I said,I don't know much about him,but I take in all the details I can."

"You've never seen Nova smile?" Amaani asked.

Elena simply shook her head.

"Never?"

Again,her head shook from side to side.

"Never ever?"

Elena rolled her eye's. "Never ever."

Amaani lept to her feet with a sudden surge of excitement.

"I know what we can do to kill our boredom!"

Amaani had a wicked smile stretching from ear to ear as she set her hands on her hips. "Let's all try to make Nova smile."