50: Long way down

There was a certain art to being this late for my morning training. Of course, I dreaded showing up in the first place, what with my neck scarred with not only Sebastian's mark, but Demetri's as well. I wondered, as I walked towards the pond, how poor little Sebastian would respond.
The moment I landed in the training room, I was met by the friendly glances of Aaliyah and Felicity who seemed to have been waiting for my arrival this whole time. But when their eyes landed on me, both of their jaws fell.
"W-what's that?" Aaliyah asked, pointing towards the mark. Great, I was too stupid to think of covering it up with a scarf.
"I um... N-nothing. I just... battle wounds."
Felicity reached out and gently touched her finger against the mark making me shiver involuntarily. Immediately she and Aaliyah developed bright, mischievous smiles on their faces.
"Bite marks... don't tell us you were bitten by that werewolf you've been hanging out with."
"I... well-"
"Are you two mates?" Aaliyah asked, wrapping her arm around Felicity. And as she did, a wicked little way of worming my way out of this situation appeared in my mind.
"Are you and Felicity dating?"
When I said this, the two of them burst out laughing, which had me very confused. Once they had both recovered, they glanced back towards me, and Aaliyah said, still rather amused, "Dating? Of course not. Felicity and I are just close."
She then turned towards one of the vampires in the elemental rooms. From his blue hair, I recognized him to be David Trest.
"Felicity has had a thing for David over there, for centuries." Aaliyah said. When she did, Felicity smacked at her shoulder, now red in the face and embarrassed.
"I do not!" She yelled. But I could tell she meant exactly the opposite of what she said. I was glad, however, that I averted the topic from my neck to her love life and was about to ask Aaliyah about hers when I saw Sebastian furiously walking up to me. *Here we go again.*
"Phoenix Selene Ackerman! You are three hours late!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. And as he did, the rest of the vampires took advantage of my embarrassment and began laughing at me. Honestly, he had no problem making me look like a child.
"I'm sorry, I've got to go," I said and then attempted to leave. But I was stopped by Aaliyah who gently gripped at my wrist and asked, "Would you meet up with us on the balcony tonight after dinner?"
I turned towards her and gave her a questioning look.
"It's a yes or a no. Are you willing to meet us later on tonight? It's about something important."
I only had a few seconds to contemplate this offer as the distance between Sebastian and I shrunk incredibly quickly. And so, I eventually agreed, curious as to what it was that was so important.
By the time Sebastian had reached me, the both of them had scattered, and rightfully so, because the first thing that caught Sebastian's eye was the dark, deep red bite mark which was against his own.
He paused a moment and his face fell into a frown as he stared at it. Then slowly, he lifted his finger and pointed towards my neck.
"That!" he began, "What the hell is that?"
I gulped down hard and touched my fingers to the mark, making sure to avoid eye contact with Sebastian.
"Well... the thing is-"
"-You let him *mark* you?"
I wasn't sure why, but when he said this, an unknown anger flared up within me and I growled at him. "I think the keyword there is "let". Demetri never marked me *without* my permission, unlike some people. So, I don't understand why you are upset."
By the time I'd said this I was panting and breathless and I realised that all eyes were on the both of us. It seemed we were the highlight of the training session today... again.
Sebastian seemed to have noticed the wandering eyes as well and so he leaned in and gripped at my arm. "We will discuss this later."
Oh, how I looked forward to it- note my sarcasm.
Nonetheless, I had no choice but to agree to a later discussion as he led me to today's training room. It was the air elemental training room. According to Sebastian, the air elemental round was all about balance. In the Games of Successio, there'd be a series of large, gorges. To get from one gorge to the next, one would need to climb one's way on thin, flimsy shards of tall rock paths with large gaping spaces between them. To make matters worse, awful spells of vicious and strong winds would be blowing, threatening to knock any unlucky vampire off to either serious injury or death. On each hill there would be an item needed to be collected. Keeping the items safe would also be problematic due to the harsh winds. And so, the aim was to bring as many items as possible to the final hill and have them sent securely to the bottom of a deep pit from which air burst through, making it almost impossible to reach the bottom. The entire thing seemed suicidal, and I was grateful that today would just be training.
The training room was set up similar to that of the fire elemental training room. Except this time, we were up... much higher up. What was strange, however was that I was almost certain I was outside of the training room under the pond, but when I stared up, the rippled waters still seemed to hang high above my head, as if giving the illusion that I was still safe inside. Before me spanned the deadly distance of a gorge in which tall pieces of stone were littered here and there. Further on... much further on stood another piece of hill on which I could recognise a deep pit I assumed to resemble the one I would have to face on the actual day of the games. Looking at it now, the entire setup seemed daunting. One wrong step and I'd die, even here.
"Right, you begin in three...two...one."
And when Sebastian ended that sentence, the entire room was engulfed in the strongest wind I'd ever felt push against me. It thrashed me towards one of the walls, slamming my shoulder into it and making it bruised. I whined out in pain, and when I looked downward towards Sebastian, saw his sympathetic eyes gazing up at me. But the gaze fell as soon as it appeared with Sebastian remembering that he was still angry at me.
And so, I attempted trudging forward toward the edge of the hill. It was near impossible to get one foot ahead of the other and, at many times, I'd stumble back-definitely not something I wanted happening on those tall shards of rock. When I finally did reach the edge of the hill I stopped and hesitated for a moment. It was a far distance down, much farther than I anticipated. All I could think, before reaching a foot out cautiously and attempting to step on the first piece of rock was how genuine Sanguis' attempts at killing us off were.
---
Stay safe! Stay healthy! Sending my love!