560 CHPT 560: Rumbling

Saturday Afternoon, April 3rd, 2241. Location, Ra Stadium.

The Dugout was cramped, and full of bothersome smells that interrupted Ursula's thoughts. So she opted for Predators Forest. Even if the place was the most concentrated with guards.

As she moved through the green, she could feel their beady trained eyes follow her from their spots perched atop the stadium walls. Vantage points on vantage points. Ever since Claude left, being inside Ra Stadium felt like facing a firing squad. The crowds of people had left days ago, leaving empty bleachers and newfound silence.

Not in mind, though. Or body, currently.

"So nobody wants to talk about it?" Warren questioned from behind them.

"About—"

"Don't say about what, I'll fall into psychosis." Warren interrupted Isaac.

He waited a few seconds before throwing an a corn into a hole in a tree a hundred feet away, "Come on! He's ba—"

FWOSH!

Maris wrapped her hand around his mouth and forced them to keep walking.

"Right….RedVine listens to the tree's." He thought before tapping out in need of air.

Maris let go.

"So why are we here then. This place is terrible for….. uhhhh friendly discussion and stuff." Warren questioned.

"No students giving us weird looks." Isaac replied.

"No Professors asking questions." Maris added.

"Woof…." Frosty agreed.

Loba preferred to silently walk beside the VanaWarg.

Ursula stayed quiet and pushed her way through a particularly dense portion of forestry.

Warren shivered as cold air embraced his exposed lean arms.

He followed her footfalls until the greenery opened into a clearing of sorts. A clearing forced into existence by intense layerings of ice. The clearing above remained, more or less hiding them from non enhanced eyes, but below they had a relatively secure location in the iced grounds.

Ursula sat with her back to a frozen over Baobab tree. It's spiky twisting branches cut through the canopy like fingers.

The others sat around in a circle.

"When did you make this?" Warren asked as he sat on the ice.

"A few nights ago. It was hot everywhere…. I couldn't sleep. I still can't." Ursula whispered.

Maris pulled out her sword and stabbed the floor to test its durability as if that's what mattered before sitting. Isaac followed with a cluttering shuffle of his armor.

"So…what are we going to do now?" Isaac asked, "Warren's right we can't just not discuss this. I mean…. He's all but living up to the entirety of what everyone thought he was now…"

They didn't need to say his name or what they meant. Claude returned as a Silver Cursed Alpha. That changed things. That changed everything.

Ursula was knew that in ways the others didn't. He ate what he killed now. He wanted to kill more. No breaks no stopping. He was planning something else even no—

"Can you like…. You know speak to him through the mind thing?" Warren asked.

"No. He's talking to R…You know who." Ursula replied.

"About what?" Isaac pressed.

Ursula hesitated.

Maris grabbed her hand, "He's told us everything. There's no use for secrets now, they only hurt us. He said no more. He knows you're listening or else he's a fool."

"They want the being that put them…. In a Tower?" Ursula explained.

"That's where he went? To a Tower? Sounds ominous." Warren replied as he itched the nappy hair curling at the top of his head.

"R…. Wants him to go. It's an exchange. He's goading him." Ursula explained, eyes focused as if she was listening in real time.

"There's still something about him." Isaac commented.

"Did you think that before or after he ripped a Fire Troll's heart out faster than human eyes can see?"

Isaac rolled his eyes, "Whats the exchange for?"

Ursula shrugged her broad shoulders, "He won't say his terms."

Maris shifted nervously as Loba sauntered over to her and laid down with her head in the swordsman's lap. "It's connected to everything happening here. And with me. It has to be."

Everyone turned to her, "How so?"

"R…. He said don't put a madman on a timer remember? He knows things go south soon somehow. We've only got another week here last time he said. The Nine could only push Samuel's execution that far back. Within that week, I will become the Red Queen. R's end of the bargain— what he wants from you know who…. Involves that. and me."

Warren held his arms, "Why do I feel like we're sitting on a bomb."

Ursula's ice spread, "We are. We need to get the hell out of here fast. But..."

"What?"

"I don't know if Claude wants to…."