A JOURNEY AND NO RETURN

"She has abilities…" He whispered. 

"Sarah!.. Stop it!" Ulanni yelled, her voice carrying a certain authority which has never been there before. 

As thou a switch was just turned off, the sparks in Sarah's eyes faded away and her hair came to rest back down on her back.

"Just stop!" Ulanni said softly this time sounding exhausted.

Sarah's slowly lowered her hand, and the stillness in the air was immediately lifted. Cough!.. cough!.cough!.. coughing out blood, she quickly used her hand to cover her mouth.

Flint just kept staring at Sarah with narrowed eyes, and even the badly beaten boy on the ground was looking at Sarah with dread in his eyes.

There was silence all around that even the falling of the pin could be heard loudly in this state.

_Clap!..clap!..clap!.."What a nice performance…but sadly we have to leave" Sage said breaking the silence.

People turned to look at her acting so unconcerned about the whole thing that just transpired, and the same question was running through their minds…"Why didn't she intervene?"

"Make your way to the Mussel Mobile..we would be boarding now," Sage said with her voice leaving no room for dallying.

The still-stunted kids slowly made their way to the entry of the Mussel Mobile, which by now had its door elevated to allow entrance.

On entering the Mussel Mobile it had a short flight of stairs to the side which led up to another compartment above, which can either be used as a storage space or another sitting compartment.

The one which Sage had come with, had its second compartment installed with chairs, the most surprising thing about this Mussel Mobile was that from the outside you could see nothing of the inside, but from the inside it had a square structure that acted as something akin to a window from which you could see the outside from.

Sage walked to the door and stood there as she silently did a headcount of the students as they boarded.

Ulanni stood for some seconds staring at Sarah with dried tears trails running down the sides of her cheeks, looking down dejectedly she slowly made her way to the Mussel Mobile like the rest of the kids leaving Sarah behind.

Sarah slowly raised her hand in an endeavor to stop her from leaving but changed her mind as her hand fell wordlessly back to her side.

Flint looked away from Sarah and made to help the injured boy up and head to the Mussel Mobile.

Sarah stood there looking dejected "Just...What had she done?" Squeezing her eyes tightly shut and opening them up again, she also moved to join the other children.

Flint looked up to stare at Sage as she was about to board expecting her to say something, but Sage just nodded at her and turned to look at the next person. Letting out a sigh she made her way in with her hand under the injured boy's shoulder helping him in.

The first compartment had already been filled up by now, so when Ulanni entered she had gone up to the second compartment with her eyes down, shoulders dropped as she tried to shrink herself so small she would not be noticed by anyone.

Climbing the stairs she made her way to the very last chair which had a window by the side, plopping down on the chair and turned to face the window with different thoughts racing through her mind.

As the rest of the children made their way in, they made sure to avoid the place where Ulanni was seated entirely.

Sarah came in last, looking around and spotting Ulanni sitting dejectedly at the back, she slowly made her way to her and sat down slowly on the seat next to hers a bit scared that Ulanni would ask her to leave.

Sarah let out a sigh of relief when Ulanni didn't send her away.

The man who had been standing to the side and watching everything that occurred also moved to the Mobile and faced Sage he stated."You already knew, didn't you?"

Sage faced him and unfolding her hands dismissed his question."We should get moving Kabe…"

Saying this she went round the Mobile to the other side and pressed her hand on a slightly raised platform it shone red, a clicking sound was heard and the door parted and she climbed in.

Kabe also entered from his side and threw a glance Sage's way, shaking his head he stretched his hand and placed it on a dashboard, immediately it lit up and a string of words scrolled on the dashboard.

_[Detecting…. Kabe Montane]

—  [Salve Warrior… ]

[Access Granted.. ]

After the last string shone past the Mussel Mobile slowly came to life, with the lights inside coming on and a curved blue arc-shaped steering wheel revealing itself.

Kabe placed his hand on it and infused a bit of his mana in it, A blue light slowly covered the Mussel Mobile from front to back and instantly activated all defense systems of the Mobile.

Ulanni who was lost in thought was brought back to reality when she felt the Mobile moving, looking out the window she saw structures of the compound passing her by. "They were finally leaving…this was it!"

Ulanni felt excited, looking away from the window to glance at the other children whose expressions also mirrored hers and that was when she spotted Sarah.

"Sarah…we are leaving now…we are going out of the big gate.." Ulanni said in happiness totally forgetting what had happened some minutes ago, it had always been her dream to leave the compound one day and now that it was happening she just couldn't contain how happy she was.

Sarah, who was shocked by what Ulanni said to her, she had thought Ulanni was mad at her…"Yeah…" She drawled out.

Ulanni sent a big smile her way before turning back to face the window.