Chapter 4: Altair

  “His condition is pretty serious, but he should wake up soon,” a soft voice whispered, and I tried to force my eyes open.

  My entire body was throbbing, and I had no idea where I was, again. I tried to look around, but I was wrapped like a mummy in stiff bandages, and the moment I turned my head, the world exploded in fiery dots of pain.

  “Speak of the devil, he’s already awake. Eir, darling, your patient is awake!”

  A warm, kind face popped into my vision and held my hand comfortingly.

  “Don’t worry dear, you’re in safe hands. Is there anything that I can get you?”

  “Mom… I was… drowning… in the sea…”

  My sluggish thoughts were finally catching up to me like a motor slowly warming up, and the nurse’s face frowned, filled with concern.

  “What’s your name dear? I am Nurse Skylar,” she gently asked.

  “Al…Altair.”

  “What a pretty name. Well, Doctor Eir is here now. You’ll be in her hands for the time being.”

  She stepped away from my view of vision.

  “How are you feeling, Altair? Does it hurt in any particular area?”

  I was startled by a girl with wide, owl-like and intelligent eyes. Who was she? Was she a hybrid like me too? I had so many questions. Were there other people like me? Was I in a safe place, like what Blue mentioned?

  Her deep, dark brown eyes that didn’t seem to fit with her youthful copper-brown hair and small frame penetrated into my soul like a beam of soft light, interrupting my thoughts for a second.

  “Just… my head,” I managed to croak, and she handed me a glass of water.

  “I was worried about that. You suffered a lot of bruises and an injury toward the back of your head. How is your vision?”

  She was scribbling something down on a clear tablet, and I scrunched up my face to stare at my surroundings.

  “Well, I can still see.”

  “Good. Please look straight at me. How many fingers am I holding?”

  She lifted her right hand to the side, holding up two fingers.

  “Two.”

  “And now?”

  She switched to her left hand.

  “One. Wait a second. Where am I? Who are you? What am I doing here? I was pushed away and then I got sucked into a…”

  My eyes widened in surprise to see myself gripping her arm, and I hurriedly let go.

  “Sorry.”

  I looked away, feeling ashamed. I didn’t even know her! Why was I holding onto her like a lifeline?

  “It’s fine. You didn’t mean to. We’re at Meliora’s Institute of Learning, and I’m Eir Santos, your attending physician. You are in the Institute’s Infirmary because of your injuries. However, I cannot answer your last question. The person who can is right next to you. He can answer the rest of your questions. If you need anything else, please let our nurses know. I will come in to check on you again,” she softened, smiling at me.

  Her smile almost tilted me off the bed with its simple brilliance; she was like an angel that descended from the heavens to grace the lowly earth below.

  “Messenger, are you alright?”

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  Her kind, gentle tone turned toward the man beside me, and I watched as he leaned down for her to reach up and touch his forehead.

  “How is it, Doc?”

  His face seemed to light up at the sight of her, and she only laughed.

  “Perfectly fine, Messenger. Next time, don’t go out in a storm, okay? There’s someone here who is waiting for you to return,” she smiled again and waved before leaving with a trail of nurses following her every step.

  “Sorry, but-”

  The man’s eyes snapped back at me, and I tried to hide my tiny whimper of fear. His eyes were not warm and kind like the doctor's, but electric-blue and hard like tempered glass. His hair however, was the real eyecatcher, because it was as if it couldn’t make up its mind on whether to be red or blue, always alternating between the two colors like a color spectrum. He vaguely reminded me of someone, but his cold gaze and harsh voice threw me off.

  “Right. You were unconscious in the ocean and I picked you up. That’s all I did,” he shrugged, flinging himself back onto the bed carelessly.

  “Then how did you get hurt?”

  I looked at the cast around his arm.

  “Oh, that was a little accident on the way. Cleo, the orca who transported us here, accidentally landed on top of me and my arm broke.”

  He waved his broken arm at me nonchalantly.

  “Well, what brings you here? Most people would have died if they got sucked into a current like you did.”

  “I’m a… hybrid. I was about to get kidnapped, but someone sent me here, I guess,” I admitted, feeling sheepish and afraid of that word.

  “Well, that’s obvious. If you weren’t, I would have buried you right there. Anyway, I’m not sure whether you coming here was a good choice or not,” he snorted, and I wondered what part of what he said was funny.

  Did people down here have morbid senses of humor? Or did people, no matter where they lived, were this morbid when making jokes?

  “Why? Is there something wrong with the ocean too?”

  “Man, you’re just bursting with questions. Fine, we’re both not allowed out of the Infirmary for the next three days, so we have plenty of time to talk. The short explanation is we’re going to war. So, if you were to stay on land, you would have a chance of escaping it. But, now that you’re here, you’re going to face the full brunt of it. All the students you see here injured in the Infirmary were injured because of army training. We never force the students to do more than they can, but all of them are stupid nerds who think that upgrading their weapons would make them better at felling soldiers on the battlefield. All those experiments backfired, and they’re spending their days here alongside us too.”

  Messenger pointed to the grinning, goofy-looking boys who were fighting for Eir’s attention in the other room.

  “Is that even possible? How are kids like me already handling weapons?” I squawked.

  What sort of watery underworld did Blue send me into?

  “Well, it’s kind of necessary. When you go out into the wild, you’ll meet with sea animals hundreds of times bigger than you, and then you have to figure out how to survive there. You’re pretty sheltered, kid. How did you even survive all those leagues of water with a puny figure like that?” he laughed, and I pouted.

  “Give me some credit here. I’m just not used to this. I didn’t even know there could be this many people in one room until today,” I frowned, and he paused, pursing his lips meaningfully.

  “Did you live underground or in a rock or something? There’s no way you don’t know...”

  He froze when he saw my blank stare, and he sighed as if he lost the reason to bicker with me. Instead, he looked down and picked at the worn metal bracelet clasped to his wrist. He was quiet, and the tension between us was stifling.

  “So, what is this place for?” I looked around.

  “It’s meant to be a safe haven for hybrids like us. We train down here until we’re strong enough to fend for our own either on land or in the ocean. But, most of the adults choose to settle down in the nearest city beside our Institute, Meliora. That is where this Institute’s name came from,” he explained.

  “So, what do you do? Do you work here?” I asked, and he stared at me in utter confusion.

  “I used to be a spy, but now I’m a handyman… of sorts,” he replied blankly, and it was my turn to be surprised.

  “We’re not in a movie, right? Why do we need spies down here?”

  “As I just said, we’re at war right now. It’s not only a battle of weapons but of information too. You were just a package I had to retrieve,” he simply said.

  “But aren’t you supposed to imprison me and torture me for information while I beg for my life or something?”

  “You’re too into those spy movies and cartoons. I suspected you of being an informant, but that mark on the underside of your wrist gave it away. You’re one of us. I just don’t know why we didn’t know about you already,” he stared at me critically, as if he was still searching in my soul for some hidden fact.

  I looked down at my wrist and watched the silver sparrow wink and gleam on my skin.

  Right, that thing. The weird tattoo that was with me since I could remember. Yet somehow, it brought me to these people. They knew what it was.

  Why was nothing making sense? If it was so important, why didn’t Mom tell me anything? Why was I still in the dark about most of my life?

  “Well, that was too many questions today. I’m done for the day,” he sighed, closing his eyes.

  But, I couldn’t fall asleep as easily as Messenger could. I had so many questions running around in my head. Would I be able to live here with these people? How would I fit in here? What was I even going into? Why is there even a war going on?

  Who in the world is going to answer all of my questions?

  I looked toward the man snoring heavily beside me. I guess he would.