"Aureus (Abridged) Chapter Five" by Harrison (Aureus) Gordon

Chapter 5

            The dining room was down the first passageway, taking up a considerable amount of space.  One of the sides protruded from the hill, and it was almost entirely made of windows, letting the late afternoon sun shine its radiant light into the room.  Aureus sheepishly sat down at the end of the table, embarrassed that he didn’t know anyone except Garner.  The others took up the wooden seats at the sides of the table, and on the other end sat Garner, reciting blessings.  Aureus soon found the others stuffing their faces with food, while he was poking at it with his fork. 

            “You wouldn’t mind if I sit here, would you?” asked a young girl.  She sneaked up on Aureus, but seemed friendly enough.

            “Sure, why not,” sheepishly added Aureus, who was at that special age where he felt uncomfortable around girls.  She circled around Aureus and took a seat across from him.  Unlike the other students, she was a little more refined in her eating habits. 

            “How’s the food?” She asked, trying to strike up a conversation.  “Oh, sorry, my name is Nuria.”

            “Aureus,” said the boy, squeaking on the second syllable.  He couldn’t pick out what it was, but he felt rather comfortable with her, yet very tense and afraid at the same time.  It was a sensation he never experienced before, the tingling feeling he experienced relaxed him as the night moved on, allowing him to start conversing comfortably.

            “Is the training hard?”

            “Well, sometimes it will get difficult, and other times it will be so hard you feel like quitting, but you’ll get used to it,” said Nuria.

            “I see.”

            Aureus lost his train of thought, and it probably was a good idea, too.  For at that very moment, he remembered something else: his mother.

            “Oh no…  I gotta go,”  worried Aureus, thinking of the horrible things that were going to happen to him that would be worse than any type of training imaginable if he didn’t get home, and get home now.  He quickly told Garner, promised to be back, and left, bolting out of the door and into the now dark countryside.