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CHAPTEREIGHT

Ophilia

The yard was no longer a barren field of sand. Now it was a field of sand with at least fifty or more large metal cubes, some stacked on each other, making walls or columns that went up several feet above her head. Sweating from the already hot day, Ophilia circled the course twice to make sure it was to her liking. Ivan stood close by watching in the shade of the units with a rod tight in his hand, looking uneasy. Dane was nowhere to be seen.

There were several guards watching from the tower and to the west wall, guns aimed down at the yard. She ignored them as she stepped between the field and the units and deemed the course ready.

"Are you sure you wanna do this?" Ivan said nearby. "Without having something to immobilize him at least?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Crazy," he muttered under his breath. "Hendrik would never..."

She didn't hear the rest. Mainly because he was drowned out by a low, guttural growl behind her. She turned and saw Xeda pacing inside his cell, looking ready to beat the door down.

That morning when she entered the training yard looking for Ivan and Dane to set up the course, she’d heard a commotion and had seen several soldiers standing close to Xeda's cell. He seemed to be having a fit inside, but she couldn't gauge what he had been saying.

"Been like that all night," one soldier said when she asked what happened. "Seems to be arguing with someone who isn't there. A total psycho."

She'd gotten close to the door of his cell and saw him pacing inside, answering someone, but he was very much alone.

She knew he wasn't always right in the head. Sometimes when she had walked past his door, she caught him whispering to himself or to someone. She could imagine being locked up coupled with everything else he'd gone through was hard on his mental state. And she didn't even know about anything else before he'd come to Kingsway.

But this was the first time she'd seen him this unhinged. She let him be that morning, finding Ivan and ordering him to start setting up the course. Dane, she was told, was off somewhere else. As Ivan reluctantly did as she asked, she made her way to the pens and did her other duties. Even though Sal had given her this chance, Rick had gone and argued to him that he wasn't going to pick up her work in the process. And she couldn't leave Janna to do all the work either. She was kind enough, however, to take Neptune's pen off Ophilia's shoulders, so she was only left with the tiger, birds, and Javi. She got her work done as quickly as possible and then returned to the yard sometime after high noon. The course was only half done when she returned. She found Ivan sitting inside the storage unit, complaining it was too hot and that the vrisha was raving mad and wasn't going to listen to her anyway.

Keeping herself from losing it on him for being so spineless, she finished the course on her own, losing already precious time. She took the hand controls from Ivan and tested the course before finally deeming it ready for use.

Now there was only Xeda.

She stood staring at the course for a moment before she finally turned to Xeda's cell. She opened the door as he spun around, bared his teeth at her, and hissed.

He didn't seem to see her at first. He paced back and forth like a predator in its cage, watching her.

"Xeda, hey, it's okay. No one's here but me. But I can't let you out until you snap out of it." She clapped her hands at him several times.

Xeda stilled, then blinked with a different set of eyelids, looking dumbstruck. "What did you just—"

"I clapped at you so you would snap out of it."

He looked appalled. He let out an odd noise like a grunt. "Don't clap at me like some animal."

"Well don't act like one!"

He growled. He tried to reach the door, but the chains weren't long enough.

"Take your anger out on the course, will you?" she said, her own annoyance growing.

"Then let me!"

She stood back and took out her remote. "Are you here?"

He blinked again, and she could tell he was starting to gain focus. He looked at her now, not through her, looking pissed as usual.

"Yes, I'm here. Where else would I be?" he snapped.

"I need you thinking clearly is what I'm saying. I need you chill."

"I'm not chill. I hate being chill." He clenched and unclenched his hands.