Wunderhein Academy: Book 1- Awakening

“Urg, my mouth tastes bad.” Aleksei snorted as he tried wiping his tongue with the back of his hand, wishing for the hundredth time they had gone past the bathroom instead of going straight to the kitchen for a midnight snack. “I blame you for this by the way.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Dmitri chuckled, his hands buried in his pockets. In the darkness of the night, he looked like some kind of monster from the books in the library. Dmitri pulled his hands from his pockets and interlinked them, stretching them above his head. The moonlight breaking through the darkness reflected on his teeth making him look scarier. It was beautiful in a way, Aleksei mused.

“Idiot.” Aleksei muttered, before looking at the graffiti wall of the passage they were in. Usually it was random things by the different teams to mark their territory. This route was neutral, so the marks were random from team names to insults or pictures. Sometimes you found one or two good things if you looked hard enough.

Frowning, Aleksei reached out and pulled off a flyer that was stuck on the wall. “For a good time, room one four nine.”

“That’s our room.” He heard Dmitri remark almost too brightly behind him.

“Another Pretty Boy taunt.” Aleksei crumbled up the flyer. “How original.”

“Ya gotta accept it someday Lexie.” Dmitri grabbed the flyer and smoothed it out to look at it, grinning fiendishly. “We are the prettiest team here. Especially with Kitten.”

Aleksei was about to open his mouth when he heard whimpering.

“Do you hear that?” He frowned instead, straining to catch the soft crying again.

“Eh?” Dmitri looked up from the paper. “Hear what?”

Aleksei pressed a finger to his lips and stepped out of the passage, walking away from Dmitri. He followed the sound until he came to the outskirts of the store-room. Aleksei frowned, testing the store door and finding it open easily in his hand.

He heard the crying, louder this time, from inside the store-room.

He raised his head into the air and sniffed.

“Kitten?” He whispered, smelling the girl's scent mixed with toothpaste and milk.

“Kitten?” Aleksei heard the disbelief in Dmitri’s voice behind him. “What she doing here? The kitchen’s closed hours ago. Ain’t no one supposed to be here now.”

For a moment, the memory of the day Aleksei had found her in the bathroom crossed his mind. A growl slipped his mouth, un-intended.

“Wait here.” He ordered, slipping easily into a fighting position lower to the ground. He didn’t even check if Dmitri had heard him before slipping into the store-room.

The place was a mixed mess of smells. Rice, oats and other foodstuff filled the air. The smell of meat drying out made him drool. He wiped his mouth and tried to focus on one smell only.

Kitten.

He closed his eyes again, trying to track the smell and listen for the whimpering. He sniffed the air again before getting on his knees and crawling behind the bag of flour.

Kitten smell was stronger now. Mixed with milk and toothpaste, snot and tears.

Only it wasn’t Kitten.

Two small eyes looked up at him, making him jump back in surprise.

The smell was coming from a different Meat-Bag? A child? Aleksei frowned, watching the creature shrink back as far as it could away from him into the corner. Fear clouded the area now. Aleksei was glad for it. He was used to the smell.

“Hey there.” He held out his hand towards it. “Come out, I don’t bite.”

The Meat-Bag shook its head. Aleksei smelt the fresh tears before seeing them hit the creature’s eyes.

They were strange eyes, half brown and half blue, making the Meat-bags softly round face look unreal. Flour and dirt splayed on its oversized clothes that needed a wash and mixed in its moonlight coloured hair. Even though its clothes were bigger then it was, Aleksei could tell someone had chosen them to fit the youngster better than any random cast off. Its hair had been neatly tied up in a braid instead of just a quick wrap-around ponytail. Someone was looking after this child.

Aleksei frowned for a moment, before looking at the ground it had scurried away from.

Laying there was a roughly sewn scrap of material. Aleksei moved forward to pick it up, examining the crude toy. It was a patchwork of uniform off-cuts, Aleksei noted, trying to make some sort of monster. One cross-stitched eye had been done too high and the other too low. Aleksei looked at the Meat-bag and held it out to him.

“It’s alright.” He soothed, slowly slipping closer to the child. “You can take it.”

The boy scampered to claim the toy, hugging it. The action made Aleksei smile for a moment.

“I’m Captain Cassonov.” He began before halting, noting that the child was probably too young to care about titles. “Aleksei.”

The Meat-Bag looked up at him. His lip trembled for a moment. “Teddy.”

“Teddy’s a good name.” Aleksei nodded in approval, keeping his tone soft as he kept an eye on the boy and gathered in the surroundings. The Meat-bag was hiding. That much was obvious. This place was good to hide in. For a moment Aleksei closed his eyes, recalling the places he had hidden in before becoming a captain. It had also been like this. Places that felt safe.

The Meat-bag smiled shyly.

“Are you hiding from monsters?” He wasn’t sure why he was asking. He didn’t really want to know. It hit him, how many times he had hid from monsters. How many of them he hated. He went still for a moment.

He felt a small head cuddle up against him. When he looked down, he found himself brushing the hair on the Meat-Bags head. Teddy’s head. It was a small head. Smaller that what should be allowed in the school. He was sure the child was under the acceptance code for the school. Someone must have bribed an official to let him in. Teddy was shivering next to him. Fear filled the air again.

“Monsters.” The kid repeated in an almost hushed tone.

“Yeah.” Aleksei agreed, pressing back and closing his eyes. “Monsters.”

He wasn’t sure how long he had been passed out for when sounds outside the store-room made him open his eyes. He recognized Dmitri’s voice instantly. Carefully he slipped out from under the kid and out of the hide-away to find Dmitri standing guard at the door entrance. Around him were a mix-matched group of Meat-bags in all ages and sizes, with swords pointed at them. Items they must have stolen or traded somehow for. Swords belonged to the highest ranked fighters but they hardly used them. Ivan once had a beaut that he had given Aleksei as a gift. Aleksei still treasured it to this day.

From the way they were handling their weapons, they weren’t trained in sword-work. It made Aleksei cringe. He had at least taken a few classes. Swords were beautiful things. They became part of you. They could breathe a life of their own if handled correctly.

These armatures handled them like food in a food fight. Clumsily and without real aim.

Dmitri calmly had his hands up, cigarette in his mouth, despite the bunch of mismatch swords pointing at his neck. From the look in his eyes, he was counting the Meat-Bags trying to hold him. No doubt looking for the fastest way to take them down.

“On your knees Cutter.” One of the Meat-bags, a kid younger then he was, ordered Aleksei, using the old word for those who had their cuts. Aleksei found himself pushed onto his knees, his hands behind his head.

“It wouldn’t even be a minute between us.” Dmitri whispered on the ground next to him. “Just give the word.”

Aleksei took in the wretched creatures in front of him. Hair hung down their faces in strands. Mud clung to them, mixing with the blood and pus from infected looking wounds.

Monsters.

The word sprang to his mind as he noted the marking etched into their skins.

Hunters.

He nodded silently, not missing the huge smiling spreading on Dmitri’s face.

Aleksei himself prepared for an attack.

“I am Captain Cassonov. If you know what’s good for you all, you will leave.” He barked. “Now.”

Laughter erupted from the group.

“Us leave?” A teen stepped forward. He prodded Aleksei in the shoulder with a spear. The point hitting hard on Aleksei’s shoulder, shooting a sharp pain through it. “You’re the ones trespassing.”

“A Captain has a right to go anywhere, anytime.” Aleksei’s lips drew into a cruel sneer before he forced himself up, ignoring the spear and sword points that had been pointed at him. In one quick motion, he grabbed the nearest teen to him and flipped him over, making the youth drop the weapon he had been holding and pressed his face down to the ground. “You’re just useless game.”

“Finally.” The action made Dmitri spring up. He connected his fist to the closest persons nose. Aleksei could smell the blood in the air before hearing bones cracking.

It was refreshingly invigorating. Aleksei looked up in time to see Dmitri licking blood from his knuckles with a look of ecstasy. It made Aleksei shake his head slightly with a smile. He still didn’t get what was Dmitri’s fascination with blood no matter how often he asked his friend to try and explain it. Turning away, Aleksei noted one of the Meat-bags, a pimply faced creature, running towards him. He’s eyes narrowed, grabbing the guy in the middle and forcing him up. Stupid Meat-bags with their imbecilic fighting tactics.

“Aweksei?” A soft, almost tearful voice pulled his attention as he finished off his last opponent.

Aleksei turned to the doorway.

Teddy was standing there, squeezing the hopeless lump of mis-matched material. His tear-filled eyes widened when they landed on the strewn bodies on the ground. “Monsters.”

“Come on little one.” Aleksei reached down and picked the boy up, ignoring the question in Dmitri’s eye. Aleksei wasn’t in the mood for his friend’s remarks. “Let’s get you to the Underground with the other Meat-bags.”

Hopefully one of them would know who he belonged to.