Ash POV

Water, coffin, red, blood, blonde, savior, angel, chaos.

The water bubbles around me like an underwater volcano about to erupt, although the temperature my body was radiating was one of icy coldness.

Not to mention that it felt as though I were constrained. My legs, they were bound together. Oh god. Please. Please no. Not again. Not again. Not again. Why. Why me?!

Water.

My arms were free at my sides, but I could feel darkness pressing in around me. I was in a box. It felt along the sides of a coffin.

I try to scream, but no sounds leave my vocal chords. My throat burns as the oxygen bubbles swarm around me, yet I couldn't absorb any.

Why why why why why why why??

My fists hurt now, and were mostly likely bleeding. I couldn't feel or see anything, the water has frozen me and no light filters through the box.

Water, coffin, red, blood, blonde, savior, angel, chaos.

After what seems like an eternity, I stop fighting. The bottom half of my body, which has fused together to form form what feels like a tail. It flutters in the slight current that seems to have managed to weasel it's way through non- existent cracks in my death-box.

Coffin.

My eyes flutter closed. Maybe they were never opened in the first place.

After an eternity. I see red through my eyelids and I am blinded.

Red.

I feel soft arms around me, lifting me, cradling my body. I flail limply, but pain flares through my tail.

I can't open my eyes. I won't open my eyes. I have to open my eyes, don't I? Who was floating with me in the current? Who was lifting me? Or were they sinking, pushing me closer to the seabed? I had to know.

My eyes flash open. The first place I look is down. Red, flashes of red and wounds. Cuts and scabs. Hair, floating around me, matted, somehow, even in water.

Blood.

Next, I gaze above. Gold. I see gold. But no- a face sharpens into focus, and what is floating around it as it looks at me is not Gold, but hair.

Blonde.

It was a male. He was lifting me towards the surface, I could see the moon above us. The air bubbles flowing from his mouth every few seconds rising towards the silver steadily. Faster and faster we rose until we broke the surface and I am choking for air.

Saviour.

My legs split into two as we continue to rise, and what feels like a blanket surrounds me. Feathers, I discover. Feathers like no one has ever seen.

Angel.

We are so high in the air, but I don't feel the cold, not after being trapped for so long in the ice. So, so long.

It is then I look down. It is then that see what is happening. People, thousands of mer people, floating in the water, motionless. The screams and shrieks of the wounded haunt me. I twist around in his arms and bury my face in his wings as we fly.

I look up.

His eyes are so green, so bright and like the emeralds in the underwater city- so like the jewels that are carved in my trident.

They are so beautiful, so angelic... so...

Chaotic.

I explode into a shower of glory, and I feel no more.

Chaos.

~~○~~

The murmur of voices are low, but harsh, and everything was muffled, as though I were listening through water. I can only distinguish two different people whispering, one clearly male and the other female.

Their voices raise to a low yelling and I am awakened abruptly when my name is called. But it wasn't quite my name. It sounded more like 'Aislinn', like the first shifter we are learning about in history with Mr Matholeil.

"You saw what happened.... yeah... you're lucky there was nobody else in the room when it did." The female voice practically screeches at whoever is being subjected to her lecture.

There's a murmur in reply, and I strain to hear what they're saying.

"She frikking glowed, Will!" I now know it's Sam and her twin in the room. What room was I in, anyway?

I crack my eyes open, very slightly. There are two bleary figures at the foot of the wooden bed in my dorm room. Will was facing away from me, his hair shining golden in the sunlight filtering through the transparent curtains behind the headboard. He seems to be slightly curled in on himself, his hands on his knees.

Sam was in front of him, pacing back and forth in front of her brother, her hair a mess of tangles and a wild look in her eyes.

"We could be found out, Will! Then what would we do? Huh?" Sam's arm drops from behind her neck, and she slumps beside her twin, making sure her elbow whacks his side as she does so.

"Oh God... Will... Oh God Oh God" My hand goes to my face, which was throbbing only slightly less than I thought it would have. Will jumps up from my position, startled. He looks like a deer caught in headlights. He slowly makes his way to the side of the bed as I sit up. He doesn't speak as  I pull the duvet off of myself, standing. I was still in my training clothes. At least they were comfortable.

Sam just looks up at me dejectedly. Her hands are limp on either side of her knees, knuckles facing the ceiling. They're swollen and split, as red as my hair.

"Oh God," I'm breathing heavily now.

"Yes, yes. We've gotten to this point already. Consruct your sentence properly. Please and thank you. You may continue," Sam sweeps her arm in an impatient manner. What crawled up her arse and died recently?

"I'm not twelve years old am I?" My voice is low. My eyes flick over to Will, but he looks away quickly. Now I know why. But that wasn't going to happen. Not now.

I walk calmly to Will, who backs away only slightly, his eyes finally meeting mine. I don't know what he was expecting. But I didn't care what he thinks anymore.

I slap him. Hard.

"You're an arsehole, you know that, right?" I cock my head, but Will just stares at me in shock, touching his cheek, surprise written all over his perfect face. Ugh. He doesn't look as though he's in pain, but there's an obvious mark blooming on his face in the shape of my hand.

He finally speaks, "I know?" His tone is questioning. Why would he question such an obviously stated fact.

"When did this start William, huh? When did it start?" I'm shouting now, and I wouldn't be surprised if steam was pumping from every pore of my skin.

When he doesn't answer, I stalk away, heading for the door. Sam trys to pull me back by the arm, but I shove her off and fling open the door. Naomi is sitting on a newly erected, floating cushion that vanishes as soon as I storm put the door, and I storm past Naomi now, just as she is speaking.

"Ash- thank God you're awake- you were knocked out for a few hours there, we think Molly used some magic on you, aswell-" She doesn't get to finish her blabbering as I clatter down the stairs, practically running.

The halls are strangely empty. It must be dinner time, and everyone would be in the dining hall by now. As if on cue, my stomach demonstrates a slightly toned down version of the girls' snoring habits.

I try to smother back the tears as best I can, but one escapes my eye. Before I know it, I'm full on sobbing. Deep, chesty sobs. I try to muffle them, though that just makes my throat hurt.

I stumble into the first floor balcony before I slow down. I curl in upon myself and walk in the direction of Mariella's office and quarters.

I sniffle and try to gather my self before I enter, wiping my nose on the red sleeve of my top. I must look a mess, there was probably still dried blood on my face, wearing crumbled training gear and my hair falling out of my ponytail. I lift my hand in a fist to knock on the door. I pause. Low voices filter out through the crack at the base of the door. They were only low murmurs, but they sound rushed, strained.

I lower my hand and softly set my ear in the carved wood, my enhanced senses easily picking up the voices now. I recognise Mariella's first, as she was the one speaking at the moment.

"We must prepare ourselves, we don't want to put warriors out there that are untrained and with little armour," her voice is sharp, but it hints at exhaustion, sounding tired and beaten. I imagine her with her head in her hand, a most likely beautiful dress spread around her like a peacock's tail.

The next voice to speak up is Mari's sister, Aurelia.

"But we must sister. The Braiwnors have declared war. They hunt our kind for sport. We have no idea when they will attack. Or how. We need to call in the royal guard." Aurelia's voice is desperate, pleading with her sister.

"That will not be necessary, sister."

"It is, you know that, remember what happened last time-"

"I know exactly what happened last time!" There is an angry slam, and I let out a small yelp of surprise and quickly slap my hand over my mouth.

The room is deadly quiet now. Ashlyn, you idiot, they probably heard you. They're bloody shifting beasts with highly advanced senses. Dumbass.

My heart is beating in my throat. I can hear it racing a million miles a minute.

I dash towards the staircase and patter down them hastily. I sprint across the entrance hall, barely hearing the doors of the dining hall open and the babble of my classmates before I burst out of the small side door and into the cold air.

I shift, and it comes swiftly and without pain this time. Why, I don't know the answer to that. I can guess though. I can only guess at what I had learned now.

The Braiwnors have declared war.

They hunt our kind for sport.

I roar, my jaws open wide. I feel the dirt tremble below me as I dig my class into the ground and hurl myself into the air, wings open wide and now impossibly larger since the last time I had shifted.

Pure, undiluted rage.