Chadwick stared at the two sat by the window. His face a mask of disbelief. He’d never been turned down before, people had always flocked to him, trying to get close to his family, trying to elevate themselves. Chadwick’s father, like Liam’s, was also an A rank adventurer, and was quite prominent within the wind faction, his family had had a seat at the wind faction’s surveying council for generations and so was not used to being told no. So when Liam had turned him down, he was speechless, he’d never been in that situation before. That speechlessness soon passed though. His face darkened in anger and he sent piercing eyes towards Wren.

“You!” He seethed, pointing a long finger in Wren’s direction.

The group surrounding Chadwick looked at each other uneasily, they didn’t know him well but they knew that this was not the time to be getting in a fight. They didn’t know if the instructors would get involved or if they would be punished.

“Come on, lets go, don’t waste your time with this rabble Chadwick.” One of the boys in his group said.

“Yeah, they’re not worth the air you breathe.” One of the girls said, looping her arm through his.

Chadwick looked down at the girl, he couldn’t remember her name, but she was pretty. He gave a little nod to her and turned from the two boys sat by the window.

“You’ll regret this.” He called out, walking away.

Wren and Liam shared a look, both breathing a sigh of relief. They hadn’t been on this new planet more than twelve hours and they’d already made enemies. But Liam had called Wren his friend. Wren was grateful; Liam hadn’t kicked him to the curb as soon as he got a better offer as so many had before.

“Well that was eventful.” Liam laughed.

“You’re telling me.” Wren chuckled. “Who is he?”

“I think his name was Chadwick.”

“I know his name you dumbass. I mean who is he?”

Liam rested a fist beneath his chin, as if in a thinking pose and flashed Wren a grin.

“Do you know what the surveying council is?” Liam asked.

“It’s people who run the factions right?” Wren replied.

“Right. Each faction has a surveying council, they are made up of a group of families who basically make all the big decisions. Think like a government for people with elemental powers.” Liam explained.

“Is your dad on the council?”

“No. He’s always preferred to work with the adventurer’s guild, stay under the radar you know?”

“Then how come he’s an instructor? Aren’t the academies run by the council?” Wren questioned.

“That I couldn’t tell you. We don’t really speak much these days. Today was the first time I’ve seen him in months.” Liam said, his voice turning hard.

He turned to look out the window, seeming to not want to talk about it any longer. For a moment the bright smile on his face had dropped and Wren could see a sadness in his eyes. Obviously his father was a sore subject for Liam. As an orphan, Wren didn’t know what to do, or what to say. He’d never had a dad, so he didn’t know what it was like to have an absent one.

“I’m gonna go see if this magical flying ship has a toilet, I’ll be back in a few.”

“Don’t get lost.” Liam laughed.

~

As it turned out, the magical flying ship did indeed have a toilet. Quite a few in fact.

If Wren thought the Ark was big from the outside, it was nothing in comparison to the inside. The large main seating area that he had come from was just a drop in the ocean in comparison to the rest of the ship. The sprawling upper deck could quite easily fit over a thousand people, it was fitted with large medieval like canons and harpoon stations that had large chairs and complicated looking aiming systems, it was clear that the Ark was decked out for battle. The lower decks had hundreds of rooms, from large meeting rooms, a huge sleeping quarters with hundreds of hanging hammock beds, a bar and kitchen, recreation rooms, the ship even had a sauna.

Although Wren knew that Liam had been joking about him getting lost, it was actually more difficult not to. There was no map of the ship, nor were there directions, it was clear that without an intrinsic knowledge of the ship anyone who found themselves wandering about would be lost as Wren was.

After meandering about and poking his head into a countless number of rooms, on one such occasion getting a blast of very hot air to the face, Wren finally found a toilet and relieved himself.

He’d spent more time trying to find a toilet than actually going to the toilet and he was not looking forward to the garbs he would receive from Liam when he returned. He wondered if the boy was worried about him. He’d called Wren his friend, but was that true or was he just saying that to get rid of Chadwick, maybe Wren just made a suitable excuse.

Finding his way back towards the main seating area was a lot easier than finding the toilet, but his journey was interrupted when he turned a corner and stumbled into a hard wall of muscle. Wren had been surprised that he hadn’t seen any of the other recruits on his search for a toilet, he would have thought that a group of a couple hundred teenagers would be dying to explore the Ark.

“Well look who we have here.”

Wren cringed at the voice. It was just his luck, of all the people to bump into on the way back to the seating area it had to be Chadwick. He was once again surrounded by his goons, at least five of them, all taller than Wren and all looking at him with menacing eyes.

“Chadwick, lovely to see you again. We must stop bumping into each other like this.” Wren said, stepping to the side to move past the large boy.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Chadwick said, gripping Wren tightly on the shoulder from behind. He pulled him back and shoved him hard up against the wall. His grip was firm and Wren could hardly move from his place on the wall.

Chadwick moved in closer, bringing his face close to Wren’s. He could see the hostility in the boys eyes, burning like a wildfire.

“Jeez, if you’re gonna come any closer, at least buy me dinner first.” Wren quipped.

“I told you you’ll regret it.” Chadwick said.