Lunch was uneventful. Wren had expected to be dodging Chadwick and his friends, avoiding dirty looks and perhaps being on the receiving end of some light mockery. But the boy and his friends were nowhere to be seen. Wren, Liam and Carlos had even gone inside for lunch as it was looking pretty overcast. Wren wondered if Chadwick had in fact gotten some sort of punishment for using his abilities, it would make sense why he was absent from the cafeteria. Maybe the director was giving him a stern talking to as they were sat there chatting away. That thought made Wren happy. Almost as happy as the food on his plate.

In front of him Wren had a couple slices of pizza and a fruit salad. He wolfed down the pizza quickly, savouring the greasy goodness of the cheese but he was sat staring at the bowl of fruit with cautious eyes.

“It’s not going anywhere.” Said Liam noticing Wren looking at the fruit.

Wren looked up at Liam and blushed a little. Embarrassed to be caught looking at the fruit so intently. He lifted a slice of orange to his mouth and bit into it softly. His eyes widened in shock as the fruit juice poured into his mouth and attacked his tastebuds with flavour.

“Oh my god.” Wren said.

“Good right.” Liam said smirking, to which Wren nodded vehemently.

Carlos watched the interaction between the two boys in confusion.

“Where abouts are you from on Earth to have never tasted an orange?” He asked.

“District 8-12.” Wren said matter of factly.

“Oh.” Carlos said, wishing he could bite back his words. “Sorry to hear that.”

“What about you?” Wren asked.

“District 4-92.” Carlos replied.

“District 8-70.” Liam said.

“Ah the posh bit, of course you’re from there.” Wren said to Liam.

“So you’ve never had fruit before?” Carlos asked Wren.

Wren sighed, and placed a piece of apple in his mouth.

“Carlos—” Liam said.

“It’s okay, I shouldn’t have blown up like that at you the other day, it wasn’t your fault. No, I’ve never had fruit before.”

“So what did you eat?” Carlos asked.

“Anything I could get my hands on really. Believe it or not orphanages aren’t all that big on sharing, they’d give us maybe one meal a week, if we were lucky. The rest of the time you just had to fend for yourself. Even then it was just a lot of processed factory food. I think by the time I was ten at least half my body was plastic.” Wren chuckled.

“That must have been difficult.” Carlos said.

“It is what it is. I’m here now anyway. Damn you were right Liam, apple is incredible.”

Both Carlos and Liam got the message that he didn’t want to talk about it anymore, so instead decided to move onto a different topic.

“So did you guys catch onto what Lops was saying at the end of the lesson. An expedition to hunt and study monsters.” Liam said.

“I know right, sounds pretty cool.” Wren said.

“I do wonder if we’ll be ready by then though.” Carlos chimed in. “I mean we can only use the wind slice.”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine, it’s a while away anyway and we’ll have instructors with us.” Liam responded.

“I wonder if Anastasia will go.” Wren said, more to himself than anyone else.

Liam and Carlos gave each other a look, sharing a smile.

“Anastasia ay?”

“You’re on first name basis with Instructor Penn then?”

“Now why would you want her there?”

“You couldn’t have any ulterior motives for wanting her to come could you?”

Wren blushed heavily, spluttering and starting. He waved a hand in the air as if to dismiss their preposterous allegations.

“I simply respect her skills and think she would be a useful to have around in a tight spot.”

“Oh is that what it is.” Liam teased, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah you should have seen her yesterday. She was incredible. She appeared next to me in an instant and then used this crazy ability to stop Chadwick’s wind slice before it hit me.”

At the mention of a new ability both Liam and Carlos became more serious, dropping their teasing in favour of learning about the instructors powers.

“What did it look like?” Asked Liam.

“It was like this shimmering barrier, as soon as the wind slice touched it, it kind of winked out of existence.” Wren told them.

“Sounds like the wind wall to be honest.” Carlos said.

“The wind wall?” Wren questioned.

“Yes, it’s a defensive ability, like a shield but bigger, it will block projectiles heading towards you. I’ve heard of quite a few elementals with that ability.” Said Carlos.

“Interesting. I wonder if one of us will get that ability.” Wren said.

“Who knows, I don’t think we have much control over which abilities we unlock.”

“I just hope we unlock a few more before the expedition. I don’t really want to be going up against a Dusk Vulture with only the wind slice.” Liam said.

“I hear that.” Wren agreed.

“We’ll have armaments by then as well so they should help.” Carlos said.

“Speaking of, that’s the next lesson and I still have no clue what an armament is.” Wren remarked.

“It’s your weapon. You know how monsters drop materials?” Liam explained with Wren nodding along in understanding. “It can be anything from meat, like that pepperoni you were eating earlier, to something more obscure which can be used to craft weapons.”

“Weapons crafted from monster parts are the only things, other than abilities, that are able to harm them.” Carlos continued on.

“Fight fire with fire and all that.” Wren said following.

“Exactly. That’s what an armament is, a weapon crafted from monster parts. They’re stronger and tougher than regular weapons and some even have buffs and inherent abilities.”

“I heard that in ultra rare cases, some monsters will drop a weapon ready made, you don’t even have to take it to a smith.” Carlos said.

“That barely ever happens though.”

“What does your dad use?” Wren asked Liam.

“A sword. He’s never let me see it though.”

“Do you think you’ll use the same?”

“Probably. What about you? Do you have any idea what weapon you’d want?” Liam returned.

“I guess we’ll see.”