72: Sibling Hunters In The North

Among the four people who walked down the beach towards where Nyssa and Celeste sat, two had familiar faces. As far as Nyssa and Celeste could tell, these four had all been a part of the initial strike team playing beach volleyball on the beach. Still in their swimsuits, they made quick progress down the beach towards the two sitting girls.

“... Hi?” Nyssa broke the silence this time as the four hunters came within earshot. She waved, fluttering her fingers. Her face broke into a slight smile as they waved back, their hardened expressions from battle softening as they walked closer. Their footsteps against the wet sand slowed as they came to a stop at a comfortable distance away from the two girls.

The tide, having retreated, left the waves far from the rock Nyssa and Celeste sat on. Now, only the gentlest sounds of waves crashing filled the ears of the six people.

“We were just curious,” Kallix shrugged, stroking his chin. “About who the new faces were. This town is small. It's rare to see new young faces, especially ones who don’t run away when a fight as grand as this breaks out.”

“I told you they were tough,” The woman with gray-hair from earlier crossed her arms, shifting her weight from one side of her hips to the other. She nodded upward with a faint smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “My name’s Mira by the way.”

“Yeah, she was a little preoccupied earlier.” Kallix patted Mira on the shoulder. The pat echoed with the sound of skin being slapped as Mira scowled and ‘patted’ Kallis back on the shoulder. Unfazed by the retaliation, he rolled his shoulder. “Of course, I was too. Anyway. Enough about us. Who are you two new faces?”

Nyssa and Celeste turned to look at each other for a second. Nyssa shrugged before nudging Celeste with her elbow. Over the course of half-a-second, they traded an entire conversation between their eyes—with Nyssa winning with the “you’re the older one” reasoning.

Though only older by a handful of months, Celeste relented with a roll of her eyes. She squeezed Nyssa around the wait, half out of revenge, as she turned to face the four figures in front of them. “We’re both students here in the north for a training excursion. We just arrived earlier today so that’s probably why you all don’t recognize us.”

“Training excursion? So young too...” The man standing beside Kallix murmured with a slight twinkle of interest appearing in his eyes. “What school are you two a part of if you don’t mind us asking? The north is quite brutal, so it's rare for any place to come out here.”

“We’re both part of the Luminary Institute,” Celeste smiled, the faintest hint of pride slipping into her voice. “Class Zero is just doing a training field trip for the next while. We’re practicing taking on a mission? In all honesty though, Nyssa and I are the youngest in Class Zero, so we’ll be doing the least.”

“I’m sure you two will do a lot nonetheless,” Mira raised her eyebrows as everyone else let out murmurs of amazement. “Being part of the Luminary Institute does explain some things. You all are still greenhorns though, so stay safe. How many others are also here?”

“There are seven of us students, plus our teacher,” Nyssa spoke up, letting Celeste take a break from carrying the entire conversation.

“So a pretty large class right now... huh.”

“You didn’t know? It was on the news a while back when Slade and his team of heroes went to the Institute.”

“We’re so far north I don’t pay attention to that type of news. It’s quite possibly the greatest waste of time for me.”

“Fair.”

“Who are... you all then?” Nyssa ventured as the conversation came to a bit of a lull. “I live under a rock, sorry, so I don’t know any of the famous heroes or hunters...”

“We’re not that famous don’t worry,” Kallix laughed, brushing his white hair back. “Us four, plus one more who’s organizing the clean-up right now, have our own team. Other than Mira though, you two should introduce yourselves.”

“I’m Kael, Kallix’s fraternal twin,” A more slender man with black hair waved. With a sword in each hand, plus another two swords at his waist, plus another sword strapped across his back, he clanked with every movement.

After Kael, the woman with a brown-hair bob smiled and gave a wave of her own. “I’m Seraph. Pleasure to meet you two! Our friend who’s organizing the clean up is called Orin by the way, just so you two don’t need to ask later.”

“Cool... cool,” Nyssa furrowed her eyebrows, doing her best to commit the names to memory.  She and Celeste nodded in unison as the hunters broke into some casual conversation. As their conversation continued, Celeste and Nyssa also introduced themselves. After their introductions though, Nyssa couldn't help but ask a couple more questions. “What do you all do then on a daily basis? We saw you all playing beach volleyball earlier, but somehow a battle broke out and now there’s an entire emergency response team...”

“That’s... a little complicated,” Kael coughed as Seraph and the others broke into laughter.

“C’mon team leader!” Kallix punched Kael’s shoulder. “You should explain!”

Unlike his brother, Kael had a quiet voice, so as the group quieted down, he elaborated. “We’re in charge of patrolling this beach; however, not much happens on the regular and beaches are quite nice. Thus, we’ve set up volleyball nets to play while we put our weapons nearby. Plus, as an added bonus, we gave the community some more recreational areas. They're nice too since we’re maintaining them with our own money instead of handing it over to the local government.”

With the rest of the team breaking into applause—Kallix at the lead—Kael scowled. As time passed though, the smile tugging at the sides of his mouth won out and he began laughing.

“Our glorious leader,” Mira raised her eyebrows while clapping. “How does it feel to lead us to the promised land?”

“It feels great...” Kael trailed off while motioning for them to quiet down. “Sorry about that Nyssa and Celeste. Any other questions? Otherwise we’ll be heading off soon. It was a pleasure to meet some new faces in the area though.”

“Ah, do you know where the hunter’s association is? We were told we should visit sometime today,” Nyssa tapped her chin, remembering Angelica’s words from before.

“It’s the only nice building really...” Seraph scratched the back of her head as the others nodded in agreement. “It’s near the center of town though, one street off of the main shopping district. So head there. We’ll be there for a fair chunk of the day too, so say hi if you do see us!”

“Make sure to.” “It was a pleasure meeting you two.” “See you around.”

“Thank you,” Celeste waved as they all began walking off. “See you around!”