Class for the day had ended, and it was on the training grounds behind the dojo, where each of the students had been dismissed.
To much surprise however, one student in particular had failed to make an appearance at any point, upon the scene. Many students had made note of this fact, while others had continued to focus on their lessons at hand.
It was at the well-beaten dummy post of this particular student, where Kazran had been glaring at from his own personally assigned post, that Karra was nowhere to be seen.
As the class was dismissed, Kazran dropped his guard, lowering his stance as the flood of students began gradually leaving the scene. This of course was a great concern to Kazran, as Karra had never before missed a single day.
Kazran stood there in thought, as the rest of the class finished clearing the area. Just as they did, a certain someone popped up to his side—running up and surprising him as they latched on and tugged at his arm.
Elijah, who didn't have the capabilities to train in the same manner as the class would, had been sitting off in the back corner of the training grounds, watching in wait for the class to end.
"Hey, Kaz~! Why hasn't Karra come to class?" Alena asked. She too was quite concerned.
Seeing as the class had come and end, and how Alena quickly moved from her post, Elijah stood up and pattered over behind her.
Tika and Maulana, who had also remained behind to be close to Alena, were surprised to see her interacting with Kazran in such a way.
"Wow, she's brave," Tika exclaimed among the two of themselves in surprise. "Do you think the two of them have gotten close?" she openly thought towards Maulana.
"I think she's just being a younger kid," Maulana answered back, though admittedly she too could hardly believe it.
Not many people would be brave enough to just latch-on to the star student like that—in fact, no one dared to even dream of it. Not that anyone was afraid. Kazran was a kind soul; he just tended to keep to himself.
"O— Alena..." Kazran softly muttered in surprise. He was caught quite off guard indeed.
As he took a moment to consider matters, he had a hunch, but wasn't entirely sure.
As he gazed down at nothing, he pondered.
"Is it because of what happened yesterday?" he inwardly thought.
"But that isn't like her at all..."
Kazran lifted his gaze upon Alena, as he began to answer her, "I'm not sure. Behavior of this degree isn't even remotely like her," he admitted.
"She has been reacting strangely lately," Maulana added in, "...and to not show up for our regular training, this is on a whole other level of being out of character for her. Did Karra lose another fight or something?"
"Eh—!" Kazran's eyes snapped wide in surprise, as he swept his attention from Maulana back over to Alena. "You haven't told them?" he asked her.
Alena cupped her paws together, tapping her sets of claws against one another in a nervousmanner.
"Ah, well... it hadn't exactly come up..." Alena answered. "You see, I was just so excited about what I saw you do yesterday, and I suppose I was a bit too interested in getting to start training after the promise you made me," she explained.
Both Tika and Maulana were both continuing to find themselves surprised, as their sets of eyes simultaneously drifted over to Alena with curiosity.
Maulana soon closed the distance, as she approached Alena to lay her hand just behind her shoulders momentarily.
"Did something happen?" Maulana asked her.
Alena looked over her shoulder to face her with a wide-eyedglance.
"Well, after everyone left yesterday..."
Closing his eyes to shake his head, Kazran soon interrupted.
"It's not really important. That whole matter is already done. The point is, Karra hasn't been behaving like herself. I know she's been worrying about her initiation a lot lately, but this is just out of line. The way I see it, these aren't behaviors she would just do."
Tika took a couple steps closer.
"Do you think there's an outside source of some kind—something pushing her to believe this way?" Tika asked.
"Would it be so impossible?" Kazran theorized.
As each individual spoke, Alena's gaze followed, and now she looked upon Kazran.
"'An outside source?'" she asked innocently.
"But what could possibly encourage Karra to act in such a way—to even miss class of all things?" Maulana asked.
"Maulana is right. It doesn't make any sense," Tika added in.
Kazran shook his head once again.
"I don't know, but I think the easiest way to find out would be to approach her about it directly," he insisted.
"Would she even talk to us? I mean, after the fight and all..." Alena asked.
In the middle of this conversation, Elijah had adjusted his footing, and leapt up to join everyone at eye level within Alena's dedicated harness.
Tika and Maulana froze again. They wanted to know more about it, but Kazran was right; talking about it wouldn't do anything to help.
There was a pause, and Kazran to a moment to consider Alena's question.
"So what do we do now?"
Maulana, who always looked up to Karra during her time here, wanted to get to the bottom of it all.
"I want to help Karra too," Tika chimed in, "She has always been with us. She may not be the nicest, but she's one of us."
Alena's eyes widened in awe of these spoken words, and not a moment later, Maulana, Kazran, and herself all nodded towards Tika in agreement.
"Then let's go find her. I think it would be best to check her dorm first, and spread out from there," Kazran suggested.
"Right!" the three girls agreed together.
With that, Alena, Kazran, Tika and Maulana—and of course Elijah—banded together as they set off heading in the direction of the dorms.
"I hope we find her..." Alena thought inwardly.
Inside the dojo's entrance hall, Kenrir has just given everyone the good news. Variann had awoken.
The shock of relief everyone had experienced wouldn't last long however, as two relatively young women would approach the dojo entrance with further news.
The relief and slight smile cut off of Malin's face, as Yonka silently touched his arm to grab his attention—the twins pausing for but a moment.
As everyone noticed Kenrir's silence and staring expression, as well as the silence from Malin, Sheila, Ulva and the Tanzha too went quiet. Once Malin turned his head to see who it was, and made eye contact, he knew immediately that there was something that needed to be discussed. That's when Malin and the twins made their way into the hall.
"I understand that we were to keep everyone away from here for the time being, but something important has come up," Yonka explained as the all stopped together inside the entrance hall.
"Master Ken, one of the students didn't show up for their lessons today," Ania added in. "It's a bit strange, as they had appeared for the lessons before, but this time they hadn't turned up at all."
This was quite unusual for Kenrir's class, as in all his years of teaching the arts, he had only ever come upon a missing student once, but that in itself was different matter entirely.
"Which student?" Kenrir inquired.
Ania and Yonka both turned their head to look back at one another, as they considered the potential weight of the student in question.
"It was Karra," Ania soon turned to answer.
As expected, the name alone evoked a slight reaction from Kenrir, as his demeanor perked up ever slighty at the mere mention.
"Young one, is your friend beginning to take after you now?" he thought inwardly. His expression soon faintly tensed up at the thought.
"I thank you for your dedication in overseeing my class over the time I've spent away, and as for this matter, I believe it is best we treat it as an urgent matter."
Kenrir turned his attention to The Tanzha as he continued to speak.
"If The Tanzha will please remain her to keep an eye while Variann rests, I would like to request each of your help in uncovering the whereabouts of my student," he said as he turned his gaze over everyone else mid sentence. "This could be a serious matter, so I would request that we make haste. I will head over to the student dorms and try to find her there first, but I would like everyone to be waiting outside just in case the situation is more serious than we expect."
Malin stepped forward towards Kenrir.
"Of course we'll help. Should it turn out we are indeed needed, I believe our willingness goes without question."
Even though they were still worried about their own matters, Sheila and Ulva both agreed with Malin's proclamation, as did Ania and Yonka who now stood beside them.
"Then let us be off," Kenrir said, as he began walking, passing between Malin as well as Ania and Yonka toward the exit, "And let's hope this is something we can resolve quickly."
With a case such as this one, Kenrir had every right to be on his toes.
Inside the dormitory just outside the property gates, Kazran, Alena, Tika and Maulana were approaching down the hall towards Karra's room.
As the group came close, Tika soon darted ahead, closing the distance to Karra's dorm as distance ahead of the others.
"It feels kind of strange coming over to her room after being shut out last time," Tika stated, as the others came up to the door with her.
"Here, let me," Maulana insisted, as she slipped up to Karra's door passed the others.
Tika stood aside.
Knock, knock, knock...
"Karra, are you in there? It's Maulana—" she called in.
Silence.
"Karra?" Maulana repeated.
Without much thought on the matter, Maulana decided to try the door.
The door to Karra's dorm cracked open, with barely so much as a touch.
Maulana hadn't even turned the handle. The gently swept open a crack, just as Maulana touched the handle.
As the door cracked open, Kazran, Tika and Maulana each tensed up, while Alena looked on with curiosity.
"Karra?" Maulana asked once more, as she pushed open the until her room was revealed.
Everyone's eyes had widened, and Elijah who has been perched in Alena's specially designed harness, had been propped over her shoulder as he sniffed the air.
The room was empty. Not quite packed, but it was clear that some items had been packed away, with Karra nowhere in sight.
"That's not good..." Kazran muttered, as everyone else stood frozen, eyeballing the scene.
A flock of crow-like birds fled from the trees of the forest, as down below two individuals were on the move through the forest depths.It was an unusual behavior, though Karra and Rammorias paid no mind to them whatsoever.
"Did we really have to leave days before the ceremony?" Karra asked out loud. "I didn't even get to get a hold of the new outfit Chiero was having made for me..."
Karra was quite on edge, but a clear part of her was also disappointed to be setting off in the same attire she had worn over her years of training.
Rammorias, who had been scanning the area while perched over Karra's shoulder, turned his piercing glare over to meet Karra's disapproving side-eyed stare.
"Are you really concerned about such trivial things?" Rammorias asked Karra within her mind. "Mere clothing is of no importance on this venture. You should being more focused on staying alive."
Karra's stare tensed. She didn't fully agree, but she was putting her trust into Rammorias as he had been quite convincing in declaring she wouldn't well last without him—and she was too exhausted to argue.
"What are you even looking for anyways?" she asked him. "You've been looking all over the place since we got out here."
Rammorias had already said his piece, and had now decided to ignore her. He had something far more desirable on his mind than spending his energy explaining himself—as Karra herself wasn't the point in all this.
In mere moments, Rammorias' sharp eyes widened, as he had felt something he had been waiting for approaching from the distance. Rammorias stared off into the distance, putting on a wicked grin with an ominous glimmer in his eyes.
"It's HERE—!!"