Who The Hell Is Main Character?

Night sat heavy on the upper ridges of the IAA Island.

Four cadets had claimed a flat shelf of stone halfway up the mountain path, far enough from the main towers that the lights looked like scattered embers below.

Two boys, two girls, couples. A portable grill hissed between them, fat dripping from thick cuts of steak onto the coal with sharp, fragrant pop.

A dark glass bottle of high-grade alcohol especially for awakeners stood open in the grass.

Strong enough that ordinary humans could pass out just from its scent.

One of the girls turned a piece of meat with tongs, one of the boys laughed low. The second girl leaned into her partner’s shoulder, bare legs stretched toward the warmth.

Plates were ready, cups were rested, and the night felt peaceful.

Then the undergrowth ten meters upslope rustled, and all four heads turned.

A man wearing a dirty brown coat, disheveled hair with strands covering his eyes, and leaves on shoulders, stepped out of the trees.

Marcellus Severan had appeared.

He looked at the grill, the steak, the bottle, the four staring faces, and the dark drop of the valley beyond their little shelf of stone.

For a moment, the only sounds were the crackle of fat on coal and the wind moving through the pines.

Marcellus lifted one hand in a polite greeting.

"Evening," he said.

The girl with the tongs squinted, and jerked her head forward, looking at him.

"Wait...why do you look like the Severan heir?" she asked.

"I don’t think someone like him would wander off anywhere except his luxury suite and main tower," her partner said to her and looked at the man.

"Anyways, you seem tired, do you want to rest for a while?" he then looked at Marcellus.

"Don’t mind if I do," Marcellus picked up an empty chair, and sat in the centre of couples sitting opposite to each other.

"So...what brings you here in this area, Mister...?" The same boy asked for his name, while handing him an empty disposable cup.

"Marcellus. Marcellus Severan," he replied, while accepting the cup.

"Haha, my girl was just being humorous, you don’t need to portray that character now, but...keep your secrets if you want," The boy picked up a bottle of liquor and poured one in Marcellus’s cup.

Marcellus didn’t bother to correct him.

He looked at the liquor in the cup, and jugged it in one go.

"Eh..." the boy stopped half-way reaching the bottle of water to mild the flavor.

"You’re the neat type, I see," he said.

Marcellus set the empty cup down without comment. The boy blinked, then laughed, and poured again. Marcellus accepted it, and drank it clean again.

He drank a cup, then two, then three, and by five, he exhaled once and stood up.

The world tilted half a degree for him.

"Thank you for the rest," he said. "And the drinks, too."

He turned toward the open edge of the stone ridge, and below the valley dropped into darkness of the jungles of IAA.

"Ah right...The main tower. Do any of you know the most direct---"

His foot found a patch of loose scree at the very lip of the edge.

The sentence never finished. One moment he was upright, the next...he was simply gone.

"...He really is Marcellus," the girl whispered.

"Hmm? Why didn’t you say so before?" The boy asked.

"I’m just believing that, he’ll survive since he’s a pillar, right?" she asked.

"..." The boy walked over to the ridge, and nodded.

"I guess," he said.

Marcellus rolled in the mud. He fell, and fell, and continued falling.

It lasted longer than he expected.

Wind tore at his coat, branches whipped past in dark streaks. He hit a slope of loose earth.

He landed hard on his side in a shallow gully of wet leaves and black soil.

"Haa---" The impact drove the air out of him in a single rough sound.

Then he pushed himself up onto one elbow. A wooden sign stood three meters away, half-swallowed by the ground.

The lettering was still clear under the moonlight.

{IAA WILDLIFE RESERVE: Restricted Zone}

{Strictly No Entry.}

Marcellus stared at it.

"I’m fine...totally fine," he repeated.

He got to his knees, then to his feet. The world swayed once and settled. Mud and elaf litter covered him from shoulder to boot.

"I’m fine," he repeated, quieter this time.

*Grrroooaaah*

A low sound moved through the trees to his left. A second growl answered it from the right, then multiple roars followed by rustling in the trees.

Marcellus looked at the sign one last time.

"...Ok, I’m not fine," he said.

---

The final loop of the night run followed the outer service road that skirted the lower edge of the restricted zone.

Twelve cadets moved in loose pack, boots striking in uneven rhythm.

They had no shirts on, only regulation dark pants and the sheen of hard effort. Sweat ran in clean lines down the spine and sternums, darkened waistbands.

They breathed heavily, and last kilometer had burned their stamina.

"Left-right-left-right-left-right," the one leading the run, now didn’t even want to call out the steps.

Suddenly, the bushes on the far side of the fence exploded.

Marcellus burst through a gap at full sprint, with brown coat torn at one shoulder, covered in mud and leaf litter.

He hit the service road at a dead run and joined the run beside the cadets.

"Evening!" he managed between breaths.

"Do not slow down!" he picked up the pace and started running faster than them.

"What’s up with the weirdo---" the leader was about to speak something when he saw a massive shape crash into the service road.

Broad, low impossibly fast for its bul. And then two similar ones.

Hippos. A full family unit with jaws open, water streaming down hides, tearing across the wrong side of the fence.

"What the fu---" they screamed, and picked up the pace with Marcellus.

"WHAT IS THIS MADNESS!!!" Someone screamed trying to sprint even faster.

Marcellus glanced behind him and the hippos were closing the distance.

He looked at the leader running beside him.

"ARE THEY USUALLY THIS FAST?" He screamed a question.

"WELL I DON’T GET CHASED BY HIPPOS OFTEN TO KNOW THAT!" The leader screamed back.

A blur of blue hair suddenly appeared from the trees ahead, and someone else began running toward them.

The man looked at the approaching group, and waved his hand.

Then he looked at the hippos chasing them, and his eyes widened.

"Marcellus!" Brody called out, and caught up into the run beside Marcellus.

"WHO ARE YOU NOW?" Marcellus asked.

"BRODY JAXON, CAME TO FIND YOU!" Brody screamed back.

Brody glanced back.

"Why are we all running in a straight line?" he asked.

"He’s right!" Marcellus said.

"The fuck do you mean he’s right?" the leader asked back.

"Let’s split up here, Brody go right, I’ll go left, you guys disperse on your own," Marcellus said.

"Everyone heard him, at the junction, separate."

The formation broke apart, four went left, three disappeared right, others scattered down different stretches of the service road.

Marcellus then looked at Brody.

"Let’s split here," he said.

Brody nodded, and took the other road.

’Wait...Why did I just split from him? I came here to find him!’ he slid to a stop.

"WAIT!" Brody turned around and sprinted after him.

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