NOVEL NEXT Ch.41: Burning Pain and Honest Tails
Having to swallow my anger to make it through the day, I spent most of my energy trying to keep my thoughts calm all while my mind was screaming and swearing up a shit storm. My scales pinched and my muscles were constantly pinched or stabbed as I had to fight myself from squashing Jaque and running down the halls to give this naga a nice little haircut.
I had to spend most of Jaque’s training period practicing his breathing techniques by mostly forcefully pushing out the air in my lungs before slowly sucking in a stream of air. All the while my head began to pinch and throb from the anger my mind was dishing out. It screamed for just retribution, that respect be taught in the most painful manner, that the source of my pain be dealt with NOW!
Realizing how even my body fought, pushed and pulled, I finally had to ask him for some more calming or controlling techniques which he gave an quick nod.
“Since I have shown you how to strengthen rocks and it seems you have begun to fully understand this, you shall learn about mana channeling.” He said placing his hand on his chest before looking me in the eyes. “Focus your mana into your palm and chest. Circle it like it is batter, tighten and loosen before letting it out.” He pulled his hand away from his chest, opening it to the air. “Release it as if a breath.” He finished. His body seemed to lose some tension as he opened his hand. But his eyes held a deep concern and sadness that only made the anger burn hotter, turning away I only replied with a slight frown.
Placing my hand on my chest, I accidently cupped my weights, polluting my senses with a warm excited zap, making my shoulders tense up. Damn it. Looking at Jaque, he wisely was watching the door so I quickly slid my hand up until it was above my collarbone. But oddly enough the accidental touch even brought my mind snapping to attention like it was looking were I was looking.
Remembering the stream, I focused it on my hand and my chest, I could feel heat traveling up my arm and into my palm and likewise flowing into my chest. Letting the mana move around my body wasn’t easy as it would spread out into my body if I didn’t keep focus and the gathered mana wouldn’t hold its shape, almost feeling like I was trying to mold water or dry sand. But at the same time the energy that built up from my anger seemed to sink into the gathering mana. It was almost like it was huge lump breaking into smaller clumps.
The more I gathered my mana the more my mind seemed to sigh like a grumpy rich girl. The anger was still there but it wasn’t as strong as before! This made me super excited at the possibility of finally having control over these crazy instincts but this only allowed the gathered mana to spill back into my body, turning the grumpy girl into a raging demon that roared loud enough that I slammed my claws into the ground. Gouging out a large rock before crushing like a piece of soft bread. All while my wings began closing up around me and warming up. I could feel my once gathered mana pooling into certain spots in my wings, quickly filling them while I started getting nice and toasty in my wing hug. That’s when my mind screamed, popping them open and releasing a scorching heat wave that burned the air and melted the floor around me.
This eruption of heat only made me redouble my efforts to contain the anger I felt simmering within me.
Luckily I managed to calm myself just enough that I could handle the rest of class before the day was over. But the worst part was how that heatwave burned my clothes, I looked like some school bully you’d see in anime mixed with some middle schooler. This made everyone stare a lot longer than I was used to. Plus with the left over bits of anger my mind was boiling over, left me feeling like I was covered in sticky ooze. Jaque didn’t warn me or even tried to delay that fucking anal show, what was I to him? Some show pony? But if I drop him where am I going to learn how to control my instincts? SHIiiiiiiiiiiiit.
At the end of school Steph approached me before I could rush home, change and try to burn off any leftover anger.
“Hey Oliver. I noticed how you were grinding your teeth so why don’t we go do something fun?” She asked with a hopeful smile. I knew I rejected her idea to be partners but I guess she wants to get closer anyway?
“I don’t know, I had a rough time in my mana training class and these clothes aren’t exactly in the best condition either.” I grumbled but tried to stay polite.
“Please? I Know a good boba place~” she begged before trying to bribe me with sweet drinks. I really want to go home but at the same time a boba might cleanse my shoty soul……………………………. “It’s right next to a good taco place~” She added with a sly smile.
“Fine! You brought me.” I agreed like a grump, a happy one. I guess she knows me better than I thought or she asked Kathy….She better not use this to get me to go places but good meat is hard to say no to, even boba or milkshakes for that matter. This might help clear my head too or at least get a breather.
We made our way to my house to get a quick change of clothes, Steph told me she was hoping Emily would come but apparently she wanted to prepare for the written quiz.
“You can tell she’s serious when she tightens that head band around her head.” Steph started laughing. “The face she makes surprised me that I screamed. It was all stiff and her eyes looked dead!” She shivered at the thought. But I guess it didn’t help that I saw a horror movie earlier.” She admitted with an embarrassed shrug.
“Must’ve been pretty graphic film if a drowsy looking Emily was enough to scare you.” I said with a smirk.
“You’d think. But it was one of those older low budget films! But I think it being in black and white played a part.” She said thoughtfully. “Anyway is this your house? You don’t live too far from school either. Guess that means your parents can just show up whenever.” She said in annoyance.
“You too?” I asked empathically.
“Yup.” She nodded like a dying robot.
Walking in, Steph looked around with huge curious eyes, scanning everything and even got pretty close to matching my height! Looking at her sudden growth spurt, I realized that she was using more of her tail to push herself to a taller height. Riiiiight a snake’s body is all muscle. I lowered my brow at my ignorance.
She whistled as she looked around. ”Your house is pretty big! You could fit twenty or thirty of me and still have space!” why would I stuff that many lamia in one place? Before I could ask she rushed off to the kitchen. “Is that a walk in fridge!?” She poked her head out to look at me, eyeing my body almost expecting there to be a huge gut. “OOooh!” she said in realization before going back to the kitchen like it was nothing.
Making a confused face. “I’m not fat! I just need to feed these muscles.” I called as I began to make my way to my room.
“Suuuuuurrre~” She snickered. “A girl has to look their best.” I think I heard her mumble.
“What!?” I asked with suspicion.
“I uh said I’ll grab some water!” she quickly called back like I caught her hand in a cookie jar.
Sure you did. Walking into my room, I quickly discard the slightly crispy clothes and a quick rush to my dresser, pulling out a pair of jean shorts and a baggy white t-shirt with a pink band around the top. It looked alright but….. my mirror companion was missing something, hmmmmm.
“You could try brushing your hair back.” Suggested Steph. Surprising me into quickly looking at her. “I got curious and went looking around. You look cute by the way.” She added with an innocent smile.
“Alright but knock next time.” I said as I grabbed a brush. I could’ve been butt naked, the last thing I wanted was to be giving people a show in this feminine body.
“Gotcha. By the way, you want help with your hair?” She asked in a friendly tune.
“Hm? No, I uh, got it handled.” I said without much thought as I quickly brushed back my wavy hair, using my other hand to keep the brush from bumping into my horns. Though I will admit I still haven’t figured out a way to manage my hair with these horns in the way, so I tend to just leave it down most of the time.
While I was working on my hair Steph began to look around my room like a kid in a candy store.
“What are these figures about?” she asked while pointing at a shelf.
“Just a few things I held on to when I was younger.” I said matter a factly.
“Must be important to you then. Ooooh! This one’s gold!” She eyed it like an ancient artifact.
“…..That one’s Deluxe-man Spiral….it was a runner up prize, I was uh hoping for the grand prize but uh it’s just kid stuff….” I half heartily mumbled the last part.
“Well I think he looks super heroic. So tell me about him.” She demanded as she turned back to face me. With my back turned she couldn’t see the small smile I was making.
“Spiral was one of the more experimental of the Deluxe-men. He could emit cosmic energy from his blue markings and was more of a keep away fighter.” I said, looking back to see her excited eyes begging for more info, probably the more juicy stuff. “Well he had a whole arc where he had to decide what it meant to be himself. His whole species at the time were letting our world deal with kaij-uh giant monsters that were way too strong for us to handle, so he pretty much had to choose sides. He felt that even though he was saving lives, he still betrayed everyone back home, even a close friend of his came after him.” I said with a chuckle to hide my desire to talk more about him. “You know, very anime kinda stuff.” I said playing it off coolly.
“AWW! He had to fight his best friend! That would tear me up if I had to fight Emily or even any of my other friends, like rip my heart out kind of tearing.” She said with a sad face. “You know what? I want to see how it plays out so don’t tell me anything else!” She declared.
I raised an eyebrow before smirking. “You sure? Because there’s some really crazy stuff like his fu-“
“LALALALALAL! I can’t hear your tainted spoilers!” She said covering her ears and giving me a mock angry face. Which I couldn’t help but laugh at.
"Alright, no spoilers." I said with a smirk. “So where to?” I asked.
Steph smiled at me like she had plans. “Thee Gato’s tail.” She said like this was a heist movie.
Leaving my house we made our way down the street and took a few different turns. I even spotted a few houses that looked like the construction crew took a growth ray to a doll house. Also yeah…… I really do mean doll house, one house was painted pink and purple with a balcony and slide attached to it that curved into a pool and it even had a pointed tower. The kind you see in fairy tale books and cartoons, but it was only three stories tall. The only normal thing about it was the mail box that had a red flag.
“You know I’ve heard a famous artist built that house a few hundred years ago.” Steph said, noticing I was watching the house.
“It’s a little much for a normal house though.” I pointed out.
“Yeah, it’s goes past cute and right into creepy zone.” Steph shivered at this. “But they say before it was built the land used to move as if there were huge bugs crawling under a carpet! And on full moons you could hear the screeches of dying animals!” She said in a creepy voice and waving her fingers.
I rolled my eyes at that. “Then the artist would’ve found something during construction.” I said refuting her claim.
“But that’s the thing. They say the artist was seen running away from the house and the door he ran out of sighed a blood red mist! Police were called but no one found anything not even a trap door.” She said trying to scare me.
“Then why keep the house if it spooked that artist?” I asked.
“No clue. I guess it became a historical land mark.” She said giving me a haunting stare.
As we made a few more turns we were approaching a sidewalk with an arch above it between two buildings, it had a pair of gleaming feline eyes craved into it. As we stepped through the archway, I saw several cream white buildings with tanned brown roofing. The buildings had a mellow orange or yellow lighting that looked like a warm fire. Other buildings were a rust pink, sky blue or light green, one building was even shaped like a gold and blue crown, a few looked like a curved Fortress with several green glass windows going around its sides. The street that snaked and curved around the buildings was made of several bricks of yellow, cream white and tans, mixing regular bricks with squared ones. There were fenced off black thick lamp posts that had four long arms which harpies clung to like perches. On certain walls where odd half arches that seemed to not to do anything until a bat winged monster landed on it and began fixing their hair and clothes. Some buildings even had paintings of a proud realistic cat, a human with flowing hair and clothes made of ferns and palm leaves. There was even one that played the face, broken up into smooth curves or sharp edges.
It was completely different to the buildings in the shopping district, almost like I was in another country! Who would’ve thought that a nice street like this would be tucked away so close to my neighborhood?
