Ch.61: Fear, Pain, Fear and F-F-F-Fear~?
Monday morning before classes
“So what do you want?” Abby asked Kathy with an annoyed face.
“There’s a lowland harpy attacking and injuring my team. But there’s no way to prove it and my team’s been acting weird.” She said sternly. “I want you to help stop her and give us a legal way to handle her.” She explained.
Abby’s eyes popped open before slowly turning to me. “Mark! You should’ve lead with this! Then I would’ve done this for free!” She said looking frustrated.
“NO WHAT REALLY!?” I shouted in surprise. Maybe I can still get out of this!
“Sadly we made a legal pact with a no dissolution clause. You’re still locked in….sorry.” She said sheepishly. All I did was stare at her like she ate the last slice of pizza knowing I didn’t have any.
Noticing my dead face, Kathy bumped my shoulder. “I’ll help you out, it’s the very least I can do for your sister’s help. Even if nothing turns up.” She said with a serious face.
I sighed. “Thanks Kathy but let’s see if we can pull something up.” I said with a weak smile.
“Ok, so does she have any accomplices? Is there any magic at play? And what is her character like?” Abby began asking.
“Well she’s very competitive and she’s always trying to one up me……she’s got good grades if her bragging is true and she picks up on things pretty fast.” Kathy began.
“Oh, she has a wyvern in her team and even a griffon, the wyvern is pretty brutish. She flew through obstacles or crushed them in her last race.” I added.
“And my team mates that were hurt, fully believe they were injured by weights, fallen lockers and a toolbox.” Kathy finished.
“And no police or doctor has called foul play?” Abby asked having a hard time believing this.
Kathy lowered her head. “No. They all said the same thing, agreeing with my team’s statements.” She said in a hurt voice. That was the annoying part, was that bitch doing some illegal hypnosis magic, some charm magic or some item from a dungeon?
As we spoke Abby wrote on her notepad, stopping to think a moment before filling out a few more pages. “Is there anything else you can tell me? Maybe a reason or a motive to act like this?” Abby asked looking up at us.
“I beat in last year’s race in the Dark Temprest forest. Before that she was always trying to get me to fight her. Taunting, insults and even used others to screw with my things. She never did anything like harming my team before but now…” Kathy was obviously drawing up blanks but I think, maybe?
“She did approach Oliver before all this happened.” I said, remembering that odd interaction.
“Yeah! His mana was a chilly wind one moment and the next it became a murderous blizzard. I thought it was pretty funny that sh- wait!” Kathy’s eyes widened. “Oh no.” she sounded deathly scared.
“What’s wrong? Is there something else she did?” I asked worried that something awful happened that I didn't see.
“Oliver….. he opened his wings…..” She said with a chilly voice.
We all stared at each other. Shit-shit-shit! She didn’t! But of course she’ll take it that way! That bitch took whatever she said as an approved challenge from Oliver. A DRAGONESS! I slowly turned my head to Kathy as if Void itself came to earth. We were in so much more trouble than we thought. Kathy was frozen as her feathers rose on end, she didn’t move, not even to breathe.
No one moved, they all stared, I’m sure some of them were sweating, they didn’t look too happy to be in this situation. And I wasn't either. I was going to my locker for flight class when I found a few monsters writing on my locker. They froze the moment they saw me, slowly looking at my locker, they wrote.
‘Fall to void were your soul belongs to be destroyed’
‘Stupid orange’
Looking back at them, I slowly tilted my head. CRACK. They fell over at the sound, faces turning ghastly white, one was even sweating buckets. Not good enough.
“So. Want to tell me what’s going on?” I asked calmly as I stared them down. This only made them try to shrink, covering their heads or holding their legs.
They were glued on the spot but no one answered me. Funny, I thought I asked a question. Maybe I need to gently wake them up. Stepping forward, I picked up one of the fallen ‘artists’, a small goblin I think. He trembled wildly in my grasp and his pupils were microscopic pin holes. He was pretty light for someone around four feet. Oh well. Dusting off his shirt, I gave him a toothy smile, letting him see all my pointed teeth.
“So, tell me good sir. What were you doing here in the girl’s locker room? Trying to catch a peep as the girls changing?” I asked, raising a brow, giving a curious face.
“N-n-n-n-n-n-no m-m-m-m-m-mighty drago-“ He barely said before I cut him off.
“I see.” I smiled a friendly smile but tightened my grip on him, my friendly face gone and his face turning blueish. “What are you doing messing with my locker then?” I growled at him as my eyes watched his very soul through his own eyes.
“The chur-ch! They wanted this!” He shouted in fear before his eyes turned white and his body going limp. Looking at the lifeless gob, I turned to the other two only to find these trash bins had wet themselves. Disgusting.
I threw the fainted gob at them, sending them rolling back into a nearby locker and slamming into it. Wow. A simple throw and they go skittering across the floor, this kind of power would’ve been useful if I was in my old world. But maybe I should throw them harder? Through the concrete floor or up through the building perhaps?
I honestly hate dealing with this shit again. My original world’s middle school and a few part time jobs were like this. At school, I’d find shit that smelled like all the stink spraying animals in the world had an orgy with a wet sweaty and fresh from the swamp Sasquatch. Why’d they do that? I was dealing with things…stuff that, hurt and made me nervous around new faces. So you’d say a new nervous kid equals easy target. At least high school got me out of that and my shitty situation in work made me have to deal with these things. But they are lucky they fainted, probably my mana knocked them out, because if it didn’t. Well….
……….
CRACK
Turning around I saw that somehow the concrete floor had shattered into a decent sized hole. Wonder how that happened? I thought as my tail whipped around, playfully.
But it looks like that church is starting to do more than put up posters now. Now this is getting interesting. I found their ‘hideout’ last time, I’ll just have to listen for the howling sounds of crazy. Then I can crush the hea- Stopping myself I shook my body before hopping a bit. I had to remember my instincts can line up with my thoughts super easily like two friends saying the same thing at the same time.
I left to tell Tavis about this little annoyance to which he asked if I hurt them badly. I just said they caught me off guard and so I knocked them out by accident. He just looked at me and just lightly bowed his head before leaving to get the knocked out ‘zealots’. I just sighed as I left to my next class, today was going pretty well to, Jaque didn’t get under my skin and I made decent progress on sucking in my mana too! I only made one ball of magic this time! Fire to be exact which means I was finally able to grab my own mana, now I just need to figure out if that’s the same mana that’s scaring people then how to hide it inside me.
As for that mana practice with Mr. Argen, well I haven’t gotten too far in it yet, moving my mana the way I’d move a finger is still beyond me. It didn’t help that he wasn't here today, so I ended up pushing mana out of my fingers almost every other time I thought I was making a breakthrough. But I didn’t kill anyone or freak out at least, just one step closer to handling myself and then.... I guess I can figure out how to live as a constantly horny dragon. Stupid monster libido.
After classes were over, Belle was the first to finish packing up. He had his things on the desk one moment, I looked away for a few seconds only to find it clear and sparkling the next. With Belle looking up at me with huge green eyes like we were going to get his favorite food in the world. Honestly I couldn’t help but smile at him in his excitement, he really looked adorable. His ears focused on me but gave a little flick every now and then as he watched me get my things.
“So how do you want to do this?” I asked as I got my things in my bag.
“First we get to the town square, we need to pick up something from a seamstress. Then to where the game is being held to go over the rules and give a demonstration of what you need to do then we go over the after day plans. After that we get ready, greet the challenged team, beat them or have fun trying. Then end the day with a celebration.” He finished with a happy sway of his head like a good ear worm was playing.
“Alright, sounds good. Though I am curious if there’s something else I’d need to do. Like set up or tear down?” I asked.
“Not really. The arbor petals handle that. Their telekinetic magic makes setting up as hard as picking up a paper. Also the yinus can build with plant life as if they were moving fingers. So we’re pretty good.” He said as he got up.
Just as we started to leave the class, Steph rushed up to me with a pretty determined face. “Hey Oliver before you take off, I wanted to ask something.” She began, giving me a hopeful look as her tail drew circles into the ground.
“Alright, what’s up?” I asked with a curious look. Wait! There isn’t a horror thing going on is there?!
She waved her tail like water facing me, so she’s excited about… her tail then moved to the left before curling back and slowly shaking in the air. She’s excited about either a dance or an event I think? “I was hoping that you’d join me and Emily to Friday’s holiday event! There’s going be lots of cool cosplay there, lots of good food and even some Amazing show magic!” She said with excitement boiling to the point of over spilling.
Magic? Hmm, I might learn something from watching or even ask someone about it. Then there’s the food……. But I’m a dragon. The last time I went out people acted weird, then again it’s in the school so a good portion of people know about me and there should be teachers or other staff to help out too. Turning it over in my head, I slowly looked around before looking back at Steph. “Sure! I could learn a thing or two from the magic and get good food too!” I agreed with a big smile. “Just not whatever the flower races are doing.” I quickly added.
Steph nodded with a huge beaming smile while her tail curled into a circle twice, the last one being a quick and forceful sway. All I could understand was it meant something about the calendar, she didn’t do it three or four times so it’s not weeks or months, just days…… she’s not implying it’s a date is she? But before I could ask, Steph rushed out of the class with Emily making a fist pump before running off.
“Did she mean something more with that?” I asked Belle while pointing at where Steph left. But all he did was cover his mouth and giggled before taking my hand and leading me out. “What did she mean!?” I cried.
3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333
So what do you mean they’re not ready?! I wanted to start planning our next move! First that stupid dragon ruins my proud stand out against hunger and before that an annoying duck kept screwing with our scouts! Then in between those issues those bloggers changed sites! Do you know how hard it was to find where they were posting from! I couldn’t tell them more about spreading the glory of our saint!
What do you mean I need to eat better?! Well you know what! Thank you very much for worrying about me Charles. I’ll be more careful with a full stomach as we plan for our next attack at the hoard of lust and wild sex! Hopefully the girl won’t mind a few more reminders before we strike again! Then that stupid fruit will regret the day she crossed our path!
WHAT!? It was that orange again! It thrashed my precious men!?? Hmm. HHHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMEEEE! Maybe I can use this! If this insect can’t keep that temper under control then we can push her into showing her true self to the school.
Charles! please get my juice box with that order of ham sandwich! Also! don’t forget to get a couple more people to poke around the library. Those annoying constructs are freaking out everyone but I know there has to be a hidden basement in there or some info on it!
Finally! This string puzzle is coming together!
Also For those that don't want to comment I've added a Poll with a few options!