My head is still reeling when we arrive at the soaked girls’ dorm.
“Watch carefully,” Lorik says to Kyle and I as we enter the room. We watch, amazed, as Lorik snaps his fingers and sends waves of heat all over the room. It’s like a massive hair-dryer or something; all the water evaporates. And the beds are warm! I turn to Lorik, admiration shining in my eyes.
You just got so much cooler I gush, not allowing Kyle to hear me. Lorik shakes his head, amused.
That will be tomorrow’s lesson.
YAY! Omygosh you’re so cool…
It seems I’ve forgotten what it’s like to work with teenagers from Earth. Especially the females…
Oh. My. BBQ. So you’re from a different world? Like, this whole “different world” thing is REAL?!
Yes. The name of my world doesn’t translate to English well. Are you done with this incessant parade of questions?
For now.
I don’t feel bad for him. He’s the one who kidnapped me and brought me here. And since this place is just floating around in space, I don’t think I’ll be able to escape. Besides, there isn’t much waiting for me back home. And I kind of want to see what it’s like to have an Inborn Power.
“What are you guys doing in here? It’s called the Girls’ Dorm for a reason,” says Aiyamar, appearing on her bunk.
Before I can flip out, Lorik calms my mind. “Remember what I said about being prepared? If that had been an enemy, you’d have been dead.” Lorik states plainly. “Thank you for your assistance, Aiyamar,” he says.
I glare at the petite, pretty girl, but I can’t stay mad; she’s just too…cute. We both end up laughing. “Okay, Lorik, I’m sorry. I’ll be on my guard next time.”
Kyle is in the corner laughing at me. No surprise there. Aiyamar shakes her head at him, and make a discreet sign with her hand. What she said, I have no idea. Kyle calms down, but he’s still giggling to himself as he helps Aiyamar off of her bunk, finishing with an overly dramatic bow.
“How does your gift work?” I ask her. What I mean is “How does she make herself invisible with Light Manipulation?”
“I’ll tell you after class; we have to hurry. Hanayni doesn’t like us to be late,” she says, as she bounces out the door. Lorik gestures for us to follow her. He goes somewhere else; probably to another class.
“Where are we going now?” I ask. I mean, seriously, what other classes there could possibly be in a school like this? It’s for training people to use their Powers, right? We did that.
“Well…you could call it ‘Self Defense’,” Kyle answers in a voice meant to make me ask more questions. Then he’d just tell me to wait and see. I don’t take the bait.
Aiyamar smiles widely. “You’ve been talking in questions ever since you got here.”
I follow Kyle and Aiyamar to a large, enclosed area. It makes me think of a roofed Roman Coliseum. The other members of my team are already there, some armed with the strange daggers that I got in my welcome package. But most of them were armed with archery bows. I’m getting scared. Maybe this is a joke. We’re not really going to learn how to use weapons, are we?
I already tried asking Kyle; fat lot of help that was. And it doesn’t seem like the sort of thing to talk about with my new teammates. I tell myself that I’ve just met them, so I shouldn’t ask obvious questions. But I know that the real reason I don’t want to ask is because I don’t want to look stupid.
Wynn stands off from the rest of the group, competing with Kelta in a friendly archery competition. Their twin longbows shine and sparkle in the light from the web of energy on the ceiling. It looks like they were having a lot of fun. I wonder what kind of self-defense class this is. Most other classes that I’ve taken do not include medieval weapons.
Ikah sits off by herself, glaring at me. She’s sweating—no, dripping. I ignore her. She obviously has issues.
Aiyamar tosses me a medieval reflex bow, interrupting my thoughts. I catch it with a practiced hand. Kyle grins at me, carrying a large recurve. I roll my eyes at him. Show off. He sticks his tongue out at me and struck a “knightly” pose, while I try not to laugh. You’re such a dude, I think at him. He shoots me a “duh” look.
“AAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLRIGHT, LINE UP!” someone yells, the sound filling the spacious field. I jump, to the amusement of Kyle and Aiyamar. A petite lady walks through the double doors at the north side of the training field while everyone else scrambles into a perfect line. I stand at the end.
The woman walks to the middle of the field, directly in front of us, and greets everyone down the line by name. The entire team is smiling, so she must not be so bad. Well, most of the team is smiling. Eyrad looks like she’s going to eat him, even as she greets him sweetly. I kind of think Eyrad acts like that with everyone.
When she reaches me, she looks to Wynn for my name instead of asking me. I’m capable of telling my own name I complain privately.
“Krystal, it is nice to meet you. I will be your Weaponry instructor. You may call me Hanayni,” she says. “I have no doubt that you will do well in this class.” I’m not exactly sure if I like her or not; she strikes me as odd. Or dangerous. Or I could just be upset that she seems to know more about me than I’m comfortable with.
The first thing we do is separate into two groups. Since there are nine of us, the teams are uneven. Wynn, Llare, Eyrad, Ya’asa, and Ikah were in one group. I am in a group with Kelta, Aiyamar, and Kyle. I notice different reactions to the way Hanayni has grouped us. Kelta seems upset, like she’s rather be on the other team, but she doesn’t say anything. Ya’asa and Llare look pleased with their assigned groups, probably because they’ll work well as a brother-sister pair. Eyrad looks relieved to have Llare on his team; I can’t say I blame him. I wouldn’t want to fight Llare myself (unfortunately, it looks like I’ll have to).
I thought Kyle might be uncomfortable being on an otherwise all-girl team, but he’s pretty happy with it. Oh, right; this is Kyle we’re talking about here.
Our first exercise is to shoot at our opponents with our chosen bows. Yeah. We’re going to shoot at each other on purpose, and we’re going to get graded on how well we shoot. I look at Hanayni incredulously, certain that she is certifiably insane. She has to be. She looks completely serious!
When I hesitate to release my string after aiming at Ya’asa with my bow, she glares at me sternly. “Krystal, pull that string now before I pull it for you. You don’t want that,” she tells me, scowling menacingly. I take her at her word and release my arrow.
