NOVEL WEB Where Are The Balls?
The study between the two dorm rooms was crowded and noisy today as well, a trend that many had predicted would persist until the end of the next Stride at the earliest.
The reach of the Second and Third Years was everywhere, including the dorm rooms, and they made all kinds of attempts at recruiting the First Years for their Out Courses; some sweet and some sour, borderline crass.
Some went:
"Hey, join Marvellous Impediments. We get to have special parties with treats every two weeks."
Some were like:
"I won't lie to you, it's just the coolest Out Course there is. When you get to Third Year, you might just score with the girls from other, let's say, meaningless Out Courses. Phantoms is just like that. Believe me, kid."
And some sounded more like:
"You see this bat? I'll beat you to death with it if you don't sign here for Kartile. Sound good?"
Fortunately, or unfortunately, Reiss and Ginger hadn't been plagued by any of the other Out Course hounds as soon as a familiar face showed up by their bed.
"Come on. We don't want to waste time. Curfew will come sooner than you thin-, don't give me those looks, you signed as part of our agreement!" Zale said.
He was the Third Year the two had met in the library yesterday. They had been forced to give up their Out Course virginity to him after a bit of guilting and coercion.
Reiss and Ginger got off the bed with grumbles and put on their shoes. Ginger, picked up his sling bag.
Zale found it curious but didn't ask.
The two dragonlings followed after Zale out of the dormitory moments later, with the Third Year acting as their highly decorated chaperone with the way he gave chilling looks towards other Out Course hounds.
In general, Zale did look like he could be the lead participant in a genocidal assault, at least to Ginger he did.
He had messy, curly black hair that had an oily shine over his triangular head; freakishly light skin that steeped over pale, making him look as though he was already dead; and heavily pronounced sunken cheeks to his stiff face.
A light stubble grew over his jaw, giving the illusion that he was quite old, and it didn't help that his narrow, black eyes expounded a feeling of deep wisdom. Overall, he looked dead from the inside too.
His tall frame, along with the fact that he had a habit of shooting out bursts of smoke from his nostrils, was usually enough to scare off even Second Years.
This situation was no different.
"Where are we going?" Reiss asked as they were approaching the Waiting Furnace.
"To the Huddling Fury," Zale replied succinctly.
Reiss and Ginger recognized it to be the building in which they had had their Dragon Biology and Kardia Studies lesson yesterday.
Moments later, the trio appeared on the first floor. Zale led his two recruits out of the Frost Mount's Tooth. A cordon of other students was going in and out of the building with the paling light of the small peach-golden sun highlighting them.
Ginger and Reiss seldom set foot out of the Frost Mount's Tooth after supper. Both, however, could appreciate how beautiful the school looked with the various artificial light sources that came alive around this time.
Olarmanders in the school's service could be seen flying in the sky, some with luminous scales that brightened up the darker spots between the school buildings. Some of them spewed fire from their mouths, elatedly relishing the freedom they were given at night.
Of course, these subservient partners of the Qin Asha weren't the only form of lighting provided when the suns vanished from the sky.
Several orbs that looked to be made of white glass – not entirely supernatural, as they were also mechanical – were fixed at various locations.
They were gorgeous and pleasing to look at.
Sadly, they could be hateful, bloated snitches in the dead of night.
Several Second and Third Years who didn't spare them a glance seemed to see it this way.
As the trio exited the fat, cubical building, they just so happened to bump into someone whose keen eyes showed a wild degree of suspicion towards all of them.
"We're just going for Kartile, Madam Agathe," Zale countered the unspoken accusations at once.
The old dragon, the Warden of the institute, scoffed.
"Seeing you add these daring little ones under your wing doesn't give me any peace of mind, Zale," Madam Agathe said, her eyes turning to Reiss and Ginger.
The two couldn't bring themselves to look at the old dragon in the eye. Thankfully, she turned to Zale with a nasty look.
Zale breathed out a smoky breath livid with exasperation.
"Regardless of what you think, it's still not curfew. We'll be down and tucked in by the time you start your real patrols," he said reassuringly.
Madam Agathe clearly didn't buy it. She whipped her cloak back as she walked past them, her gaze lingering long after the fact.
Ginger and Reiss felt like they could breathe again.
"You too already got in trouble with her?" Zale said as they walked on, passing one of the glass orbs that floated overhead.
"It was... it was just a misunderstanding," Ginger said feebly.
"On the other hand, you are the devil as far as she's concerned," Reiss said to Zale with a brow raised, his eye darting to Ginger who sighed in relief.
Zale chortled.
"I suppose the way she looks at me is a bit cold, isn't it? I gave her a bit of trouble when I became a Second Year. She never quite forgets....or forgives," he smirked.
Reiss and Ginger had little reason to doubt it, and they were reluctant to ask just how much one could fiddle with the Warden's feathers before she marked them permanently.
"What did you mean when you said, real patrols? What does Madam Agathe do when she's on... those?" Ginger asked concernedly.
Zale looked at the two.
"Well, during the day, she's normally just diligently looking for anything amiss and directing the staff responsible to it. At night, she may resort to violence if necessary. I tried to fight her one time, to knock her unconscious and use a Pieyro to wipe her memory. Stupid idea."
With all the context given by Professor Lyall on the difference in strength generated by the age of dragons, Ginger and Reiss couldn't help but shiver at what Zale said.
"You were... brave," Reiss said to Zale with a weak smile. He withheld the real adjective he wanted to use.
"Thanks," Zale said and flashed a toothy smile.
After several minutes, the trio reached the Huddling Fury. The whole mass, which preferred to express its girth than its height, had many rooms, all developed using hard, enchanted materials that could withstand rough blows.
Reiss and Ginger were led through different doorways in the construct – as it had no doors whatsoever. Some of the ones they passed allowed them to take sneak peeks at what other, occupied rooms were being used for.
Unfortunately for Reiss and Ginger, it wasn't all educational, as they had thought.
Some of the sights made them look away immediately with pale, awkward faces.
Thankfully, they reached their destination before their faces could turn wholly red.
In a vast room with a dirty, black floor and dusty, chipped walls, the clashing of the voices of tens of students masked the entry of Zale and the two boys.
In that period, Ginger saw a few familiar faces.
One was the bushy-browed girl he had met in Professor Alexandros' office, Abela Mires.
He also spotted the tall and concerningly thin upperclassman who had handed him, Reiss, and Caron the Kartile handouts yesterday.
Then, there was Fotini, the Monitor who had been in charge of the First Year boys in the first Stride of school.
Oddly, Ginger met Fotini's eyes, and the latter's smile, lingering from the conversation he was having with a girl at his side, disappeared. He awkwardly avoided Ginger's stare and pretended as if he didn't know him.
'What's that about?' Ginger thought.
"Oh, Zale! You're late. Ah, you brought more fresh- woow! Those are fresh if I ever seen fresh!" a lively student who rushed to give Zale a big hug said before looking at Ginger and Reiss. "I daresay one of them is a little too fresh."
The upperclassman's comment drew the attention of everyone, and their eyes honed in on the odd duo.
It didn't help that the two dragonlings were both visually engaging and somewhat famous.
A lot of chatter immediately began, and it didn't take a genius to know what it was all about.
"Good grief! I say we bail, Ginger. Do you really want to deal with this tonight of all nights?" Reiss whispered while pulling on Ginger, which netted them a few bursts of laughter from the onlookers.
Ginger was seriously considering it when Zale gripped their shoulders firmly.
"I got us more members. That's what counts. I say we let their performance determine their worth. How's that?" he said while looking sharply at the upperclassman who had hugged him.
"Sure, sure. No arguments here."
Zale patted Reiss and Ginger's shoulders reassuringly.
The latter was effectively swayed, but Reiss wasn't. Scrolling through the other members of Kartile, he wasn't sure he believed he was in the right place.
"Why are you all just waiting here? Where are the balls?" Zale asked.
"Basilia said she's come with them. She's running late, I think. She wouldn't miss a session," the other upperclassman said.
Right then, there was a loud boom.
Everyone turned to the doorway.
A student had just slammed a large, wooden box as tall as Ginger onto the floor. She sighed heavily and beamed at the crowd of new and old faces, going on to point at them slowly.
"Were you all waiting for me? You're in luck!" she said proudly before hammering on the box she brought with her fist so hard that the dust on the walls shook.
At once, the box's four sides opened with mechanical clinks to reveal, and introduce... balls?