-Rueful
When the late winter air brought wizards outside in the Academy Courtyard just a decade after reopening, they had all finally felt safe enough to exist the interior for a free period they were graciously given to by the Wardens themselves, glad that finally no more remains of the Order of Influence existed beyond featured war museums.
There were, of course, the four schools--earth, air, water, and fire, but five pillars--plant, ice, storm, fire, and water. Still, students could only choose one of the four schools despite the odd change.
Some students came without belonging to any school. They belonged only to the academy and could take varying courses if they wished. They were outcast by the majority of the academy, and looked down upon as though those wizards would be useless. They actually tended to have worse math scores, had less monsters at their side, and less skills at mastering spells from an early age. They were often challenged to duels in the courtyard, but the fights were only usually between boys or girls just because of chivalry rules in the school.
One day, this changed from one person’s victory. One of the schooless students, Sky, was one of the castaways who traveled abroad just to study magic. With her was her starter, Peeko, in which she nicknamed “Redwood” because of his unusually ruddy, thick fur that made him look almost twice as large as an average Peeko. She was an average B student in all classes, but chatty and popular among her castaway gang of other girl wizards.
She was finishing her last period of the day (lunch) in late March before she could use the Island Map to get home. Still needing to use the map to navigate the lesser-known parts of the island late into the sixth year she’d been at school was concerning. She was, of course, in sixth grade. She had the same dormitory for the entire time she was in the Academy as a student, and her far older half-brother had been too busy partying with monsters in Firefly Forest and beating them up with his crazy Flaria for her to use. After all, when he wasn’t doing that, he was busy filing paperwork and attending meetings in his government office. That was Carter, after all. She couldn’t even use her even older half-brother, Rhett, because he was going to be married to the current president! She was too busy to eat or talk to her friends just thinking about attending their wedding and being the half-sister-in-law of the current leader of the country. She was also too busy to hear the Vice Warden of the Ice Tower calling her.
“Sky Stormchaser? SKY STORMCHASER? S-K-Y!” screamed Vice Ice Warden Frostine bitterly. Everyone else but the daydreaming Sky had their wide, youthful eyes glued to the little fairy now poking her shoulder with a small Icicle Shard.
Sky felt it, and nearly faceplanted to the stone table in the courtyard, where everybody would be watching. Her straight, sleek black hair would become tangled and knotted in her gravy and chicken. Unfortunately, it didn’t. She snapped out of her dream and turned around slowly, sheepishly, to meet the cold gaze of the freeing fairy. “Hello, Ms. Frostine. Sorry about that, I was in deep thought.”
The little fairy was strong for her petite size even for pixies, and grasped Sky by golden-lined collar of her unmarked robes. She barked, “What do you have to say for yourself, young lady? That’s no way to speak to your combat teacher! There’s no excuses for anything, how many times do I have to tell you? Huh?”
Ms. Frostine gave Sky a shake. Sky was just about to make a witty statement of backtalk, but she was too fearful to do anything. “Talk to me, you schoolless witch!”
She sighed, and set Sky down. “Sorry about that, I should not have insulted you as harshly. I’m just so fed up with your behavior. As your teacher, I must address everything I want to say to you privately.”
With that statement, they teleported to her empty room in a flash of baby blue light, glittering with snowlike sparkles. The hall was long, the standard size for a combat room. It had a near auditorium-like build, but two sides had conjoined chair-desks and the front had a raised ramp to the battle lane, where she’d find two of the students who don’t raise our hands and pit them against each other to duel using the latest approach she teaches. The two were located in the center of the raised area off to one side, where the teacher has an even taller desk where she kept papers. There was room for them to confide quietly in the crowd of roaming students that should be at other classes.
While she talks to me, Sky nods to pretend that she’s listening. “I really wanted to address to you quite a few things. One, I’ve noticed that now it’s closer to the end of the year, but you’ve always been the chattiest. It’s distracting other students as well as you from getting the full meaning of my class. Yesterday, I caught you talking about boy stuff when I was going over chivalrous duel techniques we lacked from the test we took last Wednesday.”
Sky actually listened to that. She’d been talking about how she had a deep crush for the legendary Ziang, the dragon slayer of the Coliseum on Lamplight Town. She no longer was interested at all in him after one of Sky’s followers said that he only likes girls that graduated already. It was, as she realized, a silly mistake just to be talking when a silly battle in the class went on.
“In addition, I went through your grades for this quarter so far. You’ve been failing other classes, too--Language Arts, Science, North American History, and even your better classes like Math, Monster Identification, and even your elective, this class. You’ve been performing especially lower than ever in the weekly battle simulation tests. Remember, it’s always on Friday, which is tomorrow. If you actually passed one for once, I’d change all your grades to B’s and not the various F’s, D’s, and C’s you have. I’m offering you your chance tomorrow to show me a proper duel against my team of three, and if you pass, I’ll do it. If not, I’m taking you for professor’s detention for the rest of the year. Got it?”
Sky hesitated. She knew that she had purchased a guidebook on proper wizard dueling in Lamplight Town now sitting back in her dorm, in which she knew contained most of what was taught to her in class she ignored. She could quickly learn it all in one night using a read-all charm she once learned yet forgot because it was taught to her back in third grade, which she still had the guide to as well somewhere in another old textbook she also has in her dorm. However, Ms. Frostine would be looking at her very closely tomorrow. Any slip-up or fainting could cause her to gain grueling detentions for the two final weeks of the third quarter and the entire rest of the fourth. Since Sky took that as a challenge, she had to accept.
“Good. I expect you to demonstrate all that we learned this year. I also expect you to win against at least one of my pets. Hint, they are all of the ice element.”
Sky nodded again, and a small grin grew in Frostine’s tiny face. She knew how to motivate even the dimmest of students. “Now, make sure to study up, throw away your backtalk, and GET OUT OF MY CLASSROOM!” screeched Frostine as Sky was teleported back to the cafeteria section of the courtyard.
It was empty there, cold, and now four in the afternoon. Everyone was already dismissed, and the stone tables were littered with mess. An occasional Scally would fly around to gorge itself enough with food. The buses to the dormitory area had already departed, and Sky had to return home before nightfall (the curfew for schoolless castaways). Since the sun was already close to having parts of itself hide under the horizon, Sky took out her phone and dialled Rhett’s personal number on her phone. Halfway through, her phone died. She needed to recharge it fast, or she’d be in more trouble than she could afford. Just then, Sky dropped to her knees like she’d have no hope left in the world. Her backpack still on her, she opened it and searched frantically for something useful. She had one of her textbooks with her, full of energy spells that could be used to create energy attacks, other attacks, and small currents of electricity. Though heavily unskilled with storm spells like those, she was a Stormchaser, and her family had a legacy of powerful storm spellcasting. Like Rhett and the President, she’d have to keep up the family name. Revealing her Training Wand, she went to work.
In a matter of minutes, Sky was able to cast a spell that recharged her phone, called Rhett, and he sent one of his future sister-in-law’s Nebluffs to carry her home. She was finally left with a care package Rhett and the President had sent her themselves with the Nebluff, and Sky was incredibly excited to open it that she ripped the postmarked bok open at once after closing the door behind her and summoning Redwood from her wand.
Inside was dinner fresh from the President’s Mansion, a protein-rich salad with dressing, a bag of jelly beans, a green apple from the Mansion Gardens, a glass bottle of recently thawed herbal tea, and some utensils and napkins. Below that was a letter and a sticklike item wrapped in foil. It was her late birthday gift Rhett forgot to mail her in February. Redwood and Sky shared the dinner, devouring it because they hadn’t got a bite from their lunch an hour ago. They read the letter first. It wrote,
Dear Half-Sister Sky,
I’m saying hello from the President’s Mansion, sorry that I couldn’t talk to you ever since Dad finally remarried your mother a year ago. I also forgot that your birthday was on February, so I sent you something that could help you with your studies greatly. I hope you’ve been studious for this past year, we would really like it if you could live up to the Stormchaser name! Study well and hard, good luck on the Finals!
Your Half-Brother,
Rhett
PS: This is Aria Stormchaser. Wow, I had just found out about you from Rhett. I never knew that he had such a big family, it’s a pleasure to talk to you. Sorry about having to race you against the curfew for schoolless Academy students, I’m pushing to change that soon. I can change laws for you students, and I hope you like them. I packed you this lunch to promote your healthiness and studious deeds, I would love to see you at the wedding, Sky! I will invite all your pets to come, too. I’ve heard that you have a cute Peeko, I can’t wait to see little Redwood in action. Bye!
The President wrote to her, she was so warmed to see her words. She’d been busy, especially in this time of year with Springfest coming. She would hope to fight in their honor, after all, she’d been letting them down. She wants to be strong and intelligent, but all she is is a castaway. Others like her made a gang to defend themselves against bullies from the four schools. They mostly had to withstand fistfights, but occasionally duels with real spells. The School of Fire is the most abusive, while the School of Air is the least mean and the most accepting. The Schools of Water and Earth are both quiet and usually just mumble on an on about how sympathetic the School of Air is as well as how righteous the Fire School kids are. She’s a castaway, and sticked to the bad, dumb, weak kid stereotype of most of us. Maybe she was meant for more, meant to break that idea.
She opened the package. Inside was a rolled-up scroll. She unfolded it, and a single barcode was on it. Scanning it with her phone, the phone made a spell cast. Out of the spell came a staff, cloak, hood, and boots. Of course, wizard equipment. Since there were no longer any uniforms that wizards were required to wear, as the Wardens deemed gold and black to be too old of colors to use in the Academy, she would be able to wear it to school. Sky ordered for Redwood to turn around and wait until she’d finished changing, in which she did so quickly and eagerly. The cloak, hood, and boots had fit perfectly, and seemed to possess a great strengthening ability to keep her on the battlefield longer. Though the boots were just made of a shiny black suede outside and a wool inside, the sides were encrusted with purple rhinestones. The cloak and hood matched, and looked like the replica of amethyst-colored clothing a Cloud Neek would wear. She picked up the staff, and it looked just like a Cloud Neeks’ as well. Though she knew it would contain a spell within it, it wouldn’t be good enough to use on one of Frostine’s pets tomorrow. It would still have a stronger damage bonus if she would have brought it in anyway, so Sky vowed to Redwood that she’d use it tomorrow, but not for its spell. She rummaged through my dorm, looking for a jewelry box, and would normally have worn a spiked choker like the rest of the gang to impress them with every new one; instead, she unclasped the one she was already wearing and exchanged it for a brimstone pendant. It contained fire within the stone, which could be unleashed with an astral spell that could be useful in a fight against ice pets. She had also found anklets, bracelets, and a headband made of brimstone, and put them on as well. She would be needing them for tomorrow.
Before long, Sky was back to her old charms textbook with Redwood curled onto her lap as Sky sat on her only bed, now merely a mattress due to people stealing her quilts, blankets, sheets in the wintertime. She learned all of the charms in the book after using a charm that helped her to read all of it. She did the same to the dueling textbooks and all others she had in her solitary dormitory. She dropped, finally, after tiring herself through grueling mental battles against challengers, fantasizing eventually so much she went unconscious, and slept silently, soundly, and securely on top of the bare mattress in the late winter air.
“Sky! Sky! Suuuuuukai?” a voice called, and the girl with her Peeko instantly awakened. The voice was high-pitched yet somehow masculine.
Sky with taking a minute to squirm and let her vision focus, noticed a fairy guide levitating above her, gently flapping his angelic, feathered, baby-blue wings. He wore a conspicuous lapis-colored nightcap with a white brim and a platinum bell located at the top of the cap jingling from motion. Though that was not the most shiny part, the guide had a large warden runestone fitted atop the front section of the cap. The guide was also wearing a sea-blue tee and snow-white shorts, adorned with a carmine neck bandana attached to his shirt and gleaming brown faux-leather boots up to the fairy’s knees. The creature’s pair of royal sapphire irises heavily outweighed the size of his pupils in the bright light, his head turned inquisitively at Sky. Noot, the Secretary of Magic, a cabinet member, friend of everyone--her half-brother Rhett’s closest confidant.
“Good morning, Noot. Why are you here and not in other places?”
“Good morning, Miss Sky. Homeroom is in a half-hour. The gang is waiting in the courtyard, they have something to say to you.”
“Why, I’ve never been awake this early. Why would they want me?”
“I have no clue, however it is urgent. The girls need you for something and you must come quickly.”
“Can you teleport me?” Sky begs. Noot nods, and allows Sky to collect her things for the school day. She fits herself with the last bits of armor she will be wearing to school, and heads out.
In the courtyard, Sky and Noot awaited the next challenge that the day would bring. Friday mornings in the courtyard were usually dotted with spars and battles between noble and schoolless students, but today was different. It was only the gang of usual girls, Sky, Noot, and their pets.
“Lookie here,” says one of the medium-length blue-haired girls in the gang, snapping her bubblegum while her piercing red eyes tore a hole right through Sky’s confidence, “may it be our ex-leader, Sucker.”
Sky was never disrespected this far, this fast, ever into the year. If anything, she’d be the respected and popular leader of the gang. She’s never been called a different name, and was far from being as sweet as a lollipop. Now the gang was against her for absolutely no apparent reason, and the group of girls in matching warlock robes cackled like voice-cracking crows.
Sky made a sharp call, “At least you think I’m sweeter than you, Karin.”
The gang was speechless, and backed away from Karin, who quickly grew red-faced and saw the same color. In her left pocket she reached and her hand came out with an Angelic Shard, summoning her Dragic. “That’s not what I meant. I’m afraid you need submit to us or I char your little friend and take your seat by force.”
“My seat? Why, I’m standing. And I will, after you faint and your little friend can’t fight for his own life!” Sky blasts back.
Noot intervenes, yelling out to the two groups, “Stop! Is this what you really want, to be a gang fighting for power through scrapping you and your own pets in battle?”
“Pixie, you don’t understand what a gang is. Now get out of the way before I send you flying to your parents!” remarks Karin sassily.
“I am NOOT! The fairy guide you should be scared of.”
“Is that so,” Karin twitters, releasing a fireball from her wand directly at Noot, who was able to evade just as fast.
“Oh, Karin! Did you just assault a government official? I’m going to be a vigilante here and go avenge him!”
A tall, thin-framed gang member followed behind Karin, her dirty blonde hair pushed back as she unleashes words amplified by an ion cannon she cast with her iron wand, “You ain’t gonna do that, weakling.”
“It’s three against, one, girl. We all want to be the leaders,” snarls a third enemy with sickly green braids and a shorter Saplette to follow behind her.
“Say goodbye to that chance, the three of you,” Sky roars while unleashing a frenzy of her own fireballs and fungi flings from Redwood. They managed to hit all different targets and left some of the roughly twenty enemies, either girls or monsters, on the cold stone ground. Karin, her Dragic, the tall girl, the braided girl, and her Saplette weren’t harmed much.
“I guess we’ll have to do the same to you!” sneers the green-haired girl, unleashing a dual-Shrubbery Strike on the duo who were barely scratched by the weak spells. Suki’s armor still shined without any marks, and Redwood shrugged all of it off to be able to recover quickly. As soon as the peaceful part of the gang saw how Suaki had suddenly changed from their gang leader to a no-nonsense enemy, they all sprinted away, their matching amethyst capes flowing behind them.
“Hah, you only have five members and I’m on a two-member team of far better ones. There’s no way you’re going to survive the next spell!” Sky wickedly commands her own staff to release a Star Cluster at the team of five, dividing a nearly-even harsh blow to each member.
The green-haired girl’s Saplette had dropped to the ground from sheer exhaustion, forcing her owner to cast her back into her wand and regenerate health. It was the tall girl’s turn, and she whipped her second Ion Cannon while screeching, “How dare you hurt such a delicate creature. Ima hurt you until you become even more delicate than her!”
It landed on Redwood, and he had taken much damage to it that he was near to fainting. Sky screamed back inaudible words of pure enragement, casting small, damaging stars at all of her enemies. It kicked up so much dust pushed deep into the grout of each brick border in the ground, that it itself could cause even more damage. When the starstorm cleared, only Karin and Sky had remained ready to fight. Sky and Karin both dolefully cast back their pets into their wands, while some standby gang members carried the unconscious members of their team to safety.
“It’s just you and me. Are you sure you still want to continue?” Karin asks while casting a Starbit Blast, hitting Sky successfully.
She chokes while sending one of equal strength back, “Anything to show you who’s boss!”
Finally, finally, Karin was hit and doubled over in pain. She eventually collapsed and went unconscious, then Sky as well. By the time Noot returned from being blasted with a spell, he had seen what happened, and taken the entire gang to the nurse’s ward of the school. It was already homeroom time.
The entire gang woke up completely healed. They were given passes to go back to their homerooms and made it in there just before the bell would chime for first period. That was Sky’s period with Miss Frostine. She would spar first thing.
Sky bitterly spoke thinking in retrospect over the draw fight, “Great, Noot. You stayed to escort me. Why don’t you go back to your new job filing paperwork?”
Noot, obviously floating by her and Redwood’s side down one of the dull and musty corridors, replied, “I’m a fairy, I will live for eternity and have every opportunity to procrastinate. However, you are a wizard. You, like the rest of the human race, have but four scores on average to live. Make the most of your magical life, especially now that you have the role of challenging a teacher. Get out there, show your gang friends who’s boss. I guess I would have to leave, anyway.”
With that, the guide disappeared with a glittery poof and the magical duo were left alone in the corridor. There were many other wizards shuffling about, all of them with schools and two pets by their sides. A pang of hate and jealousy spread throughout the face of Sky as she and Redwood stomped the quarter mile to the battle training room.
Inside, every student was perched on their seats in odd positions, as her class was full of the school’s dregs. Some were testing out euphoria charms, others lulled into trances that only a lack of natural sleep would provide. They were all suddenly awakened by the loud attire Sky wore when stepping into the room. Her gleaming armor woke up every student for sure. However, the next visual uproar would be even more of a rude awakening--the one and only Frostine was dressed in dueling equipment and was entirely prepared for a fight against the Order if needed!
“Sky, are we prepared?” she called, and her two allies were seen from behind. One was a Frostfang and another was a Battabash, both suited with thicker coats than normal and shinier armor.
Redwood mewed a determined reply, but the girl did not feel the same. Her shaky voice spoke as she extended her right hand before a proper duel, “Yes, ma’am. To a fair duel?”
Surprised that one of her worst pupils were using the proper battle etiquette, the professor hesitated for a second. Then she doubtfully shook her student’s hand and answered the call with, “To a fair duel.”
The two took a few minutes to preen themselves before fighting, and everybody watched as they prepared, eyes open wide. It was unlike the class to be proper, to be strong and reserved in class. They were clearly far more awake than ever before in the battle training room. As soon as both parties were prepared, each group was in formation and the two main spellcasters had taken proper poses. Sky stated, “The challenger may take the first spellcast.”
“Thank you for your invitation,” Frostine grits her tiny teeth at Sky’s remarkable turnaround stunned her, making her own Falling Star Smash aim a little too far to the left of her opponents to cause damage.
Sky clasped her brimstone pendant with her left and cast a fire-powered Starbit Blast at the fairy. She was able to evade, enough to command both of her pets to hit Redwood with combined Snowling Balls.
“Scoot away, Redwood!” the girl warned, and the furball friend of hers had dashed away from the large snowball. Though it was of no use, and Redwood’s tail was caught underneath it, he had taken much damage.
Out of anger, Sky felt the brimstones all around her armor glowing like hot coals. She cast the same fire-powered Starbit Blast again, and was able to hit Frostine’s Battabash severely. The poor creature doubled over from the damage, but was able to arise to its four cloven feet and return fire on its own. According to the rules, Frostine was still able to cast another spell, this one using a swift yet powerful Spearicle Crush on Sky and her partner.
Knowing what to do, Redwood had leapt by Sky’s side. She let the large furry thing into her arms as the glowing power of the plating on the little wizard had released, and melted the entire conjuration above them. As shower of now lukewarm water sprayed above them. Though Sky’s brimstones burned out of power for the next spell, it benefitted Redwood by letting it absorb water energy.
Using a weak astral-version of the Starbit Blast and a Fungi Fling combined, the projectiles both landed on Frostine’s Frostfang. The creature immediately defended itself with a small flurry shield around it, but the astral attack had still managed to pierce through the tempest and damaged the cold canine. The Battabash made a weak Snowling Ball attack on Redwood, in which hit the little creature greatly.
Sky, devastated, cast a protective shield spell around the two as not to be pummeled by sucker-punch-like attacks Frostine and her pets could possibly throw at them for the minute she would attend to her earthen feline ally. In the nick of time, Sky was able to find a small flask of perfume-smelling bubbly magenta fluid in one of the pieces of armor. It had read, “Noot knows you need this, somehow, somewhere. Keep your fight to honor alive and heal an ally to full potential.” The girl grinned as she cast the potion onto her friend, who was immediately more peppy and lively. Through the shield a Shrubbery Strike was cast along with a Star Cluster to follow, and the protective spell had dissipated as a result, leaving the area obscure with airborne stardust. Once it too had cleared away. Frostine looked anxiously for her pets. Both of her allies were fainted.
The frozen fairy sorrowfully had summoned her mammalian beasts into her snowflake-tipped stave, and she closed her eyes for a minute while Redwood and Sky stood in a fixed battle position. “I thought that I could succeed and grant you permanent detention,” the floating creature flicks the conductor to release an ice-powered Falling Star Smash at the two foes while taking a few stidelengths closer to her student, “and I believed strongly that I would easily sweep you off of your duelist boots,” she casts another while taking a few more meters of distance away, “and I thought crazily if I could have been mistaken or would be defeated,” and another identical motion, “and sincerely wanted the worst for you, but I AM YOUR TEACHER AND WOULD NEVER ACCEPT A LOSS TO SOMEONE LIKE YOU!”
All Sky could do was evade the frenzy of spells easily while keeping her distance. She had finally decided to expend her last spell, the one she had planned on using to make a final blow to school her own teacher--the most powerful brimstone spell known, Dragos. She remembered as one of the facts she had ever taken away in History class was that back then, before it was even clear that the Puppet Master was causing trouble around the island in the early stages of the Great War, nobody was strong enough to survive a Dragos attack. This changed when a strong group of wizards known as the Trialmasters had developed such record-breaking strength that they would too be able to live through it. Since she was still not energetic enough to cast an All-Out Attack on Frostine, this would be the best choice in Sky’s eyes.
A great collective gasp now filled room of schoolless students that had come to watch an exciting battle as a class of pupils no longer bordered from each other by separate gangs, had all observed with ever-widening, youthful eyes. They had seen the complex movements of spellcasting before, but none was quite as intricate as the one Sky was about to cast. With the strength of the Fire Warden himself, Sky was able to summon great flaming power into one large meteorite that crashed down on the helpless teacher, who had now laid on the floor, unconscious. All of her armor, and stave too, was intact. She had still lived, but Sky’s fight for honor was stronger than any professor in the Academy.
Then on, Sky had reformed her behavior and studied harder in the Lamplight Academy. She had graduated with honors and moved on in life to a wizard school for those in high school in a faraway island, and had befriended another pet ally, a peculiarly brown-furred Flameger Sky named Sequoia. She then became a congresswoman under another Prodigy Island president, moving on to serve as a member of the Cabinet as Secretary of Magic. Sky Stormchaser, Redwood, and Sequoia grew into a world changed by their own actions, by the actions they have taken before it was too late, by the actions they made to escape the rough world they once had and moved on to new heights.
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