From the bottom of my heart, thank you to my p4tr0ns: Morpheaus, and RTB <3 <3 <3
Become a p4tr0n too and read up to FOUR chapters ahead!:
h t t p s : / / w w w . p a t r e o n . c o m / t r a s h w i t h g l a s s e s
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"Thousands of peoples have many different origin stories, each as true as the next one. And we do not intend on overstepping our authority on the topic of history in this class. However, it is true that The Bear Mountain has… resources that most places do not have, and so, rather than substituting your world knowledge, please, allow us to increase it", said the kind old tree-lady from the oral test, who ended up being my history teacher, seating with her legs crossed before us on a garden of full of aromatic asters, tickseeds, and lobelia cardinalis. The whole class was seating around her, listening.
"So, where's better to begin this story, than the beginning of history itself?", the teacher giggled with herself. "I am no authority to tell you how the world came to be, or how many times this happened, but through thorough studies, we can state that this world, or at least the many peoples living in it, went through three phases, or eras."
I felt a little nudge on my side, and to my surprise, I saw that the person seating next to me was Ike!
"The first era, the Emergence Era. If there's something that we can assert for sure, is that this world has not always housed peoples in it, and from the very first moment someone stood upright on these lands, we call it the Emergence Era. The happening of peoples. We've all heard stories of these times, and I'd like to share one more of them with you all. As my species is long-lived, and my great-great-grandmother has seen these days with her own eyes, and passed to the later generations legends of walls of ice as tall as the highest mountains, and as wide as the world. Of a grey land, bare of almost any life…"
"Hey, Coyote", Ike whispered, smiling. Even though we already knew each other, he was just as awkward as ever, however.
"Hey, Ike", I whispered back.
"So, how's your bedroom? Too many roommates?"
"No, it's empty."
"What…?! How did you find an empty room?"
"I just wandered around until I found a place where there was no one laughing at me…", I showed him the mark on my right hand.
"Oh…", Ike looked at his own hand, which displayed a jade green square.
A position better than mine. Well, not that that meant much, my was the lowest of the lowest stamp, I carried the "Seed In A Sand Desert" mark; the whole system apparently followed the life-cycle of a tree, with the bottom half being the terrain and representing your general knowledge, and the upper half being the tree itself and representing your magical skills.
In other words, while I could share a class with someone with a red stamp, I hadn't seen anyone else with two of them like me, and therefore I often was at the receiving end of many jokes.
As a silence perdured between Ike and I, I paid attention to what the teacher was saying again: "…chaotic time, even to the plants in the ground, much more to the walking peoples. However, there was light still. When everything seemed to be painful, and arduous, and no food ever grew, and no game ever ran the forests, and no fish jumped up the streams, they appeared. The Gods", with a big smile on her face, the kind old tree-lady concluded: "but this is history for another day. Now, go rest and think about what I told you."
"I'm sorry about that… But I'm sure it'll get better. With time", Ike smiled at me.
"Thanks!", I smiled back, getting up. "Do you want to eat together?"
"Sure!"
Ike must've been right, I'd just have to bear the laughs for a little longer, until people found the next funny thing to laugh at. That day wasn't that bad, and the next ones should be even better!
Principles of Magic was taught by a man with so many belts around his every limb, that it seemed his entire outfit was made out of belts, and unfortunately, I didn't share that class with Ike, as he was too advanced in that field of knowledge. I did notice, however, that there was one boy who didn't laugh at me… Because he was sleeping the whole class, shamelessly laying down on the many cushions scattered around the leathery and fluffy room inside the Bear Mountain. Still, a positive impression… I thought?
Other than that, I learned that the "aura" I saw when people used magic; like when someone empowers their own body, provoking a blood-like light around themselves; was called "magic waste", or just "waste", and was the percentage of the energy that was misused, or "wasted" during the conjuration of the spell.
Overall, not a bad day. Even if it wasn't great either.
Geography wasn't much more interesting, if the teacher was the most unique in appearance to that point: a vaguely human silhouette made purely of long red spikes, permanently "nude" because of that. A red sea urchin-person.
She was named Visck Cera, but because of her appearance, my colleagues apprentices quickly started to call her "thorn lady", and she didn't seem to bother. There were only two things she seemed to care about, after all: exploration, and the present.
She talked a lot about this first thing, and I learned a lot about the plains around The School; they were massive, encompassing whole nations, the other most noticeable thing being that the longest river that side of the world and its many affluents crossed the plains, and housed everything, from fishing villages, to powerful underwater panthers (unfortunately, as that was a lesion leveled to my stamp, so we didn't get any further information on other "lesser" geographical traits of the region).
And about the second thing, well, during the class, suddenly, the teacher got up from her specially made seat, and walked away without saying a word. Then, she came back minutes later with sweets she got from one of the kitchens, which she shared with everyone. And I had a new favorite teacher.
Then, the eighth day came.
"There are many ways of defending yourself with magic!", the teacher, the same muscular woman who measured my magical abilities, screamed, arms crossed and looking just as mean as before.
"But don't worry, he won't use any of them", Urus completed the teacher's phrase, smiling as his new friend shoved me away with his arms. And the new man was huge.
In fact, that guy was just as tall as Arapaima when he turned into a monster, and was the same man I saw carrying a "little girl" on his shoulders during the selection festival; it was but an optical illusion in the end, and the girl was a normal sized human girl, who was still on his shoulders.
"…" The tall man stood over me without uttering a sound, every inch of his body covered and hidden by thick winter clothes, even his eyes hidden behind snow glasses.
"That's enough, brother…!" the girl on the tall man's shoulders; a blue-eyed girl with short black hair and lots of exposed skin, wheezed, waving herself with a hand. Differently from her 'brother', she was covered only in sweat, wearing only a top, and a thong under the black feather cloak she tied around her waist.
Still speechless, the huge man walked away from me, and back closer to Ursus.
"He's just a pathetic coward."
"Whatever dude… Huf! Huf! You're owing us a magical fan."
"Don't you know that it is unsightly for underlings to ask for rewards so directly, Blizz? You should be more like your brother Trunk, a decent doormat", Ursus waved away the girl, frowning slightly.
"Don't…! HUUUF…!" I felt scorching heating just by looking at the struggling girl, even though the temperature was just pleasant, actually. "Take us wrong Ursus. The only person crazy enough to like you is that Ninebark!", she pointed at the ugly girl who called me a 'slave' as soon as we met.
"You seem to think quite highly of yourself for a worker."
"No one, huf… Understands you, girl! Huf!"
They continued to discuss, but, thankfully, while walking away from me.
Yes, it was the class in which a bunch of people had signed in for, and this included Ursus and his gang, plus a wall of people between me and the teacher that didn't care, or found it funny to see me being attacked for no reason by the group unfortunately.
"Pat! Pat!", I brushed away the dirt from my clothes as I got up.
"…Come on, dude", I heard another familiar voice behind me.
"Spruce!", I turned around with a smile on my face.
"That wasn't cool. Not a bit", he seemed slightly annoyed somehow, scratching his chin with a frown. "Why didn't you resist at all?"
"Well… I just don't like to hurt people for little reason", I shrugged. "Plus, they will stop eventually."
"No, they won't", the little person didn't scream, but there was intensity in his voice, his eyes staring straight into mine, serious. "Anyway, just don't do that again."
"Do what?"
"Pretend to be weak. It will only get you beaten up like this", he turned around, and threw me an ugly stare before walking away: "And I hate it."
*
"Your Holy Grace, 'tis I, your loyal and eternal vassal."
"Do not waste my time with such blatant lies, dog. Both you and I know very well neither of us is eternal, loyal, or holy… yet", I sighed, taking in all of the landscape nearby, and much further ahead. The highest towers of the Bear Mountain allowed me to do so. "And I thought I told you to not approach me while in this god's cadaver."
"Forgive me, 'Holy Grace'", the dog continued, then with a mocking smile. Getting up from his knee, he said: "But I have something to report that may interest you."
"Be brief."
"Someone defeated one of my mirages. And I believe he just became a apprentice in this place."
"Hoo…?", that was indeed interesting. However: "Do whatever you want with it, as long as it happens inside the Bear Mountain and you stupid dog don't reveal yourself. We are almost there anyway, and I don't need more underlings."