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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"And when the Gods went away, some went back to their home, but some stayed behind, in different forms. Like the moon, for example", the thorn lady said, as we all were laying on the ground on the very top of one of the vertebrae towers, staring at the gray body in the distance.
It had been a few days since I returned to the Bear Mountain from my quick visit to my Clan… If I was even still part of the Clan, that is.
Either way, I was lost.
When the lesson ended, I hurried to leave the room with the teacher, for staying behind with the other students would only result in annoying nuisance for being a Seed in a Sand Desert.
Once I got to the bottom of the stairs, however, another inconvenience: "Hey! Want to research another one of your memories, Coyote?", Ike asked with a smile on his face, followed by a horde of girls. He had gained some popularity since his battle against the Bear Mountain invaders.
"This time I won't be a dead weight, so don't worry about me. Just focus on unlocking your true potential", Spruce commented, spinning an obsidian dagger on his hand. He was in the same situation, and then he actually had the respect of many of the students.
"How do you still think he should do that?!", the awkward swordsman facepalmed, shaking his head in negative.
"I maintain the same logic from before. I bet he won't disappear if he unlocks enough seals", the little person shrugged, brushing away the lock of hair covering one of his eyes.
"Uhm… Actually, I have something to do today. Sorry", I waved t my two friends, and hurried away.
I dove into the crowd of students who were following Ike and Spruce, and took an unusual path through a room with three stone pillars with muscular men sculpted into them, slowing down only when I made sure that I wasn't being followed by those two anymore.
I sighed, and sat down on a wooden seat shaped like a jaguar.
That didn't mean I could rest, however.
"Hey, look at that guy! He has the lowest possible mark both in knowledge and in magic!", someone with big leather gloves pointed out.
"Ha! I bet he can't even conjure a water ball!", his friend with big leather boots talked back.
"Does he even know what a water ball is?" a third boy, with big leather belt joked
The trio laughed with themselves, and I knew things that wouldn't be a good day when I saw them approaching me with a smirk on their faces after muttering with one another for some time.
"Hey", the guy with the gloves spoke first.
"…Yeah?"
"What a slow response. Perhaps his head is bad!", the boy with the leader belt joked again, and once more the three boys laughed.
"What are you even doing in this place? They don't teach you how to farm here!", the boy with big leather gloves pushed me on my shoulder.
"They actually do", I said.
"What?" The boy with the glove seemed thrown back by that.
"Didn't you know?"
"Hey!", the one with the big shoes stepped forward, and gripped my hair. "Don't you dare to talk so big with us, little Seed in the Sand Desert!"
…Oh, I wanted to punch their noses inside of their skull so much. My hand almost curled up into a fist, and it actually took me conscious effort to not do that. I had already been adverted by the teachers before, I doubted they'd let pass another misbehavior. And that school was the only place which offered me any way to deal with my tattoos in any form.
"…Or what?", the words that came out of my mouth surprised even myself.
"What did you say…?!", the boy pulling my hair curled up his hand into a fist, gritted his teeth and-
"OR WHAT!?", someone else screamed from behind the three boys, and the three of them immediately froze up, their eyes going wide, and their face pale. "That's what I said, big foot!", stepping close decidedly, a girl with green hair crossed her arms with a frown right before the trio who hadn't moved a centimeter. "What are you going to do with that poor student?"
"Uhm… No- Nothing, Mari!", the boy with big shoes let me go and retreated one step with both hands raised up.
"We were just, uhm…. Joking! Yeah, hahaha…", the boy with a big leather belt copied his friend.
"Yeah! Joking! Hahaha, he's so funny!", the boy with big leather gloves did the same as the other two, and once they were all side by side, they all turned around, and ran. "We have lessons now! Bye bye!"
"…Idiots, I hate people like them", Mari watched as the trio disappeared in the maze of corridors, rooms and tents. "I still don't think it was fair that you didn't get a rank up after helping us so much with the attack to the school. Everyone got one!", she sat by my side, and seemed to relax a little.
"…I failed in capturing the guy, remember? He ran away", I curved forward, and rested my elbows on my knees. "I didn't even see how was him."
"Even then. You were just as part of the team back then, as anyone else! Speaking of which, what happened to your friends? Are they still in class?"
"Now, it's just… Oh, well, why lie? I've been avoiding them."
"What? And why is that?", she raised an eyebrow looking at me.
"It's because… I've had a fight with another friend recently. We stopped talking with one another. And that made me realize how frail things like friendship really are. If they even exist, to begin with."
"That's… quite a sad thing to say…", Mari said. Then, to my surprise, she slapped me in the back with a big smile on her face. "Don't worry, though! I'm sure you're going to realize that friendship is real! And I know exactly what you need right now."
"Thank you, but if you're planning on pretending to be my friend to make me feel better, I have to reject the offer."
"Don't be silly, honey!", the green haired girl got up from her seat, and faced me with one hand on her hip, pulling something from her pocket and showing me. "What I offer you is a purpose. A job. And coincidently, we're going after some real bad guys right now. The ones who plotted the invasion of the Bear Mountain! Apparently, they are attacking a lot of our apprentices outside the Bear Mountain too", the thing she showed me was a red stone with two eyes, one atop of the other. And my heart skipped a bit. "Become a Volunteer Bear Mountain Peacekeeper!"