Children of the First

New chapter? Hell yeah, new chapter!
Sorry it's been a while since the last one; stupid "life" got in the way of writing.
So I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out. It ended up taking forever and—surprise, surprise—I didn't get as far as I thought I would (in terms of the storyline/ plot). You would think I would have learned how much I can fit into a single chapter, but no, I haven't.

As always, thanks for reading and for rocking. Hardcore.

I stormed out of the building, too pissed off to do anything else. Not only was I cheated out of my confrontation with Verris, but now I had some jackass poking around in my head. This was clearly not my day.

I shoved my hands in my pockets and fixed my eyes on the sidewalk as I stomped back toward the dorm. It wasn’t so much the invasion of privacy that bothered me, as the fact that I couldn’t do anything about it. Chris had no right to go poking around in my head. I suppose the short class was a blessing, but the way Verris had dismissed us had gotten under my skin—he clearly didn’t give a shit, but still expected us to.

Even if I hadn’t been so wrapped up in my own head, I probably wouldn’t have seen Pebbles sidle up next to me (she was kind of good at it).

“Hey there, squishy,” she chirped. “How’re things?”

“Been better,” I grumbled. “I had a rough morning”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” She looked about as sympathetic as one can with four stony lips and no eyebrows. “Well, if you’re up for it, I was going to let you know that Derrick and I are gonna head to the gym in a couple hours—we said twelve-thirty, but knowing Derrick, that could mean anytime between noon and tomorrow.” She shrugged and gave a fond what-are-you-gonna-do smile (well, close enough, anyhow). “You wanna round up the boys for a little scram? You all could use the practice.”

“Oh hell yes,” I sighed. “That’s exactly what I need: a chance to blow off some steam, maybe clear my head a little. Thanks.”

“You got it,” Pebbles grinned. “What’s got you so worked up, anyhow?”

“Ugh,” I groaned, “it’s this Telepath in Nedrak C and R; apparently he decided it’s okay to Eavesdrop whenever he feels like it. As far as I can tell, I’m the only one he’s interested in pestering. He just wouldn’t let up, you know? It wasn’t just that he was reading my thoughts—though that would be bad enough—he’s also just a plain old asshole.”

“Well, if he’s an undergrad, I doubt he would actually qualify as a Telepath; he’s probably just a Cognitive Arts major or— Oh shit.” She seemed to deflate a little. “It wasn’t Chris Savoy, was it?”

“Blond muckbag? Yeah. You know him?”

“Ugh,” Pebbles groaned. “We lived in the same hall last year and he was a prick then too. Especially to my friend Suzi; she had a class with him and not only did he bug her all through class, he wouldn’t even leave her alone in the dorm. He would ‘mysteriously’ pop up in the lounge whenever she was in there and constantly Whispered things to her. Grade-A asshole.”

“So if he’s been doing it so long why the hell hasn’t anyone stopped him? Cogni majors have to take that oath, right? Shouldn’t he be expelled by now?”

Pebbles shook her head. “He’s not a Cognitive major, just the dickhead son of Telepaths, so no oath. Worst he could be charged with is harassment, and telepathic harassment is a hard thing to prove.”

“Great,” I sneered. “So do I just have to kick his ass to get him to stop?”

Pebbles glared at me. “Yeah Shawn, that’s a good idea—pick a fight during your first week of college.” She leaned down to look me in the eye as we walked. “Don’t be an idiot.”

She kept staring at me until she was satisfied by my expression that I wasn’t going to “be an idiot.”

“So what am I supposed to do?” I asked, feeling somewhat defeated.

“Well that’s the good news,” she said, brightening. “Believe it or not, you’re not the first person to want to keep their thoughts private, safe from prying third-eyes. In fact, psychic stealth and shielding are generally part of Feral’s basic training. I can give you a few pointers this afternoon, but you’ll have to get the rest from Feral.”

“If I make the team, that is…”

Pebbles laughed. “Oh shut up, squishy. You and I both know you expect to make it, you just have to not screw it up.”

I smiled a little. “Thanks, Pebbles. Really.”

“You got it, kiddo. Alright, I’ve gotta run,” she said, veering off the path. “See you at twelve-thirty!”

I stopped to knock on the Gibri’s door before heading back to my room. Roo answered; he said Jarn would be in class until twelve-fifteen, but he was sure they’d both be up for some scram.

Retis was in the room when I got there (at his computer, as always). “Hey kin, how was Professor Dickhead’s class?”

I told him everything that had happened, all the way up to talking to Roo.
“Damn kin, that sucks. At least we’ll get to scram a little, right? I have a class at four this afternoon, but that still gives us a good long time on the field.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Couldn’t have come at a better time, to be honest. I keep thinking I’m calming down, but then it all comes right back. Fucking muckbag...”

I tried to kill time by reading Walking Dunes: The History, Myth, and Legends of Ezifi Desert. Normally, I’d be sucked right in—especially given how little I know about Ezifi lore—but I couldn’t concentrate. My mind kept drifting back to what had happened with Chris and how pissed-off I still was. Eventually, I gave up.

“Fuck this,” I said, snapping the book shut. “I can’t get my head on straight. I’m going to head over to the gym now, wanna come?”

Retis looked up with mild surprise. “Sure kin, just let me get my stuff together.”

I went and told Roo we were going over early.

“Ah, okay, no problem,” Roo said, probably a little confused by my impatience since I hadn’t told him what happened. “I’ma wait for Jarn t’ get back an’ we’ll come meet ya, yeah?”

“Sounds good,” I said, hurrying back to my room. “See you there.”

Retis and I pulled our stuff together and jogged over to the gym. I got a key to a pitch labeled “Deciduous Forest/Mountain 4,” which turned out to be an excellent choice.

We entered the field through the center judges’ box. This time the box overhung a fairly sizeable pond. A wide strip of grass separated the pond from the forest, giving us a clear view of the right-hand goal tower. The ends of the field were pure mountain—smooth, tan stone stretching upwards until it disappeared into the expertly sculpted clouds.

The dual mountain ranges nearly touched on the far edge of the field, fencing in the forest that dominated the middle of the pitch. The forest also separated us from the left goal tower.

“Race you to the left goal tower!” I shouted, sliding down the ladder and sprinting for the trees.

“You got a head start,” Retis called after me. Then, closer behind, he puffed, “Cheater…”

We tore through the forest—literally, in Retis’ case—shouting and cursing all the way through to the other side. All that was left was the long, sloping hill to the goal tower.

I was first out of the forest by a good bit, but as soon as Retis broke free of the brambles, he started gaining on me. I could hear his feet pounding into the soft earth behind me, steadily closing the gap.

Retis stretched his hand out as we closed in on the tower. He was ahead of me by nearly a foot, but at the last second I launched myself forward, diving for the tower. I beat Retis out by a fraction of an inch.

“No way,” Retis protested. “You weren’t even close.”

“I was there,” I panted, flopping down on the grass. “Why bother denying it? I won and you lost, end of story.”

Gold sparks whizzed past my face. “Oh, you wanna go?” I dared him, springing to my feet.

“Shield/Jolt/Stun like last time?” he asked, backing away from me.

“Nah,” I said. “The real thing won’t be all Shield and Stun; use whatever spells you want.”

“Sounds good.” Retis put his hand over his gauntlet and concentrated. “I think I’m gonna just go with Snare instead of Stun.”

“That’ll work,” I said. “But you shouldn’t have told me; now I’m ready for it. During the match, people usually try not to cast spells unless they have to. That way they don’t see you coming.”

“Gotcha. So I don’t suppose you’ll be telling me yours, will you?”

I gave him a sly grin, then set my glove with Jolt, Slam, and Shroud. “Ready?” I asked.

“One-two-three-go!” he shouted, flinging a Jolt aimed for my chest.

I rolled to the side and fired one back before charging towards him. I dodged the couple of Jolts he shot off before he remembered he had Snare. I had remembered he had Snare, which is why I charged straight ahead instead of working my way in slowly—I was trying to get as close as possible before he could stop me.

The Snare caught my ankle, yanking me to the ground. I tried to get up, but the spell wasn’t letting go, which made it hard to keep dodging Retis’ barrage of gold sparks. I was getting more and more frustrated as I struggled against the Snare; finally, after Retis landed three Jolts in a row, I’d had enough.

I cast Shroud to give myself a second to recover from the Jolts. Smoke billowed from my hand and quickly wrapped itself around him. I could barely see him through the smoke, but he couldn’t see or hear anything at all.

I got to my feet and heaved a Slam through the smoke, flinging Retis to the ground so hard that he bounced a little. I tried to move in while I had the chance, but the Snare still had my ankle.

“Gai-damnit” I shouted, shooting Jolt after Jolt at the invisible restraint.

“Damn…” Retis said, holding his head and walking toward me. “That was a hell of a shot.”

“Will you get this fucking thing off of me?” I spat.

“Oh. Yeah, kin. Sorry about that,” he said, releasing the Snare.

“You ready to go again?” I challenged him.

“Not quite—that really was a hell of a shot at the end there.” He looked at me warily. “Maybe you should try to calm down a bit before we do any more sparring. Pebbles and the others will be here soon and then—“

“Fuck that, I’m fine. I’m gonna go run some cliff-sprints until they get here.”

“Alright kin, just take it easy for a bit, okay?”

I rolled my eyes—what did he know? I just needed to blow off some steam and taking it easy wasn’t the way to do that.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 1st, 2008 at 2:56 am and is filed under Chapters, CotF Main Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.