Children of the First

New chapter up before my battery dies, alright!
I've decided I want to get the most out of the rest of my time on the west coast, so Chapter eight will probably come up after I fly back to NOLA on Saturday.

I woke up around noon to find Retis already awake and at his computer. I sat up and realized I’d fallen asleep without even taking my shoes off—maybe not the best way to kick off my second day at college.

“Feeling better?” Retis asked without looking up from the screen. “You slept like a rock… a rock that snores.”

“And who could blame you,” he went on. “Throwing that much magic around, I’m surprised you’re up this early.”

“Yeah,” I yawned. “It’ll be a good long while before I smoke Swiftreed again, let alone do magic on it.”

“Probably a good call. Still,” he said. “I have to admit, it was pretty cool, in a never-do-that-again sort of way.”

I nodded and yawned again. “Yeah,” I said, struggling to collect my thoughts. “I’m gonna have a shower. Then do you wanna see if there’s an open practice room at the gym? We’re gonna have to get started on scram as soon as possible if you want to make the team.”

“Oh… yeah, sure.” He didn’t sound overjoyed.

I peeled off yesterday’s clothes—apparently I had sweat some during the night— and wrapped a towel around myself before stumbling down the hall to the communal bathroom. I stumbled through the door and almost jumped right back out when my feet hit the tile floor. I’d have to remember to pick up a pair of shower sandals, if not for hygiene, then at least to stave off frostbite.

My eyes were still half-shut as I rounded the corner into shower area, and I smacked right into Roo as he was leaving one of the stalls.

“Woah, sorry dude,” I said before I realized it was him. “Oh, Roo—sorry about last night, I didn’t—“

He cut me off with a wave of his hand. “Don’t worry about it,” he said, “accidents happen.”

“Thanks,” I said. “Hey, Retis and I are going to head over to the gym to get in some scram, you interested? Jarn too.”

“Definitely, we could both use th’ practice. You wanna come get us when you’re ready t’go?”

“Sure,” I said, stepping aside to let him pass. “Oh, there was something I meant to ask you: Jarn said you were brothers, so would that make you twins?”

“Do we look like twins?” he asked.

Roo was a little bigger and his fur was a little lighter, but otherwise I thought they looked pretty similar—the same short tan fur, the same slate-colored skin on their hands and feet, and the same dark brown eyes.

“Then how are you two in the same grade?” I asked.

“Technically, I think you’d say we’re cousins, but we don’t really separate cousin from brother or sister.”

“Gibri live in big family groups,” he explained. “Jarn’s parents had as much of a hand in raisin’ me as my own mom and dad did—same goes for the rest of th’ family. Basically, we were raised to think of each other as brothers, so that’s what we tell people we are.”

“Doesn’t this sort of thing get complicated when you’re dealing with other races?” I asked.

“Sometimes, but not as much as you might think, really. Usually it goes pretty much like this,” he said. “But can we talk about this some time when we’re not in the showers?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” I said. “I’ll come by after I get my stuff together.” I didn’t know why he should care about being in the showers—it’s not like Gibri wore clothes anyhow.

I guess he had to dry his fur or something, I thought. Maybe Gibri feel the same way about having wet fur as other races do about being naked… I made a mental note to ask him about that later.

I found a stall that looked pretty clean and turned on the water, leaving my soap and junk in there while I waited for it to get warm. “Not that bad,” I thought, checking myself out in one of the mirrors. I had slight circles under my eyes, but they weren’t puffy or anything, just darker—which actually looked kind of cool.

That’s how you know you’ve had a strange night: when you start to think the bags under your eyes are sexy.

I turned around and looked back over my shoulder to check how my scales were coming in. They were progressing nicely, filling out across my shoulders in a nice cross-shape that almost reached my tailbone. I had always been one of the thinnest Nedraka in high school, but my scales had come in thicker than most, and that made the locker room more bearable.

My shower was good and hot by this point, so I hung up my towel and stepped inside.

I felt much better after my shower.

Retis pried himself away from the computer as I came in the room. “You ready?” he asked, turning in his chair.

“I do need clothing,” I said, “and you’re going to want something a little more durable than a pair of boxers.”

“What do you recommend?”

“Well I don’t know what you have,” I said, going to my ‘closet’ (which was really more of a floor-length cubby). “But here, why don’t you take a look at my gear and then see what you can put together from your stuff.”

I swung my scram bag onto my bed and unzipped it—thank Gaia for odor enchantments, that bag used to reek before my dad gave me a couple of breeze charms.

I pulled out a bundle of elastic armbands. “These are to mark which team you’re on, red or blue.”

“But they’re all black…”

“Ooh, there’s no fooling you,” I grinned. “They’re enchanted to glow either red or blue so only your teammates and the refs can see it. There seems to be something about brightly colored armbands that makes you easier to spot. The top wizards and scientists are still working on that one.”

“Prick,” he said, snatching the bunch from my hand.

“And these are the gauntlets.” I tossed the scram gloves onto the bed. “I have an extra one that you can use for now—I’ll explain how to work them when we get to the practice room and you can actually try ‘em out.”

“As for what to wear—you’ll want something fairly durable that will still let you move freely. This is what I wear,” I said, laying a black jerkin and matching pants out on the bed. “They’re made of Kettle Deer skin, which makes them perfect for scram.”

“It just looks like leather to me,” Retis said.

“Leather is a rusty chain mail thong compared to this stuff.” I held out the jerkin so he could feel how soft it was. “Kettle Deer skin is as tough as rawhide, but as light and flexible as cotton.”

“That warm, but don’t you think that all black’s a little over dramatic?”

“Eh, who cares? I like it. And besides, it’s not like you can just go up to a Kettle Deer and say, ‘Excuse me mister deer—I know you’re awful busy with the whole wraith-of-the-night thing, but would you mind changing colors? Something to go with these shoes maybe?’”

“Good point.” Retis said. He thought for a second. “I guess I can probably just wear the same thing I wear when we go hunting back home.”

Apparently, all he wore to hunt was a pair of thin brown pants cut just above the knee. “That’s one nice thing about scales,” he said when I asked him why he didn’t want a shirt. “I never have to worry about scratching myself on every little branch or rock.”

We had just gotten dressed in our normal clothes and finished shoving everything into my bag when there was a knock at the door.

“You guys ready?” Roo asked from the other side.

I opened the door. “Yep, just had to get our stuff together,” I said.

“Well let’s go then. Jarn said he was going to leave without you five minutes ago.”

Jarn was already in the elevator when we got to the end of the hall. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon” he said, bouncing a bit. “Wanna get there b'fore all th’ rooms are taken.”

“How many do you think they have?” Roo asked as the doors slid shut.

“It’s a big school, so I’d bet they have at least five or six,” I said. “But we should probably hurry if we want to a good one.”

Jarn bolted out of the elevator when we reached the lobby, and made for the exit.

“Slow down, rot-head,” Roo called after him. “He didn’t mean we had to run!”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 6:56 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.