“Mr. Frey, can you give me a minute before you leave?”
“What is it, professor?” Zyba already knew what it was about.
“Please… can you tell your mother… that I… ahh…”
“Before you can finish professor, I will warn you. I won’t give personal messages to her, ok? If my father knows it…”
“Very well! Sure, sure. You can go, have a good lunch,” a shaking professor answered, letting out a tense smile, retreating to gather his things together and leave too.
Even after so many eclipses, he still had feelings for his ex-wife. She left him when she married Zyba’s father, the farmer Magnus Frey (she wasted no time, right?). Professor Frey had such a bad taste for her ex-husband that when they crossed paths in the halls of Valkyrie, she would turn her face in a signal of disgust.
Talking about feelings, someone was taking all my attention during lunch. I fixed my bangs and tried to be discreet while my eyes searched in a hurry for Viggo, but I didn’t see him. Only Keoma showed up and sent Dakota a little wink. He was with some boys of the second level. I stopped the search when I crossed eyes with Gyda’s, staring at me from far away. I went back to focusing on the pasta soup and bread.
“He must be helping Professor Cyperus, Lola,” commented Dakota, between bites.
“What? I didn’t ask anything!”
“Do you need to?” said Zyba showing his white teeth.
I saw Nefarious at the middle of table four, making a signal of ‘everything ok?’ with his hands. I answered yes. We were startled by a pigeon doing a low fly over us, dropping a message on Zyba’s head.
Hi Zyba,
Your smile shines through all Valkyrie.
I would like to know if you have a girlfriend.
Kind Regards,
a girl of the second level
It wasn’t only me who noticed Zyba was a smiling boy. This was the first time I saw him blushing. His jaw dropped with the message. His popularity was yielding rewards. He spent the rest of lunchtime between a bite and a look around the room, searching for his admirer.
It was rare to see a pigeon flying above the tables during lunchtime, where no one had time to write. My fertile imagination made me think that could have been for me. It could be a special person saying he loved the dance from last night. Type of thing I shouldn’t be thinking, because he was in a commitment. I kept that thought locked into my head.
“I thought it was for me, damn it!” Dakota let it out, hitting the spoon on her plate a bit too hard. When lunch was over, we had some time before our next class started. We talked about going to Aramata cascade, to walk around. The three of us went there.
Crossing Amethyst Avenue at the rush time, we had to swerve to avoid all the people. I remembered to put on the sun block because the two suns were burning up in the sky. Stores there were busy. We got away from the noise by crossing the gates. On the way we heard some voices.
At the training fields, Professor Cyperus and Viggo were fixing the stakes on the floor for the afternoon training. I immediately fixed my bangs. Lunch was turning in my stomach. My eyes were like an arrow, striking him in the moment. On the counterattack, I got a smile. Scored! I was so excited I forgot to walk.
“Wait for me!”
Dakota and Zyba were already a few steps in front of me, I had to run a little to reach them out. I confess, this was my intention. See if Viggo was at the training field. He was there.
We arrived at Aratama feeling the fresh breeze coming from the water on our faces. That was an invitation to dive in, but we couldn’t swim there. I remember it well where we would go by doing so. The blue peacocks rested fearless around there, searching for the oaks’ shadows that surrounded the place.
“Do you want to jump back in the creek?” Dakota poked me while biting on a piece of leaf.
“Not for now, thanks.”
The creek which starts at the downside-up cascade, goes up to the mountain top bypassing a large amount of soil that protects all the Kingdom’s territory on the west zone. They were steep mountains, closed by the oak trees, no prism would risk climbing them.
We sat down for a few minutes appreciating the landscape, when a heard the crack of a big tree breaking at the top of the mountain, followed by a howl.
“What is this?” I asked trying to see something on that green immensity.
“It must have been Mr. Strax…” Zyba commented, scratching his head.
“Who is that?”
“Solanum Strax. It is an ex-farmer from the Kingdom, is known as the mountain man. He lives isolated up there, since his wife was kidnaped by the jackals. On the same day Elof killed your… mom. Part of the castle was destroyed, and Mrs. Strax was working there at the moment, while he supervised the huge vegetable garden. When he heard the destruction was happening, he ran there to save her, but it was too late. He was so shaken that he isolated himself. Today he lives in the top of the mountain. I only saw him a couple of times. He almost never comes down here, at least not when someone is around.”
“This is… so sad… I would like to know more about my mother, but Nefarious hasn’t told me much about it,” my voice went low.
“By what I know, Mr. Strax was your mother’s friend, only he and Nefarious could tell you about what happened. In due time Nefarious will tell you everything, he doesn’t want you to lose your focus, he knows what he is doing,” said Dakota.
Among all the news going on in my life, the idea of having a mother who loved me, made my heart heal. But who was Princess Runa? What was her personality like? Do I have any resemblance to her? Did she love me? Many questions exploded in my head, sounding like fireworks. But according to Nefarious, ‘everything has its own time.’ At the right time, he would tell me everything about her.
“Gunnar’s beards! We are late! My mom will turn us into mice! Come on!”
Zyba jumped up from the grass after saying that and went running back to the Castle, I didn’t even have time to give a second look at the training field. Dakota and I got up too and ran after him.
We reached the classroom sweating and five minutes late, my bangs looked like I had put them in hot oil. Our clothes smelled like smoke from being burned down upon by two suns. Professor Olga was writing a note nailing the feather on the papyrus, while a post pigeon waited beside her a little apprehensive. She didn’t seem happy.
“I was sending a pigeon to find you! How can you be late if you left early from lunch!? Zybagron Frey!”
Poor Zyba. This was his mom’s class, right?
Professor Olga Frey was a pinch grumpy and master in Black Magic Theory. With Chemistry and Potions, they were the two most important and dangerous classes of all Valkyrie.
After the hissy fit, it took her a few seconds to catch back her breath. She, then, started the class.
“I want to start my class with a warning. DON’T PLAY WITH BLACK MAGIC!” She emphasized punching the table in front of her. She got my full attention after that.
She kept going.
“We have lost prisms who didn’t respect the laws and rules, or underestimated the opponent’s strength. It could be a death jackal, a poison potion, or a curiosity and stubbornness. If you are not conscious of what you are facing, the enemy will crush you like ants. Zybagron know these words very well, I don’t have to say it again. Don’t underestimate the power of the enemy. He might seem weak, calm, even lovable, but he is NOT. Nothing can be trusted in Leike.”