His feet aren't the only part of him that follows the horse theme. A smooth straight tail of midnight black hair falls from his rear. Two adorable horse ears stand tall on his head. He even styles his hair in a masculine ponytail. The same midnight black of his tail.
He has bronze tanned skin and perhaps south Asian ethnicity, like someone from India. Or as close as you can get in an alien Academy in the void. He had firm muscular arms and a wide chest from what I can only assume was hard work crafting. But his eyes had that geeky glint in them, like the world didn't understand his passion, but he wouldn't let that stop him. He fully seems to be enjoying himself.
"Yep, new batch Scribe. Will you take them and put them up at the usual rate?" He takes reaches up and wipes the sweat off his brow with his sleeve before noticing Scribe isn't the only one present. My stomach flips again as he looks my way. I want to squirm away from his gaze and find myself nervously playing with my tail petals. "Oh, didn't notice you there. Sorry was I interrupting something?" He's talking to me!
"N-no! It's fine, I-I was just being shown what's on offer in the shop." I repeat in no more than a mutter. Why doesn't my mouth work anymore! My voice has difficulty coming out right. Something I had no trouble doing before gets twisted and knotted in my throat.
As I peek from beneath my bangs I find myself appreciating him. He was just so darn nice to look at. Which sent my brain fumbling for a reason. One it probably could find easily but I willed it in other directions. I felt a guilty pleasure just drinking in the sight of his perspiring form having finished lugging his load to the shop. What is wrong with me?! OK, deep breath. I try to reset my brain from whatever strange mood I've found myself.
"Ah, well, if I may." He winks at me. I shudder. Uuu~, stop! "Has Scribe shown you one of these yet?"
He opens up one of the boxes and pulls out a book. On the cover is an intricate circle, pride of place in the centre. It's ring bound with glass tubes. Each tube bubbling liquid of various colours every so often. The patterns of bubbling liquid fascinate me and he seems to enjoy that fact.
"This is a personal project of mine." I numbly nod along. His dark eyes sparkle as he continues to describe his pride. "It's a notebook. But it's no ordinary notebook."
"O-Oh... what does it do?" I ask a little conscious that he's come closer to show me. I can feel the heat radiating from him. Heat from his recent work out. I feel his presence all the more as he shuffles closer to give me a good look at his prized work. But he doesn't notice my discomfort, keen to describe his craftsmanship.
"It has various features. I've been stuffing various functions into the book ever since I started this project." His voice thrums through me. He reaches for his chest. As he grasps his hand an object falls into it straight out of his body. A book similar to the other one he's holding. It's a lot more worn however. A number of additional glass pipes have been jerry-rigged onto it. "These books are soul bound. Meaning you'll never be without it."
Plopping it back in he gives me a playful smirk. "Even if you want to take it out on your home world."
My eyes widen. "You mean..."
He beams with pride. "Yep, you got it. Free travel between worlds for the book. I just wouldn't use it at home when you have classes, it can get a bit finicky when time lines don't match up properly." He rubs the back of his head displaying a shy nervous look. Aww... Nope, shut up brain!
I avoid his gaze by scrutinising the floor. That's a nice pattern. But the possibilities his invention entails genuinely do excite me. You could do so much with that. From bringing information from home to the Academy to take advantage of your better memory, to using the tools in one world to draw circles to copy in the other. "The notebook sounds awesome..." I mumble.
"Really!!" He exclaims making me look up. His face flashes a little embarrassment. "Sorry, everyone I've told doesn't get it. They complain that you have to fill it yourself, or that it's simply an information grimoire." He clenches his fists, and his ears twitch. "No one understands it's worth. I've had to lower the price countless times. But you got it!"
I feel a goofy grin form on my face as he smiles at me. Yep, just happy about the notebook, nothing more. "That's great, but uuh, how many pages does it..." I fumble about trying to keep the conversation alive. Aware that if it stops it'll only be infinity more awkward.
"Ah, no worries about that, it's a proper information grimoire. You can have as many pages as you need. You just need to supply it with essence to keep it topped up." He flips it over to show what looks like a mini alchemy kit. A couple of vials with swirling essence sit at the bottom. Liquid percolates up tubes into a central infusion array that I recognise from alchemy class.
My jaw drops. He grins, his ears flick with amusement from my reaction. "Yup, this isn't my first rodeo." I almost spit take at his choice of words. "This is the culmination of my experimentation. You feed in objects with the correct essence and it will fill in the vials." He points to a black spot for feeding in objects at the bottom of the back cover. "It comes with a pen, so you can feed it writing material for pages and inks to refill the pen. Eh, just, that will only work in the Academy. As I don't know the laws of your world. But! But if you do maintenance in the Academy it should work just fine back home as a normal notebook!" He hurries to clarify.
I see, so the trade off is that it goes dormant on the home world. "Won't it get larger and larger? As you add pages that is?"
He shakes his head. "No, it'll stay relatively small because of the essence infusions that don't require knowledge of the world to work. Just they'll run out over time so it's best to take the notebook out often in the Academy to let it recharge. You get it don't you little lady? Finding all the flaws in my product one after another." He smiles wryly.
I'm caught off guard as his hand finds my head. He pats me. My head goes fuzzy. His large hands feels reassuring and warm. A tingle shoots down my spine. Oh god. Why? It couldn't be that this body is attracted to guys? Right? I start to consider why I never noticed before but that's obvious, non have been attractive to me before this point. All of them have been non human in form and I've been way too distracted by other things to pay much attention to their human parts.
I find my self leaning into his pat and almost lamenting when he stops. I hold back the small whine of protest as his hand leaves. My heart is thoroughly steeped in shame as I chastise myself for these alien desires. But it can't be the case right? I find Rise adorable! But wait... Lots of girls like adorable things. That's not really a good gauge of my orientation.
But perhaps if I think about things I'd like to do with rise? Could I hug her? Apart form the embarrassment that would surely be nice... how about a kiss? Yes, that wouldn't be unwelcome either... That seems like a good sign. I look up at Black's face. Could I kiss him... wait!! What am I thinking about! I almost burst with heat as my face flushes and my stomach somersaults.
Do not look directly into the sun! Idiot! My mind fills with little fantasies, like what it would be like to have him wrap me in his arms. Feeling his firm chest against my back, the reassurance it would bring. My heart is hammering and he still hasn't left my side. I can hear him chattering away, showing me the numerous features he's stuffed his pride and joy with. But I can't really take in what he's saying. I can't hear him over the hammering of my heart.
I feel like I'm out of control. Like I've let the horse bolt and I'm still trying to close the barn door. How do I gain control of these feelings. I don't want them, go away!
I try to think what attraction feels like with girls. But it's different, like a different stomach for different meals. It's satisfying to see hard working Rise try her best. It makes me want to hug her and pat her head. Perhaps even more. But is that an echo of my real body? Or feelings emanating from this body? I'm a lot more used to dealing with that type of attraction so I know how to hold back but this...
This has left me a quivering wreck. It's not as if anything can come of this though... But of course there is. I've seen countless couples in the Academy. My mind wanders back to the first proper exploration of the Academy. When I walked around a corner in the library and caught those two love birds I realised couples could quite easily form in the Academy. I just never thought I'd be a part of that sort of thing. Never would it have occurred to me that I could find myself in a relationship as the opposite gender. The Academy has always been about the mysteries of magic. But at this rate I could be exploring a very different set of experiences. It doesn't help that he's equally geeky as all my other friends, I could truly find myself becoming his friend!
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
I realise that my tongue has slipped out, a little drool hangs from my chin. I quickly suck it back in and wipe my chin with a sleeve. Aarg! Why tongue, did you have to misbehave now! I'm mortified. Looking up at Blacks face his tell tale wry grin tells me he spotted it.
"Haha, you like it that much? Your a new student right? Well..." He tires to hand me the book he'd been demonstrating with.
"Woah, no I couldn't! That must have cost you a lot to make right?" I ward off his gift with two palms.
"But your the first to truly get the worth of my work. Hmm... How about this." He places the book back into the box it came from. Reaching into a satchel at his waist he rummages around for a second. When he finds what he's looking for he pulls out another notebook.
This one looks different. The cover is a deep blue rather than the reddy brown of leather that the other notebooks had. Other details I can make out differ from the wholesale version. The brief glimpse of the back cover reveals an even more intricate pipe work of glass tubes. And the circle on the front has subsidiary circles attached to it.
"This is a prototype of the next version. Would you do me a favour and give it a test for me?" He asks without a hint of guilt over how blatantly obvious he's being. "Your payment can be your review of the new features..."
I find it hard to refuse though, even if it's obvious he's doing me a favour. He want's to meet me again... my heart wavers at the opportunity to meet regularly. Arg, stop, you don't need this! "Th-Thanks." I say as he places it in my hands. I squeeze it to my chest. Stupid, stupid, stupid...
His eyes glitter as he watches me trace the intricate circle on the front cover and marvel at the complex pipe work on the back. I gulp, I'm holding such and expensive gift... I daren't even think about what this would cost to buy from the shop.
"You'll just need to pour your personal mana into the front circle to bind it." He taps the front cover.
Personal mana? I'm a little lost, but don't know how to ask. Thankfully he spots my confusion.
"Ah, sorry." He rubs the back of his head, ruffling his hair. "Since your a new student you won't know that yet unless you take the course. Have you unlocked the first shelf?" I nod. "Then there should be a book on the shelf called Internal casting and the Academy Avatar. It's a class on specific abilities added to every avatar in the Academy, so you should be able to follow the instructions, regardless of what world you come from."
Ah! So that's what that's about. I had spotted the book, but dismissed it initially. Internal casting didn't sound relevant to Earth, at least not yet. "What do I do with this until I can do a cast? I don't want to loose it."
"That's fine. Anything you put in your pockets will stay with you the next time you spawn. But your pockets are only so large, so you'll eventually need to buy storage if you need more space. Anyway, take good care of it!"
While my guard is down he lands another pat on my head. I let out a little squeak. He simply laughs. I'm left reeling while he turns to sort out his original task.
Scribe has packed away the boxes already. She places another set of dials on the counter and takes a blue simplified medallion off of a hook behind the counter. Slotting his and the blue medallion into the slots he gets paid the credits he's due for previous sales.
"Thanks Scribe... Oh! I didn't catch your name."
"Eh! Ah, Mel." I struggle to reply.
"Nice meeting you Gentle. I'm Black Rider. See you later!" And with that he dashes off with the speed of a racing horse. Giving me a wave before he darts around the corner. I watch the corner as I hear his feet clop away.
I turn back to Scribe to see her devilish smirk. "Nooo~ don't give me that look!"
"Oh, youth~."
"No, please stop!"
"You better snap him up, plenty of girls are admirers." She croons.
Is there a hole I can crawl into...
------
I trudge back toward the library. Heart still hammering. But I want to make the best use of the time left to me this Mark. Need to find those two books. One by Stepping Stones, one on Internal Casting. I sigh. I really want to scrub my mind of those recent memories. Another set of memories for the Vault of Shame. I seem to be making them rather quickly lately.
I breath a deep breath. My cheeks are still on fire. I bite my lip as I consider what just happened. That was just my body reacting, of course a handsome guy will cause that kind of reaction... actually this line of thought isn't helping!! I just need to avoid engaging with these feelings. It's the body, not me. Concentrate on your own goals Mel. Don't let issues like this distract you...
It doesn't take long to return while I overwrite my mood. My head is still filled with fuzzy feelings and I walk back in a daze. But by the time I arrive I've finished locking those feelings away with the shameful memories in the vault. If I remember correctly the library reception should be this direction.
It's a welcome sight to see Glade busy working at the desk as I arrive. Home from home. There is always something peaceful about returning here.
"Glade, do you have a moment?" I ask.
"Certainly, how may I help you little bloom?"
"Do you know a Stepping Stones? If there are any books by them here?"
Her eyes widen a smidge. She beckons me forward with her long fingers. I lean close to listen. "Go down the third exit." She points. "Then follow the directions for shelf 103. You'll find a lone small shelf. The books may appear small but they're packed with information."
As I lean back again I see her gentle smile. She knows, and she approves. But there is a sad edge to those emotions, something my social ineptness can't quite translate. Is it because he passed away? Or because she knows this has something to do with Quill's teaching? I nod and begin to follow her directions.
My dive into the wider library takes me on a circuitous route. Bookshelf 103 shouldn't be that far away but my path takes me through winding paths and narrow back-ways. When I do arrive at my destination by ducking under a low slung shelf I'm greeted with a tiny round space filled with small shelves. Was this perhaps hidden away? To secure it out of the way of her eyes?
A much taller set of shelves extended from a near by wall-floor, it shades the entire hidden alcove in shadow. Shelves were stacked one on top of the other so only a small selection would be unlocked with each purchase. I scanned the titles. Each shelf was written by only one or two authors. And off to one side sat shelf 103. Why is it between 2056 and 13? Something strange had to have been going on with those signs...
The shelf is small. There are only about 5 proper text books on there and a bunch of loose leaf notebooks. Stepping Stones and Scribe. The two authors on the shelf. Master and student.
Lets see, what have they written? Of course I wouldn't know what was in the notebooks until I bought the shelf and opened them. But the textbooks displayed their names like usual. One in particular caught my eye. Cataloguing and comparing the elements and trends of Circle Structure by Stepping Stones. My heart fluttered, this looked like exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. A rigorous study, it was something almost mathematical in nature, I knew it had to be.
I reached to pull it out, but of course it didn't budge. Stepping back and bracing my self to see the cost I walked around the corner...
50 points. F-fudge... I don't know whether its worse that it's just out of reach or that I probably won't be able to claw back those points without it. "Why!" I shout into the empty alcove. "Why at every turn! Do you have to shaft me like this Academy!! Why couldn't you give me this one thing!"
The bottom of my fist hits the wood. I bang it impotently, but only end up hurting myself. "Oww..." I feel like this was a message to me. A big, F-you. You were never meant to be here. I slump down with my back to the shelf of books. So near, I can reach out with one arm and touch them, but reading their contents may forever be barred from me.
I don't cry however. Apparently guys don't cry. That makes me giggle to myself. So am I allowed to cry now I'm a girl?
It's a few minutes later I make my way back to the reception area. My sleeve is a little damp.
------
It was all but determined by this point.
I searched the shelf for the book Black had indicated.
Spoofing/Emulation was too expensive to keep up my research. I would eventually run out of points before I discovered anything usable.
Internal casting and the Academy Avatar, here it is. I plucked the book from the shelf. It was a beginner book after all, it came out just fine.
A trial could occur which would require Earth magic and I would be gone. A class could require Earth magic for it's exam and I would be fined points for failing.
At least I'll have this book as a memento. I suppose I'll also know a little about Earth circles. Perhaps I could continue afterwards?
I travelled out of the reception area and towards a more private alcove. Me and Rise had adopted it as our study area after the first couple of days.
Perhaps I could draw all the circles I've seen and study their structure back on Earth. Maybe modern mathematics could unveil something? Not that it would lead to much without extensive testing. But I will have the rest of my life.
But that still seemed a little hollow. After tasting what the Academy had to offer.
"Hi Rise." I greeted her as I entered our little space. Keeping my hurt from my voice.
She blinks her eyes, a little dazed from reading. But she wasn't using any aid or reading from ridiculously close any more. "Hi." She murmurs. She's definitely cute.
"Hey Rise. Would you mind if I gave you a hug?" I ask. Her eyes go wide and she violently shakes her head. "Haha, thought not. It's OK, I was just joking."
I sit down next to her. Something about the stand off-ish nature of Rise is comforting. I have my space and so does she. It's safe. Nothing like what I felt around Black. But I like it.
I crack open the text book and get to learning the very basics of internal casting. I only need to learn how to emit some mana from my hand. For some reason I feel like Rise shuffles a little closer as I read.