Someone a couple of seats away from me let out a sudden loud growl as he stood up. “Teacher just remove her from class already! It’s clear that she isn’t listening and all she does is disrupt the lecture!”
“Just another man that can’t control his temper…” I muttered, rubbing my eyes as they started to water from hitting my nose against my desk. “Although it is true. Then again I’m not the one shouting like someone shoved a sword up my–” My analogy made me think of parasites again and I vomited on the spot, my throat suddenly becoming coated in a slimy substance that itched and smelled like propane. ‘And now if I want to leave I have to walk over that… Forget it… I’m not moving… I’m staying here…’ My eyes glitched before the orange tint instantly overtook them, my body reacting the same as it would if I were in serious danger.
I felt it was reasonable to expect the man yelling to calm down after realizing I had a valid reason for “Disrupting the class” But no… He doubled down… Just like any good noble...
“Look at this, it’s obvious she’s just seeking attention. She cheated to win the guild wars and let it go to her head!”
‘Oh… Yeah, that makes more sense, this has nothing to do with how I behave in class. Wait more sense? Would any girl actually vomit to get attention? No one wants to see that…’ I smirked wiping my mouth and trying to steady myself, when I finally did I stood up, supporting myself with my arms on the desk. “That’s funny, last class you were the one that said the only thing that mattered was winning weren’t you? That winning was what made you a man? How does it feel, knowing the smallest girl in class is more of a man than you?” My throat continued to itch until I started clearing it over and over. It almost felt like it was closing up, but my air was still easily flowing into my lungs, although strangely enough, it didn’t feel like any was leaving.
“Maybe it would feel bad if you didn’t look so much like one. Are you even sure you’re a girl? Or do you just dress like one because you're embarrassed about your height?”
‘Wait, I don’t really look like a guy do I?’ I tried to swallow, but nothing went down, instead, my face scrunched up like a cat spitting out a hairball and fire came out of my mouth burning everything between us. Thankfully it didn’t cover him entirely, but the burst still singed his clothes and hair. My eyes watered as my insides burned, making me hunch over. But really it wasn’t half as bad as any other pain I had been through, and my body was still partially numb from lack of manna. “I-m– Ah–Ahhh— I a-m ah–” My voice came out like a dry breathy screech, barely audible. It was hardly worth stating I was a girl anyway… So I just stopped trying.
The teacher clapped his hands together. “Right… That’s all for today… You should all get ready for training.”
Everyone hesitantly left, slowly but surely, except my guild mates and the teacher, who of course came to check on me. After a while though I still couldn’t talk… And they were afraid of moving me for some reason… So we really weren’t getting anywhere.
Finally, the teacher started making hand signals, probably just to check if I knew any. I had no idea what he said with his, but I remembered a very basic few that the soldiers taught me for fun. ‘Let’s see here…’ I closed my eyes, thinking way back and envisioning the signals. “Me… No breath…” ‘I don’t know what fire is…’ “Smoke. Before… Go now…” ‘Did that make sense? I hope that made sense.’
“You're saying that was your first time breathing fire?”
I nodded.
“And you can’t talk now…”
I nodded again.
He slowly rubbed his forehead. “Ok, well let’s see how bad it is…” without warning he suddenly grabbed my face, gently opening my mouth and leaning in close enough to make my eyes go wide and my brain completely stop.
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“It doesn’t look that bad… Open wider if you can.” He applied pressure to make my mouth open even wider, grabbing my tongue and moving it around before slowly moving my lips to check my gums, quickly jerking a hand back, before I suddenly tasted blood. “No bleeding or severe burns, but your gums are swollen, likely from your teeth suddenly growing. Everything is lightly burned, so I imagine it hurts quite a bit… I’ll make you some medicine… But it will probably be hard to swallow… And if you throw up again that… Wouldn’t be ideal..”
I felt my face relax to try and ease the pain as my eyebrows pushed together and I slowly moved my jaw around. When he looked down and our eyes met he quickly looked away, pulling back slightly.
All I could do was growl. ‘If you can’t look at me we can’t communicate…’ I grabbed his shirt and tugged on it, signaling again. “Medicine fine to drink. I will be not hurt.” ‘good enough. He’ll understand.’
He nodded. “I’ll make you some medicine then.”
Mo suddenly growled. “Good, go do that… Instead of playing with her mouth… Perverted old man…”
He smiled nervously, wiping his hands on his pant leg and trying not to look at me, awkwardly being pushed out of the room by my friends. ‘I guess Isy was filling her head with weird ideas too…’
“Here,” Bear growled softly, offering me a hand. “I’ll help you walk back to your room.”
‘Walk…’ I looked down, thinking for a moment. ‘As embarrassing as this is… There’s no way I’m walking anywhere… It’s hard enough to raise my arms…’ I slowly turned and looked back up at him, lifting both of my arms out. ‘Sorry Bear… You’re going to have to carry me…’
Without a moment's hesitation, He grabbed my waist and picked me up, making me even more skittish than before as he placed me on his hip and held me securely to his side so I wouldn’t fall.
‘You’re kidding, right? Am I really small enough to be carried like this? I meant like… Like Cary me on you’re back… Or like a fireman's carry… Ugh… Even a bridal carry would be better than this…’
He opened the door and set me down on my bed before leaving without a word, only making my thoughts on him more confusing. It almost felt like he wasn’t even a real person odd enough as it was to say that.
For a while after that, the girls took care of me… Well, mostly just Mo, Isy seemed too worried to think straight. Thankfully after lying down for about an hour or so, my manna recovered enough for me to become fully operational again, at least from the perspective of not using magic. Instead of being completely helpless, it was more like I was just really tired and weak, kind of like I was sick, but more like I had just woken up from surgery. ‘Our last class should have ended a little while ago… So it’s safe to say the day’s over… And we have tomorrow off… I need to cool down…’
I stumbled out of bed with help from the others and took an ice-cold shower. That much I was able to at least do on my own. Although… Isy forgot to bring my clothes in so when I was done I waited for about three minutes before awkwardly deciding to wrap a towel around myself. Then I rested my head against the door, sighing until I heard the main door to our room open and close. ‘The door opened and closed softly, so that must have been Mo, but she wouldn’t leave alone, did they go out to get medicine or something?’
I pulled up a 3d map of the room in my mind and quickly assessed every step I had to take before quickly opening the door, walking out, grabbing my clothes from the dresser, turning around… And freezing in place as I saw Mo and Isy staring at me with our teacher standing right next to them.
I would have frozen time to get my bearings, but I knew if I did my manna would all leak out again, so then I thought to run, but my legs wouldn’t move because they were too tired, it was all the strength they had just to shake.
Mo though, with her lightning-fast speed, zipped over to me and pushed me back into the bathroom so fast he didn’t even have time to look at me. It was as if I had never left in the first place… Not that it really mattered as far as my brain was concerned. Admittedly, whether it was the pain piling up or the scenario… I found myself wanting to cry again.
“Your clothes got left outside?” Mo asked bluntly.
I still couldn’t talk, so all I could do instead was nod.
“Do you need help getting dressed?”
I would have said no… I wanted to… But I still wasn’t moving from shock… So realistically… ‘Yes…’ I nodded again.
She helped me get dressed, thankfully saving any comments until after the fact. “I know I’m supposed to feel bad for you. But I’m grateful I can return this favor, although… You abandoned me after setting me down in the bathroom… So now you owe me one.”
‘She seriously feels bad about that! I’m not going to help you pee! And this is way different!’ I let out a deep rumbling growl, but she didn’t react at all, as if it just didn’t happen. Then she helped me back to my bed where I drank some medicine our teacher brought before lying back down… He was gone though… No doubt hastily retreating.
‘Maybe I should let the next demon eat me… eh well… As long as it’s not a parasite…’