The day went by quickly, and Mrs.Evenson didn’t cover anything the twins didn’t already know. And after class, Orrin greeted them as they exited, “Hello, Leila and Shersha. How was your first day?”
The twins turned and said, “It wus gran’.”
“Pure easy.”
“We ‘ad fun.”
Mrs.Evenson walked out and said, “Well, I’m glad you liked it. I take it you’re here to escort them home?”
“Nope,” Orrin said and handed Mrs.Evenson a piece of paper, “I am here to deliver this.”
She took the paper and read it, then sighed heavily, “Orrin.”
“Yes, I know, but they need somewhere to stay for a while.”
“Wha’s goin’ on?” the twins asked.
“I got you enrolled here. You will attend the school for the rest of the year with one week off every month to train with your master when she’s here,” Orrin explained.
“Yep, and he got you into all the advanced classes meant for emerald and ruby-ranked students,” Mrs.Evenson said, exasperated.
“Yes, I did. Here’s your itinerary and map of the school,” Orrin said cheerily and handed them two more pieces of paper. One with a schedule and the other with a map of the school. “I’ll lead you to your dorms,” Orrin said and began walking.
The twins quickly followed, leaving an exasperated Mrs.Evenson behind in the hall. The dorms were a separate building behind the school. It was a tall circular building with many windows on the outside, and Orrin brought them up to the fifth floor and opened the third door to the right. “This will be your room when you’re here at the academy. Make yourselves at home and be on top of your studies,” Orrin said as they walked into the room.
It was small, with a desk, two chairs, and a bunk bed. On the desk were two shoulder bags, quills, inkwells, and several books. After taking in the room, the twins turned to Orrin and bowed, “Tank ye very much, Orrin.”
“No need for that,” Orrin said, waving a hand, “Just do your best at school.”
“We ‘ill!” the twins answered happily before Orrin turned and left with a wave goodbye. The twins then closed the door and sat at the desk to look at their itinerary.
Day one:
Runes and grammar
Day two:
History and natural laws
Day three:
Fighting class
Day four:
Spell casting
Day five:
Anatomy and health
Day six/seven:
Free day
Then the itinerary repeated itself over and over again. The twins nodded once they finished reading and then got ready for bed. They had a long week ahead of them.
***
Day 2
History was very much not their favorite class. The teacher had a way of droning on about past events that interested nobody. He especially liked talking about dead people and their accomplishments. The twins spent the class silently cultivating and expanding their cores, which quickly took up the entire class.
After a delicious lunch, the second half of the day was on the world’s natural laws. It covered chakras and their many combinations. It was all very interesting as they learned the chakra combinations they planned out what combinations they wanted to learn. Then they went back to their dorm and to bed at the end of the day.
***
Day 3
The fighting class was not what either Leila or Shersha expected. It mainly was going through fighting stances and learning the fighting styles. Leila didn’t like the class very much, but Shersha loved the class and did very well, keeping up with all the older kids.
***
Day 4
The spell-casting class was what they expected. They spent the whole day casting spells until they could write them out quickly or cultivating to replenish their energy. Leila loved the class, but Shersha was having trouble with her spells. She kept messing up the order of the runes and creating havoc with her spells, which the teacher had to clean up and fix. She got a lot of chastizing that day.
***
Day 5
The anatomy class was interesting but hard to follow. It covered monster anatomy, weak points, and how to fight them. It even covered other races, like humans, elves, dwarves, etc. The second half of the day was health class, which covered diseases and staying healthy. It wasn’t very exciting.
But the twins were starting to get anxious as rumors began to circulate through the school slowly. They were all wondering about the two new stone-ranked students in the elite classes. The rumors were all about Leila and Shersha.
***
Day 20
Today was a free day for the twins, and they were mostly too scared to leave their rooms. The rumor mills were getting out of hand, and someone was able to find out a lot about them, even though they never talked to anyone, which didn’t help them.
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One of the rumors circulating was that all their friends were monsters, which was ridiculous cause they learned last week that a large majority of monsters couldn’t cultivate. And the ones that could weren’t intelligent enough to gain a lot of power like an average cultivator. But that wasn’t the worst of the rumors. The worst was the rumor that Leila and Shersha were also monsters since they were associated with a team that supposedly consisted of monsters.
This last rumor led to the other students harassing them and trying to get the twins to attack like monsters. They never rose to the challenges and just ran away. They couldn’t fight the other students. The twins were two ranks lower than the rest of them. So, on their second free day, they got a stockpile of free food from the school cafeteria. And relegated themselves to the safety of their dorm room. But today, they were hungry and ran out of snacks they had collected. So they had to leave the relative safety of their room.
It was nearly midday, and students were outside on the grass in the warm spring sun, either hanging out or doing their assignments for classes. Then one student spotted the twins as they slowly walked through the grassy courtyard to the cafeteria. Nobody stopped them as they entered and collected armfuls of food for the next few weeks.
Nodding to each other, the twins walked out of the cafeteria and quickly walked back to their dorm. But before they could make it, a group of students barred their way, and Jimal and Jessica led the pack. “Well, well, well. Look what we have here. The monsters of our school,” Jimal jibed.
“What are you doing here, monsters?” Jessica asked pointedly.
“W-we—” Shersha began, her head down low and her voice almost a whisper.
“Huh. What was that, monster? We can’t hear you,” Jimal interrupted.
“Why are you taking all our food?” Jessica asked, “Don’t you know it’s not meant for monsters? Only normal people can have the food.”
“We are—” Leila began a little louder this time.
“You’re what?! Monsters!?” Jimal jibed again, then slapped the food out of Leila’s arms.
Jessica did the same with Shersha and shoved her back, making her fall to the ground, “If I remember correctly don’t some monsters eat dirt?”
“I do remember that in class just the other week,” Jimal said, and a wicked smile curled his purple lips, “I bet these two eat dirt as well.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Jessica agreed and kicked at Shersha, sending her sprawling across the courtyard.
“SHERSHA!” Leila screamed and rushed to her sister’s side.
“I’m gran’,” Shersha said, gasping for air.
“Awe, look. The little monsters care for each other,” Jessica laughed.
Leila’s fury boiled over as she yelled, “We are not monsters!” Then she began constructing a level one spell to heal her sister.
As she began to draw the runes, Jimal ran forward, his chakra circulating in his body as he grabbed Leila by the hair, yanked her up, and threw her to the lackeys behind him. “Oh no, no, no. I won’t let you cast any spells, monster,” Jimal said as the lackeys caught and held Leila tight.
“LEILA!” Shersha said as she cycled her Light blade chakra through her body and lept at Jimal.
Jessica intercepted her and landed a solid punch to Shersha’s abdomen. She shot back and struck a stone wall behind her with a loud boom. Jessica tisked, “Stay down, monster. We’ll take good care of you. We’ll even feed you proper food.”
Jessica closed the distance between Shersha and herself, grabbed the little elf by the hair, and dragged her over to where Leila struggled to break free from the people holding her. Shersha screamed in pain as she was dragged over the courtyard.
Jimal laughed and scooped up a fist full of dirt, “Open her mouth,” he commanded. Jessica laughed and forced Shersha’s mouth open.
“NOO! STOP IT!” Leila screamed at the top of her lungs as everyone else laughed. Shersha struggled and fought but couldn’t escape the iron grip of Jessica.
“Time to eat up,” Jimal jibed and brought his fist full of dirt back to thrust it into Shersha’s mouth.
SCHKIBOOM! A loud blast echoed through the courtyard, sending dirt and everyone else flying everywhere. All except for Leila and Shersha, who were suddenly lying on the ground behind a blue and violet shimmering figure. A figure with nine tails, four magnificent blue and violet wings, a sword on her waist, wearing a green gi with a golden belt, and ginger hair standing on end.
“What do you think you were doing?!” Zeana growled at the people she threw before her.
“Who the fuck are you!?” Jimal coughed as he and his lackeys got to their feet.
“I ASKED YOU A QUESTION FIRST!!” Zeana yelled angrily.
“We were just teaching these monsters how to eat. Is that so bad?” Jessica jibed.
Zeana looked at all of them and growled, “They aren’t monsters. The twins are just regular elves.”
“But they’re on a team of—”
“Monsters,” Zeana cut Jimal off mid-protest. “I am well aware of her team. I am one of her teammates,” Zeana got on all fours, and her wings retracted as her nine tails opened their mouths, revealing rows of razor-sharp needle-like fangs, and a growl emanated from each of them. “I am their teammate and will protect them from pecker-heads like you. If you want to fight a real monster, you fight me!”
The lackeys backed away as Zeana said this while Jessica and Jimal readied themselves for a fight. “You’re the same rank as us,” Jessica noted, “Higher core, but we can take you.”
“Yeah,” Jimal agreed, then they charged in with a massive burst of speed. With a flash of light, the two froze in their charge. Then Zeana calmly walked up to them, created a clawed finger like the ones Haze has, and cut both of them on their cheeks.
She licked her clawed finger clean of blood and casually said, “Your blood tastes like shit.” Then concentrated her chakra in her fists and backhanded Jimal and Jessica. The two unfroze and were sent flying in opposite directions.
They both staggered to their feet and shook their heads a moment later. Zeana looked between them and said, “Do you really want to keep fighting a real monster? Or would you rather I just kill you two where you stand? I could go for a snack!” Jimal and Jessica both flinched and ran off in different directions. The lackeys following their examples and do the same.
Zeana then turned to face the twins, who watched the encounter in awe and fear. Zeana’s expression was cold and full of hate for exactly half a second before she broke down and tackled the twins with a massive hug. “I was so worried about you two!!” she cried.
“We’re gran’,” the twins said, hugging Zeana back.
“We’re … gran’ tanks to ye,” Shersha said, choking back her tears of joy.
“Aye … tank ye for savin’ us,” Leila also choked out.
Zeana pulled back and wiped her face, “We’re sorry we left you alone for so long. We swear we won’t do it again.”
“It’s okay, Zeana,” Shersha said, “but we do ‘ave sum quesshuns.”
Zeana nodded, “Yeah, I figured you would.”
“Ye al’ really monsters? Loike actually monsters?” Leila asked.
“Yep. Monsters in every way,” Zeana confirmed happily before asking, “I thought you had figured it out by now?”
The twins looked at each other and said, “We ‘ad sum suspicions, but—”
“Nathin’ to confirm that ye were—”
“Monsters,” Zeana finished for them, then sighed, “Well, now you know. What now?”
“Wha’ ye mean?” the twins asked.
“How will you treat us now that you know everyone on your team is a monster?” Zeana clarified.
The twins looked at each other and nodded before turning back to Zeana, and Leila answered, “We won’t change anythin’—”
“Big sis!” Shersha finished, shocking Zeana and Leila. Shersha blushed out of embracement before asking, “We weren’t goin’ to say that?”
Leila pondered this momentarily, shook her head, and smiled, “Big sis, Zeana!”
Zeana cooed and hugged the twins again, but even tighter this time. “OH, MY GODS, YOU TWO ARE ADORABLE!” Zeana exclaimed excitedly, “I will be the best big sister ever!!”
“We can’t breath!” the twins gasped.
Zeana let them go and said, “Oops, sorry. Want to head back to the hotel? Everyone’s been worried about you, and we only just now learned where you were because of Orrin.”
The twins nodded, “Let’s go.”
“Great! Let’s return to the hotel room and get some delicious grub!” Zeana exclaimed and sprouted her wings as all but two of her tails disappeared and wrapped around the twins’ waists. Then with a mighty jump, Zeana took off into the sky with the twins and flew back to the hotel.