Daniel looked the mountains over again.
I need to go
. His body snapped back into the bird form. He was hovering and turning on the spot, thinking to himself how he needed to learn how to defend himself, and he only this need only grew the more often he would play another unprovoked scenario with Jasper and Mark which always ended with him being tore limb from limb and being fed to some feral beast. He couldn’t go back now, and he was halfway to Jac, and that was his best bet, he needed to learn how to protect himself and he couldn’t wait until his first lesson.
Furiously flapping his wings, he crossed over the grey stone flats of the Centrelands; he even fought the want to go home. He soon reached the Lowerlands when the grey became green and full of thick forestry.
Daniel found a clearing, and soon enough he had bowed his head, aiming for it. He manoeuvred a landing mid-shift, only falling slightly once the wings were off. He sighed and rolled his eyes; bare feet against the cold dirt of the forest floor. It was natural; besides, his feet had developed the calluses that made him immune to the pain of stepping on thorns.
“Daniel?” Jac said, showing himself from behind the trunk of a tree. His forehead creased with question, and more confusion lay with Daniel.
“Jac! How’d you—”
“Weird, I know. Except I don’t
really
know,” Jac said, scratching the top of his head as he walked out of the bushes. “What’s that?” he nodded at Daniel.
Daniel turned around to see if there was something behind him. He glanced back to see the all-knowing look in Jac’s eyes.
“Your eye,” Jac said, disappointed to point out the obvious.
Daniel touched the swelling under his eyes and opened his mouth to speak, stuttering some vowels; he bit the inside of his lip, and shook his head. “Some. Um.” He coughed into a fist. “Well you were right.”
“I didn’t think they’d do that right away. At least piss them off first,” Jac grinned.
“I don’t even think I did that,” Daniel replied, “but I did put up a fight.”
“I can imagine. And honestly, I thought you’d be able to handle it, especially after you handled that panther.”
That was the worst part—he thought he could handle himself as well; he went away thinking he knew more because he’d been reading about it since he was young. Yet nothing he learnt could match a punch or the pain of ice breaking his skin.
“So, what are they teaching you?” Jac asked.
“Only had one lesson so far, I learnt that I had a
weird
flare,” Daniel replied, watching Jac stretch until he bones made clicking noises.
“What kind of weird?” he asked, eyeing Daniel. “How weird?”
“It’s gold,” Daniel said. “I think that’s why they beat me.” His face contorted, joining up some dots.
“
They
? I thought it was a fair fight!”
Daniel grinned, taking a step back. “Well, it was more of an ambush. But I did get a few fair shots in.”
Jac rolled his eyes. “Gee, I thought the people in the Lowerlands being violent to their gifted was something, but I thought it would’ve more civilised up there, you wo-”
Daniel butted in. “Well apparently not, in fact it’s like the higher your status, the more people can hate on you.”
“Status?”
“Oh, yeah. Someone thinks I’m really rich, he thinks I bought my place in the school.”
“Why?” Jac laughed.
“I was given a laptop, thing, and a phone.”
“What?”
“Erm. Well they’re these electr—”
Jac held his hand up and butted in. “I know what they are. We make them down here, in the Lowerlands. Who gave you them because I know how much they’re sold for, and you can’t afford one.”
“Reuben gave me them, he said it was to even the playing field.”
Jac nodded his. “Oh, well don’t go changing now.”
Daniel grinned. “I don’t think I could, if you could see them, you’d know I wouldn’t change.”
“Hmm. So you came here to be taught some tricks, ay. Let’s face it, you’d rather play dirty than follow the rules of your school,” Jac said with a grin on his face. “So let’s mix up the Divides.”
Air, fire, water, earth and energy; they create the Divides, but if you asked somebody who was around nearly a hundred years ago they’d called them the Slates, the same thing, but a Slate was a person to survive both waves of energy. The term originated from the tabula rasa, meaning blank slate, however in this case, born to breathe, warm-blooded, and being grounded. Not many people could manipulate energy, they unknowingly touched upon it, but never actively, that’s when they dubbed them the Divides, you must have each part to live on Templar, if not, it'd kill you.
“Huh? You can’t mix them,” Daniel said, creasing his forehead.
“Well, it’s not something you’ll learn at school, that’s for sure.”
“So what is it?”
“Frowned upon, but not forbidden,” he said. “I’ll tell you, but there’s not a chance I’m going to show you.”
Daniel nodded. “Wait. Why not?”
“Remember when I was really ill a year ago?”
Daniel nodded.
“I did this, and it sucks the life out of you. Literally!”
Daniel gulped and butted his lips, shaking his head.
“You have to put your hands like this,” Jac said, clasping his hands together and holding them above his head. “And then you kneel, you should look like you’re praying or bowing, with your hands high above your head.”
“Where does energy come into this?”
“Actually, this might not be the best thing. It takes ages to set up. But I’ve already started, so what the heck. Summon fire in one palm and counter it with ice in your other. And then you have to pound your hands down on the ground once,” Jac said, giving a demonstration as he swung his hands. “With the fire and the ice, and then you have to summon your flare, and fire it at whoever, whatever and it’s supposed to paralyse them or something.”
“What! I’m not paralysing anyone, they hit me, I don’t want to kill them.” He shook his bed. “What makes you think I can do it anyway?”
Jac sighed and rolled his eyes. “You were accepted into Croft’s Academy, I think you’ll have the will to see it through. And I don’t know what it does, it might not paralyse them. But if he beats on you again, I’ll find my way up there,” he said, his smile faded and his face became real with anger, “Upperlands scum.”
“There’s this girl there too, I think she’s his girlfriend.”
Jac grimaced. “You know what to do. Get back at him.”
“How?”
“Steal his girlfriend, bet she knows you’re a better guy then he is.”
Daniel smirked and looked around. He massaged the prickly hairs on the back of his neck, staring out into the treetops.
“So what’s this about your flare? Mine’s blue, which I presume is normal, right?” Jac glanced out into the opening in the trees where Daniel had just been looking. “What’s up?”
Daniel flinched out of the trance. “Um. No. Nothing.”
Jac ushered Daniel into the forestry. “People have been seeing that panther around, he, she, it’s definitely a shifter. There’s even a raven, it’s definitely a warning or something.”
Daniel eyed Jac. “You sound scared.”
“It’s after something. And, well you don’t think it’s me, do you?” Jac asked, staring at his bare feet fiddle in the dirt.
“Stay with my mum and dad, or just don’t go out at dark. But if you honestly think there’s someone after you, go and stay with them,” Daniel said, cocking his head at the direction he’d flown in.
“Yeah,” Jac mumbled, staring down at the ground.
Chapter Ten
Daniel woke to the growing bleep ringing down his right ear. A patter of knocks chimed in and he shot up from his bed, whacking the alarm until all that was left had been the knocking. He stifled a yawn and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
“Okay, okay!” he shouted and the knocking stopped.
“Are you
okay
? You haven’t been out of your room,” Taner replied.
Daniel could see the door handle slowly drop as Taner pushed it down. The handle flung back up seconds later, ending with a click.
“My room’s locked,” Daniel said.
“And no one’s seen you since yesterday.”
Daniel kicked his legs out of his duvet to reveal several small purple welts embossing the fabric of his skin. Daniel ran his fingers down them, sighing. Taner knocked again, rousing Daniel from any thought and sending him to limp around to get dressed, he did after all have school today.
“You’re coming out right? Thought you were dead the way Jasper and Mark kept going on,” Taner said, sending a peak to rouse through Daniel’s body.
He caught a glimpse of his eye in the mirror as he jumped around, pulling up his jeans. It looked better; where the violet had now faded sat light blue shading. He stroked the swelling beneath his eye, making sure it was his skin; after all he thought it would have been huge for a while.
“Is it that bad?” Taner asked.
Daniel’s eyes shot towards the door as for a second he’d thought Taner had got in somehow. “I’m just getting dressed,” he said, kicking his dirt stained clothes into a corner.
He slid the door of the walled wardrobe and pulled out a t-shirt and a hooded jacket. He hadn’t got around to putting them all on hangers so he’d just thrown them in there.
“We’re going to miss breakfast,” Taner said.
Daniel opened the door seconds after putting his jacket on. Taner was stood right in front of him, they both took steps back.
“Ah, shoes,” Daniel said, slipping his feet in a pair of plimsolls.
“Don’t know what the big deal is, there’s not much of a scratch on ya,” he laughed.
“Yeah well.”
They found their way to the cafeteria, and ate their breakfast. Neither of them spoke about the incident between Daniel, Jasper and Mark, because every time Taner started with “well”, Daniel immediately hedged his way out by speaking about something unrelated.
“I have a—Mythics class this morning,” Daniel said, interrupting one of Taner’s questions.
“Look, they’re over there,” Taner said, nodding at a table behind Daniel.
Daniel shrugged and took a bite out of his toast, while Taner watched Jasper and Mark glare at the back of Daniel’s head, tearing holes out with their eyes.
Daniel turned and took a glimpse at the hollow stares. “I—I should be going to my class.” He pushed his chair, standing and nodded to himself, hurrying out of the double doors.
Daniel was on his way up to the second floor by the time Taner had cleared away the trays. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for just a moment, when he opened them he caught the group of people walking straight for the Mythics’ classroom. He wriggled his way through, taking a seat at the back of the room.
“Oh,” a girl said, noticing Daniel sat beside her. She bit the inside of her lip and took a different seat.
What?
Daniel laughed to himself.
“Good morning,” a woman called out as she found her footing at the front of the room. “I am Marianne van Hectar, and I am your Mythics teacher. I will teach you the history of Templar Island, this includes our founding figures, and how you can so graciously wield energy, as well as explaining the myths and the laws,” she explained, moving her hands around in the air.
Daniel nodded as she spoke, relying the information to himself and burying the excitement in the back of his throat. He noted her black hair flowing in curls down her chest, he peered over the heads in front of him to see her hair curl up in neatly flick at the ends.
“Master Satoria, do you have a question?” she asked, allowing Daniel to snap back in his seat.
“No,” he said with a tremble to his tongue.
Great, I sit at the back, and I’m still at the centre of shit.
She smiled and nodded. “Let’s continue then. Everyone should know the principle theory—the seven luminaries, the seven pillars of light and without them we would not exist, that is what we believe. And although most of you don’t pray to them, you should, I don’t know if they are real, but I feel a lot better praying, not leaving it all to chance. However their original names have been lost, so we pray to their planet or star.” She said, perching on stool.
Daniel knew it was going to be a long haul talk when she took her seat. He started to itch at the palms of his hands. “All theory?” he said, pulling his hood up.
“Yes,” someone said from in front of him. “How can you practice Mythics.” A girl turned to see him, the one who was going to sit next to him, snarling. “It’s disgusting that they allow people like
you
in.”
Daniel smirked and tuned back in to what Marianne was saying. “There’s the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. They are the seven who we pray to and in turn they bless us with abilities that are capable of killing, and healing.” She stood, moving her hands around, engaging Daniel’s eyes. “The Sun is not the most powerful, none of them are, but the Sun is regarded the centre, and also a she. Look at this.”
Daniel peered over the crowd again; small hairs cowered on the nape of his neck. He fell back into his seat, massaging his shoulders, the mere touch of his skin made it feel like it was a layer of something else. He swallowed and nibbled on his lips, his tongue tainted by the numbness caught by his skin. Marianne held whatever had been concealed in her bosom up high. Daniel caught a glimpse of it, a silver seven pointed star, and it refracted all of its light into his eyes.
“Are you okay?” the boy beside Daniel asked, turning around after he’d seen what all the fuss was about.
Daniel held a hand up to his mouth and turned to the boy. He was mixing and meshing from one into ten and then back again, falling out of focus and back into focus. The only thing that stayed in focus was the star in his teacher’s hand. He wiped his mouth, and the saliva dripping down his chin. He coughed, and flinched, curling into his stomach.
“Marianne,” the boy beside Daniel said.
Daniel stood, his free hand trembling over the chairs as he tried supporting himself. He barged through the classroom, knocking over chairs and pushing people away. Walking from side to side, he rushed for the door, falling face first to the floor.