Chapter 8
Levi and Nox sat in the cafeteria once more, his tutor gleefully devouring her promised cupcakes. Levi had a bowl of salted nuts for Zuzan, a large steak for himself, and a bowl of steaming, buttery potatoes. He wasn’t sure he had ever been so hungry in his life. As he quietly inhaled his food, he scanned the room to see several students moving around. One was Elizabeth Zephyr; the white-haired girl was holding court over a group of Crane House students, and they were looking down their noses at some of the brown-trimmed Bear House members. Nox caught him looking and turned to glance in the same direction.
“Do you know her?” Nox asked, using a thumb to wipe a bit of frosting off of her lip. One eyebrow raised, she regarded him curiously. Levi nodded and his hand scratched the back of Zuzan’s head.
“Yeah, Elizabeth Zephyr, Crane House. She helped me write a paper on how to take care of Zuzan when I had my first day of classes. Professor Hopper assigned it to me after Zuzan decided she wanted to live with me,” he said. He turned his attention back to Nox. “I thought she was pretty nice; she loved Zuzan and we talked for a while, but when I see her around the school it looks like she’s… not the friendliest person.”
Nox nodded her head slowly and turned back to the food. She picked up another cupcake and licked the frosting, a move that distracted Levi for a moment. “Crane House can be a bit caught up in the idea that they’re smarter than everyone else. Your crush there is their freshman prodigy. Last I heard she is acing all of her theoretical tests, but rumor has it she’s not doing great on some of her practical exams,” she said.
Levi snorted and shook his head, looking at the busty redhead. “She’s not my crush. Yes, she’s beautiful and I thought she was nice, but I’m not going to chase someone who thinks I should be scraped off her boot,” he countered. Zuzan looked up and chittered at him, a small nut held in one of her paws. The squirrel stared at him with black eyes and paused to gnaw on the nut before she went back to squeaking at him. “Okay, yes, she likes you, Zuzan, but the way she treats other people isn’t very nice.”
Nox looked down at the small ball of fur and let out a giggle. She broke a tiny piece of her cupcake off, then held it out to Zuzan. The sylvan squirrel squeaked sharply, took the cupcake, and immediately began devouring it. The little animal eagerly licked the frosting off the pastry. Then Nox looked at Levi. “You never know about people, Levi. She acts tough, but maybe she’s going through something. Not everyone can be as amazing as I am,” she said with a wink.
“And so humble too…” Levi replied. Nox’s false modesty made it hard not to roll his eyes. “Besides, if I was going to chase a girl at this Academy, why wouldn’t I pick someone like you?” he asked. He’d meant it in a playful manner, but it didn’t stop Nox from blushing. She even dropped her current cupcake and he looked down at it as she picked it back up to make sure it wasn’t ruined.
The normally vibrant elf spent the next few moments staring at her pastry, and Levi raised an eyebrow as he watched her. The tips of her ears had flushed, and she mumbled something that didn’t make it past the dessert that she stuffed into her mouth. He cocked his head as he tried to figure out what she said. Zuzan chittered several times and stuffed her own small face with the bit of cupcake she had been given, and Levi let out a laugh.
“Oh, is that what you think?” he asked the squirrel. Levi looked up at Nox and grinned. “Zuzan says that I’ve embarrassed you and should apologize,” he said quietly, hoping she’d stop looking quite so flustered. Instead, she jumped to her feet with her silver platter, then ran to the bin so she could put the dishes away. Zuzan squeaked and waved her paws around as she stared at him, and he looked down at her again with a frustrated breath. “What was I supposed to do? She’s been kicking my ass in spell training for a month and I haven’t said a word about how beautiful she is. I had to make a move at some point!” he protested.
Zuzan squeaked and crossed her tiny arms as she stared down her nose at him. He sighed. Her small ears twitched, and she grumpily picked up one of the salted nuts and stuffed it into her mouth, her cheek bulging to the side as she chittered again.
Levi stood up and held out his hand so Zuzan could climb onto his shoulder. “Okay, we’ll go find her and I’ll apologize the appropriate way. You can be a bit of a nag, you know,” he said. Zuzan patted his cheek as though she was proud of him, and Levi rolled his eyes. Her continued chattering changed pitch, and he let out a quiet laugh. “Yes, I know you’re older than me, don’t rub it in.”
She let out a triumphant chitter, so Levi decided to give up arguing with her. He was starting to think the baseball-sized squirrel believed she was his mother. His crimson eyes glittered as he adjusted his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose and cleared his tray. He dumped the last of the nuts into a sack he had started carrying for Zuzan. The squirrel was much easier to keep happy when he had a steady—or never-ending—supply of snacks.
They hadn’t even gotten out of the cafeteria before they saw Glint enter. The swamp imp was covered in soot, and his goggles were perched above his head, slightly askew with one of his four small horns caught under the rim. His uniform showed charred cuffs at the end of his sleeves, and he swayed slightly as his bat-like ears flapped on either side of his head. The imp was struggling to get a wedged piece of cracked crystal out of his ear canal, and he bumped into one of the Crane House students when he finally yanked it free.
“Watch where you’re going, moss foot!” snarled the tall figure. The student who spoke was slightly taller than Levi and broader in the shoulders. His gray uniform was sleek and tailored to perfection, the silver trim done in silk that shimmered with a metallic tint. His black hair was pulled into a tight tail down the center of his back, and his amber eyes marked him as something other than human. Levi took in a pair of enlarged canines on either side of his incisors—Zuzan chittered in his ear with a worried squeak.
Glint blinked his large eyes several times as he turned his face up to look at the tall figure. “Sorry, there was a mishap in the Mana Vapor Lab—” he started to say. That was as far as he got before the dark-haired figure shoved the swamp imp to the floor with a snarl. The man had an engraved plate on the back of his right hand that connected to a bracer on his forearm, and Levi assumed that was his focus. Levi’s anger rose as he watched the student posture over Glint as though he intended to deliver a beating.
“Hey! Back off, fuck face!” Levi yelled before he realized what he was going to say. His fist was clenched around his cane, so he didn’t notice the red-and-black energy that was swirling around the knob that topped it. The Crane House students turned to look at him in surprise, and the bully standing over Glint sneered as though he planned on starting something more.
“What did you call me?” the man growled. He raised his right hand and a golden energy started to swell around his forearm. The light twisted into a gauntlet-like pattern that enclosed his fist, the hollow lines hovering an inch over his skin. He stepped in Levi’s direction, and then a cream and white ball flared its arms and legs and flew across the space between them.
Zuzan landed on the man’s face and began to squeak with rage. The squirrel went after him with her tiny claws, and scratched the man’s temples, and Levi spotted a hint of blood as he reached out with his empty hand and pulled Glint to his feet. The crimson-and-black energy was flaring brighter and spiraling around the entire length of his cane. Levi’s teeth showed as he checked on Glint. “You okay, bud?” he asked.
Glint nodded his head vigorously and his wide ears folded down against the sides of his head. “Yeah, I’m fine, we should go,” the imp said.
“Zuzan, come on, let’s head out,” Levi requested. He’d never seen the squirrel so angry, and when the Crane reached up with his glowing hand, Levi blocked it with his cane. His arm flexed, and the energy around his cane hissed and crackled as he refused to allow the man to touch his friend. Zuzan clambered up off of his face, and then leaped back toward Levi. Once the squirrel touched down on his shoulder, Levi stepped back enough to lift his cane from the other’s arm.
“I’m going to rip that—” the man began, only to be cut off by Elizabeth.
“Let’s go, Darren, this isn’t worth it. I have studying to do,” the girl said. She slipped her white hair over her shoulder as she pulled her backpack up and held it closely. Levi saw a look pass between Elizabeth and Zuzan, though he couldn’t interpret it. The woman turned to stare down Darren and he ran his palm over the bloody scratches on his face.
Darren was breathing hard and he held up his glowing hand, but then the energy faded out. “Yeah, fine. We’re out of here, babe, but this ain’t over. Remember that,” he growled the last bit, his finger pointing at Levi. Zuzan chittered back and waved her tiny fist, and Levi felt himself drain as the energy around his cane faded. Levi noted a small char on Darren’s bracer, but he didn’t think much of it as he looked to Glint.
“You okay?” he asked again. He took in the imp’s soot-covered frame and motioned to the chunk of crystal he was still holding in one of his hands. Glint looked down at it and his ears slowly extended to either side of his head.
“This? Oh, oh yeah. I was trying to explain to those assholes that one of the Mana Vapor Labs had an explosion. Someone was working on a new form of engine and, well, they hadn’t checked all of their welds,” Glint explained. The imp frowned and stared at the group of Crane students who were heading out, then he shook his head. “Prejudiced bastards,” he muttered.
Levi cocked his head, motioning for Glint to come with him. He got his friend a tray of food, snagging some of the worst-looking items at the buffet. “What was that thing he called you?” Levi asked. He claimed a table and slid the food over to Glint. The imp’s teeth were a nightmare and watching food vanish into his maw was an experience. He still didn’t know what those crunchy, jiggly cubes were, and he really didn’t want to.
“Moss foot?” Glint’s ears drooped as he explained, “Swamp imps live on the same world as the canid, his people. They are physically powerful and can turn into wolves. They like to throw their weight around, and over the centuries they’ve driven my kind to the point where we can only live in the areas that are too wet for the canid to get to easily. They’re too heavy to tramp through the bogs, so they started calling us moss foot as an insult to remind us that we barely control our own world.”
Levi grimaced. He shook his head and frowned. “So… none of the other dimensions do anything about that?” he asked. He opened the bag of snacks to feed a few nuts to Zuzan, the squirrel coming down to the table so she could clean her paws off on a napkin from Glint’s tray. The sylvan animal was fastidious about her claws when she ate. Glint just frowned.
“It is complicated. Swamp imps are good vapor engineers, but it is hard to build anything in the swamps. Most of our people have left the home dimension and spread out to other worlds. We get along pretty well with other species, at least some of them. There are a few holdouts who keep struggling with the canid, but the elders think it is a waste of time to stay and fight when there are other worlds to live on,” Levi’s friend said. Glint then paused his eating; the crunch of his cubes was muted as he kept his mouth shut until he had swallowed. “Add all the ego bullshit about the Cranes being the best House and Darren’s a real asshole.”
Levi shook his head. “That sucks. You let me know if he pulls anything like this again, okay? I’m not letting anyone go after my friends.” Levi reached over the table to pat Glint on the shoulder. His friend nodded to him and the imp’s ears perked up.
“You don’t need to do that, man; a few insults aren’t going to bother me. Canids can act like dicks, and once they start a grudge they’re not prone to stopping,” Glint responded. “Besides, Zuzan’s awesome and all, but she’s not exactly a combat companion, and you’re a tamer—your energy should be going into bonding with a partner.”
Levi looked at Zuzan, and the squirrel nodded to him solemnly as she stuffed another nut into her mouth. Her cheeks bulged and she squeaked. Zuzan chittered for several moments as Levi listened. He nodded to her before looking back to Glint. “Well, then we’ll have to go find an animal companion who can help us in a fight,” he said.
Levi looked at Glint and found the imp staring at him. His friend’s huge blue eyes almost glowed as the imp’s ears spread out wide. “I think I know just the place for someone like you to find a beast willing to fight alongside him,” Glint said. His lips curled into a smile almost as wide as his ears and his teeth matched the expression perfectly.
Levi wasn’t sure what his friend was planning, but he got the idea it was going to be quite the adventure.
OceanofPDF.com