by Andur
I walk into the direction, when I come across a black robed guy, carrying an unconscious student. The guy drops the student at my sight and reaches for something under his robe.
But it did cost him too much time in any case. I didn't hesitate and send one of my icicles on it's way. It embedded itself into the robed persons left eye, driving all the way to the brain.
For a second the guy just stands there, until his body registers the loss of control. And then the person just slides down without a sound.
I walk up to the robed guy and confirm his death. Too often I died, because I thought my enemy was a goner. Check always the enemy first and the ally second! That's an iron rule. Never violate it.
Then I check on the student. What I find amazes me. An unconscious Iris, but she is not wounded!? Strange, I would have thought the attackers would belong to her faction? So there is another party playing here?
So what to do? The battle noises from the school gate are dying down. So some side is loosing. Haaah. I hope I wont regret this.
So I pick up Iris and carry her over the shoulder, while I hold my icicles in front of me with telekinesis. Then I walk into the direction of the cafeteria again.
Thanks to my bloodline, its not a great bother to carry a person, who is lighter than me, around.
When I arrive at the correct hallway, I look around the corner and see five persons at the entrance. Two are casting firespells into the cafeteria, while another two are backing them up with shield spells.
The fifth guy is shooting with something like a musket from time to time.
Suddenly one of the casters drops backwards and moves no more, a familiar hairpin standing out of his forehead.
I use the disturbance, jump around the corner and unleash all of my projectiles on them from behind.
Two are hit in the head and are taken out instantly. A third just takes an icicle to the knee and drops out of his cover and into the gate. Another hairpin ends his life a second later.
The second shield-caster drops to one knee and looses concentration, because of the icicle, which penetrated his flank. Trying to pull out the icicle, I feel how his mana flow is disturbed and his magical defences evaporate.
I reach out to his brain with telekinesis and pop some important blood vessels, a very clean and cost effective method to get rid of someone, who lost his magical protection.
The last one drops to the ground like having his strings cut.
I walk up to the entrance. “Is it safe in there?” I call out. I don't want to be the next one with a hairpin in his head.
“Angrod?” I hear Celes voice. “Yes!” I answer. Then I hear how a table is kicked to the side and Celes storms with Tanja in a princess carry around the corner.
“HEAL HER!” she screams at me with tears in her eyes. Tanja is seriously burned and breathing heavily.
I put a hand at Tanja's forehead and concentrate, feeling how my mana flows into Tanja's body to repair the damage. I concentrate on her lungs first. Then her upper body.
After I have depleted three quarters of my mana, I stop. Tanja is now unconscious, but I can see that she can breath easier now. I don't want to become completely defenceless. “For the moment I can't do more. But she is out of immediate danger. At the shelter we can patch her up completely.”
“Thank you.” Celes eyes are red from crying. She became very good friends with Tanja, during the last year.
“Who... Who is that.” She asks me while blinking. “Iris, she is unconscious too. I picked her up on the way here.” I answer.
“You should have left her where she was!” Celes is clearly angry. “Hah, I thought that too, but obviously for other reasons than you. I don't think her party is behind this, as she was attacked too. And I don't think that we should hold a little child responsible for anything her parents did or told her to do.” I answer.
After a second Celes nods. ”We need to get them away from here. For the others, there is nothing we can do.”
At that I take my first look into the cafeteria and see a few burned bodies. Attendants, students, teachers. Those guys didn't really care whom they killed.
“Fuckers! …. Follow me. We go to the shelter where Tongord is.” I start to walk the way I came back.
“You are not hurt?”, I ask while we walk. Celes shakes her head. Hm. Well that's how the world turns, is it not?
Celes you should know better than crying for a single person.
As we walk over the school yard, Celes suddenly holds me back. “Hide!” And we duck behind one of the bushes, which are aligned along the path.
Eleven black robed guys run past us, into the direction of the fighting at the school gate. After Celes nods we continue on our way without further incident.
At the shelter, Tongord receives us and takes Iris from my shoulder. As soon, as we are inside the large underground room with other students and teachers, I take another look at Tanja and start to pour my remaining Mana into healing her.
Soon after this, some healers appear and take care of her from there. I sit down at a wall and just feel tired. I close my eyes, maybe I should dream of better times again?
“Tongord said you were already at the shelter? But you still ran off to get us?” Celes suddenly asks besides me.
“Don't get the wrong idea. I am no white knight for the maiden. I just would have felt bad if the few people I know in this world were hurt, while I was sitting around.” I answer.
“Hmp! You are still a stupid hermit.” She calls out, but I don't answer.
And so we sit in the shelter and wait.
***
The following day, everything is like it never happened. Yesterday, the school was closed for the rest of the day, after the terrorist attack was repelled. All sixty attackers were dead and no sign of their affiliation was found.
Neither their aim could be discerned. Apparently they just tried to kill as many people as possible, while abducting a few selected individuals. Though they never managed that, because the schools security managed to slow them down until regular forces from the city arrived.
There were quite a few deaths, but luckily nobody we knew. It was the worst where Celes had been. Apparently a small group had used flying magic to invade from the sky.
But the school did nothing more than to hold a short minute of silence and a few words for the dead by the director. Apparently the people here are still hardened by the war.
Celes has already received her negative mark in rune magic. Teacher Mirgurd had no mercy with her.
The other subjects were no problem for us.
Right now I am waiting for my negative mark in art. I couldn't think of anything that would please Jeniva. I have to try my luck with Samarin like Celes.
“Angrod your are positive by a hairs breath. Next time work harder!” Jenvia shoots at me.
“HUH? But I didn't have ANYTHING!?” I scream baffled.
“I took your work in the school yard into account.” -Jeniva
“THE SNOWMAN!?” -Me
“I have watched you while you created that -wonderful ice sculpture- in the school yard. You may be a lost case as a painter. But as a sculptor you may have some talent. Though I think that the use of magic for this is cheating, you shouldn’t be self-deprecating yourself. Your work had emotion. Something I unfortunately never felt from your other works.” -Jeniva
“Hoh, I must take a look at that Snowman.” Celes grins at me, she has recovered pretty good from yesterdays shock.
Celes own work for the art class is a nice painting of a landscape with fields and a little house of wood at a lake. It looks very peaceful.
So after Jeniva declared the end of the class, we went for Samarin's test.
And for everyone, who wanted to know how Samarin's test worked. After we entered the class it went like this:
“Soooo.... I don't like tests, so I will make this fast.... Sven, how many suns are there in the sky?”
“......One?”
“
Wrong, Failed. Margerie? What's the square root of 676?”
“26”
“Right, Pass. Stephen? How many times will you take my test, until you give up?”
“Huh!?”
“Wrong,”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!”
“....Failed. Angrod? Why do you know so much about science and magic?”
“Because I am much much older than you mwhahaha!”
“.......Failed.”
“What?”
“Celes? What is the annual income of Stricc and Tirna together?”
“2.345.678.786 Crown Coins this year!”
“....”
“YOU DIDN'T EVEN KNOW, YOU JUST WANTED TO BAFFLE ME!!!!!!”
“Pass.”
And that's how Celes and I somehow managed to pass our first school-year. After saying our goodbyes to everyone, I leave the class and walk off into the direction of the school gate.
But Celes takes another corner. “Hey, Rose and the car are waiting!” I follow her.
“I know! But I want to see the snowman!”, before I can stop her, Celes runs off onto the school yard.
I sigh and follow her, to take a look at the creation I made so absent mindedly. Ah. Now I remember, what I thought about, when I created it.
On the school yard are a few people, who are gaping at a wonderful ice-sculpture of a whole family in life-size. A bearded man holds a small child up in the air. Both are laughing. A beautiful woman with an infant in her arms is smiling at them. She has long hair, which looks like it is waving in the wind.
A small girl tugs at her skirt. They look like a happy family of ordinary people, who don't have to worry about a thing in the whole world. Just being happy to be together.
It is almost as if you could see a field and the wonderful nature around them. If you watch a little longer, you think they could start to move any second.
Hmmm. A hopeless memory, nothing more.
“Angrod? Who is that?” Celes asks
"Nobody... just... a wonderful, lost dream"
I turn around and walk into the direction of the car.
But Celes still stands there, staring at a long forgotten memory.
23 - Reunion or restart?
The stupid hermit is my honey? My honey-pie? My cuddle-bear? My one and only snuggle-bear? My one and only biggest love of all time!
My -little one-, oh no, he has that as a title! That's what I always called him, when he played with the kids! Now I remember!
!!WHAAAAAAAAT!! CAN'T BE!
But there is no doubt. I am looking at my past self! And not only I am there, the little Sofie is also there, tugging at my skirt like she always did. And the little Siegfried! I would recognize these people even in another hundred thousand years, they are my dearest memories.
And my Johann, my honey, I would recognize this stupid smiling face everywhere! Always being happy with the world and being together with his family.
How does the grumpy, sadistic, idiotic hermit know this scene. Is he the little Siegfried? Or the baby Friedrich?
Wawawawa! Worst outcome ever if I would have been his MOTHER in a past life! But he can't be Johann! My Johann was a nice guy! Not an idiot, who laughs at others misfortune. He always tried to solve the problems of others.
The stupid hermit never smiled like that!
And everyone came to us for help. Johann would never send anyone away! He was a saint! But he was really good with science..... and he always had some strange machine to play around with. The stupid hermit is really good with that stuff too.
There was no magic in that world, so I can't verify that point....
But he has a completely different character! He can't be Johann. Uwahh! I have to know!
“Angrod? Who is that?” I ask.
“Nobody.”
“Just a lost wonderful dream.” The hermit answers.
Is he sad? The hermit is sad? That is the first time I have heard him saying something like that. Ugh! He can't be Johann! How can somebody with Johann's character change into something so twisted like the hermit!
I turn around, but the hermit already walked off into the direction of the car! He left me behind! Cruel!
I run after him and reach the car, where Rose is waiting. Angrod is already inside. I enter the car and Rose closes the door.
While we drive home, I remain silent and Angrod just looks outside the window.
I have to verify his identity somehow. But how? Does he remember our names from back then? I could ask him to tell me the names. That would be the only save way.
B... But we fought each other over eight hundred years. Wouldn't that be the biggest domestic quarrel ever? My brain somehow feels like mush.
I need to talk to the hermit alone and I need to … argh there is no good way to do this. Just calm down and wait and think. Nothing runs away from me.
***
Ok. I have something like a plan. He is inside the library for sure and reading a book again. So he is distracted.
I open the door, walk inside, close the door, and ask. Yes. So I open the door. I walk inside. I close the door.
“Angrod, tell me the name's of that family.”
“Huh?”
“Tell me the names of the ice sculptures! The snowman!”
“..... why should I?”
DAMN!
“Tell ME!”
“Don't scream! … whatever, I was the bearded guy Johann, the woman was my wife Sandra, the kids were Sofie, Siegfried and Friedrich. It's a scene from a past life. Happy now? What do you need it for anyway?”
My brain shorts out!
“YOU CAN'T BE HIM!”
“What?”
“GIVE HIM BACK!”
*CRUSH* *PUNCH* *BANG*
“No violence!”
“DON'T RUN!”
“What!?”
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM!”
*Whack!*
“DID YOU STEAL HIS MEMORIES?”
“Ow! What's wrong with you, don't shake me like that. Do you have your first period or something?”
My vision is blurry. I want to cry here. “I am Sandra! What did you do to Johann!”
“You can't be Sandra! She was a fine and nice woman. She always assisted me in my work. She wasn't violent or a control freak. She knew no martial arts!” He answers.
“Huh? Our country was peaceful for our whole life! There was no need to fight. And as long as I was with Johann, I always had enough money! He was a perfect money printing machine with his genius mind.” I answer. Then I hug him tight. “What happened to you to become like that?”
“I could throw the same question back at you. And do you want to imply, that Sandra just stayed with me for the money?” Angrod doesn't move.
“I seems people change with time.... and you can't get them back.” He says disillusioned.
I guess you should never tell a guy that you are thinking about money...
“This is worse than knowing that you are just out there somewhere in the multiverse and I just can't find you.” -Angrod
I really don't know if this the worst or the best day ever.
“I guess it is better to continue as we were. We are not the same people, we were back then. Trying to go back is probably impossible.” -Angrod
“You think? But... No, you are right. You are not Johann. And I am not Sandra any more. Waaaa, I hate this situation! B... But you came for me, instead of hiding in the shelter! So maybe there is still a good guy somewhere inside you.” I am mad at myself, I should have just forgotten about this.
“I said you shouldn't misunderstand that!”, He gets red, oh so cute! He can't be sincere.
Suddenly the door opens and Ireth looks inside. “I heard some noise... WHAT HAPPENED HERE!? Did a bomb explode!?”