by Amy Mah
Alyce collected her things from inside the carriage then pulled her own luggage off the roof, and as soon as it hit the ground, the rhino transport trotted off in the same direction from which they had come. She gave her luggage a little push and followed it through the gates. What faced her was not a large eye but a sign saying, “New students this way,” not that she could read the runes. When she got close, it spoke the words to her, “New students this way.” It was a little odd, perhaps, but at least she now knew that she was going in the right direction. What was not so helpful was as she passed, it added “And you’re late.”
The outside of the building was flat and very stony looking, and the inside was more like a big square room with glowing walls and corridors leading off in different directions. With a lack of staff to ask for help, it was just like a normal academy back on Earth. She didn’t find any more helpful or rude signs around, so she picked a direction and started walking,
As she walked along she could hear what sounded like an argument as a group of girls looked like they were picking on someone. When she saw a large pink travel box similar to her own luggage lying on its side, she could guess whom they were picking on.
Alyce left her own things near the pink box and moved closer to see what was happening, and she soon saw that her suspicions were correct. Eight girls were all wearing what could be a two-piece uniform a consisting of a grey top and skirt, Though her mind pounded the words: “Don’t interfere! It is not your problem; heck, it is not even your world. If you dress like a marshmallow, then someone will soon want to put a stick up your butt, put you over a fire, and toast you. Ignore it, and just walk on.” But she had not been brought up to watch bullying without comment.
“Hey, do you call this fair? All eight of you picking on one girl just because she is making a fashion statement!”
The girl who had been standing over the pink girl turned, moved to stand in front of Alyce and let rip with what sounded like swear words ending in a threat.
Whatever the threat was, Alyce did not hear as pain shot up from the tip of her tail from the girl’s foot, and it travelled at top speed up her spine to produce a headache. The tail pain was not the only thing to be giving her a headache now, as without thinking, Alyce nutted or, rather, clashed horns with the girl, which turned out to be more painful than when she did it to the hoodie but had nearly the same effect as the girl dropped to the ground. She was not out, but she held her head with both hands and was probably counting stars.
The girl to her right tried to pounce on her but instead got winded by Alyce’s fist, which automatically moved without thinking and forced the girl to double up when it reached her bare midriff between where the top ended and the skirt began. If the other girls could have heard what she was saying, they would still have not been any the wiser as she muttered instructions to herself, linking memorized moves. It had started when she was 5 by just not wanting to be left out by her brothers; then when they pointed out how useless she was because she was a girl, she just hit them harder and got better. Alyce was nowhere near as good as her eldest brother, who now was a marshal arts teacher, but none of them could say that she was no good anymore unless they were smiling when they said it.
It was not that she learned or even used any standard marshal art skills; she just had a mixture of moves to bring down someone bigger, stronger, or both, and most of her moves would have gotten her banned from any normal fighting group and were probably one of the reasons for her lack of boyfriends at college. High school had been more of a learning curve for guys that suggested watching a movie and keeping warm with a blanket, which of course as all girls knew was code for trying to watch a movie while some guy was putting his hand up your dress. The learning curve for the guy that did it to her was how to pretend he got what he wanted without letting others see how he was trying to rub some life back into a hand that had been trapped in a vice-like grip between her knees for a good part of the movie.
One of the girls now came at her with a pole, which sent the question of why was someone would be walking about carrying a pole through her mind as she stepped to one side and tripped her up as she went past.
With three down and only five to go, Alyce picked up the pole that had been dropped and swung it in a circle, missing everyone apart from the girl she had winded who had just stood up straight only to go down again as the pole hit the back of her head.
Alyce knew that numbers were on her side; she only had to hit anything standing, whereas the others got in each other’s way trying to get at her.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the girls grab hold of her blade: the one she had received from the hoodies earlier. She had left it sitting on top of her luggage. As soon as the girl touched it, she screamed before moving away, holding her hand close to her chest, which meant she had stupidly tried to pick it up by the sharp end.
So now there were four, and the four were backing away, leaving the fallen behind as she spun the pole expertly between three fingers and a thumb. Then she heard a shout from the pink girl, and as she turned she felt a cold blast hit her, and the pole was removed from her chilled grasp.
“You will pay for this insult with your life, hatchling scum!”
The girl facing her had white hair with a matching white uniform, and if looks could kill, her face was wearing it. She also looked like she had brought backup as a black woman stood behind her. She was dressed differently and now joined in the conversation.
“No, I think we should let the hatchlings play without interference, don’t you?”
The white-haired girl swung the pole around and hit the woman before a look of horror crossed her face, and she fell to the ground gasping for air and clutching at her top, trying to pull the collar away as if it would help her breathe.
“Umm, perhaps it would be a good idea if you Snowflakes dissipate back to your rooms, for if I see you playing in the corridors again, I will remove life points from every Cloud member here.”
At the girl fighting for breath and starting to cough up blood, she just tutted and then ignored her as she now turned to Alyce and the girl in pink.
“My name is Poisen, and I am a Marshal of Arts in this glorious Academy, so you may address me as Moa Poisen. Sparks, who are you, and what is your dorm placement?”
The pink clad girl stopped trying to pull her case back onto its bristles and stood to attention.
“I’m called Pink, Moa Poisen, and I’m with her, whoever she is.”
“Well, let’s take a look at you.”
The black woman held up a blank black slate, stared at the surface, then turned back to Pink.
“Hmm, a little spark that looks to be soon extinguished by the next passing Cloud, so yes, it would be a very good idea to stay close to our hot-headed fighter here.”
“And you, hot head?”
Alyce noticed that she was now in the conversation.
“Tell me how come you have a Vfang blade with your luggage?”
Alyce looked sheepishly towards the blade then back to Poisen.
“I was given it.”
“No one gets given a Vfang; it can only be taken in battle. So I ask again; how come a hatchling walks in here with a Vfang?”
“Sorry. I promised creepy guys in hoods that I would not embarrass them, but it was nothing special. I had just laid out my lunch on a rock while my transport was sleeping in the sun when a hoodie swaggered over and started waving it in my face. I think he was trying to sell it to me or something, and when I refused to buy it he stamped on my tail, so I nutted him.”
“Nutted?”
“Er, yes. I used to do it to my siblings when they were messing about or trying to get me into trouble. You just bring the head down on the other person, and well, my tail really did hurt, so I think I may have hit him a little too hard as he was just a little unconscious when another hoodie turned up and gave me the blade as a free sample. All it does is make wumping sounds and glows a bit, but I did not want to loo
k ungrateful, so I took it. But I did apologize to them and said I hoped he would get better soon.”
“So on the way here you knocked out a VGar in battle and gained a Vfang? Well, that must have broken up the journey for you; then you walk in here and take on the first Cloud you see. Now, let’s see what our testers have recorded on you, hmmm.”
The black woman who she now knew had the name Poisen and had some sort of position here, held up a tablet of slate, which was what looked like this world’s equivalent to technology, and she felt a tingle when it was pointed at her.
“I see that you left an impression on the testers, but that, I expect, was due to you biting one of them. You have shown zero interest in serving the Queen insofar as you have stated any side you were on would probably lose, so they added here that you want to be a spy. Race: Heat. Aptitude and willingness: 1/100. Chances of survival in the Academy: 1/100. Special skills and abilities: Battery. Power reading: 90++/100.”
“Well 90++, so that is the reason for your enrollment: so much potential, yet they also say so little chance of you living long enough to use it. A prime case for being expelled and returned home as unsuitable, I expect you are thinking? Maybe, but that was before you saw fit to show off in front of me, which means I can now amend the records to show, Special skills and abilities: New and unusual forms of hand-to-hand fighting 85/100. Aptitude and willingness: In specials let’s say 98/100. And as to chances of survival in the Academy, I think we can now safely upgrade that to 5/100.”
“So get it firmly into your little hot head that you have been fully accepted into the Academy, so it is learn or die. Room allocation has finished, but you look like you have picked each other anyway, so it is decided; you will both share. You may well have hidden your fighting skills from the testers, but if I find that you do not give 100% effort in every class, I will stop you worrying about people treading on your tail as I will have it cut off. And to make sure you work your little tails off, I will put your names down for every class I will be teaching this term.”
She held out a little stone, which Pink took, and then she continued.
“That key will lead you to your room, and when you get there, sleep. You will need to be wide awake for the first class. What are you waiting for? Get out of my sight!”
Smoking Hot: (7)
The first thing to come to Alyce’s mind when seeing the room was a cross between a very cheap package tour hotel on a rock-themed holiday or a Disney version of a stone-age dorm room, but Pink had a different opinion.
“Wowwwwwwwwww! Such a large room for just the two of us! It must be costing our families an arm and a tail to pay on it. My room back home was only a little larger, and that I had to share with 11 sisters! Oh, do come and take a look at the view! We can see over the barrier wall to the Dragon Teeth Mountains!”
Perhaps, Alyce thought, Pink must have very small sisters, as this room was only the size of her bathroom back home. As Pink stared at the mountains, Alyce looked about as she walked towards the window, which was more like a balcony, then she changed the word in her mind from “balcony” to “precarious slab of rock without handrails overlooking an acrophobic nightmare of a view,” which was mostly straight down, so perhaps aeroacrophobia would be a better fear.
The room had one table large enough for two to work on, but it was at chest height so it could only be used while standing, an area for case storage, and what could be taken for bookshelves if you looked at them with half shut eyes, as well as another area that could be laid out for clothing. There was no other furniture, so sleeping would be in one of the two large scooped-out dents in the wall, and she already know which was hers as Pink had placed an almost DayGlo pink blanket in one of them. What she first thought was a fitted cupboard turned out to be a space four foot square that had a covered hole in the center of the floor, which she guessed was what would be called an en-suite bathroom. All in all, apart from the death drop of a balcony, it reminded her of her rooms at college, except for the hole in the floor for a toilet, and that looked a lot cleaner than the ones she remembered sharing at college.
Pink turned and looked towards her.
“Can I ask a personal question?”
“Sure.” Alyce hoped it would not be too personal as she had not even taken a real look at herself and was still hoping that apart from horns and tail the body had the same bits and parts, especially the more personal bits she had grown up with and if not loved then at least knew what they did. If not, she would have to guess, which could be tricky.
“Why do you walk like a lizard?”
Well, that question was not expected; she thought that one foot in front of the other was how she normally tried to do it while hopefully not falling over. That was how she did it when she was human, and apart from being on all fours, she did not know how a lizard would walk if it had been standing upright.
“I do?”
“Yes, you walk with your tail sweeping the ground from side to side behind you, getting all dirty. I was told when I was young I had to always hold it in an “S” shape to keep it clean. Apart from looking untidy, dragging it along the ground is a sure way of getting it trodden on.”
Well, that answered Alyce’s main question regarding why everyone trod on her tail, so she tried twitching her butt a few times until she hit on a funny but kind of comfortable feeling of clenching her butt cheeks. She looked to see that it now hung in mid air. It also looked like it had an invisible cord lifting it in the center. So that was how it worked! A girl had to walk with a clenched butt as if she were trying to hold a pen between her cheeks. Acting normal was hard when you did not know what normality was in this strange world. Her tail did feel comfy in the “S” position, and she thought that now may be time to add in a little white lie.
“Yes, that feels a lot better. Sorry, but I should have told you; I had an accident recently, and a side effect was a loss of memory. You may see me doing funny things and looking blank at times. I think I damaged my tail in the accident, as I seem to have less control over it and need to re-learn to use it again normally. Don’t tell anyone, as I may get thrown out. Will you help me… please?”
“Ouch, sorry! You should have said. How? Oh, you can’t remember, how can you? I expect it was from all the constant head banging you fight with. No, don’t worry! Of course I wouldn’t say anything, as we are now best friends and roomies. That is so sad, and there are none of your sisters here to help you. But apart from the tail dragging, you look and act perfectly normal. I shouldn’t think anyone will care about what you know or don’t know, which is why they take us at 4 years old so we don’t know anything, not even having our elements active as we are still developing. Don’t worry; you act more normal than most here I have seen, and your tail hang position is perfect now. You will soon notice how much more comfortable it is.”
It was not only more comfortable, but Alyce now found she had far more control over it; the less she thought of it, the more it would just do what she wanted it to do. To prove it, she relaxed and got its tip to rub and scratch her shoulder and discovered it made a great back scratcher. It was the not thinking that made it work; her human mind did not know how to control her tail, but her nonhuman and very tailed body did, so she would try and leave it on automatic.
“Pink? What would you say if I told you that I am not who or what you think I am, and that I am really from another world and arrived here by magic just before finding myself first thrown into a sandbath and while still stinging from that I was then placed in a walking box of a carriage to end up here?”
Alyce could see her new roommate was thinking hard about this sudden change in who she was. She then looked straight at her and answered.
“I would immediately inform the Moas and then watch you be dragged outside where you would be tied down and your flesh torn from your bones to make an example to any other aliens trying to spy on our Queen’s illustrious Academy. Why? Is it something you are likely to say?”
Alyce swa
llowed.
“No, no; it is nothing I would ever say, just a… well… no. It is definitely nothing I would ever say.”
As she looked back she could now see her bloodthirsty roommate bent over with laughter.
“Yes, okay, very funny, but for all you know I could have been.”
After a while the pink-clad girl was able to speak between giggles.
“Oh, I am so going to love being your roomie! You are so funny, as if you did not know; only female Demons can enter here. That is why the transport stopped outside; anything non-Demon passing through the black gates would be destroyed. You must have felt the tingling in your tail as you were being scanned. You are a Demon from the end of your tail to the tip of your horns. Duh! If not, you would be dead.”
Alyce remembered the number of times her tail had tingled from being shut in a door twice, to being sat and trodden on a number of times. No way would she have noticed a little tingle through the constant dull ache it gave her.
“Forget the alien stuff; your memory problem is all to do with the way you fight. I have never seen anyone use their horns to head butt in that way before; it has to be painful, and you do own a very nice blade. Me, if I owned that blade, I would just cut their head off rather than risk a headache. Don’t worry; you act fine for someone that head butts everyone she meets. I expect being away from your sisters for the first time also makes you feel crabby. I know it does me. Back to normality: I see you have a freshly hatched Sylph. You will need to switch on his programming before we sleep or be forced to use the sandbaths for the rest of the term. Would you like me to help?”