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Cynsi Chapters 1-4

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Chapter 1


I trudged up the sidewalk to my school, my messenger bag backpack bouncing to the rhythm of my steps.
It was 6:50am, but early June down here in the Jasik basin was sweltering. The sun rose around 6:00, and set around 8:30.
I couldn’t figure out why anyone could possibly want to live here.

Later that day, I was sitting under my palm tree when I heard a slight ping. Even with my exceptional hearing I couldn’t tell what it was.
The next thing I did I would later regret many times, but also sometimes I agreed with my decision. Although I’d have to say I mostly regretted it.
But you’ll figure that out yourself later.
I put my book away and started walking towards where I heard the sound. I didn’t know why, but I was really interested in it, even illogically. I guess that that must have been my destiny calling.
I was in what locals called “the grove” because it was the densest vegetation within 10 miles of the city. In the beginning some people called it the “palm forest”, since it was 90% palm trees, but it just didn’t cut as a forest. Another strange thing was that nobody knew why the trees grew there. My scientific mind found this interesting and I did a test. I dug down five feet inside and way outside the grove and compared what I saw. It looked identical. It was my favorite place because I loved trees and grew up with them at the foot of the Festin Mountains. There were huge forests of pine and lan trees there. We had to move because dad had “business” here, and that we would probably be back in 6 months. But I still struggled leaving to the very end even though it was only going to be 6 months.
It had been a year.
Thinking about this made me sigh and took the edge off the excitement of the strange noise. I was starting to think I hallucinated it, even though I had never heard anything wrong in my entire life. After all I heard somewhere that when you’re too hot, your senses start to fail on you.
I kept walking through the grove. By now I was past the point that I had ever gone before, since my curiosity was not exactly peaked before by the stories of people going in and finding endless palms. Most of them got lost amongst the trees and ended up picking a direction and sticking to it until they got out. Then they would get their bearings and go back to town. A couple of people never came out.
I was tired and tempted to put my bag down, but common sense told me that I’d probably never find it again. All the trees looked the same, so I couldn’t tell how far in I was. I had already left the red flag far behind. My mom set the red flag up when we first came here because she was scared of me getting lost.
“But that was a year ago,” I scoffed out loud. The echo of my voice bounced through the trees and came back to me many times.
I sat down finally. Even though I was shaded by palm trees, this was only about 4:00 and it was still blazing hot out. I swatted some flies away, but they were very persistent in their attempt to annoy me. I took my water bottle out and drank.
I decided that if I were going to continue, I’d have to get up. It would get dark in a couple of hours, so if I were going to investigate, I’d have to hurry.
I got up and started walking again. I noticed the palm trees changing first. They seemed luscious and they had no dead leaves. There seemed a familiar plant-like smell to the air that I probably smelled in Sard, my mountain city. I was very captivated, since no one ever saw this.
At least no one that came back.
I noticed that the ground’s texture was different. I looked down and saw grass. Real grass. You probably wouldn’t understand my reaction, because you’ve probably never gone for a whole year with the only plants in sight being palm trees and cacti. I knew that this is what I was smelling earlier. I rolled around in it gleefully, the perfect picture of a tall five year old with a couple pimples added.
Then I heard growling.
I froze on the spot.
I tried to recall my old knowledge of animal sounds, but this was completely new and strange. It was mostly wolf’s growl, with a touch of snake’s hiss and bear roar.
I looked towards the sound. It was coming through a thicket of palms so thick it was like a wall. I figured I could just barely squeeze through.
Although the growl was terrifying, it had a certain energy that made it seem not directed towards me.
I looked through a hole in the palms. What attracted my attention immediately was a wolf like thing. At first glance it looked like a navy wolf with grey fur streaks, but if you looked closely you saw that it’s tail was a blue snake and it’s ears were those of a rabbit. This is what was growling.
Then I saw 3 men in some special uniform. It was a whole body suit, and you could hardly tell one from the other. They were holding tools that they seemed to regard as weapons, telling from their stance. They had a logo on their chest. It looked familiar, so I searched my brain for the memory. I found it.
It was on “bring your son to work day” when I was eight. I was really excited because my dad didn’t let me go the year before, claiming I was too young (also because I got out of school that day). We pulled up to a regular looking office building. In the front it had the logo (an eagle carrying a stone). Under the logo it said “Cynsi”, which is where my dad works. It turned out to be really boring because everything seemed to be “confidential” or “advanced research that you couldn’t possibly understand”.
The men were measuring the beast, trying to find the best approach. Their weapons seemed to flicker with high energy stored in the metal. Radioactivity? That was my first thought, since for some reason that energy always came to mind second, right after electricity.
Their weapons looked like 5-pronged trident, which at further thought would make it a “quindent”. It all looked very high tech.
The Cynsi men were circling closer, testing their limits. Then suddenly they all struck.
Then many things happened at once.
The snake tail struck at the man lunging from behind with a blue light and lightning-quick speed. The beast shot blue energy out of its mouth at the second man.
But there were three men.
The third man hit the beast in its side.
The beast then made an expression incomprehensible to humans, and also one that we don’t have the facial muscles to make. It befuddled me at first, but in a couple of days I theorized that it was probably a mix of fear, pain, startledness, and mostly confusion.
The beast then made a roar so intense it is extremely hard to describe with this insufficient language of ours. It conveyed such a strong emotion of rage and power that any human would cower at the sound immediately. I would have cowered in fear, but I didn’t have time to.
With the roar came an energy shockwave that sent me and presumably the men flying backwards into a palm tree.
The last thing I felt was a screaming tear in my back before slipping into an inky unconsciousness.





Chapter 2


I woke slowly from a groggy half-conscious state. I saw lush palm trees all around me.
“What?” I said about everything in general, including where I was, how I got there, why the palm trees were lush, why I was sitting on real grass, and why my back was so sore. My mumble sound a little garbled.
I sat there for a while. I don’t know how long, since I was only three quarters conscious. I was trying to remember what happened before I went to sleep, but it only came back it bits, one by one.
Then I remembered everything.
I immediately snapped up, all grogginess completely eradicated from every corner of my mind.
Then I noticed something strange. It was dark out and probably cold, but I was really warm. I looked down at myself.
And froze.
I was no longer the Jashu I knew. Not the one that looked out at me from mirrors. I was a cat. Yes, a cat. At first I was appalled. It seemed like my humanity carried everything I thought about myself. I then saw advantages. I was faster, and my eyesight was better. Also, I was innocent looking. I could get into most peoples houses and just meow and they would adore me.
I felt a strange weariness taking over despite my attempts to stay awake.
I slumped down and fell asleep where I lay.

I woke up again, this time in bright daylight. I stood up.
Then I remembered what happened. I looked down at myself.
I was different still. Now I seemed to be a gray wolf, except my posture and bone structure remained mostly human. I had fangs that immediately felt extremely awkward in my mouth. My tongue kept checking out if it was really part of me and supposed to be there.
My sense of smell was greatly increased too. I could actually smell the lunch that I had had 1 week before I came to the thicket. Was it really only that long? It sure felt like ages had passed since I was regularly going to school and worrying about things like girls and other kids.
“Good morning,” said a voice from behind me.
I jumped back and turned around in mid-air. I also sent an energy blast at it. Wait. Energy blast?  I wasn’t given much time to think about it though.
It was the blue wolf.
I assumed my defensive position that I learn in karate when I was six. I only got to yellow belt, but I did learn the basics. Like the defensive stance.
“I find it slightly amusing you think of me as a threat.” It appeared right behind me, and then went back to where it was before. “At least, as a threat you think you could handle. But no, as fun as it would be to watch you writhe in pain, I have a use for you. You see, you were hit by my roar. People die when hit by my roar.” He showed his teeth in what was a very twisted, blood curdling smile. I failed to repress a shudder. “You didn’t. You absorbed my energy. Of course it was energy, so, logically, it transformed you. And it was my energy.” He stood on his hind legs. It seemed his leg bones transformed to enable a standing position. “Notice any similarities? Come, don’t be shy, say something.”
“Umm, what exactly are you?” I asked. It was hard talking to a blue wolf that could kill you at any moment. Still, my curiosity broke through.
“I am Hein, the being of the moon. My enemy is Curin, the being of the sun. We are both extremely powerful.” He looked thoughtful. “Your race is lucky we haven’t killed you yet. You are pretty much defenseless.” I had to see the truth in that. Our newest weapon was the crossbow, and Hein probably wouldn’t even be fazed by a direct hit. Would I be fazed? Just how powerful am I, anyways? “Cynsi is just about your only chance. They are developing technology especially against us. Although, they haven’t gotten far. They can barely deal with our weakest minions. They definitely couldn’t stop you.”
My dad worked against these beings? “Just how powerful am I?”
“Not very. Currently you could barely lift a pebble telekinetically. But you have absorbed so much of my energy you have the potential to be great. But only the potential. Anyways, I am busy and you are taking my time. I will now send you to my base for training. And always remember, you could be great.”
That was the last I heard from him.


I woke up.
I was in a bed that was extremely comfortable and immaterial. It felt like I was floating.
I immediately looked at myself. I seemed to be mostly human again, with a small amount of gray fur, and slightly enlarged and pointy ears. I still had full sized fangs though.
I jumped out of bed and looked around. I was in sleeping quarters, or so it seemed because of all of the beds with no mattresses. I looked at my own mattress. It was truly immaterial. It was made from magical energy, probably being sustained by a staff member. It promptly disappeared. Enchanted? Possibly.
I looked for a door, which opened when I looked at it.
I was in a hallway with many doors leading out of it. I guessed that they led to other sleeping quarters. At the end of the hallway was a door. It led outside.
The ground outside was white and hilly. It seemed like there was a crater 100 feet away. Then it struck me. The moon. Of course. This was his center of power, so he could watch over all of his students.
I walked outside.
There was another building 200 feet away. It was worn-down and ragged in comparison to the glistening white building I was just in.
I was going to see what it was, but suddenly a man dashed up to me. He was wearing a grey uniform with a lot of sparkling badges on his chest. A button labeled him as “Headmaster Kinro”. I automatic felt like he was higher in standing than me and he knew better. “Are you Jashu?” he asked me.
“Yes.” I tried and succeeded in showing no emotions.
“Good morning,” he said politely. “This is the Hein Magic Academy. Here we teach people like you how to use the powers they have. The room you just came from is the Exceptional Barracks.” He looked towards the crater and pointed. “The schoolhouse is in the crater. But I’m not here to lecture you. So, any questions?”
“What’s that building?” I pointed to the ragged building I saw before.
“That’s the Inferior Barracks. That’s where the less talented sleep. As you will see, you will have many more privileges. Talent is merit here.” He gave a gruesome smile that was so bad I couldn’t repress a shudder. “You’re lucky Mein decided you were talented. But you’ll find that soon.”
I was pretty curious, but he obviously thought that my questions would be answered without him, and I wanted to take advantage of his higher authority’s knowledge while it was available. “How old are the students here?” I asked.
“Varies, but most are around 3 years older than you. Magic is much less trainable at a higher age. But younger people can’t usually absorb as much energy so there is a balance. You’ll be very powerful once you are older.”
I heard the sound of trampling feet coming from the crater. It seemed like there were at least 100 students walking out at the same time.
“Well, goodbye until we meet again. I must be going now.” Kinro disappeared in a small flash.
I jumped (it was so fun jumping on the moon!) up the lip of the crater. From there I could see two gigantic buildings. One, the one with people outside, was stark white. It was 3 stories tall, and about 200 feet wide. The other one was sparkling and bright. I immediately didn’t like it, since it seemed to emanate a bad feeling. It was 5 stories high, but probably had fewer cubic feet than the white one. I walked towards the people just on instinct.
I seemed to immediately cause a commotion. I inferred that new students were probably not common. People were whispering in their groups.
I didn’t know what to say. “Hello?” it sounded more like a question than a greeting. I guess I looked kind of sheepish.
Two kids walked up. One was tall and black haired. He was pale and kind of scrawny. The other was my size (which was short here, though I was tall on earth). He was tan and had blonde hair. They were both wearing school uniform (blue shirt, grey pants).
“Hello,” said the shorter one. Everyone was looking at him like he was crazy, though I didn’t see why. “My name is Shaun.”
“My name is Logan,” said the taller one. He was gruff and low, and you could picture that voice coming from some guy showing off his biceps at the beach.
We kind of stood like that a while, really awkward with everyone looking. Then we went of towards the school. No one followed us.
We went to a group of four (which, together, would make us seven). I was introduced to them.
There was Falst, who was average height with long brown hair. He spoke with an Australian accent.
There was Hink, who was short and pale, with short black hair. He didn’t talk much, and when he did very briskly like talking was a waste of energy.
There was Nick, who was tall and black. He was cool, but understanding.
There was Kist, who was short and tan, with short brown hair. He acted lighthearted and almost haughty, and was very funny.
We started talking, and the crowd eventually dissipated.
I learned a lot about the school. There were five needed classes. One was in both kinds of schools, but was a lot harder here. That was PE, where we played dodge ball with fireballs, climbed climbing walls with boulders falling on you, fought with swords, and ran 18 miles daily. Another was miscellaneous magic, which no one seemed to be good at since we did totally different kinds of spells each day. Then there was elementary magic, which the name kind of explains itself (you know, you use elements). In elementary magic, you get split into elements to train on your most talented one. There was magical creatures and demons (unanimously the favorite), where you learned about well, magical creatures and demons (weren’t expecting that, were you?). There was science, where we learned about the nature of magic. This class was definitely the most boring, since people like to use their magic.
I also learned that the other building was the administration building. Yeah, the one I was immediately turned off to. Figures. They didn’t know much about it, since they had never been inside, but they knew that that was where the staff slept.
There was also another building I hadn’t seen at first. It was on the other side of the crater, so I didn’t feel like I really should have taken note of it. It was the shopping mall, although it barely passes. You of course couldn’t use mortal money there, and you only got what you earned, which wasn’t much. Most of what people got was for grades, the better the grades the more the cash. You would have to do some sort of community service to get credit, but most people didn’t. The school gave everyone a standard issue sword at the beginning of the year and most people didn’t bother to get a better one. Logan, Shaun, Falst and Nick had one though.
By the time they had explained this to me (and had a couple of “remember when…”s (which I didn’t mind and seemed interesting)) it was already almost night. Because of my still pretty current change, I was so tired I was basically sleepwalking back to the dorm.
My head hit the pillow and I was out.


I was having an okay dream.
I was under water and the sensation was great. I felt totally weightless, and I could breathe fine. The only problem was that I couldn’t quite catch up to him.
Don’t ask me who he was, cause I don’t know. He had copperish hair and extremely tan skin, and was swimming at least 30mph.
Then he turned and looked at me. “Wake up, Jashu. Wake up,” he said. That confused me.
I snapped out of bed, totally alert. “What’s up?” I asked.
Falst was next to my bed. “We want you to come with us on the hunt,” he said.
“The what?” I was half asleep and didn’t quite understand.
“The hunt. We’re going to go hunt inferiors.”
“Whatever.” I remembered that when (was it yesterday, or still today?) they talked about inferiority they said it like it was a heinous crime, which I still didn’t quite understand. But I still wanted to fit in with this group and not be an outcast.
I got up and got dressed. The school I guess sent me some enchanted armor clothing, which I put on, but Falst’s armor made mine look like a cheapskate rip-off.
“Here’s my standard sword. I never use it.”
I almost burst out laughing, but I saw I knew I was in a room with a bunch of sleeping people, so I held it in. what he handed me was a rod. A rod. Just a plain cylinder of a gold like metal. About 5 inches long, barely enough to fit your hand around, with an approximately 1-inch diameter. No blade. Nothing to hurt anyone.
I was just about to wonder how this would help me in battle at all when Falst said “Dero,” and the rod turned into a full fledged one-handed sword. I was pretty impressed, but Falst shuffled me out of the dorm before I could comment.
There I found the rest of our group.
“There you are,” said Shaun. “I thought I should be here in normal form as not to scare you as you come out.” Then, right before my eyes, he turned into a wolf. This made the sword thing look like a scam in comparison. It rendered me totally speechless. I wondered if I could do that. That would be cool.
Then I said something really intelligent like, “wow.”
Shaun puffed his chest (showoff). “Yeah, I’m a morpher. And, of course, since I have Hein magic, this is my effortless form. Besides, I can smell hinlers great.” He smiled so much like Hein I shuddered.
“I’m guessing a hinler is a warrior for Hein.” I was surprised this hadn’t come up earlier, but I hadn’t.
“Whatever. Let’s get going,” Hink said impatiently. He was jumping up and down like he was a little kid on a sugar high that was forced to stand still, or he had to go to the bathroom bad.
“Yo. Patience is a virtue. Live with it.” Nick’s message obviously went in one ear and out the other.
“Why are we waiting around? Let’s do it!” Hink was talking in an excited whisper, and I again remembered what we were doing.
“Why are we hunting inferiors again?” I asked.
“Because they deserve it. They’re inferior.” Shaun said this so matter-of-fact-ly that I almost just accepted it as fact.
Yeah. I know what you’re thinking. I should stand up for the inferiors, right? Well, it’s not exactly like that. When your friends (of which you have little and you feel grateful to them for accepting you) do it, it’s not so easy. You don’t want to cause trouble and give yourself a bad reputation on your first day. Plus, even the figures of authority (headmaster Kinro, etc.) were standing up for it. So yeah. Great ideals.
“Let’s do it.” I was plenty eager since it sounded like exploring the school, of which I had done little yesterday.
Shaun raised his nose to the air. “This way,” he said and beckoned us with a flick of his head towards the school.
We started running, and I immediately fell behind. I was probably the top runner at my school, but these people had been through much more vigorous stuff than me. I also think they had a technique to enhance their speed with magic.
“Wait up,” I called after them.
Kist looked back. “Hey, Jashu can’t do this pace.”
I continued the rest of the way at a sprint, but my group made sure not to get to far ahead.
Shaun stopped and the rest of us did too. “Wait here,” he told me.
I looked around and noticed a group of three people 25 feet ahead. I figured they were probably the inferiors we were hunting. It probably was dangerous, so I didn’t put up a fuss about staying behind.
Then they sprinted at the inferiors. For the inferiors, it wasn’t a fair fight. Six on three and they were, well, inferior. We (and when I say we I mean the others) surrounded them quickly and closed in. As they were being taken down and one noticed me. She gave me a look like I didn’t have to hang out with these people. Like I wasn’t like them.
And I immediately knew I wasn’t.

Chapter 3


I woke up alone.
I found a rod (my standard sword) lying on the ground at my bed along with some battle armor and a roll of paper. I went straight for the sword. “Dero,” I said, but it just wouldn’t turn into a sword. “Dero. Dero. Dero.” Nothing. I sighed and grabbed the roll of paper.
The paper caught me off guard when it started talking. It said, “welcome to the Hein Academy! Were glad to have you… (blah, blah)… You’re schedule for today is:
1. Element finder with Mrs. Shik (room 17),
2. PE with Ms. Rocan (outside),
3. Magical creatures and demons with Mr. Hunkar (room 3),
4. Miscellaneous magic with Mrs. Jinkri (room 32),
5. Science with Mr. Don (room 411),
6. Choosing an elective (authority building),
You’re sword’s magic word is Cine. Hope you have a wonderful year or five here at the Hein Academy!”
The piece of paper stopped talking and left me in an extremely quiet barracks.
I picked up the rod. “Cine.” It sprouted a 4-foot blade of a gold like metal.
“Best get started then,” I said aloud to myself. It echoed back through the empty room eerily.



“Ah, Jashu Forcasi. We’ve been expecting you.” The woman smiled all-knowingly at me. A button on her chest labeled her as “Elementary Examiner Shik”.
I wondered why she said “we” when there was no one else in the room. Of course, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people hiding behind a one-sided mirror looking at me like a lab rat and jotting down notes. “Let’s get this over with,” I said to her plainly.
She pulled out a metal sheet of what looked like steel. It glimmered when it moved. “Hit this with a energy blast. Just normal energy will be fine.”
“I can’t do an energy blast.”
“No. You can, you just don’t know how to.”
“Whatever.”
“Okay then, follow me.” She put down the sheet and ushered me into a plain white room. She put a seal on the door behind us. “Now honey, I could say this won’t hurt, but then I’d be lying to you.” Then, faster than I could think, she sent a fire blast at me.
It burnt. It felt like the whole inside of my body was incinerating. Then, somewhere in the deeps of my brain that wasn’t being consumed by neuron reports of extreme pain, a little spark of anger occurred. Why did I have to put up with this anyways? The spark ignited, and somehow I controlled the fire. It stopped burning and became just a warm feeling. Next thing I knew, I sent an even bigger fire blast at Mrs. Shik. She rolled to the left.
“Fire element talented, I see. What about ground?” She created a rock out of midair and hurled it at me.
I could beat her. She wouldn’t beat me up today. I took control of the rock and flung it back a t her. She jumped over it.
While in midair, she sent some lightning at me, but I was ready for it this time. It had barely hit me when I channeled it through my finger and back at her. It hit her straight on, but she just absorbed it. I thought lightning was probably her best element.
She now sent a stream of water going about 45 miles an hour at me. I rolled to the side and dodged it easily, but apparently she had a different attack coming at me from behind, which sent water to clog down my throat.
I could feel myself running out of air, but I stayed calm and concentrated. I took her energy out of the water and threw my energy water at her. It stopped in front of her and dropped.
I waited for her to make the next move, but she just started clapping.
“Ah, I see why you were put into the exceptional barracks. Congratulations, you have ability to control all elements. This is quite rare, so feel lucky. You should go to your class now. I’ll tell you where it is.” She gestured to me to come out of the room.
I was excited about my skills and all, but once the adrenaline drained from my brain, I was ready to pass out. And that’s just what I did.




I woke up slowly. I opened one eye, and saw a doctor talking with his nurse.
“I don’t understand why they aren’t giving me a position on the front lines,” I heard the doctor say frustrated. Front lines? Since when was there a war? I thought.
“We need to stay here for recruits,” answered the nurse. “They do hurt themselves a lot.”
“But how ‘bout instead of getting recruits, we just keep our guys alive out there. Then we wouldn’t need them.” The doctor sounded very opinionated. By now I was awake enough to know that the administration was keeping this thing about the war from the students, for one reason or another.
“You know that we’d probably just get killed with the rest of them if we went out. We’re doing more helpful work right here.” She seemed a bit unsettled, but firm in her belief.
“You’re right. I just really want to bust some Curin heads.” The doctor sighed and gave up the point.
“The curns are pushing the front line back towards the conduit constantly. You may get your chance soon enough,” the nurse said soothingly.
I decided to pretend like I never heard that and I just woke up. “Uuugh,” I muttered. I felt them hand chewing something in my mouth, and I let them. I swallowed, and I immediately sat up.
The nurse was in front of me. “Don’t push yourself,” she said. I fell into a laying position. “The diorma worked,” she reported to the doctor.
“What time is it?” I asked. I didn’t feel like I should be lying here. I actually felt really energetic, and wanted to get up and start running around for no reason. “Why do I have to lie here?”
What I guessed was the doctor looked up from his desk. “It’s 9:00. And I don’t think you have to lay here if you think you can get up.”
I took that while it lasted, since it seemed like the nurse was going to protest. I got out of bed a bit too fast though, and the blood drained from my head.
“Now, you have to not run until you get out of the building. Actually, walk very slowly until you’re out of the building.” The doctor said this so seriously that I did exactly that until I got out of the building.
Then I started to run.
I didn’t really realize how fast I was running until a PE teacher dropped her whistle and became slack jawed in amazement. I wondered what she was amazed by until I realized that I was probably going and fast as a cheetah, maybe 55 miles an hour. When I realized that I stopped to catch my breath and wonder how I did that.
I know, I know. I meet a blue wolf with a snake for a tail, I find rods that turn into swords, I see someone turn into a wolf in front of my eyes, and I get transported to the moon. And I get amazed by running fast?
The truth is, before I just saw everything happen around me or to me. Other than that morning (which I didn’t have the energy to be amazed about), this was the only time I actually did anything magical.
“How’d you do that, sonny?” The PE teacher was right next to me before I knew it.
“I don’t know. I just ran.” And that was the whole truth of the matter. Wait. “I think that the diorma they gave me at the hospital might have helped.”
“Just possibly.” Her voice was dripping with sarcasm. “You new here?”
I nodded. “Just got here yesterday.”
“That explains it.”
“What?”
“Diorma is jam packed with magic. You just burned off your excess.”
I felt like I had burned a bit more than my excess, but I kept quiet.
A runner ran by and collapsed. “8:17,” the PE teacher presumably told him his time. The runner smiled proudly at this.
The PE teacher looked back at me. “Skedaddle,” she told me with a little brushing aside hand gesture.
I walked towards the school building and tried to remember my schedule. I had the element choosing class first, but first period was probably over by now. I had what second? That’s right, PE. Should have guessed. I turned around and went back to the PE teacher.
“8:36,” she told a runner. Then she noticed me. “What?” she said very frankly.
“I have PE this period. Do you happen to be Ms. Rocan?”
“Yes I do. Why?” she said.  “8:42,” she told a passing runner
“You’re my teacher.”
“Oh.” She sized me up and down. “Go sit with the finished runners.” She pointed to where some runners were sitting. “8:48,” I heard her saying as I went over to the runners.
They definitely remembered me from the day before. There were some whisperings as I went and sat by myself. I watched all the runners coming in. Then I noticed one of the inferiors from last night. She was kind of tan, with light copperish brown hair cut short. I was about to go and apologize, but she came to me.
“Hey,” I said. I had no idea how I was going to be able to explain watching while she got beat up and doing nothing.
She read my mind. “It’s okay. They always try to recruit the new people. They’re pretty good at it now.” She sighed. “But you, I saw the look in your eyes. I know you’re not like that. You can’t hurt other people just to steal from them.” She was asserting herself strongly, but I saw pleading in her eyes.
“Well, you are inferior, even though that’s not a reason to attack you.”
“What? Do you not know?” she said surprised. She seemed shocked, though she should know that I don’t know anything.
“Don’t know what?” I inquired.
“Inferior just means that your parents or grandparents worked with Cynsi. It really has nothing to do with talent.”
I shook my head. “That doesn’t make sense. My dad worked for Cynsi, and I’m in the talented barracks.” I was extremely confused.
She looked at me closely, like an interesting reaction in a science experiment. “That’s impossible. Are you sure he’s your biological father?”
I nodded. “Yes. Well, at least I look like him a lot.” I looked down at myself. I looked so different since I got hit with the energy. I was really hairy (not in comparison to most students, but much more than human), and I had claws at the ends of my fingers. My physique was built with the lean type of muscle, and was very light (even lighter since we were on the moon). “I mean, I used to,” I corrected myself.
“What’s your element?”
I wondered why she asked, but didn’t care to say so. “I have all elements.”
Her jaw dropped in wonder. “Are you kidding?”
“No. Why?”
“There’s no one else in this whole school with that. Only 5 in the 200 year history of this school.”
Some talented (actually, since they’re not any more talented, let’s call them richies) kids snickered at us. For a second I felt ashamed sitting next to an inferior. Then I felt ashamed for feeling ashamed.
“Okay!” said the PE teacher. “Time for sword fighting!” she waved for us to follow her into a building that looked like a gym.
“Let’s go,” the inferior waved for me to follow her.
“What’s your name, anyways?” I asked.
“Ruby.”
We got into the building and I realized it was definitely not a gym. We stood on some catwalks that were looking into some 18 arenas. The floor of each arena was sand. The ceiling was pretty low overhead.
“You know the drill! And remember, no magic outside your body!” Ms. Rocan yelled.
“What’s the drill again?” I asked Ruby.
“We split into groups of two and duel. She’s going to assess us on our technique.”
“I wonder who my partner’s going to be,” I said, my voice soaked with sarcasm.
Ruby smiled. “Come on.”
I followed her into the arena, where two standard swords were waiting for us, blade out. I picked one up. “Now, I have only sword fought twice in my life, when I was five and seven. So go easy please?” I was scared because these blades looked like they would really hurt.
“Yeah right, mister every element,” she said sarcastically and the fight was on, her attacking, me dodging and parrying and generally trying not to die.
I got into the rhythm of the fight. I started swinging myself a bit. Then it just became a full-fledged duel with slicing, parrying, dodge rolling, and intensity. Then one time, when she swiped horizontally, I slid through her legs, came up behind her, and put my blade to her neck.
“How’d you do that?” she said in awe.
“Frankly, I don’t know,” I replied. I was pretty proud of myself, even though it was purely instinctual.
Ms. Rocan entered the arena. “What exactly was that?” she inquired quizzically. She looked at me like she thought I was cheating.
I shrugged. “Pure instinct?” It sounded more like a question than an answer.
Ms. Rocan obviously didn’t accept that as an answer. She whispered an incantation into her hand and spread a magic dome over the arena that filled the arena with a blue glow. She looked where I slid and frowned. “Whatever,” I heard her mutter to herself. She marked two things on her clipboard and walk away.
Ruby closed her eyes. “Kane,” she whispered. She opened her eyes a couple seconds later. She gave me a big smile. “We got one hundred percent on the assignment.”
“What was that spell anyways?”
“That was a spell I learned in miscellaneous magic. It puts my point of view somewhere else of my choosing. Very useful.”
Just then the bell rung for next period.


I stepped into my Magical creatures and demons class. Mr. Hunkar was tall and rather largely built. He had tan skin and big eyes.
“Jashu. Hmm… sit right over there,” he pointed me to a table with a lone girl on it. She was short and scrawny, and didn’t look like she had good odds in a fight. It didn’t look like she had combed her jet black hair in a long time.
“What’s your name?” I asked her as I sat down next to her. I could see by the way people treated her that she was inferior. At closer look she had a lot of cuts and bruises.
“Vakya,” she replied coldly. Her look was filled with so much hate for, well, everything that it immediately made me feel like had done something to personally wrong her.
I then realized that I had personally wronged her. She was one of the kids that I watched beat up the night before (was it really only the night before? Sure seemed like longer).
“I’m sorry,” I said very heartfeltedly. She just turned away and looked out the window.
“Today is first-hand day,” Mr. Hunkar announced. “Come on, be excited. No textbooks!” everyone looked relieved, but no one exactly started clapping.
He then led us all outside (not hard since he was on the first floor). He led us out of the crater into some enclosures with beasts.
We started at a creature that at first looked like a big lion with blue scales. You then realized that at the end of its tail was a jewel that was constantly changing colors.
“This here is the heart-breaker we’ve been studying,” Mr. Hunkar announced to the class.  “If this weren’t tame, it would be quite hard to handle. Its scales are practically impenetrable, so its tail crystal is the only place to attack it. The thing is, its tail casts strong magic, and is fiercely guarded.”
“Looks like Vakya,” some rich person snickered with his group.
Vakya obviously overheard this, and got uncontrollably mad. Then for some reason the heart breaker looked at her and seemed to understand something.
It then pounced through the glass enclosure towards the richies.
I thought fast. I threw my sword at it, and yelled “Cine.” It grew a sword in midair and saved the richy by having the heartbreaker clomp down on it instead of the richy, who ran in terror.
This gave me just enough time to attract its attention with a fire blast.
The only problem about attracting a monster’s attention with a fire blast is that it gets mad. And that’s not an appealing adjective when facing a monster 10 times bigger than you. It sent a lightning bolt at me from its flinging tail, which I could only dodge because magical lightning goes slower than normal lightning.
I caught an extended standard sword thrown from the crowd, because I didn’t know I wouldn’t need it.
What I did next was weird, because I couldn’t do it again. I seemed to be in a trance, knowing my surroundings but not really thinking about them. I was focused on the task, but not really doing the task. It was like some force controlled what I wanted to do. I mean, you could have a force controlling you, but that wouldn’t be necessarily
I then made three copies of myself, each with a sword. Don’t ask me how, but I did. We surrounded the confused beast and sent attacks at its two weak spots. One, already mentioned, is the tail. The other, not mentioned, is the mouth.
Then out of nowhere I started an incantation. I didn’t even know what I was saying, but I was too focused on my spell to realize it. Four circles appeared on the ground, one under me. Two made a triangle, and the last one connected the other circles. My two clones went on the others. Then we punched in the direction of the center (the beast) and markings appeared on the beast. It roared once, reared on it’s hind legs, and lay down fainted.
Then, once again, I fainted on the spot.































Chapter 4


“One, two, three, NOW!”
I woke up with a jolt as if I just ate some diorma. Three people that I guess must have done a medical maneuver (probably energy injection) on me walked away. I sat up and looked around me. There was the heart breaker, lying on the ground ten feet away, my spell still restraining it.
Everyone was looking at me, expecting me to say something, so I said something really intelligent like “Umm, hi everybody?” That didn’t satisfy them.
Hr. Hunkar stepped forward. “Well, I’ve seen a lot in my life, but I must say I’m impressed! That looked like something we would have studied for hours in Advanced Hexes 3-4.” He sighed. “The type of thing I could never get down.”
I got up and scanned the crowd. I found Vakya and pulled her aside. “What was that for? You could’ve killed someone!” I whisper yelled (I know it’s a contradiction in words, but you know what I mean).
“Well, they deserved it,” she muttered
“No they didn’t!”
She looked me in the eye. She was serious. “I think that you know they would. Yes, they’re almost as bad as Shaun. And I’m their favorite inferior.”
I didn’t follow her logic. “But that doesn’t mean they deserve to die.”
She smiled knowingly at me. “You just haven’t been here long enough.”
And then the bell for lunch rang.

I sat down next to Ruby at lunch, for lack of anywhere else. When I sat down a plate and silverware appeared in front of me.
“Bacon and eggs with a banana,” she told her plate, and it just appeared.
By now I wasn’t going to be surprised by anything, so I just said “tri-tip steak, please,” to my plate. My steak appeared, looking as juicy as ever.
Ruby looked around. “What are you doing, Vakya?” she wondered aloud.
“Vakya?” I said between bites of my really delicious steak. I was startled. Vakya and Ruby are friends? It must be a small school after all.
The surprise must have been evident on my face, because Ruby asked, “you know her?”
I smiled. “She was the one that almost killed someone in my magical creatures class,” I told her.
She sighed. “Sounds like the same Vakyaaaa...” her spine went rigid, and she crumpled onto the table (luckily missing all the food).
I was about to call for help when she sat back up. “I got to go,” she said very seriously. There was a hint of anxiety in her voice. She was about to sprint when I grabbed her shirt.
“What’s up?” I wasn’t just going to let her run off. Though I barely knew her, I seemed somehow strangely connected to her.
“Vakya severed our mind link, which means she’s either running away… or d-I mean badly hurt.” She hit me off and started sprinting, but I was on her heels. “Go back!” she yelled at me, but it was mostly taken away by the wind (we were running like cheetahs do when they go in for the kill).
I decided to change the subject. “Do you even know where you’re going?” I asked her.
“I know where Vakya was last, and I know the way out of here,” she replied.
“Where are we going now?”
“Where she was last, just to make sure,” she said.
We stopped all of a sudden.
“Nothing’s here,” Ruby said. I assumed this was where the link was severed. By now there was a large building, bigger than both the school and the administration combined, looming up on the horizon (which really isn’t that far away when you’re on the moon and you can run like a car).
She looked up at the Earth. “Darn it. It’s almost time.” She sprinted towards the building, and I followed.
“Time for what?”
“Time when the conduits on Earth and moon align, and our people get beamed up and down.”
That reminded me of the talk between the nurse and the doctor. “We have to stop her,” I said.
“Why?” Ruby asked.
“There’s a war going on down there, and those curns are going to have little love for us hinlers.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I overheard the doctor and the nurse talking about it while I was recovering. Sounded like the administration was keeping it from us students.”
“I don’t buy it.”
“Just look,” I pointed towards the sky (mostly dominated by Earth). You could see little dots on the planet, which were presumably armies.
“And you didn’t tell me before?! This is major! If there is a war like you claim, then Vakya’s probably going to d… get hurt.”  Her head drooped, but she still wouldn’t say die.
“Which is exactly why we have to speed up and stop her,” I said firmly. She was not going to give in to despair on my watch.
By now the conduit building was in close view. It was grey colored, probably to blend in to the moon. It was shaped like a dome, with four pillars coming out the top forming a catalyst thing. It had really beautiful Greek architecture, but I didn’t have time to admire it. Inside the building were a lot of hallways tiled with beautiful black marble with green lace. Which, I would later realize, was the same stuff they had at the Cynsi building. Coincidence? Maybe.
A couple of minutes later we were running through the conduit station yelling a lot of things like “Excuse me!” and “Out of the way, please!”. In return we got a lot of things like “Watch where you’re going!” and “SECURITY!”. What I didn’t realize at first about this is that I could yell while running, I wasn’t breathing hard at all. Also that there’s no air on the moon, where I had just been living.
With all the running we were both tiring out fast. Come on. We’re already a hundred feet into the building. Can’t be that much farther, I tried to convince myself.
Over the loudspeaker we heard a female voice say “load into the conduit now. The conduit will be taking off shortly. Thank you.”
Damn, I thought. I picked up the pace to be a good example to Ruby, who looked like she was at the end of her strength. Corner after corner we turned following the bright signs that pointed to the conduit. Their ordinary and uneventfulness was almost teasing my adrenaline and the zone that I had put myself into.
And then we were there. The last person loaded into the room that was the conduit. The doors were closing. I jumped through with five seconds to spare. I looked back into the loading room and saw Rachel running.
She was going to make it, going to make it… tripped. She tripped.
I didn’t have any time to think. I raced out, grabbed her the quickest and most convenient way, and threw her into the conduit. It was too late. I can’t get there, I thought. Yes I can, something told me from the depths of my brain not used up by physical exhaustion. Next thing I knew, I was in the room with approximately .01 seconds to spare.
“Please enjoy your trip with Hein Beaming,” a female voice said over some hidden loudspeaker.
Hi!
This is the new book I'm writing, and i think it's going pretty darn well :D. I've revamped the first chapter and added three new ones (though i actually have seven chapters now, you'll have to buy the book to find out! :)

As always, please comment and suggestions are very very welcome! :fingerscrossed:
:):):):):):):) (army of smileys to take over world :evillaugh:)
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