Recently
on Fires of the sky, the main group who had participated in the Elemental
Challenges has finally returned to Arkon’s Magic! But… to the rest of the
students’ surprise, several students have not appeared in the group, and they
knew that something tragic must have happened to them all. As a vow, Matt
decides it is best for them to do their own thing, because messing around all
throughout the first two years did nothing but cause them to lose more friends
in a very traumatic way. One thing to note now is that… after 365 days, things
have changed. Almost every student had to separate and disconnect with each
other due to self-anger and terrible memories of the first two years. We will
have to see what is up by reading onward to Fires of the Sky – Junior Year!
Episode 263 – An Ambience of Burden, Unidentified
Mentality
As the ‘demon lord’ began to fly
closer to the main village, the villagers began to scream and panic for their
safety. The crowd began to run in a bunch much like a bee’s chase at a hawk
view. The echoed voice of the demon lord rang louder to scare off the villagers
and take over the acres of land. He was stopped by a mysterious woman with
green and light armor.
“The Mistress of the Winds?!” He
gulped. “You shall not intervene with my tactics!”
The young teenager placed both her
legs away from each other of about two feet. She focused with her arms crossing
each other like an X as wind began to vapor in front of her. You can almost
imagine as if she was being blown by a large air conditioning vent from behind.
The aura surrounding her became a Wind Enchantment that increased her element
strength as she began to run towards the ‘demon lord’. She immediately made her
body spin in a vertical, but forward-moving position towards the demon. She
called this the ‘Viral Tempest’ that was much more threatening than her usual
Tempest skill.
The demon was slashed in the face
and he was slowly vanishing in green aura, much like how digicells would
disperse. She then stabbed the ground with her long sword and she drained some
of the energy from her own sword, creating another light humanoid beside her.
“Zephyr!” she called.
The teenager, without having to make
the effort of moving, had the Zephyr take her place and finish the rest of the
demon as it completely disappeared. The villagers from were intimidated by the
spirit beside the teenager, but they knew she only arrived to save them. With
this, they began to cheer for her.
“You said your name is Yessenia,
yes?” an old woman said, holding two sticks of French bread with about three
feet in length. “I know this may not be much of a reward, but please, this is
all I can give.”
Yessenia smiled at them. “You need
to keep them for the sake of your children. I bid you and every villager a safe
farewell,” and then she remembered the ending of the book, “and it would be a
pleasure to be called The Mistress of the
Winds.”
“Oh, oh thank you, mistress! I will
certainly keep to your words!” She blushed as she walked away, still holding
her bread proudly after listening to the kind teenager.
After a few celebrations, Yessenia
decided it was time to go home. “That marks about the 65th map
completion,” she told herself. “I guess I should take a break for today.”
~~~
Even for early October, the weather
seemed hot and humid. With the atmosphere today, you wouldn’t expect much from
a city filled with factories. Stan sat under the canopy near the cafeteria,
where the group usually sat during freshman year. Remember back when Matt and
Jen had to switch lunch periods? Now in the year 2009, the school had completed
their campus construction and there is more room for students to sit and hang
out during lunch. As a result, two lunch periods were bunched into one.
Most students loved the idea, now
that they get to hang out with those who had always been put in separate lunch
periods like Matt and Jen. Some others, not so much. They would argue everyday
about the terrible lunch lines. A few cut, a few others push. It was never
pleasant for those who had disadvantages. Jen was constantly being pushed
around as she saw a bunch of boys in baggy pants and ripped-up shirts cut
through with girls in simple tank tops. Their straps were an inch shorter than
the dress code. They wore booty shorts that showed extra cellulite from their back
thighs which Jen squinted on.
Lisa had suddenly reached the front
of the line, and since then had they slowly, and unintentionally split apart
from each other. Jen frowned, thinking that even Lisa was more aggressive to
stay on her guard and not be pushed around by the bad students.
Suddenly, a hand from behind grabbed
onto her left arm as she was being dragged away. “S-Stan?!” she murmured.
“We need to talk.”
“About what? I didn’t get my food
yet.”
“I already got mine. You can have
it,” he said as he dragged her over to the canopy.
Jen was reminded those rare moments
when students were thrown into one lunch period. During her freshman year, the
‘two lunch period’ rule had been for every day, except about two days on
finals’ week when it was mashed into one lunch period. She remembered this rare
day because every student finally got to bond with each other without any
boundaries.
She looked at the fourth table,
seeing a silhouette of Matt, Santi, Jennifer, and the rest of Jennifer’s group
talking to them. Oh yeah, Danny was also there. She could catch a glimpse of
Matt’s smile which struck her.
“Jen, are you listening to me?”
“Oh, yeah,” she said slowly as Stan
handed her a carton of chocolate milk. It usually tasted like strawberry milk,
actually. The school doesn’t really regulate much on their meals in school.
“Anyway, I wanted to talk to you
about what happened in the dragon novel that you read.”
“Oh that! I’m sorry. I must have
read the ending’s prophecy wrong…”
“No, don’t worry about that. I had a
talk with Matt about it, and I think he’s right.”
“What do you mean?”
Stan cowered a little. He was not
proud about what he was going to tell her, but he felt as if it was the right
thing to say.
“Well I… I mean, it’s dangerous to
bring you around with me all the time.”
Jen blushed more from sadness rather
than his caring side. “Stan, I-…”
“It’s just that every time I bring
you around, I worry that you’ll get hurt. I bring you so that we can work
together and become less afraid of things, but I don’t even know if it’s worth
anything at this point. What are we protecting ourselves from?”
Jen
knew exactly where that last question came from. She had an extreme certainty
that the question could be Matt’s type of question.
She placed the chocolate-strawberry
milk onto the blue, patterned table. “I’m a burden to you, aren’t I?”
“What? No! It’s not like that at
all.”
“You think I can’t fight.”
“Like I said, it’s not that. You are
useful and strong, Jen. You are able to read those novels and ending
prophecies. I ask you for help because you’re the only one who can actually
read them.”
Jen thought about it carefully. She
knew he was right as even Yessenia had sometimes gone to her for support on the
ending prophecies of each novel that she had read.
“Why me?” Jen questioned. “Why am I
the only one who is able to read these ending prophecies? Actually, I don’t
even predict them properly. Remember what happened with the last novel we went
into? We were almost killed by dragons because I read the prophecy wrong. I
assumed you were the one to save me, but it was… him.”
Stan stood up. “It’s okay, Jen… I
decided to stop fighting.”
Jen’s heart skipped a beat. She
never expected that Stan would end his vows to keep getting stronger. He loved
to fight, improve, and beat others if they happened to go against him. It was a
surprise to see that Stan had finally taken a break from all of this after a
whole year.
It was suddenly getting windy. In
Jen’s ears and point of view, everything was suddenly getting quiet. Stan felt
it too. He waited for her response as the wind continued to push as if the two
of them were in a dramatic sequence.
Just kidding. Yessenia walked out of
the bushes behind them as she said, “Sorry to interrupt. Thanks, Jen. The
prophecy came true.” She handed the mistress novel back to Jen as the wind
disappeared. All drama had washed off.
Jen smiled. “Oh my, really?!” She
felt proud of herself.
“Yeah. Everything went smoothly as
you said.”
Jen looked at Stan. “I don’t always
get prophecies right though…”
Yessenia patted her on the shoulders
toughly. “Do not worry. With enough practice, you will perfect it. Like
physical strength, you will increase in mental strength.”
“Oh, like a magician!” Stan
interrupted.
Jen rolled her eyes. “This is no
time for your gaming analogies.”
“Er, my bad. But still, I’m going to
take a break. I think you should too, Jen. It’s risky for us to continue
messing around with these books.”
Jen sat down next to him as Yessenia
walked off. “Okay…” In an awkward silence, she eyed the carrots. “So can I have
some?”
~~~
With the new construction, a larger
library was made. There were several large 60-inch television screens hanging
near the ceiling pillars, probably around six of them. Books were stacked in a
huge circle with a large reception desk sitting in the middle. To the side of
this was a connected building for snack sales and school supplies. Well, there
was a secret, small door in between that students would walk in and out of.
This was the activities office.
The activities office is used mostly
to plan out events for the school and is run by the director along with many of
the most outgoing and dedicated students who lean more for school spirit.
“Alright, we got our plans set out,
yes?” The director said as he held onto a clipboard.
Shirley shook her head as she sat
down on the floor. Many students had already taken a proper chair before she
was able to enter. Her hair was long enough to run down to the ground as one
student passed by and slipped over it.
Shirley turned to Winny, “Told you I
washed it well enough to make it silky and soft enough for someone to fall
over.”
“What are the odds…” Winny said
quietly.
“Okay who the hell is that kid over
there?” The director pointed to the other side of Shirley.
Alex suddenly pulled the sweater
that was covered over his head. “Okay, I confess! She made me come here!” Alex
began to cry.
Shirley stood up quickly with her
long hair slapping against Alex’s face and mouth. “Director, I have great plans
for the rally coming up tomorrow.”
“Oh, you do? Let me hear it.”
“Well, you know how September is
always hot and annoying?”
“It’s October,” Alex corrected her.
“Same thing, idiot.”
“Language,” the director interrupted
her.
“Yeah, yeah. So what I was saying
was that maybe we should have a water balloon fight as one of the activities.
Maybe that will keep school spirits up.”
The director slammed his clipboard
onto the table. “What the hell kind of idea is that? Do you know why it was
banned for several years?”
Let’s explain where this director
came from, as he seemed to appear only now instead of back in freshman year. In
the first two years of high school, the directors and administration was
perfect and calm. The principal was liked by many, and even the activities
director was loved. She used to make the perfect plans for events.
However,
as junior year began, the whole district of El Monte thought it was a great
idea to make rotations. This meant that administrators from other schools will
take over El Monte while El Monte’s original administrators will have to rotate
to another school like Rosemead, or whatever. Now, El Monte has an overly
ecstatic, sarcastic, and vulgar activities director that every student is
afraid of. Well, except for Shirley who never really cared.
The director continued. “Students
would target certain others and it was labeled as bullying. I can’t let that
shit happen again.”
Shirley shrugged. “Let me guess, a
bunch of students decided to throw water balloons at you in the other school?”
“That’s only for me to know, you
demonic child! Any other ideas?”
Shirley whispered to Alex, “I guess
you’re useless now. Go away before he gets mad.”
Alex rolled his eyes. “I had to
postpone a quiz because of you?”
“Hey, these meetings are always
during period two. I had no choice.”
“But what about the ‘disasters’?”
Shirley suddenly became serious. “If
you see it happening again… make sure to call me immediately. I’m certain they will come to screw things over and
this time we have to figure out who it is that is causing all of this.”
Only Winny bothered to listen to
them.
Alex shook his head. “Okay, but you
know, some of our friends like Joey and Maggie are starting to blame elemental
power users like Matt for the forest fires. If these natural disasters keep
happening, then-…”
Shirley hissed at him. “Sh! We’ll
talk about this later.”
“Ugh, fine. I’ll just go take my
quiz now.”
As Alex was walking away, the
director called out, “What the hell is that kid still doing here? He’s not even
a member. Get out!” He then threw the clipboard at Alex as he stormed off.
“You could at least give me two
seconds!!”
Shirley watched him leave the room
as fast as he could. She thought to herself, “What could go wrong during the
rally?”
~~~
- Preview to the next episode! -
Matt:
On the next episode of Fires of the Sky…
Jen:
Shirley said there is going to be a rally, right?
Lisa:
Of course! It’s to honor those in the Top GPA.
Jaime: And
sports.
Jen:
Yay! I’m both in sports and in the Top GPA!
Lisa:
…Hooray… sports.
Jen:
What’s wrong, Lisa? You don’t like sports?
Lisa:
I mean I used to like running and all, but this rally is so one-sided. These
dumb people only care about sports and not academics.
Jaime:
That’s true, but a rally is usually for
sports, so we should be happy that the Top GPA is even up in recognition.
Lisa:
Then we should have our own event on the Top GPA!
Matt:
Ugh, another stupid upbeat rally… Next time on episode 264, A Rally Filled with
Predetermined Calamity!
Van:
There is something off about this rally…
Maggie:
Like what? Something dangerous maybe?
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