Qolie Jacobsons

Chapter One: The Red Boy

"I'm positive Qolie will like it here,"

Even though Qolie was raised in Felora, a very traditional, Asian country, she changed the beauty standard by dressing more like a central European duchess. She lived for pinks and creams and puffed sleeves. All of her shoes were ballet flats with different kinds of gems stuck to the front of them. All of that perfectly matched her curls. Qolie took excellent care of her hair and took its maintenance very seriously. None of these details changed for this very day. She was dressed in a cherry blossom-colored ruffle dress down to the middle of her chins with white trim and puffed sleeves, baby pink-colored ballet flats with square diamonds on the front of them, and pearl earrings.

    Her father was already nervous about sending Qolie away for good, but the shallow words from the Headmistress Sara, didn't help. "When's her first holiday?" he asked, disregarding anything else that came out of her mouth. "Most likely in the next six months if everything goes to plan," the king let out a breath. "Her room has already been customized to look exactly like the one from home, just to keep her calm. And we have another newcomer joining us soon, so she'll have a little friend." Qolie gave her father a reassuring hand on his forearm. "Yeah, okay." he breathed, signing her enrollment papers. "Wonderful! I can already see her future! Come, darling." Qolie planted a kiss on her father's cheek. "Bye, Daddy,"

    ~...~

    Miles away lies Mt. Velgrin, the place of banishment for Voltaris, the minorities of the Ardoni species. The Royal family of the Voltaris have a terrible reputation. Ingressus Voltaris, King of the Voltarians was widely known for starting the Great War and committing a mass genocide of many different species of people. His son, Prince Tygren, although less bloody, is no different. He was raised to be a skilled fighter and the next Deathsinger. He was raised in a place with little amounts of food and clean water but high amounts of possible dangers. Tygren grew up with the mindset of 'eat or be eaten'. But by the time he turned twelve, his older brother, Lucidius raised concerns about his education. Ingressus was hesitant at first but since the second war was arising, he needed a reason to get his youngest son out of his hair. So, he sent Lucidius to get in contact with Headmistress Sara, who was happy to have him.

"Tygren is a little standoff-ish, but I think your personalities will balance out each other." when Qolie first saw Tygren, she was immediately interested. She had never seen someone like him before. "I'm Qolie," she said with a smile, sticking her hand out for Tygren to shake. Tygren furrowed his eyebrows before walking right past Qolie and scoffing to himself. Qolie already hated him. "Um. Rude." Headmistress Sara sighed. "Give him some time. He comes from an.... interesting background."

During their first class out in the main courtyard, Qolie found Tygren without trouble and sat by him. When she did, she was immediately creeped out by him staring at a knife he had on him, and staring at himself in the reflection. "How many people have you killed with that?" was the only thing Qolie could say. She instantly regretted it when she saw Tygren's garnet-red eyes staring at her with confusion. He turned away from her after staring at her for a long moment and shrugged. "Where's your mom?" Tygren froze. "Headmistress Sara keeps talking about how your dad's the Deathsinger and people should be careful around you, but I never hear anything about your mom." Tygren sighed. The deep red eyes that displayed so much judgment before were now somber and mournful. "My mother's dead." Qolie's eyebrows raised when she heard his voice. For a preteen boy, his voice sounded like he was a seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy. Then, his words kicked in. "I'm sorry," she said. One thing about Qolie, there will never be a day when she won't pry. "How?"
"Hm?"
"How'd she die?" Tygren inhaled sharply. He didn't trust Qolie, let alone tolerate her, but her bright disposition almost enchanted him to open up to her. To Tygren, Qolie was the weirdest person he'd ever met. "When I was young, Father started to teach me his way of things. One of them was punishing any woman who could have proven any of our stereotypes right. Apparently, my mother and lots of other women were too smart to be sane. So I was forced to execute her, so that would bring her more pain than death." Qolie was left gaping. What kind of Father would have his own wife killed? Before she could say anything else, a whistle blew, and the headmistress arrived. "Alright children! I know it's early but let's get the blood flowing!" she exclaimed. "Trinity, dear?" Headmistress Sara called for a young human girl with ebony-black hair that went down to her shoulders, fair, porcelain skin, hazel eyes, and a maroon uniform. "Yes, Headmistress?"
"Let's have you spar with the new girl, that might be fun." Qolie tsked. "Oh, no, I don't fight, my hair's too pretty." even though Qolie was dead serious, Tygren gave her another one of those judgemental looks, making her stand up. "Fine." fortunately for Qolie, it didn't last long. As soon as the whistle blew, like magic, Trinity immediately bested her, sending her back to the wall and straight to the nursing office to clean the blood from around her ankle. Surprisingly, Tygren followed her. "Go on," Qolie said. "I know you want to laugh."
    "It wasn't very funny, it was just embarrassing...for you." Qolie rolled her eyes. "Why are you here again?" she asked with a bit of venom in her voice. "You're the only one who speaks to me. This school is very boring." Qolie nodded. "Fair enough."

    ~...~

    On their way to their next class which was coincidentally the same class, Tygren and Qolie were approached by Trinity and her gang of friends. "Nice job, newbie." she chuckled. She was clearly trying to mock her instead of encouraging her. "Next time, you should bring your little red boy into the game," Tygren would not like being mocked any other day, but he was too focused on the patch that was on Trinity's blazer. 'NorthEastern Academy Magical Combat Team'. If the headmistress was trying to hide something, the name of her extracurriculars didn't help. "For what? For him to kick your ass? He's the son of the Deathsinger y'know?" Tygren snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Qolie bragging about him. Trinity rolled her eyes. "Then let's see how skilled he actually is tomorrow, then," Trinity threatened. "Fine." Qolie retorted. When Trinity and her friends walked away, Tygren was speechless. "What did you do?" he asked. "Set you up," Qolie shrugged. "Sorry." Tygren sighed. This was going to be a long ride.