Marked [postponed]

Chapter Eight

"GOOD MORNING SAGE!" Petra yelled in my ear, making me scream out of surprise.
"Ugh... Five more minutes..." I groaned, putting the fires over my head. I began to drift off to sleep, feeling nice and warm under the blankets. I soon realized that the reason why I was so warm was because my bedsheets were on fire. I screamed again, pushing the flaming blankets off of the bed. I abruptly woke up, awaking to my roommates' snickers.

"That look isn't scaring me." Petra laughed.
"Your eye isn't intimidating."
"Don't you mean eyes?" I asked.
"No. Eye."
I ran to the one mirror in the room, and looked in it, to find that one of my eyes was missing. All that was left was a hole of emptiness, where my eye used to me. I screamed, as I stuck my finger in where my eye used to be.
"Welcome to the club." Petra remarked. I sulked, still surprised and upset that I only had one eye now.
"Hey, don't worry about it too much. On the mortal world, you have what's called a human form. It helps you blend in with humans. It's your purest form; your human form basically makes you as beautiful as you can get. You could either get lucky, and be gorgeous, or you can have an ass of a face." Petra explained.
"That's pretty cool." I answered.

"I, for one, am pretty hot on the mortal world." Petra grinned, playing with her hair.
"Sure." I replied with sarcasm, laughing. She punched me in the stomach, making me wheeze. I quickly regained my breath, still laughing a bit.
"Fuck. You." She groaned. I smiled, then looked at my eye in the mirror once again.
"You're so mean to me, you know that?" I asked with a whiny voice, like a five year old.
"You know you started it. It wouldn't kill you to be nice once in a while."
"You are pretty." I quickly hushed myself, for that remark just slipped out of my mouth. I felt my face get hot, for I wish i could take back what I said. She just smiled, and slapped me. It appeared her cheeks were a light tint of pink, but I wasn't quite sure. Zora and Matt giggled a slight bit after I was slapped, probably at how stupid I am.

"Hey, so tomorrow is the first day of school for you, Sage." Petra changed the subject.
"It is?" I asked out of surprise.
"Yup. So you should probably pick a fight with someone, and make a few more friends, so you'll feel more confident on your first day."
"Alright."
"And towards the end of the day, I'll give you a quick lesson in sword fighting." Petra suggested. I nodded, taking her up on the offer."
"Alright Sage. Get out there." She smiled.

<><><>

"Alright. So to pick a fight with someone, all you have to really do is ask. Sometimes there's no particular reason for a fight; sometimes the demons here are just trying to have fun or get tougher. But be careful who you pick a fight with, because some of the demons here can hurt you so much you'd wish you're in heaven." Zora explained, eyeing some of the demons, probably trying to find me an opponent.
"So let me get this straight. You can just ask?" I asked.
"Yup. It's that easy." She smiled. "Now, get out of there bud!" She yelled, pushing me and flying away.

I looked around to find an easy target. Well, not an EASY one, but at least one that's my size. I looked around, searching for someone that I could win against. There were a group of what looked to be like trolls. Nope, not them. There was a woman that appeared to have serpents attached to her head like medusa. Definitely NOT her. There was a group of demons who were ripping off another demons' wings, making the victim yell in agony. Not them either.

"Hey! You there! Wanna fight me?" A voice behind me asked. I turned around, to see a guy around my age. Maybe a year younger.
"Sure." I replied, trying to hold back my fear. We backed up from each other, and prepared ourselves to fight. I wasn't sure how good he was; who knows? He could be a ninja, that just so happens to be an inch shorter than me. The little bit of height, for some reason, gave me the tiniest bit more of confidence.

He smiled at me, then charged at full speed at me. Before I had time to think about how I was going to react, I dodged him at the very last second. My claws grew out, and my wings expanded from the back of my shoulders. I took flight, but not too high off the ground. He grew his wings out along with me, although his seemed to be miniature compared to mine. He floated two feet above the ground, and then charged at me, not giving me enough time to react. I braced myself for the impact of him charging full force at me. But for some reason, he didn't hit me. Instead, a red, sphere-shaped barrier formed for a split second, sending him flying when he hit it. I marveled at the power I didn't even know I had.

He slowly picked himself off of the ground, his arms shaking as he did so. I didn't exactly know why I did this, but I looked at my hands for a second. Somehow, hand-sized fireballs floated in the palms of my hands. My jaw dropped, looking at what I had just created without any effort at all. I launched the two fire balls at the guy, and the area in which he was in was engulfed in smoke.

I waited for a moment, trying to see how the guy was holding up. It took a few seconds for the smoke to clear, for me to see the guy motionless on the ground. I smiled a slight bit.

My first victory.

I floated to the ground next to him, and helped him slowly get up. He groaned in pain, holding his hands over the wound created by the fireballs. The fireballs appeared to have hit him in the same exact spot, which probably didn't feel the best.
"Are... Are you ok?" I asked, making sure I gave him enough support so that he wouldn't fall.
"Y-yeah. I'm fine." He replied. He stepped away from me, seeing to shake off the pain. He stuck out his hand, smiling.
"The name's Carter." He grinned, acting as if we didn't just fight. "You have some amazing power dude."
"Th-thanks. I'm sorry about hurting you."
"No! Don't apologize! You are fuckin' tough." Carter complimented. "You are now my rival, you... Uhh... What's your name?"
"Sage."
"Alright Sage. Prepare to lose next time." He answered, as I shook his hand. He walked away slowly, and was greeted by a couple of his friends.

Let's hope he doesn't kill me next time.