Etherno: Rise of the Dragongirl

Chapter 4: Bandits? In MY City? (It's More Likely Than You Think)

Kasai looked up. "Yours developed early, too?"

"Yeah, when I was about ten. Suddenly, everyone was afraid of me, and all the other kids made fun of me constantly. Got called freak, weirdo, demon-spawn, you know all the names."

Kasai nodded. She'd probably been called all the same things.

"My parents weren't stupid like the rest though. They pulled me out of school, taught me at home, and I got accepted to college a year early. Well, enough about me." Onin stood and held out a hand. "We should go and report in to Professor Jekao."

Kasai took his hand long enough to stand. They walked back to the admin offices in a companionable silence.

***

Professor Jekao pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned forward in his office chair.

"So, what you're telling me, is that you successfully engaged the people we're after, every one of them got away, and you didn't learn anything?"

"Um, that's not quite true." Onin shifted in his chair. "We learned they appear to be organized, they might be targeting Kasai, and some weird giftling with multiple powers appears to be leading them."

"Uh, I thought a person could only have one gift?" Tannin said.

"She said she was cheating, you moron." Cerina blew out her breath in a huff. "Don't you pay attention to anything?"

"The only thing that helps with right now is that we have to be very careful." Professor Jekao looked at each of them in turn. "As far as we know, a person only has one gift. So we need to be extremely cautious until we figure out what's going on. I've notified the police about what you've learned tonight. Right now, they want us to lay low while they investigate and see if they can't find out anything about the unknown giftling. Stay inside while possible and don't go out alone." He stood and walked around the desk to stand directly in front of Tannin. "If I hear ANY rumors about this, you all will be back in this office, and I might even haul you down to the police station."

Professor Jekao leaned forward until he was inches from Tannin's face. "Understood?"

"Yes, Professor." Onin stood and left before Tannin gave some smart-aleck answer that would get him in trouble—again.

***

There were no incidents on campus over the next few days. Onin poked his spoon into his oatmeal. He almost wished something would happen, for a few reasons. One, he was worried about the other students. Kids like Tannin, Kasai, and even Cerina could take care of themselves. Some people thought all giftlings were like that, but Zinako? She couldn't fight. Well, not unless she got really lucky with where a sneeze was aimed.

On a more personal level, if something happened, he'd have a legitimate excuse to miss the humanities test coming up. That would be nice.

The clinking of silverware interrupted his train of thought. He looked up to see Kasai sitting across from him. She actually seemed to be enjoying the oatmeal. He made a face.

"Am I disturbing you?" she asked.

"Oh, no, not at all—"

The bench creaked as Tannin flopped down onto it. "How can you eat that stuff?"

She shrugged. "It's not that bad."

"I don't know." Onin wrinkled his nose. "I'm gonna have to agree with Tannin on this one. Today's batch is bad even for university oatmeal."

Kasai's brow creased as she took another bite. She took her time chewing. "No, it's okay."

Onin and Tannin exchanged looks.