Evidently, Val’s attempt at using Keep the Peace over Gina had utterly failed. Now, she needed to retrieve her textbook from Foofy’s kennel. Rather than continuing to waste her efforts on Gina, Val redirected her calming energy to radiate towards Foofy.

“Are you really going to get that?” Gina asked, regarding the book.

In a lower voice, Melaney repeated with more concern to Gina. “Is she actually going to do that? What if the dog attacks her like it had tried to attack you? This might be going too far.”

More than a lost textbook, this prank could result in real, physical harm in their eyes. The bullies thought Val to be too bold for her own good. To be fair, Val would feel terrified for any mortal who tried to climb a fence into a dog’s kennel, especially a dog naturally bred for protection like a Doberman Pinscher. In her case, the difference was her possession of divine blood, her ability to calm aggressive animals, and the power of friendship.

“Don’t worry,” Gina called up to her. “We can stay here to call for help when that mongrel bites you!”

At the top of the fence, Val swung her legs over and began to ease herself down. Once she had climbed down low enough, she simply let go and allowed herself drop down beside Foofy. “Hi there, Foofy,” Val said, patting him on the head.

Foofy wiggled around and wagged his tail in greeting. Happy paws leaped from the ground, prancing all around Val. His snout nuzzled into her pocket with the carrots, able to smell those same treats that she had given him the other day. Foofy’s adorableness made Val smile and posed quite the challenge to resist giving him a carrot immediately.

“What?” Gina drawled out in angered shock. Apparently, she was more than a mindless bully. Gina was cruel enough to feel outraged in the event that Val was not attacked by a dog.

At any rate, Val retrieved her textbook calmly. Before she set to climbing the fence with the book shoved beneath the crook of her arm, she flicked Foofy his baby carrot.

He munched away on it and watched Val go. His ears seemed to twist back in a little sadness at her leaving.

Val tapped back onto the sidewalk in front of Gina, Melaney, and the extra stand-in that they had recruited. She walked closer to stand immediately across from Gina. A rather smug smile could be felt climbing onto her own face.

“You really have some nerve!” Gina shouted.

So what if Val could climb a fence and visit her good buddy, Foofy? Why did Gina have to get so worked up about this?

A flat hand swung for her face, fast enough that even with her enhanced strength and reflexes, Val could do nothing to block her. Gina’s palm hit across her face, striking her with full force.

Dog barking rang around in her ears. Her hold over Foofy had broken all at once upon the hand striking her cheek.

Val’s face swung one way. Her top teeth slipped into her lip from surprise. Normally, if a mortal tried to strike her, Val could laugh in their face as they tried and failed to make her budge. How in the world could Gina strike so hard?

Something unnatural must be at work for Gina to make Val’s head swing around from a hit. Either Gina must use an ungodly amount of steroids, or she must have a trickle of divine blood, herself.

Val straightened her posture and made herself stare into Gina’s eyes. Only now, did she notice an oozing warmth on the surface of her bottom lip. Curse Suvier’s name! Her lip had just split open and exposed her golden blood.

“You have divine blood too?” Gina asked.

“Too?” Val repeated, hurrying to press a hand over her bleeding lip.

Likewise, Gina clapped a hand over her mouth at the slip of her tongue. “I—I….” Whatever she stammered to say to explain herself, Val would never know. Gina turned heel and ran away.

The other two young women were left standing there. They turned to one another, blinking at each other.

“Sorry, Val,” the unnamed girl cried first.

“Yeah, we’re really sorry,” Melaney whined.

Before they could incur any sort of reprimand or worse punishment as they likely feared, the duo dashed away after their leader.

With a sigh, Val tilted her head back to the sky. So much for her volunteering at the animal shelter after school. Her bloody lip just had to interfere with her plans for today.

Worst of all, multiple people had learned of her divine blood. Not just any people, but the people who had found out just had to hate her. Val groaned, but there would be nothing that she could do about that right now.

On top of it all, Val did not even know how she should take care of the issue. Others gaining knowledge about her divine blood could put her in grave danger. Never before had Val found herself in this situation, only having had her mother and her brother Ross know about her true nature. For now, Val figured that she should still focus her time after school on training her power, which entailed spending time with the dogs.

First, her lip would need to stop bleeding before she could appear in front of the mortal shelter worker. In the meantime, Val still intended to dedicate her time to the dogs. In fact, she would spend time with none other than her favorite dog.

Val sat along the fence where Foofy laid down beside her, sniffing and whining in her face.

“I know,” Val said. “This is why you were so smart not to like those other girls from the start. They made you have to wait for your walk today.” Being familiar with her Foofy, Val stuck her fingers through the fence to rub him on his Dobie nose.

To receive better pets, Foofy shoved his face up against the fence where he preferred to be stroked on the cheek. For now, Val petted him like this until her golden blood would cease to flow from her lip.

Character Update

* New information is marked in cyan.

* All entries are based on what Val knows.

Gina Title: None Rank: Demigoddess Attributes: None Abilities Name Class Description

Unknown

n/a

- entirely a mystery