Chapter 9

Yaeth and Raiel looked from the woman to each other and back without saying anything. Yaeth wanted to cry.

“Wait, wait! Have you met this guy?” he exclaimed and gestured wildly in Raiel’s direction with both hands, as if to emphasize just how crazy he thought she was being. “I can’t live in the same room as him!”

She kept her smile, but still frowned in confusion. “Mr. Baran, I’m sorry that you feel that way, but there’s not much I can do.” she said apologetically. “You know it’s not up to me to make these decisions. Why don’t you give it a chance before you complain?” she said more strictly.

“I am sorry for his outburst, Raiel.” She turned to him and looked him in the eyes. “I’m sure you will become great friends in time.” she beamed.

“I hope so.” he replied with a half-smile, which didn’t seem to reach his eyes. He hadn’t expected his guide to despise the idea of living together with him quite so vehemently. It put a damper on his otherwise exuberant mood, and he found himself wishing the situation would allow him to leave and be alone, at least for a little while. Despite the run-in with those three aggressive humans, he had still been looking forward to starting his new life here, and to have a chance at redeeming himself and win back the pup, so to speak.

The woman saw his expression and pursed her mouth in empathy for the newly arrived boy. She didn’t know what to say to him, and he seemed down, looking at his feet and nowhere else. She rose from the chair in which she had been sitting and approached the pair.

“My name is Hacy Ponderbeech and among my various jobs here, I man this office for the fifth wing. Sometimes, I teach a few classes, as well. Maybe I’ll see you in class?” She winked at him and clapped him encouragingly on the shoulder. “If ever you have questions about your time here, come find me.”

“Thank you, Miss Hacy.” Raiel said, nodding his head in appreciation.

“Anytime. Now, I have a few documents for you to sign. Just put your name on the line here, here, and here.” she said, directing his attention to several papers on her desk, showing him where to sign with a finger. She handed him the heavy pen she’d used before and pulled a chair over to the table for him to sit in.

Raiel took a seat and tried to read through the documents, but quickly realized that he didn’t understand more than half the words on the paper. He did his best to hide the embarrassment he felt at his lack of a proper vocabulary by skimming over the texts again and again, as if studying it closely and with scrutiny.

Sure, he had managed to learn to speak the language fairly quickly, but in the cell, he’d had his meditation to aid him and more time than he knew what to do with. Most of which he had spent practicing and listening. Still, what little he actually knew felt like the bare minimum required in order to function properly in society. He’d never expected, even with what he Tali had put him through, that the civilized world could be quite this…complicated.

There were many crucial decisions to make, and they were made twice as scary being just a boy, who didn’t fit in, didn’t have anyone to really support him, and who felt like half of what went on around him went right over his head.

Raiel glanced at the document, then looked at Hacy. “What does writing my name here mean?”

“It’s to confirm that you know what you’re going into, and that you accept the responsibilities that follow.”

“Why is it not his mom or dad signing it?” Yaeth interjected and walked over to stand behind Raiel’s chair.

Hacy spoke quietly. “I’ve been told that your parents have passed away, Raiel. I’m very sorry to hear it. But that’s why, since there isn’t a proper guardian, you’re actually eligible to sign it yourself. Moreover, Headmaster Sighart Draal has personally vouched for you, for some reason.” she explained. Yaeth looked at the floor, mentally hitting himself for not realizing such an obvious fact from their earlier conversation, and for bringing it up so bluntly. That also conveniently explained why Clavic and his two twin terrors had chosen him as their latest victim.

Hacy pulled over another chair and sat next to Raiel. “Is there anything you would like me to explain to you? Anything you don’t understand?” she said soothingly, skimming the text in front of him.

He pondered on it for a moment, before realizing that he only really had one question. Anything else on that paper was unimportant compared to his goal in the first place.

“What will I do here?” he asked flatly.

“Why, you’ll be studying, of course. Like any other student, you will be required to take a variety of basic courses, like language, math, and history. In addition to those subjects, you may take other classes, as well. This could be anything from craftsmanship to dancing to politics to war strategy. We pride ourselves on offering education for every interest.” she explained energetically, seeming to have done it many times before. “As you get older, or show adequate ability in one of the required subjects, you may be allowed to graduate from that subject and focus on something else.”

She paused, and her eyes wandered to the ceiling as she seemed to be thinking about her next words. “Your case is a bit unusual, however. Normally, the parents, or the student’s guardian, will pay the reasonable tuition fee. Seeing as you have neither, a special arrangement has been made.”

She paused again to think. “In place of tuition, you will be asked to work around the campus. Helping out where you’re needed.” she finished.

“What work?” he asked curiously.

“It could be anything, really.” she answered. “There are numerous tasks to be done in a place as large as this.”

“Seems fair, I guess.” He took the pen and found his hand shaking. He’d never actually written anything before. They hadn’t allowed him to have pens in the cell, and as such, he’d never had the chance. What if he couldn’t form the letters properly? He put the point of the pen against the line on the document where he was supposed to write his name and hesitated. Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t even sure how to spell his name. It sounded like a complicated one.

Seeing Hacy and Yaeth looking at him expectantly, he just started scribbling the first letter, ‘R’. Questionable success. ‘A’, Moderate success. The two first letters were obvious from the pronunciation, but should the next be and ‘E’ or an ‘I’? The ‘E’ should definitely be in there somewhere, but whether there should be an ‘I’, as well, was not clear. He decided to just put in the ‘I’, then the ‘E’ and ‘L’. Yes, this was how it should be. Maybe it wasn’t beautifully written, but at least it was readable. He would have to start practicing his writing in earnest.

He signed the remaining documents with the same spelling, and handed them to Hacy, who checked that everything was as it should be. She smiled and handed him a small key.

“This is for your room. It’s the same key as Mr. Baran’s. Remember to lock your room, when you leave.”

Yaeth dutifully brought him to their shared room, their own small, personal territory in another one of the humongous buildings. Humans really seemed to love their hallways for their efficient use of space. The apartment building was located on the edge of campus, green and beautiful forest almost hugging the single window in the room. This looked like a place, where Raiel could get used to living. Now, it felt like his new home was right next to his old one. A good combination of nature and civilization,

Here, he would be able to retreat into familiar surroundings when human society became too much to handle. That fact contributed to further calming him about his new existence.

The room was essentially split into two identical sides. Each side had a comfortable-looking bed with a solid wood frame against the wall. Next to the bed was a small closet for clothes and other belongings. In the middle was a nice table with a few books, pieces of paper, and a couple of pens on top. The right bed was clearly occupied, evident by the countless clothes strewn about on the floor around the bed and the unmade duvet and pillow. A dirty sock and a pair of underwear were even lying halfway under Raiel’s new bed.

Raiel pulled a face at the sour smell in the stuffy room. He laid in the bed and found it quite to his liking. Compared to the cot in the cell, it felt like heaven. It wasn’t as soft as the hospital bed, but he actually preferred it that way, since he didn’t like sinking into the mattress. The inside of the closet was divided by several shelves on one side, and a larger space with half a dozen coat hangers. On one of the shelves was a single fresh towel and fresh bedcovers.

He looked around, and although the entire room was only about the size of his cell, he liked that it wasn’t too big. It felt safer.

Raiel stood up and worked the hatches on the window and opened it to a gentle breeze. It flowed into his hair and caressed his face, bringing with it a fresh scent of earth and grass. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the moment, lost in thought.

Behind him, Yaeth observed him in silence, wondering just what sort of complications this odd and mysterious boy would bring into his otherwise normal life. Despite his fervent denial, he knew there wasn’t much to be done about the decisions made by the school, especially if the Headmaster was involved personally. This boy, who seemed to have a severe lack of common sense and seemed to be strangely ignorant of even the most ordinary things was, to say the least, unpredictable. Yaeth sighed in exasperation and shook his head, wondering how this could ever go well. He resigned himself to his fate, and decided to try to adopt a more positive attitude towards the whole affair, lest he’d simply degrade into a grumpy old man. But he wouldn’t like it.

Raiel climbed onto the table placed under the window, so he could lean out of the window and look down. Their room was quite a distance above the ground, five stories up, to be precise. Below was a narrow garden path of cobblestone, which disappeared behind the building on each side. The branches of the adjacent trees weaved in the wind, casting flowing shadows on the wall, and gave Raiel a sudden idea.

Yaeth’s eyebrows shot up when he saw Raiel climbing up into a kneeling position on the windowsill.

“Wh-wh-what are you—,” was all Yaeth managed to stutter before Raiel, with an ecstatic and mischievous grin, leapt from the narrow platform, eliciting a frightened gasp from the stunned boy. Yaeth stood completely frozen as his troublesome new roommate soared through the air. He was certain that this would be the swift end to a newfangled relationship.

Raiel laughed gleefully, grasping the tree branch with both hands and swinging back and forth, letting the momentum fade. Once he hung still in his arms, he swung his leg around the branch he was holding onto and heaved himself up into a squat, comfortable with the gentle swaying of the small and uneven perch. He looked back towards the window and beckoned Yaeth to follow him.

“Come on! Did you know you could take this way down?” he called excitedly. “It’s much faster!”

Yaeth was at a loss for words after seeing the other boy acting so casually after pulling such a daring stunt.

“That’s…crazy!” Yaeth exclaimed, “Why the hell would you do something so utterly stupid?!” He caught himself yelling loudly out of the window, causing a pair of students strolling on the lawn below to turn and look up at him, while overlooking his beaming friend in the tree completely. His face reddened and he retreated a bit from their puzzled glances.

“Get back here! You’re going to get yourself killed doing that!” Yaeth hissed angrily.

“Wait a second. I’m just going to find the best way down first.”

Raiel started crawling along the branch with practiced ease, until he reached the trunk. He glanced around the trunk for the best path down and tested different branches on the way towards solid ground. When he landed at the base of the tree, he saw Yaeth still observing him from their open window.

“Alright, I found it. I’m coming back up!” he yelled.

“Just get back here!”

Raiel stepped back a little to get a running start and rushed forward, planting a foot on the trunk, launching himself upwards and clutching the trunk as he felt energy rush into his limbs, strengthening them. He climbed the last distance to the first few branches and hauled himself up. He swiftly ascended the wooden giant and made his way onto the branch that led to their room.

He made the jump easily, and Yaeth couldn’t help but gasp for about the tenth time in the last three minutes.

Raiel came through the window with a smile on his face, which faltered somewhat when he saw Yaeth’s furious expression.

“What the hell, man?” Yaeth yelled.

Raiel gave him a perplexed look. He’d just found a much faster and more effective method of accessing their small abode, and the first thing his roommate thought to do was complain.

“You could have fallen and died!” Yaeth continued.

“But…I wasn’t going to fall.” Raiel clarified.

“That’s not the point!” Yaeth fumed. “I don’t want to see you die, you know.” he shook slightly as he breathed deeply to calm himself.

“I’m sorry.” Raiel said sincerely. “I didn’t know it would bother you so much.” he mumbled, eyes downcast.

Yaeth stared at him, as if looking for the words to express what he was thinking. “Whatever.” he sighed and closed his eyes as he let himself fall spread eagle backwards onto his untidy bed.

“You have dirty hands.”

“What?” Yaeth raised his head to look at Raiel, who remained standing by the window.

“Your hands and fingers – they have dirt on them. Under your nails, too. Not many of your kind have dirty hands, if you can help it, I’ve noticed.” Raiel elaborated.

“My kind?” Yaeth frowned. “For the record, I was out collecting herbs for my botany homework, when I saw you getting beat up.” He pulled a cloth sack out of the backpack he’d been carried around, and opened it to show Raiel the variety of plants, roots, and mushrooms he’d gathered in the forest. “It’s a part of my woodcraft class.” he explained.

“Woodcraft class? What’s that?” Raiel perked up at the mention of something he could guess the meaning of.

“We’re taught how to survive on our own in the wild. How to set up and maintain a camp, foraging for food, evasion and tracking of wild animals, building a durable and waterproof shelter. That kind of thing.” Yaeth explained.

That sounded interesting. Perhaps he could learn a few important lessons if he studied alternative methods of surviving in the woods. One of the things he had realized since coming into contact with civilization was, that the more perspectives you had on a subject, the more you could reflect on it, and through that, improve your own perspective. He knew that the way he had lived his life so far was nothing short of primitive. Things like a camp, or even a shelter, were never something Raiel had thought of building. The subject of his thoughts had usually gone no further than his next meal and how to acquire it. In hindsight, and with the knowledge he now possessed, such a primitive life seemed so... inadequate and incomplete. With the way everything was going for him, it wasn’t that unlikely, that he would end up alone in the forest again at some point. People didn’t appreciate someone who stuck out.

So why not take the chance when it presented itself, and learn everything he could to prepare himself for his eventual return to the wild?

“Can I take that class, too?” he asked eagerly. Eyes practically glowing with excitement.

Yaeth paused, mouth slightly open, when he realized that he’d just given Raiel the idea to attend the same class as he did. He’d loved camping since his early childhood when he’d gone with his father and older brother for a week at a time when his father had been on leave from work. He enjoyed the class, and couldn’t wait to get home to his father and brother and show them all he’d learned there. Now he was afraid that Raiel’s odd and over-the-top behavior would ruin the experience and make Yaeth unpopular among his peers for being the new weirdo’s roommate. And yet, Yaeth couldn’t help but feel bad for thinking such egotistical thought.

“Yes… I suppose you could.” he said with hesitation.

“That sounds amazing! Thank you!” Raiel exclaimed with a grin.

He grabbed his backpack and pulled it open. Laying his two books neatly stacked on the table, Raiel ran his hands over the surface of the notebook Komren had commissioned for his son, Argir. With his own reasons for attending the College and enduring the harsh treatment he was sometimes the subject of, he wondered why Komren had not sought to retrieve his son from wherever he had been taken. Raiel couldn’t think of any length he would not go to, to get his wolf back. He would have gone after her himself by now, if he thought that would be the best solution.

He looked to Yaeth, who sat on his bed. “Hey, do you have any more of those cream puffs?” Raiel asked.

“Uuh, yes.”

“Let’s eat them.” Raiel smiled as he dug through Yaeth’s pack. He handed a cream puff to a stunned Yaeth as he started on his own.

Raiel smiled through the pastry and thought of the near future where he’d be reunited with his pup.