“Hey, hey, where do you came from?”

“Let’s play Hiiro!”

“You are really pretty! And extra fluffy!”

“Your eyes are strange.”

“Hiiro will play with me!”

A group of kids grouped at my desk. They pushed each other and talk messy. A kid with citrus hair and a white horn decorated his head keep pulling my tail. His chocolate skin made a deep contrast with my pure white fur. I complained but it’s a futile effort. A girl with wavy hair and freckles at her face was touching my face shamelessly, she pulled and pressed on my cheeks. A brown headed boy with unnecessary loud voice keep shouting on top of his lung. My ears cries in pain. I want my privacy back.

I peeked at my right side. The little girl in twin tail had already long gone. When the teacher announced our short break, the children’s yelled happily for their attained short freedom, except my desk mate. She immediately stood up from her wooden chair and silently walk out from the class, leaving myself alone to be assaulted by the curious children.

“Ehm, sorry guys, need to go to the bathroom!”

With my lame excuse, I pushed them out and ran away from the crowd. Disappointed voice and groan could be heard from behind. My footstep rang out with each steps I took in the quiet corridor. After I put enough distance between me and them, I slowed down and stood still, sigh of relief came out from my mouth. Not even a day have past and I had already begun to regret it.

I raised my head and gazed at what laid outside of the window beside me. Greens and flower decorated the dirt, the back garden is desolated, except for the one girl sitting with her knees curled up and head stuck between them. It’s the blue haired girl. Her long straight hair tied in twin tail flowed down covering her face.

Is she crying?

I tilted my head. I agreed and came to the school is primary for the library and magic. Everything else came second. For these reasons, I will even bear with the nuisance that came with it. Trouble will be the last thing I want. But the girl reflected in my eyes had caught my interest.

I leaned to the window, my arm crossed and lie at the window sill. I was mulling around, wandering what choice should I make. I could call out to her, but doing that would mean brewing my own trouble. She is the subject of bullying after all. Getting close to her will bring enmity to me.

But fate have its own plan, before I could decide, the girl turned his head to the left. Her bright, light, sparkling blue eyes stared at me intently. I have been caught. My own odd eyes stared back at her too, I can faintly saw pearl of tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

Her big round eyes widened from shock. She sprang up from her position hastily, but it caused her to lose balance and tripped down to the dirt.

How clumsy

The corner of my mouth slightly turned up, amused by what was occurred in front of me. The girl groaned, she caress her pained back, her eyebrows frowned, tears grew bigger, threaten to roll down any minute.

I pushed down both my arm at the window sill and threw my body out of the window. My feet fell down to the ground soundlessly. I walk leisurely to the girl and stood in front of her.

“Are you alright?”

I raised my right arm with my hand pointed at her. She stared at my hand for a second, before she promptly ignored it. Using her own power, she raised her body up, face turned to the other side. She refused to look at me. And I can guess why though. Her ears is beet red, embarrassed by her clumsy dispaly earlier.

Silent prevailed between us. And it’s getting more awkward for me as time goes. The girl stubbornly refused to even take a glance at me, so I initiated the first conversation.

“Uhm, my name is Hiiro, if you haven’t heard about me before. Since we will be sitting together from now on, lets get along, what is your name?” I asked her.

She didn’t answer immediately, and I waited. After a while, she turned her head toward me and finally spoke. What came out from her mouth isn’t her name. But an ominous warning.

“..leave me alone, or you will regret it.”

Her face is serious, unfit for a child. She turned her body and walk away. I watched her retreating back, getting small and smaller, until she left my vision fully. I stood still alone in the garden. Thinking about what she just said. In the end, I shrugged my shoulder, no need to trouble myself in something I didn’t understand.

I too left the back garden, I jumped back to the corridor using the same window. Now, back to my real reason for leaving the classroom, and that was to find the library. The library was supposed to be located just beside the staff rooms. I wander aimlessly, sometime a few kids and teenager walk pass me. I asked and they pointed into the same direction. I jogged a little, can’t wait to see the library with my own eyes. More books means more knowledge. More knowledge means more question answered.

I finally arrived at the library. I stood in front of the door, raised my arm and my finger reached the doorknob. I pushed the door open, the scent of paper and ink waved through me. Nice. I blinked and looked around the library. Tables and chairs for study placed in every corner. Shelf upon shelf placed all over the place. Book filled up to the highest racks. Ladder placed beside the shelves.

This place felt like a maze. I closed the door behind me, walked around and inspecting every book that appeared in my vision. My arm raised, my fingers touching the shelf and books as I walked. The shelves made of ebony wood with simple carving engraved to the racks. The thick book with cover made of colored leather and wood seems to be in good condition. Whoever take care of this library must have loved these books.

I picked one that caught my eyes. The title inscribed at the cover is ‘The world of Nevaeh’. Perfect. Mira mostly collect story books and the class I attend teaches about the country in this continent. What I lack is something more fundamental and basic. Hopefully, this book will provide it. I crouched down to the ground and opened the book.

After twenty minutes or so, I finished the book I was holding in my hand. I closed the book and put it back to the shelf. My mind was swirling with new information. While I was mulling around, a loud sound woke me up from my thought. The door to the library had been slammed open. Noisy chattering entered the supposed silent and peaceful library. I carefully peeked from one of the shelf, my eyebrows immediately frowned.

A cat beastmen with his friends tailing behind him. His orange coloured tail flicked left and right, clearly annoyed. His friend keep talking to him, attempted to cheer him up, which proved useless with his worsening mood. He grabbed one of the chair in the library and sat down on it, his friends follow and gathered around him.

That guy… he is Elsoul isn’t it? How troublesome

Right now I’m stuck in this place. I hid behind a shelf, trying to avoid being discovered. They were gathering at the table near the window, which was the nearest table to the door. The library is rectangular, the door placed in the right corner of the room and Elsoul group gathered in the left. No obstacles stood in between them . If I ran toward the door, they would bound to notice me.

Wait, if I think about it, the one he hate is Sol, not me. I’m just an innocent passenger. And when he fight with Sol, he completely ignored me. He didn’t aim me nor take me as a hostage. So I should be safe right? I don’t need to hide myself like a hunted prey.

I tip toed, walked until I was one shelf away from the door. Even though I told myself not to be this anxious, I couldn’t help but to be careful for the noises I could have made. Now the moment of truth, silent but swiftly, my leg took me to the front of door, I raised my arm to the doorknob, that’s where I noticed something was amiss. The chattering was gone, replaced with dead silent.

“Hey you there, come here.” A voice called me from behind.

It seem that I couldn’t escape it after all. I slowly turned my head toward them and discovered that all the eyes in this room is focused on me. Elsoul beckoned me using his right hand. I could have just walk away and ignore them, but the consequence will be a pain to deal later. It’s better to follow his order for now. I squinted my eyes.

Lets see what he wanted from me.

I walked toward him, not too quick, not too slow, just leisurely. Each step bring me closer to him. I stopped, now in front of him, I stared straight at his feline eyes. Now I saw him up close, I can see his face clearly. Unexpectedly, he had a childish face unfit with his delinquent attitude. His orange fur is tabby patterned. His ears slightly twitched, he gazed at me before he opened his mouth.

“It was you right? The one who threw the stone and injured me.”

He squinted his eyes and stared at me from head to toe, judging me. I almost forgot that I was the one who made him lose that fight. Must be his lackey that told him. I guess he had a reason to pissed off by me now. I gulped and eyed on him warily, I put one foot behind, ready to run in any minute. He raised one of his eyebrow and put his arm on the table, leaned on it.

“You don’t have to be that cautious, I don’t have any intent to harm you or anything like that. I was just curious when they said that a kid injured me to that state.” He stared at me, interest could be seen in his eyes.

Aren’t you a kid as well?

I complained in my mind, but this situation wasn’t as bad as I think of. He seemed to be friendly enough, for now at least. He keep staring and looking at my face, which was a bit unnerving.

“You have a pair of strange colored eyes, I never saw an odd color like that on a beast kin. That kind of eyes were only normally seen on the fairy races.” Elsoul explained his curiosity to me.

“Fairy race? You have seen one before? I never saw one on the town.” I asked him.

“Hah! Of course you haven’t! The fairy race only lived at the Great Northern Forest, and they lived in seclusion, away from any civilization for thousand of years, almost no one will see a fairy for his whole live.” He scoffed at my lack of knowledge. His friend smirked and laughed beside him.

“Almost?” I asked him again, since he is unexpectedly talkative, I should wring out information from him as much as I can. He smirked, as if waiting for this question. He straighten his body and puffed his chest proudly.

“Yes, the only person who have saw the fairies for the last one hundred of year, people call him the greatest adventurer in the last century, the Lion of Tvora, the elder of the town of Eschaton, my father, Ember Ashenbelt!” He said it in one mouthful of breath, clearly proud of his father achievement.

“Yeah, Elsoul father is amazing! I heard that he obliterated a basilisk with a punch!” Lackey A suddenly joined in the conversation with fervor.

“No, no, I heard that he fought on par with Everlast of black from Nvill Valley!!” Lackey B too joined the chatter.

“No way! That’s so freaking cool!” Lackey C shouted in excitement.

“Ha! What you heard is only just a drop of it, listen well, my father…” Elsoul too, excitedly told his father stories to them.

The previous tension had long gone, replaced with excitement and fervor. They keep talking about the elder adventure and his achievement in the world. They are like a group of fan boy idolizing about their hero, which is sort of true.

Honestly, I was surprised by the elder popularity and he was stronger than I imagined. He seem to be an adventurer before he took over the elder position. And his achievement as an adventure was so amazing that his name was well known in the whole continent.

A person like him gave me an unidentified, expensive looking necklace. For what reason? My image about the elder is getting more mysterious as time goes. And letting them know that their hero have given me one of his belonging will be bad.

Lets keep this as secret, as I thought about it, I slightly griped the mysterious necklace in my pocket. I raised my head to look at them and they were still talking about the elder nonstop, they keep pulling me in their conversation, making me unable to find a chance to leave this place. I can only made a wry smile to their obsession to the elder. Their noisy chattering and shouting made my head hurt. I raised my head up again, looking at the ceiling, I sighed.

God, i just want to leave already.