Another end of the school day, the children and teenagers swelled the building with their sighs and giggles. They had again, endured the torment of their classes. As for the fourth graders, they remained in the classroom.

Writing an endless river of words on the chalkboard, Ms. Laozina lectured about the recent history of the village. Strands of white hair fell out of her scalp as she staggered her steps, her bones creaked and squeaked. Gloss sparkled her large lips, and the teacher rubbed it with the back of her hand. Wearing a belt, she wore a black dress that reached to her shins, and in modesty that the dress concealed her entire body, it revealed nothing but her hands, collarbone, and neck.

Ms. Laozina then faced her pupils. She scratched her head.

“Okay class, you must understand this time period that is presented on the chalkboard. Yes yes, we have gone over it a million times. Ozughen was a radicalist Lama that wanted to implement a lot of crazy reforms in the village. He garnered the support of the Ganshipe family, who bribed him with a mountain of gold so that he could keep himself in power, so that he would legalize witchcraft, prostitution, gambling, et cetera.” The teacher began to look around the room, her lips tingling and her chest puffing. She tapped her right foot, to which the students rattled their chairs. They stared dead center at the chalkboard, begging to the clock to run its course.

Zeroing in on a certain child, Ms. Laozina snapped her fingers. “Ah! Neha! Do you mind telling the class of what we have just covered for today? I’m sure you know it quite well.”

“Um, uh!”

Neha stood up. With her mind going blank, she sweated and jittered. Ms. Laozina hacked a cough, and the girl almost jumped to the ceiling, which might have been terrible to look at. She was now in the spotlight; then here, the students questioned and sympathized their classmate. A few of them offered to answer on her behalf. Though Neha felt that it was her responsibility to reply right away, incomprehensible thoughts flooded her head, and she was unable to find the correct words. As her spotlight brightened, the teacher hawked at her and frown. In hopes of somehow escaping the situation, Neha looked at the door. One foot forward and she could run.

Next to her, Sachen slammed her hands and raised herself from her chair. The kids drew their attention and gasped. Sachen smirked, she borrowed the spotlight from her friend.

“Um teacher, I have the answer! We have learned in class today, about the absurdity and uselessness of education!”

“My words Sachen! I did not call upon you-”

“Let me finish! As far as I can tell you, much to my knowledge, the education system of this village needs a reform; the teachers are brutally slaughtering us with their boring stream of information and random facts, so that they can teach us for the exams. What is the use of learning in such manner, when in the end, we won’t even learn anything?! We are kids after all, we need to thrive and live as children, instead of having people like you confining us to a lifeless, dull environment eight hours a day! Happiness is more important to us than just mere numbers! So give us recess all day, and cook some good-quality food! White-haired hags you all are, I’d rather have a dragon control this school as principal!”

The students proceeded to cackle and cry their eyes out. Sachen maintained her smirk, she gave that answer supposedly with something else in mind. Even with that, the kids could not fathom her ramble, it seemed more spurious than true.

“What in God’s name are you blabbering about?” Ms. Laozina asked. She returned herself to Neha, who was snickering. Her jitters vanished, the crimson of her face paled. She felt light as a feather.

Neha patted her chest. She stiffened her neck and arms.

“Ms. Laozina, I should answer your question right away. What we have learned in class today is the revolt of Ozughen’s administration instigated by the glorious revolutionaries. Two years before Yebuka’s rule, Ozughen was controlling our village with malpractice and dishonesty. He was so bad that he caused a famine and an economic downturn. In response, Yebuka and his companions molded a desire to overthrow the administration; they waged war against Ozughen, to which they were successful. They kicked the radical and his posse out of the village, and Yebuka claimed the right to rule as the 28th Lama.”

“Splendid Neha! Splendid!” Along with the teacher, the students gave kudos. Neha coiled a smile, and she sat down.

“That is indeed, glorious and more so remarkable, that the current Lama was able to defeat the devils, and was able to drive them out! Oh goodness, time is up! Class is over kids, have a good day.”

The teacher wiped the contents off the chalkboard. When she withdrew to the corner where her desk was, the students packed up and left the classroom. The lesson they learned today was nothing new, as the teacher taught this one day a week. To them, the war against the 27th Lama was nothing more than a fleeting memory. Based on what happened to them, their mothers locked them in their houses to prevent them from escaping and their fathers joined in the fight for the cause. After the event, the parents did not talk much about it, they seemed too scared to give out the details, which made the students clueless for a while.

Tailing their classmates, Neha and Sachen rallied in the hallways. Due to the kids congesting every part of the area, the chaos almost washed the two girls to the side. By their strengths, they reached the front door and went outside. As they took themselves to the flagpole area, Sachen sprang in front of her buddy.

“That was a great answer you gave,” Sachen said. “I don’t have enough brain capacity to absorb everything the teacher was lecturing about throughout the day.”

Neha exhaled. “You should start paying attention more. I wonder why you’d give such an irrelevant answer at the classroom when the teacher asked us a question about history.”

“I was trying to pump up the atmosphere! No, the real reason was that I wanted you to loosen up. Every time Ms. Laozina call upon you, you’d get so nervous. That’s why I shouted something dumb, so that you could laugh a little bit.”

“Y-you didn’t have to do that.”

“I had to, there was no choice. I did it anyway in order to waste time. You should thank me though.” Sachen grinned, she crossed her arms and placed them at the back of her head. “Say Neha.”

“What is it?”

Before she could answer, Sachen shook her head and took off to the flagpole. Neha trailed her. With the slightest jerks from her legs, Sachen twitched her eyes and growled. It baffled Neha, it must have been that her friend was readying herself to pounce on anybody in sight. Neha pulled her sleeves, trying to stop her. Still, Sachen continued. There was no telling of what she wanted to do.

***

The daily ceremony was over. During the duration of the event, Sachen’s eyes held an accumulation of pollen and dust and stood still as a statue. For the whole time, Neha constantly nudged at her friend, trying to get her back to normal; but as it was so, Sachen left herself silent. Afterwards, their peers left the school, and the girls passed through the gates. Upon the streets, they bisected numerous villagers. Neha then caught up to her friend; the next thing she knew it, the duo arrived at the northern district.

All the sudden, Sachen relaxed herself. A long sigh from her, she tapped Neha.

“What’s the matter?” Neha asked. “Something is bothering you?”

“Yeah...” Sachen gazed at her feet. She wrapped her hand around her chin. “It’s just that Kuraizang has not been here for a while.”

“He’s on a spiritual mission right? Are you concerned about him?”

“Kind of. It’s only that since the service, we have heard nothing of Kuraizang. I’m starting to feel really suspicious. It must be that the teachers and clergymen are ordering him to do something out of his own conduct.”

“How can you think that? I mean, the High Order likes him for his determination and for his efforts in being part of the Young Guards; so of course they wouldn’t make him do bad things. Yebuka and the others are good-hearted, there’s no way otherwise.”

Sachen began to brood on it. Walking around in circles and ignoring the pushing of the villagers, she delved deeply on this matter. The more she did, the more uncertain she felt. As of now, her classmates gave no mentions of Kuraizang and his current circumstances, and in fact, nobody in the entire school shredded a single concern about him. To realize the apathy around her, she came to decide that she needed to respond to the problem. But where could she start from here? What did she have to do? In square one did she maroon herself with a lack of ideas.

Something flicked her nerves. Sachen clutched onto Neha as to not let her slip away. Her mouth gaping, she showed her teeth.

“I have something in mind!”

“H-huh? You do?”

“Yep! As of this time, with my plan, we are going to find Kuraizang. We must retrieve him as soon as possible, before the bad guys will eat him alive! We are going to get a rope, so that it will be easier to stow him back to the village; that way, he will not try to succumb to the enemies.”

“Whoa! Where are you getting this idea from? We should leave Kuraizang alone, he must be busy now. And also, we have no idea of where to start, or where to find him.”

“Hmph!” Sachen yanked Neha’s hands and swung her friend about the cobblestone. “Are you with me? Say yes, say yes, say yes.”

Sachen hypnotized herself in repeating her words. Beads of sweat emerged from the shoulders of Neha, she stammered and lurched her gaze around the buildings.

Someone’s hand landed on Sachen’s head. Pale and slender, the hand grazed the kid’s scalp; the moment Sachen felt it, she hopped away. Her heart raced, she was about to pray for forgiveness due to her assumption that the hand came from a spirit. She turned around and stared at the person, Neha did the same. It couldn’t be anybody else unusual to them if one might say that.

“My my, what is this plan you are scheming?”

Sachen leaped. “It’s the witch! What is your business with us now? Actually... have you been hearing us the whole time?”

“Well duh, like only a minute or so. But right now, I am ever so inquisitive about your plan. What might it be? Are you searching for the holy grail? Or maybe for your first, and true love? Oh, if so, then I might be able to help your throbbing heart! Please tell me, quickly!”

Suppressing her convulsions, Neha calmed herself. “Sachen and me are trying to think about where Kuraizang is. You see, he has not gone to school for a while, and we are starting to feel troubled by it. Sachen wants to find him, and she is willing to drag me into this.”

“Oh.”

Usheniko pursed her lips, fog occupied her eyes. She fell quiet. She raised her eyebrows and scowled at the ground. The duo tilted their heads, no clue to what the meaning behind her expression was.

“Kuraizang. Isn’t that the boy who was summoned by the High Order? Indeed, he is on that mission.” Usheniko tugged her necklace and muttered to herself. Her face wrenched, it told the girls that they shouldn’t mention anymore of their plan. She knew something that they didn’t, but she couldn’t get herself to explain. For it was a touchy subject that she had experience in, just the mere recall in one of her memories was enough to pain her. Her heart throbbed faster than she could count. Tears glittered, conquering the fog in her eyes.

“He shouldn’t be doing it. A while back, I was also there. That’s why I ran off and returned here.”