"Ehem— Mr. Odanis... Mr. Odanis, HELLO Terra to Mr. Odanis?" Mr. Moore the Math Teacher inquired to his inattentive Princely student, as he impatiently tapped on the boy's desk to grab his attention.

"Yes, what is it?!" Dasnir snapped, seemingly wrested from a daydream, black-hair flinging from the turn of his head, eyes beading in a show of Princely entitlement.

You might have thought the young Warrior had ADHD as this often happened in class, at least in Mr. Moore's class; however, it certainly did not help that Mr. Moore spoke in a monotonous manner, settling somewhere between the raspy wheeze of Severus Snape and the dull drone of Ben Stein.

Dasnir then remembered that in this Terran classroom he was in fact not Intergalactic Royalty, but rather a teenage student who had just pissed off his most boring and overbearing teacher. And as a result, the Prince showed a rather uncharacteristic startled expression, small as it may have been, as he felt a hint of human-like embarrassment. Following his realization, there was a slight screech against the classroom floor, as the flustered boy slid back in his seat fleeing his instructor's demanding gaze.

There was a rumorous sounding giggle that echoed throughout the class, mostly from girls. Though the Aliens had, at Rae's insistence, kept from interacting with most of the other students to a large extent, the other students in the senior class of West Roan had not complied. Since the start of the school year, about 3 weeks prior, his mysterious charm, bad-boy-like demeanor, and good looks had inherently caused attention to flow in his direction. And so the dashing Prince had many girls fawning over him, no matter what world he stepped foot on, and even perhaps some boys too. All of whom were giggling at the awkwardly aggressive response Dasnir gave Mr. Moore; perhaps, they were jealous of the Prince so flippantly disregarding the teacher's menial demand.

In consequence, the unimpressed Math teacher delivered his droning rebuke. "Watch your tone Mr. Odanis. Yell like that again, and it'll buy you a trip to Principal Wattamaker's office and detention from here til the end of the semester. Now would you care to join the rest of the class and answer the question?"

The Warrior looked up at the projector screen at the front of the room and glanced at the scrawled formulas and the 'problem' at hand. His eyes began to spin and glaze over; his brain was built more for kicking peoples' asses in style, battlefield tactics, and giving orders, not solving quadratic equations. But as room 256 of the north-wing of West Roan tossed and sloshed along the battering waves, brought about by a simple teenage Terran dilemma, just before it crashed against the rocks and swallowed the wayward Warrior, a certain sly Cat raised his hand to bail the dizzy boy out of the sinking ship.

"The answer is..." Rae interjected.

And though the Cat was busy saving the Prince, and thus did not see, Dasnir grew a tiny blush upon his face at the thought of being saved from the imminent humiliation —by Rae no less.

"Hmmm, yes well that is correct. Mr. Odanis pay attention in class, maybe you should get Mr. Dosri to tutor you instead of not completing your homework, and daydreaming in my class." The strict instructor opined, as he grabbed an illegal phone from a nearby texting Jimmy Newton's criminal clutches.

At that moment, the Trio was saved from the bore of Mr. Moore's classroom as the intermission bell rang. The screeching of desk chairs and the clambering of feet, like that of wildebeest stampeding through a gorge, filled the air. And just a short bit later, the boys were huddling about their adjoining lockers in the hallway of the north wing...

"I hate that man; he's intolerable. On Asgar I would have his tongue cut from his dull droning throat, all of the things he says could be summarized much faster!"

Rae giggled and grinned at the grumpy embarrassed Prince. "Hehehe— Dude, you're lucky I saved you when I did, Moore is a hardass with a fetish for giving long detentions. You gotta pay a bit more attention."

"AND I'VE DONE ALL MY HOMEWORK THAT INSUFFERABLE BASTARD!" Dasnir said rather loudly in exasperation.

"Heh— Moore doesn't care, Dude. I doubt he even actually checks most of it. Plus I know you did, I made sure of that." The Cat winked at the Prince.

"Stop that..."

"Stop what?"

"That... thing you're doing."

Dasnir had a faint blush for the second time in one day, a rare sight indeed, and he was beginning to reach a breaking point in his tolerance. Nevertheless, the grumpy reactions were making his Ishtari friend grin even wider, at the small bits of emotion he had helped drag out of the flustered Warrior. As muted as Dasnir was in daily life, it would be hard for someone to tell any difference unless they had spent 4 weeks or more in his company.

"Rae," Fulbrik interjected, "will you be accompanying us again this evening? I am currently in a lull for leads on the whereabouts of the weapon, so this evening would be an appropriate occasion to help you practice Eniris."

Rae's ears began to sulk, and he gave a nervous warbley expression as he lamented to himself about the Eniris lesson being offered to him. "I was kind of hoping to avoid it. I wasn't any good at it last time; why am I forced to realize that I'm terrible at everything all the time? —Ugh."

"But I can't say no... fucking dammit. Even if I don't want to, I can't just tell him no. Fulbrik's taking time out of their mission to teach me how to defend myself, and I'm here being an ungrateful ass cause I'm bad at it..."

"Ok... sure..." Rae meekly replied, looking away into his locker, averting himself from the Guardian's prying eyes.

"Aha! Excellent, I most enjoy these lessons, Rae. It is good... what was that word you used?"

"Bonding..." Rae grinned, as he thought now he wished he hadn't made Fulbrik so attached to the idea.

"Yes! Bonding... We shall bond tonight!" The Viking affectionately slapped the tiny Cat on the back, eliciting an equally tiny grimace. Then he leaned in to whisper between the two smaller boys, with his hand shielding his mouth, attempting to seem less suspicious yet clearly only increasing suspicion. "I know you had difficulty last time, Sir Rae, so this time I will show you some more examples." The beaming Asgeeri Eniris tutor smirked and tapped along his belt, which caused his sheathed sword to seemingly appear there from thin air.

"Dude! Dude!" Rae gave an exclamatory whisper of displeasure towards Fulbrik. "Ixnay on the sworday? I told you to keep that hidden here, what's wrong with you man, what if someone sees?!"

Fulbrik immediately touched the same spot on his belt in response to the scolding, and the sword vanished as quickly as it had appeared there.

"Ah yes, Haha—" The giant laughed nervously, hand running through hair and mouth contorting in negligence. "I apologize; I am unaccustomed to keeping Laclasia hidden all the time."

"Your sword's named Laclasia?" Rae asked confused, peering through the corner of his eye, as he continued to grab books and materials from his locker. "That's an —uhh... interesting name for a weapon."

"It's named after a heroine from a stupid drama that is popular on Asgar." Dasnir said, looking slightly disgusted at his Guardian's nerdy penchant.

"Young Master, you said I could name it whatever I wanted!"

"Because I thought you'd maybe pick something more regal and befitting..." The Prince stopped, realizing he was in a bit of a shitty mood from the human Math class experience earlier. He looked through the corner of his eye and saw Fulbrik's expression. "Nevermind, it's fine."

Sometimes in life we step across boundaries, unintentionally, during hastily traversed moments, moments in which we mean no harm, and yet harm finds its way into those moments, anyways. And then we are left there wondering how those moments went so wrong. Wishing that we could change them... Unfortunately for Rae, on that day he experienced one such moment...

Rae grinned, before testing just how far he could safely tease the Prince, as teenage boys in normal non-intergalactic friendships often do. "Ooho— the mighty Prince is showing mercy." The Cat followed up with a "tonguey-faced" expression to show what he thought was playful intent.

"Ggnnrr—" Dasnir gave a deep but faint snarl, fangs peeking out, warning Rae he was pushing too far.

"He would have never let me get away with that 3 weeks ago. I guess he's warming up a bit after all. I've always wanted to have guys to joke around with." The Cat could barely contain his inner contentment at having reached such a normal level of friendly yet prodding interaction between boys.

"Chill grumpy-face, I'm just messing with you. You gonna punch me or something?" Rae grinned, but then stopped as he saw a grimaced look on Fulbrik's face which said: "SIR RAE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Flowing with a released current of intimidation, Dasnir smacked his hand against Rae's locker, cornering the smaller playful Cat, which had clearly played too rough, much like the Cat had pranced upon the keyboard of Dasnir's mind and nearly deleted their friendship by mistake.

The angered Warrior boy spoke in a low and deep, somewhat threatening tone. "We do not 'play' on Asgar."

"Ok, I'm sorry." The Cat's ears sulked slightly, and he looked away to avoid the intense gaze of his triggered angry friend.

Dasnir removed himself from around Rae without saying anything. The Prince huffily grabbed his things and slammed his locker shut. Then looked at Rae through beady oppressive eyes. "Do you have any idea how stupid and dangerous this game you want to play is? If we were on Asgar... I would be forced to beat you or even kill you right now."

"Young Master, perhaps this is not..."

"Shut Up! I've had enough out of you too. At least unlike him, you should know better."

The Guardian gave a small frown then began walking without the two towards the boys' Literature class.

"But we aren't on Asgar... look I'm sorry... I just wanted to... It's my fault; I shouldn't have..."

"No you shouldn't have; learn your place." The Prince said in an almost too frigid fashion, even for him. Then he too proceeded in the same way as Fulbrik, leaving the Cat there, sulking in remorse.

"I'm sorry..." Rae muttered quietly, as he watched the Prince leave.

"Idiot Rae, that's what you get for pushing too far, and you know their culture is different."

Rae looked out over the hallway of West Roan as he saw groups of boys and girls clinging in their cliques, a hallway filled with bustling laughter and social acceptance, except the hallway might as well have been empty for him.

—For it was just another reminder that even if he had friends, he could not live in their world, the world of his peers.

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...Later that evening...

Several miles from the Roan Maxis hotel, atop a secluded gradually rolling hill, covered by lush lime-green grass, interspersed with dandelions and the occasional weed, small rocks, and a few sparse trees, all tinted by the soft glow of an orange setting sun; the Cat and his Viking mentor stood to practice Eniris for the second time.

"I don't get it..." the Cat pouted as he opened his right eye in frustration from the 'meditation' he had been instructed to perform.

Fulbrik looked up from a Mendelev the Magnificent Magician!™ comic, and sighed at the struggling boy. "Well I do not have any experience with teaching an Ishtari Eniris control; however, according to the database within my Aesensiris this method should be suitable. If you were Asgeeri then the method for basic control of Eniris would have already naturally manifested years ago. Ishtari are such fickle creatures in every way... but I believe you will get the hang of it, Sir Rae, do not doubt yourself so much."

"This is taking forever! And I still don't feel fucking shit man, not even a tingle. Maybe I'm defective like this too..." Rae's ears sulked and his tail went limp.

"I doubt it, I do not know many humans or any other Ishtari, for that matter, but I can tell you are among the least defective of your kind." The Giant reassured the boy in his own quirky way. "Besides, it is well known that Ishtari have the hardest time manifesting any Eniris at all, so don't be too discouraged. It may take some time before you can do so. And there is no telling which forms you will gain access to."

"I thought Prince-Face said I could read minds?"

"Haha— well Dasnir does have a habit of brevity in detail. Though I am not much better at explaining things." The Asgeeri paused, considering his own inadequacies.

"I thought you only called him 'Young Master' or 'Your Highness'." Rae inquisitively observed the unusually informal reference Fulbrik had made.

This clearly startled the normally disciplined Warrior. "Ahem— yes, well..." he said scratching behind his head as he looked away nervously. "Please do not tell him, it is a bad habit from our childhood; I should not refer to him that way."

"Why the hell not? Aren't you guys friends?" Rae closed his eye again, attempting to refocus on his Eniris training.

"Yes..." the Guardian seemed uncomfortable. "But it is still improper, even though I have been with him from the age of 8."

"Don't become distracted so easily, Sir Rae, you should focus a bit harder, or you will not achieve release. And to answer your previous question, while it is possible for Ishtari to read minds and even control them, few can do so. Ishtari are known not only for the unique strength of their Eniris, but also for it being rather difficult to manifest and control. Most Ishtari can only perform Empathy, and only after training. They are unlike most of the other Great Races who require less training, such as the Darsek or Nephilis, and certainly the opposite of Asgeeri who manifest naturally when we begin puberty, or the Polkrem who have access to it from birth."

"That's not fucking fair! How come?" The Ishtari boy's ears stood up in agitation, though he kept his eyes closed.

"Aha— well, each of the 8 great Races possess different biological methods of interacting with the Eniris particle. It just so happens that Ishtaris have the unique method of doing so by pheromone release, but it is also the reason that their Eniris takes the unique form of Psionic abilities. While you are always releasing a small amount of pheromones, much in the way Asgeeri have a constant stream of hormones, in order to master interaction with the Eniris particle you must consciously control that flow."

"This sounds so complicated..." Rae sulked.

"Hmmm— I have an idea; I will teach you the universal catalyst. Perhaps that will help awaken your Ishtari specific catalyst." The Viking slapped his fist into his palm, as if he had a stroke of genius.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Well, all of the 8 Great Races can interact with Eniris through neurological stimulus, meaning through your electrical brain waves. This is the easiest to learn, and it is how we use Eniris to power devices like my Aesensiris. I am a bit neglectful for not thinking of this before; however, it does require training. Here..."

The Guardian removed his bracer and threw the Aesensiris device to Rae, who barely caught it, fumbling in mid-air.

"Try to activate this."

"How the fuck do I do that?"

"Hold it steady; concentrate only on the device, then imagine light flowing from your body into it until it is overfilled and spilling out of it. I am bad at explaining things..." Fulbrik sulked and scratched below his right eye.

Suddenly, as if his subconscious connected dots between memories and the present, Rae thought back to the night he had pulled Dasnir from the crashed escape-pod. As he recalled the green glow which had mysteriously preceded the opening of the pod door, the Aesensiris began to light up in Rae's hands.

"Wow! Very impressive, Sir Rae, I honestly thought it would take you much longer, but I knew you could do it."

"Hehe— thanks, but I think I may have accidentally activated Eniris this way once before." The Cat said with a sheepish grin, elicited honestly about the praise he was receiving.

"Ho! That would make sense. I was wondering how you pulled the Young Master from his escape pod. I had thought perhaps it had been cracked open. Well, this certainly shows that you will be able to control the Eniris particle. To have this ease of access to the neurological catalyst, indicates that you are well suited to it. I think with patience and diligence in practice you will be able to release the first stage of Ishtari Eniris control, the Empathy, perhaps even faster than most." He gave Rae a slightly puzzled look to accompany his astonished praise.

"Isn't that just like... feeling bad or happy for someone cause of something relatable?" Rae asked, looking up through the floating green symbols, smirking as he felt a small hint of accomplishment.

"No, no... Empathy is the most basic form of Ishtari Psionics. It allows an Ishtari to detect the presence of other life forms, detect feelings of their mental state, such as if they are lying, and can even give small hints of impending danger. It complements the typical Ishtari fighting style, which is rather acrobatic in nature; however, I can not teach you that, obviously, and I am unsure how suited you would even be to it, since you lack Ishtari claws and whiskers, likely because of your Hybrid genes."

"You mean we usually look even more like cats than I do?" Rae's brow sunk in a kind of frustrated amusement at the absurdity of the idea.

"Yes the Ishtari normally possess a set of small feline-like whiskers which can detect even very slight movements in the air, as well as 2 inch claw-like nails made of a unique Cendicium alloy. But you are lacking those."

"Ugh— I am defective." Rae's ears sulked, feeling faintly neutered.

"Anyways, the power you seem to be coveting, Telepathy, is among the most rare forms of abilities that Ishtari can possess, and only a few can master Eniris to that extent."

"Dang, I really wanted to make Prince-Face bark like a dog." Rae said, jokingly.

"Very funny, Rae." The titanic Teacher retorted.

"Since we still have some time left, allow me to show you what Asgeeri Eniris release looks like. Perhaps, this will help spark your motivation and inspiration to continue." The Guardian gave a coy grin, like he merely wanted to use the occasion as an excuse to release his Eniris.

Grabbing the side of his belt, Fulbrik revealed the previously invisible sword, and unsheathed it, with a sharp whirring sound.

"—SHHIIINGG!!!" The sword sang its opening song, it's green tinted steel sparkling and shimmering under the pale glow of the rising full moon.

Gripping his 4 ½ foot long (137 cm) treasure firmly in his massive right palm, Fulbrik said, "Ignite Laclasia."

There was a flickering noise and the Warrior's caramel-brown eyes were pierced by the reflection of a warm orange-red hue. Laclasia's blade burst into brash refulgent flames. Fulbrik's head and eyes followed as if entranced by the fiery weapon, as he swung it skillfully through the air, in a seemingly practiced manner, ripping and rippling metal and blaze beneath the young night sky. The movements of his form were fluid, like a deadly dance, juggling a sharp infernal edge which crackled and frizzled as he jabbed and sliced about. Waves of tangerine tones lapped at Rae's cheeks and tickled his eyes as the fire lingered and flowed through the air with each stroke, illuminating the darkened area in short repetitive cycles.

"WOAH! You can make fire?!" The bright-eyed boy exclaimed. Rae's eyes lit up with geeky glee as he watched a comic come off the pages and dance around right in front of him. "That's so cool!!! Is that Asgeeri martial arts?"

Just then, as if to finish Laclasia's Balad, Fulbrik swung his diamond shaped long-sword hard in a nearly 180 degree arch like motion from below his knee all the way over his head. There was a euphoric echoing boom as flames followed the blade and ran off the tip with the attack, launching at a ridiculous speed, mimicking a flamethrower mixed with a sickling traversal far longer than the sword itself. This attack sundered all before it, leaving a thick black line of charred grass, scintillating cinnabar-red semi-circles swirling through space, smokey ashy air trailing along the flashing incandescence, and a bifurcated large oak tree which was left sizzling and crackling with embers deep within its trunk.

"Holy... fucking... shi—" the Cat gave an open mouthed warbly expression of disbelief.

Realizing that he may have just risked attracting a large amount of unwanted attention with his impulsive display, Fulbrik snapped back to reality and quickly sheathed his sword. "AHA— I appear to have gotten a tad carried away... Sir Rae... I think we had better leave, before we are discovered here."

"Uhh— ya think? That was really cool though. —Hehe. Common, I'll order a lift." Rae grinned at the embarrassed muscle bound klutz, as he grabbed his hand and began racing them both back from the hill towards civilization.

The curious Cat was inspired. And even though he had his doubts, the boy knew he wanted to keep going, and learn to control his own Eniris, even if it were only a tiny amount.

PHONETIC PRONUNCIATIONS:

Rae: "RAY" | Dosri: "DAHS-ree"

Dasnir: "DAHS-nerr" | Odanis: "OH-dahn-is"

Fulbrik: "FOOL-brik"

Asgeeri: "ahs-GEER-ee"

Ishtari: "ISH-tar-ee"

Darsek: "DAR-sehk"

Nephilis: "NEH-fihl-is"

Polkrem: "POHL-krehm"

Eniris: "Ehn-err-is"

Aesensiris: "AY-sen-seer-is"

Cendicium: "SEN-dis-ee-uhm"

Laclasia: "LAWK-LAY-see-ah