Rising Shards

Anger fueling me, I sprinted after them, not thinking about how we were going past the off-limits area. I wished Kalei hadn’t left, because she would have caught up to them immediately. I also wished I had more time to train with her. Even though my stamina had improved already, I still felt winded pretty quickly.

“Be careful of snakes in the tall plants!” Aira said. “And small flat men that hide on the ground because they’ll jump out and steal your sense of smell!”

“Will do, Aira!” Oka said. “Whatever that means!”

“You’re gonna be in so much trouble when we catch up to you!” I yelled.

“No, you won’t because we’re so much faster and you guys are so slow and we’re Chellsi-Mikeila-Keila!!” Chellsi said. We caught up to her as she talked, because she stopped halfway through her rant. “Oh.”

“Just give Laenie back her seeds,” I said. “And tell Ovie to get back here!”

“But not Mikeila-Keila?” Chellsi asked. “Because it’s super rude of you to leave her out, she has abandonment issues because of this one time she wasn’t invited to Ovie’s fifteenth birthday party and…”

“Stop!” Oka said. “Just give us the seeds already."

Chellsi handed them over.

“We still have to get the rest…they took a lot.” Laenie said. “And we don’t have much time left.”

“Mikeila-Keila is, like, really good at pickpocketing,” Chellsi said.

I tuned out Chellsi’s rambling, because I spotted an old barn on the horizon. Not just any old barn.

“Hey, that’s the Tadriff farm!” I said.

“That’s awesome, but now’s not really the time, Zeta.” Oka said.

“But they’re running that way!” I said. “If we just checked it out a little bit?”

“Zeta…” Laenie said.

“We can check it out while we chase them!” I said. “Chellsi, are you gonna give up or come with us?”

“Honestly, I forgot what we’re even doing,” Chellsi said. “Is this a game?”

“Uh, sure,” I said.

“Yes, it’s a game!” Aira said and winked at us. “Cops and robbers!”

Aira suddenly tackled Chellsi and wrapped her wrists in a colorful rope before we could stop her.

“Hey! What the!?” Chellsi said.

“I’m bringing this criminal in!” Aira said, winking again. She tried to whisper but instead very loudly said, “I’m bringing her back to Iho Vinai to those detectives.”

“Oh, I know this game!” Chellsi said. “Oh, you got me, detective lady! Now to confess all my crimes.”

Aira picked up Chellsi and headed back towards the village.

“I’ll only confess my fake crimes for the game,” Chellsi said. “So don’t tell that hot officer all my real crimes. You can tell the uggo one them though, I don’t care what he thinks.”

“Are we just gonna let them go?” Oka asked.

“We have to catch up to Ovie!” Laenie said.

We found a trail past the tall grass and ran onward. The houses on the farmland were getting closer.

“They’re probably in the barn already,” I said, almost running into a blast of energy at my feet.

“Wrong again, Manure,” Ovie said, still holding the energy in her palm. She and her cohort were in front of us.

“Ovie, just give Laenie back her stuff,” I said. “This is getting stupid.”

“Oh, the stupid is only just beginning,” Ovie said. “Want to guess where those seeds are now?”

I was already furious at Ovie for whatever she was trying to pull with that Jeans stuff in the flower shop but stealing Laenie’s stuff and cornering us had me close to losing control to just blind anger.

“Not really,” I said. “Can we just be done with this? It’s almost time to go.”

“Not until I’m satisfied,” Ovie said.

“Fine, whatever! Just tell me what you want!” I said.

Ovie pulled out two bloodsabers that were lying in the tall grass. She held one out to me.

“Humor me, Manure,” Ovie said. “A quick sparring match is all I need.”

“Zeta…” Laenie said.

“Why here?” I asked. “Can’t we just do this at school? Or not at all?”

“With the teachers around?” Ovie asked. “Even our time in the void is tracked. Here? It’s just us and our dear friends.”

“Yeah, good luck Ovie!” Oka said. “Zeta’s gonna win this, easy.”

I didn’t feel as confident as Oka was about my ability as I took the bloodsaber. It wasn’t a practice baton, but it definitely wasn’t as high quality as the ones we’d made in class. I had no idea where Ovie had gotten it, but I did want to show her up. Ovie raised hers and ignited it.

“Are we…for real doing this?” I asked.

“Don’t you want Jeans to know how far you’ve come since your fangs came in?” Ovie asked.

That had me ready to flip the switch and go full unthinking rage mode at her. Just as I put my thumb over the blood collector, I heard a small noise and turned to see Laenie had started crying.

“Do you even care?” Laenie said. “All you two wanted to do was look at Tower of Hate and Love stuff. I love that show too, but I had stuff to do! I had my whole day planned out and you stepped all over it!”

Laenie wiped her tears with clenched fists.

“And now you’re going to fight Ovie?” Laenie said. “Are you serious?!”

Laenie suddenly let out a guttural yell and grabbed her face in her hands.

“Whoa,” Oka said. “Laenie, just calm—”

“I barely got to do anything I wanted to here, and the one thing I actually got done for Mrs. Cyto got stolen!” Laenie said. I wasn’t sure if I was hearing things, but it sounded like her voice was getting deeper.

“Laenie, I’m so sorry!” I said.

“Are you?” Laenie bellowed, her voice unmistakably deep and monstrous now. “You ruined my trip. You’re a thief just like Ovie, because…you…”

Laenie screamed and punched the ground, shaking it beneath us as her fists pierced the earth.

“Oka…?” I said. “What’s…happening?”

“I think…she’s a…” Oka said.

I could feel energy in the air as Laenie started screaming, like waves of something pushing me back. I wanted to run, but all of us were frozen as Laenie kept pounding the ground. I looked at her hands and saw they had changed as she punched. They were bigger, clawed hands now. Then it hit me that all of Laenie was changing. She was turning into something bestial, a monster with glowing eyes and massive sharp teeth. Laenie, formerly tiny and meek, was now a titan looming over all of us.