Tallyho Abell's Story

The student laughed. “Oh no no! I won’t tell. It’s only your first offense.”
Tallyho frowned. Oh if only that fat man could see how hard she was frowning in the darkness! “We weren’t doing anything,” she huffed. Her voice was strained as she was trying not to yell. Like Dorian, her milky skin was pulling into a shade of red. But her red was scarlet with anger and embarrassment.
“It’s okay! This never happened. But let me just say that Ryou doesn’t take t kindly to extraneous… activities.”

"That's fine. Because we weren't doing anything," Dorian replied quickly, lips pulling into a frown. Oh, yes, he was still completely mortified, but it wasn't as if anything had happened. At all. And now this guy wouldn't believe them which was incredibly frustrating if nothing else. And what if someone Dorian actually knew heard about this? He could hardly stand the team as it was now, and if they started actually asking questions...
"I'm just going to... Go back to the group," He said finally, trying to get himself out of the situation with as little further embarrassment as possible.

Nia, who had always considered herself to be more of an observer, had situated herself at the base of a nearby tree throughout everything that was currently going on. Sitting on the grassy area, she leaned up against the trunk as she watched the events unfold.
Tallyho had disappeared off somewhere much earlier, which wasn't surprising at all. She didn't seem to like most of the team, and Nia couldn't really blame her. There were some instances where it took every fiber of her self control not to throw rocks at some of these kids, but that was a story for another day.
Dorian had followed Tallyho soon after, either from curiosity as to where the blonde girl had went or to do the nasty. The latter seemed more enticing, but considering how cold Tallyho was and how reserved Dorian was, it probably wasn't anything more than sheer concern. What a buzzkill.
And then there was the current meltdown ensuing before her eyes, Rajani blubbering all over Ryou. Nia liked Ryou, and she actually kind of admired him for how he was handling the current situation. Emotions were foreign to her, she wasn't really the touchy feely type so to see such an open display of emotion from Rajani was slightly discontenting. She didn't have the strongest relationship with her aunt and uncle or even her younger cousins, so to see her getting so worked up over her family back home seemed extraneous. Then again, it wasn't like Nia's family was the type to sit down for family dinners together or have family game night or anything of the sort.
Autumn though- Nia had just about had it with that girl and her infinite source of positivity and kissing up. In all honesty, her gesture towards Rajani was sweet, but Nia was annoyed and bitter and felt that her eavesdropping on such a personal conversation cancelled it all out (even though she herself was constantly listening in and watching other people, but that was besides the point).
She wasn't sure where the remainder of the team was, still trying to recall their names. To be completely honest, anyone she hadn't interacted much up until this point was pretty irrelevant to her.
With a sigh she folded her legs up against her chest, letting her dark hair act as a curtain around her face as she rested her chin on her legs.

After the night out in the forest, the next few months at the academy were grueling. It didn’t seem to Tallyho that Ryou was going to start off hard then ease up on them. No it only got harder. The blonde could vaguely remember running up the mountain path more than once, and the feeling of her legs when they felt like they were going to collapse. She felt her calves ache at the very thought. The way they swelled, and burned with lactic acid during the early morning work outs, left her legless in the evenings. She never went to dinner with the others. She spent every night at the fire with Luc, who she called her mysterious mountain man, but as the weeks went on their appointments were pushed later and later into the night when they were sure that everyone’s bodies were heavy and drunken with sleep.
It wasn’t to say that she avoided the rest of the team entirely. She could tolerate a few like Nia, who never said much and Dorian who followed the flow of things without complaint. And there were some she avoided like the black death. The Jackson boy left her feeling annoyed, humored, and embarrassed all at once. The way he carried on, trying his best to upset his superiors was too much for her to handle emotionally, though she wouldn’t show it. She often wondered if he knew that they didn’t care. Like Haru, who through the three months completely ignored Jackson through any of his ridiculous accusations towards the redhead and his colleague.
Tallyho took a fancy to Ji Na who constantly ran into them during their day to day activities. It had been five times that she invited all of the month warriors up to her luxurious room towards the top floor of the girl’s barracks. On those nights, they would huddle amongst her medicinal herbs and vials and eat fruit as they cooed about things typical girls would talk about. Tallyho didn’t say much in the conversations. She only listened as a few of the senior students and maybe even some of the warriors confessed which male students they thought were cute, which they thought were awful, and which they thought didn’t like girls at all.
They arrived at the academy in late August, and soon it was November already. A few of the students decided on having a nightly excursion down to town to visit the local taverns and shops in the small settling below the mountain. After that, Ji Na was going to offer and open invitation for the girls to spend the night in her room, though she wasn’t accompanying them down to town. Tallyho opted to go to both, though the sight of going down the mountain made her legs ache once more.
Thankfully, Mr. Vo—the ox cart driver and grounds keeper offered to give rides to those who wanted to go. The sun was near setting by the time Mr. Vo drove down the first wagon, which, Tallyho was a passenger on. By the time they were down, the students inside threw themselves out of the back of the wagon and began to scatter, apparently knowing the town like the back of their hands.
Tallyho, on the other end, found herself standing lamely at the center of town, watching Mr. Vo and his beasts of burden click off towards the large mass of darkness in the distance.

Dorian would like to say that he improved over the next few months. He would have liked to say that, yes, training was no problem at all. However, that would be an absolute lie. Maybe they hadn't progressed at all(it certainly felt that way), or perhaps the training had evolved with their skills. Whatever it was, Dorian did not feel as he or any of the month warrior team had made any improvement whatsoever.
He found himself around more of the other month warriors on a daily basis now. Tallyho was almost always good company, in part because she didn't try to make him talk and wasn't obnoxious. He liked Nia well enough, a good counter-point to the almost sickeningly sweet antics of some of the other month warriors. He also found himself hanging around and thereby learning more about Autumn than he probably wanted to know. He had to admit, he had been mildly disturbed the first time she'd pulled out a deck of tarot cards and attempted to tell his fortune. Now it was just sort of annoying.
There were others, of course, that he talked a bit more to- Rajani, for example, and Falke, and he only really avoided Jackson, but that was more due to the other boy's general bratty behavior.
Outside of the month warrior team, much like Tallyho's affection for Ji Na, Dorian found himself hanging around Dae and, by extension, Liam and Mori. Dae was, he learned, a very laid-back individual, happy to just go with the flow, and, even when someone was being terribly obnoxious, the knight was able to laugh it off with ease. Liam was almost as mysterious as when they'd first met- yes, he was polite and sounded terribly amused, especially when someone did something stupid, but he always had that sort of half-smile plastered on his face. Mori, for his part, was almost as childish as Jackson. Yes, he was brilliant, but he had a quick temper and a sharp tongue. When Dorian had the chance to hang around Dae, with or without Liam and Mori, they would never do much; maybe just relax by the lake, or Dorian could watch them train, which was definitely a sight to see, if the day was dragging on long enough.

Dae was the only elite from the Academy who had joined the other students on that night's excursion and seemed eager for a little fun, and, seeing some of the newer students lingering decided to step in.
"There's a fantastic tavern around here, yeah? You guys can come with if you've nothing better to do," The knight offered before making his way away from the center of the town. Dorian, who really had nothing better to do, followed along.
The tavern he led them to was filled with lights and a jovial atmosphere, music pulsating from the large, wooden building. Inside there were crowds of people either dancing, chatting, or drinking their fill around the bar.

Ryou let a satisfied sigh once Mr. Vo disappeared with a majority of his students. He loved them, he'd do anything for them, but that didn't mean he didn't appreciate a little time away from them. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? With that thought in mind, he left the chilly court yard, retreating back towards the Academy. He slid the door open before quickly closing it behind himself, as if locking out the night's chill.

Haru shuddered a sigh out of the window. The sky he saw was brushed cloudy with smoke. Then it was cleared by the wind who carried the smoke away and lightly patted the man on his left cheek as she passed. He pursed his lips and slipped the cigarette back into his mouth and inhaled. He felt dreamy—there was a reason that he bought as many packs as he could when he went to earth. He wouldn’t quite finish a pack a day, but he smoked enough to be called a regular smoker, because when he ran out of the ones from earth he resorted to the imported cigars stuffed with special dried weeds from Nomansland. The man jumped a bit when he heard the doors slide open then click locked. He turned around and squinted, trying to make out who it was at the door. When he realized that it was Ryou, he took another breath and sighed, allowing his shoulders slouch like melting slow on a roof.
“It’s just you,” he hummed. “Aren’t you supposed to be babysitting down there?”


Tallyho shifted her weight. She would have liked to think that she looked rather lovely that night, despite her awkward controposto and the childish bow-backedness of her posture. She wore the same white dress that she wore when she had fallen into the earthly tree. Her honey locks were tucked carefully behind both of her ears, which stuck out slightly from her face and held a hint of scarlet blush.
It seemed that most of the students including some warriors were heading over to a small tavern next to a flower shop, and right in front of the square’s public fountain. Without looking to the others for a confirmation she went into the building too.
It wasn’t that everyone in the bar stopped to look at the young woman when she entered. Though Tallyho figured that after one glance at her all of the men and loose-ladies would consider her tongue as dry as a virgin’s. White dress, blonde hair, lost eyes.
She made her way to a table in the corner and watched, amused at how students who had been so superior to her at the academy were becoming sloppy under the marionette strings of liquor and rum.
A young woman, (who had to have been loose with her body at some time recently, because Tallyho smelled it) approached the table. Her hair was dark and curly, piled onto the top of her head in a messy, disorganized bun. Her eyes were sunken, but still had the ability to attract a man because of how exotic she seemed.
“Are you waiting on anyone,” she asked. Her voice was a little grainy, and Tallyho, who had a tendency to look at people’s mouths when they spoke didn’t like her lipstick and mossy teeth very much.
“No, just me. Could I have something to drink?” She asked.
“We’ve got water here,” The woman hummed as she began to walk off. Though her intentions were honest, Tallyho was a bit offended by the offer.
“What you don’t have any liquor for me? I see that man over there, I want that.”
The woman stopped and turned on her heels slowly with a raised brow. “Well… Okay,” she muttered uneasily. “Customer’s always right I guess?”

The only significant change that Autumn could see over the months was that her dress size had dropped again. Aside from that, she seemed to be making no progress at all. Even though she trained to her full potential every day she just wasn't seeing the results she expected. Her whole body ached every time she took a step. It wasn't that she was in any hurry to get stronger, but she certainly could do without the pain.

She did her best to befriend the rest of the team, though it proved to be difficult. Despite her warm and receptive nature, the blonde didn't particularly want to talk to Jackson. His continued bratty attitude proved to be something that Autumn couldn't see without some animosity. And Tallyho wasn't any better. The girl never seemed to be around when Autumn had the chance to talk. Though Autumn doubted that there would be any conversation that lasted more than a minute. And as for Nia, Autumn was starting to grow suspicious that she was annoyed by her.
Autumn's saving grace was Dorian, who seemed to tolerate her and was generally pleasant to be around. As time passed, he stopped looking so frightening. He wasn't some intimidating guy. He was just Dorian. Which was nice, because Autumn had grown sick and tired or being startled by his presence.
As for the elite students, Autumn found herself gravitating towards Liam. Magic in general was simply fascinating to her, and if there was anyone who knew about magic it was Liam. She tried to strike up casual conversations about the topic. In general, she spoke to whomever would speak to her.

All it took was one step into the tavern for Autumn to be unsettled. She had never been in a place like this before. Honestly, it scared her a little. She gasped as she was pushed forward by a large man trying to enter the establishment.

The bear of a man stood at around seven feet tall, with a large pot belly and enormous muscles. From the looks of his apron and the tools in it, he appeared to be a blacksmith. He looked down, his shaggy beard almost blocking his view of Autumn. "Oh hello there." His voice was gruff and heavily accented. "So sorry, did not see you young miss." He chortled. "I should look more before I crash!" With that, the man turned his head to see the rest of the warriors that had entered the tavern. His sunken eyes grew wide as he looked at the group. "A bunch of lightweights! I was not expecting this!" He bellowed with laughter, though it was more of a good-natured laughed than a malicious one.

"Just me? I'm insulted," Ryou gasped with mock hurt, clutching at his own chest before recovering.
"As for the kids, nope," Ryou replied, making an exaggerated popping sound with his lips at the 'p' as he made his way over to Haru. "I've got the night off from babysitting duty, and they've got the night off from me. I'm all yours." He let out a laugh before the smoke curling from Haru's cigarette finally found its way over to him, despite the open window. He wrinkled his nose in distaste.
"Ugh. Are you really smoking those?" He complained, standing next to Haru. "I'd say I'm concerned about your health, but... Really, they make you smell terrible." He made a face.

Dorian was, admittedly, feeling very out of place in the tavern. Even in New York when with friends, he hadn't been one to go to places like this if he could help it. The music seemed too loud, competing to be heard over the noisy chatter of people. Crowds of people pushed together, dancing to the music, some quite elegantly, but most drunkenly, like a herd of particularly clumsy elephants.
Dae, he noticed, had made his way over to the bar and was currently nursing a tankard of some liquor, chatting with a group of locals. Either he was just incredibly friendly, he was a regular, or both.
For lack of anywhere better to go, he found himself seated at the table with Tallyho who seemed bound and determined to buck the dainty blonde stereotype and go for hard liquor.

Haru rolled his eyes. “You can’t deny me my pleasures,” he hummed as he took an especially deep breath. The only light was from the windows. Normally he would have asked Ryou to light a candle or something, but things were better that way. “So… Did they get any better at all?” he asked. “I’m trying not the be around them so I won’t be frustrated by the time it’s time to really travel,” he said with a chuckle, half-joking.
Some people noticed when Tallyho had gotten her serving of alcohol. She swallowed shamelessly. Even held her breath to let the drink rest as a pool in her jaw and soak her wisdom teeth before swallowing. Sometimes she’d look over to Dorian and offer a smug smile, feeling good about every swig.
“Ey! Now what do you think yer doing here, drinking like that?” A man asked. He looked to be in his forties, and judging by his dialect he was from the country side. His words were disapproving, but when Tallyho looked up to him half-heartedly he wore a toothy smile.
“Why does your breath smell like alcohol?” She demanded starkly.
A group of men, presumably his friends broke out into a dismissing howl at the man.
“She told you, yeah?” A fatter man taunted. His beard hairs were wiry and red and his cheeks were scarlet.
“Ey, shut up, huh? Now, tell me girl, where’s yer daddy? Yer man?” he questioned as he took a seat on the other side of her, and pointed at Dorian.
“No. But I assure you that if either were here they’d have your hide skinned and strung as curtains in my kitchen for picking at me like this.”
The men howled again.
“Oh look at you little girl! Think yer all grown cause you got a little swig of salt water with vinegar?”
Tallyho rolled her eyes as she slammed down her empty mug. “Can have more miss?” She asked.
“Why don’t you send two shots over, yeah?” The man added.
“Who said you can stay here?” Tallyho huffed.
The man didn’t respond. He only held up his glass for cheers when they arrived. Tallyho did not accept his offer of good tidings and swung the shot down her throat within a matter of seconds.

"So that's why you left me with them. Tricky man, leaving me to deal with the kids while you took a break," Ryou snorted, effectively ignoring the still smoldering cigarette. "They have improved. Well, improved from what I started with. I'd wager that the things they struggled to do in week one, they could do with a lot more ease now. I've just been adjusting the training as they've improved to match it, so they haven't really noticed."

Dorian put on his best stony-faced expression as the group of people began to crowd around their table. Was it really too much to ask for one night without strange things happening? Didn't these people have anything better to do? Oh, well. When in Rome...
He called over the waitress and ordered a mug of the house special which was promptly delivered. He wasn't a big drinker- maybe a few drinks while in New York, although those were usually glasses of wine at special dinners. This, he noticed as he took a drink, was a lot stronger. The alcohol burned on the way down and, oddly enough, left an aftertaste of sweet apples.

“To be honest I can’t stand that hoard already. Never in my life have I seen such a high and mighty display of apathy, excuse and over all disrespect.” He put out his cigarette on the window seal.
“Or maybe I’m being too critical?”

By the time an hour passed, Tallyho had her fill. Despite how small she was, for whatever reason, she’s had a strong tolerance for alcohol for as long as she could remember drinking. She was a bit wobbly, but she still had a smudge of common-sense left. So when the older man began making slurred offers to go to his room at the inn, she sternly declined.
“At leasht a dance, yeah?” He breathed.
“I don’t think so. Old men like you don’t have rhythm.”
“Sho you think that one there can dansh better than me, huh?” He asked as he lightly gestured towards Dorian who may or may not have been as drunk as he was.

It seemed that the young waitress had taken special attention to Dorian, filling his glass with a little more drink than the other’s. It was a small detail that faded the drunker they got.
She came over with yet another drink spilling at the rim, and set it in front of Dorian. “Now we do have a little break room upstairs if you’re feeling like a nap. I can take you up there if you’d like…?” she whistled.

"I'd really like to say that you are, but then I'd be lying," Ryou said with a sigh. He looked tired now, face illuminated only by the stars and the moon shining in from the window. "I don't think they grasp how important this is- even Tallyho and she's from Aires. It's like, no matter what anyone says, they don't realize that the fate of the world is in their hands. They're too busy worrying about themselves."
"Oh, no, I'm beginning to sound like you, Haru!" He huffed a laugh, the smile making brightening his face.
"But seriously, I wish we could have handpicked the month warriors. I'm not giving up on these kids, but it would have been so much easier..."

Dorian had never been drunk before. Maybe a little tipsy after a few too many drinks, but he'd never actually been drunk. But the apple flavored liquor had kept on coming in greater quantities, and one empty mug had soon become two, then three, four, and now... Now he didn't even know. He snickered slightly, some of his drink sloshing onto the table. Yes, Dorian had never been drunk before. That why he had no way of knowing what everyone else in the tavern had learned maybe two drinks ago; Dorian was a happy drunk.
"That's so nice of you," He said, smiling clumsily up at the waitress, a barely perceptible slur in his words. "Such a... Such a sweetheart. But I'm good. Fine. Wonderful." He reclined in his seat.
“Sho you think that one there can dansh better than me, huh?” Dorian snorted into his drink.
"Man, no offense, but I could- could definitely out-dance you. You know?" He snickered again at some wordless joke only really present in his own mind.

"What on Aires are you doing in here?" It should come to no surprise to anyone that the person glaring up at Jackson from his seat in the library was Mori. The white-haired boy seemed more than a little put out at Jackson's appearance, especially considering almost everyone who had access to the library was gone for the night and he hadn't expected company. "You're not allowed to be. It's against the rules."

Haru smirked bitterly and then shot his gaze back throw the window. A moment of silence fell upon him for a solid stack of minutes before he let out a breath and looked towards Ryou again. “In your letter… You said that you had pages, right?”
Tallyho had noticed Dorian. But considering who he was with, she didn’t consider his situation particularly threatening, and besides, she was pretty far gone too.
The waitress chuckled. She wasn’t quite as homely when she smiled. “Well Dorian, you’re a little far, it looks like to me. But you’re still pretty fine looking,” she said as she eyed him flirtatiously. “Where you from, huh?”

Haru caught Ryou’s gaze and smile for a few seconds before looking away without concern. “Well then, I guess that’s a good start,” he huffed starkly. “But we can’t mess up this time; we have to do everything perfectly.”

The waitress wasn’t thinking so much when she found herself doing it, but after ten minutes of talking to a slurred drunken man, and making intense eye contact with heavy lidded eyes, she found herself leaning in for a kiss.

Over the next half-hour, the old men eventually left; giving Tallyho the satisfaction of knowing that she could hold a drink better than they could. She then remembered Dorian, who had gone up the stairs a while before. The blond stumbled onto her feet in fashion that seemed like a hurry. She hadn’t noticed him come down, so she climbed the stairs, stomping instead of prancing. Her breathing was as heavy as her face was hot. Once she was on the second floor she followed the path to the only door in the hall and turned the knob of the door—which was unlocked.
The blonde stuck her head in. Her voice was higher than usual. “Dorian…?”

"Perfectly," Ryou snorted, but his voice was quiet with a pang of melancholy. "Have you seen these kids? Things aren't going to go perfectly." He turned his gaze out the window for a moment, the room silent.
"But..." He relented, putting a hand on Haru's shoulder. "Things are going to work out this time." They had to, for everyone's sakes.

One of the funny things about alcohol is that, if you consume enough, your inhibitions go straight out the window with the rest of your common sense. And when a pretty enough woman leans toward you, waiting for a kiss, well, actually kissing her seems like a fantastic idea. So Dorian did.
The initial contact was sloppy, due to a lack of coordination on the drunken teenager's part, but eventually the kiss became more natural, lips moving in sync until it wasn't just a kiss at all, but a full-blown make-out session. Dorian was, surprisingly enough, a rather good kisser, especially considering that he was as drunk as most of the people at the tavern. His hands found their way around the waitress' slim waist as hers made their way up to card through his hair.

"Heeeey, Tallyho," Dorian said hazily, pulling away from the waitress, their lips separating with an almost audible sound. "'S'time to go?" He was more lethargic now, the alcohol slowly progressing through his body. The make-out session had been just that, kissing, despite the best efforts on the waitress' part for it to progress to something more.

Tallyho’s eyes widened slightly, and her eyebrows rose out of interest.
She would have said something snarky. Or she would have left him alone to his own.
But no. She had to do the right thing.

“Dorian, no,” the blonde huffed as she made her way into the closet. She physically stepped between the two of them but acted gently and cautiously.
“I’m sorry,” she said as she made brief eye contact with the waitress. The woman was still disoriented.
“Dorian let’s go,” she said again as she took his wrist and pulled him towards the door.
“Say goodbye to your friend.”

"Goodbye, friend," Dorian slurred obediently with a slight wave, really just a flick of his wrist, towards the waitress, before allowing Tallyho to tug him out the door without any protest. He was slightly more sluggish now than he had been in the bar thirty minutes ago, and he wasn't feeling very well. Then again, it wasn't much of a surprise- it wasn't as if he drank often, and this was his first time getting actually drunk.
Dorian stumbled slightly when they reached the top of the stairs, but managed to catch himself. For Dorian, it was definitely time to call it a night before anything else happened.

That night on the town was only one of the rare excursions the students were allowed at the academy. Sometimes they were allowed to go down to the village on week days. But usually when they went down, it was for supply errands. Needless to say, Tallyho was careful to make sure that Dorian didn’t have another night at the bar like the one he had experienced the first time.
Training was heavy, as it usually was, and Tallyho was beginning to notice that Haru was becoming restless. She couldn’t help but feel that they wouldn’t be at the academy for very long. If Haru had anything to do with it.
But at least they stayed long enough for Moon Day, which was celebrated by many in Solace. It was one day out of the year where Aires’ two moons could be seen at the same time. The anomaly was supposed to be a benchmark of good harvest for the approaching spring and it is customary that everyone dresses up in their best garments and feast.
All throughout the day the students were put to work, decorating and cooking for their own personal festival. All throughout the day, Karma made it clear to rebellious students that they had to work in order to reap the fruit of the school’s labor, which worked for the most part. Tallyho hadn’t stopped arranging flowers until she was finally dismissed at five to go get dressed.

In the end, Tallyho and Dae had ended up carting Dorian back to the Academy, the young man idly complimenting just about everything they passed and acting extremely un-Dorian like. About half way back to the Academy, he'd passed out leaving Dae to carry him the remainder of the journey.
Dorian never did find out what happened that night. All he knew was that he woke up with an intense headache, nausea, and a complete blank on the last nine or so hours. From the occasional amused looks Dae sent him and Tallyho's general dismissal of that night, he decided not to pursue those lost hours. All he really knew was that he never ended up drinking at the tavern again- which was a shame, he sometimes thought, since the waitresses always offered to give him a free drink...

The training had become harder than ever, increasing in small increments until Dorian noticed that Ryou was now making them run longer distances, climb higher, exercise harder. Unfortunately, the group was as dysfunctional as ever, tempered with grumblings and a general consensus that it didn't matter if they worked together outside of the little pairs and groups that had formed- ironically, the one thing they all agreed on.

At the Moon Festival, Dorian surprised everyone by helping out in the kitchen. Unlike Rajani, he didn't attempt to create any old favorites in the kitchen, but instead wandered around, helping where needed with a quiet concentration and rapt attention that the other students cooking found very agreeable. It wasn't until everything was either cooking or being set out that he was sent away to get cleaned and dressed.
Like Autumn, his nice clothes came from the nearest village, bought on Ryou's warning that they would need something nice at some point. The outfit was a dark gray colored pants, almost black, with a dark blue shirt and a vest that matched the pants. It wasn't Armani fancy, but compared to the clothes he'd been training in- now covered with small holes and rips and the occasional stain of blood or sweat.
He exited his dorm room and was quickly sucked into the crowd of students milling about excitedly, all dressed in finery from their respective homelands.

Tallyho—like many others—was fleeing. She slid the rice paper door open and collapsed outside. Her knees and fingers sunk into the soil for a few moments before the she drew herself onto her feet and ran over to Haru, who was standing near the fountain—his gaze was fixed on the growing fire.
Even when the teen sloppily fell onto him, Haru did not react. He was still staring at the fire. Another explosion went off in the east.
Tallyho flinched. “I think that the fire is surrounding the academy,” she said to him. But he said nothing. He only raised a weak finger to the fire.
Tallyho could not see much at first, but eventually she made out the shadow of a person—a man sprouting out from the flames. The silhouette moved towards them.
Another explosion.
“Is he causing this Haru? Is he the reason?”
Haru discreetly drew a hand on the hilt of his sword. The anticipation pounded pressures through the veins in his neck. “Go find the others, “he said.