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Dust In The Wind (PixelatedGlory!)

Started by Eckhart_Von_Musel, March 30, 2018, 05:43:51 AM

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Eckhart_Von_Musel

@PixelatedGlory

"You actually play with this thing? It looks fucking retarded."

Susie Rainfeather cowered on the ground beneath the old ash tree, tears streaming down her face. She was nursing a nasty black eye- she had just gotten punched. Aahva Chatterjee stood above her, holding the girl's hackysack just out of reach. "Really, what do you do with this?" he sneered. "Shove it up your ass? That's mad gay."

"G-g-give it back, Aahva!" Susie sputtered, her body trembling. "It's n-not yours!"

The dark-skinned boy laughed cruelly. "It-it's not yours! Give it back!" he said, mimicking the girl's voice. "Well guess what, you carpet-munching nosepicker? Aahva made a show of putting the hackysack into his pocket. "It's mine now."

Aahva walked away laughing, leaving Susie alone with her tears...

PixelatedGlory

The robes had to be enchanted or something. There just was no other reason a piece of clothing could be so utterly uncomfortable. Grent tried one last time to ignore the robes and focus on the book and parchment in front of him. "I have it hard enough trying to take these notes as it is." His quill slowly dragged its faltering path across the parchment, leaving it's knobbly and imperfect lettering.

Extra writing and reading, he had been assigned. To make up for his 'serious lack of academic investment'. It wasn't his fault. Being a miner like the rest of the people in his town didn't call for great penmanship skills. It was only because his mother had insisted that he had even learned to read and write at all.

Just as Grent started to relax a little, the sleeve of his robe caught on the rough edge of the wooden table. As the sleeve made his arm jerk, the fragile quill in his hand snapped. "Great! Just great," He shouted as he slammed the book shut and grabbed his small satchel. Many annoyed glares followed him as he stormed out of the library.

"An hour outside will be good. A little fresh air and sunlight and i'll go back inside to start again. I can't afford to have nothing to turn in tomorrow."

The boy walked fast when he was frustrated and it seemed like no time at all before he was exiting the building. The sun was shining brightly and the light breeze rustled the extra fabric of the overlarge sleeves on his robe. Grent took a few steps away from the door and breathed deeply, enjoying the smell of fresh air. With a few more breaths Grent had nearly forgotten his frustration and he pulled off his hat as he walked towards one of his favorite places to sit.

It seemed like he wasn't the only one who liked to sit in the dirt under the Ash tree. As he approached he finally noticed that the girl with fiery orange hair was not in fact relaxing but crying. He thought about asking if she was ok, but that would have been a stupid question. You don't sit there crying, with your face in your hands if everything is ok.

So he did the next best thing. Grent strolled right over and flopped down next to her, kicking up a little cloud of dirt. The boy was covered in dirt, to put it simply. He had to have only worn the robes for a short time and already it looked like he had dumped buckets of fresh soil on it and then did it again for good measure. He extended one dirty hand towards the crying girl, "I'm Grent. Do you want to talk about it, or do you want to be left alone?" he asked quietly. He then quickly added, "Oh, sorry," and the layer of dirt on his hands gathered up into his sleeve, leaving the hand clean. More or less.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

It wasn't fair. Susie sobbed into her hands, a sense of panic overtaking her. "What if I never get it back?" she thought, chest heaving. "What if Aahva sets in on fire and it's destroyed forever? What if he tells on me and I get in trouble? What if-"

A boy's voice snapped her out of her increasingly irrational thoughts. She looked up to find an incredibly filthy child had sat next to her. Susie sniffled- not from crying so much as from the dust he'd kicked up. "It- it's that mean kid, Aahva..." she said, tears still falling from her face. "He stole my... my... *achoo*!"

Susie sneezed, then rubbed her nose on her sleeve. "...Stole my hackysack..." she finished softly.

PixelatedGlory

Grent wasn't really sure what he could do at first. The poor girl seemed to really be distraught about something. She didn't appear to be hurt...

She had looked up when he spoke to her and Grent immediately noticed the black eye. That changed things a little. Grent didn't consider himself to be a fighter and indeed had lost many fistfights to the other kids back home. But this reminded him of his little sister being picked on, and that made him angry.

Grent noticed that the girl was either too upset or too ashamed to take his hand so instead he awkwardly patted her on the back. What was her name? He tried to remember her name but he wasn't sure if he had heard it before. Aavha however, that name he knew. Grent hadn't really dealt with him much so far but he had heard he was mean and liked hurting people.

Then the sneezing started. Oh come on I didn't even kick up that much... "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make things worse." He reached into one of the inner pockets on his satchel and pulled out a mostly clean makeshift handkerchief, made of some discarded scrap of cloth. "Here, use this instead of your sleeve," he advised, handing it to her.

He waited a moment to let her get herself a little more put together and then softly but firmly added, "Let's go have a little chat with the bully. If we can't get it back then maybe we can get you a new one. Either way he wants you out here crying so we'll start by solving that first."

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Susie looked up at the boy, sniffling. She reached out for the hankerchief, gingerly taking it and blowing her nose. "Do... do you really mean that?" she said, rubbing the tears out of her eyes. "You'll really help me?"

Susie blew her nose again. "But... but what if everything goes wrong?" she asked, quivering. "We cant tell anybody! Aahva never ever gets in trouble, the teachers always give him a pass! I heard Kana and Liam tried to stand up to him once, and they got in trouble!" The girl was now visible shaking. "I- I'm really scared..."

PixelatedGlory

Grent shoved his hands back in his pockets, wiggling his fingers in the fresh potting soil he had put there earlier. "Why wouldn't I help you? Can't just leave you here crying on the ground alone. It's a nice day. When you're ready we'll just go talk to him, there shouldn't be any harm in that."

As Susie started to get panicked again, Grent took his hands back out of is pockets and put one arm around her shoulders. Unfortunately he forgot about the dirt and there would be issues with handprints. "That's why we're not going to the teachers. Just going to talk to him. If things get bad you run. I'll deal with the punishment. Really hope it doesn't come to that. I can't afford to be sent away.

"I can sit here with you for a bit if you want, but if we don't go soon he might do something to your hackysack," he added softly.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Sniffling, the girl stood up slowly. "Thank you so, so much!" she said, smiling in disbelief- as if she'd won some kind of award. "My name is Susie, Susie Rainfeather. I think Aahva went that way..." She pointed towards the castle wall. Two small figures could be seen sitting against it, seemingly in conversation. "Um..." Susie said. "Y-you can lead the way..."

"I really hope this goes well, I don't wanna get in trouble..."

***

"Nice one, Aahva!"

Beatrix Evans sat against the castle wall, paper and quill in hand. Aahva stood in front of her, holding up the stolen hackysack triumphantly. "I know, right? I traded her a black eye for it, retarded bitch had it coming."

The two children had an unusual friendship. It had started out as an agreement- Aahva wouldn't bully Beatrix if Beatrix didn't tattle on Aahva. They begun hanging out because nobody else wanted to put up with them, and the two became nearly inseperable as a result.

Aahva slumped down next to Beatrix, tossing the hackysack into the air and catching it. "So, what do I do with it? Trade it back for another black eye?"

Beatrix grinned at the Thanati boy, her eyes seeming to ripple. "Aahva..." she began slowly. "Aahva, you gotta throw it into the wishing well." Aahva's eyes lit up, and the two friends began to laugh...

PixelatedGlory

Grent smiled back at Susie, "Nice to meet you Susie, your name sounds so calm. Makes me think of a light drizzle-just enough to make the ground nice and soft..." He cleared his throat, "Anyways I don't know why Aahva was picking on you, but lets go get your hackeysack back."

He could see two figures where Susie had been pointing. Does Aahva have a buddy? That might make this a little harder. I don't really want to get into a fight and risk getting in trouble. Maybe he was worrying over nothing-it could be another victim of the bullying. Grent shoved his hands back into his pockets to play with the soil inside as a way of calming himself.

As they walked closer to the castle wall Grent knew that the second person wasn't a victim, or at least wasn't at the moment. The two other kids were talking loudly and laughing as they sat together. How could he go from hurting someone like Susie to relaxing up here without a care. What a jerk.

Grent tossed a look behind him to make sure Susie was still following and then stepped close to where Aahva and this other kinda ugly looking girl with blue hair were sitting. "Hey, I think you have something that's not yours Aahva," his voice was a little more loud than he had planned but it got the message across, "Give it back."

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Susie followed behind Grent nervously, staying in the boy's shadow. "What if this goes horribly wrong and Aahva beats us both up?" she thought. "I don't want to get him hurt too!"

"Does he really like my name?" a smaller voice in her head asked. "Nobody's ever told me that before..."

The girl shivered nervously as the approached Aahva and Beatrix, mentally preparing for the worst...

***

Aahva nudged Beatrix as the two children aproached them, snickering. He sized up the filthy looking boy as he spoke, crossing his arms smugly. "Susie..." he said, a shit-eating grin plastered onto his face. "You never told me you had a girlfriend!"

The blue haired girl next to him laughed- a shrill, condescending noise. "You can't just take his hackysack from him!" she said, twirling her hair with her wand. "He just got it back! Susie is the real thief!"

"N-no I'm not!" the redheaded girl stammered. "Grent, don't listen! She's lying!"

PixelatedGlory

Grent noticed that Susie was practically hiding behind him as he went to confront Aahva. Is this girl really that scared of an argument or is Aahva really that dangerous of a bully? And why did Susie think he would be able to get away with anything? He doesn't look all that special to me.

Grent nearly laughed when Aahva referred to him as Susie's girlfriend. Instead he grit his teeth and tried to hold a stern look on his face. That was the best insult he could come up with? Really? "Do you really not know the difference between boys and girls Aahva? I guess that does explain a few things...," Grent replied with feigned concern.

Even as he talked to Aahva Grent made a point of getting even closer to Aahva and his friend, trying to make them uncomfortable by standing over them.

He then turned his attention to the blue-haired girl. "Why should I believe you? Why didn't he go to a teacher rather than beat her up to get it back then?" Grent was fairly certain it was lie, since he had found Susie beaten and crying on the ground. However there was a slight possibility that Susie was lying too. Either way if a teacher got involved there would be trouble. It was Susie's word against both Aahva and this other girl. Grent couldn't claim he had witnessed any of the theft.

Grent nodded at Susie's stammering and replied softly, "It's only polite to listen to what Aavha's girlfriend has to say. She must be so proud of her boyfriend, beating up girls to take their toys."

Eckhart_Von_Musel

"We're not dating!" Aahva and Beatrix said at the same time. The boy had clenched his fists angrily, while the girl's cheeks had turned bright pink. Susie had to stifle a giggle- she'd never seen the Thanati boy this upset before.

Clenching his teeth, Aahva held up the hackysack for Grent to see. "This? It's this you want?" In a single motion, he spun around and threw the toy high into the air towards the castle. It landed on a small outcropping, just barely visible from where they were standing. The boy laughed as Susie cried out in dispair. "Have fun getting it down, retard!"

Aahava and Beatrix would walk away laughing, and Susie slumped onto her knees. "I-I brought that from home... It reminded me of m-mom and dad..." she said quietly, tears rolling down her face. "N-now I'll n-never get it back..."

PixelatedGlory

Grent grinned wide at the reactions from both Aahva and the girl with him. He didn't really want to antagonize him too much but he clearly had hit on some strong feelings there. If he had been more of a bully he might have tried to play those strings a little more to rub their faces in it but that just wasn't how Grent was.

"Yes that is- oh." Grent was disappointed but not terribly surprised what happened to the hackeysack. He watched quietly as it flew through the air so he could try to remember where it landed. He then, genuinely confused, asked after Aahva, "Wait, what's a retard?" It wasn't a word that was used where he grew up.

Finally Grent looked back at Susie as she was crying and on the ground again. Jeez, even my little sisters don't cry that much. Grent felt really bad for the girl, but there were things the bully could have done to the hackeysack that would have been way worse. Heck, he could have probably beat Grent in a fight and it wasn't like Susie was going to do any better.

Grent walked over next to Susie and knelt down to be at her level, wrapping one arm over her shoulder. "It'll be ok. You don't need it to remember your parents right? And come on, we live at a magic school. I'm sure there's a way to get it back down." Grent smiled at her, "Think of the positives. We aren't in trouble and Aahva and his friend got embarrassed."

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