Odrogen Academy

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

    I woke up to the sweet smell of syrup and the sound of sizzling bacon coming from the kitchen. After dressing up in the school’s uniform, which consisted of a simple blazer and skirt, I headed to the kitchen to eat some of that savory bacon. Nobody called resist the pull bacon had on one’s senses. Not even me.

    “Good morning,” I greeted Elowen and Vellity in the kitchen. Vellity was behind the stove cooking the bacon while Elowen was on one of the many bar stools next to the counter. Elowen gave a sleepy nod in my direction when I sat next to her. 

    Vellity gave me a small and brought two plates over to us. “You should eat, because you have a long day ahead of you.” 

    “Yeah, but luckily your classes will consist of me and you, and some with Vellity,” Elowen shoved a mouthful of pancakes in her mouth. 

    I nodded to everything Vellity and Elowen told me, trying to make notes on who and what to watch out for. Students turned to peer at me as we walked through the hallways. It kind of unsettled me. I glared at some of the students who were whispering, most likely about me, and followed Vellity and Elowen into one of the classrooms. 

    The class wasn’t very big, considering it only had six other people in it. There were two other girls and four guys. Vellity pulled me to a set of desk and sat in one, Elowen sat behind her. 

    “You need to stay away from Aine and Aipathy,” Elowen whispered into my ear. I looked into the direction of the two girls thaI saw when I came into the room.

    “Why? Are they a threat or something?”

    Vellity snickered, “They might as well be a threat.” The teacher entered the room shortly after the bell had rung. If I can remember, Vellity mentioned that this was Mrs. Madigan. She was a Warlock with a sick satisfaction of drilling strategy techniques into her students. She was also a school legend, having won the schools yearly festively. That’s what Vellity filled me in on. 

    “Alright, we have a new student, if you couldn’t tell already,” Mrs. Madigan turned to me. “Well! Stand up and introduce yourself!”  I shot up in my seat and looked around the room. 

    “Uhh...well….” I stuttered over my words and looked towards Mrs. Madigan, she was giving me an irritated look. 

    I took in a deep breath. “Hi, I’m Emory Flugood. You may know my father Swendel Flugood ...I Hope to get along with you guys.” I held my breath and glanced around the room at the few students who were looking at me. A grey haired guy lifted his hand up in a greeting. The other guys around him followed his example and waved at me. Looking into the direction of Aipathy and Aine, they hadn’t even raised their heads from a fashion magazine. Well, that wasn’t rude at all. 

    Mrs. Madigan huffed. “You can sit down now. I do have a class to teach.”

    I quickly sat back down next Vellity and listened to Mrs. Madigan drone on about the strategy techniques you would use to go up against a Gwenorg. 

                                                    #

    The bell rang, signaling the end of Mrs. Madigans class and on to Mr. Rodney's class. Apparently Mr. Rodney was a meek man who never cared for teaching, so nobody really goes to his classes. Vellity says it’s kind of like a free period for us.

     “Em, you have to see the courtyard it’s beautiful,” Vellity gushed about all the flowers and fruit trees they had surrounding the courtyard. I smiled at her enthusiasm and followed her out the doors to the courtyard.

    We walked along a path that lead to the tables. I sat down at one of the tables and gaped at the beautiful orchids around me. There were so many different flowers: lilies, roses, dalilahs, and tulips. Though the strong smells was something I would have to get used to. Vellity was across from me writing down battle techniques. 

    “How was it being home schooled?” Vellity ceased her writing and gave her full attention to me. I sat up straight and pondered a moment on the question. 

    “Well, it was kind of difficult,” I said. “You know, having to be taught by your parents. They were always tough on me- they still are today.”

    Vellity nodded her head. “So, your dad is kind of a big deal these days. Has he taught you anything awesome?”

    “Not really,” I began. “He drilled a ton of fighting techniques and he helped me hone in on controlling my power.” Everything I was stating was true. My dad has pushed me to serious lengths for me to control my power, but it seems I’m a lot stronger than he is. But nobody can know that, because my power is really chaotic at the moment. 

    “So, we have our last class next block and that’s also when our lunch hour is.”

    Vellity was in the middle of explaining what the school provided for lunch, when the bell rang signaling the end of our “free” period. We headed to the cafeteria to get our food. And let me tell you this cafeteria was A-MAZ-ING. It had a chocolate fountain and a whole array of fruits. There was even a dessert buffet, and right now those strawberry shortcake bowls were looking delicious. I picked up the strawberry shortcake and sat down next to Vellity at a lunch table. Elowen was there with guy who I remember from my first class. What was his name again? Owen? Or Oswald? 

    “Hey,” he held out his hand. “I’m Orson, from first block?” 

    Oh….Orson...well I was close enough. I smiled and shook Orson’s hand. 

    “It’s nice to meet you Orson.” He smiled and started to eat the cucumbers on his plate. 

    “So, you like to eat shortcakes, yeah?” Orson pointed to my bowl filled with strawberry shortcake. I looked up at him and nodded my head. 

    “Yeah-well I actually just like strawberries,” I stated after finishing off my shortcake. Orson chuckled and continued to eat his food. 

    I stood up from the table and looked at the girls. “I’m gonna go put my tray up and then head to the restroom.” There was a chorus of ‘ok’ as I walked away from the lunch table and threw my stuff away. I didn’t really need to go to the restroom, but I wanted some peace and quiet to myself. 

    Luckily, we were allowed to go back to the dorms during lunch, because that was where I was headed now.  I passed by what seemed to be the training grounds. There were two people sparring. A girl with long brown hair blocked a forward thrust from her partners forward thrust. She then ducked away from his slices as he accelerated his movement. Their swords clashed together for a second before the girl pushed more strength into her strike causing the guy to fall back onto the ground.

    “That’s just a little of their skill put into a spar.”

    I jumped at the proclamation and reeled back to see a tall man staring down at me. I quickly stood to attention and brushed off any dust particles from my skirt.

    “That’s amazing,” I said. “They seem to have the potential to win in that festival.”

    The man chuckled. “I am Wreath. You are not wrong about that, but I can see you also have the potential.”

    Confusion settled in when he said he could see potential in me. How could he tell if he has never seen me fight? Nonetheless, I smiled at him and introduced myself. There was no harm and befriending him. 

    Wreath was the mentor for anyone who wanted to spar. Since it was a rule for us to have an adult observe the match. He offered to help hone in on my powers, since it turned out that he was good friends with my father. I left the training building with a new thought in mind. I would get to train with Wreath everyday if I wanted to. I would just have to take him up on his offer. 

    “Where were you?!” Vellity frantically moved over to me when I returned to the dorm. She checked me up and down. She was worrying over nothing, I wasn’t even out that long.

    “Vell I-”

    “No!” she gave me a stern look. “Do you know how worried I was? I thought you had got lost!”

    I sighed and grabbed Vellity’s hands. “It’s ok- I’m ok, I just stopped by the training building.” 

    Vellity took in a breath and calmed down. She dismissed me and headed to her room. I sighed and decided to try and sleep. 

#

    It was 3:00 a.m. when a knock sounded on the door. Wreath pulled me out of the dorm for some nightly training. I wasn’t in the best of moods because of this new development. Waking up in the morning wasn’t my thing. 

    Wreath lead me to the training building and threw a sword my way. He held his own sword and made a slicing motion with it. 

    “You need to be able to wield a sword with your full strength,” he dropped down into a fighting stance. Before I can get a word out Wreath is already in front of me and bringing his sword down to mine. I block his thrust with my sword and jumped out of his way. He followed my lead and jutted the hilt of the sword into my abdomen. The bow left me gasping for air when I hit the ground. Wreath stuck out his hand and pulled me up.

    He wasn’t even sweating. “You need to be faster and more efficient,” he said. “All you’ve been doing is running away from our fight.”

    My jaw clenched at the thought of running away from a fight. I wasn’t running away, it wasn’t an option. My father didn’t raise someone who was afraid of a fight. The speed of how things just caught me off guard. 

    “Look, I wasn’t running away,” I stated. Wreath looked me up and down and hummed. 

    “So you wasn’t running away?” 

    I shook my head and looked him straight in the eyes. His eyes squinted into a glare as he grabbed my shoulders.

    “You wouldn’t fight back, all you did was dodge and block,” he stated. “If you weren’t running away, then what were you doing?” 

    My eyes didn’t meet his. “It just happened so fast. I was trying to figure out what your next move was going to be.”

    Wreath sighed and gave me a pitting look. “You can’t just think all the time in a battle. Especially if it’s faced paced, you’re too slow with your thinking anyway.”

    My head sagged at the traces of disappointment his voice held. Afterall, everything he said was right. I guess my methods were a little time consuming. I’ll have to work on being more smoothe with my moves. Wreath patted my shoulder and told me that this was the end of our session for now. 

    He would come get me some day, everyday and mentor me until I showed progress. And he wasn’t lying about this either. He came by everyday at different times of the day, even pulling me out of my last class so that we could spar for more than an hour. 

    “Emory, it’s been like...DAYS since I last saw you!” Elowen exclaimed when she saw me walking into the living room.

     “I saw you an hour ago.”

    “Yeah but your always out and about,” she pouted. “You never hang out with me and Vellity.” 

    “Then why don’t we spend time together tomorrow?” I suggested. 

    Elowen smirked and agreed with that arrangement. She scouted over to make room on the couch. After sitting next to her, Elowen grabbed the remote to the TV. 

    “So what about a horror movie?”

    “Totally.”