The Claddagh Academy

Friendly Fire

 Blaise

            It didn’t amuse me. Not one bit. I lowered my gaze to my Conjuring for Dummies book and ignored Totem pointed stare. Over the last couple of weeks Totem and Karoo were the only two brothers who had taken my side during my fight with Kodiak. The other Doomhold were still seating at Kodiak’s table and it didn’t hurt their treason. Not at all. There were days in which the stab wound in my back didn’t even bleed and there were days like today in which Totem’s jokes made me reconsider if I shouldn’t have picked another one of the siblings to have as a second-best friend. Totem sighed and screwed his face with his gigantic hand.

            “I’m serious Blaise. It’s been three weeks since you guys fought and this cold war is getting ridiculous. Last night Kodiak made Oromir and Aramir rent all the Conjuring for Dummies books at the library so you needed to go and ask him personally for a copy. Do you have any idea how many books of those are in the library? A thousand and twelve. The twins had to travel back and forward between the dorms and the library the entire night,” he sighed again and implored me for mercy with his purple eyes, “Can you please make peace with Kodiak once and for all.”

            “No,” I said without even giving it a thought. Kodiak and I were at war. I was kind of sorry if all the other Doomhold were caught in the friendly fire but that was not my problem. Kodiak needed to learn his lesson and I wasn’t stopping until he finally understood why I was mad at him. I checked the time on the clock at the end of the cafeteria and just as I’ve predicted the mailman arrived at eight o’clock. I closed my book and got comfortable in my seat while I followed with my eyes the pixie dressed in a blue uniform that stopped by Kodiak’s table.

            “What did you do?” asked me Totem with concern and I shrugged innocently.

            “Nothing too bad,” and it wasn’t bad. At least not half as bad as it could be. The pixie asked Kodiak to sign her clipboard and conjured a large package that looked thin and square, covered in brown paper with a red bow on top. The pixie flew out of the cafeteria then and Kodiak was instantly surrounded by his siblings, who wanted to see what he had received. I heard him open the present slowly, the brown paper falling to the floor before all the Doomhold laughed loud and hard.

            Kodiak opened his way through his brothers and smiled like the cat that swallowed the milk and ate the canary at the same time. In his hand was the enchanted painting I’ve ordered in honor to our war. It was a magical painting of me of course but you could only see me from my chest and up. In the painting I was smiling and blinking before I slowly flipped him over and over, first with one hand and then the other. There was no question on who had sent him the painting and even if I was dangerously violating about a thousand rules by formally insulting a king I didn’t care. Did Kodiak really think I wouldn’t know he had sent Aramir and Oromir to pick the books that I needed for my class research? Of course I knew! I’ve seen them on my way out from the library before renting the only Conjuring for Dummies book that was not in Kodiak’s possession. The bastard.

            “I love the art,” mouthed Kodiak to me and pointed at the painting.

            “Oh, why don’t you fall on your ass and break your funny bone?” I answered back with a smile and then stopped smiling, giving him the evil eye and packed my things to walk out of the cafeteria. I was officially penniless after ordering that painting to a prestigious nymph who worked only by commission, but it has been worth it. The way I see it I would forever be flipping the bird to Kodiak and that image was priceless. Karoo joined me and Totem on our way to Delacroix’s class. She was panting and out of breath when she stopped by our side.

            “Did I miss it?” she asked me and I nodded, making her groan and pout.

            “Man, I was excited about seeing Kodiak’s face when he saw that painting,” she clicked her tongue and then shared a look with me that was all mischief and trouble, “so what are you planning on doing next?”

            “Hell no! No!” said Totem opening and closing his arms in an X. He turned to me and pointed a finger to my face, “Blaise you need to be the bigger man in this situation and let bygones be bygones. If you don’t stop this war between you and Kodiak he will raise the stakes and you don’t want him to do that. He can be a pitiful, little monster if he gets competitive. And no one, and I repeat, no one wants that.”

            “I have to admit Totem is right,” said Karoo giving me a sad smile, “maybe you have punished him enough?”

            “No and no. I’m not backing off until he understands what he did wrong. He lied to me and he made decisions for me that he had no right on taking. I’m sorry Totem but I need to teach him this lesson. If I don’t teach him what is wrong and what is right then who will ever have the courage to confront him?” at that neither of them had any comeback. They knew I was right. My friends were just scared we would take things to the extreme. Knowing Kodiak he would take things to the extreme and this time I was ready to do the same.

            Over the next few days I started to understand what Totem meant to say when he called Kodiak a pitiful, little monster. Kodiak was relentless in his need to make me back off. He didn’t fight me with big, open statements as I preferred. No, oh no. Kodiak was all about subtleness. The devil was in the details and Kodiak had perfected the art of hitting a person right where it hurt them the most.

After thinking about it I realized Kodiak had a penchant for observing the little details that would get me mad and then he would exploit those little details. Like the fact he knew I loved blueberry muffins when they have just come out of the oven to have with my coffee. Kodiak of course asked the cook to have the first batch of muffins cooked every morning delivered to the Redcaps patrolling the school grounds. He would ask girls to seat in the spots where I liked to hang around, forcing me out of the places that I loved and back to the places where he would be present. I hit my limit the next Monday when I went to the lockers to change for our Tactics to Combat class.

            Karoo had already gone ahead and changed for the class since I’d stayed back with professor Cicerone to ask him some questions about our next test. The moment I turned around the corner of the coliseum I knew Kodiak what’s up to something. Rodo and Agnarok where guarding the doors of the girls locker-room and as it was usual for them they looked as if they were born out of jokes. From all the Doomhold siblings I only feared two brothers and those were Rodo and Agnarok. I couldn’t be totally sure, but I was kind of positive their mothers had to have some giant blood in their veins. The guys were gigantic and bulky, all muscles and not enough neck. A look at their faces and you knew you were in trouble. Rodo always shaved his head and let his full beard long and unruly. Agnarok looked like a Viking god, with tiny blue eyes that always seemed to be squinting. Agnarok brushed his long, blonde hair to the back when he saw me nearing them and halted me with a hand on my shoulder.

            “You can’t pass,” he grunted, making me frown.

            “What do you mean?” I asked Agnarok, shaking his hold on me and taking a step back. Agnarok shrugged and looked to his brother. Rodo shrugged and looked down at me.

            “You can’t pass until you make peace with Kodiak,” explained to me Rodo with a hoarse voice that made me wonder if this was his first conversation during the year. Last time I checked Rodo never talked, he grunted and sometimes nodded but apart from that the guy was mute. And then it hit me. It really hit me. This was my limit. I could survive without blueberry muffins in the mornings. I was okay seating like a cat at the common room of the dorms because Kodiak had taken all my seats from me, but not changing clothes for my favorite class was something I couldn’t let go. This was the only place where I felt like myself when I was in Claddagh and I wasn’t letting him take that from me.

            I turned away from the brothers and made my way to the arena. With every step I took I started closing my mind and placing mind shields all around my thoughts. Karoo had taught me how to erect a wall around my mind and now there wasn’t any day I didn’t locked my mind to protect it from Kodiak’s powers. My wall had come all weird or at least that’s how Karoo had seen it when I first created my mind shield. When others had actual mind shields that looked walls like Karoo’s white wall covered in ivy or Kodiak adamantium fortress I had a water gate surrounding my mind. It was beautiful and Karoo had agreed she had never seen such a delicate shield before, but it was that too, delicate and thin. I had no idea if it was strong or not since Karoo had never tried to invade my thoughts without my permission and Kodiak hasn’t tried ever again since I’ve invaded his mind. I guess today we will try how strong my shields were against Kodiak’s.

            I passed some students on my way to the arena and one or two alerted me I was still dressed in my uniform but I ignored them all. I was like a Pamplona bull, fixed in my kill and at the moment all I could see was the tall figure of Kodiak while he laughed with Karoo in the arena. Totem waved a hand at me by the first grandstand and then frowned.

            “Blaise? Why are you still in your uniform?” he asked me, pointing at my skirt and jacket. I started cracking my fingers and rolling my shoulders to loosen them a bit while I passed Totem. Then I jumped over the wall that isolated the stands and landed on the arena. I could feel the commotion behind me and Totem’s curses, “Aww s**t. Talon go and fetch Mss. Olympus. Now!”

            “Why does it have to be me?” whined Talon, “I want to see who wins!”

            “Talon, now!”

            My eyes zeroed on Kodiak and then I ran with my siren speed and pushed him right in the chest, effectively taking him by surprise and making him step back. Karoo gasped and covered her mouth with a hand, staring at us with eyes that looked like a pin-pong ball. I never, not for a second lost sight of Kodiak but I pushed Karoo back and motioned for her to go away. This was a fight that had been coming for a while now and I didn’t want Karoo to get hurt. She run out of the arena and the other students that had been training jumped out of it too. The field was our and Kodiak couldn’t look happier about it. He smiled at me with those wicked dimples and titled his head to a side, making all his wild, midnight hair hung to the right.

            “So, is this how you will like to fix our fights from now on? I thought you preferred mind games but if you like getting physical I’m all about pleasing your needs siren,” he said and I could hear the pleasure in his husky voice. Kodiak was really enjoying this while I was fuming. I tried to remember that losing my head during a fight will only distract me and then focused on all I remembered about Kodiak’s fighting style. He was as fast as me and he could shift, so I needed to be inconsistent in my attack and keep him guessing until I landed a hit. Once I landed the hit I needed to retreat fast and try to unbalance him. I could only win him if I pushed him to the floor and secured him to me.

            “How dare you send Rodo and Agnarok to me?” I asked him, pushing him in the chest again.

            “It did work, didn’t it?” he asked me while lifting an eyebrow at me, “at least we are done fighting by the sidelines.”

            I moved fast then and threw him a kick to the head. Kodiak dodged the hit and did a back flip, landing on his feet and winking at me. Oh, the nerve he had! I ran to him again, this time keeping one arm up in defense and my other arm loosened to my side. Kodiak moved back, trying to get away from my range but I’d already loosened my defense and then switch feet in the last second, taking him by surprise by throwing my left fist up and effectively hitting him in his jaw. I swear I heard something crack. I don’t know what but the sound strangely didn’t satisfy me as much as I thought it will. From the stands I could hear the other students going crazy and placing bets. I think I heard Talon betting against Kodiak and that made me smirk while I jumped in my place, arms up in defense and waiting for Kodiak to get ready.

            “I didn’t know you were a southpaw,” he said to me, grimacing and spitting blood over the sand. Then he smiled wildly and shook his head at me, “this has just gotten better.”

            “Stop messing around and fight me,” I knelt and threw a lower kick. Kodiak jumped to a side and kicked down, aiming to my shoulder. I cursed and rolled over the arena, escaping him by just a fraction of a second. Kodiak secured me then, kneeling around my body and seating down over my hips, stilling me. I smirked and pushed up, head butting him and pushing him down to the arena before gaining the top and seating on his hips. I got him by the neck and pushed his head all the way down the arena. Kodiak blew me a kiss as if we were just rolling in a field of daisies and I groaned raising my fist and throwing my punch down. Kodiak grabbed my fist easily, stopping my punch and staring at me under lowered eyes.

            “I can let you win if that’s what you want, but after this you will have to stop fighting me. You will go back to having breakfast with me every morning and you will talk to me again,” he said, his voice huskier than usual and his tone serious. I frowned while I looked at him and tried to punch him with my other fist. He stopped that easily too and scowled at me, “take it or leave it siren.”

            “Do you understand why I’m angry at you? I don’t need you to even be sorry about it, I just need you to understand what you did wrong!” I said to him and I was probably more emotional than what I thought I was because my voice cracked a little bit at the end. Not my proudest moment I had to recognize. Kodiak rolled his eyes.

            “I did nothing wrong,” he said inflexibly and I groaned, pushing myself away from him and standing. We were panting but like the brutes we were neither of use refused to back down. This fight was pointless too. I realized that Kodiak had only be playing around, never fighting back, just barely defending himself and letting me win since the beginning. He hadn’t even shifted. He hadn’t even tried. I braced my hips and shook my head at him.

            “What you did was wrong. You lied and you made decisions for me. Until you don’t admit you were wrong I will not forgive you,” I informed him before turning around and walking out of the arena.

                                                                            ~~~~~~~                                                                                                              

            Blaise

            To my surprise Uriah was waiting for me when I exited the coliseum. Apart from an occasional nod here and there when we crossed paths around the campus we hadn’t talked like we had done during my birthday. He was with Nerva now and from time to time I would talk with her and she would speak dreamily about Uriah, which would make me scratch my head and wonder what girls liked about him. He was tall I supposed and mature for our age but I just couldn’t forgive the way he treated Karoo. There was a story between them and I knew Karoo was sensitive about it, so I never asked, but I kept my distance from him either way. Chick before d***s and all that jazz.

            When he saw me walk out of the coliseum he moved fast to my side, following me close. I moved faster, desperate to get to my bedroom and be alone for a while. What had happened with Kodiak had affected me and I was hating myself for it. Nothing that a good self- talk couldn’t fix. In silence Uriah followed me until I couldn’t ignore him any longer. I turned around fast and faced him, frowning at him. Uriah was a head taller than me and over the last couple of months his curly hair had grown longer in the front, giving him a more approachable look. His red eyes seemed to burn like usual but his stern expression had changed towards me. Now he looked at me with an easiness that hadn’t been there before. I crossed my arms and shrugged.

            “What do you want?” I asked him in a harsh tone and Uriah blinked, inspecting me under a thick set of eyelashes.

            “You dropped this,” he said slowly, raising his hand and showing me my backpack. In silence he passed me the bag and I nodded, taking it my hands before trying to walk away. He stopped me again, holding me by my elbow.

            “Uriah, I’m not in the mood,” I warned him and he took a step back, pushing his palms up and away from me.

            “I just wanted to let you know I think what you are doing is great. Someone needs to teach Kodiak what is good and what is bad and we both know his siblings love him too much to put him back in place. That’s all I wanted to say,” he said and I frowned again.

            “Why do you even care? And don’t you give me the same bullshit again about minding my own business. You either care about the Doomhold or you don’t. Make your damn mind about it and leave me out of it,” I turned back and pushed him out of my way. It wasn’t my finest moment, I had to agree on that, but I was tired and cranky after my fight with Kodiak. Uriah didn’t try to stop me after that and mercifully I made it to the third floor in one piece. I knocked at the grey wall and it slide to the side at the same time the elevator’s doors opened. Ignatia was flying around the control panels like always but when she saw me her face brightened and she smiled. The brownie had been extra kind to me since the Nulls attack and sometimes we will chat in our way up to the dormitories.

            “Good afternoon Mss. Darkholme. How was your day?” she asked me in her tiny voice while I entered the elevator and rested my back at one of the walls. I looked at her and returned her little smile. Ignatia skin was brown like the bark of a tree. She had long limbs and short green wings that flapped nervously fast. I could lie and tell her my day had been great but I was too tired to keep any pretenses.

            “It could have been better, I will tell you that,” I said and Ignatia frowned, pinching her little chin as if she was deep in thought.

            “Strange, you are not the only sad girl I’ve seen in my elevator today. Princess Aella was crying before and now you are sad too. I can see it in your eyes and I can smell the tears that will come after. The only difference is that you are not crying now and Princess Aella was weeping,” I shrugged and look to my feet before I realized what Ignatia had just said. I looked up fast and stared at Ignatia in shock.

            “Aella was crying?” I asked in horror. That didn’t sound right. If Aella was able to cry that meant she had a heart after all that could be broken. And why the hell would Aella be crying? She was a princess for crying out loud. And perfect, and kind, and pretty. She had a thousand of friends all around school and almost every boy from the upper years wanted to date her. What reason she had to cry? Did she break a nail or something? Ignatia shrugged too and pressed a button at the control panel. The elevator stopped moving and the doors opened showing us the common room.

            “Miss, in my experience everyone has their own right of being sad from time to time. And sometimes we show sadness in different ways. Not everything that shines is gold, remember that,” Ignatia winked at me and I nodded, still trying to process the fact that Aella was capable of being anything else but perfect. Slowly I made my way to my room and closed the door behind me. The moment I took one step in I felt hungry suddenly. Which was weird, I’ve had a big lunch just a couple of hour ago. My hands started shaking and nervously I opened them, staring at them. The hunger and the trembling hands…I knew what this meant. The siren was hungry again and it will want to feed from Kodiak soon.

            I cursed under my breath and moved to the bathroom. A long shower and a good nap will fix me for another day. After that I would need to negotiate with the siren about her feeding choices. There was simply no way I would ask Kodiak to feed from him. I will rather die than asking him for anything. Then I stopped and bit my lips while a plan started to form in my mind. Maybe, just maybe if I could negotiate with the siren I could make Kodiak understand what he had done wrong. A slow smile curved my lips and I started rubbing my hands in anticipation.