Nend Ardhon Chronicles - Complete

Chapter 17 – Paullu’s rescue

While Paullu and Drezara were going together to their School, Byia and Guyi arrived at theirs. Strangely, two big males were standing guard at both sides of the gate and Byia dismounted Rodhy and frowned at Guyi, getting a shrug as an answer. She swam to the gate right next to Guyi, and Rodhy following them, staring at both males. When they stood in front of Byia and Guyi, he swam to the front, and stood right in front of Byia, growling at the two strangers. One of them asked Byia, not minding the growling Rodhocetus in front of him:

- “Are you students in this School? You can’t enter with this animal.”

Byia tilted her head.

- “You don’t work here. If the Principal and my Teacher allow my Rodhocetus on School grounds, why should I obey you? You can very well be a p*****t waiting to put your hands over my body, to do Goddess knows what. It’s better if you step aside, or this won’t end well for you, p*****t!”

The big males made a weird smile and gnashed their teeth. Since they didn’t budge, Byia asked Guyi, giving him a hint of what she was about to do with her front paws beginning to glow:

- “It’s a little dark in here, no? It’s kind of weird, right? Maybe I should… ‘‘flare grèine’… brighten up things!”

As soon as Byia pointed forward both palms, a bright flash of light straight at the two weird males’ eyes blinded them completely. Byia and Guyi swam around them, with Rodhy following them with one last growl to the screaming strangers. The students that were going to the main doors looked back, only to see Byia and Guyi swimming at full speed, with a Rodhocetus going after them. They moved to the side to let them pass, wondering why those big males that were at both sides of the gate when they arrived were now screaming, and rubbing their eyes. Byia ordered the Rodhocetus to sit near the left side of the front door, to wait for her, and swam with Guyi along the main corridor, straight to their classroom. As soon as Byia opened the door, she wondered why their classmates were looking at her with such worried faces. The Teacher made a slight smile and spoke:

- “Byia and Guyi, I was waiting for you both. We are expected in the Principal’s office. Where is your Rodhocetus, Byia? You brought him with you?”

- “Yes, he is outside, seated at one side of the main doors, waiting for me. Two suspicious males tried to stop him from entering, but I blinded them with a flash of light, and we ran straight to here. I don’t know who they were, but I didn’t like the way they were looking at me. They gave me the chills.”

- “Ok, I guess it doesn’t matter, anyway. Let’s go, we need to deal with this as quickly as possible.”

Byia asked as soon as the Teacher was passing by her:

- “Can you at least tell me what’s happening?”

- “I warned you yesterday, what you did to that yellow female yesterday could bring some consequences that you had to deal with if necessary, remember?”

Byia shrugged while following her Teacher.

- “She was asking for it, with all her bullying. I am not a weak little female unable to defend myself if needed like she thought.”

The Teacher bit his lower lip and remained in silence. He stopped in front of the Principal’s office, where two big males were standing guard on both sides of the door and made a slight smile to Byia.

- “Don’t worry, I got your back if needed.”

He opened the door and signalled Byia and Guyi to follow him. Inside, the Principal was seated at his chair, and in that room, there was also Byia’s former Teacher, the Gymnastics Teacher, the School Healer, and a dark grey Water-Dragon that Byia recognized from the news and posters glued on walls all over the City. It was the City Mayor, looking at her with a serious look, in complete silence. The Principal pointed to two empty chairs and spoke:

- “Guyi Mohryi, your presence here is just as a witness, if necessary. Byia Calla, this meeting is to decide your punishment for your coward attack to the innocent Nayima Fiet, by using a dangerous animal that threw her to the ground and your misuse of your Magic, that caused that poor female a serious trauma that I am not sure if she will ever be able to recover.”

Byia immediately realized that was a trap, and sent a mental message to her brother:

- …||… Brother, help me! I am being set up in the Principal’s office!... ||...

Paullu answered, and he sounded annoyed:

- …||… Now? Sis, I just seated, and class is about to start!... ||…

- …||… Come here this instant, you stupid! You said to call you if I was in trouble, I am in trouble! Get here this instant!...

||…

In Paullu’s School, he raised his right hand and told his Teacher:

- “Teacher, I need to leave, my little sister is in trouble and I must go to her, right now!”

The Teacher frowned.

- “Class is about to start, I don’t understand why you are in such a hurry to leave!”

Paullu answered while opening the window to exit the class:

- “You would if your father disappeared and you suddenly became responsible for the happiness of your little sister.”

Paullu swam at high speed without noticing the dumbfounded look on his Teacher or the sighing females in his class, deeply touched by his words. One of them spoke in a trembling voice:

- “I would die if he arrived to save me like that… He is so cool…”

In the Principal’s office, Byia tried to gain some time and asked:

- “I am already condemned without anyone asking why I did it? And why that bully is not here, to accuse me and explain why she thought she had every right to make all sort of plans to hurt me?”

The Mayor almost spit in anger:

- “How dare you call my sweet niece a bully? Nayima is incapable of bullying anyone! She is a sweet and friendly young female!”

Byia pretended not to care about that sudden outburst and kept on staring at the Principal with a serious look.

- “It seems I am going to be punished when what I just did was defending myself from a very big and scary bully that was making me tremble in fear just by looking at her, since the first day. I don’t know what I did to her for Nayima to see me as a target, besides being smaller and quieter than her.”

The Principal nodded at the Mayor and looked at Byia with a serious look.

- “If you were having problems with the young Nayima Fiet, you should have come here and talked to me about that. I would do everything possible, to find out what was happening.”

Byia pointed with her right claw thumb to the Mayor.

- “For what? As soon as you found out she was the niece of the Mayor, you wouldn’t do anything. It’s funny, I always thought the Principal of a School would do anything to protect the students and make sure they had a safe environment to learn, instead of bowing to the whims of a spoiled brat, no matter who was her family. It’s also strange that we are having this meeting that for sure is already decided on my expulsion, without my mother present, according to the School’s Rules. Yeah, I memorized the School Rulebook, and I know very well that I am entitled to a parent or a designated guardian to defend me. I guess in this case, all the rules go out the window. You should be ashamed, Principal…”

The Principal gulped and tried to maintain his serious look.

- “You are going to deny that you broke a few bones of Nayma Fiet during Gymnastics?”

- “No, but everyone saw that was an accident. I defeated her and restrained her fair and square. She just needed to give up. Instead, she tried to escape, and her weak bones broke. Totally not my fault if she is too stupid to admit defeat.”

The Mayor punched the Principal’s desk and shouted:

- “How dare you insult my sweet niece in my presence, you brat? You even ordered your animal to attack her, and you used a strange Magic that caused her a seizure!”

Before Byia or anyone else could say anything, the sound of a fight in the corridor drove their attention to the doors. Suddenly, the doors were opened and Paullu entered, with the two big males knocked out on the floor behind him. Paullu leisurely placed one hand over Byia’s left shoulder and asked the Principal:

- “Why my sister is here and why four weird males tried to stop me from coming here? What sort of mischievous plan are you up to, Principal? Didn’t you learn last time when you brought me here because of a misunderstanding and my mother almost took your head off for being stupid? Let me guess, you are accusing my little sister of something without trying to check what happened? She told me that she was being bullied by Lodon Lunn and a certain Nayima Fiet, and instead of doing something about it, you tried the easy way, right?”

The Principal gulped, he remembered how mad Teera Calla looked when Paullu was in front of him, accused by all his Teachers of being distracted in class. It was Teera that explained to him while squeezing his neck that Paullu was smarter than any of his Teachers and he just got bored and preferred to study all alone, without accompanying the class. Before the Principal could say anything, the Mayor exploded in anger:

- “First this little female attacks my sweet niece Nayima and now her brother attacks my bodyguards? You are in for a lot of trouble, young one!”

Paullu tilted his head and disguised a smile.

- “Well, well, now I get it. The Mayor comes as soon as his bully niece gets in trouble for all that she was doing to my little sister and the Principal twists his tail at him, like a scared snail. Just let my mother hear about this, Principal. If I recall correctly, last time she said if she ever had to come here again because you were too incompetent on your job, she would bite your head off. Well, if the School rules haven’t changed since last time I was in this School, this is when I say I want to make a call and the Principal is obliged by law to attend my request. So, are you going to let me make my call or are you going to bury yourself even deeper, dragging with you the Mayor, in a crime?”

The Mayor gulped, the situation was getting out of control. He was not counting that the older brother of that annoying little female would arrive before he could deal with her. The Mayor turned pale and pointed to the communicator on the left side of his desk.

- “You… can use it. The screen is that wall at your right. You… are going to call Teera Calla, aren’t you?” 

Paullu pressed a few buttons on the small console of the communicator and while the wall was brightening up and turning itself into a big screen, he answered:

- “No, someone even better, considering the Mayor is right here.”

The Mayor stared at the screen and he almost fainted when he saw who was the female that Paullu contacted. No other than the annoying reporter for the Global News, Triri Ventbend. She made a big smile when she saw Paullu Calla, right next to the Mayor and spoke in a sweet voice:

- “Paullu Calla, so nice of you to call me! I see that you are with Mayor Taldeb Fagoyuth! What is the reason for your call, considering that you were avoiding me for several big Moons? You finally agreed to give me an exclusive interview?”