The Hunter Mage

CHAPTER EIGHT

Vernon woke up suddenly, there wasn't any disturbance he just stopped sleeping. He opened his eyes slowly, the lights were out but he could still see clearly enough. He looked around and sure enough, everyone looked to be very much asleep.

The night after dinner had gone off without a hitch, he had been introduced to most of the boys and some were pretty nice. A few were snobbish and some even went as far as not to talk to him.

The girls, however, were from a different community and he had only been able to meet one and that was because she had walked up to him and asked for his name but had immediately rushed away before he could ask for hers.

He had heard them giggle as she gave them the information but the boys soon took away his attention and he was just trying to keep up. After dinner, they had to clean up and get ready to sleep.

A young man had walked into their quarters after dinner and everyone had screamed, "Sir Phillip!" Vernon had stated quizzically at him wondering if he was the male version of Madame Rachel and Madame Jessica.

He was dressed in all black too but the shirt was a bit faded and there was a sprinkle of white around his collar. He also had on a little bow that he had tied on with a piece of cloth. Vernon thought he looked very professional.

He had taken care of the boys' hygiene and Vernon had been appalled to find out he was the only one who couldn't wear his sleeping clothes by himself. Though nobody made fun of him he couldn't I being self-conscious.

Dev had blow-dried his hair and he had been completely taken aback. He had so many questions to ask but he wasn't in the mood. He was curious but he wished he wasn't here and that he could go back home.

They had asked him what his magic was but he didn't know. Everybody seemed shocked but they didn't ask further questions and he was glad they didn't. He doubted he had answers.

As soon as the expenditure was over, he had immediately laid in bed pretending to be tired, and even though he didn't fall asleep until almost everyone had, he didn't move from his bed.

He stayed unmoving for a while after waking up but then felt the need to use the restroom. He tiptoed out of bed and made his way to the toilet as quietly as possible. He returned a few moments later without waking anyone and just sat on his bed staring at a spot in the wall.

His first thought was his family and if his mother was fine. He hopes the new baby was too and that this didn't make his mother sick or worse because she wasn't very strong.

The next thing he thought about was Nevil's reaction. He couldn't comprehend why Nevil was mean to him and try as he might, he couldn't stop thinking about it.

He had half the mind to go wake Nevil and ask some questions but decided against it. If Nevil wanted to fix this, he could. He laid down in bed again, hoping he would fall asleep as he did not know what activities he would have to do but most of all was because he didn't like the idea of being the only one awake at such a late time.

He got comfortable and closed his eyes but nothing happened. Finally tired of keeping them shut, he opened them and just stared at the wall backing the rest of the room. A few moments later, he was fast asleep.

He wasn't even asleep for thirty minutes when the bell went off. Vernon jerked up, hard. He could literally feel himself get pulled out of the dream world and for the first few seconds, he was completely and utterly confused.

He snapped out of it and jumped out of bed. The room was rowdy again, everybody seemed to be in a hurry. He wondered what the problem was. Sir Phillip was back and was helping out in any way he could.

Suddenly, the door burst open and Madame Jessica appeared at the entrance. "Vernon!" She yelled at the top of her voice as if her dramatic entrance wasn't wild enough.

Everybody already froze at her intrusion and now they just turned their attention to Vernon. Vernon kept his eyes down, hating the attention. "Are you ready?" She asked. He nodded and prayed she wouldn't c***k a joke about how she was sure he couldn't do it himself but she didn't instead she said, "Come with me."

He slowly walked towards her, his eyes following his every movement. "Get on with your business then!" She yelled at them and everybody scattered.

"Where are we going to?" Vernon asked after she closed the door.

"To the TONM," she replied casually.

"TONM?" Vernon's expression was priceless. "What is that? Is that someone's name?"

"What?" She chuckled. "No, it isn't. It means Testing Out New Magic."

Vernon frowned even more that it didn't make any more sense to him than TONM. "Okay," he muttered, not wanting to ask any more questions, afraid Madame Jessica would scold him for asking too many questions.

"You have no idea what that means right?" She asked just as they took a turn. She glanced back to look at him.

"Nope, I have no clue." He said under his breath but it was loud enough for her to hear.

"Well, it is self-explanatory. Everyone had to go for the Testing of New Magic to determine what type of magic they were affiliated with. Most are usually easy but since you don't know what kind of magic you do, Vivk might actually have some work to do."

"Who is Vivk?"

"You're about to find out." She replied and stopped directly in front of a door that boldly said, DO NOT ENTER!

It also had a lot of other scribblings that were hard to read and Vernon figured it was probably done by other children. Most of them didn't have any meaning and that was when he noticed another sign closer to his height that said, DO NOT WRITE! IF CAUGHT WOULD SPEND A WEEK AS MY ASSISTANT.

Vernon wondered if that worked but there wasn't exactly any way he could know for sure because the scribbling didn't look too old and neither did the sign.

Madame Jessica knocked a little too loudly, Vernon was beginning to think everyone here was a little too loud. A voice shouted almost immediately and even with the closed door, Vernon found himself flinching. "What?!" The voice said and pulled open the door with enough force to pull it off the hinges.

"Vivk! Why else would anybody knock?" She yelled back at him, folding her hands.

Vernon wasn't listening, he was busy fighting off laughter. The figure in front of him wasn't very tall and for a while, he thought it was another child but that wasn't what he found funny but rather the outfit the said Vivk was clad in.

He had on a mask that hid his eyes and a helmet that covered his head. He was sturdy and had huge arms. His pants stopped just over his knees but his top covered most of his body but his belly button was weird.

"Are you a dwarf?" He blurted out before he could control himself. He had only heard about them in stories his mother read to him.

"What did you just call me?" Vivk asked, obviously annoyed at the question and Madame Jessica snickered covering her mouth to prevent herself from laughing out loud.

"I'm sorry," Vernon blurted out, stretching his hand out in front of him and taking a step back. He felt like he had just said the wrongest thing ever.

"What did you just say?" He asked slowly, putting one foot in front of him as if he wanted to walk towards Vernon.

"Don't scare the poor boy and yes Vernon he is a dwarf. You've never seen one before, right?" He nodded a little too fast, he had known they were short but he had not expected them to be this short.

"My name is Vivk!" The dwarf said. "Never call me dwarf because you children don't say it because I am a dwarf. No, no, you spoiled brats say it because I'm short."

"Yes, Vivk!" Even though he agreed Vernon could already hear himself saying dwarf not because he was being disrespectful but he has never seen a dwarf before and what better way to explain that he saw a dwarf than to say, dwarf.

"What kind of magic do you use?" Vick asked changing the topic almost immediately.

It took a while for Vernon to keep up but Madame Jessica answered the question for him. "We don't know and we are hoping you'll be able to figure it out.

"What?!" Vivk screamed.