Dire Wolf

Chapter 5

"Okay, so the three kings that ruled the immortal and mortal worlds are Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades."

I looked at the boy sitting in front of me who is reading the same notes that I am studying right now, "Zeus the most powerful and youngest of them all, Poseidon the middle child and the most amiable of them, and finally, Hades, the eldest and the most unapproachable."

"Well, if I rule control the underworld and afterlife, I will look unapproachable to anyone. But is it really the truth?" I asked my friend, that looked up and inclined his head towards me curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, is Hades really unapproachable, or it's just how mortals back then perceived him? I mean, we are naturally afraid of the dead and dying. Did we extend that fear to the god who presides over it without ever really knowing what is his real personality?"

Surt put down his notes and grinned at me approvingly, which made me blush a little, "You really think deeper than me, Keenan. I just take what I am told at face value, but you go further than that. Maybe this is what Ms. Peregrine told me that I am lacking."

"Lacking what?"

"Understanding," he replied simply as he stretched his muscled arms and made me sigh when I saw them out of admiration and jealousy, "You see, she told me that I believe everything that she says, but I have a bit of problem understanding. The reason behind them."

I nodded and sighed once more as he yawned widely that showed his awfully odd set of teeth.

They are perfectly white but what makes them unique is the set of fangs protruding from both sides of his mouth that made him more feral looking.

"You're very handsome, athletic, and popular. Why bother hanging around with me?"

He suddenly looked at me incredulously when I asked a question out of nowhere that caught him off guard.

"Why the heck are you asking me that?!" he exclaimed loudly that made me smile a little.

He looked more and more pleasing to the eyes because of his rather expressive face.

"Just answer the question, Surt. Why?"

My friend took a deep breath and sighed before looking at me straight into the eyes, "I already told you the first day we met, right? I am way too different from others. They shunned and instinctively try to avoid me at all costs while the others looked at me as if I am an eye candy or something to please their eyes and fantasies."

"If I tell you that I like your appearance, will you avoid me as well, Surt?" I asked bluntly that made him smile lopsidedly as he tries to cutely find an answer to my question.

He then scratched the back of his head, and I saw him blush a little, "Well, if it's you, then it's fine."

"Why?"

"Why? Because I think we are the same when all things have been said and done, Keenan," he said matter-of-factly, which made me stop and think about myself and how we connect with each other, "You are an outcast yourself."

I looked at him for answers, "Am I?"

"Yep. Everything you used to describe me applies to yourself as well. Handsome, athletic, and popular. A face on the level of those precious and out of reach children of the nobilities that leads us, a body that may look frail and weak but earned the respect of the fighting club and popularity that rivals mine. I am jealous, Keenan."

We both laughed when he said that he is jealous, and I feel that the last barrier separating us has finally broken down at last as we looked sheepishly at each other and afraid to meet each other's gaze for a moment before collecting ourselves and calming down a bit.

"But to be perfectly honest, I am jealous of you as well. You have a great arm and body. Do you often exercise, Surt?"

He jokingly flexed in front of me before nodding, "I always run up and down the mountains every morning before going to school. Naked."

"Do you really have to say naked, Surt?" I asked coldly, but deep inside, my mind is imagining things that I shouldn't.

My friend just chuckled and grinned, "Just checking if your awfully impassive face can produce more expressions I rarely see. Anyways, that's the truth. I have to run naked."

"Why?" I asked suspiciously that made him smile devilishly in my direction before standing up and putting his mouth near my ear.

"Because I do "something" after running to "release" the stress, Keenan. Wanna see me do "it"?"

I don't know what came to me when I automatically grabbed his neck and performed a guillotine choke suplex on him so hard, I flung him several meters away from the gazebo we are sitting just now and into the shocked group of drama club members who screamed out loud when Surt suddenly dropped from the sky in a painful thud at the middle of their rehearsals.

Before I can even react, an angry teacher appeared from the ground, and I know we are in deep, deep trouble.

"Prefect's Office, both of you!" he screamed loudly as he checked on Surt, who is thankfully and surprisingly unhurt after the fall and is now laughing out loud in sheer glee, "I will be telling this to Ms. Peregrine as well, just you wait! History undergraduates acting like cadets in Alricer Province's military schools, what in the world is happening?!"

I just gathered my notes and shoved them at my back as I followed the angry teacher without bothering to look at my friend, who is still laughing loudly behind me.

-0-

"You threw him one hundred meters away with that body of yours?"

I just sighed in embarrassment when Ms. Peregrine entered our classroom in a huff before sending her humungous shoulder bag crashing on the teacher's desk.

"That is actually pretty impressive, Mr. Loussier," she said in an amazed tone that made me sigh even more, "I mean, Mr. Shimizu here is a six-foot-tall muscle-packed boy, and you just flung him like a ragdoll without overexerting yourself. You are full of surprises indeed."

My friend sitting beside me nodded quickly in agreement, "I know, right, ma'am? I mean, he just grabbed me by the neck and tossed me away without batting an eyelash. Isn't that something else?! I never thought I can like him even more, but I just did!"

"Well, while I personally have no qualms with your roughhousing, I would prefer if you do it in a place where no one will see you. I hate going to the Prefect's Office as much as you do. That woman is a font of neverending gossips and hearsays, and sad to say, most of them are not true, so I better avoid going to that place if I were you and you wish to keep your secrets, well, secrets. Do we have an understanding, Mr. Loussier?"

I nodded my head slowly at her, "Yes, Ms. Peregrine."

"Good, now make up with Mr. Shimizu, then we will start my class. There's only two of you here, and I'd rather not have you going for each other's throat. I seriously don't want to go through all that again."

To my surprise, he grabbed my shoulder and pulled me up in a big warm hug, "I'm sorry for sharing too much information, Keenan. I will make it up to you, I promise."

"Yeah, sorry for overreacting. I never have a friend before, so I don't really know how to behave or react," I confessed. That made him hug me even more as our teacher exclaimed happily.

"Aww, now if all my students can get along well nicely like you two, then my teaching life will be Olympus on earth!" she said wistfully after Surt finally let me go, and we returned to our seats to begin our class finally, "Speaking of Olympus, can anyone of you tell me where it is located?"

I chuckled at what my teacher said and grinned, "You speak as if it still exists now. If it even existed at all."

"Okay, I won't be expecting a serious answer from Mr. Loussier, you answer, Mr. Shimizu."

Surt nodded and recited what we studied a few days ago, "Mount Olympus is located off the coast of Maharlika, a few hundred nautical miles north at the dead center of Gearth. There lies a majestic island where the deities reside, and it is also said to be a gateway to the upper atmosphere where the aerial immortals and a gateway to the underworld."

"In reality, it is nothing more than a graveyard of ships and most tropical storms that didn't manage to reach the united republic's homeland pass," I interjected dismissively as I pulled out my copy of geography book from my minor class, "Known as the Abyss of Scylla and Charybdis, that treacherous part of the ocean is the most dangerous and avoided waters in the world. While scientists pointed the reason to its central position and gravitational anomalies for extreme and destructive waves and weather, new explanations from folklorists puts forth a rather controversial explanation that a series of "supernatural" powers are hiding something from the outside and keeping them out."

I then looked at our teacher and friend before raising an eyebrow, "Logically speaking, I am more inclined to believe the scientific explanation rather than the supernatural one."

"Why so?"

"Why? Because at least the scientific findings are based on facts, reason, and logic, Surt," I said patiently that made him scratch his head as if I am the unreasonable one, "If you want to believe what random storytellers suggest, then be my guest."

Our teacher just sighed in disbelief at what I said before slumping back to her chair as if giving up trying to convince me of their point of view, "Three months into your major and you still as close-minded as ever."

"I am open-minded when it comes to facts, but supernatural explanations won't cut it. Sorry, Ms. Peregrine," I said with finality that seemed to push her patience finally.

To our surprise, she suddenly closed the door and locked it before covering the windows with curtains before leaning in front of her desk, and looking down on me menacingly.

"We have a tough customer here, Mr. Shimizu. I guess it's time for me to give him his first "special assignment," don't you think?"

For the first time since I met Surt, he looked scared and in panic, "I think this is a bad idea, Ms. Peregrine. He is not an Ogawaran, not even a Kalalitan. A mortal, for godssake! He might lose his mind if you gave him homework."

"No, he is different, Mr. Shimizu. I am sure you can feel it in your instincts that he is no ordinary boy. Gods, how long has it been since, well, I don't want to say it since I am not sure myself," she then opened her hands in front of her face and closed her eyes in deep concentration before chanting some odd words that make no sense whatsoever, "Ethereal, forever and invisible, undying winds to my hands. Wind Element: Aerial Orb!"

At first, I chuckled since nothing happened, and I wondered if it's a sane idea to choose History as my major.

Now I know why it's only Surt who was left in her class.

But then, a blast of wind came from nowhere and went to the hands of our teacher, who cupped it circularly before opening her eyes and smiling at me triumphantly.

"For your first ever project, make a case study on the composition of this orb of wind that I will be given to you for research purposes. Do research as well about wind manipulation and tell me in a two thousand words findings your take on this to be submitted on Monday," she then threw the invisible orb in my direction that I caught in absolute horror and shock and I feel that there is really something in my hands that I cannot see but feel, "I will put it in a jar if I were you, Mr. Loussier. If you shoved it in your bag as is, well, it will be like mine."

I just look in absolute horror as Surt scooped the "thing" from my trembling hands and put it inside a large jar he got from the back of the classroom before carefully placing it inside my backpack, "Be careful about it, Keenan. Ms. Peregrine is a very powerful demiurge. A simple elemental invocation from her is enough to summon a tornado. Handle it with utmost care."

"Demiurge?"

"A type of a demigod, mortal, if you will, Mr. Loussier," the history teacher chirped as she opened the doors and windows once more after what seemed to be a resounding success for her side. "But I digress. I am really looking forward to your submission next week. If you managed to come up with a completely logical, fact-based explanation about the nature of that thing in the jar, then I will gladly recommend you myself to the Applied Science Department's Dean, and they will accommodate you with high grades."

I gulped as the jar inside my bag rattled dangerously, "And if not?"

"You will have to stay here in my department and accept the fact that reality is stranger than fantasy," she said simply that made me groan loudly, "I am giving you the chance to shut me up and prove once and for all that everything that I was spouting off in the past few months of your classes with me is nothing more than a figment of my imagination. Heck, you can even report me to the Royal Ministry of Education for educational malpractice because I am spouting off nonsense and lies to my students."

She then looked at my seatmate, who seems positively sure I will not solve the riddle our teacher just gave me now.

"You are allowed to ask Mr. Shimizu's help regarding this matter, though I am sure you will be "more than capable enough" to solve it anyway. Judging by your fanatical belief in science and high grades from your last school in chemistry, physics, and biology, you can definitely come up with a probable explanation with that matter."

I tried to call her bluff and raised my head defiantly, "Am I allowed to research on the internet and conduct physical tests with it?"

"Oh, please do. However, let me just warn you that if you want to conduct stress tests on that ball of air, do it outside. You can thank me later, Mr. Loussier," she said in a huff and clearly indicated that she is rather annoyed that I will be using the internet for this matter, "Do what you will. Just be careful not to drop that jar."