Chapter Three: Crystal

To the students, I was a legend. To the teachers, I was a disease, and to the principle, I was already in the ground. By successfully wining two trials, I gained immunity from ever competing in them again. The trick was that it wasn’t just me, but everyone related to me, by blood or by marriage. This fact was obviously the reason behind the newfound friendship in the more ‘popular’ crowd at school. I would still eat lunch with Chriss, Cody, and Dary, but besides that, I was fresh meat. I have four free periods a day and it gets boring. Therefore, I spend my free time in the chemistry lab in the middle school building. One time, I was playing around and ended up making all the boys and the male teacher pass out, after I mixed a strong smelling chemical and some rotting oyster shells. Besides a few unwanted outcomes, everything came out as planned. The chemistry lab was fun and a good way to take my mind off things, but the science teacher was, well, a very strange person.
Mr. Strachan never wore normal clothes. He never matched his colors or his socks. Or shoes. Or anything else that usually comes in a pair. He never forgot his morning juice box and had a stash of them in his desk. He usually wore both a tie and a bowtie with his shirt buttoned to the wrong holes. His beach blond hair made sense, since he is oblivious to everything. One time a few kids made a human ladder to the ceiling and half the class escaped through the vents.
He was a terrible teacher, but when you needed him, he was a great friend. We would talk for hours after school about the most random things. Did you know that during the average human life, you will consume 70 assorted bugs as well as 10 spiders as you sleep? I didn’t until Mr. Strachan told me.
Today our conversation turned into a heated debate. “I still think ninjas are better,” I nagged as Mr. Strachan gasped.
“Never! Pirates always beat ninjas!” He roared.
“Oh please! Ninjas are epic. Pirates are lame!” Honestly I liked them equally, but I love a good argument.
“How dare you! I once knew the bravest pirate on the seas!”
“Blackbeard?”
“I said bravest, not hairiest, you young whippersnapper! Now get off me lawn!”
“I’m not on your lawn you old grouch!” I was laughing so hard I fell off my chair.
“Oh really? Then maybe you’d like to walk the plank huh! How bout that!”
“Only if the crocodiles are hungry.”
“Oh don’t worry they are.”
“Good. Ladies first Mrs. Strachan,” I gestured for him to walk out the door.
“Don’t you bring my mother into this!”
“Or what? You’ll cook me in a pot?”
“Crystal, that made absolutely no sense,” Mr. Strachan stated as he got up from his desk and started to walk over to me.
“Your one to talk,” I joked as I got off the floor.
“That is positively and completely not false.”
“Man I wish I knew what ever language you’re speaking.”
“You know more than you think Crystal.”
“You tell me that everyday Mr. Strachan. When are you going to tell me why?”
Mr. Strachan sighed and walked past me to a cabinet. He opened it hesitantly and withdrew a funny looking box. The material it was made of reminded me of something but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. Mr. Strachan placed the box on a table and blew the dust off it.
“It’s made of the same material as the sword your father gave you. I thought you would have a better chance of figuring this box out than your sword. You know it’s not meant to be hallow.”
I slowly walked over to the table and leaned my head down so it was level with the top. I concluded that it was the same soft blue and white metal as my sword. I reached out a nervous finger and touched the side of the lid. It was vibrating. I lifted my head and put it closer. Yes, it did make a buzzing sound like the sword. I filtered this information through my head and realized something.
“You knew my father didn’t you? How else would you have this box.”
“Yes I know your father. Told me to give you this when I felt you were ready. I should have given it to you when you got out of the hospital but, I miss placed it.” Mr. Strachan smiled and clasped his hands together. “Well you have it now so why don’t you take out your sword and the other trinkets and do some experimenting?”
“Sounds like a good way to kill some time,” I said as I placed the box into my backpack and bolted out the door.
I stopped by my house to pick up the sword, bracelet, and armor, on my way to the stables. Once it was all shoved into my backpack, I wrote a note to the Siserles’ to let them know I would be out late. I raced over to the stables behind the school, being careful to not be seen. I tend to draw a crowd these days.
I walked over to the last row of stalls and opened the very last one in the corner. Halo didn’t care for other horses very much. He is a dazzling dappled grey stallion with an attitude of a prince. His spoiled lifestyle is party my fault. Too many sugar cubes I guess. I decided to go bareback, so I just hopped up onto his strong back and headed out the barn door. Starting at a canter, I cleared the boundaries of Higher and slowed to a jog until I was out of Better.
Once we were deep into the forest in between Higher and Mist, I decided I was far enough out for some experimenting. First, I tried on the armor. When I did get it on it felt nothing like chain mail or heavy coverings. It was light and breathed with you as you moved. The color was a beautiful dark turquoise with silver lining on each scale-shaped piece. Besides the scaled shirt, I found some leather boots, leather pants, and a hooded cloak.
The boots were black and flexible with some sort of water resistant coating. The cloak was a soft green and brown to match the ground of a pine tree forest. All of it was comfortable and begged to be tested. I’m glad I brought my bow and arrows. I strapped the sword to my waist, put the charm bracelet on my left hand, grabbed the box, and started searching for deer tracks.
I followed some tracks for almost an hour before I finally saw him. A stunning white buck with a full rack. During the winter, you can only find the white ones. Luckily, I was down wind from the grazing animal, so I quietly found a spot behind a bush and strung the bow. Crouching, I placed a feathered arrow on the string and pulled hard against the wood. My right wrist settled nicely to my chin and I felt my shoulders relax. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and let go. Before the buck hit I ground I had strung another arrow just incase I missed the heart the first time. No need for the second arrow today.
I cleaned the blood from the arrow and sent a flare into the sky. Citizens of Better and Higher hunted as much as they wanted, but the government did not like people bringing their kill into the compounds. When you made a kill, you set a flare for a Dragger to come. Draggers literally drag your kill to a barn outside the compounds to be cleaned and butchered. I only had to wait five minutes until a Dragger showed up in the clearing.
“Hey, Crystal,” the boy said desolately.
“Hey, Scarred. Community pile for this one, but send the rack to Mr. Strachan would ya?”
“No prob. And, uh, Crystal?” Scarred said as he roped the deer and wrapped it to his horse’s saddle.
“Yeah what’s up?”
“Never mind..,” he sighed as he hopped onto his horse and rode off into the woods.
Scarred wasn’t much of a talker. Figures since he hasn’t gone to school a day in his life. His parents teach him all he needs to know he says. He got his name when he was only ten years old. Six years later, and you can still see the scars on his neck and shoulders where the wolf got him.
Since had tested the cloths for tracking and stealth, I was eager to test the blade. When I used it in the trials, I had more important things to worry about than the way the sword felt. I remounted Halo and headed towards a small river that runs through the forest.
When we got there, Halo started to drink and I slipped easily off his back into the cool water. By gathering driftwood and other various river muck, I constructed a make shift practice dummy. I drew the sword with slight hum and then it started vibrating. I felt it all the way up my arm. Then the vibration turned to an intense burning on one spot of my wrist. I dropped the sword in pain, grabbing my wrist, and trusted it into the cold river water. The water helped, but I could still feel a burning sensation on the inside of my wrist.
I looked up at Halo and he was standing over the sword. He snorted on it and then walked over to my backpack. He looked at me, then the backpack, then back at me. Remembering what Mr. Strachan said, I reached over to the backpack to get the box. I turned it over and over drawing the nerve to open it. I stared at it for at least an hour before I noticed the sun going down. The pain in my wrist was still strong and it fueled my thoughts of opening the box. What could be in it? A note from my father explaining everything? Probably not. I decided to find out.
The inside of the box was dark blue velvet with silver trim. There was a mirror on the lid that was cracked with dried blood on it. There was a small cloth covering something on the bottom side of the box. Ever so carefully, I lifted the thin layer.
At first, I thought it was just a plain brown-red rock. Then I realized it was coated in dried blood like the mirror. Halo clapped his hooves on the ground and I jumped. I looked up to see two glaring eyes and death white teeth attached to the body of a wolf. Not just any wolf: The Siren Wolf. Known to every compound from Ainrofilac to Nogero. Ainrofilac’s feuding compounds of Better and Higher were famous. But, The Siren Wolf was legendary. He was the reason for Scarred and many others like him. You either were found in pieces or carried away screaming bloody murder from an encounter from The Siren Wolf.
The Siren Wolf cocked his head to the side and stepped closer. I saw sparkling eyes, a soft black, and teeth that weren’t even sharp. Puzzled I stood up and called Halo closer to me. The Siren Wolf looked down at the box, then at the sword, then back to me. He seemed to sigh with relief and relaxed the fur on his back. The Siren Wolf came closer and I gasped at the blood red patterns stained in his fur. He just sat down and looked back at his fur sighing again. This wolf wasn’t scary. A little intimidating, but he seemed harmless, and almost human-like in attitude.
I picked the box up to close it and The Siren Wolf stood back up. He looked at me as if he was waiting for something. I put the box down and he sat. I walked a few steps back and he lay down. Mr. Strachan wasn’t kidding when he said do some experimenting. I eagerly picked the box back up and the wolf stood enthusiastically. I shuffled over to the river, keeping an eye on the wolf, and placed the box under the water. When the blood was washed off, I turned around to face the wolf.
“Now, Let’s have some fun,” I smiled as I touched the blue black stone.
The Siren Wolf howled with pride, instead of pain, for the first time in his life.