The story is set in the Chronicles of Libera world. It's about a young Hakaan named Tobias who attends the Mal'ur Academy several years after the New Era of Banishment. He is haunted by the enslaved past his people endured and longs to make a life of freedom for himself. The answer to many of his problems may lie with the Dragonriders of Zanoll. Blessings can be strange indeed.
Strange Blessings
by S.A. Thorup
50 BA
Early Fall
Zanoll
Tobias
found his face meeting the floor.
The
Hakaan's beak clacked against the stone, and his breath jerked out of
him in a rush. He blinked his great round eyes, his lungs trying to
recapture their wind. His wings were limp in surprise.
“Stupid
lupy,” one of the human boys sneered, leaving Tobias with a crude
gesture. The boy and his three friends disappeared in the traffic of
the Mal'ur Academy hall.
Tobias
got his wolfish feet under him, gulping in air and shaking his head.
He was barely upright when people began bumping his shoulders in
passing.
“Is
he clipped?” one centaur demanded, stopping in front of Tobias. He
looked the Hakaan up and down and cursed loudly. “He's not! I
demand Banishment!”
Several
other students laughed, pausing to jeer at Tobias. Tobias curled his
dark brown talons into fists.
“Get
out of the way, Jodrick,” he hissed. “I'm done with the jokes. I
just want ---”
“Shut-up!”
the centaur Jodrick snapped, stomping a hoof barely fringed with the
longer fur of adolescence. “You're Banished!”
Several
curses and calls of Banishment followed. Tobias flinched his wings
out partway, making several of the students jump back.
“You're
less than a mule,” Tobias muttered.
Jodrick's
sharp hearing caught the statement, and like lightning he charged
Tobias. The lupogryph screamed, his voice echoing against the stone
and wood walls, and was caught against Jodrick's lower torso.
Students cheered and shouted. The centaur came to a grinding halt,
and Tobias' back slammed against the floor. He kept his beak shut
against several vulgarities he thought of for the centaur, whipped
himself to his feet, and prepared himself to claw Jodrick's soft
humanoid belly open.
Several
deafening clicks broke through the air, and all the students covered
their ears and went silent. Eyes turned down the hall to a tall
elven girl. Her blue and white dress, the school uniform, was
accented by the light-blue bandalo that crossed her torso. It had
multiple badges, including a white and black one that marked her as a
school prefect. In her hand was her deafening instrument, a hollow
metal tube the length of her arm with a moveable metal rod within.
She gripped it with white-knuckled hands and sent a glare not at
Jodrick, but at Tobias, and he felt a cold sensation fill his wings.
“Everyone
onward to class,” she announced. Everyone knew better than to
cross a prefect, chosen student-police of the Tycoon, or else risk
losing a grade in a class because of a bad report. “Except you,
Hakaan, and you, Morva'i.”
“He
was in the way!” Jodrick burst, stomping towards her. He was so
beside himself––if he kept blabbering, perhaps the prefect would
report him and Tobias could go free.
The
prefect scowled and yanked her arm back, pulling the rod back through
the cylinder. Tobias winced at the cracks it emitted.
“Follow
me,” she commanded, and as she turned added under her breath,
“idiots.”
~~~
| I |
© 2015 by Sarah
Bailey. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment