Yume- Yay! Bright finished! And what a wonderful chapter it is.
Bright-
Disclaimer- Own nothing.
Chapter 9- Learning
"Practice calling the fire and then damping it down again," Wufei had instructed.
Easier said then done.
Quatre sat on a rock in the middle of an irrigation pond. He stared at the few scraps of bark Wufei had left.
"Come on FireQuat! Burn baby Burn!" called Duo from the shore with an encouraging grin.
Heero grunted.
"Don't disrupt his concentration," whispered Trowa.
I know the fire is inside of me thought Quatre. He could feel it inside. He glared at the bark and kindling. Nothing happened. He tried imagining it heating up and bursting into flame. Nothing happened. He tried reaching inside himself and touching the light and fire but nothing happen. NOTHING!
"BURN!" shouted Quatre angrily. Nothing happened.
Trowa kicked off his shoes and pulled off his shirt and swam lithely out to Quatre.
"I don't know what I'm doing wrong." Quatre whispered as the elf came near.
"Think about what happened with Dorothy and Heero. Recreate that in your mind. Don't worry about me. I'll duck under the water if things get out of control."
Quatre nodded listening to Trowa with wide eyes and a serious expression before closing his eyes in concentration. Heero had been in danger. Quatre had been in danger. There was fear. It was dark. Dorothy's presence had tainted the air with malice. Desperation... The fire was there, inside his despair and need but what did despair have to do with a few scraps of bark and twigs?
"Is it going to take all day just for the first spark?" asked Duo trying to keep his voice down. Quatre just seemed zoned out on his rock out in the pond. If Trowa wasn't an elf he'd probably be half frozen and water logged by now. It had been a long time, thought Duo.
It was all of a sudden. There was nothing and then there was fire. The whole rock was a flame. Trowa had ducked under the water and swam further away. It lasted a moment or two and then it dampened down to what looked like a campfire centered on where the kindling had been. The kindling was ash but a small fire burned there for a good solid minute or two and then died away.
"YOU DID IT!" hollered Duo with a cheer.
Quatre gave a small smile in return. Trowa who was nearest saw that the smile didn't quite reach the young firebird's eyes. "That was good Quatre," Trowa spoke with gentle encouragement.
Quatre didn't answer. The fire felt like… Quatre thought to what he knew about the legends of the phoenix. The phoenix died in fire to be reborn in ash. A little fire was like a little death. It wasn't quite the same thing but it felt horrible. However, they needed him to be the phoenix. That need was desperate. That was where the fire was hiding.
Quatre practiced with various objects flammable and less flammable until he was better at giving the fire direction and keeping it controlled from the first burst of fire. They stopped as soon as he started to look tired.
"Will you be able to control it in combat?" Heero asked seriously.
"I don't know."
If Quatre had expected to hear a reproach at his answer, he was surprised when Heero merely nodded and ordered him to go eat a good dinner and get some sleep.
Quatre would keep practicing. They continued on to Sank, which was only two or three days away.
The Great Sank library was a part of an ancient center of learning. The school was huge consisting of seven separate buildings each a maze of class rooms, laboratories, conservatories, one grand auditorium, several lesser lecture halls, four separate gymnasiums, a small museum and art gallery and countless small oubliettes that stored the treasured junk of the ages.
Wufei reported to the others on his findings. "They've recently restricted public access to the library. In order to get in we need to be students."
"Can we break in, look up what we need and sneak out again?" suggested Duo.
Wufei frowned sharply. "No. It may take days or weeks of study to find the information we are looking for. Archival research takes time."
"I'll go register us," spoke Heero in a no-nonsense matter. "Guard the phoenix."
Quatre who had been wrestling with Fang frowned a little, unhappily. "My name is Quatre. Not, the phoenix," he protested quietly.
Fang gently grabbed a wing in his teeth pulling Quatre over and playfully licked Quatre's face. Quatre dutifully ignored Heero's cold manner and hugged Fang instead.
"I want to register 4 new students," Heero explained to the registrar.
"You will need to complete placement tests. The tuition fees are listed here. If you require student housing the fee is listed here. You are in luck. There are vacancies this year. …" The registrar prattled on about all the details of registration.
Heero filled in all of the forms and took the invoicing information along with a selection sheet for classes. He signed them up for two double occupancy dorms. Then took all of the information back to the others.
"What about me?" asked Quatre.
"We will have to sneak you in under cover of darkness, then you'll have to stay in the dorm. We will arrange the schedules so that there is always someone with you," explained Heero. The wings meant Quatre had to stay out of sight.
Duo and Wufei were sharing a room, which was probably a receipt for trouble, but Duo had insisted and Wufei agreed. Wufei did not want anyone to get the idea that the imp had gotten the best of him and he couldn't handle sharing a room.
Quatre sat in the dorm room drumming his fingers on the desk. They'd tossed a big old cloak over him and snuck him in at night but now everyone was off at class and Quatre was stuck in the room alone.
The dorm building had all hardwood floors and beautiful hardwood paneling, exposed timber framing on the roof. "Dumb old fire trap," muttered Quatre who couldn't even safely practice calling fire. He was bored out of his mind. "Dumb old Heero." He closed his eyes and thought of Fang reaching out with his empathy. Fang was having fun in the forest out of town chasing rabbits.
"…tasty rabbit.." an odd echo like voice whispered in Quatre's head. Quatre wasn't sure where it was his own mind voice imagining himself to be Fang in empathy or what. He shook his head to clear away the cobwebs.
"Dumb old Fang. Dumb old rabbits," muttered Quatre.
Of course none of this was the source of the problem that kept Quatre hidden away.
"Dumb old wings," but then Quatre was perfectly aware of what the problem was.
Heero, Duo, Wufei and Trowa stood in front of the class waiting to be introduced. Oddly enough it was the crown princess herself doing the introducing. Duo and Wufei had made their wings disappear. Duo's tail was stuffed down his pants, a practice that made him look like an ordinary boy though it was uncomfortable and made him even more restless than normal. Trowa had brushed his hair over his pointed ears and his long bang hid the exotic not quite human look of his face. Heero's fists were clenched and his expression was serious and stern. There was a good reason for this.
Seated in the third row, looking for all the world like an ordinary human, except for strange forked eyebrows was Dorothy. She smiled a sly challenge in Heero's direction.
Princess Relena cheerfully finished her welcome that took her seat. Heero was not happy to see her sit right next to Dorothy. Like best friends Relena whispered to Dorothy happily. Heero could just barely over hear.
"The one with the messy hair and serious expression is kind of dreamy."
Dorothy answered back playfully encouraging, her eyes never leaving her focused challenging stare, "Oh yes, he's a sexy hunk of man, that one. You should ask him if he'd like to join you for a picnic or something."
Heero made sure they took seats in the back of the class so he could keep an eye on Dorothy. It got worse. Dorothy seemed to have every class they did.
Heero was less than pleased when just after lunch in Art Appreciation class a small blonde with the proudest, brightest smile and no visible wings was introduced.
Dorothy looked tickled pink.
Useless trivia for the day:
oubliette – technically a dungeon with a trapdoor in the ceiling as its only means of entrance or exit. Taken from the french verb: to forget oublier. The intent of sticking someone in an oubliette was to forget about him and let him rot there.
The word is used improperly here to describe those rooms in schools that are always locked but secretly hide the lost treasures of the school or students past. My old school supposedly had violins once. I took every opportunity to get in one of those locked doors I would search for the lost violins. I found old texts, past students projects, a few antique reel-to-reel movie projectors, old set props from plays, rifle range and endless fascinating but unidentifiable items but I never found the lost violins. I did find a cello once.