Chapter 8: Happening before Change
Normal POV:
"In all my years of teaching I have never seen such level of destruction in my library! Not to mention they were caused by the princes! The ones who were supposed to be setting examples! None of the princes in the past centuries had done such damage to the school before!"
The six princes all stood next to each other in the School's Headmaster's office while Mrs Brook gave them a good long scowling. If it weren't for the fact they were in front of the Headmaster's presence either Kiva or Blitz would have made a teasing comment on the librarian's age. In Butch's mind he is constantly blaming his rivals for the outcome while Boomer is thinking why did his brother, Takaaki, know about the mysterious book. Brick for once didn't live up to his good-prince reputation when he totally ignored the librarian, feeling quite unhappy about the destroyed book since it really caught his interest. On the other hand only Beast were taking into consideration of what the librarian were saying and felt guilty as his blush only grew when the realization of breaking the school's properties dawned on him.
"–How do you think you'll replace the book you've destroyed?!" Mrs Brook suddenly yelled, successfully gaining the attention of all the boys whose mind was wondering off.
"Do you even know what The Book of Guardian is?!"
"Not really ma'am," Brick responded with a few murmured 'no' from the others.
"For generations this book have been passed down with the knowledge of legends and even spells relating to ancient legendary creatures and beings," the brown-haired librarian glared at the boys with her purple eyes. "In there there's histories that cannot be found in any other books in this world! That was one of this school's most treasured possession that all six kingdoms entrusted us with."
"If it's so important then why is it in the library to begin with?" Blitz muttered.
"We were hoping that the students will be able to learn from its history," the headmaster replied for Mrs Brook. "There are many valuable lessons you can learn from its knowledge."
"But what about the spells in it? It's it dangerous for students to just be able to learn it?" Boomer asked.
"No one can cast the spells to begin with," Mrs Brook said.
"WHAT?!" All six princes yelled.
The librarian clicked her tongue and crossed her arms, "The spells in the book are all Uncastable S-Rank Spells, it's a special type of spell that cannot be taught or learnt. For the past millions of centuries no one was able to cast any of the spells. No one will be able to activate it so it's safe for students to read. Right, Headmaster?"
A nod came from the hooded man.
The boys stared at her with dropped jaws and round disbelief eyes.
"What? Were you hoping to cast some of their spells?" Mrs Brook raised an eyebrow.
The boys shook their heads furiously.
"So what do you think their punishments should be?" the headmaster voiced as he stood by the tall castle window, his voice as husky as ever.
"I don't know…every time I think… about these few destroying the place…" shadows started crawling out from under the librarian, "And especially the Book of Guardians!" The air started shaking like what happened in the library and the room fell dark, Mrs Brook's purple eyes suddenly turned red.
The boys cowered in fear as the older woman looked as if she's growing in size as she loomed over them, her teeth seem to sharpen into fangs and her nails started to turn into claws.
"Calm down, Mrs Brook," the headmaster's calm voice sliced through the air like a knife. The room started to lightened up again. "The boys didn't know better. It's probably partly my fault too, since I never brought the students attention to these details."
Mrs Brook turned to the cloaked man and bowed. "No it was my fault. I should have placed a stronger protection spell on the books and library. I never thought that the princes' powers were strong enough for that level of destruction – still a pitiful amount of power damage though."
A irk mark appeared on the boys' head, except Beast. 'Pitiful amount of power damage?...' they thought to themselves.
"But all in all, they've broken too many school rules in this one act, they cannot be let off the hook," Mrs Brook said, "You'll start by fixing up the library, that won't be the end of your punishment though, your real punishments will come soon enough."
…
In the end all six of the boys ended up repairing the library on their own. When Airy, Takaaki and Raven offered to help, the librarian flat out rejected their offer. So in the end they only sat at the side and watched as the boys piece the room together, Tsume even showed up just to tease Bloodfang as they worked, pissing off the second prince of the Wind to the point that he almost destroyed the half repaired library once again but the other princes held him down as Butch tied him up with an enchanted vine and Beast froze him the an ice-tomb just to prevent the Wind prince from doing any more damage.
It took the boys a full week to repair the library, they missed out all their classes during this time so they ended up with a heap of homework they need to catch up with during the weekend.
It was late in the afternoon when Blitz headed towards the Earth School Gate, the back of his head aching; he swore that Butch dropped that bookshelf on him on purpose. The sky was turning orange and the clouds were turning pink.
Blitz noticed two figures at the gate and immediately recognized his closest soldiers he grew up with.
"Your Majesty!" the one with dark blue hair, Tsuki waved. "Finally done with the library?!"
He waved back as he reached them. "Yep, finally."
"But it really shouldn't have taken you a full week, right?" Mirai asked. "I mean, it's the other princes that was helping."
"Well, we could have been done within one or two days but Mrs Brook took this chance and remodelled the whole library," Blitz sighed and rolled my shoulders a bit, it feels a bit stiff. "Never thought she could be this evil."
"Let me take that." Tsuki reached for his bag, noting the stiffness in the white-haired boy's muscles.
"It's heavy," Blitz warned as she took the bag from him which is full of the whole week's school work.
Tsuki fell forward with surprise, not expecting the weight. "What's in here? Rocks?"
"It's fine I'll carry it," Blitz held out his hand to get it back. "Nap," she backed away a bit but the prince just took it from her anyway.
The prince swung his bag onto his shoulder with ease – while Tsuki still tried to make a grab for it – and started making his way to a carriage that has no wheels that randomly poked out of the ground. A huge mole head suddenly came out of the ground in front of the carriage when the creature felt Blitz's footsteps near it. The mole had no eyes and a pink 'star-nose' (appendages ringing its snout), it had a sandy-brown pelt that had grey streaks on them, big white claws that's covered with soil and it also had these two long antennas.
"Hey girl," Blitz patted the mole creature's nose, her sensors wiggled around to feel Blitz's hand. "Tsuki, Mirai, let's go, I have something I have to take care of as soon as possible."
The two girls rushed after their prince and got onto the carriage, Mirai in front of the carriage and Blitz and Tsuki inside the carriage.
"Something to do with the other kingdoms?" Mirai asked as she grabbed the mole's two long antennas.
"Huh? No, not this time. Why do you think everything have to do with the other kingdoms?" Blitz huffed and scratched his head. "Just go."
"Yes, Your Highness," Mirai murmured and tapped her foot.
A roof came up from the back and caved the carriage close, glass window closed the front and either side of the carriage, completely blocking Mirai on the outside. Mirai pulled on a helmet and goggles before giving the antennas a tug. The carriage trembled and started sinking into the ground, when they were completely submerged into the ground the two lights in front of the carriage was lit, revealing this tunnel. Mirai gave a pull and the mole was tunnelling through the ground the next second, the creature was going underground so fast that the whole carriage shook.
Blitz looked out the carriage only to see the earth walls passing in a blur.
"Blitz-sama."
Blitz blinked and turned to the dark blue haired girl next to him.
"Is something bothering you?" Tsuki asked, "You're not acting like yourself."
"I'm fine," Blitz replied, once again turning away from the girl, "Just thinking about something…"
…
"Boomer!" a voice could be heard yelling across the harbour, "Get out here! I know you're back!"
Boomer furrowed his brows slightly as he sat behind a bush, hugging his knees, clearly hiding from the person as he heard another bellow of his name.
"Bro, she waited like the whole afternoon just to ambush you," Takaaki said, peering over the bush.
"Don't do that, she'll see you," Boomer said to the older blond.
Takaaki sat down beside his brother and crossed his legs. "We cannot hide here forever you know."
Boomer heaved a heavy sigh and rested his chin on his knees. "But I really don't want to get into an argument right now, I've been dealing with the other princes' fights for five whole days."
"BOOMER! Your ship is still here, I won't let it pass to the castle. Man up and face me!"
They watched Rachel stomp off furtherer down the harbour, looking through smaller fishing boats for any sign of the second prince. Boomer spotted a few standing-designed wave-scooter just at the corner of the river where it curves towards the palace, he recognized the mark on the wave-scooters, showing they're from the palace.
"Takaaki!" Boomer called and dashed out from behind the bush towards the wave-scooters.
"W-what?!" Takaaki only realized what's happening after a few seconds before stumbling after his brother. "Hey! Say something beforehand next time!"
Rachel suddenly spotted the two and started running in their direction. "BOOMER!"
Boomer leapt onto one of the wave-scooters and blasted a surge of magic energy into the handles where the energy-absorber were, Takaaki followed. The motor at the back of the scooter burst to life, the scooter zoomed off up the river.
"Your Highness?!"
Boomer saw two of the boys that lived in the palace next to the river, realizing the wave-scooters must have belonged to them. "Sorry! Come back to the palace on the ship!" he yelled at the boys as he passed.
The boys only nodded dumbfounded as they watched Boomer and Takaaki sped up the river towards the palace.
"Boomer, you coward! Stop running from me!" Rachel yelled running after the two boys but they disappeared out of sight on the fast scooters.
…
"Raven, you're sure none of the paint got into my hair right?" Butch pulled his long ponytail to the front again to check.
"Yes, yes, Your Greatness, only a few specks of dust got in it," Raven yawned as her prince fussed over his long silky black hair that went way pass his waist even though it's in a high ponytail. The two made their way through a part of their kingdom's jungle slowly.
"Screw that Blitz, I'll get him back for trying to pour paint over me." Butch clicked his tongue, flicking his hair back behind him before mumbling to himself, "I'll have to wash my hair when we get back…"
"Well, you did try to murder him with a bookshelf," Raven pointed out, "Poor Beast was the one who cleaned up your guys' mess though, I feel sorry for the little gentleman."
"Psh, oh please," Butch snorted, "He's such a girly prince though, have you seen how he keeps his hair? He looks just like a girl."
"I don't want to hear that from someone like you!" a irk mark appeared on Raven's head as she pointed her index finger at the boy.
"What? The ladies love me," Butch smirked and gave his cousin a wink with his one showing eye. "Who wouldn't like a man with a samurai look?"
"You mean those ancient warriors you read about from other universes?" Raven rolled her eyes. "You probably look nothing like them, but I'll admit, those bangs of yours that cover your right eye makes you look good."
"I look good even without them," Butch draped an arm around the indigo haired girl's shoulders.
"Too bad that eye has a problem," Raven said and suddenly lifted up his bangs just as they walked into a clearing of the jungle that has sunlight streaming through the leaves intensely. A ray of light hit directly on Butch's eyes.
"Oh my word, Raven!" the boy swatted his cousin's hand away and held a palm to his right eye, crouching down on the spot, "Ow….there's no problem with it, you know that… It's just a bit sensitive, that's all."
Raven only laughed at Butch as he tried to calm his irritated eye.
Butch was about to send Raven another irked remark but a flock of birds suddenly flew over their heads. Their abnormal screeching and vicious batting of their wings caught the two teens' attention. The number of birds flew past was countless and the amount didn't end even after a few seconds.
"Butch," Raven was about to say something but the forest-eyed boy was already jumping up into the branches of one of the trees.
Butch made his way through the branches of the tree like as if he was walking on a flat ground, he climbed up onto the top of the tree within seconds. Bursting through the leaves at the very top he send a wave of energy to his feet so that he could stand right on the leaves of the treetop.
Butch frowned as the birds still continue to fly pass, and there wasn't just one flock of birds, there were many flocks of different species all fleeing in the same direction.
"What's going on?" Raven's voice sounded behind Butch, she stood on a thick, long vine that she sprouted out from the jungle floor.
Butch's eyes widened as he located the spot where all the birds are bolting from. A cloud of thick, dark grey smoke spiralled up into the sky from behind a large hill up ahead.
"Raven, there." Butch pointed.
Raven let out a horrified gasp.
"If I am not wrong…" Butch spoke, his voice was frightening calm, "One of the border village in located in a forest right there, isn't it?"
Raven looked over to the prince with wide eyes. "Butch, you don't think that–"
"Raven, get us there!" Butch commanded and jumped onto the vine that the indigo haired girl was on.
"Y-yes, My Lord!" Sensing Butch's seriousness, Raven hurriedly kneeled down and touched the vine she created, Butch also got onto one knee and wrapped an arm around Raven's waist. A purple light surged through the green vine the moment Raven's fingertips touched it, causing the vine to grow bigger and longer into the air.
Birds dodged the plant as the vine suddenly curved backwards and like a trebuchet, flung the two out in the direction the smoke emerged from.
Butch squinted against the wind that smacked against his face created by the speed they're traveling through the air. Hues of red and orange could be seen the closer they got to the smoke. Flames licked up from the treetops as a raging fire completely engulfed a huge land of forest right at the edge of the border. The village could clearly be seen right among the flames as people were trying to get each other out of their houses and escape out of the forest.
"We're going to land now!" Butch yelled as he felt gravity started pulling them towards the ground, he can already feel the heat from the fire blasting against him.
A purple orb formed in Raven's hands as she was about to grow out another vine to caught their landing when Butch suddenly spotted something. He's eyes widened but quickly narrowed as he made out the shape of people from across the border. A green light formed in Butch's free hand as a huge dandelion seed twice their size appeared, Butch's grip tightened around Raven as a gust of wind suddenly blew them towards the border that connects to the Fire Kingdom with the help of the dandelion seed.
Raven let out a surprised scream as they pulled higher into the air instead of down. "Butch?!" They flew right through the smoke just as another wave of wind blew into them, sending them furtherer from the village and fire. "Butch! We've already passed the village! We'll cross the border at this rate!"
"I know!"
They flew right across the river-border that separated two kingdoms. All of a sudden, Butch let go of the dandelion seed and the two of them tumbled towards the ground at a high speed.
"Lost Runes: Space Halt!"
Purple-black runes enveloped the two teens right as they were about to crash into the sandy floor of the dessert, the runes burst into dark purple mists and adjusted the two so that they landed on their feet before swirling around them and vanishing. Raven was about to yell at Butch but immediately shut her mouth the moment she realized they're not alone.
Butch glared up at the figure standing on a higher raised ground a few feet away from him. His forest green eyes met a pair of blood red ones.
"Is this your doing?!" Butch waved a hand behind him at the blazing forest across the river border that they've long crossed. "Brick!"
Brick gridded his teeth as he gazed at the fire, they were so close to the border that they could hear the screams of the villagers desperately trying to escape the from the burning flames.
One of the boys that was with Brick suddenly drew his spear. "Get off our land! You're trespassing the Fire Kingdom's territory!" The four other boys and two girls – all from the Fire Kingdom – each pulled out their own weapons and surrounded the Butch and Raven. But before they could attack, Brick lifted a hand, halting the group.
All this time, Butch's glare didn't waver from the redhead. "You crossed into my kingdom, just to set a defenceless village on fire, do you have no honour at all?!" he bellowed, "I thought we agreed that this part of the forest will be left untouched until the Season Deer and the Freckled Sparrows are no longer endangered!"
"T-that's your kingdom's own problem!" one of the Fire girl shouted.
"As if you'll keep any promises too!" another boy added.
Raven glared at the boy, a streak of purple line suddenly oozed out from the corner of her left eye and down her cheek till her jaw.
The boy jumped with shock but quickly composed himself and leaped at the two intruders.
"STOP!" Brick's voice boomed, once again halting his men.
Butch stomped the ground as thick, brown vines with dark purple thorns sprouted from the ground below Bricks feet and wrapped around the redhead. Brick winced as the thorns dug into his flesh.
"Prince!"
Brick shot his group a glare, signalling them to stop.
"Answer me," Butch stalked up to the Fire prince and his vines yanked the redhead closer so that they were nose to nose. "Why. The. Heck. Did you attack that village?"
The vines tightened its grip even more.
Brick stared back at the Wood prince calmly. "No. We didn't attack your village," he replied, "We do keep our promises, we know how important Season Deer is. We're not stupid even to want to kill them and we will never attack defenceless people."
"Then why the hell are you here?!" Butch growled.
"My men was just practicing some of their techniques," Brick answered honestly, "Nothing more."
"That's funny," Butch let out a chuckle, "So you're telling me that you're training out here right by the border, not to mention you guys are fire users and you didn't set my village on fire intentionally?! The river-border is enchanted so that none of the other kingdom's weather could affect each other's so there' no way your kingdom's natural heat could be the cause of it." He grabbed Brick's collar sleeve and slowly raised up a balled fist, ready to punch the redhead.
But before the Wood prince could land his blow, another series of scream sounded from the forest as a loud creaking sound could be heard.
"Butch, that can wait, we have to help our people first!" Raven shouted, looking back at the multiple trees that's breaking apart and falling to the ground by the fire.
Butch clicked his tongue and shoved Brick away, his vines releasing the Fire prince. "I don't have time to deal with you now, but just know that this means war."
"As if we're not fighting already," Brick muttered softly to himself but the raven-haired boy heard him.
"You just brought another battle upon your kingdom sooner, that's all," Butch hissed in the redhead's ear before dashing back towards his land, Raven followed closely.
Brick stared after the two Woods with a deep frown, a grey stormy cloud could be seen far off in a distance, but by the looks of it the rain cloud wouldn't make it in time to extinguish the fire before the whole place have already turned to ashes.
"Prince…" one of the Fire girl called out to the redhead.
Brick spun around and stared at the seven teens from his kingdom with such hostile glare that made the teens shrunk back in fear and horror.
"What the hell was that?!" he roared, "Practicing your long range fire shooting by the border?!"
"Your Highness, we didn't mean to–"
"Look what you've done now!" Brick took one step forward, causing the teens to shrink back even more, "Because of your carelessness, we might go into battle in just a few days when we could have gotten a few months of peace! We may be enemies but we don't kill innocents!"
"We're sorry, Your Highness!" the group all fell on one knee and bowed.
Some flames blew out from the corner of Brick's mouth as the air grew hotter than it already was. "If I wasn't passing by he would have killed you all without a second thought!"
"It was an accident…" one of the boys whispered.
'I have to help…' Brick thought as he looked back at the forest. 'But that'll just make us look remorseful.'
After a long pause the redhead turned his back on the blazing forest once again. "We're going to report to the King," Brick snapped and stride away, his men followed.
…
"I am sorry but I have to ask you to go faster," Beast semi-yelled through the minor snowstorm at his wolves. "I am running late, really late."
The wolves barked at each other as they pulled the sleigh faster through the snow, Storm too barking from his seat next to the Ice prince. Beast chewed on his bottom lip, greatly regretting not taking his Magic Powered Sled that day. He completely forgot that it was that day and had left school later than usual, not to mention he just had to be caught up in a snowstorm on his way back. Luckily his wolves came to pick him up even though they waited a bit because of the delay (caused by Butch and Blitz).
Beast let out a white-misted breath and raised up a bit in his sleigh, he could see his the outline of his palace through the storm up ahead, his vision slightly tinted orange through his goggles.
A hard jolt vibrated through his sleigh as he suddenly landed on the brick covered street of the town that surrounded the palace. The streets were empty, everyone must be in the town hall so Beast didn't have to dodge anyone and headed right towards his castle.
He burst into the courtyard of the palace. Hearing the barking of the wolves the two guards by the main entrance quickly opened the big double doors of the palace just as Beast's sleigh skidded to a halt right below the staircase.
Light streamed out from inside of the palace, his personal butler and a few male servants was already standing in the doorway as Beast rushed up the staircase; little Storm followed, struggling to jump up the stairs with his small clumsy legs.
"Mr Frost, I am terribly sorry–" Beast started as he reached the doorway but was cut off by the butler.
"My Lord, it doesn't matter. The memorial ceremony will start any moment now!" the butler was already pushing Beast away from the entrance towards his quarters, some of the servants followed, they completely ignored Storm who was still climbing up the stairs. "You're not even dressed yet," Frost scowled as he pulled Beast's scarf and goggles off.
"W-wait please, my wolves–" Beast looked back as Storm finally got onto the top of the staircase outside the entrance.
"Jason will take care of them," Frost said just as one of the servants swept the puppy up before he could chase after them. "The rest of you get Prince Beast ready!" he commanded the servants that followed behind him.
"Yes Sir!"
…
I was hoping that I can complete a whole chapter of Summoning in one go but I couldn't so I split it into two chapters. Not going to spoil anything but the good stuffs are going to happen in Chapter 10. I'm already started with the next chapter so hopefully it'll be out soon.
Thank you for all your support, I know I didn't update anything in a while since I lost a lot of motivation to write, a lot had happened to me so I was struggling but I hope you'll continue to support me even if you come here once in a while.
~ Blackrose in the Moonlight