fleets: Yowch, it's almost been a month since my last update. I'm so sorry, my life is just suckily hectic especially with all he end of he year projects. :(
Anyways, now that I updated this one, I should start the next chapter of TU.
Chapter 7: Ezlo
A few weeks later, Ms. Tutari arrived to class much more nervous than usual. Her usual schoolteacher composure was completely gone, and she couldn't stop wringing her hands together and walking over to the window to check her faint reflection in the glass. She was at it for ten minutes after the first bell had rung before one of the girls raised her hand to ask a question.
"Ms. Tutari, what are we doing today?"
The teacher stopped pacing. "What's that Kari?" She looked startled, and didn't seem to be aware that she had a class to teach. When Kari repeated her question, Ms. Tutari just shook her head and resumed her uneasy fidgeting. The class looked at each other wondering if anyone else knew what was going on.
"Ah, I hope I wasn't too late." A wispy voice said. Ms. Tutary literally snapped to attention as the door opened and two elderly minish stepped into the classroom. The one who had spoken was buried under his flowing white beard, and he held an ornate staff that had been whittled into a bird's head. He held himself in a manner that was deceptive of his old age – his back was held proudly and his dark eyes glittered with youthful alertness. The minish's fir green robes swooped after him as he made his way to the back of the class and took an empty seat. His acquaintance bobbed his head politely to Ms. Tutari before joining the old sage.
"We apologize our visit was announced so unexpectedly," the acquaintance said. Vaati figured he was a town minish from the way he quickly brushed away some pollen dust from his immaculately sharp navy clothes. "It was the only way we could keep the parents from swamping us. We're not the only ones these days that visit villages almost without warning to look for candidates for apprenticeship. Those parents are practically rabid!" He laughed.
"Yes, I understand. Though I wish we could have a better warning so we can be ready to make everything more accommodating for celebrated people such as yourselves." Ms. Tutari grumbled as politely as she could. She began to ready the day's lesson.
The minish in green laughed harshly. "But that is exactly what we want to avoid! None of this nonsense with fake hospitality. Now please, ignore us babbling old folk and continue on with what you were doing."
"Of course." Ms. Tutari clapped her hands together to get the class's wandering attention. The class was quiet, but almost all eyes were on the two elderly visitors who returned a pleasant smile back to the curious group of students. "Everyone, we're very privileged to have master sage Ezlo," the minish in green raised his staff in acknowledgement, "and his friend Terrari visiting us today. Please give them a warm welcome."
Delta elbowed Vaati when he noticed his friend pretending he didn't care. Vaati shrugged and continued to look bored. In truth, however, Vaati couldn't stop thinking about a possible apprenticeship. He couldn't help smile when his best friend gave him a wink and mouthed you're going to lose the bet, sucker.
"Okay class, today's lesson is going to be on adding big numbers in the hundreds." She gave a slight pause as though expecting a disruption. On cue, Delta groaned and dramatically flopped his head on his desk and buried it in his arms. If the lesson had been on a subject other than math Vaati would have done the same to signify boredom, but he was just an average student when it came to mathematics. To save face, however, Vaati leaned back and rocked on his chair so that it made annoying creaking noises. Ezlo and Terrari watched the two disruptive boys with disapproval.
Ms. Tutari didn't say anything and walked over to Delta and Vaati with two worksheets in her hands. The two visitors arched their brows in surprise when she slapped them down onto their desks and wordlessly returned to he front of the class and began the day's lesson without Delta and Vaati.
Terrari scanned the rest of the class attentively and listened in to Ms. Tutari's lesson, taking little interest in what he saw were the two troublemakers of the class. Ezlo, meanwhile, kept his eyes on Vaati and Delta with piqued curiosity. He wondered what the two were up to when both boys shuffled their books in front of them to create a wall in what they believed was in a sneaky way so that the worksheet Ms. Tutari had given them were hidden behind the books. Vaati then held out his fingers to Delta under his desk and began a countdown.
Odd, Ezlo thought as the two began to scribble onto the worksheet frantically when the countdown hit zero. They kept at it for the duration of the lecture, only stopping when Ms. Tutari asked them a question about something she was teaching the class. Ezlo was impressed that both of them, despite not paying any attention to the class, could answer Ms. Tutari's questions. The teacher didn't seem to notice anything particularly strange about the pile of books on the two boys' desks and how they seemed to have their noses ducked behind them.
Finally, ten minutes before recess, Delta quietly tapped the edge of his desk three times and threw a crinkled piece of paper at Vaati to get his attention. Vaati wrinkled his nose at Delta grinning at him. There was a sound of a long line being drawn on the worksheet, and then Vaati bit the edge of his quilt pen, trying to work out the rest of the problems he hadn't completed. When the bell rang, the two boys were the first ones out of the classroom and Ezlo could hear snippets of their conversation having to do with one of them owing something to the other.
"So what do you think so far Ezlo?"
"Hmm?" Ezlo cocked his head at Terrari.
"Did you see any students that you might want to take up for apprenticeship? So far, I personally found that boy up in the front – Lestari - to show some apprenticeship material."
"Eh, I wouldn't want to teach him," he replied, watching the classroom slowly empty itself of students.
Terrari sighed. "Ezlo, I know your status gives you the freedom to be picky about choosing an apprentice but I have to admit this is starting to get absurd," he sounded tired. "We've visited over twenty villages for crying out loud and you haven't found a single child you were even remotely interested in teaching! And yet you claim you want an apprentice!"
"I know what I'm looking for Terrari. You know I'm serious about wanting an apprentice. My newest and perhaps final project is going to be extremely time-consuming and an apprentice would be nice to take off the work load."
Terrari threw his hands up into the air. "Good goddesses Ezlo! You don't need an apprentice for that. You can just hire a work boy."
"I'm also serious about passing on my knowledge to an enthusiastic child." Ezlo stood up gruffly with a stubborn look on his face. "Excuse me for a minute, Terrari, while I go speak to the teacher."
Ezlo made his way through the maze of desks towards Ms. Tutari. She looked up in half-surprise as she saw him approach.
"You handle your class quite well compared to some of the other classes I've visited. I wanted to ask a question about one thing," he rubbed his beard.
Ms. Tutari stopped what she was doing and smiled politely. "Why, anything sir."
"Do you always handle the two boys who sit in the back the way you did today?"
"You mean Delta and Vaati?" She crossed her arms in the way an annoyed parent would. "Yes. Every day, in fact."
"Why is that?"
"Well." She began to erase the chalkboard. "They used to talk to each other so much during class that I had to separate the two, but even then they wouldn't keep quiet. I then told them I'd give extra work to whoever disrupted the class. It didn't faze them because then, they began to do whatever extra work I gave them during class time and never paid attention to the actual lesson. The first few times I caught them out on it, but then I thought, 'why bother?' They're learning very quickly on their own and now they don't talk as much in class." She shrugged. "I can't punish them for being bright kids."
Ezlo chuckled and waved his cane at the pile of books on Vaati and Delta's desks. "It seems as though they think you'll still be upset if you catch them working on their work during class."
"Yes, well, it keeps them more in control if they think I'll get upset. The only reason why I don't right now is because they understand the lessons. Any signs of falling behind, however, and I'll be sure they begin to pay attention."
"I see." Ezlo looked thoughtful. "What were their names again? The redhead and the…pale haired one?" He was about to say the strange one but that would have been wrong of him.
"The redhead is Delta and the other one is Vaati. Delta used to tease Vaati all the time when Vaati first arrived from the orphanage, but now they're inseparable."
"From the orphanage you say? I don't mean to pry, but does Vaati have no relatives?"
Ms. Tutari shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid not." She put her hand up and spoke in a hushed whisper. "I hear he was abandoned and the caretaker took him in."
"I see." Ezlo mused again. There was something about Vaati that was special. Delta was bright as well, but Vaati had something the other one lacked. He had trouble putting words to it, but he felt as though the pale boy was the one he was looking for. After a few minutes, he called Terrari over and they made their way outside. "Well thank you Ms. Tutari. It was a wonderful pleasure meeting you and your class."
"Oh no, the pleasure is mine."
Ezlo waved his cane and bowed his head goodbye. He had a bright smile on his face and he seemed determined. The old sage had a feeling he may have found the right boy for his apprentice; all he had to do now was make a few inquiries to make sure he was the right one.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Delta, look, you didn't do this right."
"Psh, how do you know that?"
"You've made a careless mistake here and here. That makes the answer 28, not 24. That also means I'm right and you're wrong."
"Let me see." Delta grabbed his work from Vaati and looked through his work. He bit the end of his quill as he went over his work while Vaati rummaged for the cookie they had bet. A moment later, Delta snapped his fingers. "Aw shucks. You're right." He looked at Vaati's outstretched hand with the cookie, then to Vaati, and then back to Vaati's hand. "Umm, I don't think I won this time."
"Just freaking take it Delta, you were faster."
The redhead shrugged and took it. "It's not always about being fast."
"It's a race dummy. You're supposed to be fast," Vaati grinned. He swiveled around on the rock he was sitting on when he noticed something peculiar. Usually there were other kids hanging around the daisies and climbing the grass, but today they were missing. "Hey, where'd everyone go?" He asked.
Delta glanced around too, and then gasped as he pointed a finger and excitedly jumped up and down at something by the school entrance. Sparks were glittering in the air and ethereal dragonflies glided in and out of existence. A mass of kids was gathered around and Delta began to run towards them. "Quick Vaati! That Ezlo is doing something cool!" He skidded to a stop when he noticed Vaati hadn't budged. "What's wrong? Hurry up or we'll miss it!"
The other boy blinked. He still hadn't moved from his perch. "…Nah, I'm not interested."
"What?! Liar!"
Vaati shrugged and turned his attention back to the worksheet. "No really, I'm not interested. It's just a bunch of sparkles. You can't do anything important with those."
"But…"
"I'm going to read these problems for a little longer." He looked at the dismayed Delta. "You can go if you want though. I don't mind."
Delta opened his mouth to say something, and then changed his mind. He stayed around for a little longer but kept throwing sidelong glances at the glittering display of magic back by the school. Finally, he shook his head sadly and ran towards the crowd of kids to catch up on the show. Vaati watched his friend hurry to see Ezlo before looking over the multiplication problems again. He still struggled a little; he needed to memorize them well because he was still iffy about them.
Vaati stared at the sevens being timed by sixes and divided by threes, but his eyes weren't really focused on the problems. He kept being distracted by Ezlo entertaining the kids with magic. Why couldn't he be honest with himself? Why couldn't he just admit that he was fascinated by magic?
Because…what's the point of wishing for something I won't be able to have anyway? A bitter thought ran through his mind. It's not like that old geezer will ever notice me.
Surrounded by a mass of curious kids, Ezlo let his magical dragonflies dance around in a circle before they burst and showered raining glitters of golden sparkles. He laughed along with the kids when they clapped and squealed in excitement. All this time, he had his eyes on the boy sitting by himself in the distance – the boy who was pessimistically confident that he will never be noticed.
fleets: I'm still playing around with what kind of character Ezlo will have. Hmmm. I'm also beginning to try to show parts of Vaati's personality that'll cause big problems later. ;)
Shadow Rukario: The beginning of the apocalypse indeed. Oh no Ezlo...D:
Diablo1123: Ah, I'm still building up slowly to the tragedy. I will be a little sad when I get there. (tear)
marium: Yayers I'm happy you like both of my stories! Sorry about the slow update.
DarkLinkvsRaineSagefan101: Delta with another sage? Interesting for sure. :) You'll find out what happens when we get there - but we do know for certain that people will die...
I luv Vaati: Considering he became Ezlo's apprentice (MC), yep! XD
Bishieluver01: I like long reviews :D. Oh, you'll see him fall. And quite a long fall at that. :(
H-bomber: Hmmm, I don't know! XD
Victoria-BlackHeart: Poor fellow. He's in denial. Again. Like always. He really does want to learn magic (shakes head sadly).
Reily96: Ooooh I'm happy you like this one! It's not an 'adventure' genre that I'm more used to writing, so it'll be interesting to see how this goes.
Peka the Corsair: Actually...you may be surprised but I don't think I'll make Ezlo the definite trigger for his madness. Part of the reason, but not all of it. I'm not sure myself, so that's why the question whether Vaati's at fault or Ezlo at fault is open ended (from the bits and pieces in TU and BC). It might evolve as I write this though. :)
Astral S. Kepeire: Dundundun! What will Ezlo do, the geezer. Actually I always kinda felt sorry for the guy...ah, I'm getting ahead of myself.