Golden Thorns Chapter Thirteen:
Coran was happy. The past couple of weeks had been the best of his life. Classes were boring but his grades were still good, especially in Oobleck's class. Of course he hadn't spoken to Weiss again but he felt like he had come to terms with his feelings. And his team. They had become one cohesive unit, so closely knit that they were almost a single entity. An epitome of fighting prowess.
Well maybe that was an overstatement, but they were definitely a lot better that they were. He was on his way to a training session now, in fact, walking briskly along the tasteful, oak-panelled corridors of their residence. He glanced through the doors as he passed. Messy dorm rooms, busy offices, storage cabinets… wait what was that. A small room, little more than a closet with a stool, small wooden chair… and a piano.
It was a simple affair. Just an upright sitting in the corner of the room, nothing special, and yet so very special at the same time. He hadn't so much seen one of them in over four years. He probably couldn't even remember how to play.
As if in a trance he walked over and pulled the stool up to it. Very slowly, practically shaking with anticipation, he placed his fingers on the keys. Start simple, C major scale. He depressed the pale white blocks… and was treated to the most grating and out of tune sound he had ever heard come from such an instrument. It sounded like it had not been played in decades. It probably hadn't, hidden away in this small room off of a back passage.
The jarring chords brought him back out of his trance and into reality. He really needed to get to his training session. However he marked this room on his scroll's map. He would come back, try to fix it, tune it up in his spare time. You never know, he might even be able to practice regularly again.
A brief jog and he was in the training fields. Partners and teams were free to come out and train whenever they wanted and at this time in the afternoon it was packed. Leaders running drills, friends sparring, even a shooting range over near the edge of the wide open space.
He quickly found his teammates among the crowds and jogged over, dodging wild swings from his classmates as they tried to land blows on their targets.
"Coran, where've you been, we've been waiting for ages," called Devlyn, his scales rippling.
"Ah, leave off Dev, you only got here five minutes ago."
"Oh, c'mon Jo. I'm always the last to training. Can't you let me enjoy it just this once."
"If you were ever here on time then you would be able to enjoy it more often."
"Yes, thank you for your input, Marie. It's always appreciated." The sarcastic Faunus sounded exasperated.
"You are most welcome" she said smugly, her honey-coloured hair glistening in the bright sun.
Coran ducked a scarily dangerous scythe swing, which he swore removed a couple of his longer hairs, and pulled up next to his friends. "So are we going to get started or what?" he said energetically
"Ah, our illustrious leader arrives."
"Shut it, Dev." He said, giving him a friendly punch on the shoulder and felt hard scales under his scarred knuckles. He reeled in mock pain.
"But why Cor?" he whined amicably.
"Anyway," Coran said, turning to Marie, "I believe that you and I have a score to settle."
"Forty-two, Forty-three at my last count, correct?"
"Stop gloating and come en-garde." They squared up and drew their weapons. Coran, his Glaive's comfortable weight held loosely by his side, point to the ground. Marie, her golden spear pointed upwards towards the sky. He struck, bringing his blade in a diagonal slash upwards. She spun out of the way, skidding slightly on the grass. He saw this and exploited it, pressing home his advantage with another targeted slice… which she parried easily with the pommel of her spear. They were now very up close and personal. Not ideal. She sent a stab up towards his eye. He dropped into a crouch and tried to knock out her legs with the haft of his own weapon. She simply hopped over it and planted the tip of her spear on the back of his neck. "Forty-two, forty- four." She said.