Chapter 14: Chapter 14: The Dome

The glistening gates and shining castle the children imagined appeared to be a little unrealistic as they stare at the still rather grand, but disappointingly grey dome. The building is a large dome of stone bricks with the base of the dome connected to a stone wall that surrounds the round dome. Large glowing yellow cracks spread across the whole dome. The children walk up to the main entrance of the building. Which is a large wooden door with five figures etched into it: A humanoid figure made of webs, a human figure that flows into a river, a mountain with a human face, a tree in the shape of a person, and above the other four is a sun with a person within it.

The grey-haired boy scowls at the images and curses under his breath. Sune whispers something in his ear that makes him frown but stops his cursing. Sune glances behind herself, “How does the door open?”

“Just send your energy into the hand at the center.” Oswin responds.

Fang places his hand onto the small handprint in the center of the door and a pulse of colors shine for just a moment and the large door opens with a small tremor. The room revealed is a small room with another wooden door at the other end. The way to the door blocked by a large pulsating purple worm with a toothless maw at the end of its bulbous body that wriggles strangely through the air. The base of its body connected to the ground by large bolts that go right through its purple body and into the floor.

Sune recoils in disgust at the worm and hides behind Oswin, whereas Fang has stars in his eyes while staring at the strange purple worm that seems to ‘stare’ back at him despite its lack of eyes.

“What is that thing!” The same sentence is said by two people, but with completely different tones: one in disgusted fear and the other in morbid fascination.

The grey-haired boy walks just outside of the creature’s range as he stares into its toothless maw. “Fang please get away from that disgusting thing…” The white-haired girl murmurs from behind him.

“What? But look how cool it is!” He happily points towards the worm, suddenly feeling his arm be surrounded by a wet and slimy warmth.

A terrified squeal sounds from Sune and Oswin grabs the glowing red Kumiho by the back of her collar when she tries to run over to Fang. Fang tracing their eyes back to his own arm and finds that his entire arm has been replaced by the pulsating purple worm.

“AHH!” Fang screams and tries to pull away from the worm but is unable to escape from its tight grip around his arm. He begins panting heavily, the worm finally letting go and quickly pulling away from his arm. the boy loses all power in his body as the worm pulls away and he falls backwards towards the ground. Hollie runs behind him and catches Fang by his armpits, pulling him up on his feet and holding him up. Shadowy strings wrapping around his body, the strings pulled taut. The boy slowly regains clarity and once he can stand on his own, Hollie lets go and so too do her black strings.

He shakes his head and looks at the black-haired girl with a small grin, “Thanks, Hollie.” She nods with a small smile.

Oswin walks up to the two, “I was going to explain what that did but you got a little too close.” He waits for a moment to see if anyone says anything, but they don't, “This little guy feeds off of a magical being’s internal energy. And some of the energy leaks out ‘the other side’ that is under the floor and is stored into a crystal.”

“But why…” Sune says while watching the bulbous worm, looking like she's about to puke.

“Every mage’s energy is different, and they want to record everyone who enters this place, so the easiest way is to just record their personal energy with this little guy.” He feeds his arm to the worm, Hollie and Kumiho do it next without fuss.

“NO!” Sune cries in fear as tears fall from her eyes, black strings pulling her arm towards the worm’s opened mouth. “I won't do it!” Pink mist attempts to leave her body but is blocked by glittering yellow light that causes the mist to fade.

“Come on Sune… it's not that bad…” Hollie speaks through panting breaths.

“Yeah Sune. It's just wet, and slimy, and sticky. Not that bad.” Fang teases.

“He's lying to you, you don't even feel it really.” Oswin refutes Fang’s claims.

“I'm not touching that disgusting thing!” She screams rebelliously.

Kumiho watches Fang taunt Sune and Oswin try to console her as she desperately fights against the tendrils bringing her towards the worm. “Haa…” She sighs and walks over to the chaotic scene; her red shirt and black pants tinged in a red glow as a scarlet aura surrounds her body. “It really isn't that bad Sune.” She attempts to console Sune before grabbing Sune's wrist and yanking the girl’s hand into the worm's open mouth, quickly pulling her own hand out before it clamps down on her too.

“NO!!!” She cries bloody murder, fainting right then and there, her limp body hanging from the worm’s lifted head.

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“Can't you wake her up with healing.”

“It isn't actually healing and no I can't heal mental damage. Only someone like Sune can do that.”

“Maybe I shouldn't have said all that then…” The boy scratches his chin with an awkward smile, a small amount of remorse in his voice.

“Does that mean you won't do it again?”

“Of course not.” Fang says shamelessly.

“...”

“Oh, I have an idea to wake her up!” The knave speaks with a mischievous grin.

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“Agh! Cold!” Sune shoots up, wiping the freezing cold water off her face. She grabs her shoulders while shivering, “I can't believe you'd do that to me… I'll never forgive you!” She says resolutely while staring defiantly at the group. Fang raises a finger and shoots a small sphere of water at her face. Her cold stare while water drips from her face causes Fang to cautiously back away with an odd smile.

“Thankfully I had us come early because I knew something would happen that would distract us. But I couldn't have imagined it being one of us having a deathly fear of worms.” Fang laughs at Oswin’s dry joke, Sune staring daggers at the two men.

Sune refuses to go near the worm, so Kumiho forcefully drags her past the worm that completely ignores them. Sune covers her eyes and screams in fear the entire time, only peeking through a gap in her fingers after Kumiho drops her on the ground. Through that gap she notices that they passed by the worm with no further issues.

She smiles and stands up on her feet, hands on her hips, the entire sleeve of her white dress wet with worm saliva, “See Sune. That worm was nothing to be scared of!” She tells herself before blindly walking down the large stone hallway, her eye twitching upon hearing Fang's laughter behind her. The rounded ceilings of the hallways have glowing yellow cracks all along them that brighten up the hallways much better than a simple torch ever could. Oswin leads the children through the long twisting hallways, using signs that use odd words the children don't understand to find his way around. Finally reaching an open white double door that reaches up to the top of the ceiling, inside is a large room made entirely of marble. The only things within it are strung up monster carcasses and a middle-age straw-haired man wearing a white robe that drapes over his body and floats right above the floor. The man’s bright blue eyes softly glow as he locks eyes with Oswin and frowns, Oswin lightheartedly smirking.

“Hey Osgar!” He waves playfully, “it's been a while hasn't it.” He stops right before the blonde-haired man and grins, his head and hair consumed by multicolored threads of reds, greens, whites, yellows, and blues. And once the lights fade a young man who only shares a similar voice as Oswin stands, his bright blonde hair reaching to below his shoulders and his facial features sharper and more defined. Oswin's new shape hugs the slightly taller Osgar, Osgar lightly patting Oswin's back.

“Hello little brother.” His voice tired and his eyes shining an alien blue.

Oswin breaks away from the hug and shifts back into his old form with a shine of multicolored lights, “Oh yeah, when do all the other kids get here?”

“A few hours at most, one at least.” His dark and gruff voice contrasting drastically with Oswin’s bright and young one.

“Okay, perfect, so we have an hour to test them and get them into classes before anyone can object… I think we can do that, right?”

“It's possible but they'll have to be quick.”

“Alright then, I'll leave them in your capable hands brother, but I'm going to ‘talk’ with the teachers you recommended and see if they're a good fit.” He has a mischievous grin on his face as he runs out of the large room.

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The children confusedly look around, “Come along then, I'm sure you heard we don't have much time.” He speaks very slow and methodical imperial for the children, they all nod in response.

He brings them to the first of the bodies, a large shadow looming over them as they walk closer to it. Its daunting form revealing itself as they grow near: The strung up corpse of a pure white serpent with a golden mane. Its tail hung up in a spiral by thin chains made from a shiny black material, the tip of the tail almost reaching the height of the ceiling and its head hung a few feet above Osgar’s. Its long onyx tongue hanging right in front of his face with a smooth dark purple orb stuck to it, violet dust swirling within the perfect sphere. He pulls the large orb off the tongue and gently places it before the children.

“Please touch the cloud serpent’s pearl one at a time.” His slow but rough voice knocks Fang out of his fantasizing, quickly walking over to the orb with stars in his green eyes. “Now inject your energy into the pearl, and if you don't know how: just gather energy into the palms of your hands and push it out and into the pearl.”

Fang pretends to listen to the man as he begins pushing his energy into the pearl. His energy taking the form of spiraling threads of red, green, blue, and brown that all coil together into a multicolored cable. The cable entering only about ten percent of the pearl before being shredded into pieces by the violet dust. The man writes something down on a thin pane of blue frosted glass with a glowing orange feather.

“Is that good?” Fang asks tensely.

“It's alright. I've seen much worse.” He indifferently speaks but succeeds in softening Fang’s face.

“Next.” Sune quietly steps up to the pearl and places her hands on its smooth surface.

Bright pink mist oozes out of both her hands and covers more than half of the surface of the pearl in its pink mist, but only goes into about fifteen percent of the pearl before being fended off by the violet swirls, "Next." The man's rough voice commands.

Kumiho walks up to the orb and puts one hand on the pearl, a thin red line of energy comes from her hand and slices through almost half of the pearl before dissipating softly. The man once again writing something down on the frosted pane with no reaction on his face, “Next.”

Hollie cautiously walks up to pearl and puts five fingers on its smooth surface. A thick black miasma spreads out from her fingers and through ten percent of the pearl, thin threads growing out of the dark mass and going through another fifteen percent of the pearl: twenty-five percent in total.

“Not bad…” He picks up the smooth purple pearl with two hands and sticks it back onto the long tongue, the tongue wraps around the pearl and rolls back up into the hanging mouth. “We don't have enough time to do every test, but they don't matter anyways, so let's just do one more and have you attend the assembly.” The children nod lightly.

He leads them to a large amber colored crystal. Barely visible within the crystal is a large white feathered raptor the size of three men. Its whole body besides a single fang are stuck within the large crystal, the one fang that sticks out drips with a dark green substance that falls into a wooden bucket. A metal tube enters from the bottom of the amber crystal and enters the raptor’s open mouth.

“This guy right here is a calcatrix, but is lovingly called by our kingdom: the 'Cockatrice’s little sibling'. As she's pretty similar to her older brother, just smaller and her venom a bit different. The venom can be drank, injected into the blood, or even just absorbed through the skin and is known to cause intense hallucinations.” He dips his orange feather into the thick green venom, “Because of these hallucinogenic properties it is very popular among people looking for a good time or just trying to avoid a bad one; only really behind classic alcohol and Krystal in overall usage. Now, unfortunately I had to explain all those details to you since some highborn mother thought we: 'endangered her son' with our actions.” He repeats the woman's words with scorn.

The children look on with confusion, not even reacting when he flicks the venom-soaked feather at the children. The only one to react is Kumiho who attempts to grab those closest to her and pull them away, but with another flick of the feather her face is covered as well, “Good reflexes…” Osgar commends before his voice fades into nothing.

Kumiho's vision is replaced with strange fractals of colors and flashing images she barely makes sense of. The blonde man in front of her elongates and widens, his skin shining with the colors of the rainbow, the whole world warps around her as the floor becomes a golden lake. A black-haired woman with her bare back to Kumiho slowly appears with Kumiho's vision, her lower body submerged in its entirety within the deep gold lake. Her long flowing black hair floats lightly on the golden surface, the young woman suddenly glancing behind her, her deep red eye peeking through the many black strands of her hair and stare into Kumiho’s soul. The woman smiles softly, her form suddenly swallowed up by a black mass of teeth. Everything turns dark for a moment as Kumiho stands in the empty void, a small wooden house slowly forming within the darkness. Its build crude and flimsy, the roof made of straw, and its body made of thin logs, a small older woman with dark brown hair and bright red eyes leaves the house with a smile right before her and the building are flattened by a large claw of pure darkness. A deafening roar shakes Kumiho's whole body as her vision is suddenly swallowed up by rows upon rows of teeth, the teeth tear into her skin and she lets out a shrill shriek.

Kumiho’s foggy eyes regain clarity but continue to quake as she looks around hazily, her tail's fur standing on end, her entire body soaked in sweat.

“Wow.” A genuinely impressed voice comes from the blonde-haired man in a white robe, “You all must have strong mental fortitude to get out of it so quick.” All four children look at Osgar with foggy eyes that slowly begin regaining clarity, “Don't hate me too much for whatever you saw, it was never my idea to test kids this way.” The man sounds bitter, waving them to follow him as he leads them through the brightly lit stone hallways and through a large opening into a giant assembly room.

Rows upon rows and tiers upon tiers of chairs flow down to the ground level of the room where a raised wooden platform stands. A large horn shaped seashell sitting on the large wooden platform.

“Usually it takes much longer for kids to get out of the calcatrix's venom, so you'll just have to be patient and sit here until the rest of your future classmates get here. And take these since your guardian is an irresponsible child.” His eyes shine blue for a moment and a small ember of blue light falls out of his eye like a fiery tear drop. The ember growing into a head sized flame that floats in front of the man, the man plunging his hand into the fire and quickly pulls out four pale white cloaks and four green tinted glasses that he throws at the daydreaming Fang, “Make sure to wear your hoods and never take off the glasses.” He walks away from the children, and they choose to sit at the uppermost tier of seats and far from the door, their ears and tails completely hidden by the draping white cloak, and the green glasses hiding their eyes’ true colors.

Hollie pulls out a book to read while occasionally being brought into one of Fang's and Sune’s silly arguments, Kumiho simply closes her eyes and sleeps until the assembly starts.

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“Kumiho wake up it's starting…” Kumiho is shaken awake by Hollie softly shaking her shoulder, the girl's bleary eyes opening

A petite young woman in a tight white cloak and a large golden ribbon tied to her back, the rest of the ribbon wrapped tightly around her stomach. Her dirty blonde hair is braided into one long braid that reaches all the way down to her hips. Silver chains wrap all around her right ear before all dropping down into a singular blue a gem that glows with a soft blue light. She grabs the tail of the large shell and pink rays of light begin shining from under her clasped hand, her bright pink eyes glowing with similar rays of light. Her pink lips slowly part and reveal more pink rays of light that shine through her open mouth and into the small hole at the end of the shell’s tail. Rays of soft pink light shoot out from the large opening at the bottom of the horn shaped shell and bounce off the thousands of small cracked mirrors that make up the ceiling. The soft pink light shining upon the whole room and dyeing everyone and everything within it in a light pink, a soft melodic voice chiming in the head of every single person the light falls upon.

“Hello Everyone~. I am Aelflette and I will try not to bore you all too much on your first day~” Her voice is sweet and friendly, “All there really is to do today is meeting your teachers~, and the rest is up to them~” There is a small pause in the woman’s short speech as the soft rays of pink light brighten for just a moment, pink words appearing in every attendee’s eyes. The words show the name of one of the many professors, an image of that professor’s face appearing in their heads as if it was knowledge they always had. The woman continues to harp on about the school rules and what to expect in their classes, but the four pups don’t really care as they quietly chat amongst themselves for the rest of the assembly and ignore the constant chirping in their heads. “Now if you would please find your specified teacher, they will explain the rest~” All the kids around Kumiho’s group get up and walk over to one of the many teachers standing on the back wall, the four disguised fox-children saying their goodbyes and walk over to their assigned teachers. Most of the teachers have long lines of twenty to thirty students, except for Kumiho’s who she instantly recognizes, a tall straw-haired man who happens to be Oswin’s brother, Osgar. The man only has one student in front of him: A young teen who looks about fifteen, his pale white hair and white cloak contrast well with his bright blue eyes. On his right ear only is a silver chain that wraps around the edge of the ear and is secured by small studs before the chain drops down into a hanging blue gem. The young teen nods towards the much younger Kumiho and lightly bows, Kumiho copying his bow awkwardly. Osgar examines his only two students with his chilling his, the man waving them to follow him without another word.

He leads them to a brightly lit room with weapon racks across the walls, the racks covered in neatly sorted weaponry: From swords, to spears, to bows, to maces, to any other weapon one may imagine. “Now that we’re here—Attack me.” His tone so deadpan it almost sounds like a joke.

The blonde boy stares incredulously at the man, Kumiho not even bothering to think before rushing forward, a light red glow coming from under her skin. She does a crude punch forward with her right fist, the man smoothly sliding his left foot back and twisting his body counterclockwise just enough that her fist glides past his nose. His right hand grabbing the top of her hood and lifting her up and over his head, slamming her on her back with a hard thud. The girl groans in pain on the floor, the boy’s fist coming from the man’s blind spot at the back of his head. Osgar tilting his head to the left, the fist flying past, and in one smooth movement sweeps the ground with his right leg, the boy falling on his side with a pained groan. “Tsk.” He clicks his tongue while watching the boy groan on the floor, his head suddenly turning to face a sharp dagger mere inches from his face. The man with supernatural speed smacks the dagger out of Kumiho’s hand with the back of his left hand, his right hand delivering a vicious gut punch that lifts Kumiho off the ground. Her body dropping to the hard ground, saliva dripping from her mouth as she cradles her stomach.

The man’s mouth contorts into a twisted smile, his eyes crackling with yellow sparks, “To think a little girl would be the one to make me use my life energy after so long.” His voice filled with uncharacteristic excitement, the man sounding genuinely enthused, “I think I'm beginning understand now why Oswin likes you kids so much.” His face begins to calm and the raging yellow sparks fade, bending his knees to look the still groaning Kumiho directly in the eyes, “If you two are any showing of this generation’s talent, then it is looking to be a great couple of decades!” His overwhelming excitement rises with every word before slowly dying out, a noticeable pep in his step when he walks over to the weapon racks. He grabs a long rapier and a simple shortsword that he throws at the feet of the two, the rapier near Kumiho and the shortsword near the young boy. He waits for a long moment as both stand up wobblily, Kumiho picking up her dagger and holstering it before picking up the rapier with her right hand and examining it intently.

The man calmly watches the two confused children for a moment, “Now that I’ve gotten an idea for your shortcomings and strengths, I want you two to fight each other like your life is on the line. Don’t worry about hurting the other as I’ll step in before that, I just want to see how you’ll fight in a real battle.”

The two children face each other with their weapons in hand, the boy bowing with his hands at his side and his shortsword in a reverse grip, “I am Osmund of the branch family, Frithweard.”

Kumiho nods and gets into a fighting stance, her rapier pointed at Osmund, “I am Kumiho.” Osmund nods back at her and smoothly flips his blade back into a normal grip with a serious expression on his face, his sapphire eyes shining with power.