ALL NOVEL Chapter 247: Beast.
“So guys lock arms… And girls just curtsy? What do the guys do when greeting a girl?” I groaned, walking down the hallway with Isy as she led me back to her room.
“Many girls use the men’s greeting when greeting men. Usually, they would rather appear more tough, rather than not. If the man is trying to court her though, then he would bow, otherwise. If the two do use a man's greeting, the woman should be the one to offer her hand first. If the man offers his hand first it’s considered very rude and insulting, if the woman then takes the man's hand it is the same as admitting she is a… Uhm…”
After a long pause, I let out another sigh before filing the information away in my head. “I think I get the idea…” ‘Although I am a little curious as to what it implies, it couldn’t be anything too bad if it’s something the girl actually willingly does right?’
She let out a small groan. “Right… Uhm. Oh, and when two women use the men's greeting, it usually means that they think of each other like family… But… I guess… You probably didn’t know that either right?”
“That’s good to know. So in the future, I should only really use that greeting with you, Lu, and my grama. Probably just best to avoid using it with guys altogether so I don’t mix it up, and I just courtesy to everyone else. That’s not too complicated.”
She paused, her footsteps stopping dead in their tracks. “What do you mean… Why would you think of me as family?”
I paused as well, taking several steps backward as if I were rewinding time, having a bit of fun with it. “Because… Were in the same guild… Or, you know we will be. That’s basically family… Also… I really hate meeting new people, so when I grow attached it’s like they become a part of the family.” ‘Have I ever been that blunt and straightforward before? Is Airsidh rubbing off on me?’ We both paused again and she slowly lifted her arm, but then backed away and put it back down to the side.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t stand so close.” Her eyes fell to the floor again like a lost little puppy staring at a big jump across a gap that it wasn’t sure it could make.
‘What the… She’s acting like her back story is more traumatic than mine, only she’s a normal 13-year-old girl… 13… Actually I don’t know how old she is, but… She’s just a kid…’ I grabbed her wrist and pulled her in, giving her a hug.‘ “Family is supposed to stay close together and never betray each other. I won’t abandon you, or stab you in the back… Also… Please don’t start crying.”
“I’m not!” She said through her nose, sniffling slightly.
‘It’s starting to feel like I’m starting a mafia… I know I’m acting super weird… But if I keep pretending like everything I’m doing is normal then it won’t get awkward right?’ I let go again and took another look at her face.
After quickly wiping her tears she took a deep breath in and let it out. “Sorry, I-I’m good. I’m not crying.” She stepped forward and turned around lifting her arms out to the side and pointing towards her door. “This is it. Room 88 It was the very first room I had all to myself. I was so happy to have a place to call my own when…”
“When…” I continued, looking over at the door… It wasn’t closed all the way… ‘Fairy dust… Did they actually come here right after they left her? Like the whole, you fail your screwed thing?”
She hesitantly stepped forward and opened the door freezing in place.
I was almost afraid to look… I couldn’t imagine what she was feeling… When I finally peeked around the corner I froze next to her. Everything was completely torn up, blade marks were all over carving up her floor and wall, her bed was in tatters and her clothes were strewn across the floor in a similar state.
“I…” I reached out my hand but pulled it back before I could lay it on her shoulder. I couldn't comfort her, I didn't even deserve her trust. At that moment I had expected her to burst into tears, but she simply stood still staring blankly at the ancient rune Ta-ahd, which was carved into the wooden wall. “It’s ok… To cry now…” I muttered.
She slowly leaned against her door frame, resting her head on it as well as she crossed her arms. “Of course…” she said quietly.
“I'm, so sorry…”
“No… it's fine… really… I am… used to this kind of treatment.” After another deep breath, she walked forward into the room and started gathering up the remains, trying to make sense of it all.
“They carved Ta-ahd into the wall. The ancient rune word for beast…” ‘although… Maybe I shouldn’t have said that out loud…’
“It was meant to mock me. They joked that I was like an animal, not very useful or intelligent.”
I smirked, making sure not to laugh out of consideration. “They called you stupid… And then try to insult you with a compliment?”
“What do you mean?”
“The ancient rune word beast, Ta-ahd, Is also used as a title. It means one who is an unstoppable force, or a terrifying foe. The rune itself is also the rune of strength.” ‘I should know… After digging into it I found out both my mom and grandmother were called by it at one point…’
“I see…”
It may have been ironic. And it was certainly a bit funny to me… But she still didn’t seem like she was in much of a laughing mood. Although… I couldn’t really blame her, especially because she said she was used to that sort of thing. “Is there anything I can do to help? Anything you want to take with us?”
“They took my family jewel before any of this… That would have been the only thing I cared about really… My father said I didn't deserve to even have it… but my mom snuck one off with me, saying I had more than earned it and that… Well… It doesn’t matter…”
Finally, I saw a few tears start to fall, but again she just wiped them away, looking around the room, keeping her eyes off me before they finally found a place to settle again. “I guess if I lost it so easily then I probably don’t deserve it after all right?” She sighed. “Oh sorry… I guess the answer is just no… I don’t even know what I’m doing, to be honest… Gathering these scraps of cloth and trying to clean a place like this...”
Everything before me made me feel an overwhelming pity until that point… For one reason or another, I was suddenly angered to my very core, enough to make the whole world turn orange for a flicker of a moment. I understood the pain and hardship that you had to go through to earn a family jewel. For her, it might have meant even more than mine did to me. “Isy…” I said, my voice bellowing quietly like the beginnings of a roar. “Let's go get it back.” The pressure around the room increased as my body began to heat up and manna flowed through my body like fire. ‘Even buried deep in my soul I can still feel the effects of the dragon…’
I looked over at her and saw her shocked and simultaneously scared face before I noticed what I was doing and calmed down… “No, wait… Let’s not be reckless… We can do it tonight. Point them out to me and we can take them out together, and if they come looking for you all the better.”
“Do… Your eyes always change color like that when you get mad?”
I closed my eyes, rubbing them for a moment as the world came back into pure colors without tint. “No sorry… I’m still trying to find a balance between being able to use the power and keep it contained enough it doesn’t leak out.” ‘although there probably isn’t one… Really I shouldn’t use it at all, but then it still leaks out, so wouldn’t learning to control it be more ideal?’
“The… Power?” She asked.
‘Right… Of course, she wouldn’t know.’ “Let’s just say that… While there is a wolf living inside my grama… There's a dragon living inside me.”
“Oh… Ok. Is that why some of your hair is white already?”
I sighed. “No… actually that’s from when I had to fight this demon. It was haunting me for a while before one of us had to die. I broke the curses it put on me, but my hair never changed back.”
“Uh... oh… I see…”
I tried my best to smile through the memories as I patted her on the side of the shoulder. “Everyone has a past right…”