Trouble on the Horizon

Waking up I found that I somehow went from a pillow to a stuffed animal as Kana held me close to her chest. I tried to pull away but Kana instinctively pulled me closer. I eventually managed to swap out with her normal pillow, freeing me from Kana's death grip.

I stretched my body, getting all the kinks and stiff joints loose for the day. My stomach growled in protest as I made my way through the empty house. It seemed Kana lived alone, but remembering Mel, I realized she wasn't entirely alone.

As I made my way down the hall towards the kitchen, I noticed a cubby hole I didn't see the night before. Standing up on my back paws I tried to get a closer look, Two pictures sat on the ledge a beautiful woman with long flowing white hair and dazzling blue eyes and a man with hair sostaring black it seemed to steal the light. His dark skin and warm eyes showed his kind heart despite his bulky frame. Between the two pictures was an incense burner, where two burned sticks lay extinguished.

I felt sorry for kana, I wasn't sure of the man but that was definitely her mother. But I could guess the man was her father. I shook my head. "Nothing could be done for the lost" but I still bowed the respect they deserved.

I made my way into the kitchen where they had an odd assortment of devices that resembled what I was used to but way too small. Where is the firewood supposed to go? Instead of an open stone space for fuel, a large mix of strange symbols filled the space fuel was supposed to go. This was just a guess but the runes on the side of everything needed magic to operate. I opened the box I saw Mel put the extra ingredients in after she finished dinner and a blast of cold air rushed through the opening. Ingredients piled high on various shelves, some too high to get a look at welcomed me. After getting a good idea of what was inside I tried to figure out which one was used to cook. I sent a surge of mana into one of the devices and fire exploded into the air, startled by the pyrotechnics I shut off my mana flow. immediately the flames disappeared and I stood there shocked. "That thing could easily be a death trap," I thought. "This is obviously where you cook the food and Mel didn't make it explode so there has to be a trick"

I looked deep inside myself at my mana and noticed that my mana more was in the liquid stage, remembering classes from yesterday I tried to imagine a drop of my mana turning back into a gas. Soon a most surrounded my mana core and I used that to try and fuel the fire rune. The fire lit up and a small stable flame emerged, I found that by adding more or less mana I could control the output. "Neat"

After that, I tried to find the pots and pans. I managed to find them on the shelves above the stove, wincing at what I was about to do.

I jumped up grabbing the handle on one of the pans and held on as gravity pulled me back to the counter. My ears were flattened to my head and my eyes were closed waiting for the crashing sound of pot and pans. I opened my eyes and realized the pan was firmly in my teeth, it felt so light I almost thought I dropped it. I place it on the stovetop before going to the old box to grab ingredients.

"I think crepes sound like a good breakfast food today" I gather a bag of flour, milk, fruits and anything else need to create my masterpiece.

I began mixing using the teeth to hold onto a wooden spoon before carefully pouring it into the pan on a low flame. I prepared myself with a spatula and deftly rolled it off and onto a plate. I flattened it out filled it with creme I whipped up before starting and rolled it together with fresh-cut strawberries. My claws were covered in strawberry juice as I could use a knife as well as I wanted to, but my claws were plenty sharp and easier to manage.

I heard a door open and close and thought Kana finally woke up and so I kept making more crepes for breakfast. That was until I looked up and saw Mel standing there staring at me, my paws covered in red juice and white cream as I placed a finished crepe on a plate. We both froze, in that moment I realized I might have gone overboard. I lost myself in my cooking and ended up filling seven plates with them. I was used to cooking for large groups and forgot I was just feeding one.

Mel looked baffled but pretended she didn't see anything and walked back out of the house closing the door. A few minutes passed before I hears the door open again and she came back in. In the exact same manner she just started at me although this time I was cleaning myself off in the sink.

She came over and just started filling the fridge with more food as she hesitantly picked up a crepe and taking a bite. Her eyes went wide and she practically moaned into her food, she licked up the cream from her fingers and pointed at me.

"I was planning on yelling at you for making a mess in the kitchen, well I was. After I figured out whether or not I was still dreaming." she glanced at the plates of Crepes. "Give me a plate or two and I'll call it good, I'll even clean the dishes too" she looked at my paws "You probably wouldn't be able to clean them anyways" I just snorted at her a waved at the dishes.

"Not like I care, I made too much anyway" I grabbed a plate myself and dragged it over, and began to eat, cream covering the majority of my face. At this time Kana came into the kitchen seeing Mel cleaning dishes next to several plates of crepes.

She absently took one and sat down however after her first bite she moaned just like Mel and in seconds the plate was empty and she grabbed a second one. "Mel is the best," I thought I heard her say as she stuffed her face.

After the meal was finished Mel walked us to school and we separated at the gate. We sat under an oak tree for a while just enjoying the morning sun when a shadow cast over the two of us and a large boy around fourteen stood over us looking down.

"Well, well, well look who we have here," a large boy said with an arrogant tone to his voice said "If it isn't the cursed child. Wasn't the one family enough for you, are you here to try and take mine too?" He laughed loudly before his grin turned into a frown "I thought we made it clear last week, that this school is only for the privileged, not someone of" he paused looking at her with disgust "Your stature" at this time two more people came from behind the boy. One was a girl and another a guy. I saw this and jumped down growling at the trio, kids surrounded us their familiars hovering behind them the girl had a small fairy like beast and the boy rode on a fat looking cat. Behind the center kid a large ape-looking beast pushed past, and the kid started to glare at me in turn.

"Oh ho you seem to have finally summoned a familiar, and it's so damned cute. So Cute in fact it makes me wanna smash it." The big guy said and the ape seemed to grunt in agreement. The smaller boy riding his fat cat whispered something in the big guy's ear and the big guy just smiled wider. "Yeah your right, let's have us an old fashioned duel. But a fight is no fun with out a little bit of risk right guys?" he asked his croonies. They both nodded and smiled down at me."If you win you can stay at this school and we won't bother you, too much" he said "If we win you pack up and leave so you stop soiling our school" he spat down towards me.

Looking back I could see Kana frozen stiff with fear, she held her arm around herself. She looked at the large guy with such fear. As mummbled apologies and sorry, begging to be better. Anger quickly boiled inside me as I saw the state she was in after seeing this man. My eyes began to glow softly with a blue light tinged with a touch of red. Looking back at the boys especially the big one. They all started to visually begin sweating, the other two involuntarily took a step back. The girls fairly fled in terror and the kids cat fell back on it's rump. Throwing the small man into the dirt. My blood lust was so thick that even the crowd of kids across the field stopped talking. I could feel countless eyes on us now, and I thought I saw a man in a suit glaring out the window down at us. But he remained passive. The silence was deafening and it only added to the atmosphere, the big one snapped out of his fear and started to shout at me. "It's just a little white fox, just smash it already" he yelled at his ape familiar who shook off its dazed state and took a step forward.

In response, I dashed at the big oaf and ran my claws through its calf. I used my claws to run up the ape's body before ramming my whole body into the ape's chin. His jaw cracked shut, cutting off a piece of his tongue before the impact shook its brain, knocking him out. I rode the body down and the ground trembled with the impact. I began growling at the kids in front of me. Their faces now pale, the color draining from their faces as they ran off. Towards on of the larger buildings. "You will regret this one day brat" the man yelled as he ran away with his tail between his legs.

I sorted at him before I turned around and ran back to Kana. She was still on her knees but her body stopped shaking, she was smiling now as tears started rolling down her face. She bent down and hugged me, she thanked me as she started to bawl her eyes out. I put my head on her shoulder and waited until she calmed down. "Thank you little white, I don't know what they would have done if you weren't there. I helped her up before dragging her towards the classroom, she looked curiously at the now unconscious ape as it's wounds quickly healed on their own but she was still shaken so she didn'took long. " Thank you for not kill him" she said softly and made feel warm inside. Even after all that she still cared about others. I shook my head as we made it to the classroom. She sat down, trying to hide her puffy face in my fur. For my part I just tried to be there for her, I decided that if I saw those kids again I would make sure they were unfit to come to school. Maybe permanently if they piss me off enough.

A voice boomed through the classroom, coming from the center where a wine covered pillar thing from the ceiling "Kana of class 7-3D please come to the main office at your earliest convenience." Can't just stood up downtrodden. She made her way down the halls defeated. I was confused by the announcement as my worried grew. This timing couldn't be a coincidence.

We entered the office building where three familiar faces sat on a sofa talking and laughing with the man behind the desk. When they heard the door open however they went silent and their smiles vanished, turning into sneers, all but the Headmaster that is.

"Ah miss Kana it is so great to see you, do you know why I called you here?" Kana nodded her head in affermation, her eyes never leaving the floor. "Do you have anything to say about the incident?" she only shook her head, no as she stood there feeling wronged . She was too worried to speak but either the man didn't care or didn't notice.

The kids in their extra gaudy clothes lined with gold or silver trim just smiled widely as they watched Kana squirm. The large kid in his gold trim spoke up "Headmaster as I stated before, Kana attacked me and my familiar without any kind provocation from me or my compartiots. We were just making our way to our favorite spot under the oak tree when a white blur flattened my poor familiar" the headmaster nodded. Waving for him to stop as he addressed Kana "Now Kana, on the day you enrolled at our prestigious academy. You were given special privileges that others would have killed to have. One being that you were not charged a tuition fee. You are given room and board and that as long as you managed your grades and stayed out of trouble you would be allowed to remain as a student" the man spoke. I saw the kid's smiles grow wider as they heard the headmaster's words. "However it has come to my attention" He paused for dramatic effect as his smile grew so large it reminded me of a Cheshire cat "that these three kids here threatened you in a public setting, threatened harm towards you and your familiar and tried to force you into a one-sided duel against your will." He looked at the dull faces of the three before him "I believe the terms were that if they win, you would leave the school and never come back and if they lost" A mischievous twinkle entered his eyes "they would instead leave our prestigious school and never step foot here again. Is that right Kana dear?" Kana and I looked up to see the headmaster with a wide grin and a twinkle in his eyes. Kana looked from the Headmaster to me and as I was shaking my head up and down as fast as I could a wide grin on my face. I recognized this man from the window, I'll make sure he regrets letting the situation play out the way it did. But right now he is clearly on Kana's side. Kana followed my lead and agreed to the Headmaster. The kids looked shocked and they paled at the revelation, they started at the headmaster with there mouths agape. "Now seeing how these young kids here were last saying that you rendered their familiar conscience and with the knowledge of the fuel and it's consequences. With my authority as a witness state that Kana has thus won the duel and will gain the rewards befit of the winner. I have no choice but to uphold the terms of the deal" he looked at the kids now stiff in the chair "Noble families are bound by their word are they not, should they break it, they would bring shame onto their families" he glared at the trio.

"Now you three have one hour to pack your things and leave, your actions today have ruined the schools reputation and you have brought shame to not only yourselves but to my precious academy."

"we do not need filth like you here and before you start, I will be sending a letter home. So don't even try to push this on to Kana or you will regret it"

The three quickly left the room glaring at Kana as they passed. When they finally left the headmasters eyes softened "You may go back to class now dear, I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"I've been trying to find a way to remove those three from campus for ages now. But without a reasonable excuse and enough witnesses, I was unable to act without bringing the ire of there families down on the school." He sighed "This should clear that headache up and I should give you my most sincere apology for having to be caught up in this fiasco. If there is anything you need from me, please don't hesitate to ask"

Kana nodded and left without a word, outside Mel was waiting for her with worry clearly on her face as she brought us back to class. The rest of the day was uneventful but I could feel a tension in the air and I just knew this matter wasn't over