Highborns

Sevir clutched the orb tighter and turned. The ground was wet and muddy. He rolled and got on his knees, ready to stand, when he realized a problem.

He was naked. Butt naked. And his vision swan a little. He looked around as the world tilted from side to side. It wasn’t just the white-haired guy standing before him. Two other people were running towards them, and the cloak Hongli had left for him was more than an arm’s length away.

Hunched and stuck, Sevir debated between asking the white-haired guy to pass the cloak and getting it himself. He looked up, and the gruesome sight shocked him. Angry red, soaked scars filled the back. Had he run here through a battlefield? The worst was the large, gaping, and bloodless wound on his shoulder. Each injury seemed to scream desperation, soaked in water from head to toe. The rest of the man was in shades of blue and black.

Silently, Sevir leaned far out and pulled the cloak. Caked in mud, he wrapped it carefully before standing up and securing it around the neck and waist. The clothes here were complicated with their arms and legs cuffs, but only those who didn’t turn often used them. And then there was a wraparound cloak for quick cover after a transformation. He had seen Hongli do this many times.

Sevir guessed that the white-haired guy had dragged him out of the water.

“Thank you,” Sevir said as lowly as he could, sensing the tension between the three people, unwilling to get in the middle of whatever was going on. He stood up to look better at his surroundings and realized he could see further than usual and hear even labored breaths from the man in front of him. As he listened and saw, things got weirder. The couple took a jumping stance; eyes still fixed on the white-haired guy. The woman’s eyes were more feral, and the only visible things in her head-to-toe clothes, while the flat-faced man beside her had a keen but unwilling look.

“Firing up underwater? Do you have a problem controlling it? Totter still?” the white haired-guy spoke to him matter-of-factly.

Sevir blinked his mind a few feet away. The word Totter irritated Hongli, but it had no significance to him. Technically, he was a totter in this world. He couldn’t turn into a beast. Sevir debated how best to respond to that accurate deduction when someone else answered, “You got that right.”.

Sevir wheeled around to look at the group of bullies. In the center stood a pair of twins, but he couldn’t look further. His legs were jelly, submitting to the ground on his knees. He felt weak, every bone in his body shivering and every muscle lax, refusing to respond. He didn’t know what was happening, but every pore in his body told him to escape this situation. The longer he stayed, the higher the chance of his exposure. For a moment, he wondered how Hongli was faring on the other end before his ears filled with more sounds than he could discern. Sevir heard breathing from all around him. Someone was laughing in the distance and a cat mewled. He looked around. No one was laughing, nor was there any cat to mewl. And something else? Like a whirlwind? He couldn’t tell clearly.

An airy sound cut through it all, calling in a whisper like a loudspeaker to his ears, ‘right about now, a fire would be very helpful.”

“That guy is right. I can’t,” he sighed, pushing himself to stand despite the weakness in his legs. The bullies snickered and glanced at them—six with scales on their faces and one with vertical pupils.

“Useless totter,” he heard an airy grumble. The wounded guy needed his help. The group in front of him wanted to bully him. He didn’t know if he could deal with all that. For one, he had no idea how to access Hongli’s abilities- that part came after reaching each other’s residence. And more, Hongli told me about the lake’s specialty- the sapped energy. Even if he wanted to access something, it would be very hard.

The white-haired guy leaped to the right, trying to run to the forest, but he turned and caught the edge of the man’s loose pants, “wait.”

Sevir didn’t think about what he was doing, but he knew separating now might put them both in danger. What if the bullies went after the new guy? He didn’t look like he would last a second or whatever time was in this world.

It was also the first time he looked at the guy’s face. There was no other word but handsome to describe it. Regal even. There was some sharpness in his expression and his jaw. And doe eyes. They shocked him; maybe it was the light sky blue color or the combination of an ordinary eye and one vertically slit eye. It took him a moment to recover before he pulled the guy back. The man stumbled as if he did not weigh at all.

Sevir’s knuckles brushed the man’s naked waist. A distinct sizzling sound filled the air. Embarrassment filled his face, and he pulled his hand back. The man looked down at the vapors before those light blue eyes darkened to the color of thunderclouds.

“What?” the man all but spat. Two sides surrounded them, and both took a running start, taking advantage of their distraction. He heard it before he saw it. There was also a loud hissing from behind him. Out of instinct, he ducked and pressed the other guy’s head. There was that sizzling sound again.

“Are you out of your mind?” the guy asked, crouched like him, but he had no time to respond. He heard heavy footsteps in the distance as if someone big and burly was coming their way. A moment later, two creatures, a tiger and a human-sized lizard, collided over their heads. He rolled off, dragging the weightless wounded like a ragdoll with him.

“Such depreciation. I have never in my life….”

He cut the guy off, “You wanted my help. I am helping.”

He kicked the pile of odd limbs off. Once. Twice. Thrice. The beasts whimpered and yelped, trying to scramble away, getting closer to the pond’s edge. Were these the same legs that he couldn’t move before? Did someone do something to him? Was it the lakewater? There was no use puzzling over the strange world. Sevir kept up his kicks.

The handsome man gave him an incredulous look before kicking the pile of limbs too. With their combined force, the tiger and the lizard fell into the water. The splash told him that the deep end of the lake was just over its edge. It was a dug-out, artificial pond. A lizard hand held onto the edge, fingers slipping off the muddy shore.

Sevir took a step toward the edge when a hand tightened at the back of his neck. He yelped out of pain. The sound that left his mouth wasn’t a human scream; It was a screech.

The hand was gone, the pain was gone, and the guy beside Sevir hunched over, covering his ears. Further left, the woman was already jumping into the water to save her companion.

He scrambled to the pond’s end and caught the hand, pulling the lizard up. The hand thrashed; he pulled nonetheless. He pulled out a butt-naked guy who thrashed wildly to get away from him. He let go and saw his hand printed red on the man’s skin.

“Shit.” he had forgotten about his body temperature. No wonder he got those embarrassing sizzling sounds.

“What’s going on here?” a feminine, grave voice called authoritatively. Sevir’s heartbeat rose. He didn’t want to be caught. He needed to get back to Hongli’s place and get out of this situation as fast as possible.

He turned around slowly and saw a man formed of odd proportions. At first glance, he knew this was the headmaster RuIng often talked about. Between squared shoulders sat a large face with hard edges and a nose broken so many times it was hard to tell its shape. The headmaster’s face had pure wild strength. His eyes were hooded with thick brows, and the look was so sharp that it made him want to look away. The man’s tight-fitting brown and golden suit exposed a pair of legs so thin they shouldn’t have been able to support the above body. He was disproportionate but also elegant and commanding.

“Headmaster Wama.” the white-haired guy in front of him bowed so low that he bent over double.

“I didn’t realize I had stepped into Kaizen territory until it was done, but…” the man’s tone was apologetic and sincere. Both his eyes changed shape for a flash moment and returned to normal. Only he saw the look in that bent-over face.

“I am not sure what is happening here, but I would like to see THE permission. Prince Weylin?” The woman had pulled the flat-nosed Prince up and wrapped a cloak around him. Prince Weylin struggled to stand up with a drenched thick cloak around his shoulders. Headmaster Wama looked past them to the left, his voice a low ringing tone, like a teacher’s simple inquiry that held a warning.

“As he said, we hadn’t realized we had stepped into Kaizen territory.” Prince Weylin looked at the white-haired guy in annoyance, “it is only a personal matter that needs to be dealt with. We will not inconvenience you further.”

The group of bullies had already left. The tension in the group was thick. Sevir looked around, wondering if he could slip away. Unexpectedly, his eyes met Headmaster Wama’s eyes that held him in place, telling him to pause, to say in his place. It was like his mother’s gaze that told him to keep still while she dealt with his class teacher when he punched someone in middle school.

“Well then, all of you will be Kaizen’s guest tonight.” It was an effective pause, “Relax and replenish until the permission arrives.”

“Permission for me will not arrive. The north has suffered a coup, and I have been running from their allies, the west.” the white-haired guy stood straight, words rushed, urgent. He wasn’t deeply aware of the politics of this world, but he had a basic idea of the other kingdoms that held a treaty-based power over Kaizen. All those chats with Hongli weren’t a total waste.

Headmaster Wama did not speak for a while, and the woman stepped forward, “headmaster Wama. There has been a misunderstanding. We are allies of the Dragon King.”

Headmaster Wama smiled, soft but sharp, an uncommonly shrewd look, “I am glad to hear that. Nonetheless, I can’t go against the treaty. I can only take action based on explicit consent from three sides. I am deeply sorry. But I asure you Madam Reika. Until you can get that explicit permission, Kaizen will keep an eye on the runaway,” Headmaster Wama bowed with a flourish.

The word sounded like the headmaster was on their side, but his tone was a clear threat. The woman stepped back. The Prince beside her grit his teeth, “You insolent….”

“It’s only a little time,” the white-haired guy whispered, so low and airy that even he hardly picked up the words. Suddenly, the handsome man fell back onto him. He stepped forward, letting the guy fall on him, both hitting the floor. The guy was on his lap, yet he dared not touch. The guy’s chest was worse than his back. There were no scars, only wounds.

“Such mortification. Shut up,” the man in his lap scowled and spoke slowly before his body went limp. Unsure of what to do, he looked around for something to cover the man.

“Hongli.” he looked up to see a brown cloth flying toward him. It landed on the limp body. He took the cloak gratefully and blanketed the fainted man in the headmaster’s cover.

“I will keep the prisoner secure until you get permission, Prince Weylin. For now, he needs to live to be captured.” the man spoke bluntly, bowed to the two, and moved forward, covering the distance in two long strides, picking up the man from his lap and walking away. Sevir looked around. The bullies had disappeared into thin air, including the lizard. Even with his hearing, he hadn’t heard them come or go. The Prince and the woman, Reika, didn’t spare him a glance but turned away, the woman supporting the man who kicked her harshly. The headmaster didn’t bother inviting anyone along anymore.

Sevir hurried after Headmaster Wama as best as possible. As they neared the forest line, the cat was still mewling, but there were also other animals. A few birds chirped in unison, tree leaves talked to unbridled winds, and the soil churned in the distance in a mini-hurricane. It wasn’t just a groomed forest, he realized. There was more to these lands than met the eye.

“Do you know who this is, Hongli?” Headmaster Wama addressed him.

He shook his head, then realized that the headmaster couldn’t see him, “No.”

“He is highborn. Keep your distance from him. Your identity cannot be exposed to any highborn.”

“I know,” Sevir nodded.