Changeling Ways: Life in Coral

Apparently suffering from the latter, Rhaine gently tapped her fingers against her arm. She was thinking about the particular way in which the light was glinting off something wedged between two textbooks, detailing the finite nature of summon spirits, when the din sharply increased to a raging squall.

`No, you goat-headed moron, I said that casting gravity is useless when the subject is light as a feather already.'

`But that's the entire point! Gravity increases weight so that when the subject is heavier than it is used to, you can either give it a beating or run away.'

`Were you even listening when we covered that last week? If its light enough, the subject is just going to end up the same as you and me, and if you had half a brain cell to spare, you could realize that-`

`Rrgh, I'll show you something to realize! GRAVITY!'

The door swung open after the initial crashing began, and the principle stumbled into the room. She had a quick bug-eyed staring match with the poor, shaken Teacher, who was cowering behind her desk, and after much more yelling, and crashing, and general confusion, she managed to gain a hold on each deviant's ear. Shooting a simpering look of annoyance at the still frozen Teacher, the trio swiftly exited the room.

Stunned silence hung as thickly as the dust now swirling around two toppled desks and various other debris that had been scattered during the brawl.

Teacher cleared her throat nervously. `Um, I-I think that will be all for today.' She made a small sweeping motion with her hands, then sank into her chair, staring at the dust with a blank expression.

After a few moments, the yammering started up again as students began filing their way out of the classroom. Rhaine had to hand it to Teacher; she wouldn't be so steady on her feet either, with a room full of hooligans to contend with day after day.

***

Outside, the sky was filled with the soft yellow-rose colours of sunset. The Caulings' estate rose up across the field behind the school. Rhaine looked at it thoughtfully, then turned to follow a familiar path, which wound over cobblestone streets and through damp alleyways. Her book bag bounced against her side painfully as someone caught her by the shoulder.

`Hey, hey, where are you going? Aunt Seabright said we were supposed to practice as soon as school was over. You know how quickly her mood fouls!' Aideen's brown eyes were wide as she hopped from foot to foot.

Adjusting her bag and wincing, Rhaine clicked her tongue. `She isn't expecting us for another hour. Don't rush and it'll stay that way.' And besides, she thought, she's only got one mood, and it's  perpetually foul anyway.

Aideen opened her mouth to complain, but a burst of loud giggling stopped her. Several of girls emerged from the school, all talking at once amongst themselves. A girl with blond ringlets bounced forward and grasped Aideen's arm with excitement, then stopped and stared wide-eyed at Rhaine. A worried pout emerged on the girl's pinched face, and Rhaine frowned and turned.

`Stay at Adringa's for a while. We'll meet at the house.' Without waiting for Aideen's response, she darted around a corner pressed her back to the cool stone wall.

***

When it came to words, Rhaine was as about as proficient at piecing together a decent sentence, and then delivering it without error, as the loudmouths were at keeping silent. When she had first come to the town, she had been the topic of much small city gossip. After a while, the locals moved on to Farmer So-and-so's gigantic pumpkin and spent about a month discussing how spectacular it was, and she was left to her own silence. It seemed as if Coral simply lacked the collective time to notice slightly introverted oddities, such as herself. Big surprise, Rhaine thought. All this town ever focuses on are harvest festivals and big, scary monsters who, by the way, have never set foot anywhere near Del'ren.

Her blue-green eyes shifted with the light, becoming as dark as the black hair tied at her neck. The laughter faded as Aideen and the noisy group headed in the opposite direction. Bright triangular pieces of fabric were draped above her; flags from the harvest festival. Not that anyone would be coming around to take them down anytime soon. Coral was the festival town: hospitable to every kind of traveler, and every type of adventure. The thought of such travelers made Rhaine smirk. These days, they were mostly underachieving lowlifes with no other niche to fill, or rich, middle aged business men from Centralia with nothing better to do with their time and money than go off gallivanting around the continents, in an attempt to prove their worth. Life wasn't at all as wondrous as it was in olden times.

***