Chapter 2 - End of Week 5

"Watch Aerie's feet while she fights." Momo said quietly startling Ro out of her reflections, "Notice how she stays on her toes the entire time."

"Okay." Ro replied and attempted to focus on the fight. It was no good however, she could barely make out the fighters they were moving so fast, let alone see Aerie's feet. "Aerie is really good, isn't she?"

"Yes, well she should be. She is a full-blooded Valkyrie after all." Ro sighed and remembered a time before this was her normal life.

She had always known of magical creatures. Ro just had never met any of them. Ibex, the closest town to where Ro had grown up was one of the few all human settlements in Gothalyan. Humans were a minority in her world and looked down on as weak by most of the other inhabitants, the magical creatures. Strength was what they valued, magical strength most of all and humans not being very strong physically or magically were seen as the lowest of the low. Rather than face that discrimination, some humans preferred to live in human only settlements, like Ibex.

This school, Alicaine, was the best school for magic in the world. Humans were a rarity here, not usually able to meet the minimum entrance standards. For females this was a score of 31 on the standardized magic examinations that every being in Gothalyan was required to take at some point in their lives.

Ro had taken it completely expecting to fail. She had never shown any of the common symptoms of being magical. There had been no toys coming to life or dying plants suddenly blooming or fires popping up when she lost her temper. Nothing odd had ever happened to her that would have indicated that she had magic. So, when her examiner had proclaimed that she had passed the exam Ro had been stunned. Not only had she passed but she had passed with a score which qualified her to go to any of the schools.

Ro had thought about where she wanted to go and had settled on either Norcan or Westvale as they were the friendliest towards humans. However, then her offer letters came and with them a handsome dragon named Kyzul Arzandia, an Advanced Research student and representative of Alicaine. She became his ward and was enrolled at his school. That was her uncle's doing. He had negotiated with Kyzul to get the most gold for her that he could and then signed her over for the exorbitant sum.

Just why the best magic school had sent a representative for a lowly human like her was unclear. Just as why she got to live in the tower, a building reserved for the strongest most well-connected creatures, was also unclear.

However, it had happened. Now she was here, at Alicaine, the school that she had least wanted to attend, struggling through classes and combat training and trying to avoid notice. There were many students here who did not want her around. In her class of one hundred people, she was the only human. There was only one other in the entire school. Without her two friends and Kyzul she would be very much alone.

"Wow did you see that hit?" Momo asked excitedly interrupting Ro's train of thought. Ro looked in time to see Angelique hit the ground hard on her back. Aerie flew through the air at her and placed her great axe on Angelique's neck.

"Winner, Aerie!" Sarge bellowed and marked it on his clipboard. He sighed, "Well that's it for today. Monday we will resume practice as usual." Aerie ran to catch up to Momo and Ro as the class began filing out to their respective locker rooms. "Nug," Sarge called and gestured to her to come to him. Aerie patted her on the shoulder and Momo gave a reassuring nod.

"We'll see you after." Aerie said as they continued to the changing room.

Ro made her fearful way to the well named Sarge. He was a physically imposing man with hardened muscles coating every inch of him and a military style haircut. He would have been attractive but for a large, jagged scar that ran down the left side of his face and a permanent grimace that would frighten a bear. Stopping just in front of him, Ro waited for him to speak.

"You are doing abysmally." He stated bluntly. Ro flushed. "You've lost all six of your fights and you are not improving fast enough. Are you even trying to get better?" He fixed her with a glare. Ro, always oddly confident, met his gaze with a steely look of her own.

"Yes, sir, I am." She said defiantly.

"Well, it's not good enough. Starting Monday, you will be doing extra hours with a tutor." Ro's face fell in disappointment. Sarge continued. "They will begin after normal training is done. You will remain and continue doing the exercises I assign until your tutor comes. The tutoring sessions will last for two hours every day. If you continue to do poorly, we will require them on weekends as well." Ro swallowed hard. She didn't want to have training on the weekends.

"I'll tutor her." The haughty tones of Alexi rang out. Ro and Sarge both turned in surprise and found him standing very close by. "I was coming over to offer." He said with a shrug and a knowing smirk. His eyes flicked from Sarge to Ro and the smirk deepened. "I'll teach the human her place." Ro's eyes widened in surprise again. That didn't sound pleasant. Alexi's eyes drifted back to Sarge and Ro looked at him as well. He had a small but satisfied smile on his face and a faraway look in his eyes. As if he could feel them looking at him, Sarge shook himself and cleared his throat.

"That's a very nice offer," He began. Ro grimaced. It hadn't sounded nice to her but of course Sarge would think it was. He had always made his feelings about humans perfectly clear. "Unfortunately, the school has already chosen a tutor for her with a little more experience."

"Very well." Alexi's voice affected apathy, but irritation flashed in his eyes. He turned and sauntered off to the male locker room. Ro watched him go in confusion then turned to Sarge.

"Dismissed." He snapped like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Ro very nearly ran away. Icy fear gripped her heart. She needed her free time on the weekends to decompress. Her thoughts were dark as she entered the locker room and looked for her friends.

"Poor little Nug, are they kicking you out yet?" jeered Angelique, who stood fully dressed in normal clothes with her bag on her shoulder. Ro paused and looked at her flatly. She could have replied but she just sneered and walked away, knowing that ignoring Angelique would bother her more than an actual answer.