---

 

After fiasco numéro deux, the scorns have changed into smirks and snarks, seeping in from every direction. Apparently, news travels fast around here, especially at the expense of others. The news of Shiro getting the cafeteria workers pelted French insults by a little mouse spread fast like a skinned dog sliding down a buttered tube. Before they even got to their first class, it seemed as if every student's mother's second cousin had received Rormund's Headline of the Day.

But it didn't take long before snarks and laughs grew numb towards Shiro. He slowly lost all feeling and perception of the mockery around him, and fell completely numb to all of them. They were a little bit harder to do so though, as ridicule is rather more obvious in its ways than grudges and wrath. Still, it didn’t take long before the laughs simply became one with the wind, air and nature.

Weirdly enough, even though it’s been mentioned, Leo never went back to Chemistry. Instead, he opted for the Geology class instead, which was second to World History for Shiro. It wasn’t as bad as the latter, but Shiro would definitely have no problems sleeping through the class. When questioned why, Leo simply answered, “I felt like it.”

At this point that answer, to Shiro, became Leo’s trademark quote. He didn’t question any further, and simply went along with it.

Even weirder, after cycling through Geology, Leo took a sudden 180 and said he suddenly “felt like it again” and went back to Chemistry class. It seemed like a rather odd behavior towards Shiro, but then he thought, What’s there about this leopard that isn’t weird? Thus, he followed.

Then it was just a constant cycling between other classes and Geology. Every time Leo finished one class that isn’t Geology he’d double-back and and return to Geology once more, claiming he had ‘questions he needed to ask the lecturer’ but every time he reached there, he simply just sat around, looking listless as if waiting for time to pass, or something expected to happen.

Then at one point, Leo decided to go for Economics class. He went very obvious and specific on how he needed to go for the class at that specific moment, and how Shiro can leave him be if he doesn’t feel like it.

Curiosity piqued, Shiro followed and, to his surprise, nothing interesting happened, except for Leo looking more restless than usual. His tail swung at an uneven pace, swishing around in unease. He had his legs crossed, bouncing erratically on his feet. He didn’t even seem to be in the right headspace. All around, he glanced, jumping from person to person as if he’s looking for a very specific someone. His ears moved about, listening from the side to the front to the back, twitching at every given moment, just in case he missed a peep he wanted to hear.

Then the class ended, with Leo looking a tad bit disappointed for some unknown reason before doubling-back down again to Geology class. At this point, Shiro could recite the lesson by memory, and have no doubt Leo can too. But for some reason, he just kept going. He never gave a reason, and Shiro never bothered to pry. He figured it’ll all be okay if they didn’t need to go back to that place.

Then, by the evening, his worst nightmare came true.

In a massive, unseen turn of events, Leo decided to return to World History class, all in the name of ‘getting him back into the game’. Shiro couldn’t believe his words at first. Then he vehemently denied, claiming that he’d rather be dead than to go back, which wasn’t far from the truth, one way or another.  But Leo insisted, and that he promised to keep Shiro truly awake this time, and that he’ll actually get Shiro learning World History once and for all.

At the end, scared of making another commotion, Shiro very reluctantly agreed.

Leo fulfilled one half of his promise, and not so much on the other half. Shiro indeed, was kept awake, but at the expense with an ear coated and dripping with feline saliva. He also, in the first time since the dawn of time, Shiro managed to get some information in his head amidst repeatedly crashing onto the table snout-first. Whether he would remember them would be another story but as far as Shiro’s track record, this was his all new high.

But at the end of the day, World History is World History, and Shiro came crashing down no less than a good dozen or so times.

This time around it wasn’t just the scowls that became numb to Shiro. Reality was bent upon himself, and Shiro lost all consciousness since then. He was an automaton made of flesh, simply responding to the most basic of stimuli, barely keeping his mind intact and from spilling out in a messy, gooey heap.

Now out of class, Shiro zombie-shuffled his way through the corridor, being bumped and knocked over from shoulder to shoulder among the bustling crowd. At some point an ox with a majestic horn shoved right through Shiro, making him spin a complete 180 and sending him shuffling into the opposite direction. Leo had to scramble back to retrieve the dozing wolf, suspecting that he most probably didn’t even notice.

But even among the daze, Shiro did pick up some outside information from sight alone. One of the few was Leo’s expression. He seemed much more down compared to the morning. His ears seemed to have drooped down, and his energetic tail was reduced to a lifeless, swishing rope played about by the wind. None of them compared to the loss in his eyes. They suddenly lost all sense of zeal, and fell to nothing more but a shade of green hiding a blank slate underneath.

In a way, he seemed strangely disappointed. At what, Shiro never knew, but the observation remained, and so did Shiro’s curiosity.

Leo, once again, was in-charge of Shiro’s briefcase, while Shiro focused on keeping his knees buckled and legs solid. Trudging through the floor with his feet, Shiro was doing his best as he kept his head held high while Leo scanned through Dove’s Wrold World Hystory History notebook, seemingly to catch up on the lesson, and to question Shiro on some trivia at the same time.

“How  was the first Blanford’s Fox discovered, and when has the event occured,” asked Leo as he scanned through the notebook in his hand, “You know, it’s okay if you’ve gone to sleep.”

With an earful of Leo’s saliva and a head full of mindlessness, he turned to Leo and mumbled, “Some guy… Will Tom… Blanford… Arabic… Fox… Intercourse… Local… ” Shiro yawned,  “Why didn’t... you let me…”

“Because I made a promise and felt like keeping it,” said Leo with a sly wink, “When did the event happen?”

“Right…” Shiro couldn't think of anything else to say, “Eighteen… seven-seven… “

Shiro’s mind began drifting somewhere else. He remembered a moment up in Miss Secretary’s office where she mentioned something of a ‘dorm’ and it would be Shiro’s ‘permanent residence until his graduation’. Shiro began imagining what the dorms would be like. At this point, many concepts began rushing into his head. An academy like Rormund would certainly not stop short in its grandness in its schooling facilities. He had high hopes that the bed would probably be some imported wonder of comfort, and have pillows akin to those you get in hotels.

The more he thought about it the more he felt like simply crashing down a napping, envisioning the comfort of the imaginary room while he sleeps away on the ground without a care in the world. How great would it be to just-

Then it hit Shiro like a freight train. The sudden realization flashed in his head so bright that his ruby red eyes jolted open with zeal. His back snapped itself straight along with his flinging arms. He turned to Leo and inquired, “What d’ya mean I could’ve just slept?”

“Hm?” Leo rose from his book.

“You said it’s okay if I slept.” Shiro spoke through a feeble, fleeting voice, twisted from the unjust fatigue he had suffered from.

“Hm?” Leo stayed wide-eyed, oblivious to Shiro's words until he eventually realized with an, "Oh!" With that, he shut his book and slot it under his shoulders.

"Nobody cares if you sleep in class," he said, "not even the teachers. You could sleep right here on the floor and no one would care either."

Shiro wanted to confirm that statement so badly. It was rationality holding him from releasing the shackles off his knees and falling flat onto the floor face first with nothing but endless peaceful rest in sight. He couldn't do that, because he wanted to find out why. Curiosity not only killed the cat but it too, made a sleepy wolf think straight.

"But the guy at Physics-" Shiro retorted.

"He's an exception. The impala's a traditional kind of teacher you could find in outside schools," Leo explained, "Others don't care. You could start hibernating in there and they wouldn't even bat an eye."

"There's no punishment?"

To that question, Leo gave a pause. He drew a breath, thought about the best way of putting it out for Shiro, got his answer and resumed, "Let me put it this way; you could play dodgeball in a lesson, break a table, hit a girl, break her nose and still walk away without repercussions."

Shiro was amazed to hear it. His fatigue was put on the backseat as he took in Leo's words. He'd figured for a place like this, there'd be a rule board posted in between every five steps on any wall. Then he realized there hadn’t. On hindsight, if there were any, Miss Secretary wouldn't have let him hear the end of it, as she struck him as that kind of a person. Yet, she didn't. Rather, she gave him a whole lot about respect and honour, and not a whole lot about any rules. Nothing, in fact.

A warped realization began forming in his head. "There  isn't a discipline teacher or…?"

Leo responded Shiro with another question, "Do you know why we don't have a timetable?"

Shiro figured Leo expected an answer out of him, but nothing came to mind. He simply shrugged.

“It’s a tradition,” Leo said, “There’s two reasons why people want in on Rormund so bad. One, they offer the absolute best. Best lecturers, best facilities; the best everything. I think that’s perfectly established. Then there’s number two - the freedom to decline.

“Rormund doesn’t put its student in a cage. It offers the best and it’s up to you to accept it. Rormund’s best might not be your best, and it’s okay for you to think so. All Rormund does is to give you a place, it’s up to you-” Leo took the chance and playfully prod Shiro on the snout, “-whether you want to take it.

“This isn’t just the timetable. Even the rules too. You can sleep in class for all the lecturer cares. They don’t, anyway. This goes for the rest of the school. You can play football in the corridors, and it’d be okay. You can smash up the Founder’s bust in the process, and it’d be okay. You can smear the plinth with paint, and it’d be okay. You can go back to the dorms, come back, and find everything fixed in tip-top shape, just for you to break it all over again.”

“N-no one cares?” Shiro asked in astonishment.

Leo drew a breath of disappointment, “Well, not exactly. The other students could still complain and report of the Student Council. The report gets checked from the Ethics Committee and most of the time, they’ll give you a strike. If you get two, you’re out. So you don’t see people playing Dodgeball in class or football in the corridor, they’re all scared of getting reported. Plus, with a whole lot of politics and rivalry going on, nobody’s taking chances. But, at the end of the day, if nobody cares, you could do all that. I got one strike down already, by the way.”

That caught Shiro off guard, “What d’ya do?”

Leo gave him a cheeky wink, “It’s a secret, but I’ll throw in a clue. It involved a horse.”

Shiro heard the clue and, for the life of him, just couldn’t think of any possible scenario involving a stallion that would land Leo a warning strike. He hadn’t had the foggiest of ideas on what and how. Then, as they walked, they passed by a white furred mare with a luscious, blonde, flowing mane. The mare spotted the two, conveniently ignored Shiro and gave Leo a tiny, audible neigh and a wink. As Leo responded with a little finger-waving of his, the foggiest of ideas slowly came to fruition, and Shiro figured it’d be a good call to put that idea on a perpetual back burner.

“Of course,” Leo said, “Rormund don’t just give it all for free. In exchange for a free-for-all zone, they just want you to get near-perfect scores on your finals as the bare minimum. That’s another plus. The passing mark is so high that students just don’t have the time for trouble. The finals also have a ‘two strikes, you’re out’ sys-”

“I know that,” Shiro interjected.

“I see Miss Secretary taught you well,” Leo commented, in which Shiro replied with a reserved shrug. “So who taught you better? Me, or that lovely cow?”

Shiro ducked down to his shoulders, “Y-you know I don’t-”

“Just kidding,” Leo stuck his tongue out, “I know it’s me. Anyway, I like it here. I like how there’s virtually no rules. You can screw, play ball, set fireworks and go off scot free, provided that no one cares. On that note, I got a few advantages on the ‘rules’ with my looks, don’t you think?”

So he does know, Shiro thought, and he’s goddamn confident on it.

“Yea, I guess,” he said.

“You could wreak havoc, break windows, play with the girls in the Library, literally set fire and run away clean off,” Leo ran the list in his head with a gleeful smile on his face, “I like it. I like it very much.”

Yeah, Shiro thought, guy like him would definitely like that sort of-

“We could fight, right here right now, and it’ll be okay too.”

Shiro felt the weight of an anvil dropping in his stomach.

Then a voice exploded from behind, with a very distinct, Northern accent, shouting out loud very clearly and pronounced, “LEO!”

The voice echoed throughout the corridor. Everyone who had ears and weren’t half-deaf had their heads craned towards the back instinctively, including Shiro, finding the source of that massive shout. All except Leo, who stood at his ground, facing away.

As everybody was drawn by the booming sound, nobody saw Leo’s expression.

Nobody saw the ear-to-ear grin splitting through his yellow-spotted cheeks.

Shiro peered towards the far distance, making out the source of the booming voice. Slowly, the details made themselves out. Dark haired and silver backed. Hunched and massive, with arms and knuckles so large they were dragging across the floor as they went. Everybody that knew what they were seeing immediately scampered away to wherever they needed to go. In an instant, the crowd was split into two akin to a biblical event. Nobody spoke another word and focused on getting the hell out of Dodge.

Soon, the corridor was deserted, empty and barren. Save for a confused Shiro, and a very silent Leo. Shiro was perplexed by everybody’s sudden disperse. His tail went on its end by instinct alone. Something was wrong and Shiro could feel every inch of it. His ears began picking sound, his smell began sharpening by nature, his eyes focusing on the approaching silhouette. He lost all sense of his surroundings, opting to boost everything towards one target alone.

The silhouette made itself out, and it wasn’t just massive. It was gargantuan. He was gargantuan. He was trudging through the empty ground in large strides, and he looked far from happy while doing so.

Charging towards them was a mountain gorilla. His face showed an expression of distaste and anger, showing through his dark, steely eyes and huge nostrils, heaving breaths of frustration in and out in an angry clockwork. His frame held a massive body, with a physique that needed no more building than what he received at birth, barely held by the amazing uniform holding it in by the thread. Even as he hunched, he seemed to be almost as tall as Shiro, and thrice as wide.

There was also a troop of primates striding alongside the upset gorilla. Shiro almost didn’t notice them, as the gorillas massive shoulders simply discarded everything left in view behind him. They were a collection of monkeys and chimpanzees, all walking behind the obvious, dominant leader. They were all dressed in the same uniform as the gorilla, with none of the effect the said gorilla held. They all held many different expressions, but every single one of them can easily be summed up with ‘amused’ or ‘entertained’, as if they were getting seated into an exciting show. Save for the single orangutan, walking just behind the group, holding a nervous face that should’ve intrigued Shiro if it wasn’t for the massive hunk distracting his view.

“Ah,” Leo spoke from behind. He turned around, flashing a gratuitous smile as he did, “Jorge. Nice to meet you-”

“Cut the crap,” Jorge boomed with his massive, highly accented voice, “you know what I’m here.”

‘No,” Leo answered with relaxed ease, “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me, then?”

Shiro didn’t know what went on behind the scenes, but whatever Leo said did not go well with Jorge. His face seemed to grow in anger, nearing his boiling point. He stood even taller, overshadowing Shiro and Leo with his massive stature, embodying the sole definition of intimidation.

“What’s the meatloaf with toes doing ‘ere,” Jorge growled, pointing a meaty finger at the agitated wolf.

“He’s with me,” Leo shoved a gentle arm around Shiro and pushed him behind him, “your business is with me, not us. So what’d you need-”

“CUT ME THE FANCY TALK,” Jorge exploded, “YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’VE DONE-”

“No, Jorge,” Leo cut off his words mid-sentence as if there wasn’t a giant irritated gorilla with bowling balls for fists standing before him, “I really don’t know. Maybe you know what I know what I’ve done?”

Shiro, whose ears and ears were popping up atop Leo’s head, was poking Leo from behind, trying to get across the idea of not further enraging the angry gorilla standing before them. Leo, who seemed to have suddenly honed literal nerves of steel, either never noticed or he simply didn’t care out of sheer enjoyment.

By fate, destiny and Lady Luck’s brightest smile, Jorge hasn’t smite them down with the might of God. Instead, he kept it deeper within his fists, swallowing it by pride alone. A sinister silence trailed between the two animals, with Jorge’s cheeks growing further with irritation, and Leo’s cheeky grin growing wider and wider, despite Shiro’s wordless and desperate warnings.

Slowly, Jorge unlocked his jaws, releasing the steaming fury through long, pronounced words, “You slept with my girl, didn’t you?”

“Which one?”

“YOU KNOW I ONLY HAVE ONE!”

“Ah, right,” Leo gasped in astonished realization,” I forgot. We’re not the same, are we?”

Many thoughts went in Shiro’s head, including the contents of his presumed-but-highly-probable last will and testament. Thinking about it, it wouldn’t be too long, which makes it even more depressing and devastating. He stopped prodding Leo by the back, and allowed himself to fall vulnerable to the hands of destiny, hoping that by some miracle he’d walk out of this still breathing. He doesn’t even need all his limbs, as long as he gets to see another tomorrow.

Another sinister silence went past, Jorge stood his ground, glaring down to Leo with all the pressure, as if he’s waiting for a response.

“So?”

“Hm?”

“Did you?”

“Did I what?”

Jorge nearly  exploded into a furious outburst, only held back by the little remains of his rationality.. His fists clenched onto itself, veins bulging all over his body, pumped full of piping hot blood, barely stopping himself from launching a full swing with all the malicious intent in his mind.

“DON’T YOU PLAY WITH ME NO MORE,” he screamed, “I know you took my girl to your room and got dirty with her!”

“Hmmm,” Leo stroked his chin, humming away with all the time in the world, “who’s the girl again?”

“HER NAME IS JORGINA,” he blasted his voice straight towards Leo’s ears, “RINGING ANY BELLS?!”

“Hm? Oh, her,” Leo smothered his ears, easing himself as he spoke, “Right, I think I did it with her, yes.”

“So you do admit it,” Jorge spoke in a quiet, droning voice that didn’t sound safe.

“Was I wrong?”

Jorge’s rationality was reduced to nothing but a final, narrow thread. He looked as if his cheeks were moments away from exploding into rage, holding in so much pressure it seemed physically impossible that he hadn’t blown his top off right then and there.

And Leo, with all the care he never had in the world, simply tossed more coal into the burning inferno.

“You know,” he said, “I’ve done it with so many she could’ve been one of them. I’m not that good at remembering, you see.”

It was a miracle that Jorge still held himself intact.

“Maybe it wasn’t me who took her,” he suggested, “but rather her who went with me?”

Shiro resumed his prodding, this time even harder and more obvious, as today wasn’t a day Shiro felt like seeing his name on the obituary column.

“Maybe for one you should stop calling her ‘your girl’ and start using her name, instead,” Leo continued, “Maybe you could get to keep something for once.”

Then he dropped the final straw.

“Like your inheritance.”

Jorge launched a full, back-handed swing, unlatched from his hinges and giving everything he has into one singular blow.

A gorilla’s swing isn’t simply a force of nature. It is one that defies all laws of physics and is simply conceived to make whatever that is in its way not be in its way anymore, at least in one piece. It is a swing backed by pure aggression and anger, concentrated into a single concept of total obliteration. It is a throw supported by the fact that nothing stands in a gorilla’s way, and the will to sustain that idea to its absolute end. It is a throw that considers the possibilities of otherworldly monstrosities in the animal kingdom, and freaks of nature that breaks all conceived laws of nature, and willfully ignores their existence because there is no force that will halt the sheer power of primitive violence in its biological peak.

Nine times the power of a baseball bat, twice the velocity of a highway speed limit, all culminating into one singular motion, swinging in from one graceful arc, only be met by an end that is anything but.

Then, as the swing exploded into motion, Leo acted.

Tensing his feet, Leo focused his energy into his legs. All presumed nine lives’ worth of might all concentrated into his springing ankles. His eyes flashed a dangerous, toxic green so intense it seemed to be steaming from its sockets.

In one fluid motion, Leo brought his hands up, and ducked downwards, sustained by the sheer flexibility of his back, narrowly missing the swing’s arc by a half-inch,

leaving Shiro fully exposed, unprepared, and vulnerable to the oncoming strike,

only for the wolf to, in a blink, single-handedly launch his palm into an intersecting angle, slamming the weight of his whole body into Jorge’s oncoming wrist, all out of sheer, split-second instinct alone.

To watch the whole event in your own eyes would be to witness Mother Nature flip her bird right in front of your eyes while blowing you a very rude raspberry. But to watch it from a replay in a closed-circuit camera in slow motion with the luxury of rewind, you’d see that Mother Nature wasn’t so rude after all, and that she was merely having a silly tomfoolery with your senses and expectations.

Shiro had shifted his foot to stand in the ball of his heel before he met the strike. His stance made it so that his backbone was as straight as a spear, directly parallel to his legs as to absorb the impact and the pressure. He had a crouched position ready from the get-go,and was able to meet the blow at its weakest angle at the wrist, where the pivot lies. As the blow landed, Shiro had his shoulders bent but ready for it to be outstretched, as to spread the impact all across his arm, negating a good deal of pressure from the swing.

Shiro wasn’t as strong as to meet Jorge’s whole fist. He simply hit where it hurt, or barely stopped what could be a bloodbath. Watching this in slow-motion would give you all the explanation you needed, and suddenly nature didn’t seem so impossible after all.

Then you realize you've been watching the whole thing from slow-motion, and that playing it at normal speed, you realized the whole event happened in less than a second. Then you consider the circumstances, weigh the risks and realize Shiro only had a blink’s worth of time to react.

Then you realize a wolf had stopped a gorilla's back-hand swing.

Suddenly, Mother Nature’s  bird took a whole different meaning.

Time seemed to stop at the moment, as no one predicted things would develop to this stage, save for one. Jorge, who's anger got fully utilized and depleted in that one swing, had his red-eyes unclouded of fury, and was now blinking in confusion, wondering why he was held against his wrist, and not clutching a bloody mess of a leopard's remains. Shiro, who subconsciously thought he'd be somewhat okay with Leo standing in front as a meat shield, suddenly found himself fully exposed and en route to a metal mask. By the nick of time, he pulled out a stance and an arm, and found himself spared from potential carnage with the price of a throbbing palm.

The primates sitting behind Jorge also lost the smugs they had, and found their breaths held, swept under their feet by the sudden turn of events. The nervous, jittering orangutan at the back was no different, as his mouth was half-gaping, his anxious expression was temporarily held by a face of shock.

The image was only painted more surreal with the addition of Leo, half-arched against his flexible back between the two animals, his snout mere inches from their arms. His toxic green pupils gleamed within their irises, watching the conflict up close with much fascination.

Slowly, he grabbed onto the two arms, pulling himself upwards and meeting Jorge eye-to-eye. Immediately, Shiro retracted his own arm, easing the ache on his palm, rubbing it with fragility.

Jorge still had his arm outstretched, raised mid-air. His sight remained in the same space they once stayed, but it was obvious he had his head in some other universe. It didn't even occur to him that all those pent-up rage were all gone to waste, nor that he was holding quite a stance then.

His swing has been stopped.

Nobody has ever stopped his swing.

Absolutely nobody.

And this wolf stopped it, with nothing but the sheer strength of his palm.

Then his focus was snatched back into his eyes. The orangutan, previously crouched behind the group, reached towards the front and started whispering into Jorge's ears. His arm went down as the orangutan whispered more things into his ears. His eyes slowly moved, gazing back down towards Leo, the anger returning and festering once more.

The orangutan pulled himself away, and Jorge pointed a fat finger towards Leo, prodding him right at his chest.

"We'll settle this," he said with a threatening tone. As he spoke, he made a fleeting glance towards Shiro, just long enough for the wolf to notice, and duck away lower against Leo's back before he finished, "Alone."

"A compensation?" Leo grabbed onto Jorge's finger and, as daring as Shiro's ever seen him be, moved it from his chest and pressed it against his cheek in a manner that can't be explained any other way, "I don't mind."

Evidently, Jorge did mind. He pulled back his finger in a sudden shock, wavering for a second before frantically wiping it against his shirt, piercing Leo with a glare of disgust and irritation.

Leo gave him a wink and said, "My room?"

"Behind the dorms," Jorge corrected him immediately with a booming voice, "that, or I'll make you regret next morning the moment I find you."

"How daring," Leo commented.

In a final threat, Jorge snorted through his baseball-sized nostrils, blowing Leo's jacket to a flutter before strutting past both him and Shiro. The monkeys followed, giving both dirty shots and looks except for the orangutan, who scampered along with haste, afraid to be left behind.

As they went, Jorge left Shiro a look he couldn't explain. It was neither anger nor disgust.

It was something else entirely.

Shiro had watched the whole trouble from behind. He even had a hand in it (quite literally). Suffice to say, he grew some feelings towards it, and they were mixed. It wasn't his issue, but he harboured some worry towards Leo. Even if it was his fault in the first place, Shiro still felt a sense of pity and a tad bit bothered for him, as he wouldn't wish Jorge against even his enemies.

Shiro asked as soon as Jorge walked out of earshot, "You okay?"

Then Leo turned back. His cheeks were puffed, his breathing fast and audible, his eyes glowing with strong emotions, describable with many words, 'excited' being the most prominent out of all. He met Shiro's eyes, at first with surprise, then with curiosity. "When did you start caring for me," he pried, "You wanted to get rid of me in the first place, didn't you?"

Shiro was taken aback, not by Leo's dirty revelation, but by his nonchalance to whatever happened before.

"I even gave you a chance during Economics, but you never took it" he purred, slowly closing in around Shiro, placing his palms on his chest, breathing even harder, "You having second thoughts on me now, Shiro?"

Admittedly, Leo did grow on Shiro, some. It was true that he was the one that dragged him into following him in the first place but overall, looking from hindsight, it had been everything but terrible. He did take Shiro around, and had been accompanying him throughout his first day. He taught him the niches and the inner-workings of Rormund, and even spotted him a seat at the cafeteria. In another way, Leo sacrificed his whole day just to teach the new transfer the ropes. He did get both of them into some degree of trouble, but if anything, he'd been nothing but helpful and kind.

Somewhere deep down in Shiro, he probably had acknowledged all that subconsciously, which was probably what held him back and made him stay put with Leo when Jorge and his gang approached them. A canine loyalty, perhaps, honed from Leo's show of benevolence and now working into his care.

Shiro held Leo by the shoulders and pushed him away gently, "Guess you're fine, then."

Shiro's push might've shook some sense back into Leo. He blinked in twice, took in a deep breath and brushed Shiro's hands off his arms, grabbing his wrist in return, "Sorry, I get clingy when I'm excited. Anyway, it's not me you should be asking."

He raised Shiro's wrist, "Are you okay?"

The question pulled the mental trigger, and a sudden sting pierced into his flesh, causing Shiro to spasm a little as his nerves washed over him in a sensation of pain. It stung for a good while, before receding into a shallow pulse on his palm.

"Yeah," he lied, but Leo saw through it as he began feeling up his hand, pressing gently into it.

"It's stiff here, isn't it," Leo asked as he massaged it with light pressure.

Shiro wanted to lie more, but at this point, it was futile. He simply nodded. The pain did seem to slowly slip away.

Then Leo began brushing his soft fingers across his palm, mildly drifting across the surface, "It's quite rough around here. A bit firm too-"

"I'm fine, thanks," Shiro threw his palm back, opting to rub it himself instead. Leo gave a disappointed shrug.

"So, what now," Shiro asked, "'Bout Jorge."

"I can handle him," Leo answered, "You just worry about looking pretty, hm?"

Shiro didn't believe Leo at first, but for a guy like him, if he said he could handle something, he most probably could. It didn't seem to be his first  trouble against guys like Jorge, or anybody else in particular.

Shiro asked, "Geology again?"

Leo thought about it for a while, then heaved his head back and sighed, "No, I think it's time we call this a day."

 

---

 

Without even noticing, the day had turned to evening and the sight of the setting sun seemed to have given everyone the same idea. The deserted corridors were refilled with the same bustling crowds, this time heading towards the one same direction. Some remained though, and upon inquiry, Leo explained that some classes open all the way till midnight to cater to the nocturnal animals of the school. Likewise, the early risers can attend lessons as early as six in the morning.

The exit lies on the giant, grand hall heading towards Justice's office, only in the opposite direction. Glass doors were swung wide open, and crowds after crowds spilled out of it, all scampering towards the dorms. As per Rormund’s service quality, there were carts and shuttles ready at the moment’s notice to take the students back to their respective places. Even then there were just too many, and those without the willpower simply hung back to wait for the next round, while some just simply upped and walked themselves.

Speaking of dorms, Shiro panicked at first. He hadn’t thought of where he’d be spending the rest of his nights at, and just when he came to terms with a self-sufficient life under the trees, Leo came to the rescue by holding his lanyard and flipping it to the back, revealing a set of numbers and alphabets with hyphens between, complete with what seemed to be Miss Secretary’s signature on the bottom corner. Leo spotted them as he was half-bent between Jorge and Shiro during the fiasco.

Thinking about it, it seemed kind of unreal that Miss Secretary would make a slip. But Shiro guessed she was like everybody else, after all; people.

The boys’ dorms were, as Leo explained, situated just a five-minute’s walk outside of the building, opposite of the elucid girls’ dorm. Sitting right behind the dorms is a 300-acre park, housing a football field in a stadium, tennis courts, squash courts and whatever courts the sporting community could come up with in the time being. Not to mention an artificial lake as well, among other things. According to Leo, he once tried to conquer the whole park during his first few days in the Academy, which took him a whole week. He claimed there were even some parts of the park he hadn’t fully explored, despite spending a good four years on campus already.

It became somewhat of a good incentive for Shiro, as canine nature and exploration were commonly associated with good reason. The park was etched into Shiro’s head as they went, his tail unconsciously wagging with excitement at the thought of an open frontier unexplored, just waiting for him beyond the dormitories.

Then he saw the dormitories themselves and completely forgot about the park.

Shiro had seen hotels in movies, and a few dozen times during his stay with his mother. They were huge, sky-topping and glamorous, equipped with fountains and runways to decorate the front. Blinding spotlights glazing the prestigious names sitting atop the entrance where bellhops awaited for your arrival to pick up your luggage and escort you to your room. The counter, dazzled with the happiest of receptionists welcoming you with their brilliant smiles, just aching to serve and check you into rooms.

There would be a lobby, high-ceilinged and seemingly built out of solid gold, with lounges posh with leather sofas, low coffee tables and a bartender shaking your favourite alcoholic blend behind the bar. There would be cafés sitting outdoors, and live, soothing jazz playing on a stage, sometimes even with a vocalist belting away with a guitar in her hands.

The dorms were that, but only short of the bellhops, the bar and the bartender, the café and the stage. It was everything bare minimum of a hotel, but with the bare minimums done to the maximum. Everything was still shiny, with the most stylish decoration of the generation to shame even the best of establishments, but it was a dorm out and out, only done excessively in the name of comfort and welcome. For one, he didn't think a dorm should be half a skyscrapers' height, but here he was. The bar was instead, a vending machine, and the rest were nonexistent, save for the café, which could be found in the Academy building itself, with an extra ‘-teria’ on the back of its name to boot. The counter was there too, but it was empty, and void of activity.

As soon as Shiro stepped into the lavish, over-the-top, golden entrance to the dorm, he felt an odd mixture of striking awe and homely hospitality at the same time. It was as if he was stepping back into his old home, but the walls were gold and the curtains were silver silk. Everything that could be upped had been upped, but it remained as his house nonetheless, unchanged and untouched, only upgraded to a degree Shiro thought to may have crossed a dozen lines too much.

To strike the atmosphere even further, there were students milling about the place, all casually dressed as if they were in their Saturday nights. Big and small, young and old, mammalian and reptilian, they were an assorted collection of adolescence. Every single one of them is stripped from their formal uniforms, reduced to nothing but their casual T-shirts and shorts. One rhino in particular was strutting about in nothing but a pair of briefs with all the subtlety of a rhino in a pair of briefs. All of them were doing normal things of adolescence. Loud, callous conversations, glancing at their phones, casually sipping from their soft drink cans, all under the backdrop of a place most likely built with elegance in mind.

After a day of keeping images, the dorm had become some sort of a heaven of freedom for the men. They were all finally free and undone from the shackles of judgement and expectations. They were free to be as wild and chaotic as they can be. They could finally unsuck their bellies, let their limbs flail around and simply reduce their poises to that of a sloth. Nobody seemed to mind either, as everyone was condemned into the same boat of shame. One look was enough to tell SHiro that whatever happens in the boys’ dorm stays in the boys’ dorm. It was never spoken to him, but the image before him told him everything he needed to know.

It was an atmosphere of homeliness among strangers that even money can’t buy. Slowly, it grew onto him the longer he watched the sight. He savoured the moment as much as possible, just before someone notices the filthy transfer standing on their grounds and repeat the corridor incident once more. So far, he hadn’t seen any familiar faces around the lobby, but he had no other expectations if one of them were to notice him.

As Shiro looked around, he noticed something else among the place. He noticed cobwebs. Evident strands of webbing dangling off corners, with little tiny spiders crawling along, unnoticeable under normal circumstances unless you looked hard enough. It wasn't visible as to break your focus and draw you towards it, but it seemed odd to Shiro. For a place as meticulous to its hospitality as Rormund, it seemed out of place for them to simply miss things like these.

They aren't in one place either. The more Shiro looked, the more he found out they were everywhere. Under tables, against walls, behind chairs, between vending machines. There were even stray ones scampering about, scuttling with their nippy legs tucked under their fat bodies. Strangely enough, they were all rushing towards the ceiling, busying around, heading towards the same destination. Shiro found himself intrigued, and was thinking about asking Leo when Leo tugged him by his side instead, pulling him close to his mouth and whispered, “Fair warning. When you see the guard, don’t be-”

Then the lights went out.

When Shiro was hoping he wouldn’t be noticed, he wasn’t thinking of this. The sudden darkness caught him off from his guard. It would catch anyone off their guard. His instincts came out by pure reflex, sharpening his senses by tenfold. His ears instinctively started picking sounds, and his night vision began swimming into his eyes. His limbs started tensing, ready to act at the moment’s notice.

“Leo,” he whispered, waiting for an answer. None came. He looked to his side. Leo was gone.

His mind would’ve gone to the logical conclusion of a simple circuit break, or an untimely power outage. But the sudden disappearance of Leo threw all the circumstances out of the window. Something was off, whether Shiro knew it or not.

Slowly, his night vision became sharper and clearer. He scanned across the dark lobby, looking to catch a clue or a hint to the situation. The other students were all paused in a trance, too caught off guard by the sudden loss of light, holding expressions of shock and surprise. Some were busy scanning upwards, looking at the ceiling as if it helps. Others began reaching around, hoping to gain some balance and a sense of their surroundings. Shiro scanned across the place, and saw no sign of the leopard. Then he looked towards the light fixtures. From there, his eyes picked up something. He peered as close as his night vision allowed. As he got closer, he noticed something.

Spiders?

Then he sensed movement from behind.

Immediately, he threw his head to his back. His senses picked up a frail wind trailing from behind, moving swiftly, but little to disturb the current. Behind him was nothing, at least from his eye level. He glanced across the place, seeing the same sight of blinded students caressing their fronts, none close enough to break the stale wind behind him.

That was when he was suddenly coiled by a thick rope.

Shiro sensed the rope first. His ears picked up something slithering and dragging under his feet. His body reacted as soon as the motions were heard. He threw out his one knee, reaching outwards, halfway leaping out of his place when whatever was below him exploded around him and clutched onto every part of his body, save for his neck. They had burst out of nowhere, coiling around him, dashing across his limbs and locking them stiff and tight. His night vision became useless, as everything swam into an angry blur of motion. He only had his sense of touch to help him. He couldn’t even catch a scent off the damn thing.

The ropes struck Shiro from every angle and direction as its pressure increased tenfold by the second. Shiro started fighting against the pressure, but his limbs hadn’t got the space. What’s left was a useless leg dangling outside the constriction, uselessly kicking himself with the bare hopes that he’d be let go. He couldn’t burst himself out either. Every passing second, the rope applied more pressure into his body. He tried to fight it, but as he was thrashed about, he could hardly gather the focus to do so.

The ropes suddenly threw Shiro upwards, suspending him mid-air. He felt his breath leaking out of his lungs, his neck suffocating under the pressure, his ribs on the verge of cracking. The ropes slowly made its way to his mouth. He managed to get a slither of it into his jaws, but found no strength to bite. It was as hard as a rock. His breath was reduced to a wheeze, desperately squeezed and pushed out of his chest.

As he struggled, he felt a rough sensation from the ropes  tying onto himself. Something was off. The ropes didn’t feel like it was operated by someone. It coiled him up way too smoothly, as if every inch of it was picked up and controlled expertly like a limb and evidently, that wasn’t the case. It felt too odd. Too strange. The rope felt too alive.

Then he felt something smooth and patterned in his palm. Cold was a word to describe it, even as it moved so quickly and rough against his body, no heat came from it. It felt rigid, yet soft to his hands.

Scales emerged into Shiro’s head when the lights came back on.

An intense white exploded into his eyes once again, rendering him half-blind. Shiro found himself face to face with an exposed light fixture against the wall, his eyes glared intensely into the light. He was suspended in the air, held so close to the light fixture to the point where he could do nothing but squint. As he closed his eyes, a voice hissed into the side of his ears.

“Whomsts is thissss,” it went. The voice was soft, yet striking and sharp to Shiro’s ears. It sounded pronounced and heavy in its tone. It had a heavy slur backed up to it, with a lisp at every end of its words, forcing ‘s’es onto everything it spoke.

“He's a new transfer,” Leo’s voice came to his ears, familiar and oddly soothing. Shiro tried to follow the voice, but the light in his eyes stopped him from doing so, “there’s a lanyard on his neck with Miss Secretary’s signature on it. Is that enough, or do you need to see her face to face?”

“Wells,” the voice went. Shiro then felt his chest being released some, and felt the mild, luxurious rush of air coming back into his lungs. The light, still burning into his eyes, made it so that he couldn’t see what was tugging the lanyard on his neck, violently pulling it away from him.

“Ais seesss,” the voice came back, “iss truess. Ais apologies fors troublessss…”

The scaly rope constricting Shiro slowly lost pressure, and little by little he slipped back down towards the ground, landing against the marble floor with an audible thud. He slowly got back up to his feet, then found himself bringing his head upwards, marvelling at the sight of a massive, dull green snake propped up against his own coiling body looming over him. How Shiro hadn’t noticed this giant creature as he entered the building was a mystery itself. One moment it was never there, then the lights went off and now it’d appeared right before his eyes by magic, with all its sheer mass and size.

The snake was also buck naked, as to every other snake Shiro had seen in public. They don't fit in the usual clothing of other animals, and found them to be rather constricting to their movements. Plus, with scales as thick as theirs, they didn't need clothes anyway. They often stick to more decorative items, like caps, scarfs, tattoos and sometimes even piercings.

This one had a cap sitting on its head, one Shiro would instantly recognize anywhere he went. It resembled an upside down cone with a flat surface on the top. It was something his father would come home wearing, only this time, it was black instead of navy blue, and bore the words SECURITY instead of a shining badge.

The snake seemed to be a bit more gentle under the light and realization. The ropes that once coiled Shiro so violently now moved with much control and grace. It slowly released itself from Shiro’s body, returning to its original body. That was when Shiro was put into perspective on how big the snake really was. It was merely holding its head up high, while the rest of its body was left limping and slithering around the floor. It seemed so impossibly huge that some parts of its body seemed to be moving under a mind of its own, uncontrolled by the snake itself.

“Ais apologiesss,” it hissed through its forked tongue, “sercuritiess protocolsss. Can’ts be’s toos riskiesss.”

Shiro found himself too entranced by its size to respond. As it spoke it slowly loomed down towards Shiro, as if unsure whether its gangaturan size made it hard for Shiro to hear its voice. In actuality, it did. As soft as its voice is, the snake had such a deep tone to its lisps that it sounded amplified on a reverb. It sounded silent, but heavy to the ears. Nonetheless, apparently nobody told the snake yet, as its big head descended down towards Shiro's height.

The snake had a pair of jade-green eyes, striked through with sharp, black pupils. It had a fat snout, with small nostrils sitting above its wide, fork-tongued mouth, popping in and out irregularly. It had a look of attentiveness, but with a sense of friendliness behind it, as if it was treating the world around it with fragility, while keeping itself aware of potential trouble.

The sheer size of the creature took Shiro away. He’d never seen something this huge,much less consider the possibility of something this huge to be mobile nor alive. All his past years of life experiences taught him only elephants or similar long-living mammals can reach up to such gargantuan sizes. Yet, there lies the sole contradiction to that rule, shattering his expectations into pitiful pieces.

Then, without warning, Shiro, looking straight into the snake's eyes, patted it full on its snout as if petting a Feral dog.

It came like an instinct. Do keep in mind that Shiro was still stuck in a state of shock, as it's his first time seeing something so huge before him. His body was running by pure instinctual action alone, though what his instincts were thinking would be anyone's guess.

The snake too, joined Shiro in his trance. Its eyes widened by inches and its mouth was unlocked, dropped open with its forked tongue sticking out, stuck and rigid. Parts of its enormous body spasmed out in a shock, taken of all control as it was too filled with sudden confusion to act while others swished about, unaware of what's happening.

It was the gasps of the surrounding crowd that snapped both of them back.

The mumbles and whispers from around him slowly reeled Shiro's mind back into reality. His widened, ruby red eyes slowly fell in size before opening up again for another bout of shock. He found out where he had put his hand and to his dismay, was still feeling through the snakes nose, lagging behind his mind's instructions.

"I-I'mma-" Shiro jolted his hands back, speaking to the snake's startled expression.

The snake's face too, slowly fell from its tense rapture, and slowly curved into a smile. "Ait's alsrightsss, ais doesn'ts mindsss," it hissed, "ais likes its anywaysss. Nonesss wouldsss comes close towards meeessss…"

The snake then brought up its massive tail from behind Shiro to tip the cap on its head. "Pleasures to's meets you's Ssssshiro's," it said, "Ai's thee dorm's security's. Sorries for's before's, ais wasn'ts informed's and thinks you's intruder's"

"T-that's 'kay," Shiro mumbled, still slightly bewildered by the snake's massiveness.

Leo voiced emerged from behind the snake, “Can I go now?”

"Ah yesss," the snake realized and drew back its body, revealing an even bigger portion of its body hiding just behind him. Weirdly enough, Shiro was done being startled by the snake's size. He wouldn't be surprised if parts started falling off the ceiling. He didn't even question the biological logic behind its colossal, mighty enormousness, and simply accepted it.

Leo was wrapped in the snake's body like Shiro moments ago, but this time with a lighter coil. He was pushed pretty far back from Shiro, as if the snake wanted to protect him from the wolf in the first place. The snake dragged its thick body towards itself, slowly unrolling its tail and dropping Leo off back to Shiro’s side. Leo slowly eased off his shoulders, rubbing it gently.

Leo looked up to the snake and spoke, "Age definitely didn't slow you down, hm?"

"Ais apologies-"

"That was a compliment."

"Thens ais gives ais thanksss…"

Leo then brought his hand up, facing towards the snake. The snake seemed curious towards Leo's palm, same as Shiro. It took a while to figure out.

The snake lowered its head once more, and Leo patted its giant nose with his smooth, lady-like fingers.

"You've got lovely scales," he commented.

"Ais gives ais thanks," it hissed again.

As Leo enjoyed his time, Shiro looked around. Due to the sudden power outage, everyone's attention was directed towards both Leo and Shiro, but more specifically, on Shiro.

So much for not drawing attention...

Strangely enough, nobody was giving him any dirty looks. They were rather curious gazes, wondering what in the hell made Shiro gather all his brain cells and decide to pat the scary reptile right on its snout. Shiro didn't question it any further, and was inclined to stay gratuitous towards a positive change in the crowd.

"Alright," Leo had his fill with the snake. He placed a hand on Shiro's shoulders, pointing a thumb towards a hallway at the end of the lobby, next to the counter "Elevators' there, we're taking you up."

"Waits," the snake slithered in front of them both, halting their route. It looked up to the ceiling and, in a low voice, hissed out the name, "Lucille'sss."

For a solid second, Shiro honestly thought the snake had a screw loose in its head. It was simply staring up to the ceiling, hissing at an empty space as if something would simply emerge and answer its call.

Then Shiro saw it.

EMerging from beneath the ceiling lights and fixtures were tiny black specks of creatures, eight-legged and sprinting towards the snake. Spiders. An abundance of them, enough to send chilling tingles down Shiro's spine. They all came seemingly out of nowhere, as if they broke out of the floor and materialised out the walls. The once golden colours were tainted into dark, moving patches, swallowing the glamour into some twisted, dark fantasy of a fever dream.

They all crawled towards one destination; towards the snake. They gathered at a one singular position just above the snake's head, cowering over each other as they scrambled towards the middle. None of them had fallen from the ceilings, which impressed Shiro much. What impressed Shiro even more was the crowd's reaction, or lack thereof. They were all looking at the spiders' sudden appearance as if they were watching a cloud passing the sky, and not at all like a pest infestation. What impressed Shiro even more so was his own indifference towards the whole event. It seemed that after the snake, nothing in Rormund would’ve surprised him any further.

The snake hissed again towards the spiders, "Lucille'sss."

Then, popping out from the bunch, a particularly huge spider jumped onto the snake's nose. It was as huge as a tea saucer, and was as hairy as Shiro himself. It had a shade of light brown, with dark patterns running through its giant abdomen. Contrary to the other spiders, this one had six eyes instead of eight. Two of them were gigantic, sitting right smack in the middle of its face, with four smaller ones sitting below, aligned in a V-shape.

With the spider sitting atop its nose, the snake hissed, "Watches thee wolf's fors ais, ais dearest's…"

Immediately after hearing the snake's words, the spider leaped from the snake's nose, landing on Shiro's shoulders with a light tap.

The snake reared its head towards Shiro and spoke, "Lucille's is a wolf's spider's, buts she's doesn'ts bitesss. Ais feeds her's nice mice and's keeps her's full's. She's watching's you's for's safetiesss, just's in's casesss…"

Shiro looked at Lucille the wolf spider sitting on his shoulder. The spider lifted her tiny legs and poked him on the cheeks with a hiss, as if a form of greeting.

"She's likes you's," the snake proclaimed.

The spider then leaped up once more, jumping from one shoulder to the other, facing Leo. The leopard took the hint and, with a smile, wiggled a finger at the spider. Lucille immediately drew out a loud hiss, snuggling his finger with her hairy legs with enthusiasm.

"But's she's likes Leo's evens mores, ais seesss…"

Lucille had her fill with Leo and proceeded to leap back down to Shiro’s tracksuit jacket’s pocket, nestling into it as if it became her home.

The snake slithered away, tipping his cap towards the two, "Ais wishes boths goods nights…"

"Likewise," Leo answered while Shiro gave the snake a subtle nod. The snake slithered its onto the back of the once empty counter and dragged back the rest of its body into the place. How it managed that would be Shiro's question for the time being. They both continued down the hallway, with Lucille sitting in Shiro's pocket, clearly enjoying it with her undeniable jitteriness.

Shiro asked Leo, "The snake-"

"Anaconda," Leo corrected him, "Green Anaconda. Not a snake. It's a small difference, but a respectful one."

"R-right," he said, "the anaconda. What's his- I mean, her- I- I don't know… What's its name?"

“That’s what you’re thinking of?”

“W-why?”

The leopard gave a smirk, "Well, no one knows. Not even its gender. It never told anyone and nobody seemed to ask, so it's left a mystery since then. We just went along with it.”

"Should I-"

"Don't," Leo immediately shot in, "that's the fun part. Nobody asked, so we'll just keep guessing. Even if you know, do me a favour and keep it to yourself, hm? See it as tradition, you'll get it soon."

Shiro hadn't got it yet, but thinking about it, it did make some alien sense to him. It wasn't a sense he'd get, but understand the fun factor within the mystery, especially for people like Leo.

They made their way towards the elevator hall. The decor may be less, but they hadn’t diminished from quality. The golden walls persisted throughout the hallway, with the light fixtures keeping up the formulaic, elegant yet minimalistic design, easy to the eyes without losing the glamour. The room had a high ceiling, with a dim but sufficient light source hanging above. The elevators themselves came in frameless, single sheet doors that were twice the size and height of Shiro and seemed to blend with the walls. The graceful, simplistic layout of the hall extended even to the floor indicators. There were no screens, only glowing numbers flashing above each door on the golden walls.

Waiting on the end of the elevator hall were Bara and Dove.

"Ah, you two," Leo called out, "I thought we’re meeting in the room.”

"You had the key card, remember," Bara returned. Leo checked his pocket and sure enough, he produced a plain, white card in his palm.

“Oops,” he exclaimed, “my bad.”

As for Bara, he seemed no different from who Shiro met before. This time, he was sporting a doctor's coat draped on his shoulders. Other than that, he's still the same sun bear Shiro met at the corridor, with the same gentle, kind look on his face.

Though the tingly instinct still remained in Shiro's head.

"Hello there, Shiro," Bara said, which Shiro responded with a nod. Then he felt his pocket rustle for a second. Lucille popped out of it, head first, and gave a sharp hiss, prodding her legs towards the bear. “Ah, you too, Lucille,” he said.

Dove, on the other hand, was very silent. If he did give any form of acknowledgement of both Shiro and Leo’s arrival, it’ll be the quiet, hostile glare given to Shiro alone. He kept his snout shut, and his eyes glued to Shiro, staring as friendly as oil and fire.

There didn’t seem to be buttons beside the elevator doors, but that didn’t seem to bother the gang. Leo simply raised the white card in his palm and waved it in front of the elevator doors. A soft ding rang from somewhere, and the white numbers began dwindling down.

"There was a blackout just now, wasn't there," Bara asked Leo as they waited for the elevator’s arrival. Leo simply answered by pointing at Shiro.

"I see," he said, "security protocols?"

Leo nodded.

"I see," he said again.

Another soft ding rang again and the doors slid open to the side. This time, Shiro finally felt the overkill of the dorm’s decor. With the exception of the golden walls, everything was done to the max and then some. The handle bars on the side were tubes of steel with glass covering the middle. Within the glass, Shiro saw mounds of diamonds filling the inner tube. He kept his eyes firmly on the shining gems, wondering how much economy his eyes were currently staring at the moment. Again, it bothered none of the others, but Shiro suspected they’ve seen more, and that this was nothing but the norm for them.

The elevator itself was quite massive. It was comparable to a cargo bay. If he wished to, Shiro could lie down on his back and still find space to roll around. He could jump and barely touch the golden ceiling.

On the far end of the wall was a bulletin board. Not the normal kinds, but the high-tech ones that have screens and moving displays. There were several notices and reminders on the flat screen surface. There was one reminding large-sized mammals to stand to the back and give way to the smaller students of the Academy living on the lower floors of the building. Among them were notices regarding the gym’s maintenance, and something about meet-ups for the local dormitory swim team in the pool on the third floor.

Shiro shifted himself beside Leo, while Dove joined Bara on the back. The Doberman leaned on the back of the wall, keeping his eyes on the wolf.

The doors slid themselves shut, and Shiro instinctively glanced towards the buttons, or the lack thereof. There were more white numbers, similar to the ones shown outside, simply displayed upon the walls as if by magic. Leo simply pushed his thumbs on two of the many numbers, and they lit up. Without hesitation, Shiro felt the elevator click and began it’s ascent.

"Where are you staying,” Bara asked Shiro from behind.

"O-oh, it's uh-" Shiro fumbled with the lanyard hanging on his neck. He flipped to the back, looking at the words written on it. He only looked, and that was the extent of it. He couldn't decipher whatever the scribbles on it were supposed to mean, save for Miss Secretary’s signature, as that was the only recognizable part of the whole thing. It surprised Shiro some, as he didn’t expect Miss Secretary as one who’d write as bad as to the point where her signature is clearer than her handwriting.

But Bara took one look and instantly recognized it.

"Fourteen-fifty," he read the words, "Do you know your way around here?"

Shiro shook his head.

"I'll meet you guys back at the room," Bara said to the gang and turned back to Shiro, "I'll get you there in no time."

Lucille, sitting within Shiro's pocket, gave an angry hiss as Bara spoke.

"Sorry," he smiled, "both of you."

Then a soft ding rang within the elevator, and then it stopped. The doors slid open, and both Shiro and Bara stepped out. The once golden walls were bleached to a soft white, and the floors were carpeted with some comfortable fabric, soothing Shiro’s bare feet.

As soon as they got out, Bara said, "Well, seems like there's no need."

Sitting right in front of the elevator hall was a corridor going both ways. The first door they saw was a brown, mahogany door with a little peephole just above the middle, bearing the numbers 1450, etched into its surface.

Almost immediately, Shiro turned to the elevator, met with Leo's eyes and, to Leo's surprise, said, "Thanks."

Leo lifted his elbow and said, "You're forgetting something."

He pulled out something from under his shoulders. Much to Shiro's dismay, he had forgotten his briefcase. He quickly caught it back into his embrace, holding it tight into his chest. "Thanks," he said again, then he scampered off towards the door.

Bara stepped back into the elevator and the doors closed, with Shiro last seen hurrying towards his new dormitory room, clutching his briefcase with Lucille sitting in his pocket.

"An interesting one, isn't he," Bara commented.

"He's good company," Leo answered.

The elevator made a tiny hitch, and carried on its way.

The mechanical drone of the elevator filled the silence as it went. The bulletin board switched up the display, warning the big-sized mammals to remember to stick to the window-side of the corridors and let their tiny peers walk among the door-side as compensation to their size, and to give them a more friendly environment and experience in the Academy. They also put up a clip-art of an elephant’s red silhouette dramatically swerving to the right as to avoid a tiny black mouse walking next to it.

Then Dove broke his silence, "So, what about the mutt."

"It's Shiro," Leo corrected him.

"Whatever," he simply retorted, "what about him."

Leo took a deep breath, thought about the words in his head and spoke, "Adorable. I'd call him a puppy, but not a mutt."

"Whatever," Dove retorted again, "what else."

Leo trailed a silence, letting the mechanical hums of the elevator fill the air for the moment.

Then he spoke once more.

“Low self-preservation. He’s too open. Too wide. He looks at everyone the same. He doesn’t think hard on others, or what they could do to him. Whatever you throw at him he tanks it. He doesn’t show his emotions, at least on his face; his tail exposes everything. He’s an open window. If you want to, he could be a pushover. If he’s got a line, it’ll be a long time before we get to see it. Beyond that, he’s nothing else. What you saw is what you get.

“That is, if you’re the kind to judge a book by it’s cover.

“The wolf’s built. He’s got shoulders and biceps. I felt his arm. He’s got bricks in them. They’re to the point where he needs to slack his shoulders to get comfortable. He didn’t get it from bodybuilding, though. His arms are normal sized. They never grew. They hardened internally. Plus, it’s all over the place. Normal gym equipment trains whole parts of a body; his physique is too singular. Too focused. Some parts are hard, some parts are virgin, never touched. He doesn’t seem to be that kind of a guy anyway. Yet again, you don’t grow like that. Genetics only get you so far. So how does he get his body?

“Any guesses?”

Nobody spoke a word.

Leo continued anyway, “It’s the kind of arm you’d get from frequent pressure. He’s been putting stress into his whole body since the moment we saw him on that stage, either consciously or subconsciously. Mental stress, controlled and concentrated into a physical level. He definitely didn’t start doing it then. Since when, God knows, but it’s definitely been a while.

“He doesn’t relax either. Perky ears, twitchy nose; signs of alert. Even his words are choppy. I have two ideas. One, he’s born behaving like this. No foul in that. And then there’s idea two; he’s saving his voice, lowering his presence, and increasing his observation role on the sidelines. Stay away from the spotlight and watch from behind. If so, then it’s poor luck he got on the auditorium this morning.

“And now the question. He’s a sheltered boy, probably never seen real trouble. The way he sees the world, you’d think he spends his days inside. I won’t blame you. A country boy like him, who’d thought? But how does a country boy like him get a body like that? You don’t put constant pressure in your body like that. You train for it. It’s something you’d get under a waterfall for fifteen years and probably come back with it. Then you look closer and find out he never stops listening. He never stops looking. He never stops sniffing. He’s always sourcing information about his surroundings.

“Then you start to think how does someone get such low self-preservation but gain so much self-awareness. How does someone stay relaxed and alert at the same time? How does a pushover dandelion get this jacked and built?

“So you’re left with two theories. One, he’s a farm boy who spends his days chasing Feral sheep and cows. He watches for Feral predators eating his livestock and spends his days bare-knuckled wrestling Feral pigs. No foul in that. He can spend his days however he likes.

“Or-”

Then everything fell quiet.

None of the three spoke after that. They were all reserved to themselves, thinking whatever it is in their heads. Dove was still glaring, but he did so into a far-off distance, not in focus. Bara was stroking his chin with one hand with the other fumbling in an empty pocket of his coat, murmuring to himself, “Interesting.”

Leo fell silent once more. The bulletin board changed its topic again, this time about cafeteria ethics. It, once again, reminded the big-bodied mammals of the Academy to sit away from the counter and the doors to allow space for their smaller friends as they would get to places of interest easier. The same red elephant was shown giving space to a tiny black rat in a small table near a black vertical rectangle with the green words Exit printed above it.

“I met Jorge today,” Leo said.

“How’d it go,” Bara asked, but the tone wasn’t there. There was a patronizing feel to his voice as he spoke, as if he had better things to think of other than Leo’s encounter.

Whether Leo noticed it or not, he never showed, and kept on with his words, “I’ll admit it. I got him a tad bit agitated. He came up to me in the evening and just simply accused me of sleeping with ‘his girl’. Luckily, there weren't people around to hear it. Still, I got a bit childish and started playing with him. I challenged him with words and well, he didn’t like it. Right then, I reached his peak and he got a little physical with me. He gave me a back-handed swing. I ducked right in time, and Shiro was standing behind me and he caught it-”

There was a sudden silence of the background that would’ve killed a cowardly rodent by the sheer, crushing weight of the quietness. Everything just stopped making noise. Bara’s chin-rubbing, Dove’s breath, the elevator’s hum. Even the bulletin board seemed to stop emitting light, and had grown as dull as everything else.

Save for Leo’s words, which continued without a single hitch.

“-Jorge got caught off guard, and that calmed him down. Of course, that didn’t make him any less angry, just a little less irrational. I suggested we make up and-”

Dove was the first to break the thumping silence of the back. He grabbed Leo by the shoulder and turned him to the back. “What’d you say happened,” he frantically asked.

“I was just getting to that part,” Leo continued, as nothing in particular had happened, immune to Dove’s turbulent voice, “He said he wanted to meet me behind the dorms to ‘settle things’, or I’ll regret it next morning. Personally, I find that a bit too bold for me but-”

Dove swung Leo directly towards his face, shoving his brown eyes into the leopard’s full view, glaring intensely into his line of sight, “What did you mean Shiro caught it.”

Leo, neither stirred or excited, kept talking away, “I meant what I said. He caught it.”

“How,” Bara questioned from the corner of the elevator. His voice remained baritone and relaxed, but the word came quicker than usual, as if it’s urgent to receive a response, “Please.”

Leo brought up both his hands as a demonstration. “Jorge threw the normal back-handed swing gorillas would’ve thrown,” he said as he playfully lobed the back of his hands, “Shiro just grabbed him by the wrist. He had a stance ready from behind. He had his legs open and straight to his back to transfer the pressure from the ground. His arm was also like this.” Leo extended his arm, with the elbow slightly arched in a wide angle, and his shoulder held slightly in front of him. “He did this to negate the impact and cushion the blow. His palm was also curved like this, and he just grabbed Jorge’s wrist. Not with his fingers , with the balls on the bottom. See?”

Leo slammed the bottom of his palm and wrapped it over his other wrist as he pushed it against each other. “Jorge’s hand just sort of warped around Shiro’s palm and stopped. Just like that.”

Dove slowly fell back towards the wall, holding the diamond-filled railings for support.

“How fast was it,” Bara asked.

“This fast,” Leo spoke without hesitation, and wasted no time relaying both syllables aloud. He recited both words swiftly, with much precision and certainty.

“How fast,” Bara asked again.

Leo pointed at his mouth and said again, “This fast.” He spoke in the same tone, speed and certainty as before, with a voice that couldn’t possibly get any clearer. Bara understood, and fell into his own mind, stroking his chin.

“Interesting,” he chanted, “Very interesting.”

The scene persisted itself for quite some time.

The bulletin board switched up its notice once again. This time, it was a poster about standing up towards bullying by the Ethics Committee. The primary message was played by a black silhouette of what seems to be a small person cowering within a giant red shadow with sharp ears and claws for fingers. Bold, big letters above it read DON’T FALL PREY. SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING, with the PREY enhanced in red lettering.

Then a soft ding rang, and the elevator grinded to a halt. The doors slid open to another hall, similar to the one Shiro stepped out of. Both Bara and Leo got off the elevator. Dove didn’t budge. He was still stuck in his corner,  glaring into a far-off distance, listless in his eyes.

“Dove,” Leo called out, “We’re here.”

“Where did Jorge say he’s going to meet you?”

“Hm?”

Dove looked back up, his eyes fuming with an emotion undescribable in simple words. His gaze met with Leo’s, and with a voice, low and dark, he asked again, “Where are you meeting Jorge?”

Leo didn’t answer for a while. The elevator started retracting the doors again. As the golden walls began rolling back to a close, Leo finally spoke.

“Behind the dorms.”

Dove gave no response. He kept his gaze leveled, staring straight into Leo as the doors slowly slid to a close. Leo could still remember the look in his eyes as the elevator dropped to a descent.

“Are you sure it’s okay to let him go,” Bara asked Leo as they watched the little number dwindle back to the ground floor, “The food will arrive any minute now.”

“It’s fine,” he answered, “It'll be warm when he’s done. Come on,” he let out a big yawn, “I got sleep to catch.”

Then, as Leo’s let out a cavernous, silent roar, Bara had his eyes averted towards the corridor, missing the little twitch bursting out from the edge of the leopard’s yawn. It danced around erratically as Leo let out a low yawn, as if Leo was suppressing some hidden emotion buried under his poise, itching to get out and explode in delirium.

 

---

 

Back below, Shiro stood before the mahogany door, doubts and uncertainties clouding his mind as he stared at the doorknob, sitting right under his palm. Lucille emerged from his pocket, rustling outwards, giving him a soft hiss as if asking what's wrong.

He looked down to Lucille, then looked back up at the door, hesitation wrangling his palm away.

He wasn't sure about the people behind the doors. He'd seen the reactions he gathered in the corridors. The glares and the scowls were all results of a simple acknowledgment of his existence. Simply walking past them had already given them this much hatred. He couldn't begin fathoming what one would react when they eventually get divulged that this wolf would be the one they have to stand with for the next half-decade of their schooling years.

His hand still on the doorknob, his mind was running in a daze. He had known the consequences for knocking on this door all too well himself, but he just wasn't ready to meet it.

But it had to be done.

Thus, he blew a deep breath, and knocked on the door.

Three deep mahogany taps.

Silence.

Then a rustling from behind.

A steady, growing voice started roaring from behind the door, "...oming, coming! Who is it?!"

Shiro's excitement was piqued. He wasn't ready for anybody actually answering the door. His enthusiasm must've been felt by Lucille, because she leapt out of his pocket and jumped to the top of his head, too seemingly twitching with excitement for either Shiro or something else. Either way, nothing could calm the both of them down until 1450 opens its bowels and reveals the rest of Shiro’s future.

Shiro heard someone cowering over the door, as the wood creaked and shuddered from whatever motions went on behind.

Then the silence fell once more.

Shiro was beginning to wonder if he was being ignored, or it took the patrons this long to identify the wolf standing in front of the peephole. Either way, each passing second dwindled his confidence. He was certain that whatever passing through the door wouldn't be nice.

But a little hope preserves itself. Maybe, just maybe, the people behind the door are good people, and those who understand his predicament and are willing to look past all the status in the world to become good roommates.

Then the door opened, and Shiro was half-right.

A sheepdog came out, holding a broom, exuding every intention Shiro wished him not to have. He was holding it from behind, crouching in a defensive stance, with every sharp-ended pricks facing Shiro. He spoke, with an unquestionably definite tone.

"Stay away from here.”