Elinora

The next evening I slept in my bed again. Personally, I wouldn't mind another sleepover with Arine but after our library session, she told me she needed to be alone for a while. I didn’t question it instead, I borrowed the book and continued to read it in my room. That might have been a mistake since this barbaric plant wasn’t the only nightmare-inducing thing living on the face of this world. Yet, something about it fascinated me to no end. I wanted to know more about these creatures and how they came to be. Another interesting thing I learned was that shallofins are herbivores. Even with their razor-sharp teeth, they preferred to eat some plants over humans. One thing less to worry about.

The next Monday a knock on my door woke me at least three hours too early. Maybe I shouldn’t have read that book till midnight? 

Opening the door, Ms pern greeted me with multiple packages of clothing. “I wanted to make sure, these get to you.” she pressed the packages into my arms. I tried not to stumble backward and put them on my bed, turning my attention back to Ms. Pern. “Finally you’ll look a bit more in accordance with the other students.” She turned around and left me with the packages of clothing.

 

Opening them revealed seven sets of uniforms, I guess one for each day and a few to spare. Putting six of them away, I was left with one laid out onto my bed. So my time has finally come.

Putting on the uniform wasn’t that hard at all, it was just clothes after all. What was indeed harm, was my voice in my head, more precisely my father's voice, reminding me of my status. “No son of mine is wearing a skirt.”, “How can you even entertain this thought.”, “Aren’t you ashamed?”, “Only a failure like yourself would accept this so fast, have you no backbone?” For the briefest of moments, I thought about putting on my mom’s old clothes again but then I had to think of Arine and all the stuff she was going through. If she had to wear the uniform, so would I and if that meant I was a failure to my father so be it. I would be solidary to Arine.

The clothes felt very strange, the blouse fit way better than I had expected however, it also highlighted some parts of my body pretty significantly. At least the blouse and blazer felt comfortable, the skirt on the other hand, not so much. The feeling of fabric tightly surrounding and hugging my legs, telling me I wore pants with every move was something I grew accustomed to. Now it was gone and felt exposed. 

Facing myself in the mirror I tried boosting my confidence by telling me the same thing over and over again. “You can do this. It’s not so bad. Just think of Arine.” 

I wasted about an hour talking to myself. In the end, it didn’t help and when I had to leave my room I felt just as nervous and vulnerable as before. 

Closing the door behind me, I was greeted by four flabbergasted faces.

“You wearing the uniform? I thought I would never get to experience this.” Lyn laughed.

“She looks pretty cute like this.” Kat added checking me out again with this wide grin.

“Anyway, I’m glad you decided to finally follow the academy's dress codes. To be honest it bugged me for quite a while.” Lyn said while patting the spot beside her, indicating me to join the circle of girls once again.

I made myself comfortable next to Emily and Lyn, making sure to get as much space between Kat and I as physically possible, I didn't want a repeat of our first encounter.

“So, what’s this about?” When every one of them started to worriedly look at each other I knew exactly what this was about, Arine. I knew what she did looked bad but they didn’t know what really had happened and I would defend Arine till the end, even if it meant my friendship with the other girls would be over. I didn’t care.

“We all saw what happened with Arine the other day, ” Lyn said and I felt my body tense up, “and we thought she could use a day to relax.”

I was about to say something and tear into Lyn for slandering Arine when it hit me. “You want to...what?”

“Yeah, ” Kat said looking a bit dejected, “what happened wasn’t normal and I’m sure what Arines going through has to be pretty hard. So we thought about a way to cheer her up a bit. And-”

“Hot springs.” Emily’s voice chirped up from behind me as she started to bounce up and down on the couch, “Arine will love it, ” she got creepily close to my ears as she whispers, “they even have real shallofins!” 

Real-life shallofins? For some reason, there was only one thought running around in my head. “Are they as fluffy as the plushies?”

Gathering all her strength, Emily mustered her most serious face as she looked me directly in the eyes and declared matter of factly, “Fluffier.”

“As Emily has been saying, ” Riley piped up from behind her book, “we have been planning a trip to the millennial tree.”

“Tree? I thought we wanted to go to a hot spring.” I said unsure if I may have misunderstood.

“No no, ” Lyn said from beside me, “Riley is right, the hot springs are next to the millennial tree.”

I agreed to their idea and we talked about the details. Lyn, Riley, Emily, and Kat all had obtained permission to skip class for the day, albeit I wasn't so sure about Kat. She seemed like the kind of person who just did whatever she wanted without asking permission. Arine and I would have to skip our private lessons with Mr.Sirus, although I had a feeling he wouldn’t be much of a problem since he took such a liking to Arine. My mother, on the other hand, was a whole other deal but I could worry about that later, first I had to bring Arine aboard.

Arranging to meet up with the others at eleven on the southern port, I made my way to Arine’s dorm waiting to bring her the good news. When she stepped outside, she looked at me like I had grown a second head.

“Eli? What are you wearing?”

“The uniform?”

“I see that, it’s just unusual…why are you smiling like that?” 

“You remember Kat and the others?” It was hard keeping my enthusiasm for myself, I could already picture the day and how great it would be.

“Yes?” 

I told her all about the great plan we came up with only for her to look at me like I had a screw loose. As it turns out, Arine wasn’t a fan of hot springs and it took me way too much persuasiveness to get her to agree. What had finally sold her was me promising her I would take her back with me if she absolutely didn’t like it.

We met with Mr. Sirus and broke the news to him. He looked at Arine and his serious expression softened giving us a small nod of approval. “But don’t forget to do your exercises. And Arine?” he called after us. Arine turned around and Mr. Sirus gave her a fatherly smile, “Have fun.” 

I saw a blush appear on her cheeks as she took my hand and dragged me away, “Let’s go shopping.” She dragged me all the way to the clothing district and I still had no clue as to what she wanted until we came to a stop before a very specific store, Miranda’s swimwear. How had I forgotten about this crucial little detail? 

Arine pushed me inside the store and crossed her arms, “It was your idea, you’ll get me something to wear.” I didn’t know if I should feel flattered or terrified. On one hand, choosing something for Arine to wear opened up so many possibilities that my face started to burn again, on the other hand, if I made a mistake Arine would hate me forever. The decision, however, was made easy as the saleswoman approached me.

“How may I help you?”

“Uhm...me and my friends are planning a trip to the tree...and...we need something to wear.” I explained all the while keeping strict eye contact with the wooden floor, it had a fascinating cross pattern.

“Ah, a trip to the hot springs I see. What size are you and your friend if I may ask?”

“I’m a 34B and Arine is...” I looked at her for help but she still stood outside with her arms crossed waiting for me to finish the purchase. The woman noticed and left the store for a moment to bring Arine inside.

“Mind telling me your size, darling?”

“32B” I raised an eyebrow but Arines narrowed her eyes and I knew better than to push her. I didn’t want to summon her fury upon me.

“I think I might have just the thing for you two.” The saleswoman disappeared for a moment, leaving us with the display of skimpy swimwear before she reappears with two bikinis in hand. One was ocean blue which she pressed in my hand, the other one ashen grey that she handed over to Arine. The bikini’s themself weren’t that bad, what was bad was the comment she just couldn’t bite back.

“I’m sure your boyfriends will love those.” I saw Arine repressing the desire to vomit and an image of Kat trying to seduce Arine in a hot tube appears before my mind. Anger started to rise inside me and I took Arine's hand trying to calm down.

“Oh, I see. I’m sorry for assuming.” The woman apologies and I had to look away to hide the blush that was instantly reappearing. “Well, anyway, do you want to pay together or separately?”

Arine nudged my arm and gave me her bikini, clearly wanting me to pay, “Don’t you have money?”

“I bought you chocolate.” she said with a huff and mumbled something about flying sharks being too expensive from under her breath. I paid for both of our items and we made our way to the southern ports with twenty minutes to go.

“Ehm, Eli?” Arine said as we jumped onto one of the many crates that were scattered around the port waiting for Lyn and her group to arrive, “shouldn’t we inform your mom and Olaf about this?”

I had thought about this the whole time since we parted with Mr. Sirus and came to one simple conclusion, there was no way in hell mom would allow us to go on this trip. I would gladly take the verbal beating following our return if it meant we could stop Arine’s pain for one day. “Nah, we’re fine.”

At eleven o’clock we all assembled around the crates and watched in awe as the ship docked. We let the passenger exit and after a cooldown phase of fifteen minutes, the ship was ready again to get boarded. Lyn had already booked all our tickets and so she was the first to enter, followed by Kat, Riley, Arine, me and Emily. The wooden floor beneath us creaked and squealed. Riley had to reassure me multiple times that this was indeed a safe means of transportation. I may not be afraid of heights, but that doesn't mean I feel at ease flying hundreds of miles above the ground in a construct that looks like its last check-up was about four decades ago.

The ship, however, didn’t seem to be bothered by my concern and so our three hour trip to the millennial tree began. To pass some of the time, Lyn had bought a card game with her called, “Treasure flux”. It played similar to a card game I had heard of at home, every player gets a champion and spell cards supporting his or her champion. The goal is to take out as many monsters as possible, gather treasures and hinder the opponent's champions as much as possible. Alliances weren’t allowed but Arine and I found ways to support each other more or less conspicuous just as Emily and Kat, as well as Riley and Lyn, did. 

The game was surprisingly fun but each round took quite a while and after five games we had already reached our destination. We put away our things and all made out way excitedly to the deck to get a glimpse of what was awaiting us. As it tuned out, Emily was the only one who had visited the millennial tree in the past.

What greeted us was the sight of the countless mountains with small forests rising from the valley and counting what I assumed would be the hot springs we were here for. To our left, a tree rose high enough into the sky that its tree crown wasn’t visible anymore with a trunk that was easily as thick as Alos itself.

On the ground again a half-hour march followed alongside the tree before we would reach the entrance of the springs. Wandering alongside the tree, I felt the immense magic energy it poured out with every second, I felt like I was in the epicenter of the world.

“I know it’s called the millennium tree, but is it really only a millennium-old?” Somehow, the thought that this massive structure was only a thousand years old didn't sit well with me.

“Oh no,” Lyn said, never once stopping to guide our small group, “the tree’s probably older than almost everything else in this world. Some even say it’s the source of all magic.”

Now it was Arine’s turn to ask questions, “The source of all magic? And we can just walk by like it’s nothing? Shouldn’t this place be scary or something?”

“You’re not wrong,” Lyn continued, “but unlike other sources of magic, the tree is harmless and as long as you don’t try anything funny, it won’t hurt you and believe me, you can’t hurt it.”

Arine thought for a second, watching the tree with close interest, “So you’re saying we can be here because we’re no threat?”

“Yes and because the tree likes company.” Lyn continued on.

“The tree likes company?” Emily chimed up from behind us, “would it also like a hug?”

“Emily… that’s not how it works. Let me explain...” And for the next twenty minutes, Lyn explained to us the nature of the tree and other magical sources. Basically, a magic source is never an inanimate object and always a living being with desires and its own way to communicate with the environment. Because most sources are bound to one place, like the tree, they had to find various ways to communicate over their environment with the world, one of these ways is to change the environment around it. The forest around the trees seems to be particularly green and rich with flora and fauna, the more people come to visit. Lyn also told us about a time two hundred fifty and however many green moons ago, when no one came to visit the tree for over a decade. When the first people set foot inside the forest again, it was nearly withered away and the once green leaves of the millennial tree had turned gray. In this period the tree became known as the great depressed tree and the hot springs were built to make sure the tree would never again die of loneliness. 

A sad tree, I thought to myself as I subconsciously started petting it. “So what are the other sources like?”

“Hmmm, well, ” this time it was Riley's turn to share her knowledge, “there’s a stone in the Volcanic region off Oznir, he likes to be left alone and the leviathan deep beneath the sea that no one ever came in contact with.” she stopped for a moment and looked up at three. “There might be more but the tree is definitely the most powerful and most harmless of them all.”

“We’re there!” Emily announced jumping up and down. Yep, she clearly had a problem containing her excitement for herself. “Let's go, ” she ran towards the entrance as a wave of magic pushed us all behind.

The springs themselves were pretty empty at this time of the day, which didn’t surprise me in the least bit since most people needed to work or still had school. Right now we were the only ones on site which I was glad for because it meant fewer people leering at my body, please just let Kat behave herself.

Arine and I were the last ones to use the cubicles, I put on the bikini without much of a problem and only after I left the safety of those small four walls panic started to arise inside me. ‘Didn’t take you long to learn how to put those things on’, ‘What’s next, you getting a boyfriend?’, ‘Does the lustful stares of men fill you with pride?’ My father was all over in my head again and it was only after my body emerged into the soothing hot water of one of the springs that I regained my composure. I looked to my right and I saw that Arine had taken my right hand and guided me gently into the water.

“Abe yow feeblinb bebber?” she said with her head half underwater, “anb I bhougbt I bas bervous.”

I looked to my left, trying to hide the blush that developed once I noticed she was still holding my hand. “You shouldn't speak with your head underwater. No one will understand you.”

“Kat’s lobbinb bt me funny.” I turned around and glared at Kat who sat in her bubbling spring with a devilish grin on her face. She gave me a thumbs up and now it was my turn to bury my head underwater.

We stayed like this for what felt like hours, Arine and I in our own spring, Kat in hers and Lyn, Riley and Emily in another. I thoroughly enjoyed the view of the great Millennial Tree to my right and the sight of the ocean from above here together with the feeling of the hot water easing my tension, relaxing my muscles and sensing the enormous amount of nature magic flowing through my body.

For a while, Arine had set her sights on a small spring that didn't emit steam like all the others. She climbed out and made her way to the small spring corner to my right. She tested the water with one hand and jumped in, daring Kat to do the same on the way. 

Knowing Kat, she didn’t waste a second, climbed out of her spring and followed Arine, jumping without testing the water beforehand. As soon as her body entered the water a deafening squeal shook the whole area, “IT’S COOOOOOLD.” In record time she had already climbed out again and starred at Arine, “You little devil.”

“That’s what you get for staring at me.” Emily, Lyn, Riley and I all watched in wonder before we burst out laughing. Defeated, Kat climbed into my spring and crossed her arms.

“I didn’t stare at her. I was just evaluating her body.”

“That’s what you call it now, evaluating?” Lyn said as she and the others all started to climb into our spring.

“Shut up.” Kat said as she splashed Lyn with a wave of water followed by another from Emily and Riley aimed at Kat. It went on like this for much too long, Arine and I eventually joining in on the fun and I noted with joy the big smile on Arine’s face. We had achieved our goal.

As the situation calmed down and the sun signaled the start of its sunset, I remembered something Emily had told me this morning. “Hey, Emily. Didn’t you say shallfins are living here somewhere?”

“Yesssss, do you want me to show you?” she leaned in closer to me and carefully eyed Arine’s expression, “Real shallfions, fluffier than anything you have ever touched.” In the corner of my eye I could see that Arine didn’t give Emily her desired reaction. I don’t know what she had expected, maybe a bubbling Arine begging to show her the flying creatures? But that was definitely not gonna happen. A bit dejected she still agreed to show me, “Well anyway, follow me.”

“Hey, wait for me.” A voice called out to us after we left the spring and were on our way. It was Arine trying to catch up with us.

“I knew you wouldn’t want to miss this.” Emily was again, much too excited for her own good.

“Yeah, whatever. I just want to see what they're like in real life.” And so we followed Emily inside a small clearing that contained a lake with water? It looked like water, had the same movement and consistency form what I could tell but it lacked the reflective nature of what water normally had.

“Don’t get in!” Emily warned us before she put her head through the surface, “Just do what I do.” 

We followed suit and once our heads immersed in the water like substance we were high in the sky again with the shark-like creatures swimming? In the sky beneath us. What was happening? “What is this?”

“This is a portal lake, it mostly teleports you up in the air and well, shallofins are always around these things.” I stretched out one hand and managed to touch the dorsal fin of one green specimen. 

“Ohh, so fluffy. Is it okay to pet them?”

“Yep, but you can’t have them as pets. Trust me, I asked my dad about it.” Arine and I shared a look but didn't say anything. We watched the shallofins going about their business for a while and even sighted a red one that matched the plush Arine had bought but it was too far away for us to pet it. 

“Ahh, there you are. We searched the whole site for you...What are you doing?” Lyn’s voice echoed through the small clearing.

“Just watching the winged sharks.” I offered.

“Well, we want to get ready and leave, it's already getting late and if we don’t catch the next ship, we won't return to Alos before tomorrow, so hurry up already.” Emily wished the shallofins farewell and we started to get dressed again.

On our way back down the mountain I noticed some stones with blue glowing runes imprinted in them, “Hey Riley, do you know what they are?”

“Those are tracking stones. Just take two of them, press them together until they start glowing green and they will track the location of each other.” Seeing my unsure expression she reassured me, “you can take some if you want, people use them as souvenirs often.”

I took two of the stones, pressed them together like Riley said and waited until both glowed green before I gave one to Arine, ”For your magic stone collection?” She rolled her eyes and put the stone in her bag.

The way back to Alos passed as fast as the way to Millenium tree, thanks to Lyn’s card game. When the ship finally docked in Alos again, the sun had long since passed and only the small fireflies of Alos city served to illuminate the surrounding area.

On the city gate, a guilty-looking Mr. Sirus together with a not too happy looking mom and a concerned Olaf awaited us. They all waited patiently for us to assemble before Mr. Sirus spoke, “Arine, why don’t I return you to your dorm?”

“Oh no Sirus,” Mom said, tapping impatiently with her foot on the stone floor, “you’re not getting off this easy. Girls, ” she turned to Lyn and the others, “would you be so kind as to escort Arine back to her room? Elinora and I have something to discuss.” I gulped.

Arine placed herself beside me and squeezed my hand, “I’ll be fine.” I reassured her, “just go with the others.” I saw the concern on her face but she didn’t argue once she saw the anger in my mom’s eyes. I gave her my best ‘I’ll be fine’ smile and she was off with the others opting to look back at me a few times. 

“Now then, I think it’ll be best to have a talk in my office.” I followed my mom, Olaf and Mr. Sirus through the dark streets of Alos and braced myself for the biggest trouble I’ve ever been in.