Aether's Legacy | Elysium [Dreamnotfound]

Floridian Green Man on the Loose

"And what are you going to do about it, Psychic?" the guy two years above George taunted after shoving him in the hallway and knocking his book from his hands. While George kneeled, the guy stood akimbo in front of him with his chest puffed and a wicked smile.

His name was Ethan. He was a show-off shifter whose primary form was a bear. He looked like one too, standing about a head taller than George and with an attitude as big as his forearms. He seemed to be itching for a fight in some sort of messed-up way of asserting dominance.

As a transfer who had started at AGE about a month ago, there were rumors that he had been kicked out of his last school for almost killing a classmate during a fight. Yet others theorized it hadn't been his fault considering specialized shifter schools were notorious for being the toughest EM schools, and unless you could stand your ground and grow a tough skin, they were impossible to survive. What Ethan didn't realize was that unlike the rumors made him out to be, George was anything but tough.

"I don't want to fight," George responded while picking the book up. He flinched when Ethan kicked it across the floor before he could, and it collided with someone's shoes.

He glanced up to see a boy with circular glasses and a kind face, standing confidently in the middle of the hall.

"Hey, Ethan, that's not very nice," the boy said, picking up George's book and helping him up.

Ethan scoffed. "This is none of your business."

"It is my business if it means my classmate is getting bullied," he replied with a frown and stepped in front of George. Standing at about George's height with a soft smile, he looked as intimidating as a teddy bear.

"This is between me and him. So get lost." Ethan took a step forward and towered over the newcomer.

Despite the boy's short height and scrawny appearance, he didn't back down. Swallowing, George tapped the boy's shoulder and told him it was fine—if anything to prevent both of them from being broken in half like a toothpick. Yet the boy kept a firm gaze on Ethan.

There was already a whispering crowd forming around them with nosy faces poking into the circle to see what all the commotion was about. George bit his tongue to prevent a bigger scene. Maybe he could slip out unnoticed? But would it be fair to leave the boy by himself with a jerk like Ethan after he had just defended him?

Before George could decide, an unfamiliar voice spoke. "Ethan, you dumb-face, leave them alone."

A tan boy with dark eyes, a very nice pair of eyebrows, and a spiky mess of black hair entered the scene. With his hands buried in the pocket of his light-blue hoodie and his troublemaker grin, he stopped beside the boy. In spite of the fact he was shorter than all of them and his laid-back posture didn't exactly scream intimidating, his confidence was unwavering. The yawn he gave made Ethan narrow his eyes.

As he glanced between them, he seemed to decide it wasn't worth the fight, so he huffed and said, "Can't even defend yourself, loser. Whatever."

Then he shoved his way through the crowd with a scowl.

With the anticlimatic end to the confrontation, the people around them lost interest and the crowd dispersed, leaving George by himself with the two boys.

"Skeppy, I had it handled!"

"Uh-huh, like you had that argument with the goth girl under control last week?"

"I wasn't going to fight her!" The first boy pouted, and his glasses fell crooked on his nose. "Not that I was going to fight Ethan either. Not everything can be resolved by fighting. Can't we just all be nice to each other?" He crossed his arms. "Besides, I saw you chanting 'fight' in the crowd before I stepped in."