Static Reflections: Book 1 of The Mortal Guard Series

Chapter 12 - History of a Hidden World

Chapter 12 - Nick: "History of a Hidden World"

Nick awoke the following day with a warm feeling. The kind of feeling that wraps around you and hugs you and makes you want to stay in bed all day. The sense of having gotten a good rest that night. His ear was constantly twitching, and he quickly realized that someone was rapping on his door. They would knock five times and then pause for a moment, then knock again. The hyena groaned and threw his sheets off as he quickly stepped out and walked quickly toward the door, turning the silver handle and pulling it open. "Yeah?"

"Nicholas Flynn?" a large white polar bear asked, looking down at him. He was wearing a rather strange outfit; a gray jumpsuit with quite a few pockets and no name tag. Nick was seeing a lot of gray lately.

His mouth opened wide in a yawn, and his fur was all mussy around his head. "Yep?"

"This is your wake-up call. I've been knocking for so long, dude."

The hyena immediately yawned again. "Wake-up call?"

"To make sure you don't sleep in too long and start your courses right away! You chose the Creature Hunting Sect, yeah?"
"Yeah."

"Well, order food and get started. You can keep your PJs on."

Another yawn, Nick's eyes were tearing up in the process. "Ahhhh . . . woof, sorry!" he exhaled. "I order food from this thing?" He pointed to the device with a screen to the left of the door.

The polar bear nodded. "May I come in?"

Nick stepped back. "Sure, go ahead."

The large white animal walked forward and then turned, looking at the device. "This is actually a mini Hephaestus Bot that we use in the Institute. You press this button." He used his digit to push the red button below a camera on the rectangular machine mounted to the wall.

"Hello, Victor." It had the same robotic voice as the two other Hephaestus Bots Nick experienced. The blue UI switched to green. "What can I do for you today?"

"Nothing," Victor answered. "I was just showing Nick here how to use this."

"I do detect two animals in the vicinity. Would you like to switch to the account of Nick Flynn?" the voice asked.

"Sure," Victor answered.
"Hello, Nick," the bot greeted, and the UI was now pink. "What can I do for you today?"

"One second." The hyena held up a finger.
"On standby."

Nick looked up at the polar bear, comparing his more petite frame to the animal's larger one. It was somewhat intimidating. "So what are the courses like? Do I have a teacher? Will I have homework?"

"Easy, guy," Victor held up his hand. "Most of the work is on the Digital Ocean, our version of the internet. You use the Digital Ocean Surfer we give you. Everything is self-paced, so it will be fine. You'll learn how it all works in the introduction."

Nick sighed. "Alright."

"You'll be here until you get it done, or you can always quit if you want to leave. We're not keeping you held captive."

"Quitting isn't an option, thanks," Nick smiled, knowing that it had two meanings. "So I can just order food whenever I want?"

"Yep. And it's delivered pretty quickly, but you can only order one meal at a time."

"What about leaving the room?" the hyena queried.

"You can leave the room to stretch your legs and walk the halls, but you can't leave the Institute without a staff member's access card."