Ring of the Artisan

Act II Ch. 14: For Our Amusement (ver. dress)

here's the dress version lol

again differences don't start until ~1000 words in

~

Living in a small, small village had a lot of perks, though it also had a few downsides as well.

One of those downsides was not having enough people to run a school.

However, today seemed to be your lucky day. You're going to attend a class with Nya, who's going to be teaching what she's managed to find on the Fangpyre. She had explained that a team of brave archaeologists managed to explore the Fangpyre Tomb and recovered many Fangpyre skeletons, one of which stood on the table up ahead.

You patiently sat on the Bridge, a piece of paper on the table before you and a pen in your hand. Beside you sat Zane and Cole. Zane was taking notes, while Cole was simply doodling on his page. Kai was nearly falling asleep in his chair, and Jay...

Jay styled his hair differently. It was a lot more curly and brighter than it usually is like Jay had taken some notes on how to take care of his hair from Kai. Every time you snuck a glance at Jay, he was staring at you.

Jay had been acting a little bit strange around you, at least since the whole "asking you to come with to his parent's home" thing. You never really noticed it at the time, instead focusing all your attention on the task at hand, but now that you're looking back on it...

Last night, after testing out Zane's 'funny switch' (which turned out to be quite the hilarious event), Jay hung out with you afterwards. You and Jay sat on your bed and you decided to do some art together. Jay was talking a mile a minute about his next interesting invention while you were drawing one of your oddball friends.

You've been meaning to show Zane what you meant by your friends not being human. Maybe drawing your friends could show him what they truly look like.

However, Jay was partially distracting you a fair bit. He was sitting right next to you, hardly ever moving to give you space. You weren't uncomfortable or anything. If anything, you enjoyed the contact and company you had with Jay.

Looking back, though, you had the fearful thought that maybe Lloyd was right. Maybe Jay likes you a fair bit more than a friend.

And now, Jay's just staring at you.

It kind of unnerved you?

"There's a way to stop the effects of a Fangpyre's bite without an anti-venom!" Nya revelated in her studies. "If one can wildly increase their heart rate, hypothetically, it can reverse the venom's effects." As you listened in, you noticed that Nya's cheeks turned slightly pink. "If there's a hypertext— hypothetical way"—Her eyes began to water—"to stop a Fangpyre's venom, surely there's—"

"Nya, are you okay?" You stood from your chair and stepped up to the girl. She seems to be having an odd reaction to something.

"Sorry, I—" Nya sniffed. "Is anyone wearing perfume? I'm quite allergic to perfume."

"Not me," You immediately said. Allergy, huh?

"I thought you said it was men's cologne?" You heard Jay whisper to Kai, who was now wide awake.

"Eh, I get them mixed up sometimes," Kai shrugged with a sly smile. He then laughed and fist-bumped Zane, who soon opened a panel on his arm and flipped a switch.

Ouch. Zane used his funny switch against Jay?

"Uh, c'mon," You quickly led Nya out of the room, taking the poor girl to her room.

You helped Nya to her bed. "I'm not an expert in these things..." You quickly said. "Is there anything you need?" You know medicine exists to help with allergies, you just don't know which one would.