Barbara's Book of Fire

Chapter 20

Pa once said, If you like someone, then you'll like them even if they pulled on your beard and spit on you. On the contrary, Ma said right into his face at that very instant, that is nothing but pure crap, as worthless as stubborn dirt on my toenail.

To be honest, I side with Ma on that one. Why? It didn't make any sense whatsoever. Beard aside, if someone spits on you, that was honestly asking for a good knuckle on the jaw. 

Why the unnecessary rambling from the get-go?

Well, the reason was that Lia, my newly-found sweet and gentle friend who I liked—had taken an immediate hobby of singing out of the blue. It was cute and catchy at first, sure. But when you kept singing it over and over...and over again, she basically offered people a shortcut to the cuckoo land, I tell you. 

Don't get wrong, because I liked and cherished the pure and adorable girl; my only beef was with that damn song she kept singing about—It drove people crazy, seriously.

"Fifth day~ Hum-hum, fifth day is here~" Hummed Lia jolly, and not even the harsh session of morning training with us could bend her spirit otherwise. "Is this the fifth day? Hum-hum, yes it is~ Fifth, hum~. Day, hum~. is here~ Tuturuut~."

'Let's walk faster, Fil.' I begged hoarsely within. 'For Myrna's sake, let's get to the class faster!'

Putting us aside, we had to put up with such farce because the first class would be her favorite one—The Dimiourgima class. What completely slipped Lia's mind was the majority of our class didn't seem to share her enthusiasm, and I knew exactly why.

To put it simply, it was because of the instructor. The man felt like he was living in his own time. And I meant it literally, although only for the way he spoke, and it was very slow. In fact, it was so incorrigibly slow that some students had totally given up. To someone docile by nature like Lia, maybe it was doable to stay put with that kind of teacher. 

It was a challenge to even hold the yawns back inaudibly for us students. It was a compliment to even call it boring.

For hotheads and busybodies like—say Raymond or Freya—It must be eating them alive, in and out. It was nothing less than a trial for one's patience. Coupled with Lia's song from the break of the day, it spelled double for me...tough luck, I guess.

Back to the point, even after I spent so much time commenting and threw lots of useless remarks to Filtiarn on the side, Mister Oliver hadn't said anything but two words of greeting since the start of the class. 

It was as if there was some unspeakable secret or vow that prevented him from indulging us in the secret of the knowledge—scratch that—honestly, I just wished there would be more instructors like madam Hirfallen...

Having spent some months with the man meant lots of the students were familiar with how he runs things already. I, on the other hand, was lost in confusion. Hence, my good partner had to bear with many of the useless and relentless repartees to quell the budding unrest.

'I wanna say, well, no matter, like I did a couple of minutes ago. But seriously...how much longer is he gonna stare at us and say nothing at all?' I complained at Filtiarn.

"It is in my best interest...to remind you, friends...that caution...is necessary...Understand..." Finally, the sound had returned once again into the barren world. Although, the hopes were short-lived at best. He let the stifling silence crush us yet again for minutes before he continued on. "Class...?"

I wanted to curse and punch him. I really did. But Ma said a true lady should do only both of those things to her spouse, so I held true to her word and swallowed the bellowing rage that thrashed wildly in my brain and gut.