Barbara's Book of Fire

Chapter 22

"I was on the opposing team, I get it—But when she appeared from beyond the clouds, gliding and flying through the spaces as if she got a wing of her own. Man, words can't describe them! It's a damn shame you lots weren't there to see it." Raymond grinned, pleased with himself as he recounted the flying girl incident to the students clamoring around us.

"And at the end—" He wanted to say it, yet he couldn't.

"You. Shut up." Because I cut him off, clean and quick.

"...Okay, ma'am." Whatever the reason behind that smirk of his, I was only thankful that he was at the very least obedient when needed so.

"She did great, but the bond—I mean Filtiarn here was the real star, you guys!" Maybe it was due to the lingering euphoria. The tall boy Hilton was present too, and he didn't spare anything in sharing the glory of our victory journey with the others.

"Rain of flame, arrows of water, a towering wall of the unmovable earth that blocked every path possible, and fangs of the wind that slipped by time and time again. Ha...trust me, blessed with the grace of fire from The Great mother herself was him. Even till the end, when we thought all hope was lost, that jump was just...beyond epic." Declared Hilton. It was far too cringe for my ear and heart. Even though I had no misgivings about him singing praise for Filtiarn, cheeky comments were still cheeky, nevertheless.

'What the heck is this guy yapping about? He's blind or what? Rain of flame? Fangs of wind, and we slipped time and time again? Most of them just have a bad aiming, dude!' I cursed the guy for the overly exaggerated story that he spouted shamelessly with that big mouth of his.

"Can you show us when he gets big?" Asked one of the students.

Before I could even answer it, Hilton replied vehemently in my stead. "What do you mean, show us? He's tired for today, don't disturb him any further. Enough with the rubbish, dude."

'Maybe he got some goods in him after all.' I thought.

"Tomorrow. Let's ask again tomorrow." Beaming, Hilton said.

'Or not.' And I stand corrected.

"For the love of the Great Mother! Can't the lots of you leave us already? Look at Barbara; she didn't even get to touch her dinner yet." Rebuked Anya from the side.

'Yea, you tell 'em, Anya. You tell 'em good!' When they saw how intact my dinner was, the students began to leave us. They were a bit reluctant at first, but when Freya reminded them of the time they had left to finish their own dinner, we finally found peace at our table.

"That means both of you too." Anya narrowed her eyes to both Hilton and Raymond. "And like, don't hang with us like nothing happened when your team just lost, Raymond. You secretly fancy being a traitor?"

'Exactly!' I screamed inside when Anya finally pointed out the thing everyone had failed to realize the whole time.

"But—" Far from being pleased, Raymond tried to argue his case.

Though Anya didn't let him. "Just go, man...let us girls have some space, please." Persistently, Anya said.

It was visibly apparent that he still got lots to say because he kept giving a furtive glance every now and then. Even till the point where Hilton patted him on the shoulder and led him away, Raymond looked as downcasted as a starving baby Kerato was.

At the sight of both tenacious boys finally sitting down on the table far from ours', I finally heaved out an exhausted breath.

"It's a long day, yeah?" Lia patted my back.