Honor of Euroka

Chapter 6 - Bottom-of-the-Line Luck

Apparently, Honor really liked getting himself into quandaries. Case in point, he was dealing with one right now.

He had grown up without a mom or any sisters, so he didn't know very many girls. When his life had suddenly changed, he had met not one but two girls. Furthermore, he would be spending several years with them, and probably after those years, because apparently, apprentice groups usually stayed with each other long after their actual apprentice days!

And yet, through some bad roll of the dice, he had met yet another girl he would be spending his years with.

***

After the presentation, the students did as they were told and went to the courtyard, where their mentors awaited them. Honor had thought the group might choose the mentor, but it didn't end up working quite like that. In fact, it ended up working the opposite of that.

The more high-ranking witch mentors got to choose their groups first. Through this process, Honor became increasingly aware of the ratio of girls to boys. As previously mentioned, boys tended to gravitate more to the manly side of things-like knighthood-while girls tended to be more inclined to a job like, say, a witch. So as Honor looked around, he saw that the likelihood of his group getting a male mentor was slight at best.

And as aforementioned, Honor's luck was bottom-of-the-line. It was just bordering the abyss. And so, through a not-very-surprising turn of events, Honor got stuck with not one, not two, but three girls.

"My name is Sekena." (A/N I know this may sound a tad bit confusing, but her name is pronounced like seh-key-nuh. Thank you for understanding!) "I'll be your mentor for the next... oh, five or so years."

...what? Honor knew that he would be spending some years with this group, but five years seemed a little extra. Thinking back on it, he was actually certain he would've rather failed, gotten humiliated, and returned home with a new career as a farmer. He felt sick.

"I won't go easy on you, but I won't push you to your limits, either. For example, Honor here needs to go lay down before I continue talking about what we're going to be doing for the next years."

Through some woozy wonky portal magic, Honor found himself and his friends at a two-story wood house in the deep forest of Euroka. This was their dorm. Just inside of school bounds.

Honor didn't even care anymore. He stumbled up the steps into the house, into a foreign room, and onto the bed that accompanied it. He wasn't actually certain if he had fallen asleep or hit the bed first. He didn't much care, either.

***

After twisted dreams, Honor awoke with a dull realization that he had returned to reality. At least in dreams, he could actually handle the magical overload in his mind. Dreams were surreal. Magic was normal. But not in reality. Honor liked science. He hoped it would ground magic to dust someday.

Honor sat up, looked at the wood planks that the floor consisted of, and finally of the slippers placed at the foot of the bed. Honor looked wistfully back at the pillows that had a dent the size of his head in them. He didn't like to think about the fact that this was the first legitimate bed he had laid in, let alone sat on.

Honor slipped his feet into the slippers and almost collapsed in a fit of joy. They were spectacularly soft. He didn't dare question how they fit him perfectly. They fit, and that was all that mattered.

Honor found the strength to get up, and when he stood, he wiggled his toes in the slippers a bit. He vowed never to forget the incredible feeling of slippers.

Honor left the room and finally got a good look at the rest of the 'dorm', which was a bit of a misnomer. It was more like a cottage than a dorm. It had a homey feel to Honor, though anything more than a shack would feel amazing to him.

It was covered in dark green and beige furniture, along with several fluffy carpets that looked like sheer heaven to Honor. There was a coffee table in the back, surrounded by a couch and two armchairs. In one of those armchairs sat one extremely bored-looking cat. It stared at him with disinterest.

On the opposite side of the room sat the kitchen. It had black and beige marble counters with high-backed stools pulled in. An alligator was draped across the counter. No, this was not a joke. Honor could see two rooms on each side of the living and kitchen area. Honor had come out of one of these such rooms. Four rooms, four inhabitants.

Between the living room and kitchen, Honor opted for the living room-and for very obvious reasons. Unsure of where the others were, Honor sat in the couch, which was the farthest piece of furniture from the alligator, which stared intensly at Honor.

Honor looked behind him. There were windows, which was good. If that alligator moved a centimeter, Honor was bolting, no hesitation.

When Honor returned his head to its original position to keep watch over the predator, he jumped in startled silence. It had moved. Not just moved, it had moved to just a couple meters from Honor's position. He could feel his pulse picking up. His hands were cold and clammy.

Unsure of how the alligator would respond, Honor didn't bolt for the window just yet. But as he watched the alligator slither closer yet, Honor ran. He ran for his life, because he liked living despite the torture that life sometimes wrought.

Racing away, Honor made it to the window and pushed. It was locked. Honor saw the latch and tried to pry it off with all of his strength. Sadly, Honor was not the strongest. In fact, he was quite scrawny due to lack of food for most of his life.

So when Honor couldn't get the latch open, he glanced fearfully over his shoulder. It was right there. One little centimeter away from snapping his legs off and eating him whole. Honor cursed his bottom-of-the-line luck.