The School of Bermuda - Volume 1 - The hunter's daughter

-14-

After a restful night, the next day was just as enriching.

The weapons handling class proved to be particularly interesting. The teacher, Celestina Colin, was very skilled despite her small stature. She was a beautiful woman of Asian origin. She was surprised to discover that Lili had combat skills.

It was true that her father had always trained her hard in combat and enrolled her in various sports such as boxing, taekwondo, kendo, and capoeira. He had also enrolled her, some summers, in summer camps where young people learned archery, climbing... Now that Lili thought about it, he had taught her everything to be a good little hunter...

The classes continued: Potions, study of magical creatures, and then, after lunch, an hour of flying and history.

After a short break, they returned to Professor Montlaure for Pall elus training. This time, they all made sure to put on their uniforms. The uniform consisted of pants with protective leggings, a sweater that fell to a point on the navel, leaving the lower abdomen exposed. Over this sweater, a short jacket covered the body at chest level and was reinforced at the elbows. Everything was, of course, blue, except for the sweater which was white.

Seeing them wearing the appropriate attire, the teacher seemed to be in a better mood.

"Good! I need six volunteers to form the Pall elus team, the others can leave. You should know that you are committing yourselves for your nine years of school, the Pall elus team is final, and of course, the first-year student is the captain. What position do you want to play, Prince?

"Attacker," sighed Izãdo. "That will suit me just fine."

"Perfect, who wants to be part of the team?" 

Lili and Ree smiled at each other and stepped forward. They were quickly joined by Charity and Lulis. To everyone's surprise, Louis, Anna and Edward's mute twin, also stepped forward. His sister and brother started to make a scene, but the teacher ordered them to leave the training with the others, since they had nothing more to do there. Lili asked to be the goalkeeper. Even though she suspected it wouldn't be the same, she had often played soccer with the boys from her nursery and primary school, and she had always stopped the balls in front of the goal.

The mermaid and Lulis preferred to be defenders, so the only roles left were attacker for Ree and Louis.

"I hope you can play better than you can talk," Ree said, "because I don't intend to do everything by myself!"

"I remind you that I am also an attacker," Izãdo said. 

Céline Montlaure clapped her hands to silence them so she could begin the explanations. She led them first to what looked like a football field, the same size or maybe a little bigger. Around it were multi-tiered stands. Stairs were located in the corners. With a wave of her wand, the teacher conjured two magical rings similar to the ones from the previous day, which moved up and down a few meters. These were the goals. Madame Montlaure then opened a bag and took out a simple leather ball. But when she turned it toward them, Lili couldn't believe her eyes! It was just a ball, except that it had a mouth full of sharp teeth. What kind of crazy game is this? Lili thought. Do they want to kill us or something? Finally, the explanations began!

The game was fairly simple. The attackers had to catch the ball, which was moving around the field at high speed, and pass it to each other to try to get it through the magical rings. The defenders had to prevent the opponents from advancing toward the goals when they had the ball, and try to take it back if possible to pass it to their teammates. And of course, the goalkeeper had to prevent the opposing team from scoring goals.

The complicating factor was that the ball was alive. It would bite the players who held it and would flee to avoid being caught. Sometimes, when it was thrown toward the ring, it could turn back before even crossing it, or do so afterwards by crossing the circle again, which would count as a second goal. The match ended at the end of the set time, and the winners were obviously the ones who had accumulated the most points.

Each goal scored earned ten additional points, but each foul deducted one point. It was, of course, forbidden to use a magic wand, or even have one on oneself, to use one's invocation, or to directly hit opponents.

"To start, you will practice different maneuvers. I will give you a simple leather ball and you will go around the field passing it to each other to practice catching it."

Mounting their brooms, they set off to begin their training.

At the end of the day, they were exhausted, but Lili bid farewell to her friends and headed towards the farm.

"Hello Lili," Kareth greeted her when he saw her, "you're a little late.

"Yes, sorry. We were at Pall elus training."

"Oh, so you're part of the team! Congratulations." 

He gave the girl a friendly pat and let her join Luil to take care of the poultry. Of course, Prince, the magnificent black rooster, jumped onto her shoulder to keep her company. As the last hen entered its shelter, a powerful roar reached their ears. It seemed so close that Lili felt chills running down her spine. She hurried to put Prince in the chicken coop and close the door. For a brief moment, nothing happened, but then a second fierce howl echoed. It seemed even closer. 

"Children," Kareth hurriedly said, "run to the castle and inform the headmistress! This is not normal, the creatures don't come out until nightfall!"

"But Mr. Lalus," Risath replied, "not all the cattle have come back yet!" 

With those words, the sixth-year student pointed to the fifth-year student, Ilesielle Zabeille, who was herding the herds back to the stables with the help of her invocation, a giant bee. Kareth cursed and started heading towards her when Lili screamed. When he turned towards the forest, right next to his cabin, he saw with horror that a creature was emerging from it. A huge animal measuring about one and a half meters tall and three meters long, including the snake that replaced its tail. The lion's head showed its fangs, while flames escaped from the nostrils of the goat's head.

Right there, at the edge of the woods, a chimera had appeared before them!