Shem Nightingale

Chapter 4

After everything that had happend two months ago you would think life has mostly gone back to normal. It had but not for me.

The wasp hybrid, Apocrita, kidnapped my sister and forced her to do unimaginable things. And then he had the cheek to force her to kill Kade, Khan boyfriend, but of course that backfired and now Kyra is living at Dark Souls Academy. I don't think Kyra could ever get over what happend to her, even though Kade accepted her apology Kyra will never forgive herself.

Khan - on the other hand - has forgotten all about Apocrita and his plan to kill Kade. They live happily ever after in their own wee world, not going to classes, barley in the school grounds always out and about doing who knows what. Khan has probably forgot all about his horse, Arthur. It gets a little bit confusing with two Arthur's here but the engineer Arthur is barley around so event one just assumes you're talking about Arthur the horse.

But my life? I don't think it will ever be the same. Apocrita must pay for what he did to Kyra, and I don't mean in money. Kyra spends all day in her room, never going to classes, hardly eating. I've tried to comfort her to the best of my abilities but nothing works. Khan has tried to start conversation with her but she always avoids talking about herself.

Khan, Kade, and Kyra are lucky. They don't have to go to classes and learn. I do. Every morning till early afternoon I'm stuck learning things that will get me nowhere in this life. Why learn history when you could make it yourself? Why learn geography when you could be out there learning it for yourself?

The only rest I get is at night. The land is quiet and at rest. There's no one to boss you about. Just the crickets in the distance singing their morning song. Well not much of a song, more of a screech at being woken up by the sun.

The sun cast its fiery rays right into my eyes forcing me to squint to see its beauty. The crickets annoying call woke a small flock of birds, they shook themselves awake and launched into the air. They circled the trees for a few minutes, then paused as they turned their sights on me.

Cursing I jumped of the roof of the school and dived for the ground. The angry birds just missed me, flying above me as they decided to nest on the schools roof. I slowly glided down to the stabled door.

The stables were underground so they had a incline to walk up before they got to ground level. The door into the stable was a large sliding door, with a reddish brown paint job. Each stable that had a horse on it had their names on their stable doors. There was a normal sized door that was also painted reddish brow.

I opend the side door quietly, careful not to disturb the animals within. The stabled within were white brick with wide wooden doors. There were quite a few empty stables, the only occupants were Khan's chestnut stallion; the donkey called Connel; a round coloured horse; a small dappled grey and a few others that belonged to either staff or students.

Arthur poked his head over his stable door and blinked lazy at me. The dappled grey kicked its door, causing others to wake. Arthur blew across to the coloured pony's stable and it poked it's head out with a but of hay hanging from its muzzle. A few other horses rose t see me but most chose to ignore me.

I made my way over to Arthur's stable and gave him a scratch behind his ear. Khan barley came down to see Arthur anymore, he's to interested woth his boyfriend that nearly got killed. Arthur blew into my face and shoved my hand away. He wanted his breakfast.

Andrea and Veronica weren't awake yet to feed them and I didn't know how so I settled with chucking a large carrot into his empty feed bucked from one of the bins lying around. The fat coloured kicked his door and stretched his neck trying to get to me. I smiled and went over to him. As soon as I was in his reach he shoved his nose onto my jumper looking for a polo. I pushed him away and carried on walking, the small dappled grey watched me walk away with a bored look on her face.

I reached to door to the stairwell that led to an armoury. There was a box in there that I needed to grab. Khan left it there and told me to get it if I needed it. I didn't need it but I wanted to see what he left in it.

The stairway was cold and dark, the only light came from flickering candles at random intervals. The steps were stone and well worn, the banister was loose rope that was held their by metal hoops comented to the wall. The door at the top was heavy and required me to shoulder it to get it to open.

The armoury looked like it had seen better days. The swords and axes were strewn about the floor, the armour stands were tilted and the armour was dented. Finding Khan's book in all this mess was going to take forever. I would use a spell but of course I can't even do the simplest of them. But Khan was lazy so he wouldn't of buried in under anything, he was more likely to leave it lying out in the open.

And it was. Sitting by the door that led to the hallway, that then led to the reception, was a small black box. The only problem was getting to it. I wish I could fly over them but I couldn't open my wings in such a small place, anyway it's dangerous to fly indoors. I danced around and over the fallen weapons, keeping my hands out for balance.

I finally stoped when I slammed my back into the door, pain flared up in my wings causing me to hiss and massage my wings for a minute. The box was black and had red velvet inside to keep the large silver watch safe. The watch was from Khan's box, it was silver had had the enisals J&S. It was cute and just about fitted my right wrist. It suited me so it stayed.

I turned back to the door and tried the handle, it opend with ease. The hallway was clean and simple, the windows reached the ceiling with windowsills to sit on and bathe and in the natural light that poured in through the windows.

The reception room was circular with the desk in the middle and two sets of double doors behind it leading to the assembly hall. Around the room was sofas and small coffee tables covered in school magazines.

I smiled at the receptionist as I passed, she nodded her head and continued reading her thick novel that had a cheesy romance cover.

I climbed another spiral staircase, this time it was brightly lit with pictures depicting battles with giants. Or sword fights with dragons. The walls were stone painted white with a smooth finish.

At the top of the stairs was the common room. Khan probabily didn't know about this place but it was the social gathering for all year groups. Only the early birds were here, flicking through magazines.

The common room was circular with a high ceiling. In the centre of the room was an electric fire with a thick light grey rug in front of it.  Sofas were covered in throws and pillows. There must have been an all nighter on last night, not many people seemed to have accomplished it though. I headed to the boys rooms, nodding at all the early risers.

Above the door to the boys corridor was a black and white painting of a young looking Julian, probabily in his late teens, with a large, short haired, black dog. The only colour in the painting was Julian's red eyes and the dogs red bandana. Julian's eyes watched me as I made my was into the boy's bathroom.

The dog at Julian's feet looked idly familiar. I read "The Blackreach Boy" that was based on Julian's life it did mention a black dog that was gifted to him by a 'special friend', but never actually mentioned who. I could guess though because Julian only had one friend when he lived in Blackreach. Though with the arrival of Arthur the misery man I'm staring to think Julian had a whole other life before Dark Souls Academy.

I wanted to know more about Arthur. Julian's book only mentioned him on one or two brief occasions. Arthur may be the key to unlocking Julian's past. But first I wanted to know how in the world he made a fricken dragon out of metal.