Alkalians (4 page)

Visibly caught off-guard being put on
the spot, he eventually gets out, “Well, um, I don’t know much
about plants, but, uh, I suppose I like the horned bear, or slag
raptors.”

To Matt’s wonder, some of the
students, and even the professor, briefly stir uneasily at the
mention of raptors, before she says, “Ah, is that so? And what do
you like about them?”

“
Oh, they’re just great to
look at, I guess. And occasionally fight against.”

“
Um, what do you mean by
fighting them?”

“
Well, uh, back where I
live, in the mountains, I’d go hiking to observe the wildlife, and
every now-and-then I’d see one of them, or they would stumble upon
me and attack me. But, it wouldn’t take much for me to strike back
and scare them off.”

“
Oh. Well, that’s very
interesting, Matt! So, who else would like to mention their
favorite plant or animal?”

As a girl near the back of the class
speaks up and mentions something about tigers, Matt looks away to a
corner of the room, scratching the back of his head while he tries
to calm himself. One part of him says he has completely freaked out
the professor and other students, but the other says he may have
impressed them, and that felt good to him.

***

Once his first hour class ends with
Prof. Malkia sending them off with wishes for a good day and good
night’s rest, Matt finds himself caught and whirled about by the
herds of students milling by him before he realizes, once again,
he’s completely lost. Soon, feeling like the only poor soul left
wandering the halls, he finds a map again, locates the room of his
next class, and hurries through the corridors, down some stairs,
and around a corner to the room. Pausing to take a deep breath and
calm himself, he then opens the door into the room, and immediately
wishes he hadn’t.

While his interruption of Prof.
Malkia’s class had been greeted with a warm reception and
environment, this first impression is a complete opposite. The room
itself is dark, its only lights being provided by the faint glows
from large, rune-like patterns along the walls and ceiling, and the
air feels cold and damp. As soon as he opened the door, all the
students and the professor, a man in a black suit with long, messy
black hair, turn their heads to him with cold, piercing glares.
Gulping from instant terror of embarrassment and uneasiness, he is
considering spinning around and running away when the professor
says in a nonchalant, yet sinister, tone, “Ah, a straggling
freshman, I presume. Come in, and close the door behind
you.”

Obeying, Matt enters the room,
carefully closing the door behind him, before turning back to the
chiseling glares. “You can take that seat in the far corner, over
there.” With a long, bony finger, the professor points to an empty
desk, made of stone like all the rest, in the corner to his left.
He timidly makes his way there and sits down, all the while with
the professor and students still staring at him.

After a long moment of silence, as if
they are testing him to see if he would have a panic attack, the
professor strolls up to his wide desk at the front of the room,
with the wall behind it and the desk itself covered in
complex-looking runes, and picks up a sheet of paper, peering down
at something written on it. “So, as I have already taken
attendance, I am going to assume that you are…” His azure eyes leer
back to him over the paper. “Mr. Calamos?”

Matt, after glancing about and
realizing he should say something, gets out, “Ye-yes, sir.
Professor, sir.”

“
Hmm, indeed.” He sets the
paper back on the desk before slowly making his way towards him
through the rows of student desks, his black shoes causing clacking
noises on the stone floor with each step. “Tell me, Mr. Calamos,
how much do you know about runes?”

“
Uh, they’re some kind of
ancient writing. Hieroglyphs, I think, sir?”

“
Hmph. At least you have
some idea of them. Yes, some may think of them as mere scribbles on
the walls of ruins, but they were, no,
are
, much more than that.” Coming to
a stop by his desk, he places his right hand down on it while
bending down to be face-to-face with him, and asks, “And what do
you think of the runes in this room?”

Daring to look away and view them
again, Matt replies, “Um, they look interesting,
professor.”

“
Indeed.” Taking his hand
off the desk, the professor walks past him to the wall closest to
them, saying, “Since you missed it, Mr. Calamos, I shall repeat my
introduction for you, but only this once. I am Professor Kaloss,
and in this class you shall learn about the history, uses, and even
the process of how to create runes. For you see, Mr. Calamos, even
in a world today with machinery and ‘advanced’ technology, runes
are an important part of Alkalian history and culture, and they are
not to be overlooked as merely ‘ancient writing.’” Gesturing to the
blue-glowing rune near them, he adds, “As you should clearly see,
there are runes in this room, on the walls, ceiling, and even on my
personal desk. Do you know why they are glowing, Mr.
Calamos?”

“
Uh, they, they are, um,
active?”

“
Very good, Mr. Calamos.
These runes are active, glowing with stationary energy, until one
comes along and…” Brushing his hand across the blue rune, it then
brightens with energy before a cold wind suddenly blows over Matt,
causing him to shiver much more than he has already. “Accesses
them. Runes, Mr. Calamos, are much more than hieroglyphs. They are
inscribed sources of power, capable of storing and recycling energy
for long periods of time, that act with and react to other sources
of energy, whether it be an Alkalian or another rune, or the
environment around them. Some runes, like this one…” He touches the
rune again, and again Matt feels bone-chilling cold. “Are simple
runes. Simply written, for simple purposes. Other runes…” He points
with his left hand to the runes near his station at the front of
the room. “Are complex runes. They can do a few or many different
things, but only through the correct coordination and manipulation
of chain activations throughout them. For example, with the runes
over there…” He swiftly moves back to the front of the room, the
students’ heads whipping around to follow him, and places a hand on
his desk. “I can access the rune…” The runes upon his desk radiate
with multiple colors, a shimmering aurora, before the rune beside
Matt blasts him with cold air again. “Next to you. Do you
understand me, Mr. Calamos?”

Trembling from the cold assailing him
and the humored looks of some of the students looking at him, Matt
replies through chattering teeth, “Ye-yes,
pro-professor.”

Then, to everyone’s surprise in the
room, someone laughs out loud, bringing their attention to a
brown-suited man a few seats ahead of Matt. His narrowed eyes
glaring upon him, Prof. Kaloss asks in a tempered tone, “And what
is so funny, Mr. Wyseinburg?”

Laughing a little more before
answering, Sean replies, “Oh professor, why do you always gotta be
so mean to the incoming freshmen? Give the poor guy a break, so he
was late to your all-important class the first day of school. Is
that any reason to make an example of him?”

Almost stomping over to him, Prof.
Kaloss remarks, “I will run my class however I want, Mr.
Wyseinburg. I am the teacher, and you are the students. I do not
need advice on how to deal with tardy individuals. Is that
clear?”

Staring right back into his leering
eyes without fear, Sean gives a thumbs-up and says, “Yep,
loud-and-clear, professor. By the way, looking forward to passing
your class this year, sir!”

Yet glowering down at him, Prof.
Kaloss replies in an obviously sarcastic tone, “As am I, Mr.
Wyseinburg…” He returns to his desk, activates the runes, and a
faint-blue rune above Sean’s head pulses before dumping water all
over him and his desk. “As am I.”

While the rest of the students sneer
and giggle at the intentional act of humiliation, Sean shakes his
head about to throw off access water like a wet dog, upsetting the
students immediately adjacent to him. Satisfied, Prof. Kaloss’ grim
voice begins to lecture to the whole class, and Sean looks back to
Matt over his shoulder and gives him a thumbs-up and toothy grin.
Completely confused by Sean’s upbeat behavior in this cold and dark
class, Matt can only hope that he would be able to help him survive
it for the fall semester.

***

Once Prof. Kaloss’ class concludes
with him giving the class homework of getting the required
textbooks for the study of runes, Sean, now understanding Matt
would get left behind again, tells him to stay close and follow
him. They make their way through the crowds of students as they
migrate through the halls in the same direction, and just as Matt
begins to recognize the area, they are back in the cafeteria for
lunch. He had been so caught up in adapting to his first two
classes that he didn’t realize half the day had already gone by,
and he is just about starving. Still following Sean closely, they
get into the line of students going before a buffet, serving all
kinds of hot foods and cold drinks, and they retrieve their
respective meals of choice. Matt takes a few pieces of fried
chicken, Sean grabs a sandwich, and they both get a bottle of
soda.

Walking away from the end of the
buffet, Sean leads him past the many tables, some rectangular and
some circular, throughout the cafeteria already taken up by
students until they get to a small, circular table at the far side
of the vast room. As the walls shine in shades of brown and gold,
the tall windows along the wall they sit next to appear to be open
gaps showing the grounds outside the campus building, with the sun
beaming through and the open fields of grass all around.

“
So, amigo,” inquires Sean
as he takes a bite of his sandwich, “how were your first two
classes of the day? Well, besides the ‘cold’ reception in
Kaloss’?”

“
Oh, well, Professor
Malkia’s class seemed alright. She was much more, uh, happy to see
me than Professor Kaloss was. How about you?”

“
Bah, I got history class,
with a Professor Roskin. Crazy little man. Wouldn’t stop talking
the whole two hours, he just kept rattling on, a mile-per-minute.
He might as well have told us the whole history of our kind in that
first class, but no, all he talked about was how great and
important history is! And then guess what he does? Right near the
end of class, he gives us
two
whole chapters to read before tomorrow! Pff,
history’s going to be a real drag this year.”

“
Uh huh,” Matt replies
while munching on his crispy chicken. “But what about Professor
Kaloss? He didn’t seem as happy to have you as he did
me.”

“
Nah, we’ll be fine, in
his class,” assures Sean with a wave of his arm. “He’s actually not
that bad of a guy to get along with. Well, as long as you don’t do
anything stupid, like misuse or ‘disrespect’ the runes. Sure, every
now-and-then he’ll pick out someone to make an example of, most
likely me, but he’s honest, and he will be pleased when you
complete your assignments. Even if it doesn’t sound like it. But
trust me, as long as you follow my act, and by that I mean working
with the runes and
not
my behavior in-class, you should be alright.” He takes
another bite of his sandwich before finishing, “Kaloss may not like
certain individuals, but he wouldn’t dare overlook those ‘sacred’
runes we’ll be working with, and he’ll give credit where credit is
due. You understand, yes?”

“
Uh, I think
so.”

“
Good! Don’t ya worry,
Matt, we’re gonna have a blast in that drone’s dark little lair
this year!” He grins cheekily while twisting off the cap to his
bottle. After he takes a drink, he begins to say, “Now, I wonder
how-” before his eyes spot something behind Matt, and he exclaims,
“Ah, there she is! Hey, Rose, over here!” While Sean waves with a
silly look on his face, Matt turns in his seat to see Rose come
over to them with a grateful smile and sit down at the table, her
entrée consisting of a bowl of soup and a bottle of fruit juice.
“And how was your morning?”

“
Oh, it went by fast, I’d
say,” she replies, and continues between ingestions of spoonfuls of
soup. “My first class was mechanics, where we will be learning
about and working with machinery and how they are used in our
society. And my second class was musical instruction, where we’ll
be practicing and performing music.”

“
Music!?” Sean marvels.
“You play music?”

“
Yes, Sean, I do. On the
flute, before you ask. And how did you guys fare?”

“
Oh, well, we’re still in
one piece. We could be in for some bumpy rides in my history class,
or in our runes class, but we should be fine!”

“
Ah, that’s good.” The
three continue to eat their meals without much talk for awhile,
until just as they are finishing Sean asks, “So Matt, what’s the
next class on your schedule?”

“
Oh, uh, hang on.” He
fishes out his folded-up class schedule from his jacket’s pocket,
unfolds it, and finds the name. “Alchemy, with a Professor
Loske.”

“
Aw, bummer, I don’t have
that class!” Sean pouts as he pounds the table. “Man, that guy is
funny, in a weird way. He gets all gaga over the whole scientific
processes and experiments, and sometimes, it can be a little
creepy. And yet, he is a nice guy.” He turns to Rose. “What about
you?”