Bastial Frenzy (The Rhythm of Rivalry: Book 4) (36 page)

Chapter 26:

EFFIE

Cleve wasn’t up by the time Effie was ready to walk to the dining hall. So she sat at the table in the kitchen and let her thoughts take over. The Slugari were joining battle training that day. She was a little nervous about how she would handle training to use the extra Bastial Energy she’d felt in the Slugari colony. Though, she was more excited than anything else.

Alex usually slept as long as he possibly could and sometimes was still half asleep by the time he made it to Warrior’s Field. At times his group would break for lunch at the same time as Effie’s group of mages. Since the army’s return from Tenred, she always sat with at least one of her close friends in the dining hall.

Sometimes a mage or two from her group would sit with her and Steffen, or with her and Reela. Other times, Steffen already would be eating beside his own classmates. But Reela didn’t seem to develop the same friendships with any of the psychics in her class.

How she studied psyche was still mostly unknown to Effie, strangely. She didn’t even know what Reela was like with her classmates or her instructor. Effie assumed Reela wasn’t very friendly based on the looks she sometimes got from other psychics.

Maybe she’s the same with them as I’ve seen her be with flirting men,
Effie thought, easily remembering many times Reela had turned a grinning man into a cursing one.

She stood at the sound of Cleve’s door opening. He was adjusting his shirt as if just putting it on as he came down the hall.

“You were waiting for me?” Cleve asked, not pleased.

Effie shrugged. “Not long.”

He yawned and opened the front door, waiting for her to go through. He closed it after them, and they started their walk to the dining hall.

“I’m starving,” Cleve said.

Effie caught sight of a light bruise on his neck. She poked it.

“What?” Cleve wiped his neck where she’d touched him, checking his hand and finding nothing.

“I see you and Reela had some fun last night.”

He heaved a disappointed sigh. “Is it that noticeable?”

“No.” Unfortunately, it reminded Effie of the day after Brady had sucked on her neck, the day the traitors were revealed and Marie was killed. She kept her eyes ahead after that.

There was something about Cleve that made him easy to talk to, at least for her. Alex was the same way. But with Cleve, she wasn’t concerned he would worry about her the way Alex would if she told him of her troubles.

“Can I tell you something for you to keep between us?”

“Of course,” Cleve said.

“When nearly everyone went to Tenred except me, I was miserable, more worried than I’d ever been. Every day I regretted not going with them, overwhelmed with grief at the idea of any of them being killed when I could’ve done something to help.”

“I know the feeling.”

“I felt lost as I waited for them to come back, like life was on hold and could never resume if Reela or any of those I’m close with had died. Now that they’re back, I’m relieved, but there’s something else besides relief that’s stuck to me. I’m curious if you feel the same as I do.”

She noticed Cleve studying her face. She turned to find a concerned expression. “I think I know what you’re getting at,” he said. “And yes, I do feel it now that I’m back.”

“Like a storm’s coming that’s going to change everything,” Effie said.

“Yes.”

“I feel like I’m on the edge of a cliff, about to be blown off. It’s becoming harder to ignore this feeling.”

“As someone who’s experienced with burying feelings, I can tell you that ignoring it isn’t the solution.”

“Then what is?” Effie kicked a small rock in their path.

“Accept it for what it is—a genuine concern.”

“Then what?” she asked. “How does that change anything?”

“Once you accept something, it’s easier not to dwell on it. If we didn’t worry at all, then we would still be little children. Each of us has concerns as the next battle approaches. But there will always be a next battle. Our challenges aren’t going to end anytime soon. To worry is healthy. Accept that your concerns are legitimate, search for a solution, and if you can’t find one, then accept things as they are so you can enjoy life while you have the chance. There are too many stories of unhappy people. I was almost one of them…”

He seemed to stop with something else he still wanted to say.

“But?” Effie inquired.

“It sounds stupid.”

Then Effie realized what it was. “Until you met us, right?” She laughed heartily and slapped him on the back. “Don’t worry. We’re glad Steffen and Terren met during housing registration too.”

He didn’t object.

She let her giggles come to an end, already feeling better about the future. Cleve was right, as usual. Reela was next on her mind.

“So are you going to tell me how things are going between you and Reela?”

“Good,” Cleve said with a tone as if he wanted to say more.

“Very good?” Effie pushed.

Cleve tried to contain his smile. “Very good.”

After they ate, the weight of the future finally was off Effie’s chest, allowing her to breathe freely. Feeling content, she parted from Cleve to surprise Alex at his house before classes began.

Letting herself in, she walked on the tips of her toes to his room. He didn’t stir when she entered. She’d heard his deep, even breathing enough by then to know he was soundly asleep.

Effie removed her shoes and slipped beneath his sheets to nestle under his arm. He was a very deep sleeper, still no movement. A cruel idea popped into her head—she wondered how many of the belongings around his room she could stuff into his underwear before he awoke. It was the only clothing he slept in most days. She swatted away the idea as best she could, closing her eyes and letting the comfort of his warmth bring her close to sleep.

When she knew it must be close to the time they needed to get to battle training, she kissed him on the cheek hard enough to wake him, barely noticing the feeling of his trimmed beard on her lips anymore.

His eyes popped open. They closed again as he smiled, stretched, and then took her in his arms.

“Morning,” he said in a gravelly voice. He kissed her cheek, nuzzled her ear, and began to move his lips down her neck as he rolled her beneath him.

“You slept through breakfast,” Effie informed him.

“You’re a better breakfast than food anyway.” He nibbled playfully on her neck, making a smacking sound as if he was eating.

She laughed and pushed his face away. “That tickles.”

He interlocked his fingers with hers and stretched her arms up over her head. Then he leaned down and brought his lips to hers. When she felt the familiar kiss, she knew what he had in mind.

She let go of his hands to touch his cheeks. “No time for that. Battle training starts soon.”

Effie kissed him again and wiggled out from under him, then swung her legs over the bed and jumped off.

“Eff,” he called, now sitting at the side of his bed with a serious look.

He held out his hand. She took it and came close. He stood and enveloped her with his big arms.

“Be careful with the Slugari, alright? All that Bastial Energy can be dangerous.” He kissed the top of her head.

“I will.”

He dressed, and they walked together until Alex needed to turn north toward Warrior’s Field. After their goodbye, Effie thought of a question.

She called out, “Is Cleve going to be completely lost coming into your group so late?”

Alex looked back at her over his shoulder. “He’s a show-off when he’s fighting. Some humility should help.” What Alex didn’t see until he turned back was a cluster of Slugari about to pass in front of him.

He let out a startled murmur that Effie thought she heard as a curse. Then she heard Alex laughing. He straightened his back and put his hand over his chest. The whole group of Slugari veered over to him as he stood stoically. The little green creatures raised their claws to brush against his arm, making him lose his composure and look around frantically for a way out of the cluster.

Effie backed away nervously. Her mind wasn’t in the right place to control the excess Bastial Energy that would flood her body upon their greetings.

She jogged to her classroom.

“The Slugari are close behind me,” she told her instructor.

“They’re early,” Penny said. “Good. I just hope they brought more than one translator.”

The rest of Effie’s group slowly trickled in. She was surprised to see Steffen enter and introduce himself to Penny. Soon, her teacher addressed everyone. “This is Steffen. He knows some Slugaren, so he’ll help translate when each of you is working with a Slugari.”

Some of them already knew Steffen from the dining hall, greeting him as he walked to an empty seat in front of Effie.

“You didn’t tell me you were going to be here,” she said.

“Sorry. There’s been too much going on.”

“Now that everyone is here,” Penny said, “let me say a few things before we meet with the Slugari in the training grounds.” She unfolded a scroll, glancing at it as she continued to speak. “The Slugari greet others by letting BE flow through their claws while grazing you with them. They should already know not to do this to anyone wearing a mage’s robe, but be cautious about it happening anyway. Our group is the only one training with the Slugari today. Depending on how it goes, the other groups may begin training tomorrow. Handling more BE than our bodies are used to is dangerous. We have the same chances of hurting each other as we do our enemies without proper training. For this reason, we’ll begin
slowly
,
gradually
building up in a safe manner.”

Penny glared at Effie, clearly speaking about her more than anyone. “The Slugari know even less than we do about what we’re capable of with so much BE. So we must take responsibility. You’re going to start by learning a few words while I speak with the Slugari. No one leaves this room until everyone has memorized these words.”

She extended her hand to Steffen, who replaced her in front of the class. Effie felt slightly uncomfortable with him in charge of her group. Was he even prepared for this?

Surprisingly, his face was calm, collected. “Bastial Energy in Slugaren is one word:
Bahsh
.”

He waited for everyone to repeat it.

“If they’re giving you too much
Bahsh
, then tell them to stop, which is
aishihallio
.”

He gestured for them to say it. They uttered a jumble of syllables. It sounded like only a few people were saying the same word.

Steffen scratched his cheek. “
Aishihallio
,” he said again.

Effie tried to repeat what she’d heard. It came together with the other mages somewhat better the second time, but they weren’t nearly as unified as with
Bahsh
.

“Is there another word for stop that’s easier to say?” Effie asked.

“Unfortunately, no.”

She found that hard to believe. “What about halt or cease?”

“They don’t have those exact words, and what they do have isn’t easier.
Aishihallio
.” He held out his hand for them to repeat it.

It sounded good the third time, but Effie was nowhere near confident she could remember it.

“To tell them you want more, say
hallio
. It’s the same as the ending to
aishihallio
.” He gestured, and they repeated it.

“That’s confusing,” Effie complained. “It’s going to be hard to remember which one is which.”

“It might help to know that
aishi
is a common word in Slugaren. It means almost the same thing as no. Instead of two separate words, they usually just put
aishi
in front of a word to get its opposite meaning. If you can remember this, then you shouldn’t ever get confused.”

Effie was embarrassingly bad when it came to memorization. She bit her lip as she repeated in her mind,
aishihallio means stop. Aishihallio means stop.

Steffen had them repeat
Bahsh
,
aishihallio
, and
hallio
until everyone seemed to have it. But Effie knew that didn’t mean she’d learned it for good. She continued to repeat
aishihallio
as they left the classroom and walked to the training grounds outside.

There wasn’t a lot of space for all the Slugari and the entire mage group. This worried Effie even more. Penny stood in front of the charred training dummies with a Slugari beside her. When Effie found grins on the little creatures’ round faces, her nervousness dissolved. They were so cute, she wanted to squeeze them.

The two teeth of the Slugari were especially large, making their resting mouth slightly agape. Their beady eyes stretched and seemed to reflect excitement as they smiled. Their antennae were pointed forward while the flowerlike nose between their antennae slowly drifted back and forth.