Enlightened A Light Tamer Novel (The Light Tamer) (6 page)

The name on the desk read
Mr
Ralph Wolfshadow, Teacher Extraordinaire. 
His
portly
build fit his last name to a T.
  
His round face hid behind a mask of hair, otherwise known as a beard.  He must have it professionally carved and trimmed, or maybe years of practice made it perfectly outlined. 
He masked his age well, his eyes sparkled with youth, but his leathery nose aged him.

“You aren’t paying any attention to me are you?”  Caleb says as he flicks a folded up piece of paper to me.

Thorne take
s
a seat
in the front row
,
next to a heavy-set guy and
a
girl from Caleb’s house. 
Unable to quit watching, like a voyeur I watch the girl flirt with him.  Touching his
ar
m, and
giggling
,
finally I turn away.  Oddly, I feel dirty, I want to wash
away
the seductive way she acted.

Mr
Wolfshadow
doesn’t strike me as a
big
cuddly kind of guy, if I were to judge by looks alone.
  His
big
bulbous nose
is
enormous
compared to his little close together eyes.  He rustled some papers on his desk until he obviously finds
the one
that he’s looking for.  He stood up in front of the room and before saying anything, he
clears his
throat.  When I say he cleared his throat, I mean he tried to cough a horse out of his lungs.  He pull
s out
a red handkerchief
and covers
his mouth with it.  I try with
all of
my might not to look at Caleb, as I’m
sure
we will die laughing. 
I sense he’s about to laugh, if he does, I’ll fall over.

The classroom of possibly fifty students
is shifting around in their seats uncomfortably.  I’m thoroughly convinced that
Mr
Wolfshadow
is giving us some type of endurance test.  I can’t prove it, but I’m sure of it.

“Eh, hem, sorry about that kids.  My allergies kick up when I’m around so many
Tamers
.
Your dander is unbearable to someone like me.  Never mind, that sounds harsher than I
intend
.
”
He wads his handkerchief up and shoves it into his pants pocket.  My eyes directly go to the bulge he has put in his pants
,
and
I’m
confident
I’m officially grossed out.  “How many of you grew up with the knowledge of
Light Tamers?”
He finally asks.

Caleb and I look around the room and notice no more than five hands go up.

“Okay, how many of you learned about
Tamers
after starting going to this school?”  I look around
,
and
half of the class raised their hands.  “Interesting,” he says and scratches his beard.  “How many of you learned about
Tamers
today or the very minimum, this summer?”

The rest of the class, including Thorne and I, raise our hands.

Mr
Wolfshadow
flings his arms out wide and starts laughing, and not a little
chuckle…he
practically falls to the ground in hysteria.  Caleb senses how uncomfortable I’m feeling.  I know this because he reaches over and puts his hand on mine.

He finally finishes laughing and
composes himself
.  “I have my work cut out for me.  I’d like to begin
by
telling you that I am not a
Light Tamer
, but I am an expert about your species.”  He says as if we’re
dogs
.
 
He seriously said we have dander, wth
?
  “Don’t
get me wrong, I
’m
serious when I say that the mythology about your kind is
particularl
y
interesting
.  By the time you’re finished with this semester, you’ll be armed with knowledge.  As you know, that is the best weapon on earth.  If you can outwit your opponent, you can win.  There are a lot of misconceptions out there.  Many of you that grew up with the knowledge might be even more at risk than those that didn’t know.  You see, many truths have been uncovered in the last decade.  That means that what your parents have learned
is
wrong.
  With a show of hands, how many know the
Vow of the Tamed
?”

Two girls that are sitting next to each other raise their hand.

“That is reassuring
,
to say the least
,”
Mr
Wolfshadow
continued.  “At the end of
the course
, you will take
a
vow
of silence, next year you’ll take the Vow of the Tamed.
This class will be mostly lectures, so get your pretty little pampered hands ready to take notes.
  It would behoove you to start taking those
notes…now
.”

I pull out a spiral notebook with butterflies on it.  I look over at Caleb’s and see
its
plain
green, but he has drawn hieroglyphics all over it. 

“Light Tamers are people
who
have the ability to absorb light from many light sources.  Who can name a light source they cannot absorb?”

Caleb raises his hand.  “Light emitting diode, or L.E.D. lights.”

“Very
good
Mr
Baldwin.  When a
Light Tamer
is in
good
health
and well balanced, they can stay in a room with light, without draining it.  You’re known as a
T
amer
because your body has learned how to be balanced.
  It will change your mind about mythical stories and the way you see the world.  Not all of you are
equal;
a few of you will never be able to harness your light.”
  At that moment, no one made a sound.
 
“This is life
,
you ninny’
s.  Look at Zeus and Dionysus, his son and a god too.  He invented wine, which makes him a better god than Zeus, in my book.
”  He chuckles at his own admission.
“
Dionysus had a mortal mother
, this is the first recorded mixed race.  His father a god’s god,
and Dionysus merely the god of
vine
.  Do you understand? 
 
In the future, you will be able to harness your light and use it for
good things
.  Let’s just say, hypothetically that you are a parent one day
,
and
that child becomes sick, you can heal it.  You will simply place your hands on that child, and your light will emit from your hands.  Simple right?”  Yeah whatever.  “I bet you’re asking yourself why you had chicken pox, or had a cold.  Not all of you have a parent that is a
Tamer
.  You have to learn how to heal yourself and that comes with building up your immunity.  Although, we’d love
for you
to have the power to heal everyone, and every animal, it simply can’t be done.  The world is full of balance
,
and
we must learn how to make sure it stays balanced.  It may seem to you that there are a lot of you out there, there isn’t. 
You’ve had the rare chance to go to a school that is tailored to you.  This school is for the paranormally gifted.”

What the
H did he say?
I’m so not going to ask.  Nope, not going to do it.  Why is my freakin’ hand in the air? 

“Yes,
Miss
Lucente
?”

“What do you mean paranormally gifted?
  Are you saying that everyone in this school has a power?”

“Of course not.  Everyone in this school is gifted, not powered.  There are some
who
have the ability to read minds, or control insects.  Some of the kids have much stronger abilities, but their secret is theirs alone.  The younger children are being monitored to make sure they were born with the suspected ability of their family.  The school is sectioned out
,
and
you won’t know what
the others
have.  You may share some classes together, but you coexist in harmony.  The faculty is aware of
most
of your gifts, and we’re equipped to train you and protect you.
  Tamers that are juniors will take two classes that will consist of Tamers only.  You’ll take Alchemy, it has other students, but the Tamers are sent to their
special
class and this class.
 
There are various types of Tamers.  Scientists have identified different
bloodlines and maybe one day, they’ll expose the truth.  I can’t tell you exactly what they’ve uncovered.
”

The Bronx is
sounding
more and more like heaven.  If I could
kidnap
Caleb and Amber, we could run to New York. 

A buzzing sound came from the room speaker.  “
Mr
Wolfshadow
, I have a new student for you. 
I’m sending her your way, so please don’t go all paranoid when someone tries to open the door,”
said the
nasally female voice.
  We all stifle a giggle. 

“Of course, Mrs. Pricer.”  He opens a drawer in his desk and produces another handkerchief to wipe his brow.  He takes a silver thermos out of his lunch bag and pours just enough to fit in the little cup attached to the top of it.  We turn our heads to the tapping noise on the door. 
Mr
Wolfshadow
hustles over
and lets the student in
. 
“Pass please,” he holds out his hand to receive the note from the office.

“Oh, just what we need,
smartass
Amber,” a girl two isles over says.

I look up in time to see Amber strutting across the room.  She eyeball
’
d
the empty seat in front of me and winked. 
Let the
good
times roll.

“Hey chickadee, I changed my schedule so I can be in here with you
lovebirds
.  You can pay me back with chocolate covered raisins.”  She
joggles
around until she finally settled in for the lecture.  “I hear this guy
knows a lot about
Tamers.
”

“I do
Miss
Edwards, if you’ll take out a pen and paper, you can start writing notes.”

“How did he hear you?” I whisper to the back of her head.

Amber shrugs her shoulders.

The teacher walks over to the grease-board and starts writing frantically.

FACT OR FICTION

1.  Tamers are protected
only
if they have two parents.

2.  All Tamers must bond to another Tamer
before they are 18
.

3.  Tamers that don’t bond are
destined
to be a Dark One.

4.  All Light Tamers are
good
.

5. 
If the bond is broken
,
they can never
be bound again?

“To the lovely young lady in the second row, third chair; answer number one.”
Mr
Wolfshadow
says as he uses his laser pointer.

The buxom blonde with hot pink lip gloss looks around the class before she answers the question.  “I don’t know, I just found out about Tamers this summer.”

“The gentleman on the back row next to
Miss
Lucente
, can you answer the question?”

Caleb takes a deep breath before answering.  “In my opinion, yes we are better protected when two parents are around.”  I look over at him and give him a
reassuring look.

“The answer to the question is
actu
ally
ambiguous.  The protection doesn’t matter if
it’s
your parents.  You’re protected by adults, Tamer or not
. 
Young children don’t typically have enough light in them for the Dark Ones to bother them.  The threat of Dark Ones isn’t overly obvious until puberty.  Many kids are surrounded by adults all of the time.  Instinct kicks in and kids throw fits about being scared of the dark.
Mommy and Daddy
give
you a nightlight, problem solved.  I can bet that none of you hung out in dark closets.”  The room nodded in agreement. 
“
Think about it,
sadly
so, there are a lot of broken homes. 
Studies have proven that two non-Tamer parents are as effective as one non-Tamer or Tamer parent.  Puberty is when you become taller, stronger
,
and
all of those hormones make your light irresistible.
”