Lumen (8 page)

Daniel paused before he unwrapped his sandwich. 
How do they know? I’ve only just told Taner. Was I being loud? I can’t remember
.

“So can you?” Lianne repeated.

 “Um. Yeah,” Daniel replied, “I can grow wings on my back, and I can shift into a bird. Can any of you?”

“No, but my older brother could. He was killed though,” Lianne said and then shrugged, “but he wasn’t nice anyway. A complete waste.”

“Nobody should be killed. Nobody 
deserves
 to die,” Daniel said, noticing Lianne’s face contort with disgust.

“You didn’t even know him,” she said behind her gritted teeth. “Eugh. I’m going are you coming?” She didn’t even glance a second time at Daniel before she leaving the table with Herik and Dena.

“Nobody,” Daniel said quietly.

“She knows her stuff. Try not to piss her off,” Taner said.

“What do you mean?”

“I think she said her parents are ambassadors or something, close to royalty anyway.” Taner shook his head and sniggered, “and she’s in our Offense Class, so let’s hope you’re not paired.”

“Great,” Daniel said, unwrapping his sandwiches.

Taner left Daniel to eat, with another word of warning about Lianne’s heritage and reminding Daniel why they were friends. He took a bite of his sandwich before he looked up to see a blonde haired girl jump into the seat opposite. She was smiling and gazing into his eyes, making giggly noises and playing with her hair.

He looked around to see if the guy she was with yesterday was around. “Can I help you?” he asked.

“Do you 
want
 to help me?” she asked, winking.

Daniel coughed into his hands. “It depends.”

“You’re real strong you know. I can almost taste your core. That warm centre,” she said, getting closer to him.

Daniel furrowed his brows and stood, lifting his tray. She slammed her fist hard on it, breaking the tray in two. Everybody stared, looking at Daniel holding the two pieces of plastic, but no one had witnessed the event, and those who did, would never speak up.

“Oops,” she giggled, glancing around the cafeteria.

“Sorry, what’s your name?” he asked, shifting both pieces of plastic to one hand and picking up the rest of his sandwich.

“Carlie,” she said, biting down on her glossy lip.

Daniel gulped, trying to stand still. She sat, glaring at him from beneath her hooded eyes, trying to make them meet. Daniel clenched his jaw as he watched her bite her lip harder.

“That’s all,” she said, standing and looking elsewhere.

Daniel dropped the two parts of the tray on the table; the clatter stopped the clamour in the cafeteria, and everyone was staring at him again. He blinked from his asphyxiation to barely being able to sound vowels.

He turned, looking for her, but she was gone.

“Looking for someone?” a light rough voice asked, and Daniel turned to face him.

“Nope,” he replied casually, turning to walk away. He stopped, stunned by a crucifying pain in his shoulder. Wincing, he nearly fell to the floor. The pain vanished and Daniel immediately started to massage the resonating pain away.

“You’re a bit of a teacher’s pet aren’t ya?” the rough voiced boy asked over the loud cafeteria, standing behind Daniel.

Daniel swore he knew who it was, but didn’t turn around. Instead, he walked, pacing himself, until he reached the main door. He didn’t look back, his body jolted, and before he could stop—he was somewhat lost. He’d been heading out into the forestry, approaching the barn he’d seen yesterday. The door swung open and he stopped, almost falling in shock of the sudden activity. He gathered himself and rushed back to the dormitory.

He stopped at the door, leaning against the wall he took a breather. His stomach started to burn, the pain wriggled up into his oesophagus. He glanced at the two marble panthers, their paws veined with weeds and their legs had attracted climbing ivy. With a hand over his chest he could feel the thick pumping beneath start to tingle at his sweaty palm. He rubbed his hands on his t-shirt and opened the door to realise he had the stretch of two hallways and two flights of stairs to walk before he reached his room.

He was soon enough stood outside the door to his room, fumbling around in his pockets for his room key. It wasn’t there. He double checked to be sure.

“Is this it?” a person asked from his right.

He turned, but nobody was there. He turned to his left, and still nothing. He did a full circle, watching as a fist retracted and before anything could register, it collided with his face. It was a soft pulsation at first, until it shattered colour and fogged up his right eye. Flashing harder, pulsing deeper into bruised tissue. Daniel wobbled on his feet and his head bobbed on his shoulders.

“Again—Jasper?” someone asked in between snickers.

“No, let’s see what he can do. See what he’s made of,” Jasper replied, cracking his knuckles.

Daniel couldn’t hear, or speak, as for sight; his eyes fell heavy, blurring that. He fell back against the wall, pushing himself up, he a glimpse of the two guys. One of which he knew was the guy from that morning.

“But should I?” he asked.

“Mark, I said no.”

Daniel gasped as his eyes started to water and burn the side of his bruised face. Jasper and Mark chuckled as Daniel wavered to keep still on his feet, the swelling on his face had turned into a light fleshy pink and his eyes had become blood-shot.

“What can 
you
 do?” Jasper spat.

Daniel opened his mouth to reply, and instead was sucking at air like he was about to drown.

“Looks like a fish,” Mark said, chuckling to himself.

“Because he is out of water, aren’t ya? People like you should go to schools down there, with the 
scum
.” Jasper joined Mark with laughter. “Now you can hit him, use some of that ice stuff, the one Rik said was too advanced.”

“Oh, yeah. Or should I give ‘im some water,” he said.

Daniel tried to control his wobbling and focus his eyes. He made out the dorm key in Jasper’s hand, when something convulsed in his knees and ate at the balls of his feet, creating and infectious cramp. His knees bent and he clenched his teeth hard, biting the inside of his cheek until it bled. Then he made fists with his hands, but he couldn’t keep them clenched.

“Fight back then,” Mark said with a huge grin on his face. He closed his eyes and poised himself; both of his hands dropped to the side, palms facing Daniel.

“Summon and simmer,” Jasper chanted in a whisper.

Mark’s fingertips turned white, and slowly the white made his skin thick. He wriggled his fingers and the ice spread to his wrists. Mark glared at Daniel’s swollen face, he didn’t have a clue if Daniel was looking at him or not, and although it was Daniel’s plan to undermine Mark and dodge the attack, he found himself to be a bit slow. As Mark thrust his hand towards Daniel’s chest, the ice spread and clung to his t-shirt, latching to his skin. Daniel fell to his knees coughing as he tried to pull the t-shirt from his skin and cut the source of the burning.

Mark and Jasper high-fived, their mix of energy cancelled each other out, and Mark ended up with a wet hand. They both stared down at Daniel. Jasper drew his leg back as if to kick him, and laughing as Daniel flinched, his hand trembling closer to his chest.

“Why?” Daniel asked, his voice had become deep and gravely.

“You’re not welcome. And I bet that Taner guy, I bet you lied to ‘im didn’t ya,” Jasper said.

Daniel felt something instinctive tickle beneath the ice. The ice didn’t melt, and his clothes didn’t clog with water. But he was dry.

“You learnt a little Lowerlands trick.” Jasper scowled.

Daniel jumped up from his knees in a flash. It had reminded him of how flexible he’d had to be, especially coming from the Lowerlands where you were taught to climb trees and fend for yourself from the animals or running away for fear that you’d be caught and treated like an animal. Jac had taught him to how to fight, especially when everyone was a predator in the thick of the forest. Daniel stood up straight, seeing their faces soiled with surprise.

“You might need to work on that 
ice
 thing,” Daniel said, clenching his hands into fists.

Daniel swallowed the fear in his throat and swung his fist at Mark’s face, hitting him on the bridge of his nose. A steady flow of blood left Mark stunned and Jasper bewildered. Daniel went on to hit Jasper, only to have his hand whacked away.

“Mark’s not stupid, he’ll get you back. And I’m not stupid enough to make the mistake in the first place,” Jasper said, grinning in Daniel's half-swollen face. “Take your card, and stay in your room.” He flicked the card from between his fingers to Daniel’s feet. He started to walk away with Mark following leaving a trail of blood dotting the floor.

Did that just happen?
 He wondered.

Chapter Nine

Daniel stayed in his room, touching the side of his face and looking in the mirror. The lump beneath his eye had started to discolour from the fleshy pink to a bright purple, spreading out into a thick blue. He spat curse words out at his reflection as he touched the lump for the last time.

He rested his eyes for what felt like moments, and then his alarm clock sounded. He grabbed his pillow and rammed his face against it, shouting and kicking the duvet at the pain shooting through his body. His morning alarm sounded and seconds later there was several knocks at his bedroom door.

“Dan, are you okay? I heard your alarm. You up?” Taner asked, his voice was muffled from behind the door and the continuous bleeping.

Daniel shot up and slammed his hand hard on the snooze button. He paced his breathing behind his gritted teeth. He touched the flashing throb beneath his eye, seeing the swollen colour dampen in a haze, he tsked, sucking in air.

“Just gonna take all the school in. A bit overwhelmed,” Daniel said, swiping his hair out of his eye and trying not to touch the swollen part.

“Um. Well, I’ll see you at lunch then,” Taner replied.

Daniel grinned to himself, the crease of his smile caught his eye and it quickly turned into a wince. Daniel knew what he had to do, he had to go and see Jac, but he couldn’t go home with his face looking like that. And Jac would know what to do; Jac grew up learning how to defend himself. Daniel only wished that he’d learnt beforehand.

He propped his ear to the door; there was no sure way of knowing if Taner had gone. It humoured Daniel to think that Taner would try to follow him and act casual when they were both at the same place in life. That, or he’d be mortified by the sheer poverty and so-called status Daniel had.

He paced across the room, occasionally stopping by the window. He sucked in a deep breath and finally opened the window to its fullest. “Three floors up,” he said to himself, poking his head out of the window. 
Need to turn into a bird! I can’t just grow wings, they’d notice. I need to be something people wouldn’t take a second look at. I need to be a bird.

Daniel took several steps back. He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. He took his t-shirt off and put his hooded jacket on, zipping it up to the top. He wasn’t risking another t-shirt being ripped and he feared that now was one of those moments when it would, when somehow his jacket hardly ever tore, it just melted right in with his skin.

He couldn’t take a huge run-up; the room wasn’t that big. He took his run-up and leapt out of the window, his body curved as he swooped downwards, falling half a floor. The wind stopped hitting his face and instead, aided him. He opened his now pale blue eyes to see a tall metal fence with an intrinsic ivy pattern crawling up it.

He flew over the gate, in the smallest of bird forms he could think of. His golden feathers would go undetected beneath the sun. He started to home-in on the Lowerlands as a unique beacon of light broke in and steered him. Daniel had first seen the bird when he was only six and his father was adamant on teaching him about animals. It was also the bird that had nested in the tree beside their house, and the same bird which some man had offered to buy. And he bought it, but at that moment it was the smallest bird he could think of.

His wings grew restless as he reached the halfway point and only half an hour in. The Trident Mountains were the middle, and he was too late to pull out and go around, he was heading for a dip in between two of the hills, he continued full throttle. It was once said that small people with sturdy arms and legs wondered this part of Templar, small folk, and Daniel was hit with the realisation that these people could exist.

His wings quaked on his small bony bird back. He ducked and dipped, trying to stay low, but not so low that he was able to see beneath the treetops. There was something hot and sticky following him; his feathers started to stick to the air and slow him down. But he continued to force himself, craning his neck and pushing his wings out that bit further with each flap. He’d pushed, and pushed, finding himself hit with cold air as he made it out.

Daniel squawked as the ground was lower this side of the mountains, he strained his neck to stop the decline, and swooped closer to the ground. His feathers started to flay from his skin and drift off behind him. He looked back, and then gave in, collapsing into a rolling heap at the bottom of the grassy mound.

Back in his human form, Daniel lay in his stained clothes, concealed by the long grass. He slowly broke from his foetal position; his arms twitched and his legs kicked from the cocoon of his body. He started a nasty fit of coughs; his face turned red and his swollen eye puffed. “Never again!” he said dryly, thumping at his chest.

He stood and coughed into a fist, trying to clear his throat one last time. He threw his arms down to his side and shot up into his tiptoes stretching. “Ah,” he sighed, relaxing his body and rubbing at the dirt on his knees. He turned around and looked up; the four mountains cast their shadow over him, famed for looking like a trident. As he rolled his head down, scanning the dip he broke through, he noticed his withered yellow feathers scattered up the hill. “I should go back.”