Rising Shards

Iris, Maia, KJ, Amara, Rain, and I all scratched our fangs on void rosin and dropped them into the little bowl thing. We had permission to go into the base area of our void node because of our club. Kalei and Nikki stayed behind in the club room to get started on music. Latte told us she was staying behind for one more cup of coffee.

As soon as we touched down near the field of flowers, KJ and Rain took off to find the best spots to shoot, while Amara started stretching.

“Are you guys caught up with your void fighting?” I asked.

“I mean, kinda,” Maia said. “Can’t really do much past the early level stuff until our whole group finishes their memory trials.”

“Or their jump fifteens,” Iris said.

“Those are the same thing, Iris,” Maia said.

“No, they’re so not,” Iris said. “Why would they name them so differently if they were the same thing?”

“Has any Cani thing here been normal to you?” Maia said. “Or even somewhat logical?”

“I don’t know,” Iris said. The realization started to dawn on her. “They’re really the same thing?”

“Quiet, you three,” Amara said, finished with her stretches. “I’m about to start scouting void monsters.”

We followed Amara around as she followed trails of void monsters in the form of tracks in the grass and dirt and broken branches and twigs. We went to one of the forested areas that were good spots to fight void monsters.

“So, you’re pretty knowledgeable about void monsters?” Iris asked.

“Yes,” Amara said, sniffing at the air. “My family are big hunters. It’s in our blood. Fox Kanibari thing, I suppose.”

Iris looked like she really wanted to say something.

“Just ask it, we all know you’re thinking it,” Maia said.

“Oh, like you’re not curious,” Iris asked. “Do void monsters poop? Like can you track them via them pooping?”

“Ew,” I said.

“Tell me you’re not curious to know!” Iris said.

“Some do,” Amara said. “For the sake of our shoes, we’re lucky that there aren’t any of them around.”

“I’m actually kind of disappointed,” Iris said.

“I’m not,” I said.

“Hey, there’s some nearby,” Amara said.

“What? Void monster poop?” Iris asked.

“No, you dummy,” Amara said. “Actual void monsters.”

Amara directed us to back off from her.

“I want to get some fights in before we film one properly,” Amara said, rolling her right arm. “My right shoulder is a bit stiff today, so I don’t want to look bad for the commercial.”

We all were quiet as Amara darted forward. She did a smaller jump, landing into a squatting pose, then leapt up above us. Five laser blasts hit the ground at different angles, and five small void monsters landed to the ground and dissolved into their Elka goop. Amara landed gracefully a second later.

“How in the…?” Iris asked. “Holy crap, Amara!”

Amara brushed her hair aside while slightly smiling. “I’ve been told that move is quite impressive.”

“Impressive at wrecking shots,” KJ said, peeking out from behind one of the trees. She had her camera pointed at us.

“Wait, why are you filming us?” I asked. “Did you miss Amara doing that incredible whatever that was?

“I like to call it the ‘Leaping Tree Sniper,’ but it’s good she didn’t get the shot because as I said before, I want to warm up before the real showtime.” Amara said.

“I’m trying to shoot B-roll,” KJ said. “Even if you’re not saying anything useful, I can just mute you or edit it into something good.”

“I didn’t agree to that!” I said. “We’re on planning!”

“They didn’t agree to that, KJ,” Amara said, yanking on KJ’s tail.

“Ow!” KJ yelped. “Hey, I could have dropped my camera there you jerk!”

“It’s on a strap on your neck, it’s fine,” Amara said. “Now focus.”

“You focus!” KJ said, grabbing Amara’s ponytails and yanking them in retaliation. The two began to wrestle on the ground as we all stared on.

“And you didn’t want them in our club,” Iris said smugly.

“I still don’t want them in our club,” Maia said.

“That’s quite enough, you two,” Rain said. KJ and Amara zipped back to their feet, laughing nervously.

“Sorry, Rain,” KJ and Amara said at the same time.

“Are we to shoot here?” Rain asked.

“It should be a good spot,” KJ said. “Lighting’s not great but I can make do.”

“Do we just want to get the fighting shots done while we work on the script?” I asked.

“I thought Latte was helping on that,” KJ said.

“If she decides to show up, fine,” Maia said. “Otherwise I think we can handle it.”

Iris, Maia, and I got to work on scriptwriting while KJ, Amara, and Rain practiced shots. Maia brought us each clipboards, pens, and paper from our club room.

“What kind of script does this thing even need?” I asked. “I’ve never written something like a commercial script. The longest thing I’ve written is a Raina Starlight fanfic.”

My writing masterpiece I had written about a year prior, ‘’Raina Starlight X Reader,” got a sizeable number of hits and likes on fictionwords.fiction, something I wished I could brag more about.

“We need lots of buzzwords, and lots of stuff saying how great Rising Shards is,” Maia said. “You know, like crap that would get teachers all happy and excited.”

“I want something to be ‘sparkling,’” Iris said. “Like, ‘At Rising Shards, you can have a sparkling school experience.’”

“That could work,” Maia said.

After a few minutes of brainstorming, we had a pretty decent list of buzzwords and phrases we could use to describe the school.

“Hey, can one of you guys come over here?” KJ called over. “We need help with a shot.”

“You’re up, Zeta,” Maia said. “We’ll keep at it here.”