Rising Shards

“A Great Idea for the Tail”

I was trying to do homework in my room at the desk. Marmalade was reading quietly and Kalei…

“You’re staring at me,” I said. “That’s weird. You don’t normally do that. Unless there’s a dumb challenge.  Is this another one of those dumb challenges? The ‘stare at someone until they scream’ challenge or something?”

“No, I just had an idea.” Kalei said. “You think I can pick you up by your tail?”

“Uh, no?” I said, my tail instinctively wrapping around my waist. “Well, I mean, you probably can, but it’ll hurt so don’t!”

“I bet I could do it one handed.” Kalei said.

“I bet you could too, you’re strong. That doesn’t mean I want you to!” I said.

“Just for like. One second.” Kalei said. “Marms, you think I could pick Zeta up by her tail?”

“Probably!” Marmalade said.

“But she shouldn’t, right?” I said.

“It might be good to find out, maybe?” Marmalade said. “If she can’t, you can make fun of her forever for it.”

“Oooh, that’s a good point Zates.” Kalei said. “So what do you say?”

“What do you mean ‘what do I say’? I’m trying to do homework here!” I said.

“It’ll take just a second! If I can’t, you can make fun of me forever. Marmalade will be the neutral judge to see if I can or not.”

I groaned, knowing fighting this was a losing battle. “How do you…how the frick should I stand, I’m gonna look stupid!”

“Just lean forward a bit and hold your arms out for balance.” Kalei said.

I rolled my eyes as Kalei grabbed my tail. “Ready?”

“No.” I said.

“I have a stopwatch app ready.” Marmalade said. “If you get her off the ground for more than two seconds, Kalei wins.”

“Wins what?” I said.

“Bragging rights, I guess?” Marmalade said.

“Quit stalling Zates.” Kalei said. “Are you ready?”

“I…guess!” I said. “Yeah, let’s get this over with, yep.”

“Alright, on three.” Kalei said. “One…” She yanked me up immediately after one. I was surprised how easily my feet left the ground, then was met with searing pain in my tail and back.

“Ow ow ow!” I yelped. “Nope nope nope put me down!”

After that (according to Marmalade’s stopwatch, I somehow made it three and a half-ish seconds) I wasn’t getting back to my homework so I flopped onto bed, my tail all poofed out.

“It hurt my butt…” I cried.

“Your tail’s not connected to your butt, dude. It’s like on your lower back.” Kalei said.

“It’s probably like the same muscles…” I said.

“So you clenched your butt muscles out of panic, that has nothing to do with my attempt, which totally would have worked better if you didn’t flail around and cry. Maybe if you focused your energy anywhere other than your butt cheeks, I could’ve held you up even longer.”

“Stop talking about my butt…” I said.

“Alright, I got another idea.” Kalei said.

“No more ideas, please…” I said.

“No, you’ll like this one!”

“An Even Greater Idea for the Tail”

I sat on my bed with my tail beside me. Kalei was busy with something she bugged me about nonstop for at least an hour after the tail pickup attempt until I gave in to let her try.

“Alright, how about now?” Kalei asked.

I strained to lift my tail.

“Nope, still won’t go.” I said.

“Maybe more tape then?” Kalei asked.

“More tape is just gonna hurt my tail.” I said.

“But the knife’s gonna fall off if we don’t tape it more!” Kalei said.

“Have we considered a different type of tape?” Marmalade said.

There was a knock at the door.

“Come in!” Kalei said.

“It’s me,” Oka said. The door handle rattled. “Let me in!”

“I keep forgetting her key doesn’t work anymore,” Kalei said, getting up to let her in. “You stay there, and don’t move. I’m so close to getting this and I don’t want to mess it up.”

Oka entered the room, with Lillia behind her.

“Hi Oka,” I said. “And Lillia, too.”

Oka put her hands on her hips as Kalei got back to work on my tail.

“Kalei, may I ask what you’re doing to my girlfriend?” Oka asked.

“I had an idea to make Zeta more battle ready.”

“By taping a knife to her tail.” Lillia said.

“I leave the room and a few weeks later it’s bedlam and madness.” Oka said. “Do you have anything to add to this, Zeta?”

“I…I did think this one was a pretty cool idea.” I said. “Less so in practice, but…it’s better than her trying to pick me up by my tail?”

“I hurt poor Zeta’s widdle butt.” Kalei said.

“You did what?” Oka asked.

“Kalei, I advise you start running.” Lillia said.

Once Kalei was properly chastised for hurting my butt, Oka turned her attention back to me.

“Oh, poor, poor tail,” Oka said as she petted my tail. “You’ve been stomped on, yanked, and now pulled and taped up. Let me just get that off of you, that’ll help…”

“No don’t rip the tape off!” I said. “It’ll hurt!”

“That’s gotta come off eventually.” Oka said.

“The adhesive will wear out soon, probably.” I said.

“It might be better to just rip off the bandage now, so to speak.” Oka said.

“Fine,” I said. “But only if it’s you.”

Oka was gentle enough taking it off, but I regretted this even more than the tail pick up as the tape took a good chunk of fur with it.

“Oh,” Oka stifled a laugh.

My tail looked really stupid now.

“Don’t worry, I have just the thing.” Oka said. She fished out one of her ribbons and tied it around my tail, blocking the missing fur from view with a nice bow.

“What does a red one around the tail mean?” I asked.

“It means you’re a super duper great girlfriend,” Oka said. “And that you’re really really cute.”

Hearing that made the regrets about this endeavor fade pretty quickly.

“P.D.”

“Alright, I’ve gathered you all here to…ugh, that sounds so stupid…” Kalei groaned.

She summoned us roommates to our room along with Oka and Lillia saying she had something important to ask. She held up her phone again.

“Do you need advice about Risa?” I asked.

“No…I mean, probably. But first…” Kalei said. She held her shoulders low. “Wildfire Hearts guys are gonna be here soon. Which means Nikki’s gonna be here.”

Kalei found out the hard way that her crush Nikki was dating someone else, right before she got captured by Ovie and company and dragged into the void. All things considered, she was keeping it together way better than I would have.

“I’d rather hear it from you guys than see it for myself.” Kalei said. “Nikki’s girlfriend…” She gulped. “I don’t have the nerve to look it up myself, so. It isn’t Risa, is it?”

All of us shared glances. Lillia had found the social media account where Nikki posted pictures with her girlfriend.

“Alright, you’re being really quiet, which makes me think it is Risa, which I was really scared about, because oh my god I can’t deal with another…” She let out a noise best described as an anguished yawn.

“I don’t…think it’s her?” I said.

“What do you mean by think here?” Kalei said.

“Yeah, the girl in the pictures is really tall?” Oka said. “And Risa seemed pretty short when we met her…”

“She could be wearing stilts or something, perhaps?” Marmalade said.

“I’ll say what they’re too afraid to for some reason,” Lillia said, getting her own phone out. “Nikki’s girlfriend is apparently named P.D. She’s a second or third year at Wildfire Hearts.” She loaded up a picture to show Kalei. It was definitely ripping a bandage off for her seeing Nikki with her girlfriend. A very tall girl who curiously in every picture was wearing a chrome helmet fit for outer space travel for some reason, her face obscured in every shot by the silvery mask. “I suppose it’s technically possible that this is Narkissa Taramin, but it seems highly unlikely, especially because…” Lillia scrolled to another picture of Nikki and P.D. at the Wildfire Hearts cafeteria. She zoomed into the background, where Narkissa sat by herself.

“Wow…” Marmalade said as Kalei went through about twelve expressions trying to process this.

“Lillia, you’re really amazing.” Oka said.

“Seriously.” I said.

Lillia turned her nose up a bit, proud at her investigative skills being recognized.

Kalei sat down on the floor, as if seeing it smacked her off her feet. “Ugh, I got beat by a girl named ‘pee dee.’ End me.” She said. “And she’s wearing a weird sci-fi helmet all the time?”

“Yeah…that’s rough.” I said.

“Well, if it makes you feel better, I guess we know Nikki’s taste is uh…bad?” Marmalde shrugged.

“That’s…true…yeah.” Kalei said. “I’m just gonna be here on the floor for a bit to think this through. This might take a bit so you guys are dismissed or whatever.”

“You need some alone time?” I asked.

“Basically, yeah.” Kalei said.

We obliged and left Kalei alone, on the condition that if she started feeling really crappy to text us and we’d come right back.