Rising Shards

As Iris and Maia braved the cold to walk to Falling Shards, Iris was in the middle of going on and on about nothing. Each had one of the items Principal Penteldtam tasked to give them, their free hands clasped together as they walked.

”I hate it in cartoons when they have some mystery thing,” Iris said. ”Like someone’s face they never show and all the characters are like ’whoa’! When they see it. But we never get to see it! What the hell! Like did you watch Chubby and His Friend Shelf? What did that guy’s foot look like? They never said!”

”I think it’s supposed to be your imagination,” Maia said. ”Like what you come up with in your head is better than whatever they could come up with.”

”That’s so dumb,” Iris said. ”Just show me!”

Maia held up her package, a small cube shaped cardboard box that Penteldtam said not to open. That had to go to Wildfire Hearts. Iris got an inter-office mailer envelope which seemed a bit less mysterious.

”You know, he didn’t say we had to keep this one closed up,” Iris said. She unlooped the red string around the seal. Then ripped about half of the envelope open.

”Oops,” Iris said.

”You’re such an idiot,” Maia said. ”...what’s in it?”

”Sand,” Iris said.

”What?” Maia said. ”I don’t see any sand.”

”I know, I just pictured a bunch of sand coming out of it, wouldn’t that be sweet?” Iris said.

”Not really?” Maia said.

”Boo, magic envelope sand is cool,” Iris said. ”Looks like just paperwork. I don’t even know who this teacher is, how are we supposed to get it to her?”

”Is your dad working today?” Maia asked. ”Maybe he knows.”

”I think he has debate club coaching,” Iris said.

”Well, hm,” Maia said. ”Maybe we should ask that one dude Kalei talked to?”

Iris and Maia found ’that one dude’ as he was searching for something. He was feeling up a wall for some reason.

”What’s going on here?” Iris asked.

Syval looked a bit embarrassed that he was caught looking like he was hugging the school.

”There’s something up with the structure, school’s probably going down,” Syval said.

”What the hell? We should get out of here then?” Iris said. ”Where’s Dad, he should probably know.”

”Not like, immediately,” Syval said. ”There’s just a weird rumbling.”

”Weird rumbling sounds like something we should tell someone about?” Iris said.

”Kay...I’ll fess up,” Syval said. ”I’m just brainstorming for an RP.”

”A what now?” Iris said.

”A roleplay, the tabletop club is doing a game about living buildings, so I’m trying to...” Syval withered under Iris and Maia’s confused glares. ”It helps me to act things out when I visualize them.”

”I guess that makes sense,” Iris said.

”You don’t have a lot going on at this school, do you Syval?” Maia asked.

”That’s one way to put it,” Syval said. ”Freaking boring is how I would. Nothing interesting ever happens on the Falling Shards side, Rising folks get all the fun.”

”I wouldn’t call any of it ’fun,’” Maia said.

”Hey, do you know where Mrs. Chameleon is at? We got something from Penteldtam for her.” Iris said.

”Ah, yeah, I can walk you to her office,” Syval said. ”Maybe we’ll stumble into some weird fun Rising Shards adventure on the way.”

”Hopefully not,” Maia said.

”If we do we’ll let you handle it,” Iris said.

After dropping off the envelope (Mrs. Chameleon seemed a bit concerned about the tear in it but Iris and Maia successfully blamed Penteldtam for that).

”Well, thanks Syval,” Maia said. ”We prolly wouldn’t have found that on our own.”

”Oh, no problem,” Syval said. ”Feel free to stop by whenever!”

”Yeah, I dunno, it’ll probably be a while before we stop by Falling Shards again,” Iris said. ”FS? Just Falling?”

”What?” Maia said.

”I dunno, trying to think of a shorter way to say it.” Iris said.

”You can stop by our side too if it’s so boring over here,” Maia said.

”Heh, thanks,” Syval said.

Syval looked a bit downtrodden as he started to leave. Iris and Maia glanced at each other. Maia shrugged.

”Yo, Syval!” Iris said. ”We gotta bring something to Wildfire Hearts too, wanna join us?”