Board Thread:Short Stories and Fanfictions/@comment-35927322-20180819164916

I twist my fingers together in my lap, tighter and tighter until it hurts. A knot, a tangled, intricate knot of flesh, tendon, skin, and bone...

"Alaia?" Mistress Lale asks, poking her head out of the office. "Are you ready?" I don't feel at all ready, but I nod and stand on trembling legs. My skirt drops around me, indigo and white pleats falling, falling, falling...almost all the way to the ground. I bow my head and hurry inside.

Mistress Lale settles behind the desk and sweeps her hand towards the visitor's chair, as slim and sharp-angled as a briar bush. "Sit," she says briskly. "We have much to discuss." I do sit, almost expecting the dig of thorns into my skin.

"Well, we have a bit of a problem," Mistress Lale says. "Alaia, you've been remarkably difficult. Your parents tell me that when you claim to be at home, you're nowhere to be found. I recommended taking you out of Foxfire so you would be able to spend more time in a secure environment, but you've acted out ever since. You could, if you please, shape up--or go right back into the school you seem to hate."

I quiver in my chair. The thorns are pricking along my spine, digging into my back. "I don't want to go back to Foxfire," I whisper. "Never ever ever." Noise, chaos, insanity--school was everything I hate about the elvin world, spun into a neat, scheduled torture.

"Well, then, you should be where you say you are, finish your work on time, and resume ability training," Mistress Lale says, brisk and cheery. "You have an extremely volatile talent, and the Council is starting to insist you train. You could end up in Exillium." No, I think. I'd run away first.

I let myself imagine it, running away... ''I'd live with the dragons, maybe. Near Naea, maybe. The gnomes would help me. ''

"This is your last warning," Mistress Lale said. "You have some shaping up to get to, Alaia Myrlizi."  