Chapter 11: In Tiger's Room

When Tamie spent some fun time with Nick after their serious talk, she descended the stairs and walked down into the basement to access her room. Suddenly, she heard worried cries from the next door:

“Shiba, can you please take care of Astra’s injuries?”

“Go, Rianna! It seems to work!”

“Ugh, will she be okay?”

“Hey, Tiggie won’t get beat up so easily! She’ll make it! She’s our girl!”

The voices were so diverse… It seemed that all of those ‘sisters’ of Tiger were gathered in her room now, hoping she would recover from her wounds. Tamie remembered that she was completely unable to protect Tiger or assist her in any way in that incident.

The way she is now, is partly my fault too.

She clenched her fists, upset about her weakness again. She walked up to room Number 7 and knocked on the door. It creaked and opened. A tall young girl with hazel eyes and long blue hair glanced out:

“Who are you?”

“Um, sorry for disturbing… I was on that mission with Tiger. I wanted to check on her,” Tamie answered with a polite smile, trying to sound as nice as possible – she was accustomed to talking to strangers with courtesy.

“Oh… Thanks for protecting her”.

Tamie furrowed her brow – how come all of Tiger’s friends were so rude?!

“May I come in?”

“Well…”

The girl wanted to give a negative reply when a manly voice called out from inside the room:

“Olivia, let her in! Have some tact with Lord Nick’s sister! And then, the more help we get, the better”.

“Ugh, you’re so annoying, Shiba!”

Olivia opened the door wide and let Tamie in. All of the five girls – Tiger’s friends – were gathered in the chamber. They watched unconscious Tiger with worry. One of them – a long-pink-haired, blue-eyed fair maiden – had touched Tiger’s burn marks and was sending the water energy, Blue Zen, into them.

Woah, this girl can use Zen too?

The only boy in the room – Shiba – was sending Brown Zen to Astra, who was put on the bed next to Tiger. Tamie got totally astounded – just how many people could use Zen in this order?!

She looked at unconscious Tiger – it was her fault… If only she were stronger! Tiger might not have gotten in such trouble.

“Well, Rianna, how is it?” Riza asked.

“I’m doing all I can,” Rianna, the pink-haired one, sighed. “Her injuries are healing. I think she’ll be fine. It wasn’t a great shot since the opponent was only one rank higher than her”.

Wow, she can determine how high of rank the attacker was while healing the injuries! Cool…

“What Class are you?” Shiba asked Tamie.

“Um, I’m a Writer Class, Libra”.

“Great. Summon some bandages and burn-mark medicine, so we could bandage their wounds”.

“Huh? Is it possible to do that? I mean, I’m still Rank Zero”.

“It doesn’t matter. You can summon inanimate objects at Rank Zero too, especially small ones. But hurry up. They need immediate treatment”.

Tamie got astonished – so it was possible? She grabbed her scroll and brush out of her bag and wanted to write when Olivia complained:

“Duh, if you wanted those things why didn’t you tell me? I would draw them in a blink!”

Tamie widened eyes – so, if she could draw objects… she was a Painter Class?

Awesome…

“I know you can do it, Olivia, but since Tamie has joined us, I wanted to get her help too. And then, there’s one more problem – you draw objects, while she writes them. So, unless you know how the burn-mark medicine looks like, you cannot summon it, while Tamie can, just by writing down the words. Since I know you have no idea how the medicine looks, I asked Tamie for help”.

Olivia flared up and averted her gaze from them. Tamie chuckled at her pouting. She fused some air in her brush and wrote on the scroll:

“Bandages. Burn-mark medicine, two bottles. The one should work for a cat, the other – for a human. Better if it is for an Earth-user human – a Virgo”.

After writing this (the letters were invisible just as Erisa had predicted), she formed a two-finger hand sign which, as she had learned from Erisa, worked as a summoning sign, and concentrated her energy on the paper.

I hope it works…

She sent her energy into the scroll, trying her hardest.

I’m doing this for Tiger… for my friend!

Olivia watched her with a smirk, but soon, her eyes widened, while Shiba only smiled:

“Thanks for the help, you’ve made it!”

Tamie opened her eyes, to see bandages and two tiny glass-bottles of medicine on her scroll.

“Hurrah! I’ve made it!”

Shiba took the items from the scroll. He opened one of the bottles and greased some medicine onto Astra’s wounds, while Rianna took the other bottle and used the medicine on Tiger’s ones. Then, they both bandaged their wounds. Tamie made her two-finger hand sign once more and cried the incantation, just like Erisa had taught her:

“Reverse!”

All of the items vanished. The invisible letters on the scroll too, disappeared. Tamie’s rose-and-cross ring – the symbol of the order – glowed and pronounced in an electric voice:

“Tamie Wingfield. Rank rise. Writer Class, Rank One – Scribbler. Level One. Congratulations!”

“I raised a rank!”

“Duh, Rank One, level one… big deal…” Olivia crossed her arms.

“Congratulations, Tamie Wingfield!”

Shiba winked. He apparently had known from the very start, that she would raise a rank. Maybe that was the very reason he had called her for help?

“G… Guys…”

Everyone looked back at the bed – Tiger had awoken!

“Tiggie!”

The girls screamed in joy, dashed at her, and hugged her tightly. Blizzard and Christo jumped onto the bed and licked her with affection. Blizzard furiously wagged the tail, into the seventh heaven with happiness. Astra meowed too – with Shiba’s treatment and the help of Tamie’s medicine, she too had regained consciousness.

“A… Astra…” Tiger caressed the cat. Then she turned to her friends with a broad smile: “G… Group hug…”

She hugged all of them together. The girls laughed and embraced her back:

“Group hug!”

If only I had such friends… No, I don’t need any friends.

Tamie was about to leave when she heard Tiger’s cry from the behind:

“Tamie! You’re alright!”

She stopped and looked back, to see Tiger’s eyes shimmer with joy.

Still, this girl is lovely…

She walked back to her bed and joined the girls’ and Shiba’s warm-hearted company.