The First Exams II

When two other examiners walked onto the field, Professor Hartaris called the class to attention. Aayla stood at the edge of the field watching the tests proceed for a while. After watching, Aayla turned and headed towards the medical staff. Huh, when did it get so hot? Many students in the nearby classes screamed in shock. One of the medical staff looked up and pointed.

"Out of control spell! Student, to your left!"

Aayla turned and saw an enormous fireball flying right towards her. She didn't have time to think. Aayla instinctively jumped out of the way. To her horror, the fireball adjusted its course to continue straight at her. When she lifted her arms to protect her face, the silver cuff on her right wrist flared to life.

In an instant, the silver shield was between her and the fire. Like a rock in a river, the shield absorbed the impact of the fireball and forced the flames to divert around her. Aayla took a few shaky steps back but she was fine. She looked in the direction that the fire ball came from.

A young man with orange hair had a rather insincere look of shock on his face. The look of arrogance and glee in his golden eyes was soon replaced by confusion and rage. A magicless hick actually blocked his spell? How did she do that? How dare she do that! He raised his hand as if to cast another spell when it was suddenly grabbed.

A white back suddenly appeared before Aayla, blocking her view of the young man.

"Student Foryl! What on Tellus are you doing? How could you let a spell go out of control like that?!"

"Ah~ but teacher it was just an accident. I simply wanted to use a more complex spell to get a better score on this exam, and I got just a little carried away during execution. I didn't expect the sudden breeze at all."

"You call this 'just a little'? And a breeze?! Seriously, exams are times for showing your progress not using the most dangerous spells that you can find!"

"Calm down teacher. She's perfectly fine, right? A student without mana in a place like this should count herself lucky. Come on, you can't seriously hold me responsible when she's purposely putting herself in danger. She's practically begging to get hurt, or worse."

Aayla could have sworn that someone was glaring at her for a split second. The screams died as the students slowly realized that the first-year girl was not in fact turned into barbeque. Many faintly looked at her with awe. Not many people can walk away from Lyse Foryl unscathed.

"How is this her, the victim's, vault?! Unbelievable! Medic, please take care of that student while I have a chat with mine."

The white clothed figure nodded and turned towards Aayla.

"Are you alright? You can put your shield down now, miss."

Aayla nodded and lowered her hands. Professor Hartaris ran over with a worried expression.

"Are you alright Miss Glowery?"

A look of realization flashed through the medical staff's eyes. Everyone had heard of Aayla Glowery, the mana-less girl, by now. Knowing that and the Foryl's extreme magical elitism, the cause of the incident could be determined. He simply hated this poor girl and was trying to get rid of her.

After a few seconds and many deep breaths, the silver cuff returned to normal.

"Yeah. Just shaken up a bit."

"Seriously, how could he do such a thing on school grounds. Medic, could you please take care of my student for now? I need to have a word with the student that nearly hurt her and his teacher."

Professor Hartaris stormed off while the medical staff guided Aayla to a seat in the temporary medical ward. Occasionally, Aayla would feel glares prickling her skin. When she looked up, she caught that Lyse Foryl or one of his buddies looking away. Her eyes narrowed. So much for not making enemies. Even if she stayed out of their way, Aayla doubted that they would have stayed out of hers.

She looked down at her silver cuff. With almost no time to practice, she still couldn't control it well after first using it yesterday. Fortunately, it activated by itself when she was in danger. Aayla herself didn't understand how her movements could have become so natural with the shield already. She had never trained with a shield before, but it just felt kind of natural to use. As she checked the cuff, she noticed an inscription on it that Aayla would swear that she's never seen before.

-- For My ..lo.e. st…nt …. Full Moon Bracelet --

Just like on the New Moon Bracelet, one word in particular seems to be scratched out. The Full Moon Bracelet? That should be reference to Goddess Cynthia's common name. Her domain was the Martial Way and Emotions. Goddess Selene is called the New Moon Goddess, and Goddess Cynthia is called the Full Moon Goddess. So, are these bracelets actually a pair? One bracelet for magical help and one for martial arts help.

Aayla checked her black bangle. The purple gem was nearly translucent after the incidents over the past two days. It's going to be a pain to charge again, but so worth it. Without it, she might be pancake Aayla or fried Aayla right now. Hah. Aayla dropped her head. She still has a couple of exams this week. Someone's not going to try to kill her doing those exams, right?

**********

The residence hall was quiet upon Aayla's return. Most of the students were either crazily studying or taking their exams. Matcha happily greeted Aayla when she returned. The gremlin kept hoping around, grabbing her skirt and constantly getting in the way wailing about cookies. Aayla remembered that she did promise Matcha more cookies in the maze.

Since she had nothing else better to do, Aayla went to the kitchen. Matcha might start going crazy if she doesn't get her sugar fix soon. Gremlins go absolutely nuts for sugar. She looked around the pantry for ingredients, and found holes in the bottom of several now empty sugar bags. Aayla quietly thought to herself that she should really put in a request for better sugar storage. The gremlins cannot be allowed to grow any more reliant on sugar. More importantly, how was she supposed to appease a picky gremlin without sugar?

She spied a few ingredients in the pantry that could work. Something skittered past an air vent. Matcha never was good at keeping her mouth shut. Looks like the rest of the sugar thieves want to steal a piece. Aayla craftily smiled and turned towards Matcha.

"Oh no! We're all out of sugar! Some evil villain ate it all! I can't make cookies without sugar. There's no cookies for poor Matacha!"

\(ToT)/ -- What?! No yum yum cookies for Matcha?! *sob, sob* --

"Yes, no cookies for poor Matcha or," Aayla paused for dramatic effect, "anyone else! If only that evil villain didn't eat all of the sugar. Who knows when the next shipment will come in?"

Aayla pretended to hesitate and think hard for several minutes while Matcha sobbed. The eavesdroppers need to have enough time to panic as well.

"Well, for poor Matcha I think that I can come up with something. How would you like a brand new sweet just for you?"

Matcha's ears perked up and her sobbing slowed.

<(￣^￣)>? – Suspicious. Yum yum with no sugar? Impossible! --

"Let me worry about that. Do you want a new sweet just for you? I can guarantee that not one other gremlin has tried it in their life."

<(*o*)> -- Just for Matcha? Of course! Definitely want! –

Aayla quickly grabbed four ingredients from the pantry and cold storage boxes. The good thing about tagging along with her parents was that Aayla learned a lot of interesting recipes. With so many people on an expedition, someone is bound to have dietary restrictions. From her time on Tellus, Aayla noticed very few had similar needs compared to the general population on Terra.

Within the next hour, Aayla had created a fresh batch of peanut butter cookies! Located deep in the northern mountains, Forest Waypoint offered a variety of fresh ingredients. One of them happened to be similar to maple syrup. This syrup was the sweetener that replaced sugar.

Matcha suspiciously sniffed the cookies. They were very different from the normal cookies. She carefully poked one with her tiny finger then jumped back. When nothing happened, Matcha nibbled delicately on a cookie. Her eyes widened and sparkled with joy. In a flash, the cookie was gone.

The observers grew restless and a couple of them tried to steal a cookie. This infuriated Matcha who fought tooth and nail to keep them away. Unfortunately, there were too many foes trying to steal a cookie and they were soon all gone. Poor Matcha was bullied to tears.

A familiar pink gremlin appeared with tiny crumbs on his cheeks. Matcha glared at him through her tears.

<(￣^￣)>? -- Cookie hooman can make yum yum cookies with no sugar? Can make more? --

"Possibly. Depends on if certain tiny thieves keep stealing the ingredients. I don't have much time, but I'm willing to negotiate. I'm sure that Dormi would help as well if you all would start behaving."

Thus, a legendary deal was struck.