Smoking Hot (eBook)

Smoking Hot: (6)

Alyce awoke with the feeling that something was wrong, and it took a little while to work out that they had stopped. As she stepped out she stretched and tried to get some life back into her legs. So she was here, wherever here was. She was standing outside some very large gates made of what looked like black marble and that must weigh tons. Luckily they stood open; the walls to either side of them went up to some great unknown height that gave her the idea that a tower with a large eye could lay inside waiting for some Hobbit to bring it a ring.

As Alyce looked up at the gates of Doom, another rhino carriage arrived, and she watched the occupant push her luggage off the roof and start dragging it towards the gates. Alyce only realized she was staring when the girl with the standard horns and tail, which had a bow of what looked like pink ribbon tied at the end, gave her a cheerful wave and carried on through the gates, or, rather, she skipped her way through the gates. She gave her a half wave back and kept watching. Here she was thinking about Demons, devils and Hell’s gates when a girl skips in dressed all in pink with pink hair held in place with a large pink ribbon and pulling a large pink case.

Alyce collected her things from inside the carriage then pulled her own luggage off the roof, and as soon as it hit the ground, the rhino transport trotted off in the same direction from which they had come. She gave her luggage a little push and followed it through the gates. What faced her was not a large eye but a sign saying, “New students this way,” not that she could read the runes. When she got close, it spoke the words to her, “New students this way.” It was a little odd, perhaps, but at least she now knew that she was going in the right direction. What was not so helpful was as she passed, it added “And you’re late.”

The outside of the building was flat and very stony looking, and the inside was more like a big square room with glowing walls and corridors leading off in different directions. With a lack of staff to ask for help, it was just like a normal academy back on Earth. She didn’t find any more helpful or rude signs around, so she picked a direction and started walking,

As she walked along she could hear what sounded like an argument as a group of girls looked like they were picking on someone. When she saw a large pink travel box similar to her own luggage lying on its side, she could guess whom they were picking on.

Alyce left her own things near the pink box and moved closer to see what was happening, and she soon saw that her suspicions were correct. Eight girls were all wearing what could be a two-piece uniform a consisting of a grey top and skirt, Though her mind pounded the words: “Don’t interfere! It is not your problem; heck, it is not even your world. If you dress like a marshmallow, then someone will soon want to put a stick up your butt, put you over a fire, and toast you. Ignore it, and just walk on.” But she had not been brought up to watch bullying without comment.

“Hey, do you call this fair? All eight of you picking on one girl just because she is making a fashion statement!”

The girl who had been standing over the pink girl turned, moved to stand in front of Alyce and let rip with what sounded like swear words ending in a threat.

Whatever the threat was, Alyce did not hear as pain shot up from the tip of her tail from the girl’s foot, and it travelled at top speed up her spine to produce a headache. The tail pain was not the only thing to be giving her a headache now, as without thinking, Alyce nutted or, rather, clashed horns with the girl, which turned out to be more painful than when she did it to the hoodie but had nearly the same effect as the girl dropped to the ground. She was not out, but she held her head with both hands and was probably counting stars.

The girl to her right tried to pounce on her but instead got winded by Alyce’s fist, which automatically moved without thinking and forced the girl to double up when it reached her bare midriff between where the top ended and the skirt began. If the other girls could have heard what she was saying, they would still have not been any the wiser as she muttered instructions to herself, linking memorized moves. It had started when she was 5 by just not wanting to be left out by her brothers; then when they pointed out how useless she was because she was a girl, she just hit them harder and got better. Alyce was nowhere near as good as her eldest brother, who now was a marshal arts teacher, but none of them could say that she was no good anymore unless they were smiling when they said it.

It was not that she learned or even used any standard marshal art skills; she just had a mixture of moves to bring down someone bigger, stronger, or both, and most of her moves would have gotten her banned from any normal fighting group and were probably one of the reasons for her lack of boyfriends at college. High school had been more of a learning curve for guys that suggested watching a movie and keeping warm with a blanket, which of course as all girls knew was code for trying to watch a movie while some guy was putting his hand up your dress. The learning curve for the guy that did it to her was how to pretend he got what he wanted without letting others see how he was trying to rub some life back into a hand that had been trapped in a vice-like grip between her knees for a good part of the movie.

One of the girls now came at her with a pole, which sent the question of why was someone would be walking about carrying a pole through her mind as she stepped to one side and tripped her up as she went past.

With three down and only five to go, Alyce picked up the pole that had been dropped and swung it in a circle, missing everyone apart from the girl she had winded who had just stood up straight only to go down again as the pole hit the back of her head.

Alyce knew that numbers were on her side; she only had to hit anything standing, whereas the others got in each other’s way trying to get at her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the girls grab hold of her blade: the one she had received from the hoodies earlier. She had left it sitting on top of her luggage. As soon as the girl touched it, she screamed before moving away, holding her hand close to her chest, which meant she had stupidly tried to pick it up by the sharp end.

So now there were four, and the four were backing away, leaving the fallen behind as she spun the pole expertly between three fingers and a thumb. Then she heard a shout from the pink girl, and as she turned she felt a cold blast hit her, and the pole was removed from her chilled grasp.

“You will pay for this insult with your life, hatchling scum!”

The girl facing her had white hair with a matching white uniform, and if looks could kill, her face was wearing it. She also looked like she had brought backup as a black woman stood behind her. She was dressed differently and now joined in the conversation.

“No, I think we should let the hatchlings play without interference, don’t you?”

The white-haired girl swung the pole around and hit the woman before a look of horror crossed her face, and she fell to the ground gasping for air and clutching at her top, trying to pull the collar away as if it would help her breathe.

“Umm, perhaps it would be a good idea if you Snowflakes dissipate back to your rooms, for if I see you playing in the corridors again, I will remove life points from every Cloud member here.”

At the girl fighting for breath and starting to cough up blood, she just tutted and then ignored her as she now turned to Alyce and the girl in pink.

“My name is Poisen, and I am a Marshal of Arts in this glorious Academy, so you may address me as Moa Poisen. Sparks, who are you, and what is your dorm placement?”

The pink clad girl stopped trying to pull her case back onto its bristles and stood to attention.

“I’m called Pink, Moa Poisen, and I’m with her, whoever she is.”

“Well, let’s take a look at you.”

The black woman held up a blank black slate, stared at the surface, then turned back to Pink.

“Hmm, a little spark that looks to be soon extinguished by the next passing Cloud, so yes, it would be a very good idea to stay close to our hot-headed fighter here.”

“And you, hot head?”

Alyce noticed that she was now in the conversation.

“Tell me how come you have a Vfang blade with your luggage?”

Alyce looked sheepishly towards the blade then back to Poisen.

“I was given it.”

“No one gets given a Vfang; it can only be taken in battle. So I ask again; how come a hatchling walks in here with a Vfang?”

“Sorry. I promised creepy guys in hoods that I would not embarrass them, but it was nothing special. I had just laid out my lunch on a rock while my transport was sleeping in the sun when a hoodie swaggered over and started waving it in my face. I think he was trying to sell it to me or something, and when I refused to buy it he stamped on my tail, so I nutted him.”

“Nutted?”

“Er, yes. I used to do it to my siblings when they were messing about or trying to get me into trouble. You just bring the head down on the other person, and well, my tail really did hurt, so I think I may have hit him a little too hard as he was just a little unconscious when another hoodie turned up and gave me the blade as a free...