Nerena Corvantis
I was strangling the reckless girl from the Totem games. Her eyes bulged, desperately fighting against my invisible tentacle.
"Who are you and what do you want?" she asked, gasping for air.
I didn't respond, continuing my path towards the entrance.
"Leave now," The invasive voice in my head screamed.
"That's what I'm doing."
"Not that way. Through the window instead."
I listened and dropped the girl's body on the floor, leaving her gasping for air.
Extending my astral tentacles to the ceiling, I swung myself through the high windows and left the engineering room.
Looking down, I saw numerous students from House Bronzard waiting outside the doors.
But their attention soon shifted towards me, the invisible object bursting through the high window of the engineering room.
I overheard them shouting, contemplating their next moves, as I swung from the railings of their dorm balconies over to the bridge connecting House Bronzard to the main isle.
"Hurry. Something is wrong. You don't have much time," the voice said.
Outside, the entire school was doused in a red light. At first, I thought it came from the lamps that littered the academy grounds. But the lights weren't red.
The rays came from above.
They came from the moon. It was closer than usual, bigger, haunting like a bleeding corpse.
As I ran through the main Isle, I couldn't help but notice something was off. I felt like I was being stalked.
"It's coming." My heart raced. It took a lot to maintain my invisibility and my tentacles, so I dissolved them, channeling that cosmic energy to my legs.
I sprinted as fast as I could, my eyes only focused on the bridge connecting to my house's Isle.
A sinister howl echoed as the high altitude breeze brushed past me while I sprinted across the bridge.
The singular howl increased to many, and the distance went from far to close.
I tried sensing for an energy signature, but I failed to find one near. The sprint across the bridge felt never-ending, as if I were trudging through a pool of cement.
My eyes darted everywhere, like a school of fish, searching for a clue that would reveal my stalker. But I failed at that, too.
I wished I were in the water.
I was faster there.
"Jump," the voice commanded.
"Where!"
"Off the bridge."
"Are you serious? I'll die if I jump off the bridge."
"Jump!"
I did as the voice asked.
As I jumped a few feet from the bridge, a shrouded figure shot past me.
I couldn't make out its form in the night, but I knew it was large, judging by the strong gust of wind it created. As the figure hurtled towards the earth, for a split second, I felt an eerie cosmic energy radiating from it, which vanished as soon as it came.
I would have been more intrigued about the occurrence if I weren't falling towards my death.
Desperate, I poured every ounce of cosmic energy into forming tentacles, hoping they would stretch far enough to reach the bridge.
But I was falling too fast, and my tentacle missed the structure by mere inches.
"Make sure I'm buried in the sea."
"You can't be buried in the sea, trust me," the voice said.
Then a large gust of wind swooped me out of the sky. Capitulating me fast towards the bridge.
I channeled cosmic energy into the tattoo on my spine and commanded my tentacles to reach for the bridge.
Suctioned onto the bottom of the bridge, I was able to swing myself onto solid ground.
"Never thought I would be thankful to be on the surface," I muttered to myself.
My body trembled as I tried to process everything that had happened in such a short time.
As I walked toward the center of the Isle, I couldn't help but notice the moon again.
My clan studied the moon extensively; it is vital to our survival underwater. Since the moon's pull affects the oceans' currents. This was my first time seeing a blood moon. The elder's back home always said nothing good comes after a blood moon, and now I'm starting to see why.
Before entering the dorms, I cloaked myself.
Our dorm was another library, five stories tall, and had two types of shelves. The first type belonged to a shelf that took the shape of a giant arc, starting from the floor and lining the walls and ceiling, comprising only fiction. This was the only place fiction was allowed on the isle.
The Second type belonged to the ten rustic shelves on every floor of the library, each made to hold a book the size of a human.
But these shelves were empty, and massive books floated throughout the cozy library.
These were our quarters, and the higher your bookfloated, the higher your rank in the house, and the better the living conditions your book provided
My book floated on the lowest level, all because of my result in the totem games. My quarters were small and devoid of luxury and color. It felt like a prison cell instead of a place to call home.
Despite this circumstance, this library was my favorite. I loved fiction. There was a lot to learn from them.
Through the author's mind, I learned about their customs, values, and desires. Things that transcended time and remained in our world today.
Learning this way took away the stress of the classroom and made me eager to travel the two realms, mapping and jotting down everything I knew.
After walking through the long hallway, filled with warm, dim light and lined with murals depicting historic events, I reached my book. The Book of Nerena was engraved on the cover. I placed my hand and imbued the name with cosmic energy.
The book opened, and the pages started to flutter and expand, creating a dimensional space where all my belongings were.
I jumped in, and the book closed.
I was alone with what mattered most. My shells, books, the machine that created the sound of the ocean, and the water purifier I stole. I stared at the purifier for a moment, thinking of what it took to obtain it.
I still couldn't get my mind off what attacked me. I wondered if it were an astral behemoth, but there has never been a recorded sighting of one on the main isle; maybe this was the first.
The situation left me with many needed questions to be answered.
I pushed the thoughts to the side and jumped into my hard bed, which made me miss the soft seafoam bed I had back home. Wrapping myself in the tattered sheets I was provided, I picked up my special shell. As cosmic energy flowed through it, the voice of my best friend rang, reciting our favorite song we used to sing while riding our sea beasts.
The song calmed my heart rate, sinking me deeper into a drowsy state. I was looking forward to sleeping, because I needed all the rest I could get. Midterms were coming up, and I needed to perform well.