Chapter Text
Scar arrives at class on time today—mostly since Bdubs was very insistent that they go together. Either way, he gets there of his own accord and his mother should be proud!
He started to whittle a new bow last night, hoping to show it off to his classmates and prove that bows can be powerful weapons too, but fell asleep at his desk before he could get very far. That’s one downside to his new magic: it’s pretty tiring. On top of that, he woke up with a headache this morning, which is almost definitely related.
It’s no big deal though! Two steps forward, one step back, or however it goes. It was the same when he first started learning magic: he kept trying to channel too much too fast and spilling energy everywhere, leaving him with lasting scars that were very hard to explain to Cleo.
Last night wasn’t a total waste though, Scar thinks, watching the pale glow of a fresh enchantment ripple up his cane with every step. He’s not as well versed in this new spell—“knockback”, he thinks it’s called—and in fact he tried to put it on his cane years ago with no success, but he has a good feeling about this time! Can’t be a wizard without taking a few risks, right?
Presently, he and Bdubs enter the arena to a familiar scene: complete chaos. Joel, face bright pink, is arguing with Pearl loudly enough for the Clockers to hear his voice cracks from the entrance (he’s got a flower in his hair, Scar notices). They’re not fighting yet, but their hands are never far from the weapons at their hips. Lizzie is ignoring them today, instead using one of the training dummies as target practice. She lifts her trident in greeting when she sees the brothers.
“Hey Lizzie!” Bdubs calls, jogging over to her as Scar follows behind. “What’re they fighting about today?”
Lizzie grins, leaning in as though sharing a secret. “Apparently, tall dark and sexy over there-“ Bdubs wrinkles his nose but doesn’t interrupt. “-might be cheating on me!” She widens her eyes comically, and Scar responds with an appropriately dramatic gasp.
Bdubs only laughs. “What, Joel?! He’s obsessed with you!”
The girl’s conspiratorial expression shatters as she giggles. “Yeah, but it’s fun to tease him.” She waggles her eyebrows. “He’s being very deflective about where he got that flower.”
That gets two scandalised “Oooooh!”s from the siblings as they turn to watch the fight, marvelling as Joel’s face continues to change colour, becoming a dangerously deep shade of red.
“Like I said, it’s from a friend!! Why am I- I don’t need to explain anything to you!!! I’m right and you’re stupid!!” Joel splutters at Pearl, voice cracking on every other word.
The girl cackles, abviously enjoying his distress. “Yeah, Joel? A friend none of us have ever met? A friend who you won’t tell us the name of??” She leans forwards, grin widening when Joel takes a step back, and says in a singsong voice, “I think you’re hiding something!”
Before Joel can retort, the clang of metal against metal cuts off all talk.
Martyn leans over the railing, looking down at the students from the stands with an expression somewhere between bewildered, annoyed and amused. His axe is hanging from one hand, blade still ringing. “Are you gonna be like this every lesson?!”
“Probably!” Pearl replies, smile not faltering (Joel takes the opportunity to back away from her and hide behind his much taller girlfriend).
Martyn gives a long-suffering sigh as he slides under the railing, dropping smoothly to the ground and slinging his axe over his shoulder. “Watcher, you’re almost as bad as Ren. I’m not gonna tell you not to fight, but I will say you’re gonna wish you didn’t when you see what you’ll be doing today.”
This has even Scar worried, turning to his classmates to see them all looking similarly nervous—apart from Pearl, of course, but Scar isn’t sure she can feel human emotion.
“Are we fighting another avian?” She asks eagerly.
“…not quite. I won’t spoil it, but… maybe tamp down that murderous energy for today.”
Pearl frowns, clearly disappointed. “Fine then. Who wants to fight me? Joel?! Are you gonna come out or am I going to fight you both?”
Holding up her hands, Lizzie decides for him and steps aside, leaving her boyfriend unprotected. “He’s all yours.” Joel makes a sound of betrayal, which she ignores. “Anyway, is no one gonna point out that Ren’s not here? I keep waiting for someone to mention it, but…” She glances around at her classmates, then to Martyn, raising an eyebrow.
“He’ll be here in a second,” is all he replies, peering up into the stands.
As if on cue, a loud clash sounds, almost making Scar drop his cane. The other students are just as startled, whirling around in sync to see several round shields coming to a rest on the floor. Ren leaps down after them.
“Geez, do they never use the gate?” Lizzie mutters, pulling a face at Scar who responds in kind.
“Stop snickering, you two!” Ren shouts, casting a suspicious glance at them. “Everyone pick up a shield and drop your weapons in that corner!”
That gets their attention. The students are all reluctant to disarm themselves after what happened last lesson, but the teacher quiets all protests with a look.
Scar, who didn’t bring a weapon, gets first dibs on the shields, and picks the one with the most shiny buckle (what can he say? He’s a showman at heart). He notices that Martyn and Ren don’t put their weapons away, which doesn’t seem very fair.
Once everyone has a shield, Ren saunters over to the entrance gate and slams it shut, locking the hatch. He spins around, unsheathing his sword with a flourish, the familiar intense grin causing Scar to raise his shield. “Everyone ready?”
“Wh- no??” Scar glances at Lizzie—he’s starting to think she’s his only sane classmate—who only gives a helpless shrug as she raises her own shield.
“Perfect!” This time, Ren doesn’t jump back into the stands, instead standing guard by the weapons. “Raise the portcullis, Martyn!”
And Martyn does, the rope groaning with the strain as the gate lifts. This time, it only gets halfway open when a green blur darts out.
This one is tiny—even smaller than the parrot, but without the massive wings to even it out. A hummingbird, Scar realises as he sees the flat, almost rectangular wings splayed out behind him. His feathers are iridescent green, and his ear-wings are possibly the biggest Scar’s ever seen. The weirdest part about this avian is the skin, which is sage green to match his feathers, contrasting strikingly with his bright orange hair and stubble. His clothing is also strange: a bright blue undershirt and matching trousers, and over it a long, red vest with yellow accents held shut by a silver-buckled belt.
The hummingbird immediately darts to the other end of the arena, dropping to all fours and baring his teeth, snarling at the students.
“Ew, what’s wrong with this one?” Joel says, and the avian immediately turns his glare onto the boy.
He takes to the air, wings a pale green blur, and flits towards Joel in the blink of an eye. All the students raise their shields, not sure what else to do without weapons to throw.
“Careful, it spits lava!” Martyn warns, way too casually for what he just said.
“It what?!” Joel shrieks, rolling to the side just in time to avoid a smouldering, purple ball of… yup, that’s lava! It sinks a little into the floor before dissipating with a hiss.
Instant chaos. The students scatter in all directions, screaming and holding their shields above their heads.
“Calm down lads!” Ren shouts, still standing casually by the wall. “You need to drive it back into the cell with your shields! Get it to land!”
“How are we supposed to do that?!” Lizzie squeals, dashing out of the way of another lava ball.
“Figure it out!” Martyn cuts off the other teacher’s reply, not trying to hide his amusement. “You lot really call yourself vikings?!”
Scar’s glad he can’t see Pearl’s face when she turns to glare at the man, sure just seeing the look would knock him out cold. Before she can say anything, though, the avian screams and dives for her, claws first. She barely gets her shield up in time, and with no chance to brace herself falls to the ground underneath the hummingbird’s weight.
“Ren!“ Martyn shouts as he looks to his boss, but Ren holds a hand up to silence him. At the same time Pearl lets out a frustrated shout as she throws the avian off of her shield with pure brute force several metres into the air, where he barely manages to get his wings out in time to halt his descent.
Flitting back to the ceiling again, the avian seems to scan the group, looking for an easy target. A grin spreads across his face as his eyes land again on Joel, whose face goes white.
The hummingbird’s cheeks bulge as he prepares another attack. The boy holds the shield over his head and begins sprinting around the edge of the arena, not nearly fast enough to make himself a difficult target. Yet, no globs of lava hit him—instead, they land on the floor all around him, creating small, smoking craters in the stone. It almost looks like the hummingbird is toying with him—which, actually, isn’t that hard for Scar to believe after meeting the parrot.
“Joel! Yer tearing up my floor, lad!” Ren shouts, grin gone for the first time today.
“OH, I’M— SORRY! ” Joel screams shrilly between gasps for breath. “I’ll just ask the bloodthirsty avian NICELY—if he’ll PRETTY PLEASE— STOP TRYING TO SET ME ON FIRE!!! ”
“Hold still babe, I have an idea!” Lizzie says to him, running to the other side of the arena.
“NO LIZ HE’S GONNA DROP LAVA ON ME!!” Joel cries, still running in circles (Scar and Pearl can’t help but laugh at this point, as the avian doesn’t look like he’s going to turn his attention on them any time soon).
Despite his words, Joel stops and crouches as his girlfriend instructs, shield held at an angle above his head. With no warning, Lizzie breaks into a sprint and leaps off the brunet’s shield like a springboard, contorting midair to kick off the wall and land two-footed on the surprised avian’s back.
The hummingbird yelps and veers to the side, losing altitude fast even as Lizzie falls backwards. Bdubs takes the reigns from there, having somehow climbed up to the stands and leaping from them, catching the avian by the wrists and clinging fast.
This time, however, the hummingbird is prepared for it: he stays level and moves to an upright position as he grips Bdubs’ arms in turn, his cheeks beginning to bulge as he charges another attack. Before he can let it out, Bdubs bites his hand and yanks his wrist from his grasp, instead grabbing the avian’s hair and pulling himself up his torso, gripping on with his knees. Obviously not expecting that, the hummingbird’s spell dissipates and he only coughs up pale purple sparks. Overcoming the shock, he bites into the boy’s shoulder, who begins to bash his wings with the edge of his shield—missing frequently, because they’re still hovering in midair.
After about a minute of wrestling—the other students watching in awe—the avian’s wings give out, and both of them crash to the ground. Unfortunately, Scar’s brother lands on the bottom.
The hummingbird stands, looking dazed but mostly uninjured, turning his glare to the other students. Bdubs doesn’t move for a moment, and when he does it looks like he’s struggling to lift his head.
Scar tenses. Logically, he knows the avian is a person. He was just protecting himself. But emotionally? This thing just knocked out his baby brother.
His palms warm with magic, and that gives him an idea.
The avian still stands there, crouched defensively, eyes darting from person to person as he searches for the biggest threat (or the easiest target). Scar decides to make it easy for him.
“Hey! Little green… ugly guy! Over here!” He slams his cane against his shield and hobbles as quickly as he can to the avian’s other side, trying to get between him and the cell. The hummingbird follows with his eyes, then suddenly darts at him, claws outstretched, but Scar is prepared. He catches the claws on his shield, taking the chance to shift their positions so the avian is now between him and the open portcullis. The hummingbird snaps his teeth at his neck, claws still stuck in the shield, and it’s all Scar can do right now to hold him back.
So Scar sets his shirt on fire.
He doesn’t expect it to work so well, but the moment the spark leaves his palm the fabric is alight with green flame. The avian leaps back, eyes bulging and pupils shrunk to slits as he stares at Scar’s hands. He shuts off the magic quickly, seeing with relief that the clothes show no sign of burning.
Before the hummingbird can recover, Scar pumps as much magic as he can into his cane, praying it’ll do as he tells it to for once—and it actually does! The wood lights up deep violet as the floodgates slam open and the knockback enchantment swells with power, and Scar wastes no time in dashing forwards and slamming it into the avian. He flies back with a yelp, slamming into the back wall of the cell and slumping to the floor. Ah. Okay, possibly that was too much power.
He hobbles quickly to the lever that drops the portcullis (glancing in and seeing with some relief that the hummingbird is already struggling to his feet) and hauls it towards him with a screech of old wood, dropping the gate with a violent clang.
Scar pants, feeling sweat run down the back of his neck. He can’t relax yet, though; he’s still got an audience.
He spins around quickly to hide how much he’s leaning on his cane, bashful smile already plastered on his face as he thinks up a hundred excuses for anything anyone might’ve seen— only to be met by astounded silence. The whole class gapes at him. Oh, Watcher. Did they see the fire?! He’s pretty good at talking, but that might be pretty hard to explain away.
Scar feigns confusion, tilting his head and putting on a wide-eyed stare. If in doubt, just gaslight them! That’s always been his personal motto. “Did I do something wrong?”
There’s no answer for a moment. Then Ren throws back his head in a cackle, shattering the tension. “Fantastic job, Scar!” He slaps the boy on the back (Scar barely stays upright) and turns to the other students. “Honestly, this lesson was just supposed to teach you how to block magic attacks, but bonus points to Scar for actually capturing the guy! The rest of you could learn a few things from him.”
Ok, Scar will admit that did feel kinda good— is this the first time an adult has complimented him? Probably not, but it feels like it. More importantly, it doesn’t look like Ren saw the fire.
“That was awesome Scar!” Lizzie says, high-fiving him. “I didn’t know you were that strong!!”
“Yeah, well, you’re not quite as strong as me,” Joel says, wiping the sweat from his brow and avoiding eye contact. “…but that was still pretty cool.”
“You did awesome too!” Scar deflects. “That sky attack was so cool, I never could’ve come up with that! And Bdubs-!” Scar turns to his brother, who is being checked over by Martyn. “-that was insane! Like you weren’t even afraid, you just went for it, and you almost took that avian down with your bare hands!”
Bdubs doesn’t smile at the compliment, however. “Haha, yeah. Except I didn’t and it got away.”
Scar deflates slightly, remembering how much his little brother cares about his reputation as a prodigy. “Well, I did kinda have an advantage over you, to be fair.” He winks, and Bdubs smiles at that, though it looks strained. “I used a little bit of magic.” Scar gives Ren a sheepish smile, ready for his five minutes of fame to end, but to his surprise the man only laughs.
“Dude, you don’t need to play it off; I know better than everyone that magic doesn’t work like that—if magic helped that much with combat, fighting avians would be a whole lot easier.”
That’s right, Ren became the town enchanter after retiring from battle for reasons he only told the chieftain. He actually taught Scar some of what he knows, although both he and Cleo have always been against him becoming a wizard full-time, forcing him to figure it out on his own. But now, for the first time, Scar wonders if his own studying and trial-and-error actually made him better at magic than Ren. Is he trying to throw Scar off? Does he think Scar doesn’t know any combat enchantments? Or does he genuinely know that little about magic? Come to think of it, he’s only ever seen unbreaking and minor sharpness enchantments on weapons in Ren’s shop, but he’s never been allowed to look at them too closely.
So all Scar does is smile back at the teacher, silently smug at the possibility that he’s actually a little good at this! “Are we allowed to leave now?”
Martyn snorts but doesn’t say anything, patting Bdubs on the shoulder to signal that he can get up. Ren answers, addressing the whole class. “Sure, I’ll let you all out early today: you’ve earned it. Next lesson will be in a week so you have some time to recover and prepare—BUT-“ he has to speak louder to be heard over the children’s excitement. “-I expect to see you practicing with shields until then, because you’ll be needing them next lesson.”
His assistant elbows his side, giving him a pointed expression. After a second, Ren makes an expression of realisation and turns back to the students. “And also, Martyn will be teaching your next few lessons on his own, as I will be… actually, I don’t think the chieftain has announced it yet. Forget I said that. Uh, you’ll probably find out what I’m talking about tonight, I think there’s gonna be a meeting so your parents probably won’t be home for at least two hours, just saying-“
Martyn elbows him in the side again, and Ren grins down at him with faux innocence as the children crowd out. “What? They seem responsible.”
Scar smiles to himself as he leaves behind the other teenagers, knowing how wrong that statement is and excited to see the results tomorrow. Tonight, he has other plans.
The parrot is going to lose his MIND when he sees this new spell!