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Zam noticed almost as soon as the others did. It had been, for once, a quiet day in the academy. There were no corrupted rituals, no signs of the double soul, no corruption creeping through the halls. They'd had time to actually sit down, have a quiet meal, play with their dragons. She'd even had time to tend to her spacesuit! It was....nice. Zam couldn't remember the last time they'd had such a nice and peaceful day.
Maybe she should stop thinking the words? The universe seemed to take great joy in proving them wrong whenever one of them dared to mention those words aloud.
Beside her, Graecie giggled brightly, swatting at Sausage's hand as he reached over with a quill to try and doodle in the margins of her notes, as he had been for the last hour, and both of them quickly dissolved into a poke fight, Fleece and Penny batting each other playfully with their wings over their riders' shoulders. Zam giggled softly to herself, a warm feeling settling in her chest as she watched them. The two more energetic members of their little group were clearly enjoying the relaxed atmosphere, the break from the constant awful events of the last week and a half.
That only left Legundo, sitting at the end of the table, head bowed as he scribbled away at his own notes. Gadget sat in his lap, casting longing looks over at the other hatchlings but refusing to leave his rider, even when the boy tried to nudge him to go. Zam ducked behind her book, thinning her lips into a soft frown where it wouldn't get the others' attention.
Legs hadn't been quite the same since his return the other night. Not that she blamed him! She couldn't imagine the weight of his own history book paired with the knowledge that there were possibly spies amongst them at the school. Adding to that the fact he'd thought, however brief it was, that they were betraying him she couldn't really fault him for looking so down trodden.
That didn't mean she liked it though.
The fact that he'd been so scared, that his first instinct was to run instead of seek them out to assuage his fears hurt, but not for the reason some might think. She was hurt that she hadn't made him feel safe enough to come to her, no matter how many times he apologized and said it was his own fault and not hers. She'd been keeping close to him, desperate to give him some safe harbor even as she struggled with her own anxieties stemming from the most recent events, spending time in her thoughts on how to help him.
He'd been moving between clinging to the group closely, trying to act like everything was normal and nothing was wrong, and closing himself off, present physically but not mentally. Right now was one of the latter times, the other chiming in only occasionally and following quietly along without much enthusiasm.
He just looked so miserable! Zam didn't really think through her next actions. Propelled by the sudden, overwhelming urge to comfort her friend she rose from her chair, gently grabbed his arm - watching Gadget happily hop off now that his rider was being looked after - and pulled Legundo into a hug.
Her brain caught up with her and she cursed herself, feeling him startle in her embrace and then cursed herself again even harsher when she realized how tight she was holding him, her strength spurred on by her rash actions. She was just about to let go, stammering apologies already on the tip of her tongue, when Legundo slumped against her, nuzzling gently into her shoulder. Loosening her grip got a complaining snuffle, and she quickly pulled him in tighter, a strange happy warmth budding in her gut.
The others had stopped their fight to see what was happening, and Sausage gave her an enthusiastic double thumbs up and a beaming smile while Graecie jingled her bells, relief just barely visible at the edges of her smile. Sausage nodded his head towards the couch next to their study nook and Zam took a deep breath before walking carefully backwards, maintaining her grip on her friend until she was settled into the corner of the couch, Legundo curled up in her lap.
She'd never liked how large she was compared to most of the students - truthfully, compared to most humans - and preferred to walk around hunched down, making herself appear smaller, less dangerous. She already stood out so much compared to everyone else with her bright purple eyes and yellow skin and her spacesuit. It was only in very recent times that, encouraged by her friends, she felt more comfortable to stand up straight, to use her strength - carefully controlled of course - for something other than forcing herself smaller.
Her size was certainly coming in handy now. Legundo was small. Not quiet as small as Graecie, but not very much bigger either, and he tucked neatly into the cradle of her lap, leaning into her. No one was willing to draw attention to the drops of dampness landing on her shoulder or the trembling of his frame, nor did anyone dare to make a noise when the shaking passed, letting him fall limp against her.
Bubbles had once described that it was near enough to illegal to move once a cat fell asleep on you - "cat law" he called it, and she wondered if it applied here. While Legundo was not a cat, it certainly felt like the wrong move to even think of moving, let alone do so. Instead she took a sandwich from Sausage and settled in more comfortably while Graecie pulled a book, something light for all their sakes, from the shelves and began to read the afternoon away.
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
Zam couldn't imagine what it was like to be cold all the time, but she imagined it was rather miserable. She'd experienced cold sure, but Stella ran warm even by Mars standards. Twilight loved it, certainly, and so did the other hatchlings when they could be pried away from their owners - or each other.
Sausage, who seemed to run even hotter than her, second perhaps to only Pyro, after the activation of his magic, seldom wore more than his basic tunic and trousers around the dorm or the classrooms, opting to don his armor and cloak only when they were going out of the academy itself. Legundo, despite his small size, seemed to have come from a hamlet in a colder region and his clothes were made of thick well-woven wool and fleece-lined leather, so even being too big he was seldom cold, especially with Gadget at his back.
Graecie on the other hand....
Zam loved Graecie, she really did, but the poor girl was always cold! Zam would catch her shivering out of the corner of her eye, rubbing away gooseflesh from her arms or blowing on her hands when she thought no one was looking. Bringing her attention to it usually got a handwave as she laughed it off, claiming she still wasn't used to the cool air of the academy, her valley home much warmer than the lands they lived in now. They offered to buy her a cloak or jacket in town but Graecie refused them, laughing in that way she did when someone else noticed something weird or off that she considered normal.
There was a cool, damp wind all about now - Zam was not dumb enough to miss that the change in the weather came with the arrival of the various patches of corruption that had sprung up around the place - and that meant everyone was cold now, and combating it in their own ways.
Everyone except Graecie.
It wasn't that she was too stubborn to accept help, she simply thought that others should get it first, no matter that everyone said they were fine already. Instead, the others had taken to combatting the cold for her. Sausage was always throwing his cloak around her shoulders, lamenting how it was just so hot today, far too hot for this cloak. Legs constantly fed her a stream of hot drinks. The sugar probably wasn't great for her, but the beverages seemed to help.
(Zam had caught him up more nights than not, fiddling away at one of his work benches, muttering quietly to himself. She always found him the next morning nursing bandaged, burned fingers. She knew Sausage had been asking around for alchemical components, powder of blaze rod and magma creams, coming away empty handed but no less determined.)
Zam took a more... hands-on approach. Or, well, as hands on as she was comfortable with outside of the dorms.
Graecie was always happy to hold hands. It seemed almost an unconscious response - someone who held a hand out in her presence would almost certainly find it grabbed in short order.
So it was simple, as far as Zam was concerned. Going anywhere? Hold a hand out. Fire barely touching the chill of the room? Hold a hand out. Graecie shivering miserably in the classroom or the library and not wanting to make a scene? You guessed it!
From there it was easy to pull her close, tuck the girl into her side and wrap an arm around her, share the heat that permeated even Zam's thick spacesuit. She was so small she fit perfectly against Zam, the perfect size. Graecie, never one to turn down any kind of physical affection, especially from them, was always too happy to tuck in close, their hands pressed between their bodies as they walked or sat side by side.
It garnered looks, and even a passing comment or two that made Zam's antennae flinch with the urge to conform, as if she was doing something wrong, but mostly everyone just seemed relieved that the girl was warm.
Zam would brave a whole lot more than holding her friend's hand to keep her happy.
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
"You ever arm wrestle before, Zam?" Zam startled from her place on the couch where she was perusing a new recipe book, looking over at the table where Sausage was locked arm and arm with Bubbles, both straining against the other with wide, toothy grins.
She shook her head. She'd some of the others at the circus do it, especially the strong men, but she'd never been invited to try, and had always been afraid to anyway.
"C'mon then! Come try it out. I can take ya!" Bubbles' call was all warm enthusiasm and she almost refused out of instinct but something stopped her. She'd always been good at controlling her strength, and she'd always wanted to be included in games like this. Even Graecie, who had little in the way of muscle, had played earlier against the much stronger Bubbles and come away fine. What could one round hurt?
Her nod garnered cheers from both Bubbles and Sausage and then attention of Graecie and Legs, and Sausage vacated his chair for her, letting her slide into place. Bubbles beamed at her, tail tip quivering with excitement. He placed his elbow on the table, made sure his claws were pulled in, and then gave her a cocky smirk, ears flickering playfully.
She smiled back, not as wide or as confident but just as happy, and put her own arm up like she'd seen the others do, wrapping her gloved hand in Bubbles'. Sausage patted both their hands, though what purpose it served Zam knew not, and counted down.
"3....2....1....go!" Zam pressed, measuring carefully the amount of force she dared to use, and met a band of iron. Bubbles' grin widened even further at her surprised gasp, the muscles of his arm rippling and flexing as he pressed back just as harder, if not harder. He was stronger than he looked, that was for sure!
And he was winning!
He cackled and flexed again, sending Zam's arm on a downward press towards the table top, his victory almost assured. Zam grimaced and let up her control a little bit, feeling her own muscles tightening as she put more force into it. Part of her thought that she should just let him win, not take the risk of possibly hurting him for a game, but the glimmer of his fanged smile and the glint of his eye, pupils impossibly wide with the thrill of it, told her he would not be best pleased if she rolled over for him.
The contest was easy to sink into, to focus on adjusting her strength and movement in such minute increments to give him a challenge, to make Bubbles work for his victory. After a moment, when his easy victory seemed to be slipping from his grasp, she thought she'd be treated to annoyance, or fear, but instead he seemed only more excited, hunching down and planting his feet firmly to try and gain more leverage.
Beside her, there was a cheer, a ringing shout that startled her, and her control slipped, sending Bubbles' arm crashing to the tabletop with a rattle of his bracelets. She gasped, fear filling her for a moment, the words to ask if he was ok on the tip of her tongue but Bubbles was whooping and hollering before she could, eyes practically shining.
"You were holding out on me!" There was only playful accusation in his town and he propped his arm up again, laughing. "Again! No holding back this time or you forfeit!" She looked around, seeing they'd drawn a crowd with the noise and finding only anticipation and excitement staring back at her. No one seemed alarmed or frightened by her strength, only challenged.
She propped her arm back on the table.
The second round with Bubbles only took thirty seconds. He put up a valiant effort, not enough for her full strength but enough she had to work for it, and he only cheered when his hand hit the table again, a purr rumbling through him as he shook her hand and congratulated her.
Sausage took his place next, putting his flesh arm on the table. He was a little stronger than Bubbles, but it still only took a minute to send his gloved hand to the table. More and more people gathered, drawn by the noise and people calling for them, as Sausage but his copper arm on the table next. This round was harder, requiring nearly her whol strength, and she broke a decent sweat as, two minutes later, she finally wrestled the limb to the wood.
More raucous cheering as Sausage ceeded his seat to her next challenge, Sparklez' purple-tinted eyes gleaming as he settled down. About as strong as Sausage, Sparklez was sweating and panting a few moments later, but he took his loss with grace, shaking her hand and congratulating her before sinking back into the ground.
Challenges followed in fairly short order after that. Lukey, Oli, Sniff, JoJo all went down within a minute of joining the table. Ash garnered shocked gasps as he removed his upper vestments before settling down, Eliana shouting "The priest is jacked! Why is the priest fucking jacked?!" nearly sent Zam into a giggle fit, giving him a brief advantage before, two minutes later he too fell.
Maddie kept batting her eyes and trying to fluster Zam, but eventually the clang of her gauntleted hand hitting the table three minutes later was drowned out only the roaring cheers.
The last person to sit before her was Scott, a very tall and very broad man built like, as she'd heard Drift comment, an ox. He gave her a rueful smile as he pulled off his cloak and jacket, getting wolf whistles from around the room as he planted his feet and offered his hand.
Scott was her hardest opponent of the night. Built all over from years and years of hard work, there was no part of him that went down easy. Zam nearly had to give it her all, and it was still a tough three and half minutes later before his hand touched the wood, both of them trembling.
"What's going on 'ere then?" The celebration was briefly paused as Sun Guard pushed into view, his head tilted, his stance firm, but his voice radiating amusement. The students descended on him like a tidal wave and Zam watched with mounting horror as, under the persistence of thirty-odd voices, Sun Guard slowly let himself be talked into challenging Zam, though she had a suspicion he was always going to say yes.
He sat across from her, rolled his shoulders and though she couldn't see his face, she could hear the kindness, the lack of judgement as he asked if she actually wanted to face him. She just about said no on the spot, mouth opening with the refusal at the ready, but stopped herself, just for a moment. She looked around her, at the crowd buzzing with excitement, at the people literally chanting her name. Not once had her strength, clearly so beyond human, been met with fear or disgust. Not once had a single person laughed or jeered for this thing that yet marked her out as difference. Every person she beat took thier defeat with joy and light hearted ribbing, every person watching cheered both sides on. For a moment, her anxiety, truly an ever present buzz under her skin, was absent, replaced by something else entirely.
Joy.
She closed her mouth, nodded once with determination, and placed her elbow in position.
Sun Guard's grip was firm, the padded palm of his gauntlet cool against the palm of her spacesuit as they gripped hands. Silence fell as Sausage came forward and tapped their hands and then counted down for the final time.
Sun Guard was harder than any opponent she'd faced so far that night, even Scott. Quickly she gave up trying to control her strength, pressing back against the guard with everything that she had. The only sign of Sun Guard's own efforts were the minute tremors in his shoulder, the small hunch of his helmet tucking down, a shuffle of boots. Zam panted, pressed hard against her unyielding opponent, tried not to focus on the crowd as they called out first one minute, then three, then five.
When it ended, it ended all at once. Sun Guard grunted, his arm seemed to buckle for a brief moment, and then his hand hit the wood with a resounding thud!, punctuated only by his gleeful and disbelieving chuckle.
The students went wild.
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
Avid sighed as he laid on the pallet bed Marm had made for him, since they didn't want to sleep in his own bed while they were visiting. The room was dark, but none of them were asleep. In their own pallet beds, Water and Marm were reading, occasionally chatting before falling back to their studies, their dragons in their laps and leaving Avid to his own thoughts. His own hatchling had given him for Marm's company and so he was alone, the only noise in the room the crackling fire and the sibling's voice.
And the giggling.
Hold on.
He sat up, looking around, seeing the noise had gotten the attention of his guests as well. Where on earth-?
The answer was swift in coming once he'd pried himself from his blankets, the noise leading him quickly to the trap door that connected his and Graecie's dorm rooms. There usually wasn't a lot of noise from his....friend. She was a quiet sort, so the noise interested him. Well, when she actually stayed in her own room. More nights than not she was gone, doing what he did not know.
Marm gave a brief giggle of her own, her eyes shining with mischief as they cast glances back and forth between each other and the trap door, their plan of action clear to them. Water had rolled his eyes, but suspiciously had yet to return to his pallet while Avid carefully cracked the trap door, not wanting to draw attention to them before they could see what what going on.
Just as he was poking his head down the hole to see what was happening there was a groaning sound of break wood, a chorus of shrieks and then a series of groans and moans. Alarmed, he abandoned stealth and dropped down, swiftly followed by the others are they rushed to make sure no one was injured or in danger.
The scene below was anything but alarming.
Graecie, Legundo, Sausage and Zam were lying in the remains of Graecie's bed, the wood having given out under thier combined weight. They were laughing, poking at each other and jokingly accusing each other in turns on who had broken the furniture while their hatchlings watched from nearby, seemingly amused by their riders' antics.
Water had left and Marm followed. Avid waited until Graecie managed to stick an arm out from underneath Zam's bulk to wave and say she was fine before he too went back upstairs.
He totally wasn't jealous about getting crushed in a cuddle pile.
Not at all!