As soon as we got to the clinic, we were greeted by the person who supposedly saved Noah's life. "Thank you for bringing my pen with you," he said as he was smiling nervously and scratching the back of his head with his left hand. He looked normal enough, but there was still a certain feeling about him that I just couldn't shake off, no matter how much I tried. But seeing the circumstances, I decided to ignore it for the time being and act normal around him. "You didn't drop that on accident, did you?" Elijah muttered to himself with an annoyed but still grateful expression, and I was close enough to hear him say, "Uhm? What was that?" The man asked, as he probably noticed Elijah saying something, which he most likely understood but was still asking, "It's nothing; don't worry about it," Elijah said, yet again with the same expression as before. "Alright then, bring the boy into the room now; he's in pretty bad shape." Elijah took Noah inside the clinic and probably laid him down for his treatment already. "Kid, are you his friend?" The man asked, as he looked me in the eye for some reason, "sort of." I replied with that since I didn't know if I could really call myself his friend as of yet. "I see, then wait here; I've got a few things I want to ask, if you don't mind, of course," said the man before he entered and closed the door to patch up Noah's injuries and all.
Me and Arza sat down on the chair near the door as we waited, and we both were as silent as we'd ever been. The only things I heard were the sounds of birds chirping, along with the sound of wind blowing through trees and the sound of them moving. Even though the weather wasn't that windy, somehow I had always heard the sounds strongly for some reason, but the silence made it all more noticeable than before, and to make the mood worse, the sounds of students and adults alike gossiping were reaching our ears. I looked to my right, and Arza was down again, probably because of all the things that happened in such a short time.
We sat there in complete silence. I didn't know anything that would break it either, so I had no choice but to remain the same. "Looking this gloomy on your very first day isn't a good sign, brats!" A familiar voice spoke as they got closer. I looked to my left, and it was none other than Elijah, who came from the clinic. "May I sit down? If you don't mind me interrupting your little alone time together, He asked politely, sarcastically, based on what he looked and sounded like. The evil smirk he gave us set us off, and when I looked at Arza, her face was completely red. Realizing the question, I said, "N-No! It's nothing like that! You can sit!" Then he sat down with us, laughing as he posed such a question to us. He still couldn't stop laughing, embarrassing both me and Arza. Despite the embarrassment, even just his presence completely lightened the mood, which was so different from what he seemed like when we first saw him: "Worried about the kid, eh?" He asked as he sat in the middle, and we looked at him in silence. I wasn't that well acquainted with Noah, but seeing another kid injured really makes you worry. "Well, you shouldn't; Dr. Flann may not act like it, but he's a pretty reliable doctor, if you call him that." Arza looked relieved after hearing his words. Though we had just met, all I could feel towards Elijah was trust and a sort of reliability.
"He is especially qualified because of his control over blood; he can easily stop bleeding and help cells regenerate fast; all in all, he is an impressionable person." After a long pause, during which no one spoke, he spoke again: "So what are you little troublemakers called? Sorry for not asking beforehand."
"Arza..."
"Alan"
"Ah, got it!" He said, nodding, "You guys are new here, right?" We nodded, answering his question.
"Makes sense." He said it with no sign of surprise in his face. He got up, looked at us, and said, "I probably won't be that much help, but come to me if anything goes wrong, and try not to get in trouble, got it?" He said this with a serious yet concerned expression on his face: "SIR!" We said nervously, "Hey now, drop the "Sir. "You guys are making me feel old. I'm only your senior by 2 years, you know?" We were shocked, but not at the same time, because he actually looked way too young to be a teacher or something of the sort. "SORRY!" We apologized in a similar tone in which a soldier would salute their commander again. Afterward, he gave us a genuine smile as he turned back while leaving, and we smiled back at him embarrassingly.
Soon after, he was gone. We were left with silence again, out of curiosity, and to break the silence, "does it happen often?" I asked Arza, "What does it do?" She replied. "Noah, he's getting angry and injuring himself." "Yes. I always try to stop him, but it doesn't work; he just does whatever he wants, that idiot, getting us both in trouble."
"It must be hard." I said in a concerned voice, "It's probably not my place to say this since we just met earlier today, but looking at him, he probably has his own reasons and doesn't get you and himself in trouble on purpose."
"Yeah... But still! I have to beat it into him that he shouldn't let every little thing get to him!" She said it in a surprisingly upbeat tone—almost scary now that I think about it. "That's kind of unladylike, wouldn't you say?" I nervously muttered to myself. "What was that?" She asked me, looking me dead in the eye. I could see a spark of flame in her eyes. "Uh, nothing! Hahaha...." I smiled nervously as I scratched the back of my head.
She sat back, crossing her arms, with a smug and brushed-off expression on her face. Soon after waiting for some minutes in silence, we heard the sound of a door opening, and I looked to my right, and it was the door of the clinic, slowly but steadily opening, and from there came Noah, who, without a scratch on his body, looked as good as he did before sustaining those injuries. Though he looked awfully exhausted, he could still probably make it through the day even in that condition. "It was easy to fix you up this time, but don't go using that power of yours unnecessarily again. Be cautious because I cannot guarantee that you'll be able to recover from it like you did this time, got it?" Dr. Flann scolded Noah as they got out, and Noah replied to everything he said, nodding with an annoyed expression on his face.
Arza got up quickly and ran towards Noah, saying, "You made me worry. Don't make trouble for us again, please." "C'mon, Arza, I know you were annoyed too." "I was, but that doesn't mean I should bark back at any stray dog that barks at me, should I?" Arza was awfully good with insults; I had to make sure not to get on her bad side. "Alright kids, you're dismissed, except you, silver head! You stay with me; I've got to talk to you about something." Dr. Flann invited me over to his clinic to talk about something, and I had no choice but to go with him. "Catch up with us when you're done, Kay." Arza shouted as they left, "You're getting awfully attached to him, heh." I could barely make out what Noah said, but soon after saying that he got smacked on the head, Arza was probably embarrassed. "Hey! I'm still injured, you know? Geez..." And then they left, and I entered Dr. Flann's clinic.
I entered the clinic, and what I saw were organs on shelves. I didn't know if they were humans' or not, but I convinced myself that they were nothing but props, because why else would the academy allow someone to keep such things in a school filled with kids? So they were probably props to teach kids how to heal such organs if they were damaged or something. "Don't worry, those are props; I use them to perfect my healing on them; they're merely things the science department made solely to train healers." I nodded, accepting what he told me: "Anyways, make yourself comfortable; it could take a little while." I sat down on a dusty couch that was in the corner of the room and asked, "You want one?" He offered me a lollipop, but due to my mother's teaching, "never take money or candy from strangers," I politely refused. "Oh? Too bad, this is one of my favorites." He unwrapped one and put it in his mouth. "So, what did you want to talk about?" I asked him curiously why he still had me here. "Oh, my bad," he mumbled, then took the lollipops out of his mouth to speak clearly. "It's nothing too serious, but I did sense an odd type of Rukh within you." "What do you mean?" I replied.
"It's nothing crazy, but I had never sensed a Rukh such as yours; it made me curious, that's all."
"How is my Rukh different from others'?"
"I can't explain it, but it's sort of intimidating, surprising Rukh for a kid your age at least; you wouldn't mind if I checked, would you?" He got up from his seat and started approaching me in sort of a creepy way. "Wait! It's fine; I don't want it checked; no need to concern yourself!" He made me all nervous, like never before. Regardless of what I said, he didn't stop approaching me; he kept getting closer and closer.
"All students, come into the training grounds at once!" A speaker was heard, and suddenly he stopped after it and said, "Oh, sorry. I just get a little excited when I sense different types of Rukh from people; please forgive me." He said as he backed away, "It's alright!" I said before I dashed out of there, scared like I had never been in my entire life, that he's suspicious, so I should probably keep my distance from him, and maybe I should warn Noah and Arza as well.