The Unexpected Mistake

Chapter 2:

We finally got to the treacherous school.  The school was a large three story mansion looking building with a large training ground and an outdoor performance area.  

“State your names and purpose for coming to Polong Potential Magic School.”  It was an officer.  I had read about them in a book.  They maintained order…or something like that.  

Looking at the officer’s nice attire, I suddenly became really self aware of my horror of clothing.  I had a solid black T-shirt that was too big for me (it was the old man’s) and raggedy brown pants with worn out shoes.  The old man was wearing something that looked like normal clothes around this part of the world.  It was a plain black shirt, nice shoes, and pale pants.  The old man was about six feet tall, so that would make the officer around six foot three, and put me at a measly five foot six.  I don’t know why, but I was always conscious of the hight of me and others around me.

“My name is Jack Helter, and this is Leonard Hellano.  Leonard is here to get tested.”  Wow, the old man could actually talk to people when he wanted to.  Usually when he talked it wasn’t a conversation, it was a loud argument or bold statement.

The officer looked down at the chart he held in his left hand.  “There you are.  I will escort you to your testing room.”  He turned to another guard. “Oi Rick!  I’m leading these two in, keep watch on my area too!”

“Sure.”  Officer Rick said.

“Follow me.”  He motioned us to follow him.

The officer walked us toward the large black bar gates.  Once inside, he quickly turned around.  “There is one more thing I should tell you.  The tests have been changed up, therefore, your first evaluation is a basic fighting test with me.  We’ll go in front of that crowd over there.”  The officer pointed in the direction of a collection of chairs, occupied by around ten Hales.  I read somewhere that all Hales are required to wear a green uniform, while Denals wore a blue one, and Hellfires a black one.  

The officer lead the old man and me over to the gathering of Hales.  The officer told the old man to go sit down near the back.  The old man sat down in the empty chair furthest to the back while the officer lead me in the open area in front of the crowd.

“This is a simple test.  All you need to do is dodge my incoming attacks.  And don’t worry, I will not try to land any life threatening blows.  If you can’t dodge any of my attacks and end up getting hit, there are ten Hales who can come to your rescue.”  I stood there and tilted my head like I didn’t understand what he was saying.  The officer throws his coat to the ground and comes at me with a dagger in both hands.

I look over at the old man.  He smirks like a while he watches the charging officer come after me.  He mouths, easy win.  

I look back to the officer and jump back.  The officer almost gets me as I quickly stepped to the left.  The officer changes his direction mid-way.  I put my hands in my pockets as I jumped on top of his head, knocking him down to the ground.  He rolled on the ground.  

He got back up almost immediately.  “What’s with the hands?”

“What about them?”  I looked at the officer.

“You put your hands into your pockets.”  The officer points to my newly occupied pockets.

“Ya?  So what?”  I look at him.  The officer looks back at me and shrugs.  He lunges at me.  I tripped him.  I then threw my leg to his back made him land on the ground.  I put my foot on on top of his back to keep him pinned down.

I looked over at the mass of Hales when I was sure he was down for the count.  All of the Hales were staring at me dumbfounded.  The old man was grinning like a mad man.  I took my foot off of the officer and helped him up.  

“Hey officer, are you okay?”  I asked.  I was honestly worried.  I don’t know how to hold back very well, so I was afraid I broke one of his ribs in the process of knocking him down.

All of the Hales shook off their shocked faces when I took my foot off and came to help and heal the officer.

“I suppose you pass this test with flying colors, but there’s really no pass or failing this test.  The purpose of this test is to determine what level you start hand to hand combat training.  It also serves for a rating on your official record.”  He stands upright.  The Hales forcibly make the officer lay back down on the ground so they can take a look at him.  

A single Hale comes over to me.  “Umm...c-can I take a l-look...a-at you?” She was obviously shy.

“I’m fine.”  I replied, smiling.

I looked over at the old man.  He was getting up and out of his chair.

“Come on Leonard.”  The old man gestured for me to get a move on.  The officer was up and out of the swarming mass of Hales, he was starting to walk to the next testing area.

“Coming old man.”  I turned around to look at the Hale. “Hey, what’s your name?”  I looked at the timid Hale.  She was about four foot six, and looked to be a little older than me.

“My name...i-is Mary,”  She looked up.  She brushed her dark blue hair out of the way to reveal nice cute purple eyes.

“Then I’ll see you around, Mary!  The name’s Leo!”  I turned and waved goodbye while I rushed after the old man and the officer.  When I reached them the old man gave me a pat on the back.

“Good job, but if I hear you get in another fight you will be fighting me next.”  The old man whispered in my ear.  Oh dear god, how did he find out about my fights in the woods?  Well, if it is him, I guess you never know when he’s watching, and a fight with the old man means certain death for sure.

“And you’re too young to be dating.”  

“W-what are you talking about?”  I blushed a little.  I had never been with a woman so I didn’t really understand what he meant, I only knew it meant something sexual.  He just looked at the officer and smiled.  Now the old man has just one more thing to hold over my head; normal life as a teenager information.  

We walked into the building through a pair of white double doors.  It opened up into a large hallway with a lot of rooms.  We headed to the end of the hallway on the left side, since we were farther to the left than the right.  We went up to the second floor where all of the testing rooms were currently located.

The officer lead us to room number two hundred and six.  He stayed outside after letting us through the door.  Inside the room was a basic bed and a boxed off area completely surrounded by glass.  It had lots of techno-whatsits and red plastic noodly looking things in the glass space.  The room also had a few potted plants, a table, and a few rocks and other little cheep things that could possibly explode, with no chance of a mid-life crisis happening.

I settled down on the bed next to the old man.

“When are we going to start testing?”  I looked at the old man.

“We’re going to start in twenty minutes.”  The old man looked really bored.  Five minutes later two lab coats came into the room.  

The two lab coated men walked into the glassed off area.  “Mr. Helter, please come into the glassed of area.”  Lab coat number one motioned for the old man to follow.  The old man got up and went into the glass area.  The lab coats left the glass area and came over to me holding the red things which were attached to the monitors in the glass area.  

“Please remove your shirt Mr. Hellano.  We have to attach meltodes (magical information retrievers) to your bare skin.”  Lab coat number one said.  They waited while I took off my shirt.  They made me lay down on my back while they attached the meltode things to my arms and chest.  

They went back inside the glass box.  I waited for about ten minutes while they set everything completely up.  “We have to wait about one minute before you turn thirteen.”  The second lab coat spoke through the glass.

That minute was really short.  My thoughts kept the minute going fast.  The old man went through the same test.  I wanted to ask him what he went through.  I felt unnaturally uncomfortable.  Not the uncomfortable feeling of laying on pins and needles.  I was just the undying feeling that something would go absolutely wrong.  Most of the time when someone thinks that something is going to go wrong, it’s just an over exaggeration created by the mind to predict the worst possible outcome, but this time it didn’t feel like I was expecting the worst, it felt like the worst was worse than I could ever imagine, and that we were just going to witness it first-hand. The worst part was, that I had no doubts that it would happen.

“In a few moments we’ll start to see something.” The second lab coat spoke through the glass again.

I started to feel a sense of being both warm and cool at the same time.  I also started feeling really happy.  I had the feeling that I was being released from some curse, one that I was bound by for thousands of years.  I saw the old man jump out of his chair from behind the glass.  He started yelling at the lab coats; telling them to turn off all of the monitors.  It was the first time I had ever seen him so frantic.  He looked like he was about to jump out of his skin, but for some reason I wasn’t wondering what was going on around me; I just wanted to smile.  All I could do was smile, and having exhaustion come over me in a wave of drowsiness.  I decided to sleep.  Just before I fell asleep, I could hear pops and explosions, and the last thing I saw, was the old man at my side, mumbling to himself, though I couldn’t strain myself enough to make out the words.