COMPLETED Remembrance of Self | Fantasy | LGBTQ

Chapter 8 - Part 2

["For what?" Tasgal asked, standing in the doorway with his hair dry and a new white shirt and a coat on. He sniffed the air a few times and raised his eyebrows in realisations. "Oh! Sorry, sometimes I forget to open the window and my training attire kinda catches a funk. Thanks for airing my room." Haiden was relieved that that's what he thought he did.

"Yeah, no problem." He laughed it off. "Now, let's get something to eat, I'm starving!"]

Unlike the Wielder dining hall, the Ashen canteen, as they called it, was a lot more simpler. The lack of lavish decorations, flowers, busts, and wall embellishments made for a humble yet crowded room. It had long benches and tables to save space, broken by two rows that lead to the food filled tables. The cadets, mostly men with few women among them, were a rowdy bunch, that displayed behaviours quite the opposite of the polite and quiet conversations that were being had in the Wielding dining hall. The only thing that gave the room any sort of character was the ceiling shelf that went around the entire room, displaying all sorts of shining trophies. A special section was displayed above the double door entrance of the room, just in front of Haiden. These trophies seem to cast their own light as they emanated with radiance. Haiden was certain that there was a spell cast on them, as he felt a slight prickle that set his senses on fire when we walked in. Jumpy as he already is, he kept stealing glances of the trophies in the hopes of making sure that there was nothing more to it, like, let's say, the spirit of a lost friend.

"Haiden?" Tasgal waves his hand in front of Haiden's face. "You there, bud?" he asked. He snapped out of it and his attention was back at the man and table now laid with food in front of him.

"Yeah. Sorry I spaced out." said Haiden, eyeing the food.

"Right. Well, dig in." he said, inviting Haiden to eat. "It's probably not as good as the food at your dining hall," he said rolling his eyes. "but it's not bad either. I, myself, quite like it." said Tasgal as he took a bite out of his sweet bun. Haiden looked down at his big plate, much like Tasgal's, that had a couple of fire roasted Chikhogs legs that sat on top of a red stew with chunks of mysterious meat and chopped roots.

"I don't know what you're talking about. It looks delicious. All I've had in the dining hall are dainty looking foods that couldn't satisfy a toddler." he said laughing then digging into the delicious meat. Tasgal's summery sky blues lit up as he smiled, he was relieved that the luxury of a Wielder's life at the Academy did not got to his head.

"Slow down, it's like you've never seen food before." Tasgal said with a soft rumble in his chest. Haiden never really noticed this before, but his voice was much deeper than his own. It reverberated the air around him in a comfortable atmosphere.

"It's just good food." He replied. "So, what do you do here?" He asked between mouthfulls. 

"Do here? I'm having lunch. With you?" At the latter Tasgal seemed to tense up a bit, and straighten his back while finding something interesting with one of his Chikhog legs.

"No, Creators. I mean, what do you do at the Academy besides not paying attention and getting stabbed?" he said pointing at him with a fork. This made Tasgal burst into laughter.

"Well, I don't get stabbed that often. Yes, it happens every now and again, but only when i get distracted." He replied, his boyish crooked smile revealing one of his dimples. "If you really want to know, we do learn a lot of other things, asides fighting."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Handling finances, history, a couple of different languages, how to beat you," he said nonchalantly pointing at Haiden.