Gor’thala stood there calmly with her hands folded, towering over them in her magically altered dress.
West placed an item on the counter. "We’ll take this and the one on her."
The cashier reached for the scanner but she missed...
Tried again.
Dropped it.
"Oh—sorry—uh—total is—wait—no—"
Her coworker elbowed her. "Focus!"
"I am focusing!"
Gor’thala leaned down slightly. "Is paynt a ritual of submission?"
Both won squeaked.
West slapped a hand over his face. "No! No rituals! Just... money!"
Eventually—after scanning the item three tis and charging him twice before fixing it—they escaped.
West exhaled deeply once they were outside. "I swear, I’m never shopping again."
Gor’thala tilted her head. "That experience was... informative."
---
West decided to take her everywhere that he could think of at the mont.
Street vendors... food stalls... Arcades... Parks...
He bought her ice cream.
She stared at it suspiciously. "It is frozen... dessert?"
"Yep."
She took a bite and her eyes lit up.
"...This is sorcery."
Then—
She grabbed her head. "WHY DOES MY BRAIN ACHE?"
"Brain freeze," West laughed. "Happens to everyone."
"I have endured battlefield curses with less cruelty!"
He nearly dropped his own cone laughing.
She asked questions constantly.
"Why do humans walk small animals on strings?"
"Why do they scream joyfully while falling from heights?"
"Why does this ’red, green and yellow light’ command obedience?"
West answered between laughs.
At one point, she watched a couple arguing loudly.
"...Are they about to duel?" she asked.
"No, that’s flirting."
"...Humans are unhinged."
They passed a bicycle rental stand.
Gor’thala eyed it. "May I ride this tal steed?"
West pictured the bike folding like paper.
"...Let’s save that for later."
---
They were resting near a pavent when it happened.
"West?!"
Jax’s voice rang out like a siren.
West turned just as Jax jogged over, locking onto Gor’thala imdiately.
"...Woah," Jax said slowly. "Who is the hot chick?"
Smack.
West slapped the back of his head.
"Ow! What the hell, man?!"
"Lower your voice!" West hissed. "That’s my summon."
Jax froze.
"...Your what?"
"Summon."
"...Your what?"
Jax finally noticed the green skin.
His soul left his body.
"...She’s green."
Gor’thala looked at him calmly. "Hello, small loud man."
Jax scread.
West dragged him away by the collar.
"Not a word," West warned. "To anyone."
Jax nodded frantically. "I—okay—yeah—sure—absolutely—no problem—your summon is terrifying."
•••
•••
Two days slipped by like water through West’s fingers.
In that short span of ti, his life settled into a strange new rhythm... one that involved school in the mornings, secret planning in the afternoons, and a ten-foot-tall orc warrior mage silently judging humanity from inside his soul.
West spent those two days letting Gor’thala observe.
He didn’t just drag her around the city anymore. Now, he let her watch through the summon domain, through his eyes, through his senses. She learned how humans queued up for food, how they complained about prices but still paid anyway, how they stared at their phones like ancient oracles whispered secrets into glowing slabs of glass.
She asked questions. So many questions.
"Why do humans rush even when they are not being chased?"
"Why do they scream at small rectangles and smile afterward?"
"Why does that man wear shoes that glow?"
West answered when he could.
When he couldn’t, he shrugged.
"Because humans are weird," he’d say.
She accepted that explanation far more easily than she should have.
West had also told her about his long-term plan casually, like he was discussing weekend chores.
"In the future," he said one evening while walking ho, "when I finally create a gang, we’ll be clearing ruins together."
Gor’thala’s interest spiked imdiately.
"A warband," she said approvingly. "I approve."
"It’s not a warband," West corrected. "It’s... organized chaos."
"Even better."
He also explained the one annoying limitation.
"But I have to finish high school first."
That, apparently, was where things got complicated.
"What is... high school?" Gor’thala asked.
West paused.
"...Erm... where... don’t worry, you’re coming with tomorrow."
---
Gor’thala got a front-row seat to the chanics of high-school.
She watched students pour into hallways in waves, heard bells dictate their movents like ritual drums, observed teachers command rooms full of adolescents with varying degrees of success.
At first, she was fascinated.
"Humans gather here to learn in unison," she said thoughtfully. "Efficient."
Then she noticed other things...
The cliques...
The whispering...
The subtle looks...
The casual cruelty...
Students laughing at others not because they’d done sothing wrong—but because they were different. Because they were weak. Because they were alone.
Her confusion returned almost imdiately.
"...If this is a place of learning," Gor’thala said slowly, "why do they waste energy harming one another?"
West didn’t answer right away.
"...Good question," he finally said.
She watched him walk through the halls and noticed how people greeted him, how so stared a little longer, how others whispered behind hands. Rumors clung to him like smoke.
"West might be awakened..."
"We don’t know for sure..."
Whenever soone cornered him and asked outright, West only smiled lazily.
"Do I look like an awakened?"
That usually shut them up.
It wasn’t fear driving him... it was timing.
He didn’t want his father to know yet.
Fortunately, Mark Einstein hadn’t been ho through out the week unlike the last one where he was around all through.
Since Monday, his father had been buried in work again, sending only short texts.
> Will be back ho on Sunday.
---
Life outside school wasn’t any less complicated.
Nina had texted him again, slightly annoyed but still cheerful.
> "I’m visiting this weekend. No excuses."
West laughed and agreed.
Even Aria had been persistent.
They’d only seen each other once that week at Ash & Crè, exchanging looks that carried unfinished business.
When West told her everything he’d been up to including the orc summon, she laughed and called him ridiculous.
He asked her about Friday.
"I’ll be back early from school," he said casually. "Think you’ll be free?"
She paused briefly and then replied:
> I’ll clear my schedule.
West sent her the new address.
This ti, there would be no interruptions.
No doorbells...
No fathers...
No residential ruins...
He smiled to himself more than once that night... This ti, they will finally go all the way.
---
Unfortunately, peace never lasted long.
Today at school, Caleb reappeared like a bad habit.
West spotted him during lunch break leaning against a wall with his arm wrapped tightly around Lena.
Way too tightly... Like he was afraid she’d disappear if he loosened his grip even a little.
Caleb’s popularity wasn’t what it used to be.
After West beat him, the whispers had turned. So students still feared him since he was awakened, after all but the blind admiration was gone. The bootlickers remained, of course. They always did.
When soone near their table muttered, "I heard West might be awakened too—"
Caleb snapped.
"No!" he shouted, slamming his hand down. "That bastard is just a regular human! He can never be awakened!"
The sudden outburst drew attention.
Lena flinched.
The rumors were getting to Caleb... badly.
---
By the ti school ended, the atmosphere turned heavier.
Caleb had heard too much.
The whispers followed him like ghosts, gnawing at his pride, twisting into paranoia.
And when paranoia t insecurity, it always looked for a target.
Lena was unlucky enough to be closest.
Caleb shoved her back against the concrete, gripping her wrists and pinning them above her head.
His strength was unmatched as an awakened so no matter how badly Lena tried to free herself, it was futile.
Lena gasped in pain as her fingers turned red, then darker.
"Caleb, stop—please—"
His eyes turned bloodshot as his face twisted.
"They said he is awakened... You’re going to leave now, aren’t you?" he hissed. "For him."
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