By moonlight's shadow

Chapter 13

Under the melting snow there are fragments of colour, a vibrancy from petals that appear so delicate at first glance. Yet there they are, healthy and entire beneath the crystalline water flakes. They are ready to be beautiful as soon as the warm weather comes to turn their cocoon into soft water. They are tenacity of the patient kind, the kind that holds on rather than battling that which will pass of its own accord. When the weather lifts to that warmer note, the flowers come. In all that expanse of green they have the courage to be anything else, to stand out with a beauty that draws me close. And if that feeling is a cage, let me dwell within it for it feels the same as the wind and the open sky; a belonging that reaches inside to cradle the heart. I watch them bloom, the white bells, pure in any dark night, shining at the rising of the sun all the while the light is given. They are an art unrivalled by the works of man, my definition of perfect born of emotion rather than the convolution of subjective thought.

Snow was looking at the paragraph she had just penned down in her diary and then kept looking at it for a second until suddenly Sonata burst in the room like a violent hurricane.

Snow turned back towards the door and looked at Sonata with a scowl on her face, an expression saying that was bursting in through the door and damaging it in the process really necessary for her because Snow would have to fix that door all by herself. This was another rule which had been implemented by the Headmaster since he had come here, it was one of the written but unspoken ones that any student who would destroy or break down any of the things in their own room or the corridor it would have to have to be fixed by hand within the next twenty-four hours. So every student had been given an all kit inclusive of all the tools they could require for repair works and small-scale building purposes. It was kept at the corner of the room beside her armoire and Snow pointed towards the tool box and then said.

“You are going to fix the door Sonata since you are the one who broke it down. And I am sure you have a good reason to do that otherwise I am going to kick your ass once more in dueling,” said Snow as she turned back to her diary. Snow wished that she did not have to make friends with Sonata like she was doing now on the commands of Headmaster King.

“There is a sorceress in the Academy,” said Sonata with horror in her voice and then looked at Snow as if she was expecting some kind of reaction from this particular snippet that she provided.

Snow did not look particularly interested in the piece of information and then she closed her diary and got up from her desk.

“Yeah…so what?” asked Snow as if this was something pretty natural.

“Snow, what are you even saying? Do you even know that the sorceresses are banned from coming in contact with any of our kind or any other supernaturals? They are the ones who have been cast away longer than any of our parents can even remember,” said Sonata as she plopped down on the bed that was kept in the middle of the room.

“Nope…whatever history I know is from what I have been studying since I came here since the last three years. Before that I do not recall reading anything of this sort or even Grandma has not told me anything like this yet. Where is the Headmaster? If they have been cast out of the society and they live differently from us than the others then how can anyone of her category come out and then breach the walls of the Academy Sonata? Apply some common sense at the least,” said Snow as she stood before the mirror and flipped her curls which were still and unruly mass.

“Yeah, that’s true. It might also be possible that she has been summoned in order to put the wards of the Walls of the Academy in order. Okay, that is plausible to believe. Now sweetie, would you like me to do something for your hair? Which might make it more manageable and prettier?” asked Sonata with her eyes bright with glee.

“You have an evil look on your face Sonata. But you might as well try since I have already done everything including shearing off and shaving it off and nothing really works. It grows back to the same mass the next morning. But now that I am entrusting you with the care of my hair do not do anything of that sort or I shall make sure that you remain bald your entire life,” said Snow, with a menacing look on her face as she looked at Sonata from the reflection in the mirror.

“With someone like you who has committed every possible atrocities with her own hair without any mercy this is the least that I would have expected,” said Sonata with a sigh as she removed the sling bag from her shoulders.

“Yeah, it must be because they are my hair and I can use them or treat them just the way I like it since it is mine but not yours. Got that part? Or you know the arrows that you so keep laden in your quiver are close to me as well,” said Snow turning towards her and then putting her right hand on her hip in a typical model like fashion.

“You know Snow, for someone as capable and talented as you, you are quite dumb sometimes like the worst morons of humanity. Come here and take a seat on this chair before me and close your eyes or I am going to put a blindfold on you and then lock it up. Have you ever thought of it in this way that your hair which is one of the best masses in thickness and quality that I have ever seen in any of our kind but you are absolutely unable and unaware to take care of it. So now let the professionals handle it and you take rest without worrying about it at all. No one will be able to recognize it’s you after I am done with your hair,” said Sonata as she touched Snow’s mane of hair which was as thick as it came.

“Great, do as you lie but I want to see what you are doing so that I can do the same from the next time,” said Snow as she placed the chair facing the mirror and Sonata stood behind her.

“This looks very much like a cozy parlour in here,” came the voice of a girl from the door and Snow was immediately at her throat with the scissors in her hand.

It was the only Asian chick in the entire Academy. Akira San whose eyes were bulging out at the sheer shock of the entire scene.

“Hey…I mean no harm. Just came to tell that the Headmaster has arrived and he has asked for both of you to be present in the Academy Hall Assembly within the next ten minutes. Please don’t kill the messenger,” said the girl who put up the glasses atop the bridge of the nose which had slid down with the force with which Snow had slammed her up the wall.

“Ah…fair enough. You could have said that in the beginning itself. Please inform the Headmaster that we both will be there shortly and you need to knock before you enter my room the next time,” said Snow as she removed the scissors from the throat of the girl.

“Wow, that was intense now,” said the geeky girl.

“I want to ask you something even though this is something absolutely personal but still I don’t want to impose this upon you. Can I ask you something? You may not answer if you want to but I would really like to know,’ said Snow as she looked at Akira.

“Wow, you are very formal it seems. Shoot away,” said Akira with a shy smile playing on her lips.

“According to my knowledge our breed of creatures, that is vampires in common term are known to have all the perfect physiological features that is perfect eyesight or vision, enhanced smell and even some things else which I don’t know, rather can’t recall at the moment but you should not be wearing glasses as of any time,” said Snow, her eyes narrowed.

Akira looked at Snow with her mouth hanging open.

“Oh dear…here we go again,” muttered Sonata as she grabbed Snow’s hand and pulled her back to the seat and said,” Akira, you may or may not answer the question and if you want to go ahead with this conversation then you need to come inside and close the door so that we are not intruded in the course of her makeover,” she ended by pointing at Snow who was still looking at Akira.

Akira immediately came inside the room and looked back at Snow and said,” You are really one crazy piece of ass. Although you have one fine piece of ass but you are muy loco.”

“I already know that. So please go ahead with the question I asked you since I consider that as you have come inside the room and are now inclined to be present for the rest of my ordeal,” said Snow as Sonata furiously brushed her with something smelling like lavender and within a few moments it grew limp and soft.

“I have a disorder which cannot be cured in any way possible because our family has got a mutation in gene which does not let us see things which are far away that is the reason I prefer to keep indoors and focus on other skills which will give an edge over something of the other girls,” said Akira, as she sat on the other chair that had been placed by the door.

“Have you asked your parents about this whole thing? Does it not sound fishy to you? I mean just hear to yourself Akira, hear what you yourself are saying,” said Sonata in her typical French tone.

“I love your accent, you know? Even I love your name,” said Akira softly as she looked at both of them and then blushed furiously.

Snow and Sonata both looked at each other and then looked at the girl. In the meanwhile Sonata’s fingers had not stopped working and Snow’s hairs were taking a beautiful and intricate braid shape with the white strands braided in the mass of red and then tying up a horse tail with a ribbon of silk and then tying it up even harder with a tail of beads.

“Then if you love both of us so much why did you not talk with us these many days?” asked Snow as she had forgotten to look at the mirror while Sonata smiled at the creativity that she had been able to attain with her hair. It was nothing difficult but a pinch of fairy dust did the trick. But that was her trade secret in making others look good and herself as well.

“Wow, you look stunning Snow…” remarked Akira looking at her with her mouth hanging open once more.

Snow turned towards the mirror and she was herself shocked to see her transformation.

“You have got magical fingers Sonata,” she whispered and the girl behind her grinned from one ear to another.