Komoreby

7 | An Elf with a Bow

The tempest ran its course with Evanna fuming in her room and Mary giving her an earful. Peace was restored in the house only after the latter received an apology. Evanna also managed to obtain Mary's acquiescence to see the school counselor instead of a psychiatrist—a feat that was accomplished with the help of a sympathetic Janet.

After an early dinner, Evanna curled up on her bed in exhaustion, trying to stem the many thoughts whirling in her head. Her eyes idly checked and rechecked the room—an impulse that ground on her nerves. She had not received a reply to her email either.

Her thoughts strayed to the woods, and the memory soothed her. For oft, when on my couch I lie, in vacant or in pensive mood, they flash upon that inward eye, which is the bliss of solitude.

To her annoyance, Shane Evans entered her mind, causing her to replay the brief exchange she had with him. Guilt stirred within. You're so mean, Ev...No, I'm not! He wouldn't give a flying hoot about what I say anyways.

Gripped with a sudden bout of curiosity, she trotted over to her computer, pulled up the web browser and ran a search for Obsidian.

Her eyes widened when she saw the many images and the significant number of followers they had on social media. The lead vocalist seemed to be Junho—she couldn't help the laugh that escaped her. Shane and Max played guitars. Ash was the drummer.

She grabbed a bar of dark chocolate she had found in the kitchen and settled down to watch a video that showed up in search results. Most of the videos were of their gigs in various concert halls and outdoor stages with large, excited crowds.

Evanna watched the video and moved on to another while the chocolate melted delightfully in her mouth with a hint of bitterness.

Even though Alter-Ev had no decent subwoofer, the band's powerful music electrified her with its deep bass, solid drums and catchy rhythm—the effect amplified by Junho going all out with his head-banging, rasping and yelling. The lyrics had substance—alternating between tones of lightheartedness and angst. Their music had soul, and so did their performance. The cherry on top was that they looked cool.

Invigorated, she logged into Arcana Online, which had finished downloading.

She scarfed down the last of the chocolate with a sigh of satisfaction and created a new lunar elf character, whom she named Artemisia. It was annoying that she had to level up a new character from scratch. Yet, when she completed the very first quest in the starting zone, a beam of optimism lanced through the murk in her mind.

Wednesday dawned, and the school day started with two periods of biology. They delved into the attributes of life, with students being given a fun thought exercise to imagine unconventional life forms possessing some of those attributes.

Evanna came up with rather wild suggestions that the teacher read out to the class, much to her mortification. Reminded of elemental beings in video games, she had even written "stellar civilizations" inside stars—with a doodle of what looked like an anthropomorphic fire, which made the teacher Mr. Oakfort guffaw in amusement.