In Love with a Jackal

17.

I crossed my arms, shaking my head at my own stupidity, "You're some mythology monster that I'm supposed to recognize, aren't you?"

From this point forward, I knew I wouldn't even be able to pee in peace anymore. I guess Anubis had really managed to curse me to never catch a goddamn break, ever again.

The girl's eyebrows shot up in surprise,

"You dare to compare your brethren to monsters?!" she scoffed, her posh accent a sharp contrast to her appearance, "When Joshua told me he saw an old demigod near the fates yestersday, I knew something was bound to be wrong with you!"

Hold up, had she just call me old...

I really didn't have the energy to play any games this morning. Anubis wasn't here, I couldn't fight to save my life and if she wanted to eat me, she better make it quick,

"Hey, neither do I know this Joshua guy, nor do I appreciate him stalking me." I glared at her, "What I would appreciate though, is you telling me what the fuck it is you want?"

The girl regarded me with a similar amount of malice,

"What I want to know is who you are, and what is going on in this place..." she answered, her fists balling. I figured she didn't mean the women's bathroom, but I didn't really know what else she was referring to. The university? "The energies here are weird..." she glanced me up and down just like I had done a moment before, "You are weird..."

"Gee, thanks."

"You better start talking, lady." she warned me.

I placed my hands on my hips, exasperated by the amount of magical people I had encountered in the last two days that simply just couldn't give a single straight answer, "And about what exactly?" I replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Why did you follow Joshua and Chris? What were you doing at the fates?" she peppered me with questions, "Who do you work for? And who's your dad!?"

"Who's my dad? Are you serious?" I waved my hand in front of my face like she was crazy, "How does that even matter?"

The girl stomped her foot in frustration and I began to wonder if she wasn't younger than I'd initially thought, "Just answer the questions!" she demanded, her brown eyes flaming with anger.

I was starting to get a rough inkling of what was going on here. I think just like the basilisk last night, I was once again being mistaken for a Greek demigod. I didn't quite understand as to why this kept happening, but I was beginning to agree with Anubis that the attention of these 'greeks' was not something good to have at all.

"First of all, I couldn't give a rats ass about your Joshua and Chris, second of all do you honestly think I'm going to start reciting my life story to some dirty teen who's followed me into the bathroom?" I asked her, my voice calm but my face calling for bloody murder,"I don't know you nor do I want to get to know you. Why don't you just leave and we pretend this never happened?"

Sadly, my sore attempt of a bluff didn't work.

"You think I'll just go back and pretend like I didn't notice what's going on here?" her eyes narrowed, "I'm going to report this to the headmistress," she told me, "but not before I kill you!"

A long thin dagger suddenly materialized in her left hand, it was the shape of an ice pick and almost crystal clear.

My eyes grew wide and I instinctively took a step back. Maybe I should have been a little bit kinder to her...

I raised my palms in the air, "Hey, no need to resort to violence just yet, I have questions too you know-!"

My plea for peace fell on deaf ears.

The girl lunged at me and I parried to side, slamming my back into the paper towel dispenser, just narrowly avoiding a blade that had clearly been aiming for my neck.

The girl took another swipe at me and I ducked. Plastic crackled as her knife hit the dispenser, shattering her blade upon impact. The ragged shards of her weapon rained down on me in a flurry of grey paper towels as I used my forearms to cover my face. I expected to feel pain as they hit me, but instead I just felt them melt on my bare skin.

It seems, her blades were made of ice.

Cornered between the sinks and the trashcan, I knew the only option I had to save myself was to run. I'd never been in a real fight before and this was not the time to start practicing. This girl honestly wanted my head!

Trying to catch her by surprise, I shot up from my crouching position and the girl jumped back. Assessing me from a distance, she watched my every move as I watched two fresh daggers materialize in her hands.

I swear, I think I even heard her snarl.

Her fine hair billowed up as if an imaginary gust of wind was lifting her from below. I could tell she was readying herself for a second attack.

Having absolutely no combat experience and yet still unhappy with how helpless I'd been lately, I quickly decided that it was time I manned up, or better said, woman'ed up a little. All I had to do was to keep her ice daggers as far away from my face as possible and somehow escape through that door over there.

Strapped for time, I quickly concluded the best way to achieve that was to use my legs.

So, as she lunged at me once again with her fresh set of murder knives, I did the only thing possible and kicked the tiny ice gremlin square in the stomach.

It didn't do much to hurt her, but at least it was enough to surprise her. As she staggered backwards, eyes wide, I made a go for the door.

Scrambling out of women's bathroom, my sneakers screeched on the vinly flooring as I ran down the hallway, not daring to look back even once.

*****

Despite putting down a new personal record for a 500m sprint all the way back to the auditorium, I had already missed the first part of Mr. Stepwald's introduction. It didn't bother me much though, since I was glad enough just to be among normal people again.

As I settled back into my seat, trying hard to steady my rather conspicuous breathing, I felt someone touch my arm. Nearly feeling my heart leap out of my chest, I froze.

"Hey, you have some gold stuff here," Youmna whispered as she lightly pointed towards my right shoulder, "I didn't know you were a fan of body glitter." she mocked me, before getting distracted by the loud tinkling music of the promotional resort video that had just begun playing on the large auditorium projector screen.

Ignoring the booming female voice that had started describing the ins and out of a future state of the art five pool-ed Greecian thalasso spa, I lifted my arm to check what Youmna had pointed to and nearly gasped out loud. Instantly slapping my hand over the spot to cover it, I quickly glanced around to check if anyone else around me had noticed.

To my relief, it seemed they hadn't.

It wasn't a very deep cut, but clearly that bathroom demigodess had managed to get me after all. Luckily though, Youmna had only seen the small line of the original cut and not the mixture of red and gold that was seeping out of it now. Because yes, instead of just red, I was also bleeding gold.