The halls of Brunnhold were quiet for these few moments just before noon everyday, and, in his seventh year, Palis Ainu had learned to savor it. He had managed to shuffle his daily schedule enough to leave a promising 10 minutes in which the petite boy could sit cross-legged in one of the deep window seats lining the halls of Brunnhold. For a moment, he could give the world two-stories below his perch his full attention without being paranoid of every bully, teacher, and father that would gladly pull him out of the window seat by his hair and harass him. The sunlight streaming over his head seemed to set his strawberry blonde hair ablaze as his hot breath lightly fogged the clear window panes which were cool to the touch.
Outside the window and through the yellow leaves dancing in the late Yaris breeze, the scurrying of students across the dry grass of the campus signaled to Palis that his daily oasis was almost gone. He sighed and began to untangle his slight legs. He wished everyday for just another minute of peace, but at least he knew he’d be back tomorrow, and the day after that. It seemed that a few other students had begun to pick up on this knowledge, too.
Palis yelped as a cold hand grabbed the collar of his green uniform and pulled him roughly out off the ledge of the window seat, causing him to tumble backwards onto the smooth and unwelcoming stone floor. A dull pain throbbed through his bottom as it hit the floor, but the hand did not cease in suspending his jacket. The tightness of the jacket caused his arms to be stuck motionlessly and rather pitifully straight out in front of him. He was barely allowed a moment of discontented unawareness on the floor before he was again hoisted into the air, the hand on his nape slipping away. From his sudden height, Palis was able to glance down at his attackers, as well as his small feet dangling a few feet above the floor.
Below him and just out of reach of his frantically kicking legs were a female and male pair of galdori just about his age who Palis had come to know well in his years at Brunnhold. He didn’t know their names, but he did know their strengths and love of harassing him. The girl stood to his side, murmuring the ends of her Physical Conversation with the Mona under her breath to keep him suspended in the air. The boy, who Palis assumed had pulled him onto the floor, stood with his arms crossed in front of Palis, laughing all the while.
“What’s wrong, Pal-ass? Can’t you use a little magic to get down?” the boy laughed, knowing full well that Palis was not strong in even his own spells.
“M-my specializations don’t allow me anything that will help in this situation,” Palis replied, a wave of mortification growing as he watched students and teachers alike gather around to watch yet another episode of Palis getting what a galdor as useless as him deserved. The other boy reached out and, grabbing a hold of Palis’ leg, pushed Palis to spin him around dizzily.
“Specializations? You can’t do anything, and everyone except you knows it!” the other boy announced as he pushed Palis again. The small crowd laughed and jeered along. Palis closed his eyes, the spinning and height making his head swim.
“Just… just put me down, that’s all I ask,” he said weakly, but his voice was drowned by the commotion. He could feel the sting of hot tears and the tightening of his throat as humiliation swept him, but he kept his eyes shut tightly. They would thrive if they could see him cry.
“What was that, Pal-ass? You’re stupid, but you could at least speak in something other than animal noises!”
“Just put me down!” he shrieked, this time loud enough to cut sharply through the gathered audience. The girl spoke up.
“Sure, we’ll put you down!” she answered in a voice sickly sweet. The sound of a door slamming open and hitting the wall beside it was frighteningly sudden enough to cause Palis to open his eyes. He stretched his arms out as he was slowly floated towards the open door of a thin metal locker-- his own, to be exact. He caught the edges of it and held on as he felt the girl’s magic pushing him in against his will.
“Oh, come off it, Palis. You fit in there last week with room to spare. We know we can put you in there, it’s just a matter of how much force we have to use,” the girl said annoyedly. Palis looked back over his shoulder at the jubilant audience, and, wanting to melt into the walls, he figured going into the locker would at least hide him visibly from his shame. He let go, and the build up of the girl’s impatient pushing slammed him against the inside of the locker, hard. Tears welled in his eyes, half from the mortification, and half from the pain in his mouth as the sudden impact caused him to bite his tongue. He wiped them away as fast as he could, but was soon drowning in the dark as a deluge overtook his oft-emotional face. He was thankful, however, as his feet touched the bottom of the small unit, and he turned around to face the locked door. Alone and in the dark, Palis began to lightly tap on the locker in hopes of a kind, or perhaps just curious, galdor to rescue him from his tiny prison.