Snippet #2 for Breath of Disaster

Alexi lounged in one of the gathering rooms that were spread out in the school. Next to him Vitaly and Zoya sat. Besides the first part of the holiday, the rest was uneventful. The day after the attack Alexi went to spend the remaining days with his family. His mother made sure she had the last three days off as well.

It was the longest that Alexi could remember spending time with her. He didn’t see much of his father since he had to work a few more hours to make up for the lost income of his mother taking the days off. Alexi wasn’t happy about that. He hoped one day to help ease the burden they had. It was better now, but still not great for them.

Back at school, the first day was back to the typical grind. It drained Alexi. Much like the first week did. Having time off made it difficult to get back into a flow. “I’m exhausted,” Alexi said.

Vitaly yawned. “Me too.”

“You two are so bad,” Zoya said. “We were off for one week, and you act like it was all summer.”

It felt like the whole summer to Alexi. Coming back was rough. He was slightly jealous of Zoya and her ability to get right back into it. “I know.”

Zoya glanced around the room. Her face held a worried look. “We didn’t get to talk about it before we left, but what happened in the woods?”

Alexi had hoped to avoid this topic. It wasn’t good for many reasons, most of all if they put two and two together and learned he could manipulate the Earth. It was his biggest fear. Alexi was sure they were already suspicious of it all. The last thing he wanted was for them to know and withdraw from him. Leaving him alone.

“I have no idea,” Alexi said. He hoped he sounded convincing.

“I’ll tell you what happened,” Vitaly said. “Alexi here fell behind and was attacked by a rabid beast. He got lucky it didn’t shred him to pieces.”