When Silver was busy explaining the task, and showing the others how to make a small cut, they all thought it was quite easy and simple, but it turns out it wasn’t that easy at all.
After trying it themselves and having a go they found out a few things. The dummy was quite well made and the internal structure inside was done as well.
This made it more realistic causing problems. Some of the students had grown their nails too long and when digging in, dug far too deep, going past the skin and cutting parts they shouldn’t have cut.
Others found it difficult to harden their nails or make them longer. Then when trying to force a cut open, they managed to only make a faint scratch or was damaging the dummy completely.
“Yuck!” a boy shouted, as the fake blood splattered all over his face.
“You have to keep on being careful, bodies are complex things.” Silver said. “But this is why we practice. If you make a mistake, wait a while, put your saliva on the dummy to speed up the healing process and try again. Please also allow the dummy to completely heal before allowing the next person to have a go.”
Then finally it was Logan and his group’s turn. Cia had finally snapped out of her thoughts and slowly walked other to the others that had surrounded the dummy. Her mind was a bit lost and even though the others could see she was acting strangely, they didn’t know why, but she had been acting strange the whole time they had been there. So it was nothing new and they chose to let it be.
‘Layla,’ She thought. ‘I need to talk to Layla, I’m sure she will tell me the truth if I ask her, right? But what if she’s in on this as well, why didn’t she tell me anything this whole time. maybe I’m just thinking too much.’
First up to have a go was Fred, he even volunteered himself. Knowing that the others might not be the best. “I’ve done this a few times since my parents have shown me. They knew we would be learning this at some point.” Fred said as he hardened his fingernail and then made a small cut along the forearm. It was perfect.
“First you should concentrate on the hardening of the nail, if you get that bit right, then it’s similar to cutting meat with a sharp knife.” Fred explained as he went back and allowed Timmy to go next.
His fingernail grew slightly, and straightaway he had gone to try to make an incision on the dummy. But his hand was shaking and Fred could see that he had done so in a rush, not hardening his fingernail enough. Nothing was made other than a small squiggly line looking like a snake on top of the dummy.
“Haha,” One of the students from another group laughed. “Well, we couldn’t expect much from a tenth.”
“It’s not our fault!” Timmy snapped back in anger.
Hearing this, Silver decided to step in and whispered into the boy’s ear, who then immediately went back to his work and didn’t say a word passed that.
“Don’t worry about it, Timmy.” Fred said.
The situation behind the tenths, now not only had Vorden interested but Logan as well. Something was up and they needed to know more if they were going to keep up this fake identity of theirs. And thus Logan had come up with an idea. It might have been strange to ask, but he thought of a way that wouldn’t seem too far fetched. Especially based on all the information he had gathered so far.
“Fred.” Logan called out to him. “Can you explain to me why the tenths are being treated this way. You see, my parents didn’t tell me anything. They didn’t inform me of the outgoings on the outside. They didn’t want me involved or to know anything until when I was older.”
It took a few moments before Fred could reply, and he looked a little saddened before he said anything.
“It makes sense that your parents wouldn’t want you to know. The truth is the kids here know nothing about what really happened, neither do I as our parents don’t tell us.”
“The only thing we do know, is that out of the thirteen vampire families, the tenth one is the only one without a current leader. Which also means they have no vampire knights either. There’s a few vampire nobles that probably know the truth. They are the ones that run the castle and look after their people, but there aren’t many. Because of this, the tenth quickly turned into one of the weakest families out of the thirteen.”
“You know about the vampire pool, the vampires that are under a banner but are able to freely move between the families, well that’s why we are told to work hard in school, to get noticed by one of the thirteen families. Because if no one ends up picking you, you end up getting left with the tenth family. As time went on, I guess the others looked down on those who are part of the tenth family.”
“It’s not fair.” Timmy said. “My parents didn’t choose to be with the tenth, and now I’m stuck here as well. I don’t understand, why don’t they just pick a new leader.” At that point, it looked like Timmy was about to break down in tears. Seeing this, Vorden naturally went over to him.
“It’s okay, you know the only person who is in charge of what happens to you, is you. You can change whatever you want. It might be a little harder for you compared to others, but you can change it as well.” Vorden said.
If the words had come from someone else, then Timmy would have felt like they didn’t understand. They didn’t know what it was like to be part of the tenth family, but this had come from Borden, someone who also was a tenth family member. “Thank you.”
“You might know more than me, Timmy.” Fred said. “But I’ve heard a few rumors of why they haven’t chosen a new leader. The nobles are loyal to the last leader, and they have made it impossible for a new ritual to be performed to be handed over to somewhere else. Another rumor is the tenth leader is alive somewhere but has yet to return. The last one I heard, was that a new tenth leader had already been selected but they’re just trying to keep it quiet.”
“Or the other families are doing this on purpose, waiting for a time when a new king would be selected.”
From the sound of things the rumors seemed to be all over the place. Logan thought that this type of thing would only happen if the ones who were in charge were trying their best to hide something. Perhaps each rumor had a little bit of truth to them all.
It seemed like the vampires had their own politics in this world, just like the humans did as well, the others thought. Although on the outside everything looked well run, there was still discrimination against others even in a place like this.
Hearing this piece of news, Logan thought it was quite good for them. The family situation meant they were to be treated as weak, not worth their time. If they did badly during school, they could always put it to the fact that they were part of the tenth. So when it was Vorden, Cia’s and Logan’s turn to try to scratch the dummy, it came as no surprise to any of the others or even Fred that they weren’t able to.
He knew the members of the tenth family were unorganized compared to the others, not just that, but it seemed demotivating. Some found it really hard that once they were in the tenth family, to try their best to work hard to get out of it.
With the end of the lesson, there were no scores given for it, as it was just a practical activity that Silver wanted to do on the first day. Something more fun and active rather than her just explaining things to the others. And while looking around at the students, she felt she had done a good job.
She also decided that she would keep an eye on the ones from the tenth, as it seemed like some others were targeting them, but not just those from the tenth family. She was also keeping an eye on anyone from the thirteenth family. The problem was, while she was a teacher and everyone knew her position in the thirteenth family. If they were to do anything, they wouldn’t try doing it in front of her.
“Okay, everyone, it’s time for a break. You may now all head to the canteen for some food, before returning back to the homeroom class an hour later. Enjoy your lunch.” Silver said as she walked off ahead of the students.
“Come on, it looks like all you tenth guys are a bit lost.” Fred said. “Let me take you to the canteen.”
But the others didn’t have an appetite to go to the canteen, as they started to think about what vampires ate. The images were going through their head. Was it human flesh, eye balls, livers, or would it just be blood?
****
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