My name was Exolo, son of the great paladin Exoltia and the late warrior Ragil. I had never done much with my life, never really excelled in sword, sorcery, faith or science, and for most of my life I'd only ever had to deal with the company of other humans. I might bump into the occasional anthro or fae back home in Wistava, but as a human owned city where everything was built to accommodate humans everyone who came there was at least the same shape. Then Mom lost her job and had to move out near the frontier, out where the towns were mixed and both travel and trade come from as many people as they could get. Of all shapes, sizes and sorts. It was here I had to face the most dangerous, the most eerily perilous task in my life. The first day of college in a new city.
Or at least that's what my mother kept telling me as she fitted the last few plates onto my shoulders.
"But mom! Why do I have to go in full armor? I'm sure the teacher's won't let anyone get hurt there so it's not like I'll need it."
She frowned as she adjusted the purple tinted metal. Brushing my short brown aside so it would not catch she put the helmet in place. "Do you remember the bullies who used to give you so much trouble when you growing up?"
I smirked at that one. "The only trouble was having to expl- ..."
"Here it will be much worse" Exoltia's harsh tone cut off any attempt at reminiscing my younger days. "Those fights were fair and even, everyone had roughly the same level of power. But this city is filled to the brim with monsters! Of every sort one could think of! Imagine if your old pests had the body of a dragon."
"That's just it mom, ALL sorts. Human might not be the majority but if this school has elves, mice and fairies and they get along safely with everything else I should be just fine. Armor or no."
"Elves and fairies that can cast! That can fly! You can't even manage a healing spell for when you do get hurt. Even if they are safe enough and no one does have any ill temper towards you, fat chance that is, just think of what a minor accident could do your weak little body."
I glared at that one. Strait up into the hulking, fearsome gaze of a woman who scares off werewolves and vampires for a living. Being a freelance bodyguard in a heavily mythical area took guts no matter what race you were. The fact she was in full body armor herself almost every moment of every day, even when she sleeps, sort of exemplified just what type of woman this was.
"I'm not weak." I glowered, fully aware of just who I was comparing myself to. "But If I do get in over my head won't the armor just get in the way? I can't run as fun or really dodge that well while I'm wearing this."
I had half a moment to let the look on my mom's face sink in before her heavy gauntlet clanged hard against the metal of my helmet. With my ears ringing and my skull acheing madly I bowed at the shoulders and placed hands at the side of my head. Didn't matter what sort of protection you have, if mom hits you it HURTS.
"Have you gone daft in your old age boy? What is this, early onset Alzheimer's at eighteen? That's enchanted armor! Or did you forget about the quickrelease already?"
I blinked as the pain died down, going over the list of enchantments in my head. Immunity to acid and rust, almost airtight in how it protected the main body. It was resistant to both fire and cold but it didn't make the wearer flat out immune. A strong enough blast of either is still going to hurt. It was lighter than normal and not the restrictive in the slightest, but still heavy and uncomfortable when worn over my usual robes. Something mom always insisted on. And then there was that quick release, something mom invented special for her whenever she found a situation where speed and stealth was more useful than protection. Heavy armor is noisy. Just mutter the right words into that mark near the neck and each piece of the armor would fall off in an instant. Thankfully it only works for the wearer, so an enemy can't strip away the protection with a single word.
"I remember it, right ... right"
"Jeeze boy, now go get your sword and backpack so we can leave."
Downtrodden, I clanked through the hallway to grab that loathsome scrap of metal mom made me forge. Her's was a massive greatsword, thick and heavy, with numerous offensive enchantments. Mine was slapped together in ten minutes. Didn't even bother with a test swing.
"Got it mom, but do I really need to carry this thing around all day? It won't even fit in the bag you know." I whined. Instantly wishing I hadn't said anything as she predictably offered no sympathy. She carried her giant blade everywhere, same as the armor, and mine was just a shortsword. She could duel wield with blades the size of mine, I never liked using swords at all.
"You know the answer to that on Exo. Come on, you don't want to be la-"
Shhhh ... shunk.
We were both stricken with silence as the metal portion slid out of the handle, piercing into the floor with a metallic ringing sound. My sword fell apart within the first ten seconds of wielding it. Panic stricken, I looked across to my mother's furious glare.
"Goddamnit!" she shouted, her hands flaring with a brilliant light as her patron god took that statement as a request. Her fists closed around the door handle, and with a slight twitch she shattered the wood from it's hinges, sending splinters flying into the yard. "No time to get you a new one and that pathetic scrap heap is useless. Out! Out with you! Hurry to school or it's another eight hours of training you for you."
Nervously I dropped the blade, rushed past the yard and onto the sidewalk, then started the slow walk to my nearby college. Mom stopped long enough to lay a simple trap down where the door was, then continued in the same direction as me towards her current place of work.
I moved slow and noisily, I was tired, sweaty, and miserable under my pile of metal. It was already tiresome to lift my feet off the ground and I hated that sound as my bulky shoes slammed into the cement sidewalk. I wasn't exactly tall or muscular, but not small or weak either. Unless one chose to compare me to that monster of a woman from which I was spawned. Looking behind, I saw her rushing up behind me at the same speed as a jogger, utterly undeterred by the bouncy sheets of metal weighing her down. Her hands folded together and her eyes closed as she recited a short prayer, and an instant later magic swirled around her chest, legs, and feet. She took two steps out onto the street, then bolted at an insane speed. I could not feel any wind through my armor but I could see leaves fluttering about in her wake. A car came zhooming up from behind, and I saw her wave the occupant inside as she easily kept up.
Within moments both were too far away to see, and I still had a short ways to go. Man, why couldn't she at least be a normal paladin! Most get to summon a horse and ride around on that, but Exoltia never needed one. patron saint of The Traveler, along with the usual powers of healing and smiting, she got a limited number of times she could teleport each day. Or open interconnecting portals. Or freakin run at superspeed while wearing half a ton of metal! Jesus, I could see WHY it's useful to charge into a fight. A heavy fighters much more of a threat when he charges you with the speed of a car. But it's still weird that I'm the only one in my family who's ever had the slightest interest in driving or owning a car. I'm the only one who'd ever need it.
It was less annoying, and more depressing, to think about the members of my family who were no longer alive ...
So I didn't. I looked at the sparkling green lawns, the dark furred, elderly brownie watering her flowers, the oddly proportioned goblin children playing around in their driveway. It was the usual sights, other than an old witch in the bright red house no one around here was particularly exotic or dangerous. And I'm pretty sure that witch was a fine person, and only seemed weird because I hadn't gotten a chance to meet her yet. Heh, a helmeted suit of armor clanking down a street in the morning light? I was probably the strangest and most dangerous person around. I know for a fact mom was the most intimidating.
Wiping the sweat from my brow, I took off my helmet and placed it in the leather sack I used for a backpack. Not exactly modern but it was the type mom knew how to make, and I was sort of used to how it distributed weight. My short hair flowing in the wind, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the cool air on my beads of sweat as I neared a large building. Cocking an eyebrow at the size, I read "Newbrook University college" and stepped into the car lot. There were dorms on one side, classes on another, and all were unusually large. The doors and windows seemed massive, but given the proportions it could only have been one story high. I saw merged flashes of the other students milling about, getting out of cars and moving on to their own classes, but my attention was instead focused on how to get into the door.
Staring at it, I noticed much smaller ones off to the side, doors roughly sized for a rodent or gnome, but there wasn't one in between dragon sized and mouse sized. Grunting, I shoved into the door and found it easy enough to move, if a bit noisy, then squeezed my way into the main hall. Rows upon rows of lockers, intermittent with the doors to different classrooms were all there was to say about the background. It was instead the students who were the most clamorous in greeting me.
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