DWC Day #3: Velvet, Consequence
Every fancy school, magical or not, prep school or of the military variety, has two things. A rolling green, and a colonnade.
Trixany stood there now, alone, wondering where the last three weeks had gone. Her new uniform had come in, and sadly it fit. She kept complaining about it and even ripping it and spilling stuff on it to get out of being in full uniform. But finally they gave her a really expensive, velvety enchanted one that came with a note from her strict Farstrider father.
"This is coming out of your royalties."
Royalties! It made Trixany growl now just remembering that note. "He knows I don't have an allowance. But he went for my residual earnings from the photoshoot. And, that one ill-advised pop song I did with Rap Master Drip Squeegie, 'Wash My Trike.'"
Yes, "Wash My Trike" had been a very bad idea. The Goblins in the video were having a water fight with the sponges and foamy suds flying back and forth. Trixany was tall enough to wash the top of the trike, but it also meant you could only really see her ankles. And her designer flip flops.
The music video? It flopped.
Trixany looked down at her feet now, in heavy green and bronze combat boots. "Ugh, these colors..."
Then, it happened. The thing Trixany and the other recruits had been waiting for at the farther end of the colonnade. Trixany watched the rest of the students gather and get excited while she stayed way in back. The dark iron gates near the front lawns were being pulled open. Files of the older students marched in, to boisterous cheering and wild Windspire Military Academy green-and-bronze fanfare. People were actually throwing streamers.
This wasn't a girls' school, not at all. Any Blood Elf who applied and got in was welcome to campus.
But more than half of the seasoned cadets had been out on an extended tour of duty. From the best Trixany could judge, it wasn't a real military assignment because they weren't that. More like a kind of apprentice sort of thing, them mixed in with the normal Farstriders.
The senior cadets had been part of the royal escort and parade as Prince Kael'thas made his annual tour through Dalaran, Quel'Danil Lodge in the Hinterlands, Loch Modan and other far-flung settlements. It was meant to help keep the empire feeling united.
Now, all the upperclassmen were marching back to campus, and they looked so spectacular. In full uniform, armed or playing their field drums, horns and other instruments.
"I wonder if the Prince would visit the Quel'dorei expats in Kezan? I mean a few of us live out there too--"
"Not!"
Trixany squinted her eye at her roommate.
Daphne Weaver, another young ensign, a smirking blonde, came and leaned on the large stone column next to her.
"Why not?" Demanded Tixany.
"Think of the consequences. Kael'thas shows interest in the Goblins. Next thing you know, he's shooting missiles from his hands and riding a rocket around the countryside instead of a Hawkstrider."
"You. Cannot say that about Goblins. We--my step family--is about more than that."
Daphne gave a compassionate look. In the end, she was the brainy sort. Thoughtful and even helpful. Not really a mean girl. She looked down and played with a little gold locket as she spoke. "Sweetie, you need to come back home to us. Learn how to be Quel'dorei. I mean it's cool you can name twenty types of Kezani bubble tea. But there's none to be had on campus. One day, we'll all have to find a place in the real world, just beyond these gates."
Trixany rolled her eyes.
Daphne sighed, "You might want to learn enough in school to avoid making more bad music videos and shoe deals. And you'll want something else to fall back on, if being a celebrity doesn't work out, right? Is that even a job?"
Trixany gave in, shrugged that Daphne was right.
Daphne pointed out across the lawn, at the lines of polished, marching cadets.
"If you want to move up the ranks and prove yourself here? You've got to train."
"I don't want to become some stuffed up Farstrider."
"You don't know that, yet. And you have no idea what Farstriders really do for our kingdom. It's amazing. You mean you've never seen the cadets practice?"
"Yeah?"
"Come on," Daphne smirked again, "Let's go look at some of the boys."
"Boys!!"
@daily-writing-challenge