“¿Que pasó?” a low mumbled voice asked in Nava. “No se,” another voice answered. “The boy’s caliber just started to tell that woman to back off. Maybe it senses something about her?”

Alvalar followed the voices and noticed a crowd beginning to form of fellow craftsmen from nearby stalls, former teachers like Professor Munio of Mathematics and Professor Ortún of Nava, and even people he’s never seen before all staring at him with anxiously knitted brows and hands over their mouths as they whispered to one another about the situation; the birthday boy felt the once embarrassed-filled warmth drain from his tawny face…

However, he swallowed all the unwanted attention and gripped at the nape of Misu’s chocolate neck, using every inch of his strength to hold her back. “Ogumpo, Misu!” He ordered in Athaese.

She didn’t listen to his demand to heel. It was as though she sensed something he couldn’t. Nearly causing him to lose his footing, the calibress let out a mighty roar and stood on her hind-legs, blotting out the sun behind her and sending the crowd into a frightened terror, culminating in Huǒ-Hè falling to the ground in fear.

Alvalar reached in deeper within himself and yanked the nape of Misu’s neck back as far as he could. Sweat started to slither down his back as his heart raced anxiously. His fingers grew tense, his arms and shoulders screaming from the strain of the unusually quick movements–

But his fast-thinking was ultimately rewarded; going from a behemoth of four hundred pounds to only fifteen, the birthday boy forced his caliber to unwillingly size-shift back into her tiny, false form, dangling there in the air by the scruff of her neck with her hind-legs and tail swaying side to side vigorously, her round ears dawn back. His muscles eased and relaxed as he kept her close to his chest, but the calibress refused to so much as meet her owner’s gaze as though he had done something foolish. However, letting her become unruly and potentially hurt someone was the real foolishness.

As he watched the people around them dispersed now that the scene was dealt with, Alvalar let out a sigh of relief. All of that tenseness, that anxiety, had rolled over his shoulder like river water plummeting down a waterfall. However, he met the gaze of Professor Munio and Professor Ortún as they were leaving, each with a look of disapproval. Catching sight of that look in their eyes downed that sense of relief and replaced it with a nagging sensation of shame, sending his now-sheepishly gaze downward. Professor Munio of Mathematics and Professor Ortún of Nava were Alvalar’s favorite professors back at the Academy. They always knew how to make lessons fun and had a way to make concepts that initially sounded confusing actually quite easy to understand. They always used to look at him the same they looked at the other students, with a sense of pride (especially when he got a question correct), but now...

The birthday boy drifted his line of sight with a turn of his head and noticed how Huǒ-Hè still sat on the ground, hands shaking and trembling while her lavender eyes shimmered with fear. Within him, the shame swelled like a balloon, leaving him with an urge to hide from the world. Misu must’ve looked terrifying and his authority as the owner practically seemed non-existent, which didn’t help the situation. How unfit it must’ve made him look.

Regardless of the shame and embarrassment he felt, Alvalar still stepped forward, looking at the female mercenary. “H-Huǒ-Hè?” It was difficult to replicate the pronunciation of her name, but he did his best. He crouched down slightly and offered her his free hand. “Are you alright?”

The female mercenary glanced upward at him then returned her sights back onto her quivering hands for what felt like a while. Eventually Huǒ-Hè closed her eyes and her chest sharply rose as she inhaled a deep breath. She tightened her fist and her fits of trembling soon steadied. When she opened her eyes again, her lavender pupils had a determined shine to them, like she had something, or someone, more important on her mind. “I am now,” she replied with a slight groan as she rose to her feet.

Straightening his feet, Alvalar began to chew at his bottom lip anxiously as he placed his freed, un-used hand beside him. “Ezii, I don’t know what provoked my Caliber like that,” he apologized profusely. “She isn’t normally that aggressive. Or aggressive at all for that matter.”

Huǒ-Hè waved off his apology with an awkward smile. “No, I’m sure she is. It’s my fault for being careles-” Suddenly her eyes went wide and her eyebrows were raised up high like something important out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. “Ezii, but I have to get going,” she told with a slight bow of the head. “Maybe we’ll see each other during the Coronation tonight. Have a nice day. Kari-Kari.” She gave another bow of the head and hurriedly dashed off into the crowd before Alvalar could reply with a Kari-Kari of his own.

It left a mildly bitter taste in his mouth, but that was nothing compared to the taste of embarrassment. Alvalar then turned to the reason that he lost face and held her upward, so she had to look at him no matter what. “What was that all about, Misu?” he asked sternly.

The calibress puffed out a soft pocket of air from her nostrils in reply. Aside from being able to sniff out materials of the highest quality and the hidden potential in both people and concepts, calibers were also famed for their ability to smell the intent of people, whether good or bad. Their noses were infamously powerful, and Misu’s nose was no different. As her owner, Alvalar knew that better than anyone else, but that could that really be it? Huǒ-Hè might’ve been mysterious, but that doesn’t mean she’s harboring any ill intentions, and that certainly doesn’t warrant Misu attacking her the way she did.

Suddenly, his little Misu began to wiggle wildly from side to side. Still within his grasp, Alvalar tried to hold her still, but that lithe little caliber managed to gain her freedom and landed on the ground. She shifted back into her true, behemoth size, since the mechanism that forced her into this tiny, false size had finished for the time being, and looked over her shoulder, finally staring into her owner’s chocolate eyes.

Those green irises of hers still had inklings of discontent, but they seemed more preoccupied with something else. Before Alvalar could even wonder what it was, Misu let out a deep groan that reverberated through the air and motioned forward with a slight inclination of her head. Come on, let’s get a move on and find Smoke’s stall, she seemed to say. I’m tired of this.

Alvalar rolled his eyes. Still as bossy as ever, he thought as he followed her through the crowd.