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I don’t think I’d ever felt so much happiness and sheer freedom as I did in that moment, locked inside my leopard, experiencing her boundless energy and happiness as she played with her new friend, Shadow.
CHAPTER 8
I woke the next morning,feeling a lot more optimistic about everything.
Miki-Leopard’s joy the day before, both from discovering we had a mate and from playing with Shadow, made everything seem less dire.
I realized how blessed I truly was.
I’d been kidnapped into the shadows and tortured there, but because of that terror and pain, Miki-Leopard was born. Without such trauma, I may never have known the joy of having a leopard, let alone a shadow-one.
It was like Jasmine said, after all. The hardship and painwereworth what I’d gained.
I had to believe the same of my mate.
He’d made my leopard so happy just by existing. How much happier might we both be if I stopped worrying so much and just gave Elliot a chance?
Before I could do that, though, I was going to have to survive my first Extreme Sports Ed class.
Ugh.
Jasmine would say at least Elliot would be there.
For me, though, that almost made it worse, for it meant that my fated mate was about to see how completelyincompetent and hopeless I was when it came to any type of physical activity.
Joy.
However bad I anticipated a course named Extreme Sports could be, trust me when I say that it was much worse than even I could anticipate.
First, there was the giant, intimidating circle drawn on the floor right in the middle of the gymnasium. I saw a circle like that and instantly thought horrible things like demon summoning and human sacrifice.
I know circles of power are also used for good, but when I’m walking into a classroom that I associate with exercise, a demonic evil I wish were banished from my life, I can’t help but make negative connections rather than positive ones.
Besides, I’d also heard about the battle ring and I had a terrible feeling that was what this circle was for: trapping students together to battle it out until one was left standing.
This wasdefinitelynot the class for me.
If I weren’t already sure of that, the drill sergeant masquerading as a professor would have convinced me.
With an unfortunate name like Professor Puddlemoan, I suppose I couldn’t blame the man for getting his joy wherever he could, but for goddess sake, what kind of maniac came up with this curriculum?
Unlike my classes the previous day, Puddlemoan didn’t ease us into the course by talking about safety or settingboundaries or rules.
No. He just barked out orders and sent students by the droves diving out small doors in the far wall that led somewhere not fun I was sure, though, hopefully not to their deaths. I wasn’t entirely convinced, though, considering we were on the second floor of the castle and I was pretty sure those doors wouldn’t lead anywhere but outside.
“Well, Mitchell?” He barked at me.
“What?”
“Get your ass in gear! This course isn’t for lollygaggers.”
“Yes, but where exactly do those doorways lead?”
“To the obstacle course. Now get going.”
Great. That’d been on my list for Elliot, but he’d distracted me with all his mate talk and now I was completelyunprepared!
More students went hustling out the doors, which were in sets of two like French doors, but were about half their typical height. That’s when I saw Elliot. He and Jahrdran were standing against the back wall, between two sets of doors, watching me.
