A Lead Crown
Contribution: Scars and Wounds

Why am I doing
this?, I asked myself once again as I made my way through the
seas of bodies the newest unveiling had attracted to the UPU, the
place was packed with aristocrats, merchants, scholars, professors
and the odd guard here and there; a myriad of species and mixed
breeds gathered in one place for the sake of watching one of the
biggest projects the UPU had undertaken since its creation, but there
was no sing of the person I was looking for, the annoying, arrogant
and exasperating human who I was trying to help for some unknown
reason that I had yet to find about, why am I even bothering with
this? He's just going to ignore all of my warnings,
accuse me of sabotaging his projects and then
blame me if something does go wrong, just
like he has been doing for a year now.

That
simple thought hit me with a pang of sorrow that had been haunting me
since the day of the accident, a sorrow I had thought I had overcome
yet it always came when I was down to remind me it was all my fault,
the same kind of sorrow that
I felt when my grandma died because of me, this was all my fault
after all; I stopped dead in my tracks, fighting the threatening
feeling of depression that was starting to build inside me,
I have no time for this, focus Roland, he has
to be around here somewhere, who would have though finding a human
could be so difficult, especially when I encounter him
everywhere I go.

It
took a few minutes before I
gathered my self and keep on looking for him, and
by then I had already given
up on trying to pick up his scent, with so many persons around here
there was no way I could find
him like that, let alone the
fact that he must have walked around this place about a dozen times
today, so I resigned
myself to find him in the old-fashioned and tedious way
while I tried my best to lock
away the sorrow and guilt.

It
was about half an hour later that I finally
spotted him
a couple of stories above me near
an unlucky guard,
Shew
seemed to be mad about something, not that it showed much, being
scholars we were taught that appearances help fund the projects,
but I had already learned to notice the signs:
his skin turned red, his brow
furrowed slightly and
he
started to wave his hands around more than usual,
though I could only pick out
the last one from my position.

I
could only
feel pity for the poor guy that had to deal with his famous temper,
especially since I had been the target of that temper more times than
I could count and there were many broken vials, chairs, windows and
lab equipment to prove it, though
the guard seemed to be able to handle Shew, a feat few were able to
accomplish, just like I was able to do before the accident, since
then... things had turned from a simple misunderstanding to an
all-out war, we could barely
tolerate to be in the same room
and all the professors had
learn to keep us as far apart as they could.

I
still remembered how it all got started, the
events that unfolded about a year ago, the ones that ended with me
losing my best and most interesting friend, replacing
him with an unyielding resent
and a never ending guilt.

–---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

``That's
simply not possible´´ said the smaller human walking by my side
with a grace that was unusual
in a person with his condition
``there's no way you could put that into practice´´

``Why
not?´´ I replied as we kept
walking down the hall ``If we can find the appropriate
way to control the reactions and ensure its durability we would have
a stronger material to work with´´

``Even
if you did find such a way, there's a fairly big risk involved in
it,´´ Shew explained,
taking that professor-like tone of his´´
the end product could be faulty due to the conditions you would
likely expose it to, or the
machine could blow up due to all the energy released´´

``But
if we apply the techniques Professor Telfard explained last time,
that could be overcome, besides that there are already a lot of earth
scholars working on that problem.´´ I
said, getting annoyed at his stubbornness, I swear he could be the
most stressing human I've ever met.

``Then
you SHOULD know that all attempts have failed so far´´ he
said, his tone was loud
enough to turn a few heads in our direction, not that he would
notice.

``But
there's still a possibility for it to be done,´´ I defended myself,
not willing to let him win
this time `` we just need to
resolve some minor problem, which
can be done if we use Professor Milhoy's
Theory ´´

``His
theory has yet to be proved on such conditions,´´ He replied matter
of factly, ``and yet you're
trying to apply it in what could become the biggest explosion in the
history of the UPU, even
bigg-´´

``And
so says our resident explosion expert´´ I
interrupted him, shoving him with just enough force to make him
stumble a bit ``Don't worry, I'll never take that tittle from you´´

``Like
you haven't ever had an accident before... how about that time where
you set your tail on fire, oh that WAS funny´´

``I
didn't set my tail on fire...it
just got a little burned´´ I told him, feeling
a mix of shame and anger, the
memory was still fresh on my mind, that had been a bad day to be
covered in fur and be next to flammable substances.

Things
went on like this for a while, both
of us talking in a strange friendly yet passionate debate we weren't
willing to lose, by the time we reached our destination,
one of the labs in the UPU
we had
been assigned for this term,
we had already come to a dead
point in the debate, but that did nothing to stop Shew from
vehemently trying to prove his point, almost driving me crazy with
his insistence until I begrudgingly admitted my defeat, obviously
making Shew's day if his smile was anything to go by, and we took a
seat at our usual place.

Giving
the place a quick once over, I noticed it
was mostly empty except for a few furs that
were already talking amongst
themselves, glaring at us
with eyes full of hatred and...envy? The
latter was certainly a new one, since I came into the city I had
gotten quite my share of hateful glances from purists and some of the
less savory peers, but I was sure I hadn't done anything to get the
last one, or at least nothing I knew of.

By
the time the class started
I had already forgotten about the whole thing, instead I focused
on making
some small talk with Shew
while I helped him with some lab procedures he still had problems
with, but I didn't mind about
it a bit, though I could see that Shew did, for a person with his
condition he was far too independent for his own good, in fact, he
had gotten himself in his share of trouble just for that thing, and I
had to admit that it was quite funny to watch him as he did so,
especially when I could pick on him a little, like all good friends
do.

The
rest of the class went in its usual calmed way, with this I mean
there were some explosions here and there, accompanied by a few
sneers, damn-it's and other curses, but nothing serious enough to
require a trip to the water
scholars, fortunately, some of those ladies could be very...heartless
when they had too much work thrown upon them.

There
was only one thing that caught us off guard, only
one little yet incredibly upsetting thing, at least for us, and
that was Professor Mallorne giving
some of us
an impromptu assignment due to next month,
because, in his words, ``You are showing an extraordinary progress
that is calling for bigger challenges and it would be a pity not to
make the best out of it, if you succeed, there's a chance you can
join in the UPU's newest project´´, I
didn't know if he really meant that or he just wanted to see his best
studentes in action, but those
simple words unleashed a mayhem in our lives. The following days
were spent planning, researching
and doing numerous trips to the lab for testing, I
was eternally thankful that we were given some time out of our usual
schedule just for this.

During
that time I barely saw Shew, not that I blame him as I spent so much
time working on my own project as
everyone else, yet there was
that feeling of emptiness that I had grown used to lately, both of us
were completely captured by our work, I knew that Shew was going to
go overboard this time, he was just like that, I
wouldn't be surprised if he came up with something that no one else
had thought of, but I was
going to give it my best shot too, it was way too good of a chance to
let it slid by.

The
days went by one by one, and with each passing day I saw Shew less,
soon I could only catch glimpses of him here and there if I was
lucky, it was something I didn't know how to feel about, should I be
happy for him trying so hard, sad
for never getting a chance to talk, rejected
for being avoided, angry at his single mindedness, lonely...it was
hard to know, and it only got harder
when I remembered how we
used to spend hours and hours just talking, enjoying each other
company...it was hard.

When
the time for presenting our projects finally came around I was
excited, Professor Mallorne had called to other professor of
different specialties to act as judges for the 15
projects that he had assigned, and
to be honest, I wasn't so sure I could go against them, especially
shew's, his was by far one of the most likely to win, it was an
amalgam of simplicity and functionality, something that no one had
ever tried to do before but now that it existed it was so easy to
reach that conclusion, compared to mine, his was the better choice.

By
the time the professors started to evaluate I had recovered some of
my self-confidence, there was a good chance that both Shew and I
would make it, the others projects were good, but they still lacked
something, something that I couldn't describe but I knew that they
lacked it. One by one the projects were checked, some failing and
some becoming big successes, and soon enough came Shew's turn, I
could see the incredulity in the professors' faces, that happened
often when people met him, but I knew that there was more to him than
that, and I prayed to the Gods and Goddesses that he would do well.
It all went amazingly good, his explanation and theories were superb
with a few minor flaws but nothing too bad, but, that didn't last,
when the time came to put it into practice things changed drastically
n a matter of seconds, just as his gadget was about to finish its
process a malfunction hit it, and then before any of us could do
anything a part of it exploded, nothing too serious, but it still
took a good part of his invention with it, leaving the table it was
on covered in little metallic and plastic pieces of what once been an
ingenious gadget.

The
rest of the competition passed like a blur to me, even when it was my
turn to shine, I was thinking of the downcast and dejected expression
Shew had, I felt bad for him, he had seemed so confident that he was
going to win, and now he looked broken, all because of an unexpected
and damnable malfunction, I had to stand by my project the whole
time, counting the minutes until I could go and comfort my friend,
but that time never came, once I was free to roam around Shew had
already gone Gods knows where, and not even the realization that I
had made it second made me feel better about it.

I
spent the rest of the day looking for Shew in every place I thought
of, but I never found him, worry filled me and I could barely sleep
that night. It was the next day when I finally got to talk to him, he
looked haggard and tired, making me wonder what he had done, that day
was the only one I could remember seeing him like that and no matter
what I did the most I could get was a saddened smile. I felt bad for
him, and nothing could have changed what I did next. The rest of the
week I spent trying to fidure out what had failed in his procedure,
looking over the broken parts of his machine that led no clues

It
wasn't until the third day that I found out the reason, as if chance
had it, I overheard Lenny, the smallest swam in class, speaking to
his friends, kelly and opus, a shark and a money about how he his
plan had failed, how he had altered some of the pieces in the last
moment to every other project to make sure he won, in that moment I
had found what I was looking for, yet I couldn't do anything to
change it, not now that he had his friends around, not it would have
to wait until he was alone.

I
followed him around as stealthy as I could, waiting until there was
no one else around, and after 3 hours of watching I found the perfect
moment to act as he got into an alley that led directly to the
market, in a moment's notice I got behind him, he had barely time to
turn around when I started ``questioning´´ him, my fist repeatedly
hitting him as I made him spill the beams, but the bastard was lucky
and managed to hit me n the stomach, knocking the wind out of me for
a few seconds that he used to escape. At the time I didn't care, my
bloodlust and the pain didn't led me think of anything else.

I
had to wait for a few minutes until I regained my breath, and when I
did my only thought was about giving Shew the good news, I didn't
think of anything else, deluding myself with how he was going to get
angry at the guy but probably would get over it after a while.

Unfortunately
nothing like that happen, instead when I found him in one of the labs
I was met with an angry Shew, one that was angry at me, I didn't
managed to get a word out of my mouth when one vial crashed right
where my head had been, quickly followed by others unlucky lab
intruments that quickly met their end, I was confused, and once I got
covered behind a makeshift barricade I tried to talk to him, to
explain him what happened,
but he ignored me and instead called me a traitor, a false friend and
a feral animal.

After
that I don't quite remember what happened but I DO know that some of
the guards had to break us apart, our little conflict almost managed
to throw us out of the UPU and only our remarkably good records made
the difference. But things didn't get better between us, they
actually got worse, up to the point that it was common knowledge
that we HAD to be apart from each other in any and all instances, I
know that some would think that this wasn't my fault, ut no matter
what I do, the guilt still haunts me every day, even today when one
of the biggest inventions is going to be made public.

–---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It
took me about five minutes to get where Shew was, by then the guard,
who I recognized as Eric, had managed to calm him down some, but I
knew that wouldn't last long....no, it never did when I was around,
he was always angry near me, always blaming me for something I didn't
do and not caring to hear any of my explanations, that was Shew, a
real bastard when he wanted to,
but he wasn't the only one
who could play like that.

``Roland,
fancy to see you here´´ said Eric in
a polite tone, but his eyes betrayed his disappointment at meeting
me, most likely due to the fact that he would have to play the third
man. ``I thought you were assigned elsewhere´´

``Eric,
Joshew´´ I acknowledge with the most formal tone I could muster,
but still mustering enough venom for the latter.

``Roland
Silverfang´´ Shew practically growled in my direction, his voice
showing his immense anger towards me better than any painting or
equation could have, his fist clenching at his sides while a worried
Eric seemed to be ready to act at a moment's notice, after
all he had been witness of a few fights between us.

``I
just keep running into you, don't I?´´ I replied, barely managing
to keep what little restraint I had together and
focus on my task.

``A
shame you don't watch where I'm going, hmm?´´ he said with
such arrogance that made me want to punch him in the face like he
deserved, but before I could Eric got between the two of us.

``Stop
,both of you´´ Eric said while his hands kept us apart, his voice
was low but full of authority `` Remember where we are, if anyone of
the sponsors leave because of you two, you may as well stay away from
the UPU´´

``Then
you should go and train Roland like a proper dog´´ Shew
sneered, the finest
trace of a smirk crossing his face.

``But
who would train you then Shew?´´´I replied, willing to show him
two can play the same game.

``That's
enough´´ said Eric as loud as he dared to, shooting us both a
killer glare `` You're making a scene, so you better cool off, right
now´´

``Fine´´
Shew and I said at the same time to my utter annoyance, but I did my
best to kept my mouth shut...for the time being.

``Now
Roland, ´´ Eric said, his eyes taking into a gentler look ``Did you
need something?´´

``You
mean besides a better aptitude?´´ Shew replied with a sarcastic
edge on his voice.

``Yeah,´´
I told him at once,
disregarding Shew's comments
``I think the Albatross is going to be sabotaged´´