Worst Nightmare

"I'm hungry!" Keelan yelled, whiningly. All the while, he kept banging his fist on the table, with an eating utensil enclosed in each.

"You're always hungry!" Elfre yelled from her seat.

"If you're not going to say anything new, shut up!" Aneeka said. As she said that, she was pointing one of her guns at him.

"You look beautiful when you're angry?" Keelan said while innocently smiling at her. Her eye twitched, and for a split second, the thought of ending the glutton's life sounded pleasing to her.

"Aneeka, please put the gun down," Rowe said calmly with a smile. She frowned deeply at him before doing as she was asked.

The other's just stared at the very normal every meal-time scene they had every single day. If this didn't happen, they would've probably thought Valemnia is ending.

Charles came out of the kitchen door, carrying plates of food with Valeriana in tow.

Keelan wanted to yell in joy, but held himself back when he saw the deathly looks Aneeka and Elfre were giving him. He sat there like a behaved little pet waiting to be fed by his master―which in this case, Charles.

He was expecting a large heap of food to be placed like usual, but he frowned at the small amount in front of them. The others eyed it confusedly, except for Brindon...no surprise.

"Ummm...." He hummed as they turned to the fourth ranker.

Charles went to his seat, all the while fixing his glasses to sit on the bridge of his nose. Valeriana went to do the same.

"There are problems with the food supplies being delivered to the Academy. It appeared that a few demons attacked the area where the supplier was and destroyed almost everything," he said.

"So meaning, we have to lessen the amounts of our meals for now. We only have to eat three-four times a day," Valeriana piped in.

She had already taken her share and dug in immediately. All the while, she was anticipating Keelan's reaction.

"What?!" he yelled as he stood. He looked teary eyed, as he began sniffing imaginary snot back into his nose (gross).

He ate 15 square meals a day, which is five times of a normal person. You could consider only eating thrice a day as sheer punishment for him.

"Just be glad that you still even get to eat," Zevlin as he quickly placed some food on his plate. "Yeah, there are others that can't even eat enough in one day," Genevieve added.

"Will you just eat, or all of us will be late?" Corvan spoke up with an angry frown. At the sound of his voice, which was filled with irritation, they stopped talking and began eating in silence-except Val. This caused another round of bickering between the first and fifth ranker.

The other rankers didn't bother to tell them the same thing Corvan said earlier, afraid of getting in between them.

―――

Valeriana walked down the hallways of the academy with no particular destination. It was still a long while before lunch, and she figured it would be a good time to let her thoughts wonder.

As she was about to do that, she ended up bumping into someone. Because of the impact, she staggered back and fell on her rear. The students nearby stopped what they were doing and stared.

When Val recovered from the slight amount of pain from her behind, she looked up. When she caught sight of Corvan in his usual mask of expression, she couldn't help but mutter very unladylike things.

"Not again....!" She grumbled as she stood and dusted herself.

"I should be the one saying that," Corvan shot at her.

"Oh for Valemnia's sake...will you shut your mouth!" she yelled at him. They immediately exchanged heated glares.

"Don't tell me what to do, you lowly stupid witch!" Corvan yelled, forgetting for the moment that the other students were around.

"I should say the same to you, idiot devil!" she fired back.

They continued on with this for minutes, until Corvan decided to concede. He had finally noticed the number of students surrounding them, and it was getting on his nerves.

He never liked people eavesdropping in his conversations in the first place.

He turned to give them a glare, and they immediately began scampering away, fearing the first ranker of the esteemed Celestial Circle.

"Enough of your nonsense...! Brindon said that Keelan is missing!" he yelled.

"How can that happen? I just saw him when I went to my second class," she said. She then scrunched up her face, attempting to think of possible places where the eleventh ranker could be.

Somehow, Corvan knew what she was thinking and he sighed irritatedly. "Where else could he be, but somewhere where there is food," he grumbled. "Slow little witch," he added under his breath.

Luckily, Val didn't hear the last one. "Oh yeah...he did mention that he was really hungry, as in he looked like he was dying," she said.

"To the cafeteria!" she yelled like someone who would go into battle.

Corvan rolled his eyes at her behavior. "They won't be serving any food until lunch. We have to preserve the food supplies remember. I suggest we look in the food storage," he said.

"Do you even know where that is?" she challenged.

"No, but we can ask," he said with a frown.

"Let's look in the cafeteria first," she said.

"I don't want to waste my energy you little ingrate!" he said raising his voice.

"Cafeteria," Val said.

"Food storage,"

"Cafeteria,"

"Storage,"

"Cafeteria,"

"Storage,"

"Storage!" she yelled.

"Cafeteria!" he yelled.

Val broke into a grin having been tricked him. Corvan was speechless when he realized this.

"Okay, since you said it. Cafeteria first," she said as she beamed.

"You tricked me!" he accused like a child.

"Did not," she said as she stuck her tongue out at him.

Before he could give a retort, an emotionless voice startled the both of them.

"Food storage is in the cafeteria," Brindon said.

They jumped a bit, and turned to him with large eyes―Val's especially.

He started walking to the direction of the dining hall, passing between the two of them with glassy soulless eyes.

Where the hell did he come from? The first and fifth ranker thought together.

They weren't aware of it, but there was a small smile tugging at Brindon's face having witnessed the exchange they had a few moments ago.

―――

Like a zombie, Keelan trudged along the corridor aimlessly. He was hungry―no surprise, of course since he always is.

All of a sudden, a familiar scent wafted to his nose. It was a smell that his nose would recognize any second of a day. All of you could guess perfectly what it is.

As if possessed by the delicious aroma, he walked towards its direction. He passed through the big doors that led into the dining hall. He ignored the entire room, which was currently empty of students.

He kept walking, passing by well decorated tables, until he reached another door. It was slightly ajar and the scent was escaping through it.

Without hesitation, he pushed through it and stumbled, falling flat on his face.

Once he looked up, his eyes twinkled brightly at the sight, all the while his mouth also watered.

"Food!" he yelled happily as he stood. He started skipping around the place, eyeing and smelling all the chows appreciatively.

He wanted so badly to eat all of them. Following his thoughts, he grabbed a couple of different food and began munching.

He continued with this for a few hours, forgetting that they had problems with the delivery of the academy's food supply.

Just as he was about to grab another jar of baked goods―just think of it as his 50th one―, a furry hand grasped his wrist.

He jumped back as he tried to pull back his wrist. His eyes went wide when he realized that the furry thing was the color of black. Demon was the only thought that came to his mind.

He wriggled his arm wildly in alarm, until he broke free. But that freedom was short lived. Two pairs of new furry arms grabbed each of his arms.

Once again, he tried to break free but a large amount of pain shot through his head after he felt something hard make an impact there. He slumped to his knees as the hands still kept a firm hold on him.

Through the corner of his eyes, he glared at one of the demons holding him. He turned to his front when he heard a really weird form of laughter. It sounded like gurgling more like laughter to be honest.

His eyes widened even more, unprepared for the sight of the weird demon. It was about a foot smaller than him with a big bulky form. It was covered in black fur. It had no nose, but had perfectly round eyes, and a set of sharp teeth.

To Keelan's horror...it stepped on the jar of goods he was supposed to eat earlier. The furry demon noticed this and got a weird twinkle in his eyes. He stomped on the food again, and saw the eleventh ranker flinch.

He kept doing it over and over until the food, were nothing but little pieces that looked nothing but dust. Keelan on the other hand was shaking in furry. (I know, I know, this is pretty low, but keep in mind that this is Keelan von Keiffer de la Kaiven we're talking about)

The demon and his other companions, snickered-more like grumbled at the sight. The first demon that held him earlier started going around the room, smashing the containers of the academy's provisions.

"Stop, you're wasting perfectly good food!" Keelan yelled angrily. The creature didn't listen and continued doing what it thought as the perfect torture for Keelan.

Keelan was really angry now. His vision slowly dimmed as his eyes narrowed into slits. The demons seemed oblivious of the power radiating from him.

"Do..." he began. "Not..." the demons turned to him. "Waste..." the third one began approaching him. "FOOD!" he yelled. At the same time, he released a burst of energy that sent the demons holding him flying towards different directions.

The third demon, upon seeing his companions disintegrating, took weary steps back. "You will pay!" Keelan yelled.

He ran towards the demon with a loud yell of anger.

―――

"Keelan, wake up!" Valeriana tried to shake the said ranker awake. She was startled when Keelan yelled out angrily and tried to lash out at her with a punch.

Corvan appeared and caught it before it could land on her face.

"Wake up, you idiot!" he yelled.

He was immediately awake at the sound of his voice.

"What where am I? Where are those food-smashing demons?!" Keelan yelled.

Brindon appeared next and punched him on the face.

"You're dreaming," he said, blankly.

Keelan rubbed his face, trying to sooth the sore spot he hit.

He looked around and realized that he was in the dining hall of the academy.

"Oh yeah, now I remember. I fell asleep here waiting for lunch," he mumbled to himself.

All of a sudden, he beamed wildly.

He pounced on Valeriana and grabbed her hands. He began spinning her around with him.

"Yey...it was a dream. There are no demons smashing all those perfectly good food!" he yelled happily.

"Let go, I'm getting dizzy!" Valeriana yelled at him.

The commotion caused a lot of students to file into the dining hall to watch, curious about what was up.

As Keelan yelled things only he could understand he let go of Val.

They were spinning so fast that she got thrown towards one direction­―to Corvan's direction.

The young lord was so surprised that he didn't have time to react.

Val collided with him painfully, and they both fell to the floor, with the fifth ranker on top of him.

Gasps filled the entire dining hall, as the students took in the sight before them.

Meanwhile, Corvan groaned in pain until he realized that there was something soft on his lips.

He opened his eyes, and they widened by a couple of fractions when he realized what that "something soft," was.

Valeriana pulled away blushing wildly, while covering her mouth. Corvan lay there, still in a daze.

Val quickly stood up to send Keelan the most menacing glare he had ever given anyone, even her brother.

"Umm...I'm sorry?" he said, unsurely.

With a growl, the Roaring Tiger pounced on the eleventh ranker, and began furiously punching him. He couldn't get away when she trapped him in a headlock, and resumed punching him with her free hand.

He didn't mind. To him, this was a way better compared to watching demons destroying his greatest love.

On the other hand, Corvan slowly stood up, still in a shock. "Did that just happen...?" he mumbled stupidly, forgetting that the other students were there. They had seen and heard everything, and they couldn't help but grin to themselves.

######

Meh...I tried, guys. Not feeling inspired like last time. Hope it is good enough. I'll make another one that is completely CorVal if something drifts along.

thanks to my little sis for making the cover 

If you guys have time, can you read my story FIRMAMENT

---Nen