I lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I had become a bit overwhelmed with talking to people, so I retreated to my room to relax. But once I was there, I found I couldn't. I had too many questions on my mind. I didn't like questions that I couldn't answer. That's why I liked math and science. There was always a definite answer, no matter what.

Just then, I heard a quiet knock on my door. I sat up quickly. "Come in," I called.

The door opened a fraction and Sierra stuck her head in. "Hey."

I suddenly become conscientious of my hair and ran my hand through it. "Oh, hey. You can come in. If you want, that is."

She slipped inside. "Thanks. I just wanted to talk to someone right now."

"Oh. Okay, that's cool. Uh, why me? Just, you know, out of curiosity."

She shrugged and sat cross-legged on the bed next to me. "You're a good listener."

I smiled a bit, a flush of pride running through me. "Thanks. So, uh, what's on your mind?"

She looked down and fidgeted with the bottom of her capri leggings. "Well...out on the battlefield just now, something sort of...happened."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

She hesitated. "Well...I was fighting the zombies in warrior form, right? But then suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, it just...stopped."

I leaned forwards a bit, frowning deeper. "Stopped?"

She nodded. She looked upset. "I don't know, suddenly I was human again."

There was a moment of silence. Half of my mind starting racing with the possibilities of what this might mean. But the other half saw Sierra's face, and suddenly had only concern for her.

I took a breath, then placed my hand on top of hers. She stopped fiddling and looked up at me in surprise.

"Are you okay?" I asked seriously.

She nodded slowly. "I-I think so. At least I am now." She smiled slightly. "Thanks."

I smiled back.

Her eyes were so beautiful. They weren't just "brown". They were caramel and chocolate and Jupiter's magnificence and the sparkle of stars. I found myself staring at them a moment too long.

"Oh!" she said suddenly. She pulled her hand out from underneath mine in excitement.

I dropped my gaze instantly and then looked back up.

"I forgot to tell you," she said, talking quickly. "After I unwillingly turned human, the zombies almost overpowered me, right? Well, I felt really disgusting, but then, there was something inside me that almost...rebelled. It was the weirdest feeling. And then suddenly I felt a wash of purity and goodness and then I wa a unicorn. Again, without trying!"

She looked at me with a mixture of earnesty and concern.

"That's...strange," I admitted. "Maybe you should talk to Mrs. Simone about..."

Then suddenly, I remembered something that had happened not too long ago.

My eyes snapped back to hers. "Wait. That's happened to me too!"

"Really?!" she exclaimed. She relaxed. "Okay, good, I'm not crazy."

I chuckled. "Yes, you are. You're in a mental hospital, remember?"

She glared at me playfully.

I chuckled again. "Okay, but point being, when I was fighting the Destroyer, he threw a huge rock at me, right? And I didn't have time to dodge, but suddenly I was a dwarf and the rock flew right over my head!"

"That's so weird," Sierra whispered. Then her eyes lit up with an idea. "Can we ask your scroll? The sassy one?"

I laughed. "Oh man, Tinder! I almost forgot about that guy." I opened my side desk drawer and pulled out the impish scroll and quill.

I unrolled it and wrote, Hey! Sierra and I have a question. We've been transforming almost subconsciously in battle. Can you shed any light on why?

I put the quill down and looked at my work in satisfaction. I had gotten better at writing with a quill.

Tinder responded almost immediately.

Oh yeah, sure, ignore me for two weeks and come back just demanding answers, I see how it is. Jerkface.

I rolled my eyes.

"What did he say?" Sierra asked in curiousity.

"He's salty that I've been ignoring him," I muttered. I wrote in reply,

Sorry about that. I'll make it up to you. Right now, can you answer the question?

I'm capable of that, yes.

I pressed my lips together tightly.

WILL you answer the question?

What's in it for me?

I screamed quietly. Sierra snorted. "Is he giving you trouble?"

"You could say that," I sighed.

My love and affection?

YOU NAMED ME AFTER A DATING WEBSITE!

No, we didn't. We named you having forgotten the similarity to a dating website.

Well, if I WERE a dating website, you should date that Sierra girl.

My face immediately felt hot and I dropped the quill.

"What did he say?" Sierra asked curiously.

"Ah, nothing," I said quickly, picking the quill up. "Just, you know, being difficult!"

I hate you.

My pleasure.

Will you PLEASE answer the question now.

I suppose.

I sighed in relief. "He's going to answer, thank god."

"Yay!" Sierra cheered. Her eyes sparkled with mirth. I felt a surge of pride at being able to make her smile. She helped other people smile so often, it was only right that she got happiness from time to time. She deserved it all the time, really.

I read Tinder's response out loud.

"The ability of Myths and Legends to transform without active thought generally happens only to the pure of heart. Their body recognizes a threat, and knows it should transform to protect itself against said threat, similar to flinching. This triggers an emotional response due to the nature of Myth and Legend transformations."

"Hm," Sierra said thoughtfully.

I shrugged. "Seems true to me."

Sierra frowned. "I wonder..."

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Isaac stuck his head in. "Hey, sorry to interrupt, but Giselle is having another vision, and I think you guys want to hear this."

I swung my legs off the bed immediately and slipped Tinder into my pocket. "Absolutely. Thanks, man."

He ran off down the hallway.

"Hey, Ravi?" Sierra said suddenly.

I looked back at her. "Yeah?"

She smiled. "Thanks for talking to me. I really needed that."

I smiled back. "No problem." My heart beat a little bit faster.

Then we ran off down the hallway together to find Giselle.

~~~~~~~~~

When we finally arrived in the courtyard, Sierra gasped.

The sorceress did not look well.

She was curled up in a fetal position, shaking and hyperventilating. Her hair was a disaster, her eyes sealed shut, and her arms grasping her knees so tightly it was making marks.

Sophie was standing closest to Giselle, looking around wildly for an adult. Deynan stood grimly behind her. Amarie stood a little bit away, her constant expression of nervousness on her face. Audrey stood close, but not close enough to make Amarie uncomfortable.

"Is she okay?" Sierra whispered.

"I'm not sure," Isaac replied quietly. "We sent Tess to find Mr. Marquez, but until then, I really don't know what to do."

Sierra slowly took a step forwards.

"What are you doing?" I asked cautiously.

"Seeing if I can maybe talk to her," Sierra mumbled.

My stomach tightened. That didn't sound like a good idea to me.

The suddenly, Giselle screamed.

We froze.

Her eyes snapped open. They were bloodshot and red.

"I can see him," she whispered shakily.

We glanced around at each other.

"See who?" Sierra asked gently.

Giselle lifted her head, her eyes wide. "The man they call...the Destroyer."

I suddenly felt like I couldn't breathe.

Giselle stood up, trancelike. "He's...younger, though. In a home. Perhaps...20 years of age?"

I knit my eyebrows together. Why would Giselle be having a vision about the Destroyer as a young man?

"Oh!" she said softly. Her eyes looked glazed over. "Another one! A boy. Perhaps 12."

She tilted her head to the side as if curious. "The boy is running up to him. Laughing. The love in both of their eyes..." She paused, and an expression of pain flashed across her face. "Brothers."

Sierra gasped.

"They have a strong bond...he takes care of his little brother..." Giselle began to smile.

Then her expression turned to horror and she let out an ear piercing scream.

We froze. Giselle's eyes widened.

"There's a centaur...a dark centaur. It crashes into the room, black muscles rippling like a lion. It has teeth like knives." Her voice began to tremble. "He carries a cudgel...there is mania in his eyes. He moves so fast and so wildly, things seem to break of their own accord. The brothers, screaming, terrified. So...so...terrified. The younger boy begins to sob amidst his screams. The centaur is foaming at the mouth. He catches sight of the brothers..."

Her face pales. "Oh."

I couldn't breathe. I had an unsettling feeling that I knew what happened next.

"The young boy is hit over the head, he crumples to the ground...he doesn't move."

I heard a sob and saw a tear leak out of the corner of Sophie's eye.

"His brother drops next to him, holding him, screaming himself hoarse. He is distraught. He is terrified. Then, he turns to the centaur."

"This is awful," Sierra whispered, her voice trembling.

"He cries in agony over his loss, his face red, tears streaming down his face. There is fear in his eyes, but also a wild sort of energy. He runs forwards, dodging the swinging cudgel and wrapping his arms around the centaur's neck. He squeezes and squeezes, the centaur thrashes, but in this moment, he is stronger. Finally, the centaur topples to the ground...dead."

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

Giselle began choking on her words. "There is still fear in his eyes. There is still...fear...in...his...eyes."

Then her eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted.

Sophie yelped and she and Sierra ran over to the limp sorceress.

Just then we heard a shout from across the courtyard. Mr. Marquez and Dr. Smith were sprinting towards us, Tess trailing behind them.

Mr. Marquez knelt next to Giselle, worry etched into his face. There was a sort of terrified mania to his energy, his hands moving quickly and shaking.

Dr. Smith ran up behind him. "Children, please go to your rooms," he said sharply.

For a moment, no one moved.

Then slowly, we turned one by one and filed back inside. As I got to the door, I glanced back one last time.

Giselle's face was stained with tears.

~~~~~

We sat in a circle in silence on the carpeted floor of the dorms. Nobody knew what to say.

I glanced at Amarie. She was a tall person to be sure, but in that moment, she looked very, very small.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't read Amarie. She was just scared, all the time. It made me sad, to be honest. I wanted to see who she really was when she wasn't crippled under layer after layer of fear and self-hatred. But part of me wondered if she even knew who she was without all that.

I dropped my head and ran my hand through my hair. This was all just so messed up.

"So," Deynan said finally, breaking the silence.

No one responded.

Deynan sighed.

"We should talk about it," Sophie said quietly. "Everyone wants to."

I nodded slowly.

"So the Destroyer lost his brother to a Legend," Isaac said softly. "Wow."

"No wonder he's so angry," I murmured.

"It kinda reminds me of Giselle, actually," Audrey said, crossing her legs. "A Myth kidnapped her boyfriend, right?"

"Oh yeah," Tess whispered.

I jumped. I had kind of forgotten she was there.

"You think it was the Elder Council?" Sophie suggested.

"Probably," Deynan sighed. "They screw everything up."

"Okay, but I thought we decided Giselle was hatred and the Destroyer was anger," I said slowly.

"I don't know about you guys, but to me, what she just described seemed a lot like anger," Audrey said, raising an eyebrow.

Isaac tapped his fingers on his knee. "Well...yes. But I'm not sure anger is the right word so much as aggression."

"I feel like anger is aggression layered on top of frustration," Sophie said quietly.

We contemplated this for a moment. I let the sentence run through my head a few times. It seemed like it was close...but not quite there.

That's when I noticed that Sierra had been uncharacteristically silent during the discussion. I looked at her curiously. Her chin in one hand, she gazed at the ground, deep in thought.

"What gets me," she said slowly, "is that she kept mentioning fear. He's afraid. That seemed like an important detail and I can't figure out why."

"Isn't that what that Damius dude was using to manipulate him?" Deynan said, frowning.

"Yes." Sierra sighed. "I don't know how it's connected to anger though. Why would fear...make you angry?"

Everyone was silent.

I shifted slightly. "Um, I might have a theory?"

Seven pairs of eyes swiveled in my direction. I grew uncomfortable under their scrutiny.

"Or really, the beginnings of a theory," I mumbled. "Not a full theory. Like, 70% of a theory."

"Spit it out," Deynan said bluntly.

"Um, alright. So, the brain has different parts, right? Hippocampus, cerebral cortex, et cetera, you know?"

They stared back at me. I wasn't sure whether to continue or not. Then Sophie nodded and I figured I could always come back to it.

"Well, to make it as simple as I can, there's this part of the brain called the amygdala that controls aggression and fear. These scientists were experimenting and stuff and discovered that if you stimulate a certain area of the amygdala with electricity, a normally chill cat will prepare to attack, hissing and arching its back, pupils dilated, hair on end, that sort of stuff. However, move over only a tiny bit, stimulate the new area, and the cat will cower in terror from a mouse."

I was met again with silence. I hated silence. I always wanted to say something to fill it, but nine times out of ten I made it worse.

"I know it's a bit more biological than we usually talk about, but I don't know, I thought it might have some relevance," I said, trying way too hard to sound casual.

"No...that makes so much sense," Sierra whispered, excitement growing in her eyes. "People become aggressive because they're afraid, like they're protecting something, even if that "something" is an intangible concept! It's literally wired into being human because it's the same part of the brain. Ravi, that's incredible!"

I felt my cheeks grow warm. "Thanks."

"And it would make sense for frustration to be based off of fear too," Tess said suddenly. "Why do you get frustrated? Because something doesn't go the way you want it to. The more you care about it, the more frustrated you are. When you care about something, you're also afraid. Afraid of failure. Afraid of disappointment. Things like that."

I didn't know how to respond. No one did, apparently. None of us were really expecting that kind of insight from Tess.

"Put the two together, you've got yourself a solid fear-based recipe for anger," Audrey said, sounding impressed. "Wow."

We looked at each other throughout the circle, smiling and feeling, for one moment, truly connected. We had discovered something. We had understood something. It was like a breakthrough. It was more exciting than I ever could have imagined.

"Who came up with the name 'amygdala'?" Deynan muttered, eyebrows knit in confusion.

Then we burst out laughing.