Uther was annoyed, the council had stripped him of his rank, had taken his work and had dubbed him a 'Magus of dubious morals'. Fools, all of them. He had worked his way up before, gotten the ears of some of the most powerful Magi alive. He still had connections and starting over only meant that he would be able to forge new ones. That didn't mean it wasn't going to be very annoying to get his influence back.
As a Magus, they couldn't very well reject his application for a scouting ground so, they'd simply assigned him a place with a potentate rate so low the chance of finding one was negligible.
So he sat on a bench in the town square of Churgitt, a sleepy town in North Carolina, drinking a soda and petting Gerty, his Cerberus, hoping one of the young children could see her.
He flipped through his codex, every bit of his knowledge given physical form. Oh, how some of those had been drooling at the thought of getting their hands on the greatest repository of magical knowledge humankind had ever known. Sadly for them, they’d have to kill him for it and be appointed his apprentice before they’d even be able to get it.
It was one of the small joys he’d been able to find in this accursed predicament. They could take his actual experiments but the knowledge, that would stay with him for as long as he lived.
Uther was too lost in thought to notice the girl's approach. She couldn’t have been older than 5, with short brown hair, a grin that revealed a missing tooth and a face filled with mischief. Uther was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard her parents calling.
“Melody! Melody get away from that dog!” Her mother called. When Uther looked at Gerthie, the girl, Melody, was petting two of her three heads. He checked to make sure his illusion was properly running. One day, it had taken him ONE day to find someone. And from the way Gerthy was acting, he’d hit the motherload.
--- Ten Years Later ---
Uther made sure everything was in place. If all went well, he’d finally be getting an apprentice. Throughout the years he’d made sure to keep an eye on the girl. The magical scent coming off her was strong enough that it had attracted all sorts of unsavory ghouls and characters. The sleepy town of Churgitt had gone from a place devoid of magic to a breeding ground for the arcane. Luckily, Uther had arrived as early as he had. If not for his wards, the girl wouldn’t have made it past 10.
He looked at his watch, 6:30 a.m. Good, he was early. Getting a teaching position at Churgitt High had been … unpleasant and degrading to say the least. He had applied for the History position and they had been thinking of choosing some bozo with a degree at Princeton over HIM? He had lived through most of what he was going to have to teach!
Fools, all of them. Good thing getting someone with that kind of background an offer at an actual university instead of a high school had been one of the easiest things he’d ever done. Part of Uther, the part that had loved his teaching job at Enigma was thrilled that he’d be teaching again, although the lessons would be of a less magical nature and would need to omit certain details. Oh well, he was happy to be here either way.
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Melody was annoyed as she looked in the mirror. Her hair simply wouldn’t listen to her no matter what she tried. She combed her hair for the umpteenth time that day, hoping that her curls would straighten out just a bit for her first day of school.
Finally, her hair became controllable enough to make a ponytail. When she looked into the mirror she saw an excited face stare back. Smooth pale skin, deep blue eyes and curly brown hair. Melody was ready.
Her mom had already gone to work so she was home alone. She ate a quick breakfast, took the packed lunch her mom had put in the fridge and rushed to the bus stop when she saw that she was almost late.
Churgitt High felt like a school from a teen movie, that was the first thing Melody had thought when she’d seen it and her opinion hadn’t changed. A two-story building that somehow kept on going on forever. The hallways were filled with more lockers than there were students and more classrooms than they’d ever need. The kids all sat around in the stereotypical cliques. Melody simply made her way to the locker she’d been assigned and put away the stuff she wouldn’t need. Now all she needed to do to have some fun was find some fun.
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Uther observed all the kids roaming the halls of the school, picking out the children with obvious supernatural traits. Already, he’d seen two vampires, a small pack of weres and a ghoul. The vampires and the weres weren’t anything dangerous, but the ghoul could be a problem.
He would make sure that he would have the time to talk to the kid. If it was a naturally born ghoul then it would be able to sustain itself on other meats, if it wasn’t … Uther had made sure that he would always have silver and salt close.
The more he looked around, the more he became aware of just how many supernaturals had begun gathering here. It actually made Uther somewhat happy. Most of these creatures were looked down on by the First Councill of The Hague and not very welcomed by other wizards. They were outcasts who had been able to find a home untouched by that prejudice.
As he prepared himself for the first class he’d have to teach he felt a familiar presence.
“Hello, old friend.” Standing before him was one of the few creatures Uther had the capacity to fear.
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Her first day had been a bust. She’d tried to talk to a few people but all of them hadn’t been interested in making friends outside of the ones they already had or they knew who she was and …
She sighed. At least she wasn’t being bullied, people were too afraid of her to do that. She had gone to the bookstore after school, and had picked up the newest volume of her favorite light novel, ‘Tales of Azereth’, then she’d gone to the park to start reading and lost track of the time. So now, she was walking home in the dark.
Her mom wouldn’t be home for another hour so she didn’t need to worry about worrying her, which was good. As she stopped to tie one of her shoes she noticed the movement of shadows.
She took out her earbuds and listened for any strange sounds. This time she didn’t see anything but she heard running behind her. When she turned she saw a boy who was probably only a year older than her rushing at her with fangs that looked like they belonged to a shark filling his mouth and a crazed look in his eyes.