“Want me to walk you?” Her Pa hovered nearby, big, steadfast and strong. And treating her like a weak cub.
Karen tugged her other boot over human feet, stood without aid and gave him a quick hug and headbutt. “No- get some rest Pa. I can handle school.”
The big man mussed her short hair, “Alright- just remember to give that note to Conolly if you need- and take precautions. And take care of your sister, Ollie.”
Her black haired brother saluted and offered her a hand, “Now, this is a road Karen, be careful on it.”
“Yeah- yeah, shut up, I know.” She scoffed, “Miss veil? Go home. Get attacked? Go home. Grow griffin bits? Go home. Have a good day Pa, I’ll see you after five!”
The big man grunted in weary approval as she skipped down the stairs, quick enough to force Ollie to run to catch up with her. It was a little tricky- her feet were a size bigger than they ought to be, but she’d gotten her balance over a couple of days.
“Not checking on Caleb, huh?” Ollie piped up as they passed his house.
“No. Why?”
“Tit for tat. He would have stayed out searching the woods forever if I hadn’t dragged him back home.”
Karen slowed, looking him over, “Why were you in the woods?”
“Looking for my big sister, duh. You kept sneaking out there, and Caleb said he’d feel guilty if I vanished too. He nearly punched one of the dragons when they found us, but they’re cool! Helped us look for a bit. Uh, the oldest, Hex Veiled, I can’t speak dragon.”
She blinked, “Wow. You had quite the weekend too. Was the green helping search?”
“No. Oh, kind of! She was trying to hunt down the griffin that hurt their brother. Maybe look out for her next time you’re in the woods.”
“Logan should pass it on. And I’m not scared of little flightless lizards.”
“Who can breathe fire?”
“That does change things.” Karen admitted, “Fancy telling her I’m cool?”
“But I’m not meant to lie?” Ollie snickered, “I’d do it, if you carry me sometime you fly?”
“Hmm,” She stepped over, lifted him by the armpits, “Nah, too heavy- you may watch though.”
“Oh, wow such an honour, I get to see you show off.” He considered, and squirmed free, “And crash. You know what? Sure. What’s your plan for class anyway? Got a fake name?”
“Nah. Simple, honest. I’m Karen, I look different. The rest is none of their goddamn business.”
“Sure, what could possibly go wrong?” Ollie laughed and raced off as he spotted a friend.
“Nothing,” Karen whispered, gritted her teeth, and bid farewell to the sky.
Ranelk High, statistically speaking, was not a large school. It took a few hundred pupils from the surrounding county across three floors, and they weren’t all back yet. But it was still too busy. There was no space to spread her wings, just long low corridors and tight doorways, bustling with bipeds too close. Their noisy conversations and mingling scents filled every corner of the building as she hurried up towards her form-room, Mrs Conelly’s English class.
She lingered at the door. She breathed. Conversations bubbled beyond. Didn’t matter. Simple plan. Karen took the handle and darted inside, bag swinging around her shoulder.
Noone spared her a passing glance.
Mainly because another unfamiliar face was absorbing every teenagers attention. Emily, Caleb, Mark, Anna, Owen and the rest were fascinated by a new girl with ochre skin, sunglasses indoors, and a hive of snakes writing in place of hair. Karen shuddered, snatching the word “gorgon” from their manic conversation, and circled around out of eyeline, she didn’t fancy being paralysed ever again.
Let them drown her in questions and interviews. Karen dumped her bag on her seat with a huff. Who cared. Caleb was writing notes, Emily was comparing her thick braids to the snakes, Mark was peering round to try and see past the shades. Better she serve as distraction than-
“Scuse me!” Finally one approached- Irene was tall and slender, with clinking earrings and golden hair that her long nails fiddled with. “Sorry- I’m sorry, but like that seats taken- I mean welcome, but there’s empty seats beside the window- beside Hana there, see?”
“Thought this was my seat.” Karen hinted. The window seat didn’t sound bad though. Another unfamiliar girl with a waterfall of glossy black hair was there, more new students.
“Sorry, noooo, yeah, she died- last weekend, so sad.” Irene whispered, leaning too close. “You’ll be cursed if you sit there, it’s too soon.”
“Another curse? Shit, I’m almost into double digits.” Karen slipped back, slinging her bag over a shoulder.
“Oh no- well, don’t be afraid- serene Irene is on the case.” Her tall frame flowed, her arms spiralling out, long nails wriggling through the air, before coming to poke Karen in the forehead and clavicle. “I shall lift your curse.”
“Get. Off.” She smacked her hands away and shoved her back, knocking over chairs with a clatter. “Don’t touch me!”
“Wow, chill, I’m helping to lift your cu-”
“There’s not a curse, she’s not dead, and you don’t know magic.” Karen stormed over to the desk by the window, her rage barely covered by the bell ringing. The jet haired girl stared at her like a deer in headlights, before Mrs Conelly marched in, and began to take the register. The english teacher was an orderly lady in neat blouse, prim bun, and perfectly punctual demeanour- she rattled through the names, none beginning with K, then set to some brainteasers, only coming over when Karen raised a hand.
“Yes? Karen, correct?” She clucked cautiously.
“It’s me, yeah- I wasn’t on the register?”
“We weren’t sure when you’d return. I thought I’d… give you some privacy.” Mrs Conelly lowered her voice, “Surprises aside, welcome back. You and Hana are both Class C, so that’s something in common.”
The teen beside her didn’t look like a disguised mystic. Which was probably the point, especially with an unveiled gorgon in the room. Hana’s dark shy eyes peaked past her sleek rippling hair, and spared a quiet, “Hi.”
“Hey? Cool.”
“Could you help her out,” The teacher requested, “Make sure she gets around school without too much stress, keep her punctual? Does that sound alright, Hana?”
“Uh yes miss.”
“Fine, sure.” Karen sighed. Of course the teachers knew. But they knew wasn’t some new little lamb as well, so she tutted and leaned in a little as Conelly trotted back to the blackboard. “Alright, can I see your timetable? When’d you start?”
“Yesterday.” Hana mumbled.
“Yeah, pretty nice- I’m in Geometry and English too- we’ll be right back here. Chemistry’s next corridor along, History’s downstairs, Art’s top floor.” Karen explained. Hana seemed rather unconvinced, especially when the bell rang and Karen gritted her teeth, marching through the throng of bipeds. They were all so close, one preteen bumped her bag and she almost kicked him, before stepping to hug the wall. At least it was consistent, aside from doors, and the stairs were one way- in theory at least.
“I swear, next biped who walks up on the right is going over the bannister,” She hissed to Hana as they reached Mr Thorne’s room in maths, and noted her confused expression. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Most people ask what I am.”
“Well you didn’t ask either,” Karen sniffed, “What, you want asked?”
“No. This is fine,” She agreed, and stepped inside. Karen followed, a grin breaking her face as she saw platinum blonde hair, and strode straight for Maddie.
“Woooow, you weren’t kidding, that’s really short hair,” The Veiled mermaid's blue eyes met hers in seconds, a smile spread and Karen pouted.
“Aw, how’d you know it was me?”
“I know my best friend,” She steepled her fingers, “And also your bag, and your clothes. But what happened to the cheeks? Flying?”
“Some idiot with a stapler tried to stab my eye,” Karen huffed, earning a look of bewildered revelation from Caleb two desks over. “It’s barely a wound though, wasn’t very strong. Oh- and this is Hana, she’s new.”
“Hi,” The girl whispered, then dropped her voice further to look at Karen, “What’s she?”
“Really cool-” Karen felt a boot kick her leg as she sat beside Maddie, “- and human, she knows the school like the back of her hand so feel free to ask if you need help. I don’t know the backs of my hands that well.”
“Making in-jokes? That’s a good sign,” A familiar, though slightly strained voice came as an angular haggard youth sit down heavily on the other side of Maddie.
“What the hell are you doing here?!”
“Studying.” Logan muttered, frowning uncertainly, “You okay?”
“Yeah- you’re the wounded one, you need rest.”
“I showed him the lift. He’s not thaaaaaat bad,” Maddie intervened.
“Yeah, I was bored at home- and I can use my head just fine.” Logan claimed.
“Clearly not,” Karen crossed her arms and turned away as Mr Thorne gauged the room and began the register. That was a good excuse not to talk more, frustration rising. Why did nothing go as planned? Logan was wounded, fragile, because of her.
“Thomson, Karen.” Mr Thorne read abruptly.
“Still dead.” Irene muttered.
“Here.” She called, “I’m here sir.”
“Uh, you’re not Thomson!” Emily snapped loudly, round face glaring.
“Oh yes I am.” Karen felt more eyes turn to her, familiar faces twisted with outrage, confusion or scepticism. “Alright, elephant in the room, I look different, but if you clowns don’t believe me I’ll happily recall the dumbest stuff you’ve done- for example, Emily, Scevola.”
The other girl frowned, then nodded, and she saw Caleb begin to open his mouth, then thankfully close it.
“Oh- so that’s the curse!” Irene clapped eagerly, “How? Did you piss off a witch?”
“A witch?” Out of the corner of her eye she saw Logan tense, preparing to defend himself, apologise, show her up. “Nope, tried messing around with magic myself, and… kinda blew up in my face. Didn’t want this, guess I did something wrong.”
“What? I heard you went missing?”
“Wouldn’t you if your eyes were blue? Yuck, dunno how Maddie handles these, I wanted green.” She lied, “But I am taller!”
“Barely,” Owen barked, and a couple laughed as she stood on tiptoes. That was probably good, bipeds laughed when in good moods. Not everyone- Maddie, Logan and Caleb seemed perplexed by her actions. And Hana was just confused in general.
“Alright, enough, enough!” Mr Thorne snapped fingers and plunged back into the register, before diving into the mathematical world of trigonometry. It was familiar, charmingly so for the first five minutes, as if magic had never emerged and the past month had never occurred.
Then it was just damn tedious and she found herself wishing for magic and excitement and flight once more, anything to escape angles and triangles. When the bell went, she lingered with Hana till last, trying to avoid the rush of pupils. Even so, whispers seemed to spread like wildfire, speculating on her change, while other voices shouted loud to one another like-
“Hey, beastie, remembering your horrid potion?”
“Excuse me?!”
Karen whirled around, finding herself face to face with weird rectangular pupils. They were odd enough that she took a step back, taking in the goat-boy before her, wild brown hair surrounding small horns and big ears. His furred and hooves legs wore loose jeans fitted to them, and a surprised grin exposed big rectangular teeth. “What was that, faun?”
“Oh, intense. Who’s your friend, beastie?” He chuckled at Hana, maybe a year below them but gangly.
“She’s Karen, a local mystic.” Hana mumbled, “And yeah, Veil’s nasty.”
“Guess who doesn’t need to drink it!” He cheered, throwing both thumbs towards himself, “Me-e-e! Free as a bird!”
“Free as a goat, you can’t fly.” Karen corrected him, “And her name’s Hana, not beastie.”
“It’s a joke, she’s fine with it! She’s the opposite of a beast- while you’ve got a very bloody scent,” He mused, ears flicking up curiously, “Want me to guess?”
“Definitely not,” Karen turned, bobbing her head at Hana, “Come on, Conelly hates lateness. Is he a friend?”
“A neighbour. He’s not scared of me. That’s rare,” She whispered, blushing slightly, “Leave him, just an idiot.”
“Idiots can be dangerous,” Karen rubbed her cheek.
“Definitely carnivorous, probably a mammal, something big,” Nick announced, shadowing them, “Bet you’re quite the piece of wor- urgh!”
He was on the floor when she glanced back, tripped by an older biped student with wild hair and tired eyes. Another kick slammed into his gut as the human sighed, “Told you before, freak. Stay away from the ladies, none of them want anything to do with a horny little mongrel.”
“Pleasure to see you too Seb!” The faun grinned widely, “Oh sorry, were you missing me? Is our daily chat so important to you?”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Karen could sense the tension in the air, both bipeds trying to assert dominance in this oversaturated territory, and turned again, “Come on Hana. We’ll get blamed if we’re involved.”
“He’s just a kid,” The other murmured, stopping to watch as the faun was suddenly hefted by the collar and slammed against a locker. Seb had been joined by another two guys, watching close as a hard hoof lashed up and into the biped’s gut, producing a heavy grunt and throwing him back and enraging his allies.
That was true, so Karen paced back to Thorne’s room and shouted inside, rousing the stout man’s fury. Then she darted back, grabbed Hana’s hand and fled upstairs as his shouting rumbled behind them breaking up the one sided affair. They were five minutes late for English to Mrs Conelly’s fury, but given the entire lesson felt empty, Karen doubted they’d missed much. She spent half the time watching birds out the window, tracing the wind through their motions.
Geography had a little interest at least, between the Ranelk maps on the walls like the view from on high, and the talk of different nations handling Mystics in different manners, but Biology stuck in her mind the most. Mr Graham was always memorable, young and flamboyant but grey haired, his hands fluttered like sparrows when he spoke.
“Alright, oh fantastic, plenty of new faces- we’ll be reviewing some homework, but I’ve a feeling you’ll have plenty of knowledge to add! So everyone remember? Excellent, Caleb why don’t you go first, which anomalous species did you investigate?”
The broad pupil stood, glanced at Karen and rubbed his chin, the grazed flesh no longer bleeding, “Had a little encounter… but my research was on orcs- or goblins, or ghouls. They’re Class B, tend to stand around six foot six, but have very broad appearances, normally with prominent noses and teeth. Very keen sense of smell and night vision, but pretty photo sensitive too, and not a fan of their depiction in… most media. Pretty humanlike all round.”
Mr Graham nodded and plied him for other details- their likely classification, existence of hair and so on, before bringing up the next, and the next. Emily happily chattered about the dragons, Maddie gave an informed spiel on Sphinxes and Manticores, Hana mumbled about some horned humanoid Oni, Mark talked about vampires, and the gorgon, Olive, dryly explained her serpentine hair.
“Ah- and is it true that gorgons can petrify people? Turn them to stone?” Mr Graham tapped his glasses and chin.
“That’s not biology.” She sat down, “Who’s next?”
“Ah,” He accepted her tone of finality, and ran grey eyes over the class, “Hm, just a couple of other new faces- though Karen you missed this, did you pick up anything while you were off?”
“Well, I’ve seen a dragon, but Emily knew more,” she considered, “Noone did griffins? They’re kinda like better dragons- they don’t grow as big, but they’re like big lions merged with eagles, so they’ve got avian head and wings and talons, and strong legs. They’re able to fly extremely well, and their eyes pick up ultra violet light, so they can see twice the colours bip- uh, humans can.”
“Very interesting- we heard about night vision before, that was an aspect I hadn't considered. And do you think they fall under birds or mammals?”
“Uh, they’re carnivorous?” She faltered, “Probably avian. Logan knows more, he’s all ready to go.”
“Definitely avian,” Logan stayed seated, “Uh, guess I’ll add a small correction- big guy’s wrong, vampires aren’t real. There are giant bat mystics, Camazotz, there are large wolf mystics, Fenrir, there are nymphs and such that can affect mist, but they’re all different and you definitely don’t get all of that as one contagious package. Bram Stoker wrote fiction.”
“Ah, interesting… well, how about a bit of a vote before we delve into this contradiction? This is actually a very good example of research and the scientific process,” Mr Graham grinned at the look on Mark’s face, and much of the rest of the lesson as going through sources either quoted, and talking about the validity of them.
For a topic about vampires it was surprisingly boring- some people lied, some people were wrong, and the truth was hidden- and Karen was relieved to get outside for lunch, perched up in the climbing bars to get peace from bipeds.
So of course Logan tracked her down, breathing hard as he leaned against one pole, “Ah. Favourite spot?”
“Don’t try to climb.” She warned, stuffing her empty box away.
“Glad you care so much? Or not? I’m a little confused.” He brushed a curtain of black hair aside, “Why didn’t you mention me? Why cover?”
“Because that’s simplest and bipeds are, by and large, dumb.” She closed her bag, dropped it, and hooked her legs to hang upside down and glare at him, “Plus some of those idiots might come to bug you for Veil if they knew, and I don’t want you messing them up too.”
His dark eyes met hers levelly, “You think I’m so arrogant as to not learn from my mistakes?”
“You don’t even know what your mistakes are.”
“True, I’m working with minimal information. But I’m definitely double and triple checking my work from now on, you can count on that.”
“Oh wow, sensible precautions, how novel,” Karen grabbed the bar, kicked her legs free and flipped down to land before him, shoulder twinging with pain, “So are you just going to bug me until I change my mind about your Veil? Cos it won’t work.”
“Maddie said you were stubborn,” He shrugged, “No, just came to chat. Did you really fly? How’s being a griffoness in the sky?”
“A what? I’m a griffin. Short and simple.”
“Don’t call yourself simple. It’s lion and lioness, so griffon and griffoness.”
“Nah, that sounds dumb. It’s my species because of you, so I’ll stick with griffin, and you can spell human however you want without me complaining.”
“What, like Hugh Mann?”
“Fine by me, Maddie’s dad makes that joke all the time,” Karen found a smile creeping over her lips. “But yes, flying was fantastic, I’m nearly as fast as Diana, she was having to use flame tricks and thermals to avoid me, and I definitely got way higher than as a Hawk. Managed to pull off a dive too, though it’s pretty nasty on the wings.”
“Yeah? And how many tries did it take to get into the air?”
“First try, I’m not a cub, Logan.” She noted his doubtful face, “Ask Exi if you want, she never lies, and she saw me take flight perfectly.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” He frowned deeply, “Last week too?”
“Took a few jumps, but yeah, flew across the lake to you.” Karen swung her bag over one shoulder, “Now, if the next thing to come out of your mouth is analysing me like some science experiment, I’m done talking.”
“But don’t you think it’s weird that you transferred flying instincts from a tiny bird of prey to a hu- Karen, don’t run, I can’t run!”
“I know!” She shouted, leaving the weak mage in the dust.
* * * * *
Her shoulder flared with pain as she landed hard on the mat. It was a stupid mistake- of course she’d roll off the hobby horse, she was taller, longer now and so were her movements. Karen breathed hard as she lay still, letting her pulse slow.
It had actually been a good second day thus far. For one thing, it was friday. For another, Hana had a hall pass to leave classes five minutes early to avoid the crowds, and Karen could enjoy the empty corridors too. And lastly, despite the ache of her muscles, it was good to be back in gym class.
“Woooow, you alright there?” Irene peered down, offering a helping hand.
“Just peachy,” Karen ignored it, rolled over and stood, “Need to plant my hands faster.”
“Takes some adjusting. Did the magic do that to your shoulder?” She asked eagerly, taking in the scars and scabs that dappled her shoulder, visible under the tanktop.
“Essentially. It got me shot.”
“Aw, I’m sorry,” Irene said cheerfully, “Anyway, where did you learn magic? Do you have a book or a website?”
“Book? No, you don’t want to mess with magic.” She bounced on the springboard, lining herself up again.
“Don’t be silly, Karen- I’ve a gift for this stuff. Give me a few weeks and a couple lessons and I’d have you right as rain.”
Karen stumbled as she landed on the hobby horse, and perched to look at the girl, “Do you think this is a game? Magic’s dangerous Irene. There’s real monsters out there, cannibals and ghosts and dragons. It… changed me so much more than just my eyes, I could have died. Listen to me- just leave magic to the mystics.”
“I’m sorry you don’t believe in me,” Irene whispered bitterly, and reached out, “Don’t worry, I’ll give you lovely green eyes one day.”
Karen hissed as she squeezed her scarred shoulder, and batted her arm aside, “Touch me again and I’ll take your eyes myself!”
“Wha-” Irene backed up, eyes wide, then narrowed them coldly. “Oh. Ooooh. You’re one of Them. Let me guess, one of those griffin monsters you were bragging about?”
Karen hunched, finding herself almost ready to pounce, “That’s none of your business.”
“Tch, makes sense, you’ve always been all high and mighty, acting like you’re better than us while hiding everything. Nothing but a lying beast.” She spat venomously, “Fine, the others will figure it out anyway, and you monsters aren’t in charge of the world any-more. Magic’s going to return to the people.”
“What?” Karen cocked her head as Irene stormed off across the hall, half of her words so far off they were ridiculous. Her anger simmered down, there would be more, and they would be just as wrong. Like Diana had said, they just didn’t have the eyes to see her magnificence.
She turned her rage to drive, working her away around the stations through the hall. Gymnastics weren’t an angry activity, but she could lose herself in running or lifting- both a mote easier with this Veiled form. All training was training for her body too, and she was a little calmer when she returned to the hobby horse, practising jumping and flipping across it to land on the other side. It was dumb compared to flying, she went nowhere and killed nothing, but it took effort and skill all the same. Skill was skill.
After ninety minutes, Mr Austin directed them to tidy up everything except two benches and a basket of balls, and divided them for a game of dodgeball, simply split into boys and girls.
“Seriously?” Olive sighed as they split, her hair hissing, “We’re going for a little kids game?”
“Yaaaaaaaaa, and we’re going to win!” Emily cheered, long braids bouncing.
“They’re basically a man down already, Logan’s wounded, we can get him easily,” Karen advised.
Maddie raised her eyebrows, “Isn’t that a liiit-tle harsh?”
“Maybe they’ll aim for Karen’s shoulder as well, she’s wounded too.” Irene sneered.
“We have Olive though. Can you freeze people?” Hana whispered.
“Pretty sure that’s cheating,” Anna noted, “And they might notice if half the boys become statues.”
“Yeah, no, I get three days grounded every time I paralyse someone, no thanks.” Olive ran her hands back, and somehow guided her serpents into a ponytail. “Also, they’re ready.”
A blizzard of projectiles suddenly came their way, and Karen surged into motion, ducking behind Irene to use her as a shield. They weren’t allowed to cross the centre so she couldn’t close in on her prey, but Logan wasn’t agile. He trailed around back behind the fitter teens, picking up rolling balls and passing them forward to Caleb or Mark, the strong boys launching them like cannons.
Karen kept moving as Irene and Olive went out, running around close to the line and jumping wildly, launching her throws high. It was entertaining to see Caleb track the balls near the ceiling with utter confusion, then realise, “Hey, Tohaken, heads up!”
“Why are we doing surna- oh!” The ball bounced off his skull, “Am I out?”
“Not heads, no, just bodies and legs.” Caleb advised.
“Yeah, like this!” Karen whipped a softball towards his broad chest, only for his big hands to catch it with a boom.
“Yup, l-like that,” He raised his massive arm, eyes narrowed, and she retreated urgently, dodging and ducking the throws as she took in the scene. Hana was quietly against the wall, out already? No, Karen grinned as the quiet girl picked up a ball that happened to roll near, whipping it straight into Caleb’s legs.
“Oh come on sir, that’s cheating!” Owen protested.
“She’s on the complete other wall from the bench, eyes forward,” Mr Austin barked as the battle continued, both sides clearly striving for victory at half strength. Karen shuffled around the back, grabbed up two softballs, and lifted them as a shield as she charged forwards again.
Logan noticed her with exasperation, sweat pouring down his long hair, and sidestepped the first before the second fell from above, bouncing off his shoulder. “Why me?!”
“You know why!” She taunted, before wincing and trying to cartwheel out of the way of more shots. They hit her legs in the air, but she managed to stick the landing and stomped over to the bench where Olive was gawking at her.
“Why the flips?”
“Because I can, and it would’ve been epic.” She sat, and watched as the remainder whittled themselves down. Anna and Maddie went down quickly too, until somehow only Hana was nervously weaving around Owen and Grant’s throws.
Then, abruptly, the throwing stopped as the boys looked around, realising there were zero balls on their side. Grant grimaced and walked backwards while Owen took the issue slowly, “Huh? Hey, hang on, that’s not fair. Give them back!”
“Just a moment.” Hana patiently rolled the balls into a single row three metres from the middle, before taking a step back with a sweet smile, “Ready?”
“Uuuh- no?” Owen yelped as the veiled mystic settled to rapidly kick the prepared balls at him like a penalty shootout. To his credit, he managed to catch one in mid air, bounce another off it, but yet another took him in the legs
“Good job mate,” Grant darted from behind him, scooped one up, and lunged to the side as Hana kicked another ball, nervously eyeing the final three ammo she had prepared. Then they moved at once, she kicked, he sidestepped, whirled around and hit Hana’s leg as she went to kick the next one. “Yaaaaas, take that, sneak!”
Several of the other guys cheered in triumph, as if one remaining was any decent victory margin. Karen crossed her arms and set to gathering them up, giving Hana a smile, “Good job, that was clever.”
“Sorry I lost. He figured me out.” She murmured.
“Nonsense, you did great, that was hilaaaarious,” Maddie laughed, pulling over the bag as they began to stow away everything, chatting and flush with how close it had been. Even Olive seemed amused, releasing her snakes in a weird stretch from the knot, and teasing Karen for her supposedly gratuitous acrobatics. Even so, she felt their eyes on her shoulder when she changed clothes, tracing the red fresh scars all the way down her shoulder blade.
She dressed quickly after that. The scars were a mark of strength. She’d been shot. She survived. But nonetheless she didn’t want to spend more time with Irene at her back, whispers among the others, and so she got out to lunch before the rest, finding Logan in the corridor, breathing hard.
“You alright? I did use a soft ball.”
“Yeah, might’ve overdone it. Got competitive.”
“See, that’s why I tried to get you out first.”
“Sure, solely for my own benefit,” He chuckled and straightened as Grant marched by.
“Well, that was basically useless,” The dark haired teen barked, “Couldn’t pull any Indian magic to help out?”
“Nope,” Karen snapped back, “Dunno if you missed it, but my last attempt did not go so well.”
“Wh- oh yeah, you’re Thomson. Believe it or not, I wasn’t talking to you.”
“But you said Indian- I’m quarter descent. You got any Indian blood Logan?”
“Nope, my family’s all stateside. Sorry for the confusion, Greg.”
“It’s Grant- get out my way, I’m starving,” He snorted in disgust and barged by as amusement twinkled in Logan’s eyes.
“Thanks.” The young mage said, “Can we talk? I was thinking about what you said yesterday.”
“Oh, you’re going to give up bugging me?” She clapped her hands with a grin.
“Almost. Give me one good talk over lunch, then I’ll drop it. Mage’s honour.”
“I’m not sure how much that’s worth, but fine, I’m hungry,” She led him outside, quickly claiming a bench before any of the little kids could, and pulled his fish curry from her bag. Logan sat a couple of metres away with sandwiches, a notable distance and Karen felt herself relax slightly. “Fine, what hit you yesterday?”
“Are we sure it’s my fault?” He asked.
“Well, yeah. You apologised for it. A lot. Better than I did.”
“As you pointed out, my head’s not in the best place when I’m injured, I can be wrong,” He took a bite and looked up to the clouds, “Because, here’s the thing; you don’t have hawk instincts. That doesn’t add up. Hawk instincts wouldn’t tell you how to fly as a griffin, it’s like a hundred times bigger. Hawk instincts wouldn’t call people bipeds, hawks are bipeds. Hawks wouldn’t take down sheep, they’re too big.”
“So what? Your veil was just a coincidence and I just changed completely inexplicably?”
“Maybe. It’s about fifty fifty, I can’t see a way it makes sense based on the Veil, I can’t see a way it makes sense without the Veil! I just don’t have enough information.”
“Well you don’t need it. It’s too hard for you, you’re only sixteen. I’m working with Diana,” She reiterated firmly.
“You trust her that much after what Uncle Matt said?” He looked at her, curtains of hair around dark, intense eyes.
“Yeah. She doesn’t bind demons, she has a friend that’s a spirit. And she doesn’t treat me like some puzzle to solve.”
“That’s how I came across?” Logan considered, chewing through a sandwich as he focussed on the distance. “Very well, I’ll tell her everything I know about the Hawk Veil, on one condition.”
“...go on?”
“I won’t try any magic on you, but I want to try telepathy. I need to know if there’s a connection between my Veil and your change, if the instincts are similar or not.”
“You want to invade my mind?” Karen snarled, “How is that not magic?”
“To read it. It doesn’t cause anything. Please, if I don’t get an answer or an idea, I won’t be able to trust my own magic! I can’t bear that, my magic’s all I got left of my family.” He begged.
“I’ve had that before- some witch in OAR felt like she took a sledgehammer to my skull and broke my Veil!”
“Well, I don’t have that much brute force. And yeah, mages can break, release other spells normally. I’ve learned to do it myself, so if you ever want to end a Veil early, just ask.”
Karen gritted her teeth as she looked over him, haggard and weary and compromising and weak. Pathetic. Why would he do that? Why be gentle? It didn’t make any sense, she’d hurt him, any sensible creature would be defensive, or out for vengeance, not trying to help! It went completely against instinct.
“Fine, you want to invade my head? I’ve got a condition of my own- I read yours first, so I know you’re honest.”
“Oh? Fine.” Logan nodded. “What?”
“Isn’t that a crazy ask? I’m gonna read your mind! How is that ‘fine’?”
“Telepathy’s a two-way street. If it convinces you, sure. Deal?”
He offered a hand, long rough fingers flecked with small burn marks. Karen’s felt small in comparison, hard with sharp nails and she gripped tight.
“Deal.” The veiled griffin nodded with an uneasy smile. Just let him in. How hard could it be?