“The footage is obviously faked, when people investigated the park it was totally fine!” Someone shouted, the noise breaking Susan out of her doze.

Her head was pillowed in her crossed arms, the cold plastic of the table slowly beginning to register as uncomfortable in her mind.

“But what about the people who say they were teleported?” Someone else whined.

“Mass hallucination, or a prank!” The first voice shot back.

The discomfort of the table as well as the impassioned argument made it clear that she wouldn’t be getting any more sleep, and her head came up slowly but surely.

It took a long second for her bleary eyes to recognize where she was. She was currently in her customary seat at the cafeteria nerd table. That at least was normal.

But the typical chatter of anime and manga had stopped, the entire table now watching Andrew and Lucy debate on the Yosemite Dragons.

A passing teacher shouted over to them to cut it out, but when the volume failed to reduce she just sighed and kept walking. It really spoke to the scale of the debate going on.

A full month had passed since Susan’s fight with the dragon, and the debate on whether or not it was true raged on in the halls of Leanord Gaynor high. The who's who gossip had practically vanished from the halls, to be replaced with furious deliveries of facts, logic, and insults on whether or not dragons and magic could really exist.

Susan might have cared if she hadn’t spent the entire last month laser focusing on either fighting monsters, or trying to decipher the Guardian’s tier 4 rune. The whole thing had led to a slightly unhealthy sleep schedule, one she was paying for now.

“Hey Susan!” Lucy snapped around to look at her.

“Bwuh?” She said with great aplomb.

“Could dragons really exist?”

It took a long second for the words to pierce the veil of sleep over her mind.

“Yeah,” She finally said.

“See, I told you!” Andrew pointed an accusatory finger at Lucy.

“But the square cube law should make it impossible!”

“No, you just need to treat it like architecture,” Susan drawled, her eyes beginning to slide closed as sleep won out again, “For the larger size you just need to use more optimized materials. Carbon superstructures for things like bones, more powerful and size efficient muscles, etcetera. Biggest hurdle is honestly the blood.”

She fell silent, the bemused stares of the entire table focused on her.

“Wow, you really thought this out,” Lucy said, looking frustrated.

“Yeah,” Susan said, eyes now fully closed and head drifting back down to her arms.

“That's Science Sue for you…” Someone muttered as her head touched down.

“Well?” Andrew said triumphantly to a frustrated growl from Anne.

“Well the glowing girls are still obviously fake!”

“Come on, wouldn’t it be awesome if magical girls existed though?”

‘Guardians’ Susan corrected in her mind, as visions of the tier 4 rune resumed their dance before her closed eyes. Each one of its intricate lines flashed in and out in mesmerizing patterns. As if instead of the simple meaning imparted by lesser two and three dimensional runes, the rune was imparting an entire concept.

The idea germinated for a moment. It had some validity, three dimensional runes could communicate entire paragraphs worth of information. But even if her guess was right, what kind of concept could the rune she had seen be connected to-

Her head came up slowly, eyes staring blankly into the distance.

“The name was literal?” She whispered incredulously, earning a look from Andrew. Then his eyes slid to the left and a voice came from her right.

“Susan?”

“Ya?” Her head turned to see Anne looming over the table with her arms crossed, a disapproving glare taking in Susan’s bedraggled appearance.

Beside her stood Ruth, who instead of Anne’s heavy glare sported a worried frown. Her normal calm seemed lost as she glanced around the room.

“We need to talk,” Anne said.

----------------------------------------

The school library was normally Susan’s favorite place in LG high. Shoulder high bookshelves filled the room, with small tables filling the space in between. It was rarely used for its intended purpose by students, mostly just being a quiet spot to swap rumors, but Susan loved it.

Except now, fully awake and seated across from an antsy looking Ruth and a glowering Anne, she found it somewhat hard to relax.

“Could you please stop obsessing over that rune?” Anne began, still glaring firmly at Susan, “You look awful.”

“Don’t worry, I just figured it out,” Susan said with a half grin, then wilted as the glare intensified.

After a long moment Anne put a hand over her eyes and sighed.

“Well good timing,” She said, “Because we have a problem.”

Ruth nodded along emphatically.

“There’s something strange going on around town,” She said quickly.

Susan let out a sigh, “What now?”

“I don't know,” Ruth said, “It’s… well the main issue is the animal population around the brick. My family spends a lot of time out there, and we noticed that many of the animals are being over hunted. Especially the magical varieties.”

The worried frown that came over Susan’s face matched Ruth’s perfectly. Anything that could hunt magical animals was a problem. Something that could do it en masse even more so.

“What does the BSMP think about this?”

“Nothing,” Ruth scoffed and gave a dismissive wave of her hands.

“The BSMP has basically shut down recently,” Anne broke in, “It happens from time to time, but it means that their even more useless than usual for the time being.”

Susan frowned.

She really didn’t want to get roped into another mess. She had run into enough of those in her first week on earth… but it would be stupid of her to ignore this one.

She sighed.

“Alright, so how do we do this?”

The look of relief on Ruth’s face was palpable, and she quickly leaned in and began speaking.

“To start,” She said, “We need to search the woods around the brick for clues.”

“Ok,” Susan nodded along, “I should be able to fly us around-”

“Hold that thought,” Ruth interrupted her, “I want to try tracking this thing down based on scent, and the only thing I can smell after you transform is ash.”

“Okay,” Susan threw up her hands, “Then how do we even do this?”

“I’m…” Ruth sighed, “Going to call backup.”

----------------------------------------

Five hours later Susan and Anne found themselves sitting on the side of the road. It was thin, with only two lanes and wound its way through the woods behind the back of the Brick. Overhung by a heavy canopy of branches and leaves, the two of them had their backs to one of the thick oaks as they waited for Ruth.

“Didn’t she say three?” Anne groused, glancing down at her phone, before returning her attention to the woods around them as they looked around for their truant friend.

Susan shrugged, “She did say she needed to get things together.”

A bird chirped in the distance.

“Besides,” She eventually continued, “Somebody’s always late.”

“Who’s late?” A voice broke in, making them both jump.

“You!” Anne snapped, holding a hand over her heart as Ruth stepped out from behind the tree they were seated against.

“Oh, sorry,” Ruth said, then offered a hand to her.

“Ugh, just warn me next time,” Anne grumbled as she was helped to her feet.

“By the way,” Susan asked as she got up, “What are you wearing?”

She gestured to what Ruth now wore, a well worn set of exercise clothes. The scent of magic wafted off of them, one surprisingly novel to Susan.

“Oh, these?” Ruth gestured downwards, “Transforming clothes for my wolf form. We’re not kidnapping a classmate today so I was able to get them from my parents without any trouble. Way better than a bathrobe.”

That got a raised eyebrow from Susan.

“Would you say it's cheaper than a subspace enchantment?” She asked.

“A-” Ruth paused, “Yeah, I’d say most things are…”

“Interesting,” Susan mumbled, oblivious to the other girl’s side eye.

“Moving on,” Anne said, rolling her eyes at Susan, “Ruth, what’s the plan?”

“Right, to begin with I need you to blow this,” Ruth said, pulling a small object out of her pocket and holding it out to Susan.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It was a small silver tube whistle, the metal dull and scratched from untold years of use. It was only by the scent of magic around it that Susan could tell that it was anything other than mundane.

She took it without prompting, though she shot a confused look towards Ruth as the other girl quickly clamped both hands over her ears.

Susan and Anne shared a look, then she put the whistle in her mouth and both of them covered their ears. Turning back to the woods, she drew in a breath and blew the whistle.

There was no sound. It was strange, as Susan should have been able to hear noises well past the human spectrum of hearing, but the entire time she blew nothing came from the whistle.

There was something there though, a hum that seemed to lower into a deep crescendo as she ran out of breath. Finished, she took the whistle from her mouth, then turned back to Ruth.

“Is that all?” She asked.

Ruth nodded, slowly taking her hands away from her ears.

“We just need to wait now,” She said, taking the whistle and stuffing it back into her pocket.

Susan frowned, turning her attention back to the woods to wait for whatever Ruth had called. For a long moment they lay silent, before a howl echoed in the distance. It was quickly joined by others, the disparate howls seeming to join together in a clamoring group that quickly closed in on the girl’s position.

Susan shot a glance toward Ruth to see the other girl looking entirely nonchalant at the situation.

The howls reached a peak, and a half dozen snarling wolves exploded through the trees across from them. The hulking things landed almost simultaneously on the ground, forming a massed group that stared down the girls.

It was an intimidating sight, at least until Susan looked closer and noticed the too large paws and still floppy ears. Mentally comparing them to Ruth’s own wolf form, she realized that they were in fact tiny compared to her. Barely larger than a regular wolf where Ruth was the size of a horse.

Then, before anyone could speak, one of the wolves' tails swung back and forth, slapping the one next to it across the flank. The offended wolf quickly turned to snap at it, and the next moment the group had dissolved into a six way all out war between the wolves.

Susan watched in bemused silence as Ruth’s backup spent a long minute chasing their own tails. Truces were made and broken in moments, cheap shots taken, and any try for victory foiled by a failing leg or thrashing tail from one of the other fighters.

A second look towards Ruth showed her tapping her foot quietly, but otherwise seeming entirely unsurprised by the turn of events.

Then during a lull in the fighting, one of the wolves began shrinking. It quickly became a young boy, around the same age as Elizabeth and wearing the same skintight clothes as Ruth. Leaping toward one of the others, he used his newly gained hands to pin its legs to its sides.

It quickly joined him in human form, becoming a slightly older boy who used his larger size to catch him in a headlock. The others followed, and in moments the fighting wolves had been replaced by a pack of furiously fighting children. Ranging in age from twelve for the biggest boy to a tiny girl who looked barely older than five, they all shared Ruth’s black hair and grey eyes.

Ruth let the chaos continue for another few seconds, before stepping forward and bringing her hands together in a thunderous clap.

“ATTENTION!” She bellowed, and each one of the fighting children jumped.

The battle ended immediately, and they scrambled together to form a rough line in front of Ruth. Going from oldest to youngest, the panicking expression of each child formed a rough line running downward.

“Alright, time for introductions,” Ruth said, “Susan, Anne.”

She pointed to each of them in turn.

“I want you to meet Caleb, Jeff, Ralph, Seth, Kurt and Ada.”

She pointed to each of her siblings in turn, until she reached the tiny Ada who she reached down to ruffle the hair of. The girl responded with a beatific smile, one Susan had seen too many times on Elizabeth to fully trust.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Jeff asked in the too loud voice of a young boy, “Who are they?”

“They’re Anne and Susan, duh,” Ralph said, elbowing him.

“I know that,” Jeff growled, elbowing Ralph back, “I wanna know why they're here.”

“Ask Ruth then, duh,” Ralph shot back.

Jeff didn’t have a response for that, grabbing his brother around the neck, he went in to knuckle his head only to be stopped by another clap from Ruth. The two of them returned to their places in line, Jeff glowering and Ralph smug.

“Boys,” Ruth said, “I have a proposition for you all.”

That got their attention. As one the group calmed their expressions as best they could, a gleam appearing in their eyes.

“So, you know how the jackalopes keep disappearing?” Ruth asked to a chorus of nods, “Well I want your help to find whatever is doing it.”

“Dad said we weren’t supposed to,” Seth shot back immediately.

“No, you won't be,” Ruth said quickly, “Me and my friends will. I just need you to search the woods and see if you could find places for us to investigate.”

That got a series of understanding nods. It appeared the boys were well used to rule bending.

“What’ll ya give us?” Ralph asked, his expression thoughtful.

“Hmm, that’s a good point…,” Ruth said with a glint in her eye. The two eldest brothers narrowed their eyes.

“Hey, here’s an idea,” She put an arm in the air, “Do you know the silver dragon that appeared a month ago?”

Any feigned nonchalance the boys might have had vanished, all five of them now staring at her in silent awe. The only one unaffected was Ada, whose chubby face now sported a calculating look.

Susan swallowed and shot a glare at Ruth.

“What, you don’t?” Ruth continued with a wide grin, clearly knowing she had them hooked, “I thought you all would know…”

“We know! We know!” The group cried desperately, every one of them now wide eyed and hopping in place desperately.

“Well I happen to be a friend…” The boys leaned in, “Of a friend…”

Despite her dread at the idea of being trapped dealing with a half dozen excitable boys, Susan had to hold in a laugh at the looks of mounting frustration on their faces.

“Of the dragon. And if you help me I might be able to introduce you.”

As Ruth finished, her amusement now obvious for all to see, the boys quickly began trading wide eyed looks. Most of them were nodding, except for Ralph who shook his head vigorously.

He opened his mouth, probably intent on continuing negotiations, but Jeff slapped his hand over his mouth.

“Cut it out,” He hissed, “You’re going to ruin it!”

Ralph responded by biting his hand. That earned him a punch, which he reciprocated and the two began brawling. A flying leg smacked into Kurt, who was only too happy to join in and within moments the chaotic melee had begun again.

Ruth stepped back looking entirely satisfied.

“Just give them a minute,” She whispered over to Susan and Anne.

“This is not what I signed up for!” Susan shot back, to which Ruth shrugged helplessly.

“I needed something,” She hissed, then frowned and looked down.

Susan followed her gaze to see Ada reaching up tug at Ruth’s pant leg. Seeing that she now had her sister’s attention, Ada reached up her arms in a silent request to be held.

Ruth sighed, but acquiesced, grabbing Ada under the arms and pulling her up. As the melee continued in the background, Susan caught the young girl eyeing her.

She shot back a raised eyebrow, but Ada continued staring unabashed. Susan held her gaze for a second, then sighed and had to look away.

“Some dragon I am,” She muttered.

A half minute later the fight concluded. The boys resumed their former positions, except for Jeff and Seth who were now restraining a struggling Ralph.

“We’re in,” Caleb proclaimed over his muffled protests.

“Perfect,” Ruth grinned, “Now here’s the plan.”

Putting Ada down, she formed a huddle with the boys and began talking quickly. Susan half listened, but found herself unable to follow the rapid fire instructions. Ruth now speaking entirely in personal references like, ‘that tree where Kurt got attacked by hornets’, and ‘the creek we threw Caleb in’.

Halfway through, Ada walked over to her and raised both arms. Susan eyed her for a moment, then shook her head. Ada kept her arms up. It didn’t take long before Susan caved and picked her up.

They watched as the discussion ended and the group broke up, each of the boys returning to their wolf forms before bounding back into the woods.

Ruth watched them go, then turned back to her and Anne. She raised a brow at the sight of Susan holding Ada.

“Got you too, huh?” She asked with a smile, and Susan looked away.

“Anyway,” She continued, “I have them splitting up to check out different sections of the wood. They’ll return in about an hour to tell us if they found anything.”

“Should we be worried about them?” Anne asked with a frown.

“No,” Ruth said with a shake of her head, “Whatever is out there doesn’t hunt during the day, we’re sure of that.”

The next hour passed slowly, mostly spent entertaining Ada. The young girl was very insistent about getting her way, and none of the girls had it in them to tell her no.

That was how Susan found herself playing patty cake with her as the boys finally began to return. One by one they appeared out of the woods, returned to their human form, and flopped exhausted onto the grass along the side of the road. Once Ruth counted all five of them, she stood and walked over to them.

“Anything?” She asked.

Most of them shook their heads, but Seth nodded.

“Found a cave that smelled weird,” He said with a grin.

“Do you mean normal weird or weird weird?” Ruth asked.

“Weird weird,” Seth nodded, “It was out by Bkwake Hill.”

The other kids slowly turned to look at him.

“That’s pretty far outside of our territory,” Ruth frowned.

“I…” Seth’s eyes flickered around, “I ran fast.”

Ruth eyed her little brother for a moment, leaving him to squirm.

“You’re lucky I’m busy right now,” She muttered, then spoke up, “Now where is it?”

----------------------------------------

Half an hour later the trio found themselves in front of a wide cave entrance. Twice their height, and four times as wide the yawning cavern was completely dark inside.

It was set into a low hillside, one side of it cut away to form a cliff roughly twenty feet high that the cave was set into. The group now stood within a small circular clearing that sat just in front of the cave entrance, the ground mostly bare dirt and spots of weeds.

Susan found it hard to focus on, most of her attention devoted to stumbling over to the rocky cliff so that she could lean against it. She was more than a little saddle sore, most thanks to the group's method of transportation.

Still banned from transforming by Ruth, she and Anne had been stuck riding her enormous wolf form. An experience made harrowing by Ruth’s clear lack of experience with passengers. The two of them had spent most of the journey dodging hanging tree limbs as they whisked by.

“Can we please never do that again?” Anne asked, leaning against the cliff side beside her.

“It wasn’t that bad, was it?” Ruth pleaded, to which Susan returned a glare.

The question still pulled Susan’s attention away from the comfort of the cliff, and she found herself examining her surroundings more closely. A few steps took her further into the cave, and she took in the dim interior.

It was a simple cave, little more than a shallow tunnel that traveled a few dozen feet into the hillside. Bare stone walls and floors all the way to where a small pile of rubble marked the end.

Susan glanced around, then turned around as she heard Anne and Ruth step up behind her. They stepped inside, eyes quickly adjusting to the dark as they investigated.

Susan frowned.

“This isn't it,” She said quickly, earning a hiss of air from Ruth.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Susan shook her head, “It seems like something passed through here, but it's long gone.”

“An old lair, then?” Ruth asked, “Seth is right, there is an odd smell here.”

“No, It wasn’t an animal,” Anne spoke up, earning questioning glances from both of them.

“Look,” She scuffed the dirt floor with a shoe, “No bones, no crap. Nothing lived here.”

“But…” Ruth huffed, “There is something, I just don’t know what.”

Susan shrugged helplessly.

“Hold on,” Anne said, walking to the end of the cave.

Reaching the pile of rubble, she laid a hand against it.

“I want to check something,” She said, then turned back to the others, “Watch my clothes?”

Susan nodded and Anne vanished, her empty clothes tumbling to the ground. As Susan approached to gather them up, a tiny brown form hopped out from within them.

It scampered forward before vanishing into the rubble. Squeaks echoing back to them for a moment before being swallowed up by the snarl of stone.

Draping the clothes over one arm, Susan stayed standing in front of the wall. Ruth joined her, both of them staring at the heavy stones as they wondered what had caught Anne’s attention.

A long moment passed.

“Lots of waiting today, huh,” Susan said, trying to break the oppressive silence.

Ruth shrugged, then her head began to tilt to the side.

“Something sounds weird,” She muttered.

A deep rumble made them jump away from the wall. Then, before their incredulous eyes, the entire back wall of the cave began to sink into the floor. Dust and stones sent tumbling around them by the moving of the wall.

Light spilled out from behind it, revealing a wide hallway lined with stark white floors and walls. Before them the minuscule form of Anne hung from the side of a security panel, a guilty paw pressing one of the buttons on it.

“Hey guys,” She said, dropping to the ground, “Look what I found.”

“Uhh,” Ruth muttered, “What exactly did you find?”

“I dunno,” Anne moved to Susan’s leg where she scampered up her clothes until she reached her shoulder.

She and Ruth wandered further into the hall. It was actually quite short, and as empty as the cave. The only thing of note being a heavy pair of steel doors at the end.

“Looks like an airlock,” Susan muttered as she moved closer to it, trailing a hand over the walls.

Instead of plaster or brick, they seemed to be solid steel and a look above showed that the floor was made up of the same.

“Hold on,” Ruth said, grabbing Susan’s arm, “I hear something.”

Her head began to tilt to the side as Susan watched, brows furrowed in concentration. Slowly, she began to mouth along to an unknown speaker.

“Sensor tripped,” She muttered, “Possible false alarm… investigating.”

Susan frowned and moved further in front of Ruth. A wave of her hand sent Anne leaping from her shoulder to Ruth’s.

“Do they seem dangerous?” She asked, keeping her eyes solidly on the door.

“No, they actually sound,” Ruth paused, “Kinda familiar.”

The snick of a heavy lock turning came from in front of them. Then, in contrast to the clatter caused by the hidden door, the doors swung open in total silence.

A man stepped out from behind them. The bland face and dark suit were easily recognizable to Susan and Anne. One hand was pressed into an earpiece on the side of his head, the other planted on a gun holstered at his side.

At the side of the girls he froze midstep, his mouth falling open in total shock.

“Susan Hill?” He blurted out.

“Hey John,” Susan said with a wave, “Funny meeting you here.”