As morning dawned in the cloud hall, Mena scarfed down her breakfast. Even the delicious purple and green sausage from a polka-boar and tangy blue borange juice couldn’t distract her from what was on her mind. Much to her relief, she did not dream of her dark self, but she couldn’t shake the anxiety that her evil twin was peering through her very soul. She speared her food and gobbled it down noisily, prompting May and Janus to look at her with concern.
“Mena,” May said, finishing her scrambled liccan egg. “You haven’t told us what you talked to Stellaris about. Is everything alright?”
“Maybe this isn’t Mena,” Janus said, extending her bony arms with a wall-eyed stare. “Maybe this is Demon Mena. Whoooooo!”
“Stop it, Janus!” Mena snapped. She angrily thrusted her hand forward, causing the sausage on the end of her fork to flip across the room and land in Janus’ triangle nose hole.
Janus’ eyes slid towards the center of her face. “That’s just wrong,” she said, concerning the long piece of meat sticking out of her nose. “Judging by the outburst,” May responded, crossing her arms. “I assume everything didn’t go according to plan. You did tell her, right?”
Mena’s nerves were so frayed about the peeping tammy in her soul, that she about to confess to her friends that she had lied to them. But suddenly, the Sunbeam Academy drifted by. Peering through the windows, Mena saw the gleaming Sun Hall where the boys ate their morning food.
Catching a fleeting glimpse of Tal, Mena signed and said, “Yesss, I did.”
“So why are you so angry?” Janus asked picking the sausage out of her nostril.
Mena shrugged her shoulders. “Puberty?” and she quickly changed the subject. “What classes do you guys have today. I have Nightmare Defense followed by Dream Elixirs.”
“I’ve got Nightmare Defense too, after this,” May said.
Janus grinned. “I got the same Dream Elixers class as you, Mena.”
Mena let out a sigh of relief. At least her friends would be in the next few classes. It was a brief respite for her nerves.
When Mena got down to Caligari’s gloomy dungeon of a classroom, she noticed an unusual change to it. The iron desks now circled around a large platform that was fenced in by a cylindrical gate. Mena heard murmurs around the classroom, and she couldn’t help but agree with them. It looked very much like a fighting arena
“Oh mummy,” May shuddered. “I wish you weren’t in the Nightmare Void. Then you could write me a sick note.”
“Chillax, May,” Mena grinned, reclining in her seat. “We don’t even know what it’s used for.”
May buried her face beneath her pudgy hands. “Mena, there’s nothing else you do in an arena but fight.”
“Sing,” Mena said, raising her finger and winking. “If you’re Taylor Witch.”
“Oh, you’ll be singing alright,” came Caligari’s husky voice from the dusky darkness. “Once someone gets you in a magic suplex, you’ll be singing the word, ‘uncle’”.
The professor materialized into the classroom, her glowing green eyes appearing first. Her manner of dress, Mena soon realized, was very different from her usual attire. For one, she was clad in cobalt-colored, steel plated body armor. A horned helmet with a small slit of eyeholes was fitting over her head. Her glowing eyes seared through it, reminding Mena of the Ghost Knight from terrifying urban legends Janus would tell her.
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Caligari spoke from behind her mask. She paced by each of the girls. As she did, she poofed a black metallic, bowl-shaped helmet on each of their heads.
When she reached Mena and plopped a helmet on her head, Mena asked, “Er..teach, What are these for?”
Caligari turned around, her eyes peering hostilely through the slit in her helmet. “So, you don’t crack your precious skull open when we go to war.”
Mena sunk back in her chair. “Miserable magicaps,” she muttered to May. “She’s really taking this Nightmare Void takeover to heart.”
“And we’re going to be the frontline of her resistance,” May whispered.
“Normally,” Caligari announced after handing out the helmets. “I’d let you girls practice on dream simulations of night creepers, but since many of you are woefully underexperienced, I’d rather you practice on each other.
Caligari gestured to the ring. She furrowed her unibrow. “Besides it’s important you learn how to dual when you come face to face with the Queen of Shrieks herself, Anguish the Blood Siren.
There were more audible gulps than frogs in a bog. “Any takers?” Caligari asked with a sadistic look.
Everyone shrank away like flowers deprived of sunlight, leaving Mena and May in the front. “Ah yes,” The phantom professor snarled. “The perfect pair to go head to head. The chosen one and her friend.”
“Well, it was nice knowing you,” Mena sighed
May was paler and more rigid than an icicle. “It was nice knowing me.”
The two of them reluctantly headed to the ring with all the enthusiasm of two prisoners being sent the gallows. Once they got to it, Caligari practically hissed with delight. “After a few semesters,” she said to Mena. “It’ll be great to see the Dream Ambassador in action. You’re the great white hope.”
Mena tugged at the collar of her robes. “Well, I am a bit pasty,” she remarked. “Not sure about the hope part.”
“Um teacher,” May whimpered. “How am I going to beat her. She’s the chosen one. I may as well get Janus to sign my death warrant.”
Caligari gave a harsh glare with her flickering ember eyes. “Do you not remember the first rule of being a groundborn, Maylene?”
May was silent so Caligari continued. “That groundborns have the inborn ability to accumulate much power as their imagicnation grows?”
“Oh right,” May said, chuckling deeply.
Caligari pointed directly at May. “Let’s see how far you’ve come.”
“Oh mummy,” May muttered. “Here goes nothing.”
May put a trembling hand to her head, and chanted, ”Inflate Mena’s head like a balloon. Send her whizzing ‘round the room!”
“Wait a minute,” Mena exclaimed as her forehead expanded to comical proportions. “My forehead is big enoouuuuugghhh!”
Despite her protests, the young witch’s bulbous balloon head lifted off the ground, and she began zooming around the chamber. Everyone watched in amazement as she fizzed around like a punctured balloon. Her hair started shrinking as the air left it, and she dropped flat onto the floor. “Owie zowie,” she murmured. “I know I’m airheaded but that was ridiculous…”
“What?” May exclaimed looking at her hands. “How did I do that?”
Caligari’s eyes beamed behind her metallic veil. “Seems you’ve grown more imagicnative over the semesters.”
May flexed her large arms. “Must’ve been all the creative writing from last semester.”
After picking herself off the ground, Mena grimaced. “Let’s see how you like it May.”
She chanted the following words, “Give May some frogs feet, the kind those snooty elves like to eat!”
Suddenly, May’s legs wobbled, and she fell backwards. Everyone gasped as her knobby knees turned a light shade of green.
“I’ve always wanted to try frogs legs,” May cried. “But not like this!”
All on their own, May’s legs bounded upward. They began bouncing around the room until she flew at Mean. Both witches screamed and before everyone knew it, they lay in a heap on the floor.
Caligari gaped at the two witches. They were unable to fight anymore. She grasped dramatically at her dark armor. “WORMWOOD, THE WORLD AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, GEMINI ARE ALL DOOMED!” she wailed.
Mena, coming to, quipped, “At least she came clean about why we’re really battling.”
Unfortunately, following May and Mena, most of the other girls weren’t much better. Their battles were less catastrophic and amusing, but most ended in a similar stalemate with simple spells. By the time the bell tower chimed. Caligari wasn’t even speaking She was so disappointed she slunk into the shadows.
“Thank the Dream Goddess that’s over with,” May muttered. “I thought the carnage would never end.”
Mena gazed at the shadow where Caligari dissipated. “Not for me. I have her later for one-on-one instructions.”
May took a deep breath and exhumed in relief. ”This is an instance where I’m happy I’m not the chosen one.”
“Gee thanks,” Mena groaned, not looking forward to the after-school session at all.
After class, Mena said goodbye to May and convened with Janus. Together, they headed down to Apo Carrie’s dungeon where Mena could only hope that class was easier than Caligari’s Unfortunately, what she saw steaming at the center of his potions chamber could only make her utter, “Miserable Magicaps,” again.