"Get off me!" Mena cried as Caligari yanked her down the corridor. "Don't you know you shouldn't manhandle students?!"
Caligari turned to her, her lime green eyes glowing. "Considering you're not a man, and especially not a handsome one like Gemini. I believe I can handle you."
"No fair!" Mena cried, kicking and screaming. She had just started to feel better from hearing Scalia's lovely story, but Caligari had plunged her back into the moody depths again.
As Caligari dragged her down to the jet black door of her dungeon, she turned to face Mena. "Willow, I swore I was never going to teach you again, after our last row, but Stellaris made me realize, things are too heavy now to be taken lightly.
"Nice metaphor," Mena quipped, rolling her eyes. "More like a metasnore!"
Caligari balled up her fists. "Gemmy, give me strength to deal with this runt."
They stepped inside Caligari's dimly lit dungeon and immediately, Mena began snarking. "What new ways have you invented to make me cry this time?"
All Caligari offered was a wry smile. "I don't need to invent anything. The manifestations of your greatest fears and sorrows are good enough at that already."
"Eep!" Mena said and she haplessly tried to hide behind one of Caligari's desks
Caligari showed no sympathy for the fear in Mena's eyes and she shook her head. "Willow, you're doing this whether you want to or not. The other girls in this school are not able to handle this level of night creeper, but deep down, beneath all the romance novel and eye-of-newt spice latte nonsense, you are stronger than anyone else."
Mena was still silent, and Caligari looked at her with determination. "If you can save yourself, you'd save us all."
"Easy for you to say," Mena said, peeking her head out from underneath the desk. "You don't have to do anything."
There was a knowing look in Caligari's eyes, and at last, she said, "Willow, let us start simple. We'll do a dream simulation of one of your weaker fears. Something that doesn't absolutely tear your mind up and eat it for breakfast."
Mena raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"
Caligari gave a cold laugh. "Oh you'll soon see."
She positioned her hands at a grey and very uncomfortable looking bed. There was a mesh of wires entangled above it, including an ominous metallic helmet. Mena had used this bed once before, but it was simply to battle a very cute nightcreeper that resembled a dog with a bulb behind. This would, no doubt, be a lot worse.
As Mena cringed over the itchy and uncomfortable grey fabrics, her professor smirked. "Now I want you to use your vast supply imagicnation to thwart the nightcreeper. You have more than anyone else and once you realize that, this will be easy.
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Mena was surprised how much faith her grouchy teacher had in her. She didn't even think that much of herself. Wrapping the mesh of wires around her head, she waited for her simulated slumber to begin. Her eyelids grew heavy and she found herself inside her dream.
Mena was strutting down the hallway swinging her hands when she gasped in horror. There was a long metallic wire snaking itself down the hallway all by itself. It looked awfully familiar and when two Groundborn students giggled, she really cringed. "Mena's got such big braces!" one of the girls giggled.
Mena stomped her foot, realizing the nightcreeper was manifesting itself as her braces "They are not," she screamed, but that only seemed to draw the ire of the big braces and they lunged like a coiled sand snake.
"Uh oh!" Mena said, "I better brace myself."
They coiled around like a constrictor and she wobbled back and forth before dropping to the floor. "I didn't mean like that," she said.
The room filled with students. They were all pointing and laughing at her. Mena's eye watered. She couldn’t take anymore. "Nooooo!" she screamed before she awoke.
Caligari almost instantaneously put her palm in her face. “Your greatest weakness is how absent minded you are. There were a thousand ways to handle that weaker nightcreeper and you chose none at all.
“I’m sorry,” Mena said, holding onto the scratchy covers. “My fear was so childish that it caught me off guard.”
Caligari’s green eyes shone brightly. “Childish? I think you’ve uncovered the weakness of this fear.”
Mena was silent with her hand to her chin. “Wowie zowie!” she sad as she imagined a light switching on in her brain. “I have!”
She willingly put the mesh on her head again and grinned a bracey grin. “Time for round two, ding ding!”
Mena fell into slumber again, and this time, when she encountered the braces in the hallway, she grinned boldy at it. It went to lunge at her and she chanted, “Magic, time for some maturity. Will you summon an older me?”
There was a flash, and then, in between Mena and the braces was a taller woman with long, flowing brunette hair, a fully matured body and a purple witch's sweater. Mena shook her head in disbelief. “Wowie zowie! I didn’t know I aged that well. I look foxy…and sorta like my mother.
Mena shook her head, trying not to be distracted by herself. “Braces,” she declared. “see this foxy lady? Look at her teeth. One day, I won’t need you to correct them. They’ll be as perfect as my future self. Now older me, smile away”
The older version of Mena showcased a magnificent, shiny white grin. There were no braces intertwined with her teeth. The giant braces immediately slithered off and Mena did a happy dance.
Her older self turned around and smiled at her. “One question before I go,” Mena asked. “How did I get so curvaceous?”
Her older self placed a hand on her shoulder and answered in an airy voice. “Melons.”
“Melons…” Mena said, almost in a trance before she shook her head. “Got it. I’ll eat plenty of melons.” She high fived herself and bid herself goodbye.
When Mena awoke, Caligari placed her hands together and calpped. “Good work, for once Willow! See what I mean? Look at what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it!”
Literally,” Mena giggled. “Well I guess the first class was a success."
As Mena climbed out bed, Calgari said, “I’ll give you an R for Rudimentary.”
“Better than a T for Toil and Trouble, Mena sighed. She headed towards the door, but before she did, she remembered something.”
Professor?”
“Yes Willow?”
“I encountered Gemini when we were in the Mind Jungles.”
Caligari’s eyes nearly popped and her jaw dropped. “You did? He’s safe?”
"He seems to be,” Mena said with a head nod. “He was broadcasting a game show through a dream cloud.”
“Did you ask him about me?” Caligari asked soft and timidly.
“Er no…” Mena said, we were kinda doing other things at the time."
Caligari gazed forlornly at the floor. “Absent minded as always. I’ve heard enough, Willow. You can leave now.”
When Mena saw the scorn, she realized her teacher was still very unhappy with her. I better make like a bat and scat, she thought to herself. She ran out the door and bumped into a tall, lanky and cold frame. Mena looked up and squeaked in horror. It was the Tessellation Twins and Janus again.
“Peasant,” Latetita said with a fanged grin. “Jus zee one we are lookin for.”
Mena giggled nervously. “Out of the caudron and into the fire…” she said softly.