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The next morning Nimum told them that the Grox would be sent off to jail, where they’d be interrogated about the Order of Terram. Nimum and the students would bring the Northfire with them home, and then Nimum would call for a meeting of the Seven Daughters of Mother Earth to decide what should be done with it.

“You’re calling in them to decide?” Sophie asked, curious but also a bit skeptical. “But the Northfire belongs to Loki.”

Nimum nodded. ”I’m totally with ya, Soph. But now the Order of Terram knows where it is, and something as powerful as the Northfire will have consequences for the entire world – for good and for ill. And the Seven Daughters of Mother Earth are tasked with making sure that the balance of the world is moving in the right direction… and not into some kind of Ragnarok. That’s why we need all seven Daughters there to make a decision.”

Loki seemed to agree with Nimum. He explained that the world was no longer the same as when he had been king. And that strictly speaking, he probably wasn’t the king of Utgard any longer.

”Times change, and we have to change with them. But king or not, and whether it’s called Utgard or Northfire, this is still my country.” Loki smiled widely as he waved them off.

The class trudged through the snow back to the beanstalk. Varis had to be guided, as he could barely see anything through his newly acquired floofy hair. On the positive side, between the warm coats and his gloriously long fur, he was probably the only one of the students who wasn’t the least bit cold.

Sophie could hear Trom complaining about how annoying it was to walk in the snow.

”Someone should come up with a way to not sink into the snow every time you take a step… Like maybe if you could spread out your weight… Like if we took some big sheets of bark and tied them to our feet, maybe that would fix it.”

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

”The bark from the trees around here wouldn’t be able to hold your weight,” Beto pointed out. “You’d need something much stronger that’s still not too heavy. If you’d like, I can list around 20 different bark types that might be worth testing out.”

They kept talking about it all the way back to the beanstalk. Fiff flew over to Sophie with a smile on her face. “I think this might be the first time I’ve ever seen Trom really trying to find a solution for the stuff he complains about.”

Elva glanced back over her shoulder. “Well, it’s about time,” she said, though she couldn’t keep a small smile from forming on her lips.

The entire class made it up on the leaf of the beanstalk, and Nimum soon had it moving, pulling them all back towards Unum. As the beanstalk whooshed through the air, Sophie kept her eyes fixed on the shores of Northfire, until they disappeared off on the horizon like a blurry line.

She still had so many questions left, about the Order of Terram, the Grox, the man who’d made the Dimension Door, and the meeting that Nimum was going to have with the other Daughters of Mother Earth. It felt like every time she found the answer for one question, a hundred new ones popped up. Once they got back, she’d have to return to the school’s library. That was the only place she knew to get answers from.

”Unum ahead!” Nimum yelled.

The students all turned their heads and saw the school off in the distance.

”Hoop! Ballyho!” Nimum gasped nonsensically. ”Is it already time? I’d forgotten all about that.”

As they got closer, Sophie could see what Nimum was talking about. The school was decorated with flags, garlands, lights, stands and all kinds of festive details. In several places, the outdoor areas had been changed, the forests had changed shape and size, oddly-shaped cliffs had grown from the ground, and a tornado was spinning in place in the backyard of the school, while the sky was full of small portals.

”What happened to the school?” Sophie asked.

”Oh, are we really doing this again?” Elva said with a sigh. “It’s the annual adventuring competition.”

”The annual what!?”

- This is the end of part 2 of "School of Wonders". I'm right now in the middle of my exam period, and will therefore not have time to continue the story until next year. It is also why there were no drawings for this chapter. I hope you all have enjoyed the reading so far and will return with part 3! If you would like to show your support for the story a huge help would be to leave a review and a comment :)