As Kasa searched the area she managed to find most of Laverne’s parts… the arm that had been thrown over the cliff was likely gone until someone could swim down there and look. As she searched they made a makeshift stretcher to help Trip back down the mountain as Laverne and Sally Mae explained what had happened.
“So you are telling us you are no longer helping Ruska and this mystery entity?” Dana asked as he found some straighter pieces of wood in the charred remains of the cabin.
“The ritual in this book I found is way too powerful for what he claimed… why would you need something that could change the entire world just to fix up this little island we are all on?” Laverne’s head chatted on happily as if it were completely normal not to be attached to the rest of her body.
“Good point… even if you go in with good intentions the temptation to just adjust something a little would be almost impossible to resist.” Sally Mae agreed, not moving from her brother’s side. “With that kind of power, I could fix Trip, get my family back home a real place to live, make it so all of us didn’t have to hide so much…”
“But every change like that… even well-meaning, could have dozens of unforeseen circumstances… and as far as I know you can only do this ritual once… or at the least very rarely… those consequences would have to be dealt with for a long time in the future.” Dana lashed the burnt remnants of a blanket to the two sticks he had found… testing it a few times to see if it would hold Trip’s weight. “It’s just as bad as messing with time travel. Sometimes bad things in history that happen end up making a positive change that would not have happened without it.”
“Well, with that spell gone, it’s not like it’s a decision we really have to make.” Cherri was also near Trip, after seeing her change her form they had asked if she could become something healing for the boy but complex compounds were still beyond her ability.
“We will find another way. We’re not out of this yet, girls. We’ll will get another chance, or even make one.”
“We don’t have to,” Kasa said quietly as she returned with the last body part she could find. “We know the ritual has to take place at the iris during the Equinox… we know where and when they are going to try this… we can stop them there.”
“That’s true enough but that is cutting things a little too close. It’s a good fallback if our backs are against the wall but I hope to be in a better position long before then… Kasa, can you get his legs?” Dana and Kasa lifted Trip up and onto the stretcher. The tone was dark as they came back down to the campus, the losses they suffered weighing on them already.
“We need something to pick up morale… we got hit hard but giving up won’t help us either,” Dana said once the campus buildings were in sight once again. “The Faire is coming up quickly and I am sure all of this has taken time from your projects. This weekend we can have a class get-together at the Exaulted, work on your projects, order some food, and just try to recover some of the momentum we have lost.”
“I am not leaving Trip.” Sally Mae said, her voice tight with tension as she glared at Dana.
“No… I wouldn’t think you were going to. You are welcome if you choose to come, though… you said yourself fixing this will take time, don’t drive yourself too hard to be there every second, much though I know you will want to be.”
“I’ll take it under advisement but there is no need to save me a seat at the table.” Sally Mae clutched Trip’s hand, though the constant shifting made it difficult. At least he wasn’t conscious to experience the pain.
“I understand. Are we taking Trip to the nurse?”
“No. This should only be handled by the pack, the only magic that has a chance at bringing him back. I will arrange for my people to meet us and take him where he can be helped.’
They made their way through the campus, bringing Trip to the campus gates, making their way through all the students making their way to class to begin their day. When they got to the entrance they waited a short time before two heavy ser men with lots of scruffy hair poking out of every inch of them arrived with a real stretcher.
“My cousins…” Sally Mae said, moving out to meet them as they shifted Trip to the proper stretcher in order to take him back to their clan. “We’ll take him where he can get help… I hope.”
Dana, Cherri, and Kasa watched the three of them walk off into the town, each wishing them the best in their hearts.
* * *
Sally Mae didn’t show up to class the next day, leading into the weekend when Dana extended the invitation to the remaining girls in the class to the Exaulted to finish up their projects. That weekend many of the girls arrived to spend some time together outside of class and get some work done. Dana ordered a bunch of pizzas, both with traditional and less conventional toppings.
As more than half the class crowded into Dana’s single room proved more crowded than originally thought. As the small room filled with scents of glue sticks and other crafting products Wilben took it upon himself to play waiter. The small gnome seemed to fully come to life as he interacted with the girls. Smiling and chatting with them as he bore them pinching his cheeks and doting on the aging hotel manager.
“I still think we should be doing something more important than arts and crafts here, Mr Wilde.” Zerys, a harpy that spends much of her time being quiet in the back of the room said. She was working on a series of brightly feathered ornamental decorations. “I mean I am more than happy for the chance to show that we harpy’s have brighter plumage than the movies show but isn’t this just a waste of time?”
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“No… this gives us a chance to focus on something other than the impending dread and gloom of what is coming.” Dana took another bite of his pepperoni pizza. “If there was something for us to do then perhaps, but right now all we can do is wait for another opportunity. Jett is still getting that son in a bottle stiff in a few days but the spell is lost to us for now.”
“I can look at a few places around campus,” Laverne stated, sitting on the bed. “They didn’t tell me too much but a few meeting spots might yield us some results.”
Laverne, the golem girl that had been hiding up in the mountains had started staying in one of the rooms just down from Kasa. The assassin had done a good enough job sewing the parts they had found together into a whole again but she was still missing her right arm. She was afraid returning to the campus would just put another target on her back so she was laying low. Though two of her friends, a mermaid, and a selkie, were looking on the ocean floor for her missing limb.
“Or we could just confront Ruska… President Glimmerclaw, with what we know.” Dana moved about the girls, offering some suggestions to improve their projects. “She doesn’t strike me as evil, we might be able to convince her she’s on the wrong side of this. Though if not, we may get more visits from that minotaur or his friends.”
“I’ve never exactly been afraid of a fight.” Phoebe Langford, a sasquatch hailing from Washington back in the States said working on a photo collage. Many of the more famous bigfoot pictures were on it, each with a name under it. She was claiming to be related to several of them so it was turning into a sort of family tree. “This minotaur may have been able to handle two werewolves but all of us?”
“Yes, but while there are more of us, there is no way to know just how many more of them there are either?” Jett lounged on a seat cradling a glass of red liquid. Dana doubted it was real blood but he didn’t want to know bad enough to ask. She claimed she had finished her project long ago but any chance to hang around in Dana’s apartment was too good for her to pass up. “Tactically we should avoid open warfare for as long as we can.”
“Do you think this will likely come down to actual fighting, Jett?”
“Oh darling teacher… it always comes down to combat, it’s just a matter of when with the stakes so high as this.” She smiled a secretive grin as she sipped her drink. “I do hope things at least turn a little more interesting when it does.”
“Combat isn’t something to joke about, people could get hurt. Is that something you are really hoping for?” Dana looked at her shocked.
“Of course not, I would hate to see any of my friends here come to harm… but something to get the blood flowing would be appreciated. It’s not like you are being very cooperative in that department…” She smiled another seductive smile.
“Can’t stop throwing yourself at the Prof even for one day, eh, Jett?” The Banshee, Brea, seemed to be painting something along the lines of impressionism for her project. “I don’t exactly see wedding bells in your future.”
“Oh poo, Brea… but you aren’t exactly perfect in your predictions are you? Do you really have to go around spoiling everyone’s fun?” Jett smiled again, leaning back in her chair with a sigh. “After all, I do still have an open invitation to move in here, don’t I Wildy?”
“That is not an invitation for anything beyond a place to stay Jett. I’m not exactly in the market for companionship right now.” Dana was exasperated with her constant flirting.
“Really? I thought I saw you and Miss Olaran getting pretty cozy not too long ago.” D’Arcy said, her face turning crimson in the next instant.
“Oh? Into the pretty elf? We’ll see how your attitude changes once she opens the door then.” Jett laughed softly, the most girly sound he had ever heard her make in the weeks at the Academy.
“You girls sure do like to make Mr Wilde squirm, don’t you?” Wilben beamed as he poured another drink for Cherri. The slime girl’s form dipped into the glass, absorbing the liquid directly into her system. The drink pooled inside her, the different colored liquid a contrast to her normally pinkish-red gel of a body only to be broken down later.
“It’s all in good fun… mostly. Vampires like Jett are natural predators and this is just part of how they draw in prey.” Daeva grinned over her own glass, knowing Jett and her antics all too well. “But given the chance she would eat you alive so you best be careful.”
“Alright, that’s enough of that.” Dana took another drink of his soda, he had steered well clear of alcohol since becoming a real teacher. “If it does come down to a fight, do any of you really hold your own should it come down to it?”
“You know as well as anyone that combat is taught here as well as academic subjects.” D’Arcy stood up, her hand dropping to the hilt of her sword. “If it comes down to it, we’ll stand with you. We’ll fight to keep this school intact.”
“I know I haven’t exactly given you much reason to trust me…” The one-armed golem girl spoke up again, her voice quiet, tentative. “But I’ll fight with you too. This place is far from perfect but I don’t really have anything else. I don’t even really know where I came from, if it weren’t for this place I wouldn’t have anywhere else to go.”
“I can fight too… got a nice big hammer that makes problems just go away.” The sasquatch smiled under her face full of fur, taping another picture to the board.
“I think we all are probably in better fighting shape than you if it comes down to it, Prof.” Daeva came up to him. “We know you are doing your best practicing with Whisoerwind and all but how much fighting have you honestly done… especially when it comes to fighting us monster-types.”
“If only not being ready for the coming mess could allow me to sit it out.” Dana threw a few testing punches, his nervous energy needing a place to go. “Think our hazy-looking villain would accept a note from the nurse and just come back another time?”
“If you haven’t met the school nurse yet, you might want to hold off. She has some… unconventional methods that often do more harm than good.” Kasa laughed. “There is a reason I keep up my practice in first aid… anything to keep away from our dear mad scientist of a nurse.”
“I hear one girl went in complaining about a headache and came out with a third arm!” Brea laughed to herself, the bandhee’s laughter sounded almost musical.
“That can’t be true! Can it?’
The rest of the evening was filled with more laughter and camaraderie beteween the girls. Pizza was eaten, soda was drunk, and tales were told. As the night crept onwards towards the dawn, one by one, the girls crashed into the various rooms of the hotel. Each of them calling their parents to warn them where they would be. After they all went to sleep in their various rooms Dana started cleaning up his too small room only to see Jett helping.
“What?” She said with a sparkling grin. “I don’t really need that much sleep so I can help straighten up. I’ll even go easy on the innuendo as a personal favor.” She picked up another one of the discarded pizza boxes and dumped it into the trash.
“Thanks Jett… you’re teasing does get a little out of control now and then.”
“Oh no, its not teasing, Professor. I’ve got time to wait and eventually you will give in. Its just a waiting game now.”
“Just what I am afraid of.”