opaloremerald

[opaloremerald]

Chapter 8

An anima—the anima, that I had given the emerald—was slipping on the stone floor, her ears red with embarrassment. She looked up at him with big eyes. Big green eyes that looked mighty familiar.

             “Emilie?” I asked, then thought better of it, and spoke quickly, “sorry, I thought you were someone else. Now, are you okay?”

             The anima looked at him pointedly, “I’m not too used to marble floors,” she slipped and her toes spread wide, trying to keep her balance. I snorted a little at the picture. She looked like a kitten on hardwood.

The anima’s glossy black fur looked like Emilie’s waterfall of hair, but I had to remind myself that Emilie was up in the fifth tower room. I walked over to the anima, smiling, “How do want me to help you?”

She frowned, “Can you just help me get across to the stone, then I’ll be out of your hair.”

I grabbed her upper arm and pulled her over to the hallway I had been walking in before I had heard her yelp. The anima nodded a thanks to me before she ran off up a staircase, the emerald around her neck glinting. I stared at the place her tail had disappeared at. Even though most people considered dragons as equal, they were also called magic folk by other magic folk. Animas and Dragons had the closest connection, seeing how some animas could be reptilians.

I saw those big, green eyes in my head again, and compared them to Emilie’s. they looked so similar, but Emilie was a witch, not of magic folk—right? I ran a hand through my perfectly styled hair. I would check on Emilie in the tower room and that would prove that I was thinking too much.

The spiral stairs were solid underneath my feet as and I came up to the top. The door was solid would, rough underneath my knuckles as I knocked. The wind sprite, Sæt was fixing up the room simultaneously as she was playing the piano.

She looked up, still playing, and smiled at me, “she just left. Adorable thing, the biggest green eyes. She asked about you, too. Probably worried that you might see her in that state.”

I stared at a few hanks of her white hair that were sweeping, not focusing, “She asked about me?”

Sæt smiled even wider, “yep, it was pretty far forward in her question list. I told her you were waiting impatiently. You got a cute girlfriend, there.”

I was taken aback, “No, no. She’s not even my type. I was just really worried about her.”

The sprite’s face fell, “that’s sad. Not many people like her kind and it looks like it’s starting to get at her.”

“People don’t like seers?” I asked dumbly, not understanding what she was speaking of. As far as I knew seers were held in high respect.

“Emilie is a seer?” she said, stopping her playing and looked at me with huge purplish eyes, “you mean, you don’t know?”

“Know what?” I refocused on Sæt’s pale face, she raised delicate eyebrow but didn’t answer my question.

“If she hasn’t told you, it is not my place to say, now shoo,” she waved me out. As I walked back down the staircase, my mind spun as the stairs did. Did Emilie’s secret have to do with the little tattoos she got on her face? Were they even tattoos?

I ran a hand through my hair again, then stopped. I couldn’t feel my hair on my palm. I slid my wand out of my sleeve as I stopped, mid-stair. I tapped the tip to the back of my hand and a light ignited on the end, showing rows of scales on the back of my hand. I clicked my tongue.

My Wing Point was coming on soon and there was no way I could get back to my parents in time. The new scales on my hand itched, but I turned off the wand light and rushed the rest of the way down the stairs. I pushed the thick wood door open and peeked around to see if anyone was near. Thank goodness.

The urge to itch became too much and scratched my fingernails across the smooth scales. The relief was temporary, but when I lifted my hand I saw more scales had appeared.

“I have to hide this,” I mumbled to myself. But how? A bandage? No, that would be wasting a bandage, and I would have to change it every day. I don’t think there is a concealment charm strong enough to hide what species you are—

I did.

There was a charm that could hide a species, though it had a time limit.

The anima girl! The first time I met her it seemed as if she had a concealment charm on and the spell timed out. If I want to hide being a dragon I have to find her.

I waved my wand to summon the map as I ran to the dorm room. Classes had ended right after I saw her, so she was probably going back to one of the houses. The bold black line led to the hall and stairway to my dorm. As I raced down the hallway to the Great hall, another, different colored line, showed a sharp turn and ventured far into the castle. I almost took the turn, but thought better of it, and kept going the way the map told me.

Corridors I had never seen before flashed by my eyes as I ran and ascended up lots of stairs, getting closer and closer to my destination. But when I arrived, I wasn’t at the flimsy door of my high-up dorm room. I had in front of me a solid wood door with iron hinges and bolts that had long rusted over and blackened. A simple iron circle made the handle and, as I looked around for anyone to ask what was behind that door, I gripped the knob unconsciously. The door creaked as I opened it, looking inside tentatively. The room was musty and filled from ground to ceiling with books. Loose paper and scrolls, too.

I took a step inside, lighting the tip of my wand to better see the room. But, really there wasn’t much more to see other than an inscription on the far wall. I squinted at the gibberish writing until I could make it out in old draconic, a language used by the dragons of old. Mum and Dad made me memorize it when I was a kid.

Fire or Fur,

One must choose.

Scales or Skin,

Or they might lose.

Rags or Riches,

This has just begun.

Opal or Emerald,

The choice is yours, Son.

             I stumbled back from my position with my nose towards it. It sounds like it’s talking directly to me! I looked around the room, trying not to glance at the wall again. The ancient materials were rough against the spreading scales on my hands, though I could barely feel it. I thumbed through one book, but the language was one I hadn’t even seen before. It looked almost as if there were scratch marks and paw prints as the lettering.

             Considering bringing one of the books written in old draconic, I clicked sparks on my tongue. An iridescent flame came out of my mouth, and I caught it and made a plume of fire as I whistled. The opal underneath my tongue was the third out of the set I had to give to Skylar for her earrings. Pulling it out, I shined it against my coat. Looking at the luster, the gem just didn’t seem inviting to me anymore. I don’t know why, but I thought about the draconic on the wall. Opal or Emerald. What was that supposed to mean?

             I turned to look at it again, but the lines were gibberish again. It looked like one of the languages in one of the other books, but I wasn’t sure.

             I heard a crash in the hallway outside the door and snapped my wand to the right to shut off the light I had summoned. The crash was short-lived, but voices floated through the opened door. They weren’t loud enough for me to hear, so I pressed my ear to one of the knots in the door to hear better.

             “You idiot! That stupid seer is too strong for you to block! We need to bring her over to our side and I have the perfect blackmail,” a slippery-sounding voice hissed, and a foul stench seeped underneath the door. By seer, did he mean Emilie? And what was he going to blackmail her with? The slimy voice kept going, “but that boy—he is a menace to our cause. We need to get him out of the picture, quickly. it might be hard, but you can defeat a dragon, can’t you?”

             I blanched. That was me.

             “Yessir,” a warbling female voice choked out and the sound of hurried feet in high-heels clicked away. The gross voice called after the woman, “Oh, and don’t forget, it doesn’t matter if the girl is dead or alive. Seers don’t move on my plan, they just make it go a little faster.”

             My eyes widened. Emilie was one of the only two seers in the whole school, that means she was most likely the one they were targeting, since she had a vision attack the day before.

             I waited about thirty minutes after the encounter until I went out to find Emilie to keep her safe from the man coming for her. I summoned my map, concentrating on where Emilie was.

             I took a hard right as I burst out of the dark library. I glanced down at the map, still running.

             That voice—not the first one, the second one—it sounded like one of the teachers, but I which one?

             I racked my brain as I ran, trying to focus on the map and place the warbling, female voice. My shined shoes sliding against the stone floors as I turned another corner. Girls stared at me as I sprinted down the corridor, following the black line. It led up to the scaffolding off of a servant staircase and down into a small crevice between an uneven wall. I peeked down and tried to see what was past the entrance to the hole. I consulted the map and it told me to go straight down. I glanced at the hole again and decided not to jump to certain death.

               I kept an eye on Emile for another month and a half, staying as close as I could without warning her something was wrong, but one day she threw off that assumption.

             Emilie whirled around and stopped me in the middle of a hallway after Spell creation and adaption. Her whisker tattoos stood out on her tanned skin and her hair fanned out in a starburst around her head. She stabbed a finger with a long, nicely painted nails at my chest. The color complimented the skin tone of her hands that, compared to mine as I pulled her hand away from my chest, were dwarfed. She tugged her hand away before she spoke.

             “Why have you been following me around tout le temps?” she said the last part in French, pushing me into a little alcove out of the way, then went on ranting. “it’s getting annoying, so if there’s something wrong about me that you don’t like, tell me.”

             I was frozen, lost for words. I was right in front of the one girl I had been appreciating and protecting from afar. When did I get so socially inept with girls? My mouth worked, but no noise came out. Emilie cuffed my ear and I snapped out of my haze.

             “No, there’s nothing wrong with you per se but…” I trailed off, not wanting to scare her with the news that people wanted to kill her. She raised an eyebrow.

             “Per se?”

             I sighed and ran a scaly hand through my hair, “It’s really hard to explain, but I have reason to believe someone—in the school—wants to hurt you or blackmail you. I just want to keep you safe, Emilie.” I rested my hands on her shoulders, “I just want to protect you.”

             Emilie sighed, but caught a glimpse of my newly dragon-ified hand. She caught it up in her delicate grasp and inspected it, and, after she was done, her green gaze locked with my own, “What happened here?”

             I didn’t pull my hand away, liking the warmth that seeped underneath my hard scales, but gave her an explanation, “I’m near my Wing Point. Dragons get ready for their Wing Point by growing scales all over their body so the change to the wild form won’t be such a far leap, but enough about me. Have you had any visions lately?”

             Emilie huffed, “No, my tea dreg readings won’t give me anything either. And don’t ask about crystal balls, the ghosts trapped inside only want attention and are extremely hard to talk to. Mirrors don’t know all either. They have a one thing they know about, and it’s terribly specific. I can’t even get my dreams to be prophetic these days.”

             Emilie started running her hands through her hair and pulling on the roots in a frantic way after she started talking about crystal balls. I chuckled a little but she scowled at me, “Don’t you laugh. It’s hard for a seer not to see visions after a while. We’re used to too little blood in our systems. I’m already getting lightheaded.”

             It looked like I had triggered a panic attack so I dipped my eyes to her level, “Hey, calm down. It’s going to be okay. I’m going to keep you safe, but in the meantime, you need to tell me what you see in your visions.”

             Emilie looked up at me, the most scared look in her eyes, which made me feel absolutely awful for scaring her. I folded her into my arms and tucked her head underneath my chin. Emilie shook as she cried, wadding up my suit jacket in her fists. After a few minutes her sobs quieted and Emilie was just pressing her face into my chest.

             “We’re going to be late to class,” she mumbled, her voice muffled by my dress shirt.

             “I have a free period,” I said, unmoving. My arms grew heavy around her, and I probably couldn’t’ve lifted them if Emilie didn’t move when she did. Her reddened face smirked up at me.

             “I know. You follow me, remember?” she said, trying to break out of my embrace, but clipped footsteps were coming up on us. They sounded of high heels, like the ones the accomplice of the man with the gross voice.

             I whipped Emilie around so that I shielded her. Her eyes were wide as I raised a finger to my lips.

             “The accomplice of the man I heard was wearing high heels,” I whispered, then lowered my face towards her, “people are uncomfortable with open displays of affection. May I?”

[opaloremerald]

Chapter Seven

You never realize how big someone else if until you realize how small you are. As I was frozen in front of the crazy man with the long red hair, Marx pulled me into his chest. I smelled the stables on his shirt and felt his taut muscles underneath the fabric. I blushed.

             “She’s telling the truth, sir,” he answered, “Her friends and I know French, but she’s still learning English,” then turned to me and said in perfect French, “Vous êtes OK, Emilie?”

             My eyes widened and he smirked at me, but Marx turned back to the man with a stern expression, “Now would you step away and stop harassing her? We have something to get back to, good day.”

             Marx walked away from the man, dragging me along with him, and the spell the man had seemed to put on me broke, letting everyone else move. Sonya and Adrianne fell forward onto the sidewalk and I twisted back to wave at them. After I had alerted them to my departure, I turned back and clenched my teeth, trying to keep my blush at bay.

             “Thank you for helping me,” I squeezed my arms around my middle and looked down at my feet, trying to shrink out of existence. Marx smirked again, probably at my shyness.

             “It was nothing,” he hooked his fingers through his belt loops, “I could see that man scared you,” he turned to me, “what was he talking about?”

             I self-consciously touched the markings on my face, then the emerald at my neck. The triangles had just shown up that morning and I had called my meré to ask what they were. She said that, when an anima uses such a strong charm, a marking to show what species of anima they were showed through the spell. Since my family is of a cat species, I had whisker markings. Meré said that my brother, Pierre—who I hadn’t seen in years— has stripes on his arms and that she has to trim her nails hourly because they grow like claws.

             “It’s a personal thing; humans are drawn to the odd and not normal and that describes me to a tee,” I explained, “my family gets people like that all the time. I just can’t tell you why.”

             Marx’s smirk faded and a serious look came over his face. He looked down and preceded to kick rocks on the sidewalk with his work boots, then looked at her with his deep navy eyes, “I hope you can tell me someday.”

             My gaze shot back down to my face and I could feel my face growing hot, and Marx kept speaking, “I have a personal thing like that. If you don’t mind, I’d like to tell you.”

             I shot a look at him, my face still beet red and he took that as a yes, “My family isn’t homo-sapien in species. We are what are called homo-draconic—dragons.”

             My eyes widened at Marx as he kept going, “I’m a young dragon, so I haven’t reached my wing-point—that means the day I get my wings and can turn into my dragon form freely. My ma says it’ll happen soon, but it’s a random point in a dragon’s life. I can breathe fire and all, and I have a horde of gems, and I have these markings,” Marx took off his ball cap to show his mussed black-greenish-grey hair and gestured to the markings that I had noticed when I had cast the transanima spell, “They’re on my arms and I cover them up with small concealment charms, but that’s beside the point. I’m a dragon, and I told you that. Why did I tell you that?” he said the last part more to himself.

             I stopped and fully turned towards Marx, pain zipped through my cheeks and I touched the markings, “Marx, these things on my face, they’re…they’re hard to explain, and I can’t just spill my guts to you, someone I just started to get to know.”

             Marx made eye contact with me and raised his hand to touch one of my ‘whiskers’. He brought his finger back red with blood, then looked down at me from his tall height, “Are you okay?”

             I was stunned as I felt a drop of blood roll down my cheek and the smell of iron came up to my nose. I swayed on my feet a little, and Marx’s big hand—which spanned the width of my back—came to steady me. “Okay, let’s get you back to the school.”

             He steered me towards the stables, talking to me in a low rumble to keep me calm, “We’re going to take Butter home okay?”

             I was confused.  Why am I bleeding? Is a vision coming on?

             Flashes of another place startled me and I stumbled into Marx’s protective embrace. I saw a different time, a different country, but it was choppy. It was as if my mind was being driven past a fence and I was only peeking between the slats. My knees gave out and Marx caught me. I saw a flash of his worried face as he swept me up into his arms. I set my head against his chest as I saw a frozen and barren landscape, the red sunset blotting the white snow. Shivers racked my body and I glimpsed the door to the stable going by. A hand descended on my forehead, checking my temperature.

             “Stay with me, Emilie,” he whispered as he sat me down on a hay bale to get his horse. My head rolled to the side because I didn’t have the energy to keep it up. Marx led a chestnut and buckskin paint out of a stall that I knew as Butter. He knickered at me and I raised my hand up weakly to rub his snout. Marx caught my upper arm and hauled me upward onto Butter’s bare back. I felt like a marionette doll with its strings cut as Marx slipped onto the horse behind me and grabbed its reins. My limbs wouldn’t move and people shouted as we galloped out of town.

             Marx stopped for a second and his timbre explained something to someone, but instead of seeing a friend, I saw a pale face with dark eye sockets and a wide, sharply toothed smile. A whimper escaped my lips and Marx soothed me with his deep voice. The words were jumbled up nonsense, but they helped me dig myself out of the mess of pictures, sounds and smells. I folded deeper into his chest as a sight of a different horse with a different rider filled my mind.

The elegant lady on the back of a lean stallion had long, flowing hair, and the wind caught it up with leaves flowing through the eddies made by the strong gusts. The sun glinted off the long locks as the lady laughed out loud. She threw her hands up into the air and streams of light burst through her palms. It twined with the rays of sunlight and new vines growing around her burst open with color. Flowers of all kinds bloomed on each frond when she waved her hand their way.

She’s so strong, I thought, doing this without a wand, it’s phenomenal.

Suddenly, a shot rang out and the beautiful lady lurched forward, her white light turning black. The blooming flowers wilted and the streams of black in the air trailed over to a tall tree. A wand stirred up the blackness and it gathered into the tip. A black jewel glittered on the ornate hilt and the wand retracted back into the darkness.

A bump jolted me out of my vision and my head jolted upwards, making a slicing pain lace through my eyes. I felt Marx behind me shift and relax.

“Good, you went unconscious for a second there,” he said calmly, whipping Butter’s reins and urging him along. My vision was blurry and I tried to blink away the haze, but to no avail. I started to panic, taking short breaths. My sight was leaving, little by little, and it scared me.

The school came up as I started to bend over, wrapping my arms around my middle. Marx didn’t bother leading Butter to the stables around the corner, but instead slid off at the main doors and pulled me down onto his back. I seeped in his warmth. I wonder if he’s this warm because he’s a dragon.

Marx was a dragon, he was of magic folk, not a magician. It hit me late. I had overlooked that little detail. I was of magic folk. We were the same. Sure, he was a homo-draconi and I was a homo-animi, but neither of us were homo-sapiens and that was a certain kinship between us. He might not have known that, but it gave me great peace.

“Headmistress Christopher!” Marx voice rang out as he pushed into the Dinning hall. It echoed to the rafters and another flash of a vision sent tremors through my bones.

An evil laugh echoed into the hall of an unfamiliar castle. I couldn’t see who voiced it, but I felt a sense of foreboding in the air. A sole person stumbled through the large wooden doors, an orange aura floating around him. He whipped around at the sound of clattering, but it was just some broken down scaffolding. The man heaved a breath out, his aura becoming heavy with relief.

“I see you came,” the disembodied voice that produced the laugh rumbled, “thank you for your donation.”

             “Donation?” the man asked, his voice high with fear. Darkness edged in on the man and the aura around him started to seep out of him. The man backed away from the darkness, pressing against the door. His screams echoed through the high ceilings as the shadows converged.

             “What’s wrong?” the regal accent of my headmistress filtered through my fuzzy and dazed state. How had Marx gotten into her office with me on his back? It required a long trek up a hidden staircase and a few fake doors, and not only that, it felt like only seconds ago that we had entered the school.

             “She just started bleeding from her tattoos and I think she’s having visions, but I can’t see them even though I’m touching her, and a second ago she started to scream,” he explained, puffing a little.

             “Headmistress,” I whimpered, “I need to…tell,” I stopped to huff a little myself from the exertion it took to speak, “you what I…saw.”

             Headmistress Christopher looked into my eyes with worry, “Not now, dear. You have to recover,” she turned to Marx, “What happened that might’ve made this occur?”

             Marx seemed to think a little as they entered a private room, probably in the tower, “She was confronted by a human at the—” he stopped. Headmistress Christopher sighed.

             “I know you all go to the village, I have powerful magic that can see through membrane charms,” she spoke of the flyers that appeared one way to some people and another to others, “and I said ‘don’t do what your upperclassmen wouldn’t’. I started that little trend when I was your all’s age. Now, tell me what this human said to Emilie.”

               Everything was hot. Burning. Searing. My furry fingers tipped with long nails tried to dodge all the hot spots as I attempted to escape my cage. It was made of still-burning lava rock and was in the shape of a bird-cage.

             “What am I doing here?” I asked aloud, my voice scratchy and my sharp teeth catching on my lips. No one answered my question, but instead a man—the man I had seen earlier—with the lack of eyes and sharp teeth—came into my sight.  

             “You, Miss. Beaumont, are an enigma,” his voice was the one that had spoken to the man with the orange aura, “You’ve seen my dealings, past and maybe future.”

             I reeled back, my tail curling around me, as he reached in to ruffle my ears. “Sadly, I can’t meet you on the solid plane. And your protector! He is quite a strong dragon. Though, he will find out your secret soon. Maybe he can see you now, in this pitiful form.”

             As he backed away and disappeared into black mist I curled into a little ball, wishing myself out of that fiery pit.

               I heard a sweet tune as I woke. It was a trilling piano playing the moonlight sonata by Beethoven. I sat up, feeling soft sheets rub against my fur. Who was playing the piano?

             “Oh good,” a light voice sang and the music stopped. I turned to see a wind sprite float towards me, her white hair long and prehensile. White antlers curled gracefully above her head and her eyes were a watery purple. The sprite smiled at me, “You’re awake.”  

             I blinked a few times, touching my emerald, then snapped out of it.

             “Where am I?” I asked, scrambling out of bed, my ears flat against my head, “Where’s my wand? How long have I been unconscious? Where’s Marx? What happened?”

             The sprite lifted her pale hands to me; the skin was so thin, I could see her intricate web of blood vessels filled with lavender blood. Fronds of her hair fixed the bed as she approached me. I noticed little lines of bells hanging from her antlers. They tinkled a sweet little jingle that replaced the piano music.

             “You are in the private infirmary in the fifth tower,” the sprite tugged me back to the bed, “The headmistress thought it best. Your wand is right here on the bedside table, you’ve been unconscious for a day and a half, Marx is impatiently waiting in his Magic History and Culture class and it seems that a human cursed you on Saturday at the village, though we have no idea how.”

             I noticed my wand on the table and snatched it up, rolling it across my knuckles. I glanced at the wind sprite next to me. “Why didn’t you leave at the first chance? I know wind sprites are flighty.”

             The sprite sighed, “Yes, that is a majority of us. We hate being cooped up and trapped in places, much like you animas, but not all wind sprites are unreliable. I like it here at Serpentine Academy. Been working here for seven-hundred years.”

             “I’ve never seen a sprite around before,” I said, my wand stopping in my hand, “where do you work?”

             She gave a sad smile, “I’m the one who tends the gardens. I truly love the outdoors, but I haven’t had one thought of escape since I met my Judson.”

             I blinked a few times, “Judson Kirsten, as my AP Potions teacher, Judson Kirsten?”  

             The sprite lit up, “He’s the one,” she fanned out her hand, showing a beautiful diamond with turquoise set around it, “gave me this at our wedding. Oh, silly me! I forgot to tell you my name! I’m Sæt, nice to meet you.”

             I was still stunned that Mr. Kirsten had a beautiful sprite for a wife, but Sæt didn’t mind. She fussed over me for a little, asking how my head felt and if there were any visions coming on, but I was perfectly fine. I really just wanted to get back to my dorm room and think over the visions and dream I had.

             After my checkup turned out clean, Sæt set me free, but telling me not to put the concealment charm on until tomorrow. I waved goodbye and made my way down the long and winding staircase. The lunch bell rang as I came out of the tower door and into a mostly unused corridor. I waved my wand to see my map on the wall and the closest door to the Eiva house. It was a secret door in a study room.

             As I made my way down the passage a barrage of scents and sounds came at me, reminding me that I was in my normal anima form and that I couldn’t be seen for too long, lest anyone recognize my voice or eyes. My claws made little clicking noises on the marble floors as I fought to keep my balance. Tile, hardwood, and stone were really hard to not slip on for some animas as they normally lived in houses with rough wood flooring, dirt, or they lived in the wild. The emerald looped twice around my neck swung as I grabbed an ornate pillar to hold me up. I must’ve yelped a little, because someone called out.

             “Hello? Does someone need some help?” the person called out. He’s near!

             “No!” my voice wavered a little as I slipped again.

             “It really sounds as if you need some help!” the person was coming closer; I could hear the shoes clipping on the stone floor. The person came around the bend, but I couldn’t look up to see who it was as I wanted to keep from slipping.

             “Hey, whoa, what’s wrong?”

[opaloremerald]

Chapter Six

I stared at Emilie from the Cinta table. It had been a full week since she had had the fever and ran away to the secret room.

             Emilie laughed, her hair falling in a black waterfall across her back. Her jewel-green eyes flashed as she ate her waffles. She is the exact opposite of Skylar. Mellow, middle class, a dark beauty. Luck nudged my arm, breaking me out of my daydream.

             “You got the hots for the Intercental shark?” he said, a smile on his tone. I flicked his head, taking down a gulp of my orange juice. Luck took that as a sign to change the subject, “You going to the village tonight?”

             “Yes, and isn’t it more of a town than a village? We went by it in the car,” I touched my wand, which was hidden in it’s little slit in my suit-jacket sleeve. I gave a little cough and felt the flat cat’s eye under my teeth shift ever so slightly to remind me that it was there.

             That was one reason that I didn’t like cat’s eyes. They were rough and always wanted to be recognized for the little work they did. The semi-valuable jewel barely made any liquid flame, though it was the only gem that could produce it.

             “To humans, the difference between a town and a village is the amount of people in it, to magic folk, it’s gaged by the amount of magic coursing through it. The place just a bit away is in fact a town to humans and a village to magic folk,” Jake said, referring to gargoyles, Elves, Mer, Dwarves, Goblins, fæs, dragons, and—I thought of that poor thing with the emerald I gave her—animas. Animas weren’t considered witches or wizards. Dragons were regarded with caution, but they were considered equal with humans.

             The headmistress, Headmistress Christopher, rose from her seat in the middle of the row of teachers. Her hair floated above her in an intricate cloud, with ribbons of fire or water or ice wherever you looked. The effect was hypnotizing.

             “Now I understand today is the first day off since Sunday, but I want to set some ground rules for our year ones and new guests,” she gave a flourishing wave in the general direction of me and my friends, “One: you cannot spend your days inside; At least six hours have to be spent outside a day. Two: homework is allowed, but not required. Studious people are important, but there is much more to life than your educations. Three: don’t do anything your upperclassmen wouldn’t.” At the last rule she gave a wink, obviously knowing what the students of Serpentine did when the other teachers weren’t looking.

After she finished her other announcements, the girls started to filter out. I saw Emilie slip into a niche in the back corner of the Dining hall, checking around her to see if anyone was following. I furrowed my eyebrows, meaning to tail her, but Luck seized my arm and pulled me away.

I frowned at him as we left the room, “What was that for?”

“Dragging you away from a bad idea, dude,” Luck led me up the staircase, “We have’ta change outta these fancy monkey suits if we want to fit in at that town. You do have casual clothes, don’t you? And one of those Jevos said to wear sturdy clothes because there’s a stable you can go horseback riding from.”

I sighed and summoned my map with a simple flourish of my hand, looking over the grounds section. I planted my finger on a building. “Serpentine Academy has stables, too.”

Luck laughed as I let Jake pour over the parchment, “But doesn’t it add a little more flair to do it in a forbidden place?”

I rolled my eyes, but agreed with my friend in that statement. My mother and father had always told me not to hoard gems until I was older, or try to breathe flame until my chemicals settled, but I had started to do so, not telling my parents and relishing in the feeling that they were wrong.

We arrived at our dorm room and changed into our human clothes, mine being jeans and a long-sleeved tee. I shoved a ball cap on my head and tapped my work-boot clad foot impatiently. “Luck! It doesn’t take this long for me or Jake to do our hair!”

The said boy was next to me, sniggering as he tried to flip his wand over his knuckles. I had seen Emilie do that all the time in classes. I wondered if it was her tic, something that she had always done. I had also seen her tapping her wand against her leg or a table, maybe it was something a dear friend or sibling had taught her. Or maybe I was reading to far between the lines.

I clicked my tongue, making sparks as I waited for one of my best friends to come out of the bathroom.

“The reason,” Luck said, coming out of the doorway and striking a pose, “is that not everyone has perfect I-just-rolled-out-of-bed-hair like you do.”

I whacked him over the head and started out the door. Luck was paused by the far window in our room, and I was about to yell at him to get on, but he beckoned me over. Luck pointed out the window and I sidled up next to him.

“Someone’s cocky,” he announced. Emilie was on a grey dappled horse, riding to the village. She bounced on the bare back of the mare and clutched her mane. My gaze was glued on the sight until Jake broke me from my trance.

“Speaking of cocky, we need to get to the village before we’re caught in our civvies,” He said and I drew up to my full height, a few inches taller than Luck. I nodded, brushing my hand over my wand in my back pocket.

“How far away is it from the academy? We might need to take horses too,” I said as I left the room, trying to forget how pretty Emilie’s hair had looked as she sprinted off of campus. Jake waved his hand in the air in a kinda-sorta way. I sighed.

             The stables were hidden away about one hundred yards into the west forest. Strangely, three horses were already tacked up and ready to go, a note on each bridle saying their name and that they were free to be ridden anywhere. I raised an eyebrow, but relished the feeling of warmth around me. It was a relatively cold day, but the sudden fall snow that had fallen last week was melted. The air outside the barn was fresh and crisp, perfect for riding. I took the reigns of a chestnut paint with buckskin splotches named Butter and led him out.

             I stuck my foot into the stirrup and hefted myself upwards. Horseback riding was one of the only things that my father let me do on our extensive property in Wales. I relished my time on my own horse, Fyre, who was a jumper. I squeezed my feet around Butter gently, getting him to start in on a walk.

             Luck trotted out on a black mare with a star on her head and Jake came with a brown quarter horse. I gave a smirk to them. “You wanna race?”  

             Luck agreed immediately, but Jake took a little coaxing. His mother, who was very protective, never let him get on anything without a helmet on. Eventually he came around and maneuvered his horse, Fred, into racing position. I leaned down onto Butter and, as I called go, kicked him into action.

             I could see why they named him Butter; the horse’s moves were smooth and quick, soon leaving the others in the dust. I dipped my head, trying to keep my hat on as I thundered down the path down to the village.

             Somebody crouching down on the side of the road piqued my interest. Their hair was held up in one hand as they inspected something on the ground. The person had a notebook on one knee and occasionally referenced in it or wrote down something. I passed the person quickly with a slight dip of my hat.

             I beat both Luck and Jake to the village by a long shot. There were girls in groups around the town, but none of them talked to him or his friends. They seemed hands off and/or indifferent to us boys, mostly because we were in the Take of Cinta, which no one seemed to like.

             I dropped Butter off at the stables with a pat and reassuring words that I would come back soon. I saw the dappled grey that Emilie had been riding bareback digging her nose into a bag of oats. That meant she was in town, too. I wonder if her friends were here and if that was the only reason she came.

             I walked around the village, entering shops and smiling at the town girls. Giggles followed me everywhere and they increased when Luck and Jake joined me. We entered a leatherworking store and glimpsed a flash of a whitewash blonde head, a long and snakelike braid, and a waterfall of black hair.

             Emilie. I hadn’t talked to her since she escaped down the secret tunnel. I wondered if she was avoiding me. But why would she do that? Would she mind if I just came up next to her at a random store? Luck walked ahead of me, smirking at my indecision.

             “Hey girls!” the thin, transparent girl didn’t turn, and neither did the imposing one with the braid, but Emilie whipped around, her eyes widening at the sight of them. She turned back around immediately, but I saw the markings on her face.

             Two thin triangles underneath each eye. I tilted my head. Had she gotten a tattoo? Those weren’t allowed at Serpentine and she could get expelled if the headmistress thought it necessary.

             Emilie ducked her head as we came towards her group. The thin girl looked up at her with concern, but kept her conversation with the man behind the table ongoing. It looked as if she was buying something. Three bracelets were set out on a velvet stand and the man picked each up and examined them carefully.

             “Yes, these will do quite nicely with the other pieces we have here—adding that feminine touch, I see,” The man said as we came up to the counter, he glanced up as he put the bracelets underneath the glass, “What can I help you with, chaps?”

             Luck started to open his mouth, but I stopped him before he could make a comment about me staring at the back of Emilie’s head a minute before. “We heard you had some cool stuff and wanted to check it out”

             The man nodded, “Well, my name’s Levi, and I can’t help you as of now because I have to log in Ms. Smith’s items, but Emilie can help you. She’s got a part-time job here and needs to get in her hours this year.”

             Emilie stuck her tongue out at Levi, but hopped up over the counter and slid behind it anyway. Her head came up, green eyes flashing, “What would you like?”

             How had I not noticed how well she hid her French accent? “I dunno, maybe a bracelet or something.”

             I glanced beside me and saw Luck and Jake talking to Levi, the traitors. The sound of the glass top of the counter brought me back to looking at Emilie. Her green eyes were tilted up at me skeptically, but I looked down at the leather pieces she had set out for me. There was a thick leather cuff with a band of braided, thinner leather imbedded in the center, a round-braided one, and one with an emerald in the center. I fingered the emerald, thinking about how I gave the chipped gem to that poor anima, but set it aside. I still preferred opals. I looked at Emilie. Why is she so intriguing to me? I don’t even like her looks or her personality. No. She doesn’t like me either. She’s been avoiding me for the past week.

             I smiled at Emilie and said I didn’t want to buy any of them. I made my way over to Luck as she slid over the counter and said goodbye Levi. The thin blonde and imposing tall one both bid the man adieu and followed her out.

             “Come back again,” Levi called to us as we exited behind her. Emilie touched the tattoos on her face and winced as we passed her to get into the street.

             “What are they?” the thin girl asked quietly, not knowing I could hear her.

Emilie sighed, “Meré says its normal for a—”

She was cut off by a sharp yell. A man with long red hair was pointing at Emilie and her eyes grew wide with the attention the action brought. Everyone had eyes on either her or the red-haired man. My own gaze darted between them.

“Quel?” Emilie asked in shuddering French. The man narrowed his eyes.

“I know your kind. You can speak all kinds languages, don’t play dumb,” the redhead growled, stalking up to her. The witch’s small frame shrunk underneath the man’s imposing height and she didn’t meet his eyes. This was an Emilie that I had never seen before. She was—scared?

             “Je ne sais pas ce que vous entendez,” she said frantically, waving her hands, “je le promets!”

             The man raised up a hand and struck Emilie across her face. She visibly shook, but no one moved to help her, they all seemed frozen in place, not even breathing. I moved to stop the man, though it took all of my strength. As he lifted up his hand to hit Emilie again I grabbed his shoulder with my hand and wrapped my other arm around her.

[opaloremerald]

Chapter Five

That boy left just in time because the fever that had suddenly appeared had weakened my concealment charm and the fur that was held back rippled across my skin. The hair made me even more hot and I slid off of my chair onto the cold tile floor. I curled up tightly, my ears flattened back on my head.

             How will I be able to get to a secret room in this state? The closest one was in the back corner of the library, but my legs felt like they would break if they tried to hold my weight. In spite of that, though, I pulled myself up and staggered to a bookcase, holding on for dear life. A few books fell to the ground around my furry feet and a shuddering at the door followed. My head snapped around and I started to panic. Someone was coming into the library and I was out in the open. I had to get to the back corner immediately.

             As I made my way to the back of the library the knob on the door turned. My nose twitched and I fell onto the rigged bookcase. The door opened and I fumbled for the triggering book.

             “Emilie? Are you okay?” Marx’s voice echoed through the mostly cleared-out room and I pulled a book titled “the wonders of magical digestion issues”. The bookcase swung open and I practically dove into the thin passage as clipped footsteps came around a shelf.

             “Emilie!” Marx’s voice came down the hole as I bumped over a few nicks in the stone. My brain rattled in my skull and I braced for impact. The soft carpet padded my fall, but the fever didn’t help me in any way.

             As I snuggled into the fluffy carpet, voices echoed in my skull. Iron flavored on my tongue and I groaned. Not another vision.

             Manicured claws punched at a typewriter, spelling out a long letter.

             “Abigail!” a rough voice yelled and a woman with softly curled auburn hair looked up from another desk. My eyes raised to look at her and my hands worked at the same time, finding a thin, wooden object in the drawer. A wand?

             My hand raised, the long, sparkly nails glinting in the office light. I tapped it—the wand—to the bridge of my nose and raised my eyes to the woman, Abigail, again. A floating, silver mist came around her; little wisps touched the wall and other things around her. I raised my wand and mumbled a simple incantation in a dead language.

             The silver mist fell away from Abigail and circled my arm, seeping into the wood of my wand. Except, that wasn’t my wand. It was a thin, short, cherry thing, with too many embellishments for my taste.

             In the corner of my vision, Abigail slumped to the wall, sliding down to the ground. People rushed towards her, but the body I was seeing though felt a rush of accomplishment. A cruel smile spread across my face as another, silver jewel swirled on the cherry wood.

               “Emilie,” Adrianne’s voice came through my subconscious and my eyes fluttered open. The semi-visible girl helped me up and jerked away quickly after my claws dug into her wrist. I glanced around the room, seeing Sonya getting up from her power stance at the mouth of the tunnel that led to the secret room.

             “How’d you guys find me?” I asked, holding my hand up to my forehead. Adrianne moved it away and pushed the tip of her wand to my head. A second later, she pulled it away and raised a delicate, white eyebrow at the flashing red tip.

             “You have a fever,” she said and Sonya ruffled the fur on my head, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

             I gestured to my furry body and grabbed my tail, “I couldn’t go to the Eiva house like this.”

             “You are aware that they know there is something different about you, and that they do not care,” Sonya informed me. I tilted my head at her.

             “How?” I lowered my ears and my tail came up in a question mark curl.

             “They put two and two together,” Adrianne said and guided me to the exit, which was a secret door that led straight to many Take houses. One being Take Eiva. Sonya tapped her sixteen-inch oak wood wand on the stone and a doorframe raised out of the chipped rock. I shuffled through the doorway, hearing my nails click on the bare stone.

             “You sure that they won’t care?” I asked after a long walk and a few stumbles and a change of clothing from my uniform to a simple black cloak. Sonya tapped her wand to the wall in front of our group. Adrianne gave me a wide smile.

             “They don’t care a bit. They see you as a leader and so do we,” she knocked her thin wand to my fuzzy forehead, “They. Don’t. Care.”

             I nodded queasily, peering at the door in front of me from underneath my hood. Sonya pushed it open and heads turned towards us.

             “Sonya! Did you get Emilie?” a younger year 3 girl asked, turning from her Spell creation and an adaption homework. Sonya’s strong hand slapped my back and I lurched forward.

             “She is here,” Sonya said and I lifted up my head, gripping the emerald around my neck. Gasps resonated, then sighs in adoration.

             “Emilie! You are—ADORABLE!” somebody said as I pushed off my hood. People started surrounding me, chattering about how I should’ve told them sooner. By the time the lunch bell sounded all of the girls in Take Eiva knew everything about being an Anima.

             I went up to my room to change and came down to see everyone had left before me. My fever had gone down after I got back to the house and, thankfully I felt well enough to ride down to the great hall on my broom. I swiped it from the bowl I had thrown it in the night before. Snapping back into its bigger form, my broom vibrated in response to the warmth of the room. I had taken the cloth off of the stick and was now able to trace my fingers over the delicate engraving Papa had done himself when I won the broom trick riding finals three years ago.

             “Let’s get to the Dining hall,” I waved my wand at the window and flew out to join my Take downstairs.

               The next week went smoothly, even with the boys coming into classes on Wednesday. My fever didn’t come back and I was able to take off my concealment charm when I was inside the house. Everything was peachy keen. Except divination class.

             I had told Ms. Crawley about the vision I had in the secret room, but I had to speak in French due to the rest of the class staring into dregs of tea.

             “Je n'étais pas dans mon corps cette fois, en fait. J'étais une sorcière dans ce que je pense être un bureau des affaires humaines. Elle avait une cible nommée Abigail, et semblait enlever sa force de vie avec un sort dans une langue morte,” I whispered to her, then furrowed my eyebrows, “C'était l'argent, la force vitale. Et après avoir absorbé la force, un Jem s'est pointé sur sa baguette.”

             Ms. Crawley nodded, “Thank you, Emilie. It’s good that the fever you had didn’t affect your visions.”

             I snorted, fingering the leather cord looped twice around my neck, “I think the fever triggered it. I couldn’t even hex anyone I was so weak.”

             My wand travelled over my knuckles as I glanced at Adrianne’s tea dregs beside me, “Ooh. That’s interesting. Are you coming to the village tomorrow?”

             Adrianne shoved her nose into the cup and then into the translation book on the table. Her frustrated face turned up at me when she couldn’t figure out what I had meant. Sonya leaned forward on the table, intrigued.

             I stopped turning the wand over my knuckles and raised my hands in defense of the small Australian girl beside me, “I can’t tell you, I’m sorry. That would be cheating.”

             Adrianne pouted, “I know, it’s just I don’t get how you translate them so well and quickly.”

             I smiled, prying the teacup from her death grip, “My mamie lived in a village as the local diviner. I was her apprentice. We scammed so many people. Mamie would drag out her visions so that the customers would have to pay for minutes. Femme brillante, ma mamie était.”

             I turned the cup upside down and hit it gently on my right palm, shifting the contents slightly, “There, that’s a bit clearer.”

             Adrianne snatched the cup away from my hand, making a laugh come from my mouth. She looked at my version of the dregs and read something in the book. A smile across her face, Adrianne slammed the cup down onto the round table and raised her hand happily, “Ms. Crawley! I have a translation!”

             The teacher floated over to our table and Adrianne explained what she saw, “Emilie translated if for me, but I know when she lies. I can’t go home for holiday this year or else something bad might happen to my momma.”

             Ms. Crawley beckoned for the cup and Adrianne passed it over, a smug expression on her face. Our divination teacher tilted the cup this way and that, “Ooh. That’s interesting. Are you coming to the village tomorrow?” [EC1] 

             I smirked at Adrianne, “That is exactly what I said, Madame Crawley.”

             “And rightfully so,” Ms. Crawley handed the cup back to my roommate, “that’s a very clear picture. I’m surprised that you didn’t see what we did. You might have to do extra work. Emilie can help you.”

             I raised an eyebrow and smiled at Adrianne as the bell for the end of the day rang. I rolled my wand over my knuckles as I left the lavishly furnished room, but before I exited I heard a voice complaining.

             “I can’t believe we have to take this stupid class, what do we learn from it?” Skylar’s whine came from my right. I backed up quickly, my wand held firmly in my hand.

             “I mean, all I see is three blobs and a few splatters, not my future,” I walked up behind the heiress and pulled up her cup, scaring her.

             “Hey, frog, give that back!” she demanded, but I just knocked it against my hand and tilted it just so.

             “Oh my,” I raised a single eyebrow at Skylar, “I think it is imperative that you stay away from old wishing fountains.”

             I gave her back her cup and turned tail, ignoring Skylar’s demands to explain myself.

 [EC1]Add Halloween chapter

[opaloremerald]

Chapter Four

Midnight advanced on me and soon I had my map in my hand and my wand lighting up the dark corridor around me. Luck was next to me doing the same thing and Jake was still pulling on his suit jacket. After he had tugged it over his skinny shoulders I handed him the map and fell back beside Luck. Giving directions stressed me out.

             “You ready to play Intercental with a shark?” Luck asked me, smirking. I punched his shoulder.

             “I have so many stupid memories of you guys I can raise that girl up twenty-thousand,” I told him, remembering the squall at dinner, “what spell had she used on me?”

             “Transanima,” Jake told me from in front of us, “it forcibly changes someone into an anima.”

             I shuddered, then asked, “so if an anima covered up that they are one someone could reveal that with the transanima spell?”

             Jake tilted his head to the side, “Theoretically, yes, but no anima has ever found a powerful enough spell to hide all of what they are. They would still have their heightened senses and their hair color would most likely match. That, or they have found a spell but aren’t telling us.”

             “What about their eye color?” I asked, thinking I could find that anima and check up on her.

             “Well, theoretically speaking, nothing would change with the eyes because the color helps with their night-vision. Why the interest in animas, Marx?” Jake asked, peeking over his shoulder at me.

             “Its just spending a couple of seconds as one was weird for me, think of what spending a whole lifetime would be like,” I mused. Luck laughed.

             “Dude, you’re already a dragon, that must feel really different to us humans,” he reasoned and I was thrown into my own thoughts until the ancient library’s giant doors loomed above us. Jake stepped aside and let me do the honors. I pushed hard on the doors and the opened with a large flourish.

             All eyes were on us as we passed girls of every size and shape and came up to a round table set up with the lined board for Intercental. Five cones were set around the table evenly as to not change the board until it was needed. The challenger, Emilie, and the challenged, Skylar, were standing across from each other. I noticed Skylar’s hair was up to show off the new earrings my mum had forced me to give her. They cost a small fortune and I had to cough up two opals to make them or else Skylar would throw a fit. Almost literally.

             The small whitewash blonde that I had seen with Emilie seemed to disappear as she stood next to the table for the refereeing. “Come up to the table and pick an available cone and put them on the board so it can adapt.”

             I took the yellow cone, which was next to Skylar, while Jake took the blue and Luck the orange. We all lifted our playing pieces—Skylar had pink and Emilie green—and slammed them on the board. The table shook as the board sprouted another corner near Jake and gave off a light through the lines as if a light fæ were trapped underneath. Wands were taken out and feet lifted off the ground.

             “Now, we would like to keep the noise to a minimum so please refrain from yelling in pain and/or anger,” the girl said as we crossed our legs and came level with the table. I glanced over at Emilie and saw her smirking at Skylar. Her friend’s eyes closed and the world went black.

             The operator of a game of Intercental controlled when a game ended and when a game started, so when your vision was cut off, you knew the game was starting.

              A small black cat and a green cone appeared across from me and a yellow purebred hunting dog was next to me and the pink cone. I glanced over to see what Luck and Jake were. I saw a thin gazelle near the blue cone and a dire wolf near the orange cone.

             Why’re you a dragon, Marx?  Skylar asked in a little yipping voice. I looked down to see my scaly, lithe body beneath me. This was the only time I could see myself in my wild form before my Wing Point. I shrugged my scaly shoulders. Cat Emilie was cleaning herself as we talked.

             Are we going to play now? She purred, pacing around her cone and rubbing her cheek across it. The voice of the operator echoed through the space in a mumbled voice that told us to start the game. Cat Emilie purred and her tail curled into a question-mark curl.

             As the challenger I will start, Emilie said, looking straight at Skylar, then me. The Green cone glowed, Those earrings, Skylar…

             In Intercental you have to guess about something special to the person and tell them something about that thing. Most of the times the things are secrets that players have heard from gossips, but others find out things by spying and I felt that was exactly what Emilie had done.

             …Are given to you by Marx. He gave two opals from his own collection and you had them sent in today, just to stump me, the cat’s tail came up in a snarky way, I am right, aren’t I?

             The yellow dog’s maw opened as a light came on inside Emilie’s cone and an image of a board came up above us. Emilie’s cone went up and landed on a line on the board above us three lines from the edge. Her cat face looked smug as Luck’s orange cone lit up and he faced me.

             You desperately don’t want your parents to control your life, The cone went up to the board and was only one line away from the start. The wolf groaned and put his muzzle between his paws. I gave a toothy dragon smile.

             You have to pick something that you can’t just tell from watching me interact with my parents, I tell him as my cone lit up. My turn. Who would I target? I knew absolutely nothing about Emilie, so she was out, Luck was already feeling bad—so no—but, Skylar had so many things about her that I could win a whole game of Intercental.

             Skylar, your ability is sensing other’s species, I said. Skylar looked aghast.

             You promised never to tell anyone that! Skylar exclaimed, making Emilie roll her eyes as my cone moved to level with hers. Skylar’s steely eyed gaze was turned towards me as it became her turn, You have an unhealthy number of jewels in your house.

             One measly move. Jake was after that and he sold Luck out about all the food he nicked from my house whenever he was around. Then it was back to Emilie, and the second round started.

             Round after round went by and secrets were exposed. Emilie headed off the whole game, and eventually won, as we all knew she would, but by the end the cat avatar was leaning on the large green cone, not out of charisma, but because she needed to be held up.

             The operator announced the winner and the library appeared before me. I loosened my grip on my wand and touched my feet to the floor. Waking up from a fully mental game of Intercental was always discombobulating to me, but I witnessed Emilie leaning against the table with the heel of her hand pressed up against her forehead. Her teeth were gritted and her face showed pain, but Emilie took a deep breath in and shuttered out the hurt that had flashed across her delicate features just a second before.

             Emilie stepped over to a table full of younger Cinta girls. The operator, a Year 6, started the game quickly and ended just as so. Emilie went though game after game, winning and collecting her earnings. Soon, dawn was edging through the library windows and everyone was filtering out of the old room. Thankfully, that day was a Saturday and no classes were assigned for any of the girls.

I spotted Skylar pouting with her posse, and twirling a bejeweled broom. As I approached her, Skylar spotted me and immediately turned away, walking briskly out the door. A sharp laugh came from behind me.

I turned to see Emilie leaning heavily on an old chair. She smirked, blinking slowly as if she had a headache, “That’s Skylar Jones for you. If you don’t satisfy her she’ll turn tail and abandon you. Year One she tried to get me to teach her how to trick ride and apparently, I didn’t go fast enough for her in the lessons, because her daddy got her a professional trick riding teacher. We had had a well enough relationship, but after that, things got tense and she eventually started looking down on all of us that were too poor to fund million-gloh exploits.”

Emilie had just described Skylar to a tee. The girl closed her eyes, raising a hand to her head. Emilie’s wand positioned right above her crown and a slight glow came from it. The light was a temperature gauge for fevers, but it was set to a low brightness level. That means she doesn’t want anyone to know she’s sick. The tip of her wand turned a flashing red and she lowered the hand that was at her head to the chair. Emilie’s elbows locked and she dropped her head between her arms. She took a deep breath in and started to walk past me, but her foot stuck on a loose floorboard and she lost her footing.

I shot my arm out and caught her as she fell. Heat radiated from her skin underneath her clothes and soaked through my suit. Emilie tried to push away from my arm, but her knees buckled and she almost fell to the ground.  

“Whoa there,” I said, bringing her up, but her knees wouldn’t start working again. “Are you okay?”

Emilie gave a little groan and her head tilted her head into my chest so that her voice was muffled. “I don’t know.”

I helped Emilie over to a chair and she sagged into it. The girl’s breathing was ragged and her face looked pale instead of tan.

“Emilie, right?” I asked her and she gave the smallest nod, “maybe you should call one of your friends to take you to your Take house. Maybe that would be the best thing.”

Emilie shook her head vehemently, “No, the girls can’t see me like this. I’ll just stay in one of the hidden rooms before…”

She trailed off, touching something right at her heart. A lace of pain seemed to shoot through her features and she struggled to get up from the chair. I settled a hand on her shoulder, keeping Emilie from moving. The heat of her skin radiated into my hand, reminding me of the topaz underneath my tongue. I needed to replace it but Emilie was right in front of me, and I didn’t want to reveal my secret to just anyone.

             “Leave,” Emilie’s raspy voice begged as she weakly pushed me away, “please.”

             “But you’re sick, I can’t just leave you here—” I started, but she poked me with her wand.

             “Don’t make me curse you,” her voice was fading quickly and I doubted she had the strength to do anything bigger than a small hex. I nodded and backed away, leaving the empty room, but I didn’t plan to leave indefinitely. I knew Emilie wasn’t okay and I knew she wasn’t going to accept my help unless she couldn’t move.

[opaloremerald]

Chapter Three

I was ready for the Intercental game even before I touched down on the windowsill of the Potions hallway. That new boy wasn’t so bad, he didn’t shun me immediately, but that was probably because he felt he had to be nice to the students. My ears twitched as I landed silently on the ground and took my wand out of my uniform and put the emerald the boy gave me in my pocket.

             “Conceal the truth,” I whispered in French, touching my head with the end of the wand. My fur melted into tan skin and my hair fluttered to my back. My biggest secret was in danger and I was totally calm about it. I threw on my uniform and whipped on my cloak just as the Potions door opened for stragglers.

             “Ahh Ms. Beaumont, I was afraid that I might have to mark you as tardy,” my AP Potions teacher Mr. Kirsten said in his nervous voice. I smiled, putting my hair up with my shortened broom.

             “No, I was just outside and I lost track of time,” I explained, turning my wand over in my hand, rubbing my thumb in the thinner area near the handle. Mr. Kirsten nodded, patting my shoulder. I made my way to my seat near the back, still fiddling with my wand. As I did so my hand brushed against my skirt pocket and a sharp edge poked me. I palmed the emerald as Mr. Kirsten turned down the lights with a dimmer spell. The face of the stone glinted in the limited light as the teacher flipped through slides of what ingredients we would use. A picture of the blossom of wolfsbane flashed upon the gem’s cut. I glanced to the board and saw “Chilling Kiss” scrawled in Mr. Kirsten’s psychopath handwriting.

             “Voìla,” I whispered, tapping my wand against the table in front of me, making Adrianne’s notes appear in front of me. She wouldn’t mind me using them for a class and getting a good AP Potions grade. I flipped through the stiff parchment as Mr. Kirsten rambled on. When I found the correct page, he distributed the instruction sheets.

             “And now, you may start,” he called nervously from his desk. I immediately summoned a bundle of Circe plants and a few wolfsbane buds.

             After toiling over a cauldron for almost an hour I dipped a beaker inside the opaque liquid. I turned it in to Mr. Kirsten.

             “This is perfect, Ms. Beaumont!” he exclaimed, surprised, “You get to leave Potions block early!”

             I smirked, flipping my wand over my knuckles again, “Thank you Mr. Kirsten.”

             Leaving my last class of the day early felt like getting exonerated from prison. I had to get ready for Intercental.

               I scared Adrianne as I flashed her Potion’s notes in front of her face. She yelped and I laughed.

             “You just gave me ten hours to get ready for Intercental,” I told her, flopping onto the bed she was facing, “Thank Circe!”

             I looked at the ceiling, where we posted the non-teacher-approved events posters that were hidden in plain sight around the castle. One boasted the times of all the Intercental games throughout the year on a sheet of paper, if looked on by a teacher, it murmured about the sidewalk club and why you should join. Another flap of parchment said the days and times when we could sneak to the nearby human city to shop, which appeared as tutoring assignment for Spell Adaption and Creation.

             “Where are you going to get ready this time?” Adrianne asked me as I made small patterns in the air with my wand.

             “I dunno. I’ll probably wander around in the hallways near Cinta, see if I can sneak inside again,” I said, my wand going over my knuckles over and over again.

             “The old way in is going to be blocked,” Adrianne said, her accent lilting. My friend went back to her book as I looked up at the fully unfolded map on my slanted ceiling. I had inked on it the multiple Take Entrances all across the castle and alternative routes. A faint line was etched to the ancient library where the Intercental game was going to occur that night but another, darker one, led to an air duct that let out inside the Cinta house. I tapped my wand on my palm.

             “I’m going to have to take off the concealment charm. My fur would let me blend in to the dark, and the Cintas wouldn’t know it was me,” I told Adrianne. She nodded.

             “And it refreshes the spell so there won’t be a big fiasco like in History of Magic,” she told me just as Sonya entered our room.

             “What happened in History of Magic?” she asked, throwing her bags onto her bed. I groaned, pressing the tip of my wand to my forehead, taking the charm off of my skin.

             “That,” Adrianne said pointed at me as I shifted into my anima form. My tail swished as I hopped up from my strained mattress. My black fur warmed me and my pointed ears heard every scuffle and scratch of the Eiva house.

             “Sneaking around again, you are?” Sonya asked, watching me with her yellow eyes. My furry, clawed fingers twirled my wand as I paced our room. I nodded, bouncing my clawed feet and double knees. My hand slipped into the pocket of my skirt and was poked by the emerald the boy had given me. I took it out and stared at it in my palm.

             “What’s that?” Adrianne asked as I turned towards her and Sonya. I closed my fist immediately and looked up at her, my cat eyes wide.

             “Nothing!” I exclaimed. Adrianne raised her eyebrow and held up her wand.

             “Take from closed and appear in the open,” she whispered and the emerald appeared in her hand, “Ooh! Who gave you this?”

             I felt my skin warm underneath my fur as the inside of my ears turned red, the equivalent of an anima blush.

             “A boy!” Sonya exclaimed, “No, no! The boy that saved her!”

             Adrianne tilted her mouth slightly, holding up the emerald, “It matches your eyes, he must’ve liked the color.”

             “That doesn’t explain why he was carrying it around with him, though,” I said, padding over to her to snatch the gem back. Adrianne snatched it away from my grip and balled the sharp stone in her hand. She tapped her thin wand against her knuckles.

             “Let it go, Adri,” I said, my ears flipping back across my head. She smiled, holding her hand up, and dropped the gem. My hand flashed towards the ground but the stone didn’t fall at all. I looked up at her from my place near the floor to see the emerald suspended by a braided leather cord. Adrianne had drilled a hole in the emerald and threaded the leather through it.

             “Calm down, my furry friend,” she said, handing the stone back to me, but now in necklace form. I sighed, looping the cord over my neck and behind my shirt.

             “I just don’t want anyone to know I’m an anima,” I said, wilting onto my bed. Sonya nodded.

             “I know how you feel,” she patted my back, “being half gargoyle, very hard.”

             I smiled at Sonya. She was right. I wasn’t alone.

             “Thanks for that,” I told her, standing up, “I’m going to win that Intercental game. Now, I have to go—”

             “Sneak into a Take house and read their most valuable objects so you can guess their inner thoughts and feelings to win Intercental,” Adrianne finished for me, smiling.

             “Absolutely,” I smiled, taking off my uniform and slinging my cloak over my fur-covered body, “Now, if I come back covered in blood, don’t be scared, it’s just because—”

             “You ran out of tissues,” Adrianne finished again, lifting up her book, “Just go, preferably before any of the other girls come looking for you.”

             I lifted the hood to cover my ears and went over to the west wall of our room. I shoved my shoulder against the wall and a secret door came open. I saluted to my friends and jumped down the hatch.

             As the air rushed around me I prepared for impact and bent my knees and ankles, then landed on my hands and feet in an animal pose. My cloak settled around for a moment, then I dashed off in the direction of the Cinta house. As I ran and the fabric billowed around me. I surfaced around the east wing of the castle, then realized I had left my map in my room. I jammed my hand onto my forehead.

             “Darn it!” I exclaimed, then tapped my wand against the wall to summon my map. I had charmed it since year two to appear on any wall I asked it to. The image surfaced on the wall in sections. I called up the area where I was and followed a hallway down to where I had starred a painting off of a stairwell. I pulled my wand away from the wall and started down the hallway to my left. I passed a corridor and kept walking forward, going into a large hall of stairways. I went up the nearest one and kept my eyes wide for other students. After I made sure no one was coming I ran up the next two flights of stairs and spotted the painting. It was of the most famous animas in the world, Pirate Iggy.

I snorted. It was ironic, one of the entrances to the Cinta houses is the thing they most despise, equality. I ran up the stairs but voices rang out and I looked up. Skylar Jones and her lackeys were walking down the stairs. My eyes went wide and I went against the wall immediately, putting my head down like a servant. Skylar went down the stairs to the right of me and, as she came up to the painting next to me, my tail curled around my feet.

“Ugh, why is the help around here?” she asked as my cloak ruffled in a breeze one of the other girls made with her wand, showing my naked fur. My ears reddened under my hood as the girls laughed and tapped their wands on a different picture than the one of Pirate Iggy. It swung open and the girls went through the main door of Cinta. I looked up to see if the girls were gone and raised a delicate eyebrow at the painting they’d went through. I turned to face Pirate Iggy and leaned over the railway to press the corners and swung the painting open. A cold wind came through the passageway as I stood on the railing of the stairs, not looking down.

“I am not three stories up in the air,” I reminded myself, my tail swishing back and forth to keep me balanced, “I can just step into the passageway.”

I took a huge breath in and stepped into the dark little hallway and pulled Pirate Iggy closed. I snuck down the way and came to a grate in the wall. I threaded my fingers through the small holes and yanked the metal towards me. The grate popped out and I set it against the wall near my feet.

Peeking my head out a little to check if anyone was coming, I squeezed into an interior hallway. My ears twisted around, hearing idle chatter below me. I tiptoed to the end of the corridor and peeked over a railway that looked over the main sitting room.

Over the years, I’ve snuck into the Cinta house many times so I wasn’t scared when a gaggle of year ones came my way. I just shuffled to the wall and looked at my elongated toes. The girls went past me like I was nothing and I smiled. Being invisible in the most judgmental house in the school is quite a talent indeed.

Next, I needed to listen to the walls and what they’ve seen. Seers have the ability to see an object’s and person’s memories if they touch the said object or person, but it did happen when I touched the person. I had to call it up with extreme focus. The sheer usage of the focus it takes usually gives a seer a nosebleed.

I sneaked over to the suites and rested my forehead against a wall.

Pictures of girls piercing each other’s ears raced through my head. And the years before that showed more girls doing the same thing each year. A ritual that was almost forced on every year in this very room. Confessions of so-and-so having a crush on the village boy two towns over.

A more recent memory seeped into my brain showing Skylar shutting herself inside this suite by herself with her wand to her temple.

“But Daddy! Those earrings are over twenty-thousand glohs! I need them here by midnight so that cheater Beaumont won’t be able to tell me that they were given to me by my Marx,” Skylar flipped her perfect blonde hair and scoffing at her father, “You have a wand, don’t you?! Express trip them to my hands!”

A knock came at the door and Skylar whipped around then growled at her father, “Get them here.”

I jerked away from the wall, tasting iron in my mouth. I passed my finger across my nose and my fur came back tinged with red. I scrambled out of the room and ducked into the hallway, keeping my head down and my ears back and my tail on the ground.

I spent to dinner nicking little trinkets and necklaces off of transfers and first years, then finally pawing through a few jewelry boxes. I found at least twelve pearl necklaces. As the Cintas cleared out I was able to admire their house more than I normally could.

The whole main room mimicked a classic British tea lounge with couches and coffee tables. The windows were high and reached a balcony that had a beautiful style.  

I made my way back to the Take Eiva house, avoiding anyone and everyone who came near me. After I had put the concealment charm back on me and gotten my uniform on, I went out of Take Eiva the relatively normal way.

The Eiva house was the old servant’s quarters so it had to be absolutely impossible to get to. The only way in was an almost free-fall drop and the only way out was almost the same thing. I dove down the chute that lead out of the house and into a small uncharted hallway that lead directly into the dining hall.

I stumbled out, falling onto the nearest table, which happened to be Cinta. And the person I stumbled into was a boy. Not just a boy. No, it had to be the boy. The boy that gave me the emerald that was lying across my heart.

“Hey Marx, you really are a girl magnet!” one of the boy’s friends with an American accent joked. I scrambled upwards, gripping my wand in my left hand.

“Watch where you’re going, freak!” Skylar’s voice rang out shrilly as she advanced on me, “Frogs are too slimy to be at the Cinta table so why don’t you hop along to your little table of aliens.”

I narrowed my eyes at her, “Say that again, I dare you.”

Skylar raised her eyebrow, “Go hop along to your little table of aliens, frog.”

I advanced on her and stuck my wand underneath her chin, “Thanks for giving me a reason to assault a classmate.”

I was just about to mutter a spell when strong arms encased my waist and lifted me over a shoulder. I was carried away from Skylar swiftly.

“Let me down! I am perfectly able to walk on my own!” I exclaimed, kicking my legs.

“You almost cursed a lifelong friend of mine so, no, I will not let you down,” a deep voice told me as I jabbed my wand into the back of whoever was carrying me.

“Transanima,” I whispered, a glance of a spell going into the base of the person’s skull. The person dropped me, instead holding their head. I realized it was the boy. I scrambled back to him.

“Sacré bleu!” I exclaimed, “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!”

Small horns were escaping from his hairline, where small patterns were already printed, and his ears elongated so he started to turn into a gazelle boy. I saw his calves shortening as his ankles moved up his leg, making his toes turn into hooves. His eyes met mine and I saw a mix of emotions as Skylar pushed me to the side.

             “Marx, Marx, are you okay?!” she asked, taking his face in her hands, “that frog turned you into a filthy anima? She nocked you down like, ten rungs!”

             I stood up and backed away, horrified at what I had just done. Something came underneath my foot and I fell onto my back. I skittered back on the stone, scared.

             “What has happened here?!” the headmistress’s voice called out in the hullabaloo. The girls around me parted, showing Headmistress Christopher. She looked at me, then the boy, Marx, and her face softened.

             “Headmistress! That freak just turned Marx into the—the help! Turn him back to normal!” Skylar cried, pointing an accusing finger towards me. I turned to Headmistress Christopher.

             “I’m sorry Headmistress! I just panicked and the spell just came out, you have to believe that I would never use that spell on purpose!” I said, standing up shakily. The headmistress was one of the only people that knew I was an anima and she knew I would never use the transanima spell unless I was in distress.

             “Yes, I know,” she smiled at me, then flourished her wand at Marx, and made all the changes disappear. I squinted at him, still seeing patterns around his hairline. Skylar looked confused.

             “But shouldn’t she be punished? She cursed a guest!” Skylar complained. Headmistress Christopher conjured a small sphere in the air that showed Skylar taunting me.

             “Is that what you say? Here it looks like you triggered the fight, Ms. Jones,” the headmistress said, “So no one is getting in trouble for a simple squabble. Now, everyone back to dinner!”

             I scrambled to the Eiva table and banged my head on the solid wood, “Why did I just do that?”

             I slammed my wand down on the table next to the plate conjured there by magic. Adrianne laughed, “You just ruined your chance with any boy here,” she snapped the cord showing on my neck, “especially him.”

              “That was him,” I groaned, hitting my head on the table harder. Sonya snorted, almost spraying orange juice everywhere.

             “The one who gave the emerald to you?” she asked after swallowing her food. I nodded miserably. I knocked my knuckles against the oak table in rhythm, not touching my food. Marx picking me up scared me and not knowing who was holding me was the scariest thing of all.

             The dinner went by at a snail’s pace and once my friends had finished I raced out of the dining hall and up the main staircase of the Great Hall. The steps flew underneath my feet until I was at the top of a servant’s staircase and climbing onto a scaffolding. My feet were as sure as a mountain goat’s hooves on a high mountain. The entrance to Eiva house was a small shaft that was cut off by the west wing’s tower of stairs and the only way in was to jump. [EC1] 

             I leapt down, not waiting for Sonya and Adrianne and saw paintings of famous wizards and witches flash past my eyes as I fell into a thin shaft that led to my house. As I got up from my fall Adrianne floated down and after her Sonya dropped in and landed in a power pose.

             “You guys are so much cooler than I am,” I grumbled. Sonya slapped my back.

             “No, you are the cool one,” she assured me, “You cheat and win fairly. An impossible feat.”

             I smiled at my friend, “Speaking of Intercental, I need to rest up so I don’t fall face-first onto the board,” I said, climbing the stairs to our tower room. 

[opaloremerald]

Chapter Two

It felt like a rock was crushing my lungs. I couldn’t get air into my chest and I felt I would suffocate. Suddenly, the weight was lifted and I gasped, gulping air. Something thick and sticky covered my hand and I lifted it to my face. The substance was warm and tasted of iron. A scream sounded beside me and that jolted me up. My eyes flew open and my sight was filled with red. A girl was on my lap, her nose freely bleeding.

             “Oh. My. Circe,” a familiar voice sounded in front of me, “Marx! You are covered in that faker’s blood! Are you okay?”

             My limbs were stiff as I shifted underneath the girl. She moved slightly and let out a weak cough. Wait, this was the girl who challenged Skylar to Intercental, then dragged me and the boys into it. I looked back down at her. The girl’s black hair was matted with blood and her sun-kissed skin was stained red.

“Ms. Beaumont,” the teacher who had been separating the new kids into the Takes took the girl from my lap and sat her up, “Emilie, you can wake up now.”

The girl’s, Emilie’s, eyes snapped open and she gasped for breath.

“Mme Crawley, c’était la vision d’une autre fille — ou rêve — je ne savais pas exactement. Sa mère lui a dit que la capacité de voir sauté une génération, et je pense qu’ils avaient des accents américains,” she rasped out in French, the teacher nodded and helped the girl up.

“Emilie,” a girl who looked almost transparent whispered to the girl, handing her a handkerchief, “Let’s get you back to our room so you can get washed up, okay?”

Another girl, with skin and hair like chocolate, took Emilie’s arm and helped her up. As the girls left, the teacher turned towards me.

“My name is Agatha Crawley, the divination teacher here at Serpentine academy. This is just procedure, but did you see anything when you touched Ms. Beaumont?”

             I furrowed my eyebrows, then looked up at Ms. Crawley, “No not at all. What was that girl saying in French?”

             “She was trying to explain the vision, but she lost too much blood and couldn’t think straight. We’ll ask her tomorrow. Now, you should get to your room and cleaned up,” she said and waved her wand in the air, making a map appear, “Here is a map of the campus, ask it where you want to go and it will give you the fastest known way.”

             “Known?” I asked, taking the map.

             “This castle has a never-ending amount of hallways and rooms, most of us never use them, but some ways are faster than others,” Ms. Crawley explained, handing me a map, “All the new students get one until they know their way around.”

             I nodded, and watched her as she walked away to calm the students. A hand came down on my shoulder and made me jump.

             “Luck,” I said, turning around and slapping his hand away. One of my best friends raised his blonde eyebrows.

             “I saw you make a move on that girl, man!” Luck punched my shoulder, “Nice!”

             I rolled my eyes at him, “I simply acted out of reflex.”

             My other friend, Jake, also raised his eyebrows, “Because you were taught in such a chivalrous home?”

             I sighed, “Yeah, yeah, shut up. Anyway, we have the map to our room.”

             As I waved the map in my friends’ face, an expression dawned on Luck’s tanned face.

             “Do you know where the Intercental game is tomorrow?” he asked me, and I face-palmed. I was hoping he’d forget about it. Luck, then added, “I bet Skylar would know.”

             Jake leaned towards me as Luck made his way towards the rich bleach blonde, then whispered, “He’s never going to stop hitting on her until she rejects him, isn’t he?”

             I nodded sadly, watching the procession of Luck flirting with one of my childhood friends. Skylar and I had been shoved together at a young age, our parents hoping that, when we got older, we might choose to date. My father had told me to propose the idea to Skylar this year, but I wasn’t going to. Her and I had never really liked each other in that way. Skylar’s expectations were just to high.

             Luck practically skipped back to us.

             “You got the place?” Jake asked. Luck beamed and nodded frantically.

             “And the time! The ancient library at eleven at night, dude,” Luck slapped my shoulder, letting out a belly laugh.

             “Come on, let’s get to our room so I can change out of these bloody clothes,” I said, leading my friends out of the dining hall, dodging swooning girls.

             “The way they look at us, you’d think they’d never seen a boy in their lives,” Jake whispered to Luck. Luck shot a wink to a Take Jevo. As we walked out into the Great Hall I glanced down at the map. A bold line told us to go up a winding staircase near the back of the hall, but two fainter lines headed up the main staircase and spit in two. Jake squinted over my shoulder.

             “I wonder what the third line is,” he said, “because this is obviously controlled by the mind of whoever’s holding it. You’re thinking of our room, but the ancient library too. Then there’s the third line going right off the main staircase. It’s the weakest, so it’s probably not something or someone you don’t want to think about, but you are anyway.”

             I rolled my eyes and followed the map up the staircase, which led into a back hallway made of stone. Then, after that the turns got more and more confusing and I handed the map to Jake.

             “You probably understand it more than I do,” I said, relinquishing my spot at the front of the group and giving it to Jake. As I walked next to Luck I pulled my wand out of an inner pocket in my suit. It was carved out of a strong maple tree and was seventeen inches long.

             “Why are you taking your wand out?” Luck asked as I flipped it around with my fingers, “I thought reptiles like you didn’t need any protection.”

             I raised my wand and whapped him over the head with it, “Why don’t you shush about that?”

             “Because it’s the coolest thing about you,” he told me, digging around in his pockets, then fining a coin to flip over his knuckles. I coughed as he did so, “Speak of the devil—you need a gem, right?”

             I nodded, still coughing. As Luck tried to find a gem, I doubled over, my hands on my knees. After the attack was over I stood up straight and produced an emerald from my left breast pocket. I lifted my tongue and pulled out a ruby, then replaced it with the emerald from my pocket. The ruby was hot to the touch after I dried it off on my suit coat. Luck reached his hand out for it and I smirked at him, then dropped it in his hand.

             “Ow, ow, ow, ow!” he yelled, throwing it back at me, “That was hot! Wait, can you breathe fire yet?”

             I nodded my head, “But only small fires.”

             “Go on then,” Luck ushered, getting Jake exited too. The both of them stopped walking to watch me. I sighed.

             “Very well then,” I said, feeling the emerald. I clicked my tongue, making sparks. One caught and made a fire in my mouth. I breathed in deeply and blew out immediately. A small stream of green fire came out of my mouth. I snapped my mouth shut and swallowed the rest of the flame.

             Luck clapped. Jake smiled, then went back to navigating us to our room.

             “Does the gem you use determine the color of your fire?” he asked me as we encountered a door. Jake tapped his own wand to the handle twice and the door opened to show a room with three beds around a furnace in the middle of the room.

             “Yep,” I told him, going to the farthest right bed, “Though, to always be able to breathe fire, I have to swallow a stone that’s special to me. Like my mum swallowed her wedding diamond and her fire is as white hot as the sun.”

             “What about your pa?” Jake asked.

             “His is a blue opal,” I said, “it was the first of his and my mum’s hoard. They’re always pushing me to look through their rarer stones to see if I feel something. They don’t know that I already have a stash of my own.”

             “How many do you have right now?” Luck asked as he bent down to check underneath the bed for his bags. He found one and gave a hefty pull. As he started to unpack I found my own bag and opened it. Gemstones of all sizes, shapes, and colors filled the bag. Jake picked up an iridescent opal the size of a marble and in the shape of a teardrop.

             “Just a few,” I said. Luck grabbed a handful of stones.

             “Did you even pack any clothes?” he asked me.

             “Of course I did,” I said, then plunged my hand down deep into the gems. So deep that the edge of the suitcase was at my armpit. I latched onto another case and pulled it out. As I produced the bag more gems poured out from the edges.

             “Did you use an enchantment on it?” Jake asked me as I pushed the gems back into the suitcase and shoved the bag underneath my bed.

             “A never-ending spell,” I confirmed, unpacking my clothes. Suit after suit went into the dresser until I got into my workout clothes and pajamas at the bottom of the bag.

             “Hey, you want to go on a run tomorrow?” I asked my friends. Jake laughed out loud.

             “I would be falling on the ground by a fourth of a mile,” he said, going back to his suitcase. Jake’s coal-black skin was covered in a sheen of sweat. Luck noticed this and opened a window.

             “You okay, man?” Jake collapsed on his chosen bed as Luck asked the question.

He nodded, “Just tired from the long trip here.”

“Luck?” I asked, grabbing a sleeveless tee and some athletic shorts, then setting them aside.

“Nope, I just want to relax,” Luck said, his eyes glancing towards the suitcase underneath my bed. I raised an eyebrow.

“No stealing my stones, you got that?” I said, going into the connecting bathroom to change. I followed Jake in suit and flopped down onto the bed, soon after falling asleep.

 I woke up exceptionally late the next day and saw no one else was in the room. I travelled to the bathroom sleepily. After I had changed I took the map from Jake’s bedside table and pulled my stash of gems out from underneath the bed.

You see, I’m a dragon, but you couldn’t tell if you just looked at me. The scale patterns on my legs and arms are usually covered up by clothes, but the ones on my neck and hairline were hidden by magic. Dragons weren’t looked down on, per se. It’s just that I didn’t want people to be scared of me because I stole certain stones, grew wings at a random point in time, and breathed fire. I know when I reached my Wing Point, a random time when a dragon’s wings grow in a couple of days, that I won’t be able to hide that I’m a dragon, but until then I’ll keep hiding it.

             I picked up a few opals and a topaz. I think someday an opal might be the stone that I swallow so I can breathe fire for an indefinite point of time. We dragons have a sac in the back of our esophagus that holds the chemical we use to make fire. Only precious stones have the ability to transfer the chemical to our tongues. Putting a stone underneath our tongues helps transfer the chemical, but the gems heat up and they stop working until they cool down.

             I followed the map out a back door and into a large garden. The black line led me through the beautiful garden and onto a large yard. I folded the thick paper and tucked it into my waistband. Then I found a dirt path and ran.

             I didn’t meet anyone on the path for a long time so I didn’t use a spell to cover up my scales. The day was getting later and the snow crunched underneath my shoes. I couldn’t feel the cold, but I could sense it.

             An anguished yell from some deep crevice of the forest made my head snap to the side. The emerald underneath my tongue slipped and hit my tooth. My hand shot to my mouth and I took the gem out. Chipped. I spit out the large chunk I had chipped off.

             “Darn it,” I said, slipping the emerald into my pocket and switched it out for one of the opals. As I placed the stone in my mouth another yell came from my right. I stepped into the forest and cocked my head to hear any more sounds. Another yell came and I started to run towards it. I spotted a shape between the trees.

             “Hello?” I called out, still running towards the shape, “are you okay?!”

             “Please leave,” the voice mewled. I crept closer to the shape, soon seeing that it was an anima, a half-human half-animal being. It was shaking as I kneeled next to it.

             “Are you okay?” I repeated, putting my hand on its furry back, rubbing circles.

             The anima shook its head, “it hurts so much.”

             The voice was female and she looked into my eyes, hers were as green as the chipped emerald that sat in my pocket. The anima’s face was covered in a fine fuzz and her nose trembled. Her fur was black, except for the tip of her tail and the tufted tops of her ears.

             “Why does it hurt?” I asked her, sitting down on the forest floor. Her tears fell to the leaves on the ground.

             “I kept the concealment charm on too long and it just expired in the middle of class,” she cried.

             “Did anyone see you?” I asked, knowing the importance of keeping time on a concealment charm. The anima shrugged, eyes still glassy with tears.

             “Animas are still allowed at Serpentine but you never see any because they’re always made fun of so they leave,” she told me, “I might have to go home if someone finds out. My parents saved up so much money to get me here from France and if I come home they would be so disappointed.

             This anima reminded me of the chipped emerald in my pocket. I reached into my pocket and produced the gem, “You see this gem?”

             She nodded, giving an adorable hiccup.    

             “Its chipped, right?” she nodded again and I continued, “But does it look any less beautiful?”

             The anima shook her head, her watery eyes on the gem, “Exactly, it has a sharp edge now, too, and that means, if I polish it, it can be deadly. Hold out your, um, paw.”

             Her fluffy hand, which was tipped with sharp claws, stretched out gracefully towards me. I placed the gem, which was at least an inch wide with a sloped end that was sharp. The anima looked at me, then down at the emerald.

             “Thank you,” she mewled quietly, then her fuzzy face dawned in realization. She hopped up quickly, her tail swishing, “I’m going to be late for my AP Potions block!”

             The anima gathered up her cloaks and snapped her broom into its bigger form. She turned back to me, mounting her broom, “Thank you for that. I don’t think I’ll leave after all.”

             I nodded and stared after her, watching her tail disappear over a triple tower.

[opaloremerald]

Chapter one  (in current editing stage)

My broom sputtered a little as I stopped for a break from my long flight to school. The village that I landed in was small and still had traditional German houses with thatch roofs. My feet touched to the ground a few yards from the outside of town in a dense forest, and, as I walked out to the dirt road leading onto the main square I snapped my broom into its smaller form, a polished hairpiece. As whipped up my hair and stuck my broom in to keep it up, small tufts of dust were kicked as I walked down the deserted way. It was like a sickness rushed in and cleared the life out of the town. 

I peeked into a few windows as I looked for the mercantile shop. I passed an inn with a few new-looking bikes on the rack, but I saw no rustling of the curtains or movement in the parlor. My eyes bounced around on different abandoned buildings and a couple of one-story houses until they landed on the mercantile. I stepped over to the shop quickly, suddenly feeling eyes on my back. The sensation was unnerving. As my feet crossed over the threshold a spark cracked through my bones. I turned my head to look out the grimy window of the mercantile to see the abandoned square, a dry fountain in the middle. I inspected each window, trying to see an edge of a face as I saw my reflection in the pane of my own waypoint. After a long minute of watching I turned back into the cluttered store I had walked into. Cans of food were clustered in small pyramids by shelves of perishables. I looked at a few parcels of jerky and took one in my gloved hand.

My satchel bumped against a shelf as I checked how many coins I had in my money belt. Four silvs, twelve clohs and a glo. The glo itself would probably get me a few parcels of jerky and cheese, but the silvs would get me one of each, and I was saving the glo for later. One cloh would help me replenish my broom with a bundle of fabric and a little to spare. As I thought about if I should buy some ink and quills for school and not have to borrow the ones at school or buy a new cloak so I wouldn’t seem old-fashioned to my friends a tug came at the edge of my tunic. I startled and skittered to one side, looking at a small boy with floppy brown hair and a nose smattered with freckles. His big blue eyes turned up to mine and his mouth opened to ask a question. But instead of a sweet, melodic voice, a screech came out of the tiny voice. And, as soon as that screech came out of his mouth, more started to sound. Other screeches came from the back room, the street outside, the neighboring houses, almost everywhere.

I glanced at the shelf beside me, at the bundle of fabric, cloak and ink. I turned my attention back to the boy and the ongoing screech that was almost deafening. I looked back at the shelf, my hand raising to the hairpiece that was my broom. My wand was in a secure pocket in my satchel and I had no way to get to it. A plan was forming in my head as I pulled out two silvs, and four clohs, setting them on the shelf next to my arm as I pulled out my broom. It lengthened to its full form and I swept the parcel of jerky in my hand, the bundle of cloth and two quills and a bottle of ink into the cloak and tied it up at the end. I pushed the bundle onto the front of my broom and jumped on.

Bursting out of the door of the cluttered mercantile, I finally saw the people of the town. They were staring at me, mouths full of the horrendous sound they made. As I spiraled up into the air I looked down underneath me, staring at the strange townspeople. 

“What the heck just happened?” I asked myself in French as I flew away from the town, looking for a spot to set down and rest for a little. I couldn’t rest for too long, though. I had to be at school tomorrow and tardy people would have to pick the fæ berries. Yuck.

The fæ were a small, humanoid life form that had wings and the power to control growth, like a nature elementalist. They only ate small, foul smelling berries that grew outside the school grounds in the bewitched thicket, and if you had to pick them it took about a million showers to get the stink out of your hair.

After I stopped and ate a little food in a small clearing, I took the bundle of cloth and my broom, wrapping it around the stick of the over the previous layer of fabric. The cloth protected the smooth wood of the stick from the harsh cold up in the north where I took holiday. I took a big bite of the cheese and another of jerky, then wrapped them back up in the parcel. It was only a few hours travel to school from where I had stopped to rest.  

I hopped up onto my newly wrapped broom and started up into the sky, spying only foliage underneath me. I started off east and knocked my broom into straight-travel mode so I could sort through my supplies in my bag without worrying about getting off course. I unwrapped the cloak from its bundle and latched the front around my neck, making sure the ink and quills were wrapped in some extra bits of fabric I had in my satchel so they wouldn’t bend or break. The cheese and jerky were already in their own parcels, so I could just grab a strip of burlap and catch up my hair in a ponytail

The journey to Serpentine Academy was long from my childhood home. It was somewhere in the middle of the United Kingdoms, and, sadly, I lived across the English Channel in France. It took me about three days to get to school as the broom flies and I was always just on time for the orientation speech.

The school was in sight as I started to practice racing stances and trick moves on the broom. The towers cut through the bitingly cold fog and I almost ran into one, swerving around it just in time. I tilted towards the ground, where many footprints stained the pristine white snow.

Dropping down to the matted snow path, I adjusted my cloak and snapped my broom into the small hairpiece. Shoving it into my ponytail, I walked up to the door, knocked three times, and waited impatiently. Soon, a fæ slid open the small sight to squint her tiny eyes at me.

“Name, year, ability and Take?” she squeaked.                                                                                                             ��                          

I rolled my eyes and rattled off the answers, “Emilie Beaumont, year 6, seer, Take Eiva.”

The fæ dutifully opened the wooden double doors and I stepped inside, relishing the warmth that the Great Hall provided me. The Great Hall had ceilings so high that a racer could trick ride from beginning to end. A large staircase in the middle of the hall led to the upper levels and many-a-doors in the hall held offices for teachers and staff. Two large wooden doors, identical to the main ones, opened into the dining hall, where girls of all ages sat at tables corresponding to their Take.

A Take is a place you were assigned to be in from your very first year, and there are eight years. Take Eiva, my take, is for people who come from farther away than normal. For instance, I am from France, one of my roommates, Sonya Gorbachav, is from Russia, and the other of my roommates, Adrianne Smith, is from Australia.

Some other Takes would be Take Una, where witches who wanted to live with humans, Take Yinzi, where foreign languages such as Fæ, Elv, Mermish, and Dwarf were learned, Take Lor was for the future witch historians, Take Verl is where the academy sticks the troublemakers—I would’ve been in this Take if it weren’t for Take Eiva—, and Take Cinta, where the richer kids were put. The Take Cinta girls hated the Take Eiva girls, but only because we didn’t buy our way into the good grace of the Headmistress, we just were liked by her. Really, my Take was just made as an afterthought. Serpentine Academy is the only witches-only school for miles. There’s another in America, but their teaching methods are too obscure for many Serpentine girls to comprehend.

I spotted Sonya in the middle of the Take Eiva table, glaring over at the next table, which was filled with Take Cinta girls, who were decked out with expensive jewelry and new brooms that were twisted up in their hair to make elaborate hairdos. I spun a few of my own earrings nervously as I sat down next to the air Sonya was glaring into.

“Is there a reason why you’re letting her look daggers into Skylar Jones’s new bejeweled broom?” I asked the air. My other roommate, Adrianne, materialized next to me, blocking Sonya’s view of the Cinta table.

“She always does it before you arrive to ask us about our break,” Adrianne said to me, “Anyway, why do you have all this snow on you, Emilie? You usually come in snow-free.”

I sighed and messed with my compacted broom. “I packed my wand too far into my satchel and I never had the time to dig it out. Oh, yeah! I want to tell you about the weirdest thing. I stopped in a weird town in Germany about—I don’t know, five hours ago?—and it was like a ghost town at first.”

“At first?” Sonya asked in her thick Russian accent. She twirled her dark coil of braid around her arm as she listened.

“Yeah, but when I went into the mercantile shop there was this spark that just went up my spine. After that I checked back outside to see if anyone had been outside to charm me or anything, but no one was outside the houses,” I explained, “it was so weird.”

“Was it one of your usual drop-byes, you know, the ones you go by for school every year?” Adrianne asked. I shook my head.

“My broom was winding down because of the weather. I just touched down to get some food and cloth, but I got this cloak and some ink and quills. Anyway, after I started looking around and picked out the stuff I wanted there was this little boy, looking at me. Of course, he scared me, so I kind-of jumped to the side. I think I scared him and he startesd to make this huge wailing noise. I stole the stuff got out of there as…”

The doors of the Dining hall flew open, cutting my story off, and Headmistress Christopher walked down the middle isle of the Takes’ tables. Everyone was silent as we watched our idol float down the way. The doors stayed open and the rest of the teachers walked to their designated seats solemnly.

Everyone was just about to stand up to recite the motto of Serpentine Academy when more people started filing into the Dining Hall.

Three boys to be exact.

Every girl in the hall froze as the boys went down the teacher’s tables.

As I told you earlier, Serpentine Academy is a girl’s school, so we barely ever see boys. I mean, we see them, but not at school.

Adrianne’s face dropped in surprise, Sonya’s did not. Her and I saw the boys waving at the Cinta table, totally ignoring the many other Takes of girls. I turned my back to the boys and started the long search for my wand in my satchel.

“This year we have many new students that are to be separated into Takes, but this year we have three new students who are going to be introducing the new side to our school,” Headmistress Christopher’s voice rang loud and clear as I shuffled some cheese to the side and found the slit I usually hid my wand in. I reached in the slit and produced my wand, a beautiful thing carved out of willow and cherry wood. It had a thin area where my thumb settled perfectly so I could cast spells quicker and more easily. The thing vibrated in my hand as I returned my broom to my hair and went to work polishing it with a scrap of cloth I had in my bag.

“And as well as having some male counterparts at school, this year we will skip our motto and get right into the separating of the first years,” Headmistress Christopher said, her wispy hair waving up in the sky as if it was in water. I rolled my eyes. Beautification magic, useless. I went back to polishing my wand.

The separating of the first years was pretty straightforward. The divining teacher, Ms. Crawley, placed her hand on the girl’s head and read what she was like. Ms. Crawley was a seer, like me, so she can see things that other people can’t.

“Jevo!” Ms. Crawley announced, meaning the Take for future officers of the Magician’s Law. I rubbed my head, trying not to get pulled into the same vision Ms. Crawley was having. If any normal witch or wizard touches a seer when they’re having a vision they see it too, but when another seer is around one having a vision, an invisible rope pulls them to the seer having the vision. And since, I’m the only seer other than Ms. Crawley at school, no one feels my pain.

“Avan!” the take for future politicians, “and last but not least, Eiva!”

My head jerked up as I saw a tiny little girl with white-wash blonde hair and the palest skin I’d ever seen skittering over to the Take Eiva table. She was a first year, who are all twelve, but looked so much younger than that. Her spot was a few people down on our sparsely populated table. Adrianne, Sonya and I were actually the oldest in our Take because the last few graduated two years ago.

“And these boys will be put into……” Ms. Crawley paused to add dramatic effect.

I whispered to my roommates, “I bet you five glohs that they are all going to be in Cinta.”

“No way!” Adrianne argued, “I bet they’re too nice to be in Cinta, right Sonya?”

Sonya shrugged, “I bet she split them up, no?”

“So, if I’m right get five glohs from both of you, got it?” I said just as Ms. Crawley announced, “CINTA!”

“Yes!” I hissed as my friends paid up.

“You cheated, didn’t you,” Adrianne said, “You had a vision.”

“When I have visions I usually finish them by coughing up blood, or I’ll have a nosebleed like Madame Crawley. So, no, I did not have a vision,” I said, putting the glohs in my coin belt and pushing my tunic over it.

Most of the time, girls were not allowed to have any money on campus, but I made the most money I ever could on campus, winning the witches’ game of Intercental. Intercental is the magician’s equivalent of poker. The older years of each Take—which meant year five to year eight—gathered in the library on the first and last Fridays of each month, and the day after the first day of school.

“And now it is time for lunch!” Headmistress Christopher called out in her strong British accent, waving her hands across the hall and making food appear. Everyone dug in hungrily, knowing we had to get to classes immediately after. I was the first to finish eating my feast at my table, so I decided to cut a glance at the Cinta table. The three boys were in a group near Skylar Jones and her groupies, flirting up a storm. I rolled my eyes again.

Skylar happened to glance up at the time I was rolling my eyes.

“Have a problem with something, Frog?” she called out to me in her hoity-toity accent. I scowled at her.

“Yes, indeed I do, Redcoat,” I growled back at her, turning all the way around so my back was against the table. Skylar lowered her perfect eyebrows at me and I arched one of my black ones. “Didn’t like that nickname, did you?”

“What is your problem?” Skylar asked, standing up suddenly.

“My problem?” I tapped my wand against my legging-clad leg in an annoyed way, “why do you torment all the girls in Take Eiva? They’re all my responsibility. You mess with them, you mess with me.”

“You’re only in year six,” Skylar said, smirking, “like me.”

“Unlike you, I’m the oldest in my take, so I actually have kids who look up to me for a good reason. Not looking at me with the desire to be me and filling themselves with self-hate, like half the girls in your Take,” I narrowed my eyes at her, daring her to defy me.

“At least I have the beauty for them to admire, you’re just an eyesore. And when you claim you have a ‘vision’ you make this whole scene. I say you’re just longing for attention,” she said, jabbing her perfectly manicured fingernail at me.

I rocketed up then, advancing at her, “Do you know how much blood I lose a year because of my ability? No, I bet you don’t, because you haven’t lost a drop of yours, and if you did, your rich daddy would buy a bag of blood and make sure you had every ounce in your body.”

Skylar’s face widened into a smile, “Hit a nerve there?”

“I challenge you to a game of Intercental tomorrow,” I said, then pointed at the boys, “and they will join you.”

The three boys, who had been watching on the sidelines looked at he people around them, trying to see if I was pointing at someone else. They obviously knew how to play. Everyone thirteen and older knew how to. There was an Intercental competition every year synonymous with the broom competitions, and I was MVP in both.

Skylar contemplated the challenge for a minute, then spoke, “I agree to your challenge.”

I smirked at her, but, right at the wrong moment, a warm stickiness encased my tongue. A tickle went up my throat and I covered my mouth, coughing onto my hand. My knees buckled as I started to fall to the ground.

“Don’t touch her!” Ms. Crawley called from the front of the Dining hall, but strong arms had already caught me and lowered me to the ground. My sight clouded as the vision took over my sight.

“You have the seer precautions up?” a dark voice asked in a smoky room. Not many things could be seen in the room, other than a table set up for Intercental

“Yessir, the charms are in place,” a younger voice echoed from the other side of the room. A head bobbed at the table as a person sat down across from it.

“The subject we are about to speak about is delicate and we can have absolutely no people listening in on it,” the first voice, which was coming from the man that was at the table in the first place.

“What is it?” a new voice asked, most likely the person who sat across from the man with the dark voice.

“We’ve realized that humans have this certain thing about them. This, ability to create magic, but not in any way we’ve been able to do. We’ve been trying to find a way to—”

“Honey?” a voice woke up a young girl and shook me out of what must’ve been her dream, “It’s time to get ready for school.”

She rubbed her eyes and sat up in bed, curls bouncing in front of her face, “Mommy, I think I had a vision.”

The woman laughed out loud and sat next to her daughter. She had brown ringlets, matching her child’s blonde ones, “Seers are rare, and they skip a generation. Since I’m a seer, you couldn’t be one. You’re fine. No one is going to hurt you. That dream was just that, a dream. C’mon let’s get you dressed.”

[opaloremerald]

Opal or Emerald

So, I’m kneecap-deep in a WIP of which I have called “Opal or Emerald”--if you haven't noticed. Its a wizard fantasy fiction, but it’s nothing like Harry Potter.

Emilie Beaumont is an anima, and no one knows it. She’s also a seer, which detours most people from looking to closely. But when new transfers come to her all-girl witches’ school, Serpentine Academy, weird things start to happen. Emilie sees new visions that don’t make sense and an eyeless man seems to be wanting her and her power.

Marx Jaxon is a dragon. People know it, but not many. He cines to Serpentine Academy with friends and assumes he won’t enjoy it, but when a seer collapses on him, letting Marx see her vision, then beats him in a version of wizard poker, he has an odd feeling to protect her. When the situation escalates, though, Marx has to reveal the worst part of himself to save her