Lunch was long, long enough that Káel managed to eat his food and spend an hour trying to find Ray; because if he could speed up his ride back home in any way, he was willing to help. Unfortunately, everyone he questioned came up with the same answer, they knew him, but not enough to know where he was.

          While he was following a lead Sev gave him on Ray's whereabouts, he found himself passing the same room. It was empty, and the stone wall was still solid as ever, standing tall without a trace of the dark hall he'd first seen.

          He approached the wall and knocked on it. He didn't know what he was expecting, but it made the same noise it would have if he punched a rock. There seemed to be nothing there, but he couldn't have imagined that thing, and Vera was with him.

          Looking around for any spectators first, he pressed his ear against the wall. He sat there for a bit listening intently, but it didn't make a squeak.

          "Sorry, I'm afraid that's just a wall."

          Káel whipped around to behold an empty room, but quickly remembered the familiar female voice. "You! From that test thing!"

          "Yeah, me..." she responded.

          "Who are you?"

          "I'm Tia. I don't know why you're particularly interested in that part of the wall, but you should think about getting to class soon."

          Káel looked around the empty room. "Small question, where's my next class?"

          "Follow the arrow on your sender."

          He stared at the strange bracelet, There was a small black arrow at the center piece of his sender, pointing a little to the left with physical education written beneath it. "Oh, thanks."

          "Small question before you go."

          Káel stopped, looking at the ceiling. "What?"

          "Do you remember being anywhere not so Earthy before Ray thought it would be entertaining to kidnap you?"

          Káel tried to think of any place he'd gone out of his tiny boring town that may have been unearthly, but camping, being Earthy and the only thing he would leave Iridis for, gave him a simple answer. "Nope, nothing I can remember."

          "Interesting... Well, thank you for your compliance, and please remember to sign your school forms before the week is up, even if you don't plan on staying at Cobalt for an extensive period of time." There was a lull of silence as Káel nodded at the ceiling, smiling in understanding. "Don't just stand there like an idiot, go to class."

  —————  

          The class must have been on the other end of the school, because despite his constant running and high end student maneuvering skills, he ended up bursting through the doors late, and in the middle of an informative speech that died with his arrival. Most of the students turned to look at him, while Káel contemplated the consequences of closing the door and walking away like nothing had happened.

          "There you are!" the teacher called cheerfully. "Next time you're late you don't have to run for your life, you can just walk in and tell me the reason when I'm done talking."

          He looked around for Truvius and Vera, since Talli was too short to be spotted from his standing point. It was a joint class again, but this time they were paired up with the green striped students.

          The teacher patiently watched him close the door. "Káel, right?" She smiled with a motherly warmth as he nodded, adjusting the bright red bandanna hugging her forehead.  "We're going over some safety rules for the forest since we'll be visiting it, but it's mostly common sense, so please have a seat and we'll continue."

          Káel spotted Truvius's flamboyant bird, and squeezed through a group of silvers to get to him.

          She cleared her throat, tossing a small cut of fish to a large bird perched on her desk, the silver lining it's dark feathers rippling in the light. "Now before we go, not all the forest creatures are cute, cuddly and friendly. DO NOT approach the forest creatures, if they want your attention they will approach you. Some of the especially dangerous ones are dragons, crystalback snakes, pluffins, shadow-horned pyrs, and unicorns."

          Káel at Talli who'd gone stiff from his close proximity. "Unicorns?"

          She nodded, taking in a breath before speaking. "They'll k-kill anything they deem unworthy of standing in their p-pure presence."

          The teacher finished warning the class about the dangers in the forest, which was a hefty list for common sense. Now everyone was walking outside in an unorganised clump, following the teacher's lead while she cheerily walked towards the forest she had recently called an unpredictable death trap.

          Káel weaved through the students to get to the front of the herd, where the teacher was talking to a group of girls in green striped uniforms. He waited until he gained her attention, then explained the errand he'd been sent on by Mr. Mudelin.

          She cringed when he mentioned showing up in Mr. Mudelin's class without a guardian, and after listening to his entire story without interruption, she grabbed her chin and looked ahead in ponderment.

          "Students have come to me looking for help regarding their Guardian, but never because they simply didn't have one... Oh well, this forest is as good as any for finding a Guardian. I'm assuming you want something big with claws, right?" She brushed her braided black hair behind her bandana.

          He couldn't help but picture trying to befriend a ferocious Molve when she said that. "Preferably not, maybe something small... and harmless...?"

          She tried to fight it, but broke into a fit of snorting laughter. "You realise this is a combat school right? I'm not sure how far small and harmless is gonna get you. How about a Firebat? They're small, common, only act vicious occasionally, and they're really loyal."

          Káel shook his head. "Anything I can leave for long periods of time? Like a dog... Or a cat?"

          Mrs. Vienta flashed Káel a strange look before replying. "Hmm, how about you come by on the weekend, and I'll see what I can do."

          She suddenly stopped, turning around and sticking her arms out to stop the students from continuing, they were several feet away from the forest, and a pearly white rock. She ordered the students to find a partner with a different coloured uniform, and Káel was nonchalantly grabbed by one of the girls Mrs. Vienta had been talking to.

          "Sorry, you were the closest silver," she said, before yawning and staring at the teacher drowsily.

          Mrs. Vienta pulled a pretty black and violet flower out of her pocket, crumbly dirt was still clinging to its meshy roots. "This is a Purple Tranthis, it has a variety of uses for medicine. I want you and your partner to find the best looking one you can, and bring it back to me." She twirled it's thick stem along her fingers, flinging up a couple grains of dried dirt. "Oh, and make sure you dig them out of the ground, because if you pluck them, they will release a potent paralysing mist lasting several hours; not to mention you'll have failed this test." She placed her hand on the rock and muttered, humming as the forest rustled, and the thick wall of trees and shrubs scuttled away to create a path. "O.K. you guys can start now, I've opened up multiple paths so don't step off them!"

          The girl waited patiently for the hoard of students to pour into the forest, and half heartedly waved goodbye to her friends. When all the students were long gone she smiled at the teacher and strolled in. Her eyes were so droopy she was practically sleep walking.

          When they walked into an empty area already raided by the other students, she opened her eyes to stare at a tree. There wasn't anything special about this tree, it looked pretty normal; but she was intent on staring it down.

          "What are we doing?"

          The girl yawned again and pointed at the tree. "The best ones are this way..."

          "But there's no path that way."

          "Yes there is." She pulled a white rock out of her pocket and murmured. The tree shuffled away, along with all the other plants, to create a brand new path. "She didn't say we couldn't make our own paths."

          "Fair enough," Káel replied, following her down the trail.

          They had been walking for a bit, and already passed a couple clusters of the black flowers, but whenever Káel pointed them out, the girl would mutter "not those ones" without even turning her head.

          She was taking her sweet old time, but she seemed to know where she was going. 

          At least that's what Káel was hoping to be the case. 

          The path finally stopped at a small vine covered cave, and the girl brushed away a couple of the vines revealing a small cluster of the flowers.

          She dug the biggest one out and plopped it in Káel's hands. "If they grow in shadier areas they have bigger petals, and they're more potent."

          Káel was about to politely thank her when a twig decided to snap, and the girl took it upon herself to grab his arm and pull him into the cave.

          "What was that-"

          "Shh!" the girl hissed, parting the thick wall of vines a little to get a view of the outside. Káel put the flower down, and parted his own little window. A tiny pure white horse stepped into view, it had a long glistening white horn, and turned its beady black eyes to the cave.

          "Get down," the girl whispered, pulling Káel away from the mouth of the cave.

          "It's just a baby unicorn," Káel argued, crawling back to the vines.

          The girl's face turned to bewilderment as she let out a hissing whisper. "Just a baby unicorn?! Are you insane?! The Queens always keep their babies on a tight leash! It's ten feet behind them, max!"

          What sort of Queen is she talking about? Káel thought, lightly parting the vines to restore his view. Now there were three little baby unicorns prancing around cutely, all the while kicking and poking at something near their feet.

          He tried to focus on what they were playing with, noticing it was small and fluffy. 

         And sadly alive. 

         The white ball of fur growled and swiped at the unicorns feet, while they exercised their cruel power over it with harsh kicks and snorts.

          It managed to jump in between one of the unicorns legs to make its escape, and quickly homed in on the cave as a sanctuary. Káel was ready to grab the poor thing and make a run for it, when a horn the size of a broadsword plunged into the dirt, inches from the creature's face. Its ears shot up, and it readied its two puffy white wings, but as soon as they stretched above its head, they suddenly dropped, and the creature whimpered helplessly.

          The horn tore itself from the dirt, and Káel could hear a deep rumbling growl as the massive shadow swept over the cave. The air was shaking, even after the bloodthirsty hum of the strange beast, and a stained hoof dropped down a footslength from the weak disguise of vines protecting them. He could see part of its leg now,  hardly white with the brown an yellowed stains it bore. 

          "What is that thing?" he whispered.

          The girl was shuddering as she spoke, cringing back into the small cluster of flowers. 

          "That's the Queen."

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4/30/2018