She couldn’t tell if his eyes were open, but he lifted a hand to rub at them. It took a few beats for him to realize he wasn’t wherever he’d expected to be, and then he shot upright, releasing Pandy to roll down to the next step before she could catch herself. “Where am I?” he asked, smearing more dirt across his face as he wiped at it.
His gaze was drawn to the small source of light in the wall above them, and this seemed to finally trigger understanding. Quickly, he turned, and the relief on his face when he saw Pandy was enough to make her small, probably still undead, heart melt.
“Bunny? Are you…all right?” He prodded her, finding the creases in her fur – and probably flesh – from where she’d been serving as a pillow for so long. She turned her face into his hand and rubbed her cheek against it, tickling his fingers with her nose.
Thaniel frowned, tilting his head as if trying to listen to something very far away. Then he shook his head and climbed to his feet, looking a little unsteady as he did so. “We should go back to my room,” he said, as if she hadn’t told him the same thing only a minute ago. “I bet it’s almost time for dinner.”
Pandy waited until he took a few steps up, then hopped after him, barely able to restrain the urge to stand on her hind legs and push him. Then she paused and looked back at the little hole in the wall. There was no way she could close it for him. Was there?
Drawing in an entirely unnecessary breath, Pandy pushed off of the step with one long back foot, while thinking,
-2 LF
Casting of Minor Heal successful. 5.26% experience gained towards next level.
“Bunny?” Thaniel’s voice was little more than a squeak, and she went running up the stairs, only tripping over her own paws four or five times before she bumped into his feet. Both of them made startled noises, and then Thaniel crouched, feeling around until he found her. Only when she was safely in his arms did he begin his ascent again, though with even less confidence.
They found the wall by bumping into it, and Thaniel didn’t even bother trying to find and look out of the peephole before opening the door. He stumbled out, nding on hands and knees, which also made him drop Pandy, who quickly kicked the door closed behind them. Returning to Thaniel, she saw that he was pale beneath the tan he’d acquired during his adventures with Geraldine.
At the very least they were finally back where they were ‘supposed’ to be. Pandy was more red than white, and Thaniel looked distinctly unwell, but they shouldn’t get kicked out of school if he colpsed in the hall. Still, it would be best if they didn’t, and Pandy eyed her CP, wondering if she dared try to use it yet. She really wanted one hundred, not because she had any idea how many she would actually need, but because three digits were far more comforting than only two.
Before she decided to take the leap — or Hop – Thaniel managed to bring himself back to his feet, leaving another telltale smudge on the wall as he did so. It was a good thing Pandy hadn’t entered the world of any moderately decent detective, because there was no way they’d have missed such obvious clues.
“Come on, Bunny,” Thaniel said, trudging down the hall. Pandy followed him, feeling more and more worried as he slowed, stopped, then started up again. She had always believed Thaniel to be a child of well-nigh infinite energy, so using up his magic must have drained him even more than she’d realized.
Her mind veered away from that thought, and all the following ones that she’d been so desperately trying to avoid ever since Thaniel had saved her. First, they needed to reach Thaniel’s room and do some minimal cleanup, and then she could try to figure out exactly what had happened downstairs. She’d even managed not to think about it while they were trapped in the secret passage, because she had a feeling that when she did, she would completely melt down, and she did not have time for that until Thaniel was safe.
They passed room after room, each bnk door exactly like the ones before, until they finally reached the corner. The rug still y slightly askew where Pandy had slid on it going around the corner, and Thaniel almost tripped over the small wrinkle.
Thaniel’s head jerked slightly, and he looked down at her, blue eyes hazy. But he took a step, then another, until Pandy gently bumped his left foot, encouraging him to turn right. He did so, and his hand nded on the wooden door of his room, beneath the bronze pque embzoned with his name. He turned the handle, stepped inside, then fell to the floor, apparently unconscious.
Once again, Pandy tried using Minor Heal, but it still didn’t work, making her click her teeth in frustration. This was all right, though. They were in the room. Pandy could take it from here.
She kicked the door shut, then used Hop to reach the wash basin. There, she gingerly picked up the washcloth in her teeth, and dipped it into the bowl of tepid water. She started to Hop back down, but paused.
Your Inventory is empty.
Yes! Pandy could have done a little rabbit dance if she hadn’t been afraid she’d either fall down or knock off the bowl. Instead, she released the cloth, letting it sink into the water, and cmped her teeth on the rim of the bowl.
Removing the bowl – complete with washcloth and water – and the towel was as easy as putting them into her Inventory had been, though somewhat to her chagrin they both appeared exactly as they had disappeared, which in this case meant clenched between her teeth. She would have to be more careful about how she picked things up in future.
Squeezing the excess water from the cloth was a surprisingly challenging task, and the water was tinged pink from contact with Pandy’s fur by the time she didn’t feel like she might drown Thaniel with the cloth if she applied it to his face. As carefully as she could, she did exactly that, wiping his pale cheeks and cmmy brow with retively clean water. He didn’t stir as she washed away the evidence of his foray into the walls, and she moved on to his hands, getting them as clean as she could. At least he didn’t look like he’d been pying in the dirt anymore.
Cleaning his clothes was just a matter of patting her fluffy paws against the fabric, sending up puffs of dust that threatened to undo the work she’d just done to wipe off his face and hands. Still, she was able to get the worst of the dirt off, leaving Thaniel looking like any other rambunctious child, not a vagabond.
Only after Thaniel was as clean as she could get him did Pandy climb awkwardly into the bowl, spilling only a little of the remaining water. The water was already a murky color after being used to wipe Thaniel down, and it turned nearly bck as the nastiness began to melt off of Pandy’s fur. She ducked her head, shaking her ears, then rolled over and over until there was more water in her fur than the bowl. Then she leaned out and grasped the towel in her teeth once again, tugging it close enough so she could slosh out of the bowl and nd on the towel. It, too, turned dark, but hopefully the worst of the mess would remain on the nubbly fabric, and not on Pandy.
She froze as a knock sounded at the door, and then a vaguely familiar voice called, “Nathaniel?” Of course, Thaniel didn’t answer, and Pandy couldn’t, even if she’d wanted to. “Ah, Thaniel?” The voice tried again. “Are you there? It’s time for supper.”
Yes, Pandy realized, she had indeed distantly noted the bell ringing a second time a little while ago. Of course it was dinner time, and of course they’d noticed Thaniel’s absence, exactly as she’d expected them to. And even though Pandy was still dripping wet, help was finally here, and she wouldn’t let them leave without making sure Thaniel was finally properly cared for.
Lifting a foot, she thumped on the floor as loudly as she could. Thump thump thump thump! The shadowy shoes barely visible beneath the door stilled, then shifted, and the handle of the door began to turn.
“I’m coming in, Thaniel. Everyone’s worried about you,” the voice said.
Oh. Oh, of course the teachers could get in. The spell on the door probably recognized them, so they wouldn’t even need a key. Frantically, Pandy gripped the bowl in her teeth again, put it back in her inventory, and followed it with the soaked and stained towel. So when Augustus Bckwood entered the room, he saw a small, wet rabbit sitting beside Nathaniel Conroy’s fallen body.
For a long, long moment, Pandy’s red gaze met the cool gray one of the school’s chancellor, and then she sneezed sharply, spraying water everywhere as her whole body shot backward a few inches. This broke the tension, and Augustus knelt beside Thaniel, first checking the boy’s throat for a pulse, then ying the back of his hand on Thaniel’s forehead.
“Sick,” he muttered. “The poor d’s been under far too much pressure tely. Come on then.” With infinite care, he lifted Thaniel into his arms and crossed to the bed, ying the boy down before gently removing Thaniel’s dusty shoes.
Pandy could have smacked herself. How could she have forgotten to clean Thaniel’s shoes? Augustus Bckwood didn’t even seem to notice, however, just dropping the shoes on the floor where they almost immediately vanished beneath the edge of the thick comforter that the man pulled up over Thaniel.
That done, the chancellor lifted a finger, and a swirling spark appeared atop of it. “Fetch Mistress Rose, please,” he said, and the spark became a tiny breeze that blew out of the room, mussing the brown hair that had been combed neatly back from a high forehead. Augustus smoothed his hair back into pce, then turned an assessing gaze toward Pandy.
“And here you are again, Bunny,” he said. “Of course, you’re Nathaniel’s pet, are you not? Though I wonder that the d was aware enough to knock on the floor to call me in. He seems quite unconscious now.”
Crouching, he held out a hand for Pandy to sniff. Then, to her utter astonishment, he reached into a pocket inside his jacket and removed a carrot, offering it to her with the calm expectancy of a waiter who had just brought a basket of breadsticks to a table full of hungry patrons. Before Pandy could think better of it, she bit into it, and her mouth filled with sweet, vegetable goodness for only an instant before firm hands grasped her middle and lifted her into the air.
She thrashed – though she didn’t spit out her bite of carrot, because Pandy had never been one to waste good food – but the man simply pced her on the bed beside Thaniel, then lifted a corner of the comforter so she could crawl beneath it. She did so, and he set the carrot down beside her just as a woman ran in, following the little breeze, which settled on Augustus’ finger again. He took a cube of what looked like sugar from the same pocket that had contained the carrot, and absently gave it to the little elemental.
“What has happened, Mr. Bckwood?” the woman – presumably Mistress Rose – asked as she reached Nathaniel’s bedside. She picked up the boy’s wrist in one hand, and everything was quiet for a bit as she counted his pulse. Laying a hand on Thaniel’s forehead, she lifted her brows at the chancellor.
He smiled. “Young Nathaniel seems to have overdone it today. I believe he traveled quite a ways to get here, starting early this morning, and he may or may not have had anything to eat on the road. I found him on the floor just inside the room, as if he’d colpsed there.”
Clicking her tongue, Mistress Rose stroked Thaniel’s curls back from his face, frowning at a smudge of dirt she found there. “He’s going to be one of the troublesome ones, isn’t he?” Her words were sharp, but her tone was almost affectionate, and there was no missing the gentleness in her touch. She held her hands over Thaniel’s body, murmuring something, then frowned.
“If he wasn’t so young, I’d say he was suffering from Exhaustion. Did he have a natural revetion?” she asked, brows drawing together as she lowered her hands.
Augustus’ face became a noncommittal mask, and he said, “No, and while I respect your professional opinion, I will note that his family would certainly have let us know.”
“Hmm,” Mistress Rose said disapprovingly, but she took a step back. “Well, I’ll let the kitchen know he’s to be given light meals for the next day, and I’ll send a restorative draught as well. Timon can give it to him when he wakes, and watch over him tonight.”
“That sounds like an excellent pn,” Chancellor Bckwood said. “I’ll send for the boy if you’ll stay with Nathaniel.”
“Of course,” Mistress Rose said. Her eyes caught on Pandy then, and she made a small sound of surprise. “What in the world is that?”
“I believe I mentioned that five of the students will be allowed to bring pets this year,” Augustus said. “You were at the staff meeting earlier, were you not?”
“And this is one of them?” the woman asked, lifting the corner of the bnket to peer in at Pandy. Pandy shrank back, but Mistress Rose only tsked again and said, “Well, at least a rabbit won’t be too much trouble, so long as it doesn’t gnaw on the furniture.”
“Indeed,” Augustus Bckwood said, striding to the still-open door. “I’ll leave him in your capable hands then, Mistress Rose. Thank you for your prompt assistance.”
Mistress Rose bobbed a short curtsey, dropping the bnket back over Pandy, leaving the rabbit in darkness once again.