A Second Generation Whateley Academy Adventure

Paying the Pied Pythoness

by

MaLAguA

 

Part Three

 

???
Woods in Vermont

“Alright,” Caro scoffed. She flicked the fire off the match between her fingers before throwing it into the mud. “All is set.”

She took a moment to cast her flashlight at the surroundings, seeing nothing but the black space in between the trees stretching for who knew how far. She almost expected her father or mother to show up to drag her back home… After all, she’d snuck out of her house after an argument with them.

They’d been worried sick about her since she’d made the pact with Grimma, and awfully protective once the consequences showed up. They had decided to wait for an answer or a solution that her grandmother would bring them. But waiting was something Caro couldn’t bother to do tonight.

“But it’s just the worst kind of bother,” Caro growled. “I got myself into this and neither Mom or Dad can fix this… so it has to be me. And I can’t wait for Grandmother to get here from England.” She paused for a moment to check the clock. 7:30 PM. There was no postponing this; if she wanted to kick this spirit’s butt and get to the party, even if late, she needed to deal with it now.

“It has to be me… only I can fix this… what a drag.” Caro grumbled and shook her head as she looked over the instructions her grandmother had deigned to share and then up at the added preparations she’d picked up from some of the old tomes left during her last visit.

“A night of full moon,” Caro recited as she looked up to the dark firmament. Fortunately, she was deep enough in the countryside that she could spy the clear round moon above her, accompanied by the freckles that were the stars, fortunately framed by the clouds that granted her the chance for the ritual.

“Deep within the woods, where nature is strong,” she repeated, looking at her surroundings once again. Only trees could be seen. And the sweat on her brow was testament to the distance she’d covered. That ought to be enough, she thought.

“Trace a circle with the runes,” Caro read out loud as she shone her flashlight onto her handiwork. In the middle of the clearing before her, there stood a circle traced with a stick. Truth be told, it wasn’t the most perfect circle, as the line appeared to wobble more often than not… but the lines connected, so she assumed they were good enough. And within the arrangement were several more inscribed lines that tried to emulate the example provided. According to the mysticist and specialist in magical articles that was her grandmother, these would aid her in summoning Grimma.

“To summon the patron witness. You’ll want Grimma here to offer you some support if needed,” were the words written. Something about that got Caro incensed. “Some support? After she caused all this?”

“Light the perimeter–that is the larger circle that contains you and the patron witness space.” Caro looked down on the ground, where a bunch of small sticks had been lit up and planted on the ground. Fortunately, one of the tricks she’d learned as she gained her powers was the ability to create long-lasting magical flames. ‘Faerie fire,’ Grandmother called it.

Five of those slow-burning lights sat at the rim of the circle, creating an incandescent light. They were a couple of degrees away from the usual hue, but just enough for them to pass off as fire.

Caro read the next line of the text. “And, at the center, leave the pieces of oaken wood.” Her grandma then added to that observation. “This is just to give her a medium that can pull her in. Any type of tree should do, as long as you leave it burning for about ten minutes. I know that Grimma prefers oak.” She had no idea nor cared about the types of wood, she just happened to chance upon fallen pieces on the way and left them burning as she prepared the circle.

After that, came the final point of the list: “Write a verse that sets up the rules of what you want. The more specific you are, the more conditions you put to fulfill, the more likely you are to succeed.” Caro shook her head. This now felt like school homework. “I’ll think of something…”

Following that was a message from her grandmother, telling Caro about things that she would have to prepare for the old lady’s arrival. “I’m not going to wait for that. Not when tonight is the perfect day to show the girls in my school that you don’t mock me without facing the consequences.” Caro was resolved. Her blood boiled at the memory of the distant laughter as she ran away from school with the horns painfully pushing and growing on her head. Some things she could not allow to go unpunished. And she already had a couple of spells ready to inflict upon them all. From the classic boils and zits to gibberish language. She was going to teach them and make a name for herself.

She turned her cellphone into a mirror and glimpsed at herself for a reminder.

The biggest unmissable detail about her now was the pair of horns that grew from the side of her head, curling themselves forward.. Maybe some sort of African antelope or a ram… She really couldn’t stomach looking at herself in the mirror for long. ‘Sheepish,’ ‘horny,’ and ‘freak-o’ were just some of the most common words she’d read in her social media.

Caro hissed as she looked at her eyes, noticing the mystical gold and green sheen adopted over her usual hazel color. Her pupil appeared slightly more oblong than before, though whether that was something new or an illusion of the low light, she wasn’t sure.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m sorting this out tonight and getting my life back together! Now!” Caro held her hand into the circle and carried on with the instructions her grandmother had laid down. “Focus… release the essence you just acquired to make the calling…. Grimma, the so-called spirit of the stories, traveler, bystander, hag, steed, squire, whatever you call yourself. I beseech you with my heart and plea. Please show up. I need to talk to you.“ Despite the fact that it was supposed to be a plea, Caro couldn’t hide the anger within her voice.

Nothing happened… at first. Her grandmother, knowing Caro well enough, wrote in her note ‘Be patient, it might take some time depending on how you made the summoning.’ Which sorta felt like a dig at her writing skills.

There was a span of silence for a moment as time seemed to stretch itself while in the waiting.

“I demand you to show up. Appear! You can’t just ruin my life and flee!” she insisted.

Finally, she began to perceive something. Trails of dark smoke that slithered itself between the gaps in the circle of magical fire, towards the drawn center. Slowly coalescing and devouring charred wood, making its pieces crack and break. Releasing chunks of ashes into the air. Rising in the form of a humanoid silhouette.

“Child,” a word broke the silence, carried as smoothly as the breeze, yet to Caro, it was both magma and iced chill that festered in her stomach. The source of her woes had arrived.

“Greetings,” the dark figure mused from within the mud circle, bright eyes shining under the moonlight and with an outline as dark as the void, even as the flashlight was pointed her way.

“At last you came…”

“How could I not? An interesting story in the making.”

“Story? Is that what this is to you? I’ve been and still am, being made fun of and bullied by my friends because of this dumb ‘gift’ you gave me!” She pointed up to her horns. “I want you to remove them. Or I’ll do it myself.”

“Oh, I am sure thou couldst try,” Grimma said, clearly seeing through Caro’s bluff. “Although I think not that thou wouldst want to get thine head so close to a saw’s keen edge…” A chuckle escaped her ethereal form.

“You sadistic horror!” Caro snapped. “Fix this!”

Yet the insults did barely to phase Grimma, whose eyes narrowed and arched with a tingle of joy. “Apologies be mine, O dearest Caro. But such a thing I shall not do..”

“You don’t get to say my name!” Caro snapped. “Get rid of the horns!”

The figure of Grimma moved about, wavering from side to side in consideration, but not at all bothered by the demands of the teenager. “A promise I did make to thee, that I would invite thee into a life of thrills the likes of which thou couldst never imagine. A promise that thou couldst carve thine own story. Thusly, I put thee in a much better place for which to accomplish that.”

“I didn’t agree to this,” Caro emphasized the horns again.

“Thou wanted magic, and so I gave it to thee.” Grimma smiled. “I told thee it would involve the bestowing of a blessing upon thee.”

“This is a curse!”

“Such is a matter of perspective,” Grimma said. “A warning I gave thee, after all.”

“A warning?!”

“I told thee to not overdo it.”

“...Last chance,” Caro warned. “Agree to change me back, or I won’t ever release you.”

“A cage, this is not, child.” Grimma held out her dark limb over the line of the mud circle without any sort of effect or consequence. “Merely a cushioned seat to watch the show.”

“The show? This is what it is to you?!” Caro frowned. She would have swung the stick against the figure but she had the feeling that it would hardly serve a purpose. She gritted her teeth as the bark cracked under her grip. This couldn’t have been her grandmother’s full plan, there had to be something she was missing…

Suddenly she regretted not waiting to get more details on the plan of action, instead of standing here as a fool in a stalemate she’d started. How frustratingly embarrassing, she thought to herself.

But then, she forced herself to take a deep breath–not to let go of her anger, but to appear reasonable and collected, just like she always did with her classmates. Just how she projected herself, even if she couldn’t get what she wanted… Except…

“Please, Grimma… what can I do to be normal?”

That change of attitude got Grimma to cock her head curiously. “Hm… What dost thou mean by normal? Make thee as thou wert before? Nay, I think not. A dreadfully boring story that would be.”

“I can’t be out in the open like this.”

“I have played the role of an outcast many times,” Grimma mused, leaning back. “Nothing wrong with being out of place. Especially in this world–”

Grimma’s words were cut short, silenced as a stick swung past, phasing through the smoke-like body. The outline and figure faded away for a second before reconstituting.

“I’ll be hunted down!” Caro snapped.

“But felled by it, thou shall not,” Grimma assured once she finished reforming. “I believe thou to be far stronger than that. A hero in a dark cloak, or a villain brandishing flowers. Maybe just a bystander admiring the view, a poet with a new inspiration or a bard–”

“Shut up! Shut up!” Caro frowned. “I want you to fix me.”

Grimma sighed. “Mayhaps I granted these powers earlier than I should. Foisted them upon thee ere thou hadst even the glimmer of an idea of how to wave a wand. Maybe thou wert not as capable of handling the responsibility as I thought, and what drew me to thee must perforce have been a fluke. Perhaps thou art not as cunningly worthy as I thought.”

“Are you calling me stupid?” Caro frowned.

“A way I shall offer thee.” Grimma dismissed the circle with a wave of her hand, letting the dark mists that comprised her body spread out past the borders and across the ground. “Dost thou remember the way my particular blend of magic works?”

“Laws and loopholes,” Caro said. “I think I did my first couple of spells well enough.”

“Thou didst, but those were the first strikes of a squire, the first spells of an apprentice, and the first drops of the medicine of a healer,” Grimma mused before holding out her hand. “If thou dost want to go ahead with it, let me help thee out.”

Grimma’s form shifted and spun like she was rummaging within herself, until something was produced from nowhere at all: a piece of paper and a quill. Both of them glowed with the spirit’s brand of power, leaving trails in the air as they moved along and banished the darkness that clung to them, confirming them as real. The parchment appeared stiff enough for the entity to trace lines in the air, making the feathered tip of the thing dance at the rhythm as the words were written.

“Here be a start,” Grimma said as she flicked the pen at the end of the strokes. And with that, she offered both items over to Caro.

There was nothing that she could do but accept it, finding written, in excellent calligraphy, the words:

“Tonight, cast underneath the round’d white,

A young troubled girl yearns to fix her plight,

With the patron giving her something to write,

will her thoughts laid bare show her might?”

“Now she stands as an apprentice sorceress,

This parchment shall mark the girl’s first trial,

Marked by an entity, ne’er to conform for less,

By her own hand, will decide to pass or fail.”

Caro read the small grouping of lines several times before looking at Grimma.

“It’s not my best,” Grimma said with humility. “But it be enough to start the avalanche,”

“So, you want me to write?” Caro inquired. Grimma didn’t answer, only looking at her with what could be guessed as a ‘knowing smile’.

“If thou wouldst fix something, do it thyself. Turn thyself human.“

“So, you won’t stop me?”

“I will steer if thou turnest down a wrong path, yes.” Grimma nodded.

Yeah right, Caro thought inwardly, I bet she’ll deter me if I end up getting too close to the answer. “Alright,” was all she said as she reviewed the piece of paper and the written words. So far it appeared to be a basic poem describing the situation. Nothing off or out of the ordinary… nothing which made second guess things, after all. This was, after all, someone her grandmother had warned her about… not to mention the matter with the horns that grew on her head being enough reason for her to be wary.

She took a deep breath and scribbled the words. Fortunately, the piece of paper was surprisingly taut and the tip of the quill effortlessly traced lines, almost following her thoughts.

“The girl, Caroline Hersebeth, will return to being fully human.”

She read out loud and waited for a moment. The words pulsated with the rest of the lines, as magic was enacted, and Caro began to feel something harsh within her, a strong pull that was taking place within her, around her heart, her stomach and her lungs… but it quickly ceased, as if blocked by something.

Clutching her chest, she saw the inscribed words begin to peel themselves off the paper and disintegrate into the air, fading away into nothingness.

“Thou art going to have to try harder than that, child,” Grimma lectured, shaking her head. “Thou knowest how this works. Or hast thou forgotten?”

“No…But I still wanted to try it out,” Caro said as she held the quill and began to write again, this time trying to follow Grimma’s own magical peculiarities.

“The girl wanted to be human again.

Turn herself back and cleanse the curse

No horns that would give her any pain,

So she can go home to get her purse,”

With the lines written, she felt the magic of the parchment try to pull off the energy within her, the mana that spells relied upon. But once again, it was stopped by something. This time it was something that Caro couldn’t ignore.

“Close… but still lacking.” Grimma noted.

As the words began to disintegrate into the air, she looked over at Grimma. “Are you doing something to the spell?”

“Whatever couldst thou mean?” Grimma said coyly.

“Speak truthfully,” Caro demanded.

“I’m only regulating the magical output in your spell,” Grimma admitted without a hint of shame.

“So you are interfering!” Caro accused.

“We are bound together, thee and me. I’m only cutting the spell because I know when it is going to tax thee more than you can imagine. In the end, thou wouldst end in a swoon, or worse, without nary a thing accomplished.”

Caro frowned. “Is that so?” “So it be,” Grimma answered.

Caro didn’t answer, instead standing for a moment glaring at the spirit willingly bound to the circle. She’s working against me, she thought. There was no way that her spell would’ve backfired that way. She was used to seeing the fake friendships within some of the girls in the upper echelon of her school just by a simple greeting, feeding her nicer words as a ploy. That had to be it. She must’ve been on the right path…

But if Grimma had a piece within her, then was there a point to it? Wait… a part of the entity was within her. That gave her an idea. One that would kill the entire flock with one stone.

“Alright. I’ll work with this,” Caro mumbled, mostly to herself. She had no idea if Grimma would know the spell she was writing, but she didn’t wish to risk it. The tip of the quill inscribed the parchment swiftly tracing word by word, line by line in what felt like a race against time, all the while expecting for Grimma to intercede. She didn’t.

“In order to get away with the plan that I’ve laid,

This agreement with you, I’ll have to suspend,

Costs are needed, payment must be paid”

That part of Grimma within me I will expend,”

“May the quill conjured, help me sever the rope,

So, she won’t be able to stop me, that is what I hope.

“Now, that I’m free and demand my form bending,

I order for this strange magic to heed my request

Make me human in appearance, able to blend in

Get me to my friend’s party, that’s my request.”

“Grimma’s influence on me will be null and void.

So fall into her magic again tonight I’ll avoid.”

With a hard scratch that crossed the end, she declared her spell finished. She felt the magic within the parchment primed and ready to be enacted, awaiting for a strange mental release from Caro she felt within her.

“Child?” Grimma asked as the magic began to radiate from the parchment, much brighter than the previous two times. And could feel the strength of the magic pulling from her. It was working! It was working! “Aren’t you going to read the spell?”

“Want to be surprised?” Caro said, feeling the charge of the spell blossoming and getting to work like a cold fire spreading down in her stomach.

“This spell… It is different…” Grimma said slowly before quieting down in concentration. And a moment later, the glowing eyes opened at the realization. “It’s eating up my power!”

“That is correct,” Caro answered, feeling a tingle in her eyes as she was allowed to see a trace of magic she wasn’t able before, weaving lines of sylvan green and sun gold trailing weaved from her torso over to Grimma's figure. Not just that, but she could also feel the spirit’s influence traveling its way towards her through said connection, no doubt to stop the spell from being enacted.

“I’m afraid not,” Caro smirked, noticing some of the magic within her slip up into the quill in her grasp. The conjured item had a bit of glow before, but now, it shone like a gem against the light of the candles, with the fibers in the outline feeling as taut like an edge.

“I’m glad the magic listened to me,” Caro smirked as she swung the quill down, having it slice the connecting link between Grimma and her like a blade.

“Oh child… what have you done?” Grimma said with surprise, vested with a bit of thrill as the connecting tether disintegrated.

“I outsmarted you!” Caro said with an air of victory as she felt the remaining pieces of Grimma’s essence within her were disintegrated and converted, being used to feed off the magic of her spell. “Now, I get to be a human again.” She celebrated as she felt the magic trailing up to her head, coalescing at the base of her horns. A couple of days ago, she felt them slowly grow, but now she felt the same process in reverse, being absorbed into her temples at a much faster speed. Sure, her skull had a dulled feeling of discomfort. But it was worth it.

“I won!” With the exclamation, she threw the parchment into the air where it just flew over to Grimma’s side, stretching itself in the air before the entity so she could read the words. “Now, I get to have a social life again.”

“Oh child,” Grimma shook her head after reading the spell. “You don’t understand the mistake you just made.”

“Mistake? As if I haven’t heard that before.” Caro smiled as she walked around. She felt the magic centered around her head as the horns were close to fully receding. “I don’t see the error here. You won’t mess with me tonight.”

Caro set off with confident strides, passing by Grimma who still held the parchment. In her mind, she’d triumphed. It was all perfect. All she needed to do now was to make it to her friend’s party and spin this in such a way that would dismiss what happened. Maybe that she was cursed by someone else? Maybe blame it on that girl that moved schools two months ago?

She never really questioned how her steps knew where to go.

And yet, something was wrong.

Caro felt a strange wave of heat cross through her. A feeling that mixed an enraged tsunami coming in crashing against a cliff and a balloon in her stomach starting to inflate. It came in once, forcing her to stop on her tracks.

It came in again, assuring her that she hadn’t imagined it. She buckled, doubling over while holding her stomach. She would’ve gone down to her knees, but something seemed to force her feet to remain planted.

“What…” Caro groaned, closing her eyes as she felt them start to burn out of nowhere. In the darkness, she could feel the discomfort of something moving within her, spreading. Subtle twitches gave way to painful spasms. Her bones wanted to grow only to find her muscles struggling to catch up for a moment. Suddenly, she realized her clothes had been digging against her skin for a couple of seconds now. The next time she moved, to twist herself around and look at Grima, she felt them start to snap.

She opened her eyes to look at her own hand. Instead of the dainty set of digits, she found something else. A larger appendage, with thick muscles that effortlessly crushed the flashlight she held. Each fingernail was cracking and deforming, growing thicker and longer, narrowed along the center with the curved tip and dark green and purple scales starting to decorate the entire surface.

“What…” Caro’s voice cracked. “What the hell,” she said, sounding hoarse and raspy. She tried to grasp the clinging remains of her clothes as her body spasmed and, as it did, a wave of dizziness hit her as she realized something. She was taller than before. She was now looking at Grimma in the eyes rather than up at them as she’d appeared before.

And it wasn’t just that… her eyes could now see in the dark, even though all the lights in the surroundings were gone. In fact, she could even spot the energy that exuded from her body. Purple and green, clinging to her despite the air trying to pull them out. Then coalescing around the next part where she felt her arm grow, or her bones swell out, where the scales grew to cover her body as it grew ever less human.

She could also see the magic that came out of Grimma, the energies with an arcane mystical air about it, like a wildfire that tailed itself off in different directions. Something foreign but at the same time, not so different. Even being able to peer past the darkness to get a fleeting look past the veil of darkness, enough to glimpse at the outline of colorful miasma. The faint outline of a figure that wasn’t entirely there.

“What did you do?” Caro snapped. A growl caught in her throat just as a fire welled up in her stomach. In jerking movements, more of her clothes broke trying to approach Grimma. And yet, her deforming feet were halted in mid stride, instead forcing her to take a step forward. Her eyes flickered, noticing golden chains that weren’t there before, now clamped around her legs. Invisible to the normal eye, taut despite their ends disappearing into the air.

“I did nothing,” Grimma said as she stood by the sidelines. “‘Twas a bold spectacle thou dist set up. I appreciate that, even if part of it involves trying to screw me over.” A chuckle escaped her lips, one that had Caro groan as she tried to fight the pull on her legs. “Thou dost lose points for belittling me. But nothing am I if not humble.”

“Oooh,” Caro groaned as her legs buckled and she fell down. Her body had grown large enough to make the ground tremble. Her clawed hands, looking more and more inhuman, clutched and ripped through a small bush as she tried to force herself to turn around. Every little injury she suffered by the change was being swiftly healed by that same magic, but the feeling of discomfort and pain it carried lingered longer. And yet her body felt compelled to move, her legs as numb as they were in a want for motion.

She wanted to stop, but the moment she resolved to that, golden chains appeared around her wrists.

“Where… ugh,” Caro groaned as she felt the pressure down her back. Little by little, her vertebrae grew and were added to her spine even projecting it more than it should. Her tailbone had emerged, and flicking with the nerves and muscles that were growing whilst her head felt pushed away… all the while her body kept getting bigger. Her shoulder blades spasmed, broke and reformed, pushing past her skin as bones and muscles melted into motion. Slowly moving out to occupy a better position in her barreling ribcage. “Whatrr… wrrat have you done!?” Caro said, closing her eyes as the tears slid off her now-scaly skin. Keeping her mouth closed was increasingly bothersome, if not painful, as her own skull began to push her and her nose forward. The start of a muzzle. Her tongue longer and more flexible lapped around as the taste of magic deformed her teeth, accommodating them in her maw as they turned into sharper fangs.

“I told you, Caro. I did nothing,” Grimma said. “I did warn you that, to give thee magic power. To give thee a stronger well and a mystical trait, I bestowed upon thee the blessing of a creature. Well, I say blessing, but thou might see it as a curse.”

“You currrsed me?!” Caro growled, turning around, her maw half open with a snarl. The growth, the changes, the horns growing back, it all put her in a very bad mood. The bile in her stomach now burned like a furnace.

“I did. Because that was part of our agreement,” Grimma chastised. “Of course, it was always a measure thou wouldst grow out of eventually, whist my magic was always there to keep it under control… at least, it was.”

“Whreerr…” Caro struggled to say as the horns grew back and fully, even reaching further into the full length, making her feel her skull crack. How tall was she? She wasn’t sure, but her head was way higher than it was before, even if she was now on all fours. Her growing wings released magic with each struggling beat. The spell might’ve stopped acting upon her, but it still lingered and clung to her form, specially in the chains that held onto her wrists and ankles. She tried to fight them, but even with her larger frame, it was to no avail. After so long of a pull, she was forced to take another step forward, before trying to resist again.

“’Where are you going?’” Grimma interpreted as Caro tried to jump back and away from the pull, even spreading her wings and raising a gust of air. But it was useless. All that did was to unmoor her and let the chains yank her steps ahead, even growing stronger after she touched the ground. “You wrote your spell.”

Caro’s eyes widened. Her spell.

“Get me to my friend’s party, that’s my request.”

She was going to her friend’s party… LIKE THIS?!

That just got her to fight harder to pull herself back, but the spell was unyielding.

“Hreeeelp!” Caro cried out, talking became more and more difficult when her distress became present, now sounding like the roar of a beast or the bellow of an elk, or somewhere in between.

“Aw, poor child,” Grimma said, her figure levitating above the ground to meet up with Caro.

“Prreease…”

“Alas… I’ve been barred from helping thee,” the spirit’s voice echoed all around as Caro struggled to resist the chains and take hold of her body, feeling the magical flames start to build upwards her longer neck up down to her maws. She could even taste them. “I applaud thine efforts. But thou wert not ready for the unintended consequences. A shame it be, if only thou couldst place thy trust in others as readily as thou dost distrust.”

She hissed and snarled at the words, letting the flames of green and magenta explode in a stream until she closed her mouth. Even then she still felt it spill out from the corners or her nostrils.

“… Still, thou shouldst practice more… I believe in thee. In due time, thou might solve this trial,” Grimma said as she disappeared along with the dark as Caro’s breath lit up the forests nearby.

A fire of odd colors was started, and the animals ran away from the danger, warned by the roars of the large creature in the distance that spewed out flames out of anger and distress. And yet she couldn’t do anything but take another step forward, towards the city. She would cause chaos and destruction… she would be a monster.

And…

And…

Thursday, January 20th - 6:33am
Whitman Room 247 - Caro and Sofia’s room

Caro gasped, opening her eyes whilst her heart pounded hard against her chest. Her hands immediately shot up to her face and forehead, just to confirm that she was still human. That she had no horns, no elven ears… no scales anywhere on her body.

Quickly she held her phone up to look at her reflection. She was normal, human, just like the day before. A sigh of relief escaped her as began to sift through and recollect her dream and then all that came before that.

“Grimma,” Caro gasped as the memories from last night became clearer. She remembered her patron entity making her appearance after her long absence for the holiday. She remembered the spirit’s intention to return her to the cursed form. And then, she stood her ground, using her own prepared spells to fight back.

She scrambled on her bed to reach the nightstand, yanking the thing open to find the flute resting in the corner, just where she left it last night. An enchanted flute she got from her grandmother that once housed a curse of its own, it had been repurposed and bolstered into becoming a temporary container for Grimma, the spirit of fables.

Her hand reached out for the flute, but stopped just short of touching it. She could feel it. Grimma’s essence, her mana, exuding from the orifices without being able to escape. Trapped.

A deep breath escaped her lips. She couldn’t believe that she’d done it… that she captured the spirit that had upturned her life a couple of years ago. With the memory still clinging to her mind, a grin appeared on her lips. She’d actually done what she’d hoped all that time had passed, managed to recover what she’d lost, or rather what’d been taken from her, now for good.

“I’m sorry Grimma,” she said disingenuously. “Should’ve heard me out about what I wanted.” She knew that the vessel wouldn’t contain the entity forever, but she felt safe enough to say it. Fortunately, Sofia wasn’t there to catch that little surprise and conversation.

“Oh, right… I have to get to class,” Caro reminded herself after checking the time. Normally, she would’ve been scrambling to get started in her day and go to class… However, still feeling the victory, she decided to not let herself be rushed as she got on with it. Especially since, now that she didn’t have to worry about changing back, she could consider her parent’s offer to move her back to Vermont.

All the while, her mind fished back the fragments of her dream, thinking about the memory it elicited. She could still remember every single part of those days clearly.

Back then, when she made the pact with Grimma, it all appeared so great and exciting. A mystical spirit promised her the ability to use magic from fairy tales. What girl wouldn’t jump to the opportunity? The first week with those powers were a dream, quite what she’d wanted from the start. Just the fact that she was attending the school as one of the more popular girls in her year with the powers under her sleeve, felt like a justification of everything.

And then, she began to use her powers, as practice and pranks. Going as small as using a rhyme to knock over a loose object in the vending machine, to coax a praise out of another girl’s mouth. However, eventually, it got to the point where something happened and a headache struck. She felt it then and there, the horns starting to grow on her head. They began small but quickly curved out, becoming more and more prominent as she used more and more spells to make the people around her shut up. She tried to get out of school without anyone noticing… but that didn’t stop someone from posting it all over social media.

Yet, as much as she hated to admit it, she couldn’t pin the starting fiasco on Grimma, since the witchy spirit did warn her not to overuse the powers bestowed, even if she didn’t specify how much would be too much. Of course, that was now. Back then all the way till Whateley, she’d convinced herself that this was entirely the spirit’s fault.

That led her to the events of her dream. Where, after summoning Grimma into the spell circle, she tried to demand the spirit to fix things and give her what she wanted. All so she could go to a stupid party she’d been invited to before all the chaos started out, thinking it would be the perfect moment to fix the damage to her social standing. She was so desperate to go, thinking the problem could be resolved in just a matter of hours.

Grimma wasn’t interested, much less intimidated in her demands. But she still gave her the trial to fix things, there and then.

Caro thought she was being clever in fixing it, using Grimma’s own essence to pay up for the spell to change herself back and protecting herself from her own meddling for the rest of the night. Why she thought to do it just for ‘tonight’ she wasn’t sure. Maybe she didn’t want to fully burn bridges with the entity just yet… or imagined that the cost for that would be much more than she could afford.

In the end, what happened was that she ended up removing the protection that kept the foreign essence, the curse Grimma put on her, from taking over. Resulting in a drastic, upsetting, and destructive transformation into a fae dragon. One that was forcefully bound to drop in on her friend’s party to do who knows what. And to make matters worse, because of the wording, Grimma couldn’t do anything because of the wording of her spell.

Everything had backfired.

And since then, she’d been very reluctant to use magic to incur a transformation. A part of her feared that it would be something she wouldn’t be able to slip out of. And she was still uneasy in her own skin as it was..

Although there was something about the dream that made Caro wonder. In it, “In due time, you might solve this trial,” were about the last words in her dream. Had Grimma said it back then? Or was it just her dream wishing she had?

In her panicked state of the time, thoughts like those didn’t come with clarity. She was struggling to contain herself while breathing fire into the surrounding areas, setting several trees and an abandoned cabin ablaze in the start of a wildfire. It wasn’t long before many of the people in town spotted her. “There’s a dragon in the woods!” “It’s slowly making its way into the city” “It carries the fire with it! A monster is incoming!” Were just some of the quotes she’d heard from the videos back then.

That roused the local superheroes into action. The first ones to arrive tried to intercept and stop her. Unfortunately, by that point, Caro had a hard time articulating her words, so they ended up misunderstanding her intentions, especially as her legs were forced to carry her forward step by step in the direction of the city, scraping the ground and felling trees in what could be considered an aggressive gesture. So a lopsided fight broke out where they tried to stop her by any means necessary.

Unable to move in any other direction, she endured strong impacts, electric discharges and even some explosives. She was fortunate that the dragon’s body was sturdy. At some point Caro realized that this batch of heroes wouldn’t be able to do anything but hurt her, so, pissed off, she used her breath to try to scare them away, further expanding the wildfire to dangerously close to the city. She could hear the evacuation sirens playing.

She would’ve set foot in the city hadn’t it been for a magic user that happened to be in the area. They were able to figure out what was wrong and stall her enough to modify or even break the spell.

Caro didn’t know. She had passed out at the nearest moment of respite she had. At dawn, Grimma was able to use her influence to mend her form, though not without the accidental or deliberate reminder that were the scales that remained on her body and the elven ears she had when she got into Whateley. No one in the school really knew what really happened, thinking that the form she had was Grimma’s doing.

Once the incident was over, Caro had been lucky. Lucky that she had survived the night in the way she did, that there had been a way to fix her, and that the details of the incident were kept secret from the rest of the city… although that didn’t stop some of her classmates from speculating and connecting the dots.

Not that it mattered…

A couple of weeks later, she was sent off to Whateley for a new start. At least that much she hoped.

“Feels both recent and not so much, huh?” Caro said as she exited Whitman, making the cross through the campus, joining the current of students with akin destinations.

It was there that she spotted Marlene just a couple of steps ahead, distracted with her phone. Grimma’s sealing might’ve been the biggest thing that happened last night, but it wasn’t the only one. Just a couple of hours before it, Caro got herself into an argument with the catgirl who accused her of suddenly becoming a poor friend.

It’s not my fault that she can’t take jokes or that my misery makes her happy, Caro told herself. And yet, she could hardly believe that Gwen and Chris would take Marlene’s side on the issue. They were of the same mind. What a betrayal.

Now, there was no doubt things would start to get annoyingly obnoxious. For one, she and Marlene happened to share many classes together, not to mention the same wing within the cottage. While her friends from Poe used to occupy a lot of her daily time. It was something she’d just come to be aware of.

“Hm, I guess, maybe I should, at least, try to persuade Chris and Gwen to see things my way,” Caro thought. “As to Marlene and Sofia… maybe I have to consider a change of house, make new friends, or just change schools.”

And that last part felt easy, with how things had been going.

“Caro!” Alvina, that girl from Dickinson who’d tagged along in one of their outings to Berlin, skipped over. “I got word from Donna.”

“Huh?” Caro answered.

“For the party, silly,” Alvina giggled. “The one the Dickinson girls had been planning.”

“Oh, right.” Caro nodded. In between all that happened late last night, she’d completely forgotten about it.

“You alright?” Alvina asked.

“Sorry. I just had a very busy night yesterday.” Before Alvina could prod, she added, “So, what did she say? It was this Saturday, right?”

“Sunday, yeah,” Alvina reaffirmed. “Donna said she managed to secure the venue and some bottles of devised drinks from the guys at Emerson. Bet it’ll be a blast.”

“What drinks?”

“Hm… think one was mead or whiskey? If lucky, it’ll be something like champagne.”

“Great…” Caro said sarcastically. As much as she disliked the idea of there being alcohol involved, this was part of a social plan. She didn’t want to be a buzzkill about it.

“The girls were impressed by some of your enchanted tricks. And you said anyone could use them?”

“If I wanted to let them,” Caro mused. That was something that easily got the attention of some of the girls. Caro’s enchanting ability and the items she could create using them… they were much more independent than the average magic user, but also much safer than the usual devisor contraption. “Want me to loan one to you? It’ll cost you.”

On that topic, the concern surged within her. The insecurity of whether her magic would be gone after that stunt with Grimma. She still felt the power within her… but she wondered if this was provisional. Thoughts and consequences from her actions last night were still weighing on her mind, not noticing that she’d gone quiet.

“Caro?” Alvina’s voice broke through.

“Huh? What is it?”

“I just asked if you had any friends you wanted to invite.”

“Hm…” Caro pretended to think, but the answer was kinda clear. “I don’t know. Think many of my cottagemates aren’t exactly happy about my change of look.”

“Envy. That’s pretty much the Whitman complex right there. It’s how they look at us in Dickinson.” Alvina said. “Looking up from the bottom of the ladder.”

“I don’t think so. Many of the girls there don’t really care about popularity, I was one of them at least for a while,” were the words that Caro wanted to say, but she was in ‘social’ mode, so she had to play along with the words of everyone. “I know. I feel them looking at me like that.”

“And you live with them.” Alvina grimaced. “Don’t get me wrong. I like the girls in Whitman. I’m friends with some… but it then becomes a problem when we make plans to go to, say, Berlin or try to snap some pictures for the social media only for them to bring in a dog faced roommate. We just don’t want to be rude so we prefer to skip the whole problem.”

Caro concealed her frown, in particular because it’d been true for her. “It is a problem. But not everything has to be showy or be public.”

“What else is there to be done? Sit down and play nerdy videogames or just watch weeb cartoons with a bunch of losers.“ Alvina’s mockery raised her voice much more than Caro expected. But not without reason as she could see Marlene’s black ear flicker and redirect closer towards them. But with a subtle turn of the head, the feline girl decided to let it slip.

“I know,” Caro answered. “I prefer to go to the movies to watch something nice. Anything interesting in theaters?” She was happy to change the subject as she carried on into the first classroom of the day.

Thursday, January 20th - 3:41pm
Outside of Crystal Hall

So far, it had been a day for Caro. At least, different from the previous ones. She was still human and still had the circle of friends she’d been cultivating for her bid to popularity, but now, she didn’t have the subconscious worry ofGrimma showing up and undoing everything. That morning, the flute appeared to be holding up, and a brief visit to her room revealed that nothing had changed in the magical prison. So the spirit of fables wouldn’t be a factor in the foreseeable future. Heck, it would definitely hold if by the time she arranged for it to be shipped to her grandmother’s collection.

So the worry wasn’t there…. But she wasn’t feeling the joy of the situation either.

Even with Alvina and Miriam, two girls from her new group, Caro found it a bit trickier to carry on with the usual act. Was she getting burnout from her social life?

“Everything okay?” Miriam asked.

“I’m fine. I’m fine,” Caro answered. “I was just thinking about something.”

“What?”

“My English lit assignment.” A slight lie, inspired as she happened to catch a glimpse of Mr. Kim, the English teacher, making a pass by the campus, along with a couple of the teachers from the more ‘normal’ classes taught.

“Really?” the girls said, confused.

“Yeah, I was thinking about an assignment Mr Kim left us last class. I was struggling with what to write until just a couple minutes ago,” Caro now fully lied.

“You’re into literature and stuff, right?”

“I guess.” Caro shrugged. “I wasn’t before. But when my powers require a lot of literary stimulation, I needed to get good at it. Plus I’ve had some good reads.”

“You do you,” Alvina said. “Movies are just better.”

“Well, with the things she can make, I think I’m starting to come around the idea.” Miriam nodded. “Do you have any other types of makeup?”

“About that…” Caro said sheepishly. “Most of the spells and enchantments I craft tend to be on the practical side. Makeup is just a thing I came up with while not thinking about fighting or cursing someone. I’m still workshopping ideas.”

“I could have some to offer…” Miriam mused only to get briefly interrupted as her eyes wandered to the side.

“Hey, Caro,” a voice called over. Sofia, her roommate, was on a course to cross paths with her group.

“Sofia,” “Afternoon,” the other two sophomores replied to the greeting.

“Hope I’m not interrupting,” Sofia said. She might’ve tried to sound normal, but Caro could tell she was feeling uneasy.

“Not at all,” Miriam said with a coy smile.

“We were just talking about stuff, the usual. Say, Sofia, would you want to hang out with us?”

“You’re inviting me?” Sofia wondered.

“Don’t think there’s a problem,” Alvina said. “We would’ve invited you before but… well, let’s just say the matter is solved.”

“Okay,” Sofia said. Her tone might’ve been friendly but there was a tinge of suspicion about her. “What are you girls planning?”

At about that time, Caro caught a glimpse of Marlene emerging from the Crystal hall. For a brief moment, the two locked eyes and frowned at each other. Caro was still expecting a heartfelt apology for her behavior last night and a retraction… but Marlene was much more strong-willed than the girls from her previous school.

“We were talking about the party on Sunday. Some of the girls are already planning to grab some bottles of booze from the guys at Emerson,” Miriam mused.

“Ah…“ was Sofia’s reaction. There was clear hesitation in her voice. After all, she been well on her way to becoming an alcoholic last year while hanging out with Crossby and his buddies. It took a rather bad situation for her to realize that the ‘friendship’ with that crew wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth letting her grades fall, it wasn’t worth waking up with headaches and wasn’t worth the arguments she had with friends…

Before Caro’s mind could slip into introspection, Sofia answered, “I’ll think about going, but I really don’t want to drink.”

“Really?” Alvina said disappointed.

“Paso,” Sofia said. “I’ve had enough of Whiskey’s drinks, I’m good.”

“If you say so,” Alvina said.

“By the way, Caro,” Sofia asked. “I wanted to ask if you were doing alright.”

Caro cocked her head. “I’m fine, why do you ask?”

“It’s just… there’s something different in the room,” Sofia said in a more hushed tone, though the other girls were close enough they could hear it.

“Different?” Caro asked.

“It’s kinda like when Grimma shows up, but much more muted. There’s a feeling of a presence in the air,” Sofia noted.

“Oh that,” Caro said dismissively. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Really? Because if it was Grimma, I thought you would’ve changed back,” Sofia said, much to Caro’s annoyance.

Especially as that got a reaction from the other two girls. “Wait! You’re going to be changing back?!” they both blurted out.

“What a disappointment,” Alvina said.

“No no no no no,” Caro said. “That won’t be the case. You don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

The girls appeared to sigh relieved, though Sofia still looked at her unconvinced, with a slight frown.

“Let’s just say that Grimma won’t be a problem.” Caro asserted, to further quell the concerns of the new group.

“Is that so?” Marlene asked, her feline ears picking up the conversation as she passed by. “It seems really unlikely that you would manage to convince Grimma… considering you’ve been trying to get her to fix it since your first day at Whateley.”

“Are you saying I’m lying?” Caro challenged.

“I want to hear about this ‘deal’,” Marlene said.

“But you won’t.” Caro scoffed.

“Who invited you anyway?” Alvina frowned.

“You three are talking out loud in the middle of the campus. It’s not my fault I could hear your conversation.”

“With those ears of yours? I’m not surprised,” Alvina scoffed. “You need a toy from the pet store or something?”

“Ah, classic catgirl dig, how original. How long did it take you to come up with that?”

“It doesn’t take effort,” Miriam stammered before rolling her eyes. “You’re not worth it.”

“I do want to know about this deal, Caro,” Sofia chimed in.

“Why are you siding with her?” Alvina scoffed.

“I’m not!” Sofia argued. “But I have to ask, since Caro is my roommate and any sort of problem tends to trickle out.”

“Well, it won't be a problem,” Caro said, getting increasingly frustrated.

“Hm… sounds incredibly unlikely,” Marlene mumbled.

“Trust me. Grimma won’t factor.”

While she frowned at the stern tone, Sofia relented. “I guess if you say so.”

The catgirl frowned but took a deep breath to continue. “You’re right, this is only a problem if you unleash a curse on the cottage. Have fun with the plastic squad.”

“Better than being a furry,” Alvina scoffed.

“Hey,” Sofia frowned.

“Shut up everyone!” Caro snapped, raising her voice. “I’ll say it again, Grimma isn’t a problem anymore, that’s the end of the discussion!” Her hand then pointed at Marlene. “And you don’t have even a say on the matter. Especially after you decided to backstab me yesterday. You may be a dumb cat but you act more like a bitch like anyone I know. This isn’t your fucking business. Shut up and…” Caro’s words suddenly trailed off as she felt lightheaded.

“Caro?” One of the girls was talking, but she couldn’t tell who. It was an odd feeling, with the world around fading as her mind felt the vertigo of the world spinning for a second. A slight itch appeared out in parts of her body, like ants walking on her skin.

And yet it was all fleeting and fast. Less than ten seconds elapsed before everything faded back to normal. It must’ve been quite noticeable as some people around even stopped in their step to watch.

“Fuck…” Caro grumbled. Not exactly the kind of attention she wanted… she must’ve been getting really stressed from the whole social life effort.

“Are you okay?” Alvina asked, resting her hand on Caro’s shoulder.

“I’m fine. I’m fine,” she answered. But as she began to look at her surroundings, the more of a sense she got that something was off. Especially as he saw Alvina’s face twist from concern to shock before setting in amusement.

“Oh, something happened,” she said, snickering.

“What do you…” Miriam said, stepping up only for her mouth to quietly open before the corners of it twisted into a definite smirk before covering it. “Your ears…”

“What do you mean about my ears?” Caro mumbled. Her gut reaction was to check them only to feel a rock sink into her stomach. They felt… larger, but more worrying was the way they felt when she touched them. Her ears twitched as though wanting to move. She also noticed her earlobe was smaller. Unlike human ears.

What just happened to me? What was that? Her mind raced as she squeezed the ears, just to be certain they were really hers. As she did, she realized that she was feeling the cold breeze just a couple of inches away under her nose, far stronger than it should be. Her hand quickly shot over to cover the area around her mouth, only to detect the slight prickling sensation.

Whiskers? I have whiskers!? She almost blurted it out. What was happening to her? What could be the cause… And as soon as she reached that point in her train of thought, she realized: Grimma. This was a curse!

“I gotta go,” Caro said, only to find Alvina in her path.

“Where are you going? Show us more?” Alvina mused.

“Caro? Are you okay?” Marlene asked.

“No! Get away from me, idiot! If you hadn’t stuck your fucking snout where you weren’t needed…” Caro snapped at Marlene only to quickly shut up as she felt the wave of vertigo sweep through her. A dull ache hit her nose and mouth, as the sensitive whiskers went into overdrive work as they began to prick up against her hand. Her ears twitched more which could only mean they’d suddenly grown more pronounced.

“Crap…” was all Caro could say, especially as she felt a slight pressure down her lower spine. That could only mean… “Oh no…”

“Wow… so you lied,” Alvina snapped. “When you said you had your problem fixed, that was just a joke.”

“I actually think the horns and scales looked better on you.” Miriam sounded disappointed.

All the while, both Sophia and Marlene looked down at Caro with a mixture of unease and shock. Looked down? Caro began to realize something that the other girls could already see.

“You shrank a good couple of inches now that I see,” Alvina mused, standing up close to compare heights. “Yeah, I’m right. Did you get cursed or something? It’s kinda funny.”

“I can fix this,” Caro lied. She barely understood what was going on other than one thing. “Bet this has to be Grimma’s doing.” That was loud enough for the girls around to overhear.

Sofia sighed. “So the deal backfired.”

“Not. A. Word,” Caro said. Although in her panic to feel the extension of her spine, she revealed her projected mouth, the start of a muzzle and the slightly larger set of front teeth. The sight got the girls and some of the people in the crowd to burst out in laughter.

“You look very mousy!” Alvina blurted out.

“Shut up” Caro frowned. “I’m gonna fix this, and then you’ll pay for this!” Her accusation appeared more directed towards Marlene than the mockers.

“That’s your spirit’s doing, right?” Miriam snickered. “If it’s so, then you probably won’t be able to fix it, if you’ve been trying to work it out for so long.”

“Shame. I guess there’s no need to consider you for future plans,” Alvina mused as she produced her phone and pointed it to Caro.

“Why are you doing this?” Caro said, raising her hands to cover herself, feeling the extension of her spine twitch. There was no hiding that she had a small tail under her skirt

“You recall a couple of days ago. I asked you for some pieces of your makeup and you said that you only saved the special stuff for people with the right looks? I felt quite hurt back then. This is just some teasing back now that you’ll probably be out of the group.”

“Does she have a tail?” Miriam asked, taking a step forward. “Let’s check.”

“Hey! Cut it out!” Sofia said as she stepped in into the shot, with Marlene joining the warning.

“Ah, freaks are sticking together.”

“Are you calling me a freak? In case you haven’t noticed, you dumb bimbos, we’re all mutants.” Caro gasped as another feeling wave coursed through her forcing her to stagger. The curse acted in a generalized nature, making it hard to keep track of the changes, but she could definitely feel something growing from her spine, and feeling it twitch against the fabric of her skirt, while it started to feel looser.

“We all might be mutants, but only two of us here stand out in a crowd of muggles,” Alvina snickered.

“And you two,” she snapped at Sofia and Marlene, deeply frowning at the latter. “Is this what you wanted? Ruining my time you-”

“Caro! Stop talking,” A man’s voice came through, drawing the mockery among the girls into a halt. It was Mr. Kim who’d approached the commotion.

“Mister Kim?” Caro blurted out. She wasn’t sure if she should feel relieved or mortified that he was intervening in her problems. But, overall, she was honestly more scared about what was happening to her. The more she was allowed to think, the more old traumas from her transformation into a dragon began to surface.

“Don’t say a thing,” Mr. Kim stated as he reached her. Even though the English teacher had no powers that had been demonstrated to his students, his presence and a look was enough to get the rest of the crowd to circulate. “You’re cursed. So better be careful about what you say and do, okay?”

Caro held her words right in time, just nodding.

“You two, as you were,” he told Alvina and Miriam.

“Huh?” Alvina asked only for Miriam to lower her phone.

“He’s telling us to beat it,” Miriam frowned, barely holding much respect for the seeming baseline teacher.

“Ugh, fine,” Alvina said as she walked away, though not without giving Caro a sneer over her shoulder.

“And you two?” Mr. Kim asked Marlene and Sofia.

“She’s my roommate,” Sofia answered while Marlene lingered behind. “I think I should know what’s happening to her.”

Mr. Kim nodded. “I have to report this to one of the school’s magic specialists. Whatever we find, I’ll let you know, alright?”

“Okay…” Sofia nodded.

And without saying anything else, Mr. Kim directed Caro to walk away. Though she couldn’t help to look over her shoulder at both Sofia and Marlene.

Why did this have to happen? Things were going so well... she felt like she was having the time of her life. Riding high in the coattails of her growing popularity only for it to come crashing down like this. Just like back in her old school in Vermont. But much… much worse.

And why did it have to be a transformation? Why? She felt the sense of dread creeping in the back of her mind. What was going to happen to her… how bad would it be?

Thursday, January 20th - 4:55pm
Mrs. Barton’s office.

It was a quiet afternoon, one that she probably needed to finish fast just so she could go back to take care of her kid. Her heart fluttered at the realization that she was starting the year with a joyful family. She honestly couldn’t wait to get it done with and relieve Laura from babysitting duty, even if her condition made things a bit more troublesome than they should.

Promptly, she finished typing in the last parts of the next class’s quiz into her laptop before closing it. With that done and dusted, she stashed away her items, slipping them into a small container on the side of her chair. She was about to make her way out only to hear a double tap on the other side of the door.

“Oh well,” she sighed, not particularly bothered by the last minute visit. After all, helping others was always her and her husband’s passion. “Come on in!”

The door opened, letting in two people.

“Edward?” She recognized the English teacher. Of the number of teachers and members of the staff that lived in the villages, she didn’t know everyone. But she’d seen Edward Kim here and there, most recently talking with her husband about literature in the early twentieth century and the influences to and from the real world.

The other person that came in behind him was the one that drew Vanessa’s attention. It was Caroline Hersebeth, normally referred to as Caro. Codename Malefis. A girl who used prose and poetic wording in her spells as multiplicative force for the potency and the mana inputted in the magic, leading her to excelling in enchantments and curses. Also a sort of reluctant paladin for a spirit of fairy tales, although there seemed to have been some development on the matter as, in the first class since the Winter break, she’d shown up with no horns, pointed ears, or scales. When asked about the matter, the girl had said she sorted things out with her spirit.

And that still appeared to have been the case as Vanessa’s eyes still recognized her lack of horns… but that was before her eyes drifted down and noticed that the girl’s nose stood out a bit more prominent and narrower, with a pinkish hue about it while her ears were definitely bigger than she could expect.

Clearly mortified at Vanessa’s reaction, she was biting her lips as her hands clutched the hem of the skirt.

“Well… what do we have here?” Vanessa asked.

Caro appeared too embarrassed to talk about it, so Edward took the lead. “I happened to be passing by when I found Caro having an argument with some girls. Then at points, she stopped mid-sentences to wobble or stagger as the changes happened in spurts. This happened three times.”

“Yeah… That’s what happened,” Caro validated the account.

“Is this the extent of the changes?” Vanessa asked.

“I… I also have a tail,” Caro admitted, her face red as she turned around to reveal the extra appendage that now peeked out from under her skirt.

“Let me see it,” Vanessa said as she rolled away from the table.

Caro made no objections, only letting out a startled squeak as she felt Vanessa’s hands touch the tip.

“Yes, that’s a real appendage,” Vanessa said, feeling the bones and muscle within twitch and move under her fingertips. “She’s also shrunk, hasn’t she?” Indeed, Caro was at about her level now and she could see how the clothes were threatening to slip, were it not for the girl’s hand gripping the fabric. “This is definitely a curse. What were they talking about?” Vanessa asked Edward.

“We were having an argument,” was all Caro said on the matter.

“Not much to go off of.” Vanessa noted. “Anyone who could’ve cast this on you? Any of the girls present?”

To that, Caro seemed to linger for a moment in thought.

“There was Sofia, an animal shifter; Alvina, a low level exemplar and projective telepath; Miriam, a low level energizer and manifestor; And Marlene, a mage with a black cat GSD.” Edward recited.

“Hm… Marlene Fisher, Peppercat…” Vanessa said thoughtfully as she looked over at Caro. “Did she do this to you?”

“She didn’t do it,” Caro said. A part of her appeared to want to throw Marlene under the bus, but she knew that wouldn’t solve this. “At least I don’t think she did.”

“I don’t think any of the girls did it,” Edward chimed in. “It’s more likely that it’s her spirit’s doing.”

“So, things aren’t that fine with Grimma?” Vanessa said. “Thought she granted you a break.”

“It was more like a deal,” Caro admitted.

“Ah, that kind of arrangement.” Vanessa shook her head. “Tell us everything.”

Caro fidgeted where she stood. Considering the context of when and how it happened, Vanessa could understand her apprehension. However, those concerns could only last so long when the threat of a curse loomed just on the horizon.

So in the end, Caro began to explain all that happened. Starting from the Winter break, just before she left the school up until the moment they were in. All the while Edward and Vanessa held their silence, with the latter performing magical tests, even after the recounting was finished.

“So… You made a deal with the spirit, to return you to your normal form just to avoid ruining your vacation,” Vanessa said, her voice almost clung with disbelief. “And what did you offer in exchange?”

“Nothing… Well, there was something. She asked me to give her my ring as a collateral?”

“Your… ring?” Vanessa asked.

“It’s a sort of secret holdout I was working on. I originally planned to present it for your class.”

“Ah. I think you mentioned you were planning something like it for the November project, if I recall correctly.” Vanessa thought back to the class. “I was surprised when you presented a different enchanted article.”

“I decided to keep the ring for myself.”

“Anyway, so you gave this ring to her as a collateral and she changed you back. And nothing happened during the break, right?”

“No,” Caro shook her head.

“And then, when you came back. You just carried on with your life as normal. It certainly surprised me when I saw you in a different appearance,” Vanessa noted before pausing for a moment. “Now that I think of it. You did approach me last week if I had any books regarding the esoteric arts and vessel studies. Is that related to anything?”

The girl stiffened for a moment. “No. I was just researching for a future idea I had. A… a sort of magic trap.”

“You were planning to stand your ground against Grimma, weren’t you?”

Caro bit her lip for a long moment before slowly nodding. “This is what I’ve been wanting. I planned for a long while.”

“Hm…” Vanessa rested her brow against her fingers. When she heard Caro’s plans that had been folly. “Throughout all this time, do you still have your powers?”

“I think they've been growing weaker, but it didn’t feel as though I was gonna completely lose them. I could still do things. I still had to work under Grimma’s rules,” Caro noted.

“And last night. Grimma showed up, correct?”

“Yeah,” Caro nodded.

“And you had your defenses ready for the encounter?” Vanessa asked.

“Yes… I had special sand I had enchanted to imprison Grimma. She may have tried to cast the spell on me, but I had a dispelling barrier to fend off whatever trick.”

“And did it work?” Vanessa asked.

Caroline seemed to hesitate on the matter. “I used another spell I prepared to banish Grimma, keep her away from me. It should keep her and her influence away, for a while.”

“Obviously, there were some chinks in that plan. Considering your current status.” Vanessa said. “We can take for granted that this is Grimma’s doing. The magical reading assures me it’s similar to your usual blend of enchanting.”

“Even if we didn’t have the read, it’s something Grimma would pull. In fairy tales, transformation is often used as punishment or as a lesson to be learned,” Edward said.

“Have you met her? Grimma?” Vanessa asked the English teacher.

“No, but I’ve researched her. Plus I’ve worked regularly with Caro to fine tune her spells,” Edward said right away.

“I see.” Vanessa thought for a moment before shaking her head. “Well, the easier solution would be to reach out to Grimma and ask her to undo the spell. And it might cost you more than it did the first time around, that is if she’s willing to talk.”

“I-I don’t think I can do it,” Caro said. “Think she’ll be out of the picture.”

“For how long?” Vanessa asked.

“Um… A month or two?” she said, seemingly making the calculations.

“Hm… Think you can last a month?” Vanessa asked, noting how the girl shuddered. “You might want to re-think things.”

“There has to be a way,” Edward noted.

“This isn’t a simple curse, it’s strong and ingrained into Caro’s body. Grimma seems to live up to her name and enigmatic reputation by going so far as to add an animistic spirit into the mix, or maybe something so intricate that it appears animistic. Deeply fastened and bound. If I were to try something without the proper releases, the thing would probably splash out and hit everyone around in some way or form without helping her.” Vanessa shook her head. “In any case, I’ll contact others in the magical department to gauge our options and the administration to let them know of this development.”

“So that’s it?” Caro asked.

“It’s all we can do if we can’t remove the curse. Make sure you can still attend your studies before…” Vanessa trailed off knowing that Caro’s condition was bound to get worse. At best, the end destination would be an anthropomorphic rat… and at worst, she would end up no different than a common feral rat–which raised a chilling concern about the girl’s mind after all this was said and done. Hopefully Grimma wasn’t that cruel of a patron, even after being slighted. “We should have Caro transferred to Doyle for special observation.”

Caro visibly stiffened at the suggestion.

“I’ll help out with the notifications and processes,” Edward said. “But I’ll have to object about quarantining Caro.”

“Why is that?” Vanessa asked.

“The curse isn’t contagious, right?” Edward said. “It can’t affect others.”

“No. It only poses a risk to Caro. Having it splash over is just a guesstimation,” Vanessa agreed.

“Then I’d suggest that she’s allowed to resume the classes,” Edward said. “Go back to her room, attend to her classes, carry on as normal. I mean, it’s not as though there aren’t students that are in the process of changing.”

“Like this?” Caro said, her hand brushing against the growing whiskers.

“Even if her situation is precarious and shifting?” Vanessa asked.

“Arrangements can be made.” Edward said. “The important part is to give Caro mobility and options.”

“What for?”

“I don’t think she would do this to Caro without an option: an escape clause. Somewhere, the curse must’ve been written and, within it, there must be a way to break the curse. Just leaving her in the hands of the faculty to sort it out, well, it might not amount to much progress, beyond bruteforcing the curse. And that’s rarely the safest of options, either.”

“Do you really think Grimma would give someone who slighted her an out?” Vanessa asked.

“It sounds within her character,” Edward said.

“You might have a point,” Vanessa admitted as she rolled her chair back to her desk. “Alright. Caro, you can go back to your day. I’ll notify Mrs. Savage about this so that she can keep an eye on you and monitor the situation. If you find anything new, be sure to tell us. I would advise you to check the school’s store if they have a new set of uniforms your size.”

“That’s a relief,” Edward said, even though the student wasn’t happy.

“But… go out, like this?” Caro blurted out, still shocked by the news as she was looking at her reflection on her phone. Biting her lip from the building, anger about the situation she’d been cast into, but appeared to restrain herself in the presence of her teachers.

“One more thing, Caro,” Vanessa added. “Remember to channel some of your essence inwardly. It should clump up and stave off some of the effects of the curse.”

The girl nodded, none too happy over it.

“Do your best to fix it,” Edward Kim encouraged.

Thursday, January 20th - 6:33pm
Whitman Room 247 - Caro and Sofia’s room

“How are you doing?” Sofia asked quietly once the door was closed. She’d just arrived in her room only to be surprised by Caro’s diminished figure sitting crestfallen on the bed, sighing at the frustrating day she had and at the grim future that appeared ahead of her.

She couldn’t even deign herself to face Sofia outside of a side glance.

“I’m fine,” Caro lied, almost with a growl. Anger clung to her but her unwillingness to move came out of fear. She came to realize she’d gotten herself into a problem much bigger than she’d expected. And she had no idea how to work this out.

The day had gone to shit so fast, she could barely care enough to disguise her tone, pushing herself back until her back touched the wall of the room. Something that freaked her out was how it highlighted how much height she’d lost now that her legs were barely covering the width, whereas before, she could at least let them hang. “Great. Thanks Grimma,” she said, sarcastically.

“So your spirit really cursed you?” Sofia asked.

“Yeah, she did. She freaking did.” Caro frowned. “Are they talking about me? The girls in the cottage?”

Sofia hesitated but finally answered: “They are… When I got back to Whitman, I think about three different people warned me that you were looking a lot less… human.”

“Of course,” Caro grumbled. A part of her wanted to blame Mr. Kim for not keeping her hidden. But, in a sense, he was right: being cooped within Doyle’s observation wouldn’t help her.

“So, what are you turning into? What’s causing the change?” Sofia asked.

“Can’t you fucking tell?” Caro blurted out, almost hissing. To which she felt a slight tingle course through her body. It went from the tip of her head down to her toes, watching how her nails twisted, thickened and narrowing down into becoming more clawlike. “Shit… Why… Why,” she said, feeling her tail twitch by her side.

“It happened again?” Sofia noted.

“It did… I must be about four and a half feet now…” she grumbled. “Not sure why it’s happening…”

“I… I think I do,” Sofia said slowly, getting her roommate to raise up her head looking at her, her nose slightly smaller yet a tad more prominent than a minute ago.

“You know?” Caro asked.

“Well…” Sofia thought for a second. “Remember during the argument. I noticed that you only began to ‘stumble’ right after you began to cuss, curse, or insult someone else. Could that be the causal link?”

Caro thought for a moment brushing some of the pale hairs that began to appear on the back of her hand. “I suppose that sounds right. I called Marlene a bitch… I called those two bimbos…” She immediately paused as she realized she carelessly uttered the curse and braced herself for a double wave of changes. They never came, though. “I guess it only works when I’m calling someone. Or with some anger behind it, at least.”

“Do you want to test it out?” Sofia offered, sitting on her bed at the other side.

“I’m cursed and you want to make this worse?! Are you desperate to make things worse for me?” Caro said, taking a pause for a moment. She felt a slight surge of energy, so small that she could barely detect it, even as she was insightfully focused. The outburst progressed something, but it’d been just a small tip step when compared to all she’d gone through. “Okay… so I just have to watch my mouth. Is that it?”

“Something just happened?” Sofia asked, Caro just wanted to lash out with something along the lines of “Yeah! Something happened!” but bit her tongue with her slightly enlarged incisors.

“I think so.” Caro sighed. Looking down at the developments within sight. She saw her hands. The narrower, thicker nails looked like the makings of little claws, even starting to curve themselves at the tip. White and gray hairs grew on the back of her hands, still fuzzy but visible enough grew down her sleeves. She was dreading to know what she would look like under… or what would any of the other girls in Whitman would say after they saw her like this, after all the attitude she gave them.

“I’m going to be a rat in no time,” Caro grumbled.

“Un pericote,” Sofia noted. “That seems to be where you’re going. How bad is it going to get?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Caro said. That was the part that terrified her, just how far was this spell going to take her? Was she going to be a girl with rat features, just like the cat girls around? Or would it be much worse than that? Reduced down to a rat, unable to think in normal human terms? That felt terrifying to Caro, bringing back memories of her experience as a dragon.

There was no way she was going to survive life as a pint-sized rat girl. It certainly made her wish she had her horns and scales back. Is that what you wanted, Grimma? She thought to herself.

“No… I have to get to work… I have to,” Caro decided as she pushed herself off the bed and up on her feet. It was just jarring to find how much height she lost in those spurts, even feeling her clothes wanting to slip off her smaller frame. Sure, she’d got some smaller clothes from the store, but now she was worried that they might just end up too big for her.

“What are you going to do?” Sofia asked. Getting up as well, once again, she highlighted the height difference between the two girls who once saw eye to eye.

Caro just looked away. “I don’t know, but I’m gonna figure it out.”

“Do you have a lead?” Sofia asked.

“Actually, I do,” Caro said as she moved to her nightstand, opening her drawer and producing the enchanted flute: the vessel. It still oozed with the energies of its prisoner, Grimma. And so far, it still appeared to be working. No corrosion damage to the wooden surface of the flute and the lines that comprised the spell were still intact.

“That’s the flute you got from your grandmother.” Sofia noted, though appearing wary as faint smoke began to seep out. “I told you that there was something different about it, right?”

“Yeah… That’s because Grimma is sealed in here,” Caro admitted.

“Are you serious?” Sofia blurted out, her brow furrowing. “You trapped her in a flute? Why would you do that?”

“I didn’t want to go back to how I used to be. Didn’t want the horns and scales.” Caro argued.

“And you preferred turning into a rat over it?” Sofia said, although at a glare from Caro, she relented. “Sorry.”

“As I was saying…” Caro grumbled. “I didn’t wish to turn back. I tried to talk Grimma out of it, but she was quite adamant of leaving me as I was before. I… kinda panicked and took the risk of trying to seal her within the flute.” And before Sofia could ask, she held the item out for the explanation along with the bottle filled with glowing blue mist that swirled with clear magical energy. That got her roommate to warily lean back. “I told you that this flute once contained a curse, right? I extracted the original curse and sealed it in the bottle and prepared the older relic to house a much stronger entity in return.”

“So… you used it and managed to seal Grimma?” Sofia said, still surprised.

“Yeah. I had this planned for quite some time. I just wasn’t thorough enough,” Caro sighed.

“Maybe there was a better option than trying to weasel out of the agreement.” Sofia noted.

“Weasel… Bet Grimma regrets she gave me a rat curse instead of a weasel one.”

“And what curse is that one?” Sofia asked, leaning in closer towards the glowing bottle, seemingly getting a sense of it.

“It’s a sort of animistic curse from what I’ve read in the books from the library. The flute was supposed to be used to control and scare rats, so… maybe a predatory spirit?” Thinking about it, there was something about the bottle in her hand that began to make her feel uneasy.

“Wait… like the Pied Piper of Hamelin?” Sofia blinked. “As in the one from the legend? Is that what rattenfänger means?”

“It could be. But it could also be a replica. I always thought the actual flute would be bigger,” Caro said as she placed the bottle with the curse back in the drawer.

“There’s a curse and a sealed spirit in our room now. Carajo, this is gonna bring in trouble, isn’t it?” Sofia’s face showed a spectrum of emotion, from awe to concern to a bit of excitement and curiosity. “What a way to start the year.”

“I think it’s horrible,” Caro grumbled as she spun the flute between her fingers, but never being careless about it. She wasn’t sure if she wished Grimma could experience dizziness or not. “Now… Could you excuse me? I think I have to have a talk with someone.”

“Alright… Then I’ll be off of your tail tonight,” Sofia joked, but then again, Caro felt as though she couldn’t hold it up against her.

“Thanks,” Caro said.

“Good luck.” And, with that, Sofia closed the door behind her.

Once left alone, the changing girl sighed. She paced back and forth, although the slipping clothes warned her to actually get started. “Okay, Grimma… Are you in there?”

She closed her eyes, feeling the power exuded from the flute caress and tickle her skin, but there were no words nor meanings that she could ascribe to it. Not even after she touched one of the spell lines she drew to softly thin the barrier, much like pulling the curtain off a barred window.

“I know you’re in there.” Caro insisted. “Talk to me.”

Once again, there was no answer. And Caro felt the nerves start to get to her.

She raised her voice. “I said talk to me!”

Nothing.

“Come on! Say something!” Caro gritted her teeth. “Are you really going to make me beg? I know you can reach out to me like this? I never expected this spell to be so strong that it silenced your voice. Or don’t tell me I got you that bad.”

But alas, trying to taunt Grimma only yielded a prolonged silence.

“You curse me and now refuse to speak to me? What did I do to deserve… you know what? I’m not going there…” Caro held her silence after that. Her mind considered her next words with gritted teeth and clenched hands, almost thinking she would hear the wood of the flute crack.

“Okay fine!” she spat. “… I can’t deny that there’s a part of me that thinks I deserve this…. I mean, I did try to go back on our deal and ended up sealing you inside this flute. And that was bad. I acted like a child and didn’t want to face it. Now… I need your help. Please, I want to know how to fix this… Please.”

Even with that bit of emotional swelling in the end, there was no answer.

“Is that what you wanted to hear? Is that not enough? What do you want from me?” Caro asked, shaking the flute.

“Talk to me! I know this item isn’t enough to fully contain you!” Caro snapped. “Promise that you’ll solve this and I’ll free you now.” She paused and sighed. “I’m even willing to let things go back to how they were. I think I was getting used to my appearance back then rather than risk turning into a rat…”

A moment of silence followed. Awkward and heavy, it slowly began to weigh down on Caro’s head. No answer was given, just silence to leave her thinking. Eventually, she opened her mouth to say, with a quivering voice. “How bad is it gonna get?”

Still no answer. “I need to know what curse you cast. How to fix it.”

By then Caro lost all her patience. “Talk to me or I’ll turn you over to the Magical Arts faculty! And trust me that they would be more than happy to make sure no one ever sees your stupid black mold-colored gassy ass ever again–Crap.” Caro grumbled as she fell down to her knees, clutching her sides as the curse kicked back again. A visceral scream as anger and the insults triggered a big change.

Caro could feel the tiny pricklings in her skin as she knew the soft fur grew a tad denser. Her face experienced a dull pain as her nose and mouth were awkwardly pushed forth.

And just as fast as it came, the spurt of the changes passed, letting Caro take a deep breath and, with trembling hands, prod about for the changes. She couldn’t help but to let out a “Fuck!” Fortunately, that didn’t trigger the changes.

As she’d dreaded, she’d lost about two or three more inches off her height, leaving her one the shorter girls in the campus. She felt the newly grown fur brushing against the inner side of her garments as they threatened to slide off her.

“Of course… I better not get to the point where I need stairs to climb up my chairs… Do I really even have to go to class like this!?” Caro cursed, feeling her teeth getting dangerously close to her tongue. She would need to be mindful not to end with a lisp… if she could even talk when all this was over. “Fuck… what do I do… what do I do…” she repeated to herself as she prodded her face. She now had a short muzzle adorned by the whiskers that grew under her nose.

She turned to look over her shoulder to see her thin long tail dangling just about the height of her ankles. It twitched and moved with surprising dexterity, but that did little to assuage her concerns.

“Okay. I guess that does confirm that you’re in there,” Caro said to the flute she’d managed to hold onto despite everything. “But are you not talking? You’re perfectly capable of doing it, I know.”

She held the flute against her ear, feeling it twitch. She heard the hollow whistle of the inner cavities of the instrument, the caress of the mist up against the rough wood, the soft tapping of her small claws up against the surface. And then, she heard it. A soft humming that felt like music, like a faint song intertwined with the faint whistling the instrument would produce.

“Fix me,” Caro insisted, but the tune kept on playing. Was it a taunt? Or encouragement? Caro couldn’t make any difference and it both infuriated her.

“Fine, be that way…” Caro grumbled. She so wanted to smash the flute… but doing that to a magically charged object certainly didn’t feel like the best of ideas. Either it would simply release Grimma or it would result in a nasty explosion, neither of which she was prepared for… yet.

Instead, she just left the thing in her drawer and slammed it shut.

“Fine… I’ll come up with a solution myself,” Caro said as she awkwardly climbed back up on her bed. She stewed in her frustration as she tried to take in all things that she could do or work around.

The thought of asking for help from the magical department of the school was among the first options. Come out clean about Grimma’s imprisonment and hand over the enchanted item… but considering how reluctant the school was to tamper with the ‘order of things’, this just felt like resigning herself to her fate. Maybe one of the more magically deft upperclassmen would be able to provide an answer… but that didn’t mean a solution, especially considering her style of magic was quite unique. Still, it was something she would have to consider.

The only other option she had was, as the flute said, to ‘figure it out’. What did that entailed? She was still trying to figure it out.

“How would I deal with this?” she said while staring up at the ceiling. How would she normally go about if she were in this solution? Ever since she came to this school, she’d found herself in so many situations that pushed the line of danger that she’d never been used to before. Many of those, she couldn’t rely on someone else to fix the problem. It was always up to her. When Sofia got into trouble within the arena, she had to decide to jump in. When the demonic ring escaped her grasp, she could only take it upon herself to fix it.

“Granted, not because I wanted to… but because I couldn’t allow anyone else to get involved… I’ll have to do the same now. Figure out. The question is how?” Caro thought to herself.

Perhaps she could devise a counterspell? Or try to break the spell… Or some magic that would revert her transformation… even if the curse would remain active? Is that what Grimma envisioned when she left this little trap for her? To force her to use transformative magic and get over her fear of altering her form? She would’ve spoken a curse, but was worried that it would count.

Another thought weighted in her. If this was actually the work of Grimma, there had to be a prose component to this curse, like Mr. Kim said. Well, not necessarily–she knew that magic was easy for the entity, enough to forego her own rules when convenient… but Grimma always tried to make it fair and leave everything stated. Somewhere, the parameters of the spell had to be written down, and therein might lie a solution.

Caro sighed as she sat up, realizing that it was getting late and she needed to shower and go to bed. The next day would be to follow her routine and she needed to play along, while letting the back of her mind work on the problem. If she would be able to do that, was a big question. Even if she knew what was the trigger for these flare-ups, it would be a trying time… all it would take would be for someone with a grudge against her to figure it out, and…

“I’m screwed…” she said as her mind raced to calculate the number of days she would last.

So concerned she was, the thought of opening her spellbook to start drafting didn’t reach her head. Instead, it fell into her backpack as she tackled the next altered step of her routine.

 

To Be Continued