The monster from the day before was alive. You could only see it from the shadows of the arena, but now Jane got an up close experience. It was almost as large as a train (which Jane was informed was the only way to get into the academy grounds) and was nothing but fur.
It had four large legs with four long claws at least 6’1. Its front legs were designed to tunnel and it had a ring of spikes on its tail. The spikes were more like quills and could fold into the tail as camouflage on the creatures brown fur. Its beady black eyes were focused on one thing and one thing only, the two humans in front of it.
Jane dropped the apple she was eating and pushed the boy behind her, eyes locked with the creature the entire time. It lowered its muscle to smell them.
“Don’t move an inch.” Jane whispered to the boy. “It seems to have bad eyesight, if we allow it to smell us, but not move then it might leave us alone. When it’s gone find a teacher. I’ll watch it to make sure nothing happens.” The boy, not to Jane’s surprised, huffed indignantly.
“Who do you think you are, telling me what to do?” The creature growled at the boy. He had spoken a little higher than Jane and caught its attention. Jane whistled and it snapped his head back to her.
Once she was sure the creature’s attention was on her she signaled the boy to slowly back away. He did what he was told without question. He made it to the doors of the main building, which was still in sight of them, when Eddie and the group of girls who sat with them at lunch came out looking for Jane.
A girl screamed when she saw the creature. The loud noise drove the creature mad. It rose on its hind legs and let out a howl. It bore down on the group by the doors. Jane dove to the right of the creature and started to pelt it with her remaining three apples before sending rocks from the ground flying at the creature’s head.
She managed to get a fairly large stone to go into, what Jane hoped was its ear. The creature cried in pain trying to remove the irritation with its long claws. Jane ran to the group as fast as her legs could carry.
“Get everyone inside now!” Jane ordered Eddie. “Kid do you think you can keep up with me?” The boy looked insulted.
“Good, because we are going to lure that thing back into the arena, until the teachers come to handle it.” Before he could reply Jane turned back to the group still standing there.
“Ladies I would hate it if you got your dresses dirty. Why don’t you and the prince go inside and get the teachers in the main hall.” Jane gave them the most enchanting smile imaginable.
The girls would have melted on the spot had there not been a monster behind Jane. Even Eddie felt touched. Jane then turned to the boy, face expressionless so not to stun him as well. They went off throwing rocks at the creature, which by then removed the stone in its ear.
Jane did not look back to see if they had actually left. She trusted that her mask had charmed them into doing so, like she had done countless times before. All that mattered at the moment was to keep a good pace with the boy, who had started to throw stones at the creature.
Protecting Eddie from harm and to keep the monster away from the rest of the students. The question was whether or not the creature in front of her would take the bait, her.
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Eddie was completely mesmerized at John’s (Jane’s) smile. For the first time since Eddie kidnapped him from the slums, John showed the slightest bit of expression, though Eddie knew that it was all an act.
