The Trial of Morrigan Crow; Morrigan Crow's Revenge

Chapter 13 - The Chase Trials

She held the gauzy white curtains aside and stepped onto the balcony, into the bluish light of a full moon. The beam of her flashlight fell across the man's face. "Mr. Squall?"

He was jolted out of his reverie. "Ah, Miss Crow, pleasure to see you again."

Morrigan frowned, it's been a while and she doesn't remember all the details on her first life...she can't think of a reason for Squall to be visiting. "Why-"

Reading her mind, Squall smiled, "Well...I didn't send a message to you because I want you to enjoy your time with your...friends. I came here to...prove some of my suspicions."

Curiosity flashed in Morrigan's eyes, when she was about to ask, Squall ushered her, "Now, it's late, you need to go to bed, my little crowling, I should be seeing you in your first lesson. Now, go along."

Morrigan was shooed out of the south wing, completely puzzled until she heard an annoying voice.

"Seriously!? First the Hall of Shadow, now the south wing?! Why can't you just follow the rules?"

Summer was dying, but it refused to go down without a fight. The last weeks of August brought a heat wave to Nevermoor, with blazing temperatures and blazing tempers to match.

"Mog, are you not going to ask me something...?" Jupiter said confused. "I thought you might be worried since the second trial is only three days away."

Jupiter sat in a shady corner of the Palm Courtyard, drinking glasses of peach sangria and waving a handheld fan. Fenestra was sunbathing nearby, while Frank snored quietly under an enormous sombrero. Jupiter had given all staff the afternoon off. It was much too hot to work, and they'd been sniping among themselves all morning.

Jack, was nowhere to be seen, most likely tucked away in his bedroom practicing the cello, which was where he'd spent most of the summer—during the summer, Jack and hers relationship has grew a little bit, although Jack would never admit, he's used to Morrigan's present now...on the other hand, Morrigan was trying her best to keep her temper as she keeps remembering how annoying and how an idiot Jack is before they became friends. To make matter worse, the whole summer Jupiter wasn't able to take her as every week something more important would call him away. Morrigan still felt disappointed as she does want to spend more time with her patron.

"Do you think he's okay under there?" Jupiter asked, cracking one sleepy eye open to look at Frank. "He's not going to burn down to ashes, is he? I don't know how dwarf vampires work."

"Vampire dwarves," Morrigan corrected. "Eh, I think he should be fine...and to answer your question from before, I'm bit nervous but I trust you."

Jupiter looked at Morrigan surprised, but couldn't hide the smile growing on his face. "Right."

"Hey Mog, have you heard the reason why they banned flying animals?" Jupiter suddenly asked with a smile of silliness as Morrigan raised and eyebrow for him to continue. "There was some kerfuffle a few years back with a dragon and a pelican. Poor bird got burned to a cinder three seconds after takeoff. More of a pelican't, in the end. Eh? Pelican't?" He grinned lazily at Morrigan, as she also chuckled, "Anyway. They banned the whole bunch of them, and now everyone goes on the ground."

The rules for the Chase Trial had arrived by messenger the day before, as Morrigan realized the trial was soon.

"They could have just banned the dragon...not all flying animals breathe fire."

As they relaxed in the shade away from the sun for a while, Morrigan began, "So...Steed. Four legs or less."

"Fewer."