Thursday was the day I finally got a little something.
It started as usual. Math, then General Magic. Next was Defence 101, but even more interesting than usual.
So that day Ms. Thistleworth decided to challenge us. She gave us our items as usual, then magicked not a few small practice dummies, but a huge four- headed monster dummy to life. Then she just told us to defeat that thing without further instructions.
Willow was rallying all the archers to attack together. Amethyst was managing the people who used spears. Felice was getting the griffin, harpy, and hippogriff Hybrids to attack with their knives
"I'm directing the magic users, alright?" Kaiden asked for confirmation.
"Yup!"
"Okay, what do we do?" Michel appeared next to me.
"Werewolves, attack!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. Michel followed my order very closely.
The battle raged. Volley after volley of arrows landed. Magic spells exploded in the air. Spears jabbed. Knives and swords slashed and sliced.
Strangely, unlike the usual dummies which are easy enough to 'kill', this one was withstanding all of our attacks. It was also way better at attacking, which caught some people off guard.
"Help! Sally got swiped by the monster!" A big, burly boy screamed. Four people worked together to get Sally out of the way.
"Ack!" Amber's spear broke. She scampered over to the weapon storage area, and came back out with a new spear. Problem is, she caused a HUGE mess. Weapons and magic items were scattered everywhere.
"No time to fix that up right now." Amber said, "oh well."
A few more people got injured or broke their weapons, which was a lot more than usual. Barely anyone got hurt in our previous lessons.
The dummy monster WAS getting weaker though. It was ripped in a ton of places. Stuffing spilled out. The attacks it did were not as aggressive anymore and its movements were slow.
"How do we defeat this thing?!" Someone complained.
"Hmmmm..." I tried figuring that question out. I would have gotten hit by the monster real good if I wasn't part werewolf. My defensive reflexes were better than average because of it.
I unexpectedly unleashed my wolf form right there. I chopped one of the dummy's four heads off, which seemed to make it angrier, but also even weaker.
"Guys! I've figured it out!" I had an 'eureka!' moment, "We gotta chop all of the heads off!"
Everyone seemed to have obtained new strength. In mere minutes a knife-bearer had gotten the second head and a spell dissected the third head. With only one head left, the dummy seemed hopeless. Spoiler alert, we were wrong.
The dummy thing went into berserk mode. Only the werewolves and some harpies were able to keep up. The rest backed off, doing long-range damage.
Finally, Michel and Theo did this two-part attack that I can't even describe and finished the fight off. The dummy, now headless, crashed down on its belly and stopped moving.
"Well done, class! Even this year's 8th graders struggled more with that dummy than you all did. For your outstanding performance, I will be giving ALL of you extra credit." Ms. Thistleworth announced. Everybody cheered.
"Skyler, how did you- how did you transform into wolf form?!" Michel questioned as we walked towards the door.
"That was cool!" He grinned.
"Thanks, but I don't know... Well, I almost got hit, but my reflexes got me out of the way and triggered it." I recounted what happened.
Suddenly I tripped on a small, rounded thing on the floor. Michel caught the back of my black leather jacket.
"Ow! Thanks, by the way." I adjusted my glasses, which were askew.
"What did you trip on?"
"This necklace locket thing..." I inspected the oval-shaped locket.
"Arrrrgh!" I tried opening the clasp, but it won't budge.
"Let me try...", Michel offered, "...nope, not opening."
"Wait, what's that?" I said, touching an inscription at the back. I read it, and it said:
I shall destroy an evil power
From which our people have long cowered
The werewolf's legacy shall open me with a sound
To prevent her academy from crumbling down
"Why does the instruction manual NEED to be in poem form again?" I grumbled.
"And why so dark...?" Michel added.
"So many questions, I know. But we gotta have our lunch break. Let's figure it out later." I stuffed the locket into my backpack. I have a feeling that it would be useful, but one of the things fantasy books taught me is that you shouldn't go wearing mysterious lockets before you know what they really do. I don't want it affecting me weirdly.
~●~●~●~
After I had my lunch, I texted my 'Roommates' group
GUYS, MEET ME AT DORM, I HAVE SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO SHOW
On my way there
Already there
Wait, like, five minutes I haven't finished my food.
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By the time I arrived at my dorm, Felice and Amethyst were already there. Willow came in after me, and the three of them sat around me.
"What have you got?" Willow asked.
"This." I dug around in my bag. I found the necklace and dangled it by a finger.
"Whoa. This is weird, man." Amethyst observed.
"It gets weirder. Neither I nor Michel could open it, and there is this weird poem on the back."
"Okay... that is just straight-up weird."
"I know, right?"
At that point my mind crossed the possibility that the necklace could have something to do with my research.
"Guys... GUYS! Do you think...?"
"What?"
Did I mention I sometimes forget that most other people can't relate two things as fast as I can?
"Argh."