Spirits of the Earth

Built into the castle's southern tower, Wyrdwood Academy's library was nearly as well known as the school itself. Boasting nearly a million titles, it was quite possibly the largest collection of spellbooks in Le'raana. The bookshelves were nearly as tall as the tower itself, and students needed to use broomsticks to reach the tomes at the top. Orbs of light floated about aimlessly, providing a the room with a soft glow. At the center of the library was a collection of reading chairs and desks, each one seemingly more comfortable then the next. Many a Fellow had donated to the school for access to this room alone, and as such the library was always fairly busy.

Arthur Clearwater sat at one of the desks, staring at the blank piece of paper in front of him. The boy had calculated exactly how much schoolwork he'd need to do in order to pass with the lowest grades possible, but he had always put off doing the work until the last minute. This particular paper was, unfortunately, mandatory- if he didn't hand it in by tomorrow, he'd flunk out of Magical History.

"This is lame..." Arthur thought, adjusting the pillow on his head. "Why do we even need to write papers? Can't we just do, like, multiple choice?" The boy yawned, eyes beginning to droop. "Writing is such a chore..."

Suddenly, inspiration hit him like a sack of bricks. Lifting his quill, he slowly dipped it into his inkwell. He held it there for a few seconds before pulling it out and bringing it to the parchment. With very rigid strokes, Arthur began to slowly drag his pen across the paper... 

Ten minutes later, Arthur looked down at his hard work.

QuoteThe

Arthur smiled. "Yeah..." he mumbled sleepily. "That's a good word to start with..." Yawning, Arthur rested he head on his desk and closed his eyes. After all that work, he needed a rest.

The sound of the boy's snoring soon echoed throughout the entire library...

Today served as a reminder. A reminder to remind the ghosts to always, always, shroud Hana when leaving class. As she exited the classroom to go to the library, she had been pulled aside by Magistrix Fen-Breath, and told of a student a few years down named Arthur Clearwater. Apparently, he had incredible potential, but was constantly sleeping during class. Because she hadn't actually been taking notes in that class like she was supposed to, Hana was assigned as his tutor. She didn't try to argue, even though she wanted to.

It wasn't hard to spot him. Stepping into the familiar library, she heard a loud snoring sound coming from a desk in the center of the room. Face pressed against the wood, in the center of a circle of annoyed students, was a rather... Comfy-looking boy, wrapped up in who knows how many layers of clothing, and with what seemed to be a pillow attached to his head. "No wonder he's always sleeping".

Sitting down across from him, she attempted to wake the boy. "Um, Arthur? Arthur?" She tapped the desk next to him a couple of times, to no avail. "Would anyone mind waking him? Like, maybe a few of you, please?", she murmured, as seven ghosts began smacking Arthur over the head. The minute power of the ghosts, combined with the protection provided by the pillow, made sure their efforts did not yield much benefit, so Hana pleaded for extra help. "Shut up, warden!" That was what the bitter ghosts called her. Some of the more pleasant souls still listened, however, and soon there were fifteen of them attacking his skull. "Please just wake up!"

Arthur sat alone in his room back home, staring out the window. It was raining french onion soup today- his least favorite flavor. Feeling a tug on his pant leg, the boy looked down to see his plush dragon sitting by his feet. Arthur smiled. "Hello Tina! Sorry, no walk today..."

"That's okay!" the toy squeaked. "I have an important meeting to attend anyway." 

"Um, Arthur? Arthur?"

Arthur felt a sharp rapping on his head, and his bedroom faded away. Opening his eyes groggily, the boy found he was still in the school library. An older girl sat across from him now, a worried expression on her face. "Wha..." he said sleepily. "Who... who are you again?"

"Kia, please leave so I can close my eyes again..."

"Arthur," she said sternly, "Wake up!" Hana hated raising her voice. it always seemed to disrupt some sort of aura around her, something she wanted to remain intact. But maybe that was just her. "My name is Hana Splint. I'm here to tutor you, and help you do better with your work." She leaned forward, attempting to see if he was really awake. "Did you get that? Are you okay?"

She was trying to be calm, but this task was already more difficult than she imagined, and the tutoring hadn't even started! Still, Hana wasn't one to get mad, and so she kept it together.

A hushed giggling seemed to come from the nearby students as Hana raised her voice, as if her statement was some sort of joke. Arthur slowly lifted his head, rubbing the sleepies out of his eyes. "...Right... Work... I have to do that." 

The boy stretched his arms above his head, yawning. "Did... ahhhhhh.... did Professor Grimsly send you? I'm working on his paper now..." Arthur lazily pushed the sheet of parchment towards Hana. "It's supposed to be on the history of wands..."

"No, I was sent by Magistrix Fen-Breath". As he slid the sheet across, Hana didn't expect much. "He probably only completed a paragraph or two before falling asleep". But when she looked, she was stunned. "You must be joking!" Her face twisted into a mixture of shock and intense exasperation as she saw the parchment, almost blank except for a single word, 'The'. She flipped it over, then back again, looking it up and down, but nothing was revealed.

"Are you sure this is the correct sheet? Not something else?", she asked hopefully. If this was the state of the kid, he had to be hopeless! "You didn't hide the rest of it with a spell, did you?"

More hushed laughter came from the surrounding students. Arthur nodded sleepily. "Yeah... does it look okay? I thought that was a good way to start it..." The boy didn't wait for Hana to respond before speaking again. "Magistrix Fen-Breath is mean to me..." he said softly. "The last time I closed my eyes in her class, she turned me into a sloth for the rest of the day..."

Suddenly, Arthur's eyes lit up. "Hey, do you play Monster Mash?"

Hana couldn't help but feel that a sloth was quite the appropriate animal for Arthur. Before she could vocalize the thought, or rather begin to and then stop herself, the boy asked if she played Monster Mash. A bit surprised, she began to splutter. "Um, uh, I've heard of it, I mean, I've kept some cards from a friend, and bought some once, as a joke, except for the others, they weren't, but I only have a few, maybe ten... Squared".

After an awkward silence, Hana decided to just admit it, as if she hadn't already. "Yes, I collect Monster Mash cards".

Arthur giggled, the thought of trading cards seeming to wake him up. "You're funny!" he said quietly, a small smile on his face. "I'm not gonna turn you in! I play'em too- check this out!"

Arthur took one of his schoolbooks from the desk and slid a octagonal card from his pocket in between the pages. Discreetly sliding the book to Hana, he grinned. "It's the Penanggalan from the Island Havoc expansion deck- the foil version. First edition too. I just got it yesterday, cool right?"

Hana's eyes lit up upon seeing the card in front of her. "Wow, that's pretty cool! I haven't gotten any Island Havoc cards yet. However, unless you've got a shielding spell to go with that, then you'll be nothing to a Noble Guardians expansion Tengu or other such monster that capitalizes on low defense, especially if your opponent uses the unwavering courage spell from the same set."

Digging into her robe, Hana rummaged for a while until she found the pocket she'd sewn to the inside, and pulled out a small box. Opening it up, she pulled out her own Monster Mash card. "This is my rarest card." She carefully laid it flat on the table and slid it towards Arthur. Leaning in, she nearly whispered. "Foil Awoken Tarasque. Like the regular Tarasque, but with even higher power, speed that's actually decent, and a venomous ability. It's the rarest and most powerful card in the Legends Rebirthed expansion, but still low on magic and very susceptible to taming spells."

Arthur looked at the card, making an odd snorting noise. "I don't know what they were thinking with the Awoken Legends cards. Even with the low magic, there aren't nearly enough monsters who can actually utilize taming spells to consider that card balenced." The boy giggled. "What, am I supposed to build a deck around the Vampire Queen from the Night Prowlers set? She's like, sooo flimsy!"

Arthur passed the card back to Hana. "It is rare though..." he said wistfully. "I'd never seen one in person before..."

"I got lucky", she stated simply. "I don't play much, but I've been trying to get into that. Mostly, I just collect at the moment".  Having almost completely forgotten about the tutoring, Hana was in a world of Monster Mash, enthralled in the conversation about the game. It took a particular passing librarian in order to snap her out of it. As Glinda Fare walked up to the table, a book in hand, Hana realized the potential consequences of having the cards out in the middle of the library. Quickly, she muttered, "Please shroud these cards!"

Glinda saw the two sitting together, and wondered what they were doing there. It wasn't usual for underclassmen and upperclassmen to be at the same table. She only guessed what was happening when she saw exactly who the underclassman was. "She's tutoring him, the poor girl!" She stopped as she passed by the table and looked back and forth between them. "So you've been assigned to help him in his studies?" She then glanced at the table, and picked up the essay. "Really, Arthur? Must I explain this to you?" With this, she shot a small burst of glittery painball at his shoulder. "Hana, have a wonderful rest of your day!" With this, she left, not once noticing the iridescent cards on the tabletop.

"That was close"

Arthur immediately sat up straight as the librarian approached, shivering nervously. "Oh no! If she sees our cards, we're done for!" He looked at Hana, grimacing. "Miss Fare will sparkle us to death!"

As if on cue, Hana murmured something incomprehensible and the librarian seemed to completely miss the card in front of her. She instead commented on Arthurs paper, and shot a small orb of sparkly death at the boy. "S-sorry..." the soulshaper said, wincing in pain. "Won't happain again."

As soon as the librarian was out of earshot, Arthur leaned over to the girl. "What did you do?" he whispered. "I thought we were gonna get caught for sure..."

Hana sighed. She hated talking about her ghosts, it just reminded her of how she got them. Deciding to lie about the past rather than go through the pain, she spoke softly. "I have these ghosts attached to me, I've had them since I was born. They can't be seen by mortal eyes, but when there's a high concentration of them in one small space, they provide a sort of shrouding effect, so whatever they surround becomes harder to notice. It's not like people can't see the objects, just that they don't notice they're there. I just asked them to gather around the cards."

She hoped the boy didn't pry further.

"Ghosts?" Arthur's eyelids began to droop. "Like, souls? I don't like souls..." He yawned. "They're overhyped, y'know?" The boy looked over his paper- Miss Fare had left a crease in it from where she'd snatched it. "Awww... Man, really?"

"The paper..."

Groaning, Arthur threw his head back. "Ugh! I forgot about the assignment! Stupid..."

"Believe me, I don't like them either!". She had to bite her lip to stop herself from saying it out loud. Snapping back to the task at hand, Hana quickly made a mental note to not get caught up in trading cards and focus on the task at hand. Hopefully, it would be over quickly. "Yes, the assignment, right. You said it was on wands, right? And how long is it meant to be? I'm assuming longer than one word."

She attempted to recall what she knew on the history of wands, but nothing came to mind. "Hey, Dorothy, do you know anything on the history of wands?"
The small ghost replied with a look of disapproval. "You really should pay attention in class, you know!" Dorothy was probably Hana's best friend, and really, she didn't know if they could be considered friends at all. Still, Dorothy wasn't mean to her, and was definitely the most helpful of the bunch.

The lack of knowledge didn't matter, her job was to get the kid focused on the work, not to do it for him.

"Dorothy?" Arthur's eyes lit up as he looked around for the woman who was both his favorite teacher and his best friend. "Oh Kia, this is awesome!" he thought excitedly. "I bet she knows a ton about wands! She'll help out for sure!"   

After a few moments, he paused. Eyes narrowed, he turned back to look at Hana. "Wait, where is she? Where's Professor Summers?"

"Uh... Professor Summers?" Hana was completely confused for a moment before she realized what was going on. "Oh, right, no, I was just talking to a ghost... Now, what do you know about the history of wands right now? I mean, you must know something, right?"

"Please tell me you payed attention in class!" It really was quite hypocritical of her to wish for that.

Looking rather disgruntled that his favorite professor wouldn't be joining them, Arthur groaned. "Well, I think I remember reading that the first wands had the magic cores on the outside..." The boy yawned, binking sleepily. "Like... a unicorn hair would be wrapped around a stick, instead of inside it..."

"She was just talking to a ghost?"

Arthur looked at Hana, eyes narrowed. "Um... so, you can see souls? And they, like, talk to you?" He frowned. "That's... interesting?"

Hana's face hardened at Arthur's comment. "There's certainly always company".  Quickly, she attempted to switch the topic of conversation, though not as subtly as she'd have liked. "Yes, cores on the outside, let's start writing, come on!" At this she tapped the table forcefully, three times.

"Ah!" Arthur said, feeling embarressed. "Right, write..." Bringing his quill to the parchment, he looked at what he had written already and did his best to make an introductory paragraph.

QuoteThe wand is the one of the most important and valued tools in any wizard or witch's arsenal. While today most wands are simplistic, in the past they were often complex and ornate. This paper will be going over the most common and the most unusual wands seen throught history.

Arthur held up the paper for Hana to see. "Um... how does this look?"

Hana's eyes scanned over the paper, expecting the worst. "This kid was probably asleep when they taught him how to write an essay". As she read, though, she realized that the paragraph was actually rather well-written. "Wow, Arthur, that's good! I'm impressed!"

Rather pleased with the result of her coaxing, she decided to offer an incentive (and maybe an opportunity for herself). "How about, if there's still time left when you're done, we play a game of Monster Mash?

Arthur's face lit up at the girl's offer, the bags under his eyes seeming to disappear. A  girl wanted to play Monster Mash? With him? She was already helping him with his paper! "Okay! Y-yeah, I'd love to!" the boy said, cheeks flushing slightly. Immediately he began to write again, facts about wands seeming to pop back into his memory instantly. 

"So, um, Hana?" Arthur asked quietly as he scribbled frantically. "Uh... What kinds of subjects are you here to learn?"

"Oh Kia, why is it so hard to talk to girls?"

"Geez, this kid must really love that game!" Hana was quite happy to see him writing so quickly. Tutoring Arthur really wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. In fact, it was actually quite nice to have some corporeal company for once.

"What kind of subjects? Well..." Honestly, it was a good question. She sighed as she thought back to her parents, sending her off to Wyrdwood against her will. She supposed it was probably for the best, but still, it really wasn't a place she could feel at home at. "My parents sent me here to get me out of the way. I really can't do much magic, so..." She trailed off again as she said this, gripping the edge of the table a bit tighter, her face getting a bit tenser. "So, I just try to learn as much as possible."

Hana wiped a bit of sweat from her brow, cursing internally at how hard that simple question had been to answer. "So, what about you, Arthur? What are you here for?"

The boy frowned, his scribbling slowing down. "Her parents want her out of the way?" he thought, suddenly feeling rather somber. "Man, I thought my dad was bad..."

Arthur put his quill down, looking at the floor. "I don't want to be here. My dad is making me go, he says it's my duty to the family." He sighed, loosening the buckle on his hat slightly. "I don't want to be a mage! I want to be an author!" the boy said, a bitterness in his voice rarely heard by his classmates. "But no, I have powerful magic so I gotta take up the family torch and be a dumb executioner!" Arthur crossed his arms in a huff. "It's stupid and I hate it."

Hana truly didn't know what to say. She stared down at the table. "Damn, that's bad. I can't even imagine being an executioner." Killing people for a living just seemed way too grim for a kid like him, even if he'd be older by then. She just couldn't imagine it. "Maybe he'll execute me someday." She pushed the thought out of her head. It was too morbid. "Hopefully you won't have to. Who knows what could happen from now 'til you graduate? At least you still have a few years to go. I have no idea what I'll do when I'm out of here." She didn't want to think about that, either. General conversation was just full of uncomfortable topics.

Arthur slowly picked his quill back up, scowling. Answering Hana's question had gotten him angrier then he wanted to admit, calming himself down was never something the boy had an easy time doing. "Yeah. Whatever." he muttered, scribbling angrily. "I'll show them, just wait. If I get the lowest grades possible, dad will have to admit I'm a lost cause!" Arthurs eye twitched. "My power's not so great anyway..."

"Woah, hey, it's okay!" Hana was rather shocked at the sudden rage displayed by Arthur. She looked around the library, searching for something to shift the conversation with. He'd mentioned his power. "What is his magic anyway?"

"Hey Arthur? What's your specialty? You know, elemental, holy, primal. What do you do?"

Arthur's eye twitched. "That's not what I want to talk about right now." he thought, looking up at Hana. "Enchanting." he said flatly. "But like, on people, not things." He shook his head. "It's really lame."

"Ugh, gotta change the subject!"

Arthur attempted to smile, but his heart wasn't really in it. "So Hana, what are your powers?"

"My powers?!" Hana felt a sudden rush of anxiety. No, not anxiety, fear! "Just the ghosts, the ghosts!" "I have ghosts, no and, no but!" What was the fear? The fear and the doubt and the horror and the jolting and why would she ever think of an 'and', she'd always known that was all, ghosts, ghosts, more ghosts, all the way down! Her heart beat faster inside of her as she felt an urge to tap two fingers to something, anything. Arthur, herself. As calmly as possible under the circumstances, she stated, "I don't have any special power, just the ghosts. My parents sent me here to get me out of the way, and so I don't learn in class, I study in the library or read in the back, the ghosts shroud me, and I do it be-"

She caught herself. "So, nice, um, nice... Lighting, in here?" She had to change the subject. She'd already acted weird, been seen by Arthur. She just needed to keep the conversation going without thinking about it any more. Taking a couple of deep breaths, she calmed her mind and tried her hardest to block out all intrusive thoughts.

Arthur frowned. "That can't be right..." he thought, tilting his hed slightly. "It cost's a fortune just to become a fellow and use the library! And her parents bought her tuition just to get her out of the way?!"

The boy fidgeted with the buckle on his hat. "Um..." he murmured, unsure of how to process Hana's behavior. "Yeah, the lighting is... comfy? Like, you could take a nap here and the light wouldn't keep you awake..." He rubbed his eyes, beginning to feel sleepy again. "...Are you okay? You look upset..."

Hana pulled a slightly forced smile onto her face and sat further upright. "I'm fine, really." She exhaled slowly, before tensing up again. "Wait, what's the time? Shouldn't you be in your next class by now?" The library seemed much emptier than when she came in.

Arthur's eyes widened. "Oh Myyla, you're right!" he said, looking around frantically. It seemed tht apart from Miss Fare and a few fellows and teachers assistants, the library had been completely abandoned. "I have runes! Professor Trueflower told me if I was tardy again, he'd-"

"Oh, don't worry! Professor Trueflower is sick today!"

A snide voice from behind him caused the pillow-headed boy to flinch, and he quickly spun around to see the school tattletale, Beatrix Evans, smirking at him. The boy groaned. "Oh come on, that's not true! You always lie about stuff like this!"

Beatrix crossed her arms. "Is too! There was a note at breakfast, didn't you see?"

Arthur blinked, uncertainty filling his mind- he had slept through breakfast that morning. "Um..." He looked to Hana, a worried look on his face. "Was... was there a note? I overslept..."

She'd never spoken to this girl, maybe only seen her once or twice. But she was certainly bad news. Hana stiffened up and stared over at the intruder. Unfortunately, Arthur's question proved rather difficult to answer, since she'd had her head in a book the entire time. Still, if this girl was lying (And Hana was certainly inclined to believe she was), then it would probably be best to not let her believe she could fool her. "Bullshit, there was no note. Now would you mind if we moved along? We need to go make sure Professor Trueflower knows that Arthur isn't to blame for being late."

Somehow, Hana suspected that doing just that wouldn't be quite as easy as she hoped, what with the blue-haired menace there. Maybe it was just because of her weird-looking shadow, but she was suspicious.

Beatrix stamped her foot of the ground angrily. Hey! I'm trying to save you time! Why won't you just listen to me?!" The girl's shadow swayed a little, as if it had a will of it's own. "I'm being-"

Beatrix stopped abruptly, smirking. Her gaze lingered on something behind Arthur and his friend, and she threw her arms into the air as if in celebration. "You did it Aahva! Teamwork, yay!"

Arthur gasped, and spun around to see the Thanati boy had snatched his still unfinished paper while he wasn't looking. With a grin, the bully turned heel and ran, laughing maniacally. "Aahva stop!" Arthur yelled, standing up to give chase. "I need that!"

This was why Hana hated underclassmen. Always so immature. "Arthur, you did put your name on that paper, right?", she sighed. Really, it was a stupid question. It was very unlikely that someone like Arthur would have bothered, or even remembered, to mark the work as his own, at least from what she'd seen. Still, if there was the faintest glimmer of hope, then she had to find out. But if her suspicions were confirmed, then that would make this very annoying.

Arthur looked back at Hana, panic in his eyes. "I... I..." he stammered. "I don't remember! I don't always, my brother says my handwriting is a signature of it's own..." The boy began to run in the direction Aahva had gone, but he wasn't quick enough to close the distance. "Get back here Aahva! I'm gonna tell Magister Maergath!"

Beatrix giggled, slinking back into the shadow of a bookcase. "Arthur makes it too easy!" she exclaimed as she seemed to melt into the darkness. "He'll never beat Aahva..."