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Chapter Text

“Alright - And what did you learn?” 

“...To not throw glyphs into Abomination goo until I know what it does.” 

“...And not to encourage her to do that.” 

Clearing up huge piles of Abomination goo wasn’t something that Willow was unused to doing. She had spent quite a long time in the Abomination Track before being moved to the Plant Track, and a lot of the lessons and experiments she had taken part in ended up in failure, leaving her with a huge mess to clean. Honestly, it was probably one of the worst parts of being on the Track. 

After switching Tracks, a part of her had honestly expected those days to be behind her. If she could help it, she didn’t even want to so much as touch another Abomination again for as long as she lived. 

And yet, here she was, trying to scrub the remains of a particularly sticky, viscous, and obstinate Abomination from every corner of the Abomination Track’s homeroom, using water, cleaning solvents, mops, whatever was to hand to try to coax the sludge to give in and allow itself to be cleaned up. 

And while she tried to do that, the Track Professor berated Luz and Amity, not even ten feet from her. 

“I’m glad to see that your common sense survived this fiasco.” The Professor flatly stated, clearly not satisfied. “I wish you would think to use it more, though.” He faced Luz. “Principle Bump informed me of your unique ways of doing Magic before you attended any of my classes. That is the only reason I’ve permitted you to get away with not actually creating any Abominations for my classes for so long. I had hoped that when you discovered a way to control them, that you would have had the foresight to figure out precisely what you were working with.” 

Luz chewed on her lip, and looked away. 

The professor  turned to Amity. “And I would have hoped that you, Ms. Blight, of all people, at least would have had the sense to not indulge her in this.” 

“I’m sorry, sir.” Amity looked at the ground as she apologized. It was more a whisper than anything else. 

Willow sighed. This had all seemed like a much, much better idea twenty minutes ago. 

Everything about this situation had started while everyone was eating lunch - Luz and Amity had just had Abomination classes, and were talking about the projects that they had to complete for the Track. While Luz kept notes about the class, and the technical side of creating the Abominations, she didn’t have any idea how to actually cast… Any sort of spell to let her control an Abomination. Without Magic, she had to rely purely on the mixture being perfect, but even then , she couldn’t get the thing to form, or to rise at her command. And if she couldn’t raise an Abomination, well, that was pretty much a dead-end for the Abomination Track. 

When Amity asked to see what notes that Luz had made - suggesting that maybe there was an error in the amounts of material that she had used, or that she was using the wrong technique, or some other small mistake that could explain why she was having so much trouble - she discovered that there had been a glyph, made out of Abomination goo, that covered one of the pages, that had formed without Luz noticing. 

In all their heads, that had to be the glyph that would allow Luz to control the husks, and with encouragement from Willow and Gus, and Amity’s assistance in getting into the room and finding a vat of goo, Luz tried out her new spell. 

Unfortunately, it had actually had the opposite effect of controlling Abominations - It just caused the things to go ballistic and attack people. 

Luckily, everyone was able to use their Magic to destroy the rampaging thing, splatting it into a useless mess of sludge. The noise however, attracted the Track professor; and all he saw were four students, and his classroom absolutely coated in Abomination goo. 

Needless to say, he was quite angry. He demanded an explanation, and well, here they were. 

He glanced between the four students, and for a moment, it looked like he was about to start yelling again. Instead, he just pinched at the bridge of his nose, sighed, and said, “You all have excellent school records, which is why I expect this room to be thoroughly cleaned before the next lesson begins. I’ll be reviewing the security crystals when I return, and if I discover any of you have used Magic to clean this up, or find even a patch of goo left under a single seat, I will be taking this matter to Principle Bump. Do I make myself clear?” 

“Yes, sir.” Everyone answered. That was…. Honestly far lighter a punishment than any of them expected. 

The professor snapped his fingers, and the Abomination that had carried him in here picked him up again, and took him out of the room,  slamming the door behind them. As if to punctuate the point further, a pile of goo fell from the roof, just where the professor had been standing. 

As soon as the door shut, all four of the students let out long sighs of relief. There were… Literally a thousand ways in which that could have gone far, far worse. This was… Probably as light as it got. 

Still, it didn’t mean any of them felt especially lucky. Or good, for that matter. 

“I am… So, so, so sorry, you guys.” Luz said quickly, almost immediately after exhaling. “I didn’t - I didn’t think that would happen!”

“It’s okay, Luz.” Willow looked over from her workplace towards the Human. She offered her friend a light smile. “We all... Kind of got ahead of ourselves. We all encouraged you to try your new glyph out before we knew what exactly it would do.” 

Amity nodded, and hummed in agreement. Her left arm crossed over, and held onto her right. “The… The professor… Was right.” She said, almost like it physically hurt her to admit to it. “It was mostly my fault - If I hadn’t let you all in here, none of this would have happened.” 

“Hey, hey, it’s not like it was just one of us.” Gus said from the other side of the room. “We… We’re all to blame, at least a little bit.”

There was a brief moment of silence between the four of them. 

“...I guess we’re just lucky that all we got as punishment is having to clean this room up without Magic.” Amity commented, her voice sounding… Ever so slightly less dejected l than before. “I’ve seen the professor get… Pretty vindictive with people before.” 

Beside her, Luz shuddered - Willow somehow had a feeling that Luz had seen a number of these punishments for herself. Whatever they were, Willow was just glad that she hadn’t been subject to one of them. 

Yet , anyway. 

“Er… Speaking of which,” Willow piped up, looking around at the goo-coated walls and realizing the full extent of the task ahead of them, “We should probably get to work. We’ve only got until next lesson to clean this up.”

Everyone nodded, and grabbed whatever cloths, mops, buckets of water and cleaning solvents that they could get their hands on, and began to scrub, clean, and wipe every surface in the room, as quickly, and as thoroughly as they could, until it looked like nothing had ever happened. 

It was going to take a lot of work to clear this up.

“Ow…” 

It really had been an especially sticky, viscous, and obstinate Abomination. 

Attempting to massage her right shoulder with her left hand, while at the same time rolling her shoulders, Willow let out a low hiss. The tension in her shoulders had built up from all the rapid, thorough cleaning that she had had to do, and she was now trying to release it in whatever way she could manage. 

No matter how much she had attempted to mop it up, the Abomination goo hadn’t lifted easily. It had required multiple attempts of high-intensity pressure to get the sticky substance to lift off of the walls and the floor. Like trying to coax a carnivorous man-eater plant to let go of it’s prey. Combined with the time limit that had been placed on them, Willow and everyone else had had to go as quickly as she physically could to even come close to cleaning up in time for the next lesson. 

“And we’re... Completely sure that wasn’t one of your professor's sadistic punishments, right?” Gus asked. He sounded particularly tired, out of the four of them. Which made sense, given his age compared to the rest of them.

 “Trust me, he could have done… So much worse than that.” Amity answered, letting out a sigh of exhaustion as she did so. “What in the world was that Abomination made of? It shouldn’t have been anywhere near that difficult to clean up…”

Luz groaned. “My arms are killing me…”

Glancing over her shoulder to look back at her friends, Willow saw that they were all doing something similar to her, trying to relieve their aches in various ways.

They had managed to wrap up the cleaning effort in time for the end of lunch and for the next lesson, just as the Abomination professor had instructed - With just a few minutes to spare, though. It had taken most of their time to just get rid of the first layer of goo, before they had to deal with the layer that was actually sticking to the surfaces. 

But still, after about forty-five solid minutes, they had managed it. 

“At least it’s over.” Willow offered, trying to raise their spirits a little. “We were let off lightly, all things considered.” 

“Yeah,” Gus replied, letting his tired arms flop at either side of him, “But I don’t know if I’m even gonna be able to lift my arm for my Illusion Classes!” 

“Sorry, shoulders.” Luz muttered, apparently to her limbs directly. 

All of their afternoon classes were in the same direction up until a crossroad in the hallways, at which point they would have to split off from one another to go to their respective classrooms. Gus and Luz had Illusion classes, Amity had a class on the heximal system, and Willow - 

Willow blinked. Then she blinked again. Then she realized what she’d forgotten to do. 

Blood meal.

“Oh… Shoot!” She suddenly came to a fast stop, turned on her heels, and did everything but run past her friends, headed in the complete opposite direction where they were headed. “You all go on without me - I forgot something important!” She called as she turned a corner, leaving her confused friends out of her line of sight. 

The Plant Track room had run out of Blood Meal in the previous day’s advanced lessons - They had been looking after a Wolfen-Tree; a particularly violent and difficult-to-deal with specimen that required far, far more blood meal than a lot of the other plants in the Track’s possession. And, alongside sending at least one student to the Healers Office, the plant had taken up practically all of the classroom's blood meal supply. The Plant Track Professor had asked Willow to bring some from the supply closet for the afternoon classes. 

But with everything that happened with the Abomination and the cleanup, it had totally slipped Willows mind! And now, she was going to have to move as fast as she was physically capable of moving without running - unless she wanted to get in even more trouble, or even thrown in detention, now that that was back up and running - if she wanted to get to her classes on time.

It took her a couple of minutes to reach the supply locker that kept spare material for all the various Tracks at Hexside. Abomination materials for the Abomination Track, crystal balls for the Oracle Track, and blood meal for the Plant Track. 

She opened it up, and luckily for her, the Plant Track’s section was the first one that was available, and a few bags of blood meal were left next to one of the drawers. A small sigh escaped Willow; if she was quick about it, she might still be able to avoid running late. 

Stacking up a few bags into a holding crate and, after rubbing her shoulders once final time to try and work out the aches, she picked it up, and began to make her way towards the Plant Track classroom. 

Honestly, it was a little weird to her to be the one that was asked to retrieve classroom supplies - That was usually something teachers only asked good, competent, and trustworthy students to do. Willow wasn’t used to being considered… Any of those. She’d only been on the Plant Track for about two months now. Easily, she was more comfortable there than she had been in the Abomination Track, but it was just weird to know that her new teachers trusted her enough with this sort of thing. 

As she made her way through the corridors, she realized that they were mostly empty now, since everyone had rushed to class. Still though, there were a few people still making their way there. One of them was a classmate from one of the mixed-track Magical theory classes, who walked past Willow, and gave her a short, friendly wave. “Hey.” 

“Hey.” Willow couldn't wave, so she offered him a short nod. He smiled lightly, and nodded back. The two of them walked past one another without further incident. 

That was another thing that she had noticed; things like that seemed to keep happening now. It seemed to become more and more frequent after she had been able to make up with Amity - Or, at least as made up as they were going to get right now, anyway. Things had gotten better than, since she’d gotten more comfortable and confident in herself. That hadn’t been the end of it though - The real turning point though had been a month ago, during the Emperor’s attempted petrification of Eda. 

People around Hexside, even those who barely even knew her, seem to acknowledge and recognize her now, and treat her with a degree of respect. That was… New, too. And it was weird, but it had done wonders for her self-esteem. Which seemed to translate to getting better and better grades in Plant Track classes. A happy cycle, that just seemed to keep feeding into itself.

Maybe that was why her teachers trusted her with this. A small smile came onto her lips as she walked through the empty corridors and down a series of steps. That was a nice thought. Willow thought that - 

Sniff.

Pausing on the steps for a moment, and feeling her ears twitch, Willow stopped and glanced around for a moment. The codiroors were empty, but she could have sworn that she heard - 

Sniff. Sniff. 

Her ears twitched again. That time, she definitely heard something. 

Trusting her hearing, she peeked her head over the railing, looking down to see someone curled up, knees pulled into their chest, but just enough of them peeking out that Willow could see what Track they were in. Bard, apparently, if the red was anything to go by. Now that she was properly listening, Willow could hear soft sobbing escaping from them.  

Someone down there was crying. 

Without really thinking about it, Willow decided to investigate; someone might be hurt, and need help or something!

Making her way down the rest of the steps, Willow walked towards the crying person, and poked her head around the corner to see that the crying person had buried their head in their knees. They were tucked into a corner, half obscured in shadows. They very clearly hadn’t wanted to be seen, but hadn’t accounted for anyone hearing them, apparently. Willow was barely able to make out a few details.

But even then, it didn’t take Willow even a second to realize who it was.

The red uniform that identified the person as a part of the Bard Track was only one of the identifiers - Darker skin, and a signature haircut of white and gray hair with the sides buzzed; that -

That was Skara. 

For just a moment, Willow just outright stared at the scene before her - Skara was sobbing into her hands and knees, and was too busy doing that to see the Plant Witch. There was something ...Surreal about it, and it was only when Willow realised what she was doing that she hid around the corner again. 

What in the world was she doing here, and why was she crying?

She wasn’t even anywhere near the Bard Track classroom - That was practically on the other side of the school, and Willow was fairly confident that they had classes like every other Track did at this time. And Skara was usually in her lessons on time no matter what.

Evidentially, something had happened; she wouldn’t be crying otherwise, or hiding away like this. Willow was about to say something.

Then she stopped herself. 

Skara was a part of Boscha’s group of friends. Even if Boscha’s teasing had died down from the outright physical, the taunting had not stopped. The repeated teasing of ‘half-a-witch’ and the taunting reminders of her past inability to do magic had continued.  They were pretty much the only things that hadn’t changed in the last couple of months. The one thing left that reminded her of the miserable time that she had had at this school.

Even though Boscha was the one who did most of it, Skara and the rest of the girls in her group just stood by and let it happen. Even Amity had less taken part, and more often than not, just watched it happen. The difference though, was that Amity had apologised, and stopped entirely. Amity had left Boscha’s gang. 

Skara hadn’t. 

Years - Literal years of putting up with all of their taunting, all their harassing, bullying, making her life miserable - 

Why should Willow care if Skara was hiding and upset? 

For once, things were going right for her - They were going so well for Willow. She had friends, and had managed to at least fix things a little with Amity. She was doing well in school and didn’t feel like a complete failure anymore. She was happier. So much happier .  And what had Skara done for her, other than just… Be an obstacle in the way of that?

Willow glanced back down the corridor. The Plant Track classroom was around the corner. She still had the blood meal to deliver. 

She could just turn around right now. Carry on with her day as normal. Pretend that she didn’t see anything.

That’s what Skara would  probably do after all.

Besides, if she stopped now, she’d end up being late. Her teachers had finally shown some trust and faith in her. She didn’t want to let them down now. 

Not for Skara , anyway. 

Turning away, and closing her eyes, Willow pulled away from the corner. She stood still though. Tried to work herself up into taking the first step and walking away.  

A particularly loud sob made her flinch slightly. Willow sighed.  

She couldn’t just leave her there, could she? 

Her conscience wouldn’t let her. 

Another sigh escaped her, and she knelt down to place the crate of blood meal on the ground. She would… She had to at least try to see what was wrong. 

Stepping back around the corner, she walked until she was just in front of Skara. For a brief moment, Willow didn’t have the first clue what to say. What was she supposed to do, just… Act casual? Like there wasn’t any history between the two of them? What was she supposed to… 

“... Skara?” She eventually asked. She didn’t know how else to open this up. 

Skara jumped slightly when she realized someone was there, and quickly tried - and failed miserably - to wipe her face clear of any sign of sadness before she looked up. 

When she saw that it was Willow, there wasn’t any hiding the surprise and confusion on her face. She just blinked, and for a short while, it looked as though Willow's mere presence had surprised Skara out of crying. She just sort of stared at the Plant Witch.

Of all the people she had expected to see, Willow clearly, and fairly obviously,  hadn’t been one of them. But that was fair enough - Willow hadn’t expected to be one of them either. 

An awkward silence hung over them, Willow searching for what to say, eventually clearing her throat. “Um...” She started, “...Are you... okay?” 

A single second passed, before one, lone, watery chuckle came from Skara, and she buried her head in her knees again. 

Willow grimanced slightly, “Yeah, that was a dumb question, I guess.”

“Go away.”  Skara muffled into her knees. “Leave me alone.” 

“...You know that classes are going to start soon, right? If... If you’re upset, you should at least go to the Healers Office. You won’t get marked as skipping class if you - “

“I said go away.” Skara repeated, this time trying to be a bit firmer. Her voice croaked halfway through saying it though, so it didn’t sound even the least bit intimidating. 

For a moment, Willow considered doing as she asked. She was… Probably one of the last people that Skara would ever explain… Any of this to, really. It wasn’t like she could force Skara to say anything to her either. 

But still...

“...I could tell someone that you’re here.” She said, although to be honest, she was just trying whatever came into her head at this point.. “I’m in the Plant class next. It’s just around the corner. I could tell the professor there that you’re here. That… That you’re skipping classes.” 

Again, Skara looked up at Willow. This time, she didn’t bother to try to wipe the tears away from her face. Her expression was… An odd one. A mixture of confusion, sadness, apprehension, and incredulity, but also… It wasn’t quite fear, but it did show something on that spectrum. “...Are you going to?”

“...No.” 

They both stared at each other for a moment. 

“...I guess that’s not a very good threat, is it?” 

“No, no.” Skara said, her eyes now visibly red from tears and rubbing with her hand,  She wiped her face with the back of her hand. “Just… Unexpected.” 

She looked down again, giving a low sigh. There was another brief pause.

“....If I tell you will you go away?” She asked. Her voice was heavy. Apparently, she had accepted that Willow wouldn’t leave her alone until she knew what was wrong, and Skara… Didn’t have the energy to yell at her to go away. 

Willow nodded. She sat down against the wall, taking up a space that was next to Skara. For a short while, they just sat there, not saying a word, while Skara tried to keep herself from sobbing again, and compose herself. 

Just sitting there, Willow didn’t say a word. She didn’t push Skara at all. She just waited until she was ready. 

It took maybe a minute before Skara found her voice. 

 “...Ves broke up with me.” The words barely carried across the short distance between them. 

Ves - Willow recognized the name. He was in the Beast Keeping Coven - The guy that Skara had gone to Grom with. 

School gossip wasn’t something that Willow kept a particularly close eye on, and she wasn’t exactly friends with Ves either. All that she knew about that particular situation was that apparently Skara and him had been tip-toeing around each other for quite a while now, and Grom was the first actual thing that they had done together. 

So it hadn’t even lasted a month ?

“...Oh.” Willow chewed her lip, trying to figure out what to say. This was just… Drama. She hadn’t known what she had been expecting when she asked Skara what was wrong, but it hadn’t been... This. Normally, Willow did everything she could to try and avoid this kind of drama. 

She couldn’t even understand how Skara must have felt - She had never had to deal with a break-up before. Maybe the closest thing that she had to compare it to was her friendship with Amity, but that was a completely different thing.  

This was… Something personal. This was something that Willow didn’t know even the first thing about. She didn’t know what had happened between Ves and Skara. She barely even knew a thing about either of them. 

What the heck was she even supposed to say here? 

Skara groaned, putting her face in her hands. “And he didn’t even tell me why.” She started to talk more. “He just... Just came up to me, said that we were done, and walked off.” 

That made Willow blink; even she had gotten more than that when Amity had been forced to end their friendship.

“He didn’t give you a reason at all?” She asked, her eyes narrowing. Skara just nodded. “He literally just walked up, said that, and left?” 

“Who - Who does that? I - I didn’t even - At least  - Couldn’t he at least have told me why?” If she had been trying to hold back, Skara finally failed here. Words came flooding out so quickly that she began to trip on them. “Instead he just - He just walks off, and - And what am I supposed to think? I thought we - We went to Grom together! I thought he liked me. And I’m just - I’m getting all worked up over all of this and - ” 

She stopped for just a moment. 

“...I don’t even know what I did wrong…” 

There was a few seconds of silence as Willow tried to figure out something to say. 

Nothing came to her mind. 

For a short while, neither of them moved. Skara’s tears seemed to dry up after a short while, like she had run out of them entirely. 

Upon noticing that, Willow reached into her shoulder bag, and pulled out a bottle of water out of her bag, and held it out to Skara. “Here. You… Probably need this more than I do. I can get it refilled in class anyway.” 

Looking at it, and then at Willow, Skara seemed to hesitate slightly, before she reached out and took it without a word. She had been incredibly thirsty, apparently, because she downed the thing in just a few seconds, and let out an exhale as she finished. 

A brief smile of gratitude appeared on Skara’s lips. 

But then it curled down again, and tears began to fall once more. Her head fell into her right hand, which gripped her forehead. “I… I - I didn’t even know what to say to him. He just walked off and I didn’t - couldn’t even try to say anything. I just…” A sob escaped her. “...I really tried, y’know? I tried with him but… But I don’t even know what went wrong and... And now I’m…” 

More open sobbing followed. 

And now she was here, crying underneath a staircase, completely on her own. 

Except for someone who she had helped to torment, who had stopped to ask her if she was okay.

It reminded Willow… Far too much of a lot of the times she had ended up alone throughout the years here. 

...What could she even say in this situation? Skara was obviously blaming herself for... Everything. But she didn’t even know what happened. And that was a spiral that Willow knew well.

Willow… Wished she knew something to say. Something to make this all just… Stop. Something that could be comforting and insightful, and would let Skara just wrap this all up in a nice neat bow and move on with her life.

That wasn’t how this worked though. That at least, Willow understood perfectly well. 

She took her time, trying to gather her thoughts on what to say. 

“...I think...” Willow started, hesitantly, trying to pick her words carefully, “...That it might not be your fault.” She ran her finger on the ground, drawing small circles on the tile floor to distract her. “I mean, if he didn’t give you any explanation then, I think that he just…” Her words died off as she tried to think of something else to say. 

Once again, nothing came of it. 

The only thing that she could think of was how strange it was to be trying to reassure someone who previously had only tried to put her down. It was… It was hard to describe. 

Even if Skara  was one of her close friends, Willow had no experience with something like this. So she was trying to reassure someone she had only ever had bad experiences with, about something she knew next to nothing about, about a situation she had never been in herself. 

There was something slightly surreal about that. 

“It’s his loss.” 

Looking up again, Skara turned to Willow with a look of confusion. . 

“That’s what I'm supposed to say right?” Willow gave a small shrug and an attempt at a smile, her lips barely, awkwardly quirking upwards.

Somehow, it made Skara let out a rough chuckle. 

At least that was something. 

“...Yeah.” The Bard Witch nodded. She didn’t sound too convinced, but...

The awkward mood descended again, and Skara took another hesitant sip of her water. 

Willow shifted in place. Were she being honest, she didn’t know what more good she could be to Skara right now. Skara needed… Someone who actually had a clue about what it was they were talking about, and that wasn’t her by any stretch of the imagination. 

She had done the best that she could. 

“...Why did you stop?” 

When Willow turned back to skara, there was an inquisitive look on her face that Willow couldn’t fully describe - Confusion, uncertainty, a… There weren’t really enough words to properly describe the look Skara gave her as she asked, but it was a lot more tentative and careful than the Plant Witch had seen her before. 

Her fingers drummed against her knees.“You didn’t have to, I mean, Titan knows that I have given you enough reasons to just leave me here to cry it out alone.” 

It was a good question, honestly. Willow wished she had an answer that made sense to her, too. 

“...You know,” She started, her words hesitant, “I know what it’s like to be alone. And what it’s like to not know why people are treating you poorly.” 

Skara looked away. 

Willow continued, “When Amity left, I spent a… A really long time blaming myself. I had no idea what happened.” Willow sighed. “I… I kept wondering, if I had done this or that differently, if I said this here, or said that there, then maybe… Maybe we would have still been friends. Or at least, maybe she wouldn’t talk to me like I’m… Just some nobody.”

That had been what hurt the most. 

But a slight smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “But it was never my fault. And because of my friends, Amity and I talked and…” She stopped herself, before she said anything about the exact manner in which this had all transpired, since it had been, well - Illegal. “...Well, I know what it was now. And…”

Standing onto her feet, she offered Skara a hand. Skara looked at it, and then up at Willow. 

“...I know what it’s like to want to curl up and cry, too...”

Briefly, Skara looked up at the hand again, and then back to Willow. A part of her… Still didn’t get it. 

Neither did Willow. 

“...And I couldn’t leave you like that.” Willow finally admitted. “Not when I know what it’s like. I… I tried but I couldn’t. Because no one deserves to feel like that for something they didn’t do.”

At that point, Willow stopped waiting - She reached for Skara’s hand, and pulled her up herself. Skara wobbled as soon as she was on her feet, but once she was up, she was up. She seemed surprised but… Not actually upset. 

“..I don’t think you’re the person to blame here. I know I don’t know about your situation or anything but… I don’t think that you did anything wrong. Not with Ves, at least.”“Just,” Willow gave her a small, awkward smile, “Remember that.” All Skara could do was stand there. This was… 

...To just say it was unexpected would be a disservice, but that was what it was. There wasn’t really much else that she could think. It was one of those times where even someone with the widest vocabulary in the would would find themselves using the simplest language imaginable.

It was just… Unexpected. 

“I ah, class is on the other side of…”Willow  trailed off awkwardly, pointing behind her - She had done as much as she could, and didn’t know what else to say. And if she could avoid getting any more in trouble with her Plant class than she was, then that would be preferable.  “Are… Are you going to be okay?” 

For a moment, Skara thought really, really hard about the answer. 

“...I’m okay.” She finally said, a small, sad smile on the corner of her lips. “I mean, no, I’m not okay…” She continued, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. Even after crying as much as she had, eyeliner still smeared it. “...But I… I have a feeling I will be.” 

QuirkQuartz - 'Ello! I'm QuirkQuartz - I wrote Valeween Night To Remember, and It Must Be (A) Love (Potion), and am generally that one guy who does way too many projects for their own good! Me and Julia have been planning this project for a month in secret and we're happy to FINALLY have the first chapter up! Julia is an amazing writer and I'm honoured to be working with her! We hope you enjoy this because Hoooo boy we're going to enjoy writing it :D 

JuliaCorvid - Hello all!! this is Julia, Author of Replace My Name (Maybe With Yours), and I am super exited to work with QuirkQuartz on this wonderful story that we have. I hope you are ready for a great one, because we have lots in story for you all. Thank you all for reading, and hope you enjoy!

Credit to our friend Majestic_Arts for the artwork - They're absolutely amazing and adorable and we both adore it to the ends of the earth : D

Chapter Text

...I’m okay. I mean, no, I’m not okay… But I… I have a feeling I will be.

Thinking that had been a lot easier earlier, somehow, when the wounds were still as fresh and raw as they could possibly be. Now though, after they had had the time to ferment, along with the thoughts and memories that made Skara want to just yell at something. Or someone. Or just….

Do something to let it all out.

Skara collapsed onto her bed, letting her body flop onto the mattress.  Her entire body felt like it had been replaced with lead, and she didn’t even have the motivation or energy to just stand up, or even to lay down in a remotely dignified manner - She really did just collapse onto the mattress, and let her arms and legs flop wherever they fell. Everything just felt heavy. 

Getting up into her room without either of her parents noticing how upset she was had been… Stressful, to say the least. She had put on a brave face, and pretended to act like everything was normal when she ran into them, hating every single second of it, before slipping away under the guise of having a proverbial mountain of homework to do, locking the door behind her the second she was on the other side. 

It wasn’t that they wouldn’t care - It was the opposite. They would care. A lot . And that was… Nice of them, Skara supposed. It was nice to be cared about, of course it was. But she just didn’t… Want to deal with that right now. With the questions, having to explain what happened all over again, or the… Any of it. 

After the day that she had just had, she couldn’t find the energy to care about… Anything , really. 

Instead, she just laid there, feeling time pass her by. 

Her muscles relaxed and de-tensed until it felt like they no longer existed. Skin felt tighter against her face, but also like it was drooping at the same time. There was a feeling in her stomach that she could only describe as a vortex . Her eyelids were sore, felt like they were attached to weights, and as much as she would have loved to escape all of this by falling asleep, her eyes themselves stung to the point of actual pain when her eyelids shut, even if just to blink. That was from all the tears. And more still threatened to fall again if she thought about this too much. 

There wasn’t anything else on her mind, though. 

A sigh escaped her, and her head shifted slightly. There was a poster hanging from her ceiling - The Hexgirls. Limited edition, signed, and everything. Honestly, it was something of a prized possession of hers, reminding her of the concert that she had been to. The one that sparked her love of music and grand performance. She stared blankly at it. 

On any other normal day, the sight of it would give her a boost of inspiration and motivation to practice her Bard Magic. To pick up an instrument, to figure out what she was weakest at, and what she needed to practice with more. Figure out what spells worked, and which didn’t. To just… Do something . To be productive in some way. To perfect her music and her Magic. To be a better Bard. 

Not today, though. Today wasn’t a normal day. 

Titan, nothing could be further from the truth. 

Today had been nothing short of absolute garbage. 

And even that was an understatement. Skara slung her left arm over her eyes, letting out a frustrated groan. The events of the day flashed before her again, and she tried to make sense of it all. What… Happened? How did any of this even happen? 

Everything seemed to be going… Fine before today, she had thought. There wasn’t even anything in particular that came to mind that she could pinpoint as a moment when things began to fall apart. One minute, everything had been… Fine. And the next, it just... Wasn’t anymore. 

Ves and her had tip-toed around one another for how long? Months? And throughout all of that, nothing had come up like this. They had been to Grom together, and had dated for just a month - And during all of that time, nothing Skara could think of had come up. She didn’t act any differently, didn’t talk to him in a different way to how she usually did, just…. 

He had even gone through the whole effort to do an elaborate Grom-posal, and she’d tried to do everything right by him - Didn’t that mean... Something ? 

Apparently not. And even if it had... What difference did it make now? The end result was still… This. Her in a mess, not knowing what had changed in such a short span of time. 

She felt ….Drained. Like she had already cried out most of her tears earlier today, and didn’t have any more tears left. She dragged her arm across her eyes, and as she did so, she felt a bit of moisture come along with it. 

‘Wrong again, Skara.’ She thought to herself. She really was starting to get sick of being wrong today. 

Feeling the moisture against her arm made her pay attention to her eyes again - They were starting to well up again, just like she knew they would if she thought about all of this again. And just knowing that it was having that effect seemed to accelerate it; now that she had noticed it, her vision became watery, and she felt the tears start to spill over more and more. Her lips quivered, and she wiped her eyes with her fingers and thumb, which met and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her teeth gritted against one another as she tried to force the tears back in. 

‘Come on, pull yourself together.’ Her head told her, like it always did whenever she found herself frustrated with her music, or with her schoolwork, or her Magic. ‘ You’re stronger than this. You… You’re supposed to be stronger than this.’ 

The same voice that chastised her for not being able to perfect her crafts was not the same voice that made her feel particularly strong when she was feeling like this. If anything, it just made her feel worse, for not being able to meet the standards her mind was telling her she had to. She was supposed to be stronger than this. She wasn’t, but she was supposed to be. 

...But she was.

That was what Boscha and her parents were always telling her, that she was supposed to pull herself together, to ace any challenge that came in front of her. 

It wasn’t like this was the first time she had been sad before. 

Was she really just going to let some boy affect her like this?...  

…Evidently, yes. She was. 

It didn’t matter how much she tried - She wasn’t going to psyche herself into not feeling like garbage about this. This wasn’t like just having a bad day and trying to mentally kick-start herself into feeling better about it. She couldn’t just… Talk herself into being happy again, or motivate herself into distracting productivity, or even just not feeling like trash. That just… 

...Wasn’t how this was going to work.

Turning over onto her side, Skara felt herself sigh automatically, and let out another groan of frustration. In spite of the stinging it caused, her eyes closed as she rolled over. She… Really, really… 

….Really hated this. 

A few seconds passed, and for a couple of them, Skara thought that maybe the stinging in her eyes had passed. As soon as she was settled into her new position though, it sparked back up again, and made her open them up again. 

Willow. 

Sitting on her end table, the first thing Skara saw once her eyes re-opened, was the bottle of water that Willow had given her earlier that day. It stood there, right in the centre of the table, empty, and slightly condensed on the inside. There was a single flower pattern on the side of it, as well as a few vine images towards the bottom of the plastic. A part of Skara wondered if Willow had had it custom-made. 

It just sat there. And it was the only thing in the dark room that Skara’s eyes focused on. 

When Willow had left to finally go to her classes, she had left the bottle with Skara, apparently forgetting that she had lent it to the Bard Track Witch in the first place. After that conversation, Skara normally would have called out, or said something to tell Willow she had left it behind, but the truth was that she was still upset and in something of a daze, and didn’t even realize herself until a few minutes later that it was still next to the wall they had been leaning against. So, Skara had been left with it for the rest of the day. 

She could have just left it there, but… There wasn’t any telling what could happen to it there. Who might come and steal it. Or if Willow had even noticed that it had gone missing. So, Skara took it. And tomorrow, she’d return it. 

That… That was the least that she owed her, right?  

I know what it’s like to want to curl up and cry too.

Skara’s eyes managed to squeeze shut, the stinging be damned. 

That was the other part of this entire mess of a day that had accumulated into… This state she found herself in. Willow, what she had done, and what she had said. 

Of everyone that could have seen her, and actually cared enough to stop and ask her if she was okay, Skara hadn’t expected… Well, she hadn’t actually expected anyone to find her, or had wanted anyone to find her. She just wanted to be left alone, somewhere no one would be able to see her. She didn’t expect anyone to find her, and even if they did, she didn’t expect anyone to care enough to ask why she was upset. 

Willow had stopped though. Asked what was wrong. And even though Skara had tried to get her to go away, she just… Wouldn’t. She seriously tried to figure out what was wrong… But she didn’t push, either. Didn’t try to pry information out of her. Just… Let her speak. Let her vent. And then tried to cheer her up. To empathise. To...

….A part of Skara wanted to be mad at Willow. To be bitter. That would be easier . 

What did she know? She was half-a-Witch Willow. She didn’t know. She didn’t...  

. Half-A-Witch Willow; the person who until just a couple of months ago, had been at the absolute bottom of Hexsides social hierarchy. Half-A-Witch Willow; who couldn’t even do Magic properly. Half-A-Witch Willow; who had been subject to Titan knew how much crap from pretty much everyone around her, including Botha and Skara herself. 

Half-A-Witch Willow; the one person who would have had every excuse in the world to ignore her. The one person who she didn’t expect literally anything from. 

And the one person who tried to help. 

Boscha had hardly cared. And they were friends. And that was just….

...That was just how friendship worked. 

It would be easier to be angry at Willow, but...

...A small voice in the back of her head told Skara that if anyone was going to know, it was Willow. Any attempt she made to be mad at the Plant Witch failed within just a few seconds. She just… Couldn’t.  

And Titan forbid that Boscha ever hear that, either.

After Amity had left Boscha only grew bitter, the snide remarks on Willow and the rest of her friends only increasing as time went by. The fallout from the little Grudgby match that they had against Willow had only made it worse. Boscha’s pride had certainly taken a hit, and that was… Having an impact, to put it lightly. 

Not to mention Willow’s speech during the Owl Lady’s near petrification... 

It seemed everyone was talking about Willow now, a fact that infuriated Boscha to no end. Bo and Amelia had given up trying to placate her, all of them just waiting out Boscha’s tirades. 

There was probably going to be one about this whole situation with Ves too, Skara realised. Another low, deep, guttural groan escaped her.

That, or Boscha would gloss over this in favour of whatever gossip was big that day. 

Hopefully the second one. 

Once more, she turned over, hoping that somehow, it would help her escape into sleep. 

It didn’t, though.

The screaming of the bell was far too loud for Skara as she dragged herself through the hall. It felt like someone was shoving needles straight through her ear-drum, and she had to actually cover her ears as best she could to try and block the noise out even just a little bit.

Normally, she hated that bell even on a good day. Her hearing was sensitive as it was - She was in the Bard Track, after all. If you wanted to get anywhere in the Bard Track, you had to have good, well-tuned hearing, to be able to hear the small differences in cords of instruments. A natural downside of that though was that loud, sharp, screaming like the Hexside bell always got to her worse than it seemed to for other people. 

Today though, honestly, she was debating if just being hit in the face with a brick would be less painful. 

Everything seemed heavier today; from the slow trudging of her feet, to the way her eyelids seemed to resist her efforts to keep them open, to her bag, almost pulling her body to one side; and it all seemed to be due to the empty bottle of water that was weighing down her bag. 

It could also have been the precisely two hours and thirty nine minutes of sleep that she had gotten the night before, spent instead tossing and turning, laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling, trying to, in vain, make some sense of the events of the day. 

But it was probably Willow’s water bottle. 

She had just finished storing her books inside of her locker when the teeth of the locker next to her slammed shut, making the upset, exhausted, and barely awake Bard twitch in surprise with the loud, sudden noise. 

“What’s got you so jumpy?” Boscha’s voice came from next to her. Skara turned to see the Witch leaning back against the adjoining locker. She was still wearing her Grudgby captain jacket, despite the season having ended a few days earlier, and going through what set of claws she was interested in wearing today. Right now, she was on flames. 

“N - Nothing. Nothing, just... Not a lot of sleep. I was up studying for the Bard test later this week.” Skara lied, and tried to pull together her composure. Right now she really… Didn’t want to deal with whatever fallout would come from if she told Boscha the actual reason she was like this. She didn’t have the energy to deal with that.

Boscha narrowed her three eyes at her and for a moment, Skara felt a small part of the back of her brain freeze up, wondering if Boscha had seen through her small lie. Or already knew. 

The look lasted for just a few seconds though. And then, Boscha gave a small grunt before shrugging. 

“Well, at least you're over that Fez guy.” Boscha checked her nails again, only half in the conversation as she snapped her fingers, a spell circle appearing and changing her nails into longer talons. “Hmm, better.” 

A sigh escaped Skara - A combination of relief that Boscha hadn’t noticed, slight exasperation that Boscha hadn’t even bothered to learn Ves’ name had not, in fact, been ‘Fez’, and in depression at being reminded of that entire situation. Especially in such a… Flippant manner. 

Boscha had been there when Ves had broken up with her. She had pretty much watched that entire exchange go down. And that had been it, really. Just watched it go down. And she did express her sympathies after it was done, but left her on her own the moment that they had to start heading for their classes. And now, it was like in Boscha’s head, everything was over now. Like it had already resolved itself.

Still, it was about as much as one could expect from Boscha, Skara supposed. It didn’t mean she liked the Potions Witch being so… Dismissive about it though, even if it was preferable to a tirade. She wished there was some sort of middle ground that she could expect. 

This was about as good as it got though. 

“...Yeah.” She muttered, quietly. Of course she wasn’t over it though. That wasn’t how it worked. 

But it wasn’t worth starting an argument over. 

Leaning back against the lockers herself, Skara let out another exhale, and let her eyes close. She let herself just stay there for a short while, and just be… Still. It felt like the first moment of stillness that she had gotten since yesterday. She really was exhausted, physically and emotionally, and today hadn’t even begun yet. They hadn’t even had their first lesson of the day yet. She had an entire day of feeling like this to look forward to.  

The bag over her shoulders suddenly felt a lot heavier.

“Skara?” 

Opening her eyes again, Skara blinked when she saw that Bo and Amelia had arrived at some point, and Skara hadn’t even heard them approach - And for a second, Skara wondered if she had actually just fallen asleep while standing for a short while. It took her brain a few seconds to properly register that her friends were in front of her, and that she should probably actually say something to them. 

“O - Oh.” A lethargic Skara eventually answered. “H… Hey.”       

“Are you alright?” Amelia asked. There was a degree of worry to her voice. 

“Yeah, I’m - I’m sorry, I’m just tired.” Skara answered, rubbing her eyes with one of her hands. “Just -” 

“She means about what happened with Ves.” Bo said. 

That made Skara blink awake. “How did…”

“Everyone is talking about how he dumped you.” Boscha spoke up, before turning back to her nails. “I’m surprised you hadn’t noticed.” 

Blinking just once, Skara felt her stomach drop. Really, she hadn’t been paying even remote attention to her surroundings at all ever since she’d gotten here, being more focused on trying to be actually awake. She took another look at Bo and Amelia, like she was silently asking them if that was true, but the look on their faces alone confirmed it. 

By chance, she saw someone just behind Amelia, who looked like they were looking over. Like they knew about what happened. As soon as they realized that she could see them, they looked away, trying to look like they hadn’t been looking in the first place. They did know. 

How many people had been watching her since she had entered the building? 

Skara’s gut felt like it froze over. She knew that the rumour-mill always moved really fast - she’d watched it happen probably hundreds of times at this point, saw how brutal it could get - but that everyone had already heard by now… 

As if she didn’t feel like garbage enough as it were. 

The sound of laughter made her eyes dart over, to the other end of the hallway. In her current state, her mind instantly assumed that it was laughter directed towards her, and instinctually snapped towards it - 

Willow was standing by her locker, and her group of friends was surrounding her. She was saying something, though what it was, Skara couldn’t hear from this distance. She could see Willow though, miming something as the rest of the group broke into another round of giggles. 

...Oh . 

So that was how it had started so quickly. 

It… Wasn’t a surprise, honestly. It shouldn’t have been, anyway - Skara wasn’t sure why it was. Of course Willow would take the opportunity to gloat over the fact that she had found her crying. That made sense. 

That was how this worked. It shouldn’t have been a surprise.

Now it was going to be all over the school within a week, if not a day or two, and she would have to deal with the fallout and everything that brought with it. Anxiety wriggled throughout her whole body. It felt like worms were in her gut. 

“Ugh.” Boscha’s face twisted into an irritated glare. She was watching the scene play out in front of them just like Skara was, clearly more invested in that than whatever conversation was happening beside her. “Why anyone pays attention to her of all people is beyond me.” Boscha then summoned her scroll, flicking through it and, if Skara had to guess, started typing a quick status update for Penstagram. Probably admonishing Willow in it - Indirectly vague-posting, of course. For plausible deniability. 

Another round of laughter came from Willow’s friends - Now the Plant Witches face was red, either from laughing too much or from embarrassment of some kind. It was impossible to tell which. 

“...Hey, um…” Skara started to ask, extremely tepidly, towards Bo and Amelia, “What… Did you hear, exactly? About me and Ves?” She… Needed at least a rough idea of how bad things had gotten. 

Amelia and Bo glanced at one another, before Bo answered. “The rumours haven’t gotten that bad yet. We just heard that he broke up with you and that you didn’t show up to Bard classes.” 

Again, Skara blinked. That was it? 

“You were too good for him anyway.” Boscha suddenly said, though still with a distanced tone.

 A forced chuckle escaped Skara, and the fake laughter grated against her ears, but there was a slight bit of legitimate relief in it too. She had… Expected much worse right out of the gate. But maybe that was just because Amelia and Bo hadn’t heard the full rumour. Maybe it hadn’t fully circulated yet. 

Or maybe Willow was just screwing with her.  

“Why, what happened?” Amelia asked, the worry sounding up again. “Is it worse than that?” 

“No, it…” Skara sighed. The anxiety and tired irritation built up inside her again. “...I don’t want to talk about it right now. Just drop it, okay?” 

Tearing her eyes away and walking away from the group, another sigh escaped her as she prepared to go through the day and face whatever humiliation that would come from Willow finding her during a moment of weakness. 

Nothing happened. 

Nothing major, anyway - There were a few people who she could tell were looking at her, but nearly all of them gave her a wide berth, and didn’t look in the least bit amused. Granted, pity wasn’t much better, but it was better than just being mocked. Heck, even the number of people who were just glancing at her were far fewer than she had expected. 

Her first class went by nearly completely without incident, the only thing of note being her teacher asking her if she was alright when he realised that his student hadn’t written a single thing in her notebook, and reminded her to pay attention. That was the closest thing to anyone even acknowledging the situation between her and Ves.

A couple of people did seem to notice in her Bard class later on in the day. She caught sight of a couple of people who were looking at her while she exhaustedly attempted to play notes with her harp, but that was it. If Skara were less paranoid, she might have even put their looks down to the fact that her drowsiness was making her miss notes she normally wouldn’t even slightly struggle with. 

Notably, the Human - Luz. Willow’s friend - Didn’t even seem to pay her any attention at all. She barely seemed to acknowledge Skara’s existence whatsoever. She even walked past her and didn’t even glance. Just passed her by to pick up her Bard instruments, and began to practice. Just like normal. 

As the day progressed, Skara only got more and more anxious and frustrated; she heard nothing at all about her. The longer it went on, the more convinced she got that something would happen. That before lunch, or at lunch, something would happen that made this explode. 

But at lunch, nothing happened either. People just went about their days as normal. Like the rumour didn’t exist at all. 

The rumour definitely did exist though  But no one was saying anything to her now. No pity, or laughter, and barely even a small glance. 

Nothing. 

Where were the knowing glances? The giggles barely hidden behind hands coupled with knowing pointing? Where were the people asking stupid, sarcastic questions? 

She almost wished that it would happen - Just to be over and done with it.

The further the day got with no sign of anything wrong, the more anxious Skara grew. It didn’t make sense; the rumour was definitely out there - That was how Bo and Amelia had heard in the first place - but it was like no one was acting on it, like it was barely even a blip on the radar. After what had happened between her and Willow though, what Willow had seen, it should have been more than that, and the fact that it wasn’t - It didn’t make sense. 

Eventually, she broke off from Boscha after lunch had finished, and took off toward her next class early, determined to get through the day so that she could return home and curl up again. Maybe she could actually get some sleep; sooth the headache that was raging behind her eyes. She was only half lying to Boscha earlier; she did have a test to prepare for soon, and before she could even think about that, she still had to actually process yesterday in her head. The last thing she wanted to add onto that list was a splitting headache and a paranoia streak. 

Not that she could do much about the latter, though.

Every time there was laughter near her, she jumped, half whirling around to see if the person was staring at her, as if this were the moment it all came to hit her in the face. Each time though,  the culprit wasn’t even looking her way. She rushed through the hall, chewing on the inside of her lip as she kept her head down. 

It - It had to be at her, right? The laughter had to be at her. Look at one of Hexside's top Witches, fallen from grace. Her uniform felt itchy, her eyes heavy as everything suddenly seemed to be too loud for her. Everyone could see that she was in disarray; her hair was probably roughly pinned, and her eyes had obvious bags around them. She looked a mess, and even she knew it. 

Any second now it would all come crashing down. Any second - 

Too wrapped up in her thoughts, she didn’t see the other person coming down the hallway. 

“Oof!” 

Her breath escaped as she ran into someone, stumbling backward and looking up to see none other than Willow. 

The Plant Witch was rubbing her shoulder from where they collided. For a half second, her eyes were focused on the shoulder in question, and didn’t look at Skara. As soon as that half second passed though, they sought out the culprit, and blinked when they realised who they had run into. 

“Oh! Skara.” Willow... Acknowledged. The two stared at each other awkwardly, Skara’s eyes darting around  as she realized they were alone in the hallway. They didn’t say anything for a few seconds, both as lost as the other as to what to say. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you. Are you okay?” 

Skara didn’t reply - Instead, remembering the one debt that she did owe Willow, she dug in her bag, pulled out the water bottle that had been weighing her down, and thrust it towards Willow. 

“Here.” Her voice was rushed, pushing the word out - And it really was an effort to push it out. 

This worked - She could just give back the water bottle, and get this over with; move through the rest of the day without having to worry about this water bottle reminding her of her breakdown yesterday. 

“...Thanks.” Reaching out to slowly take the water bottle, Willow searched Skara’s face. The bags under her eyes, the way that her eyes constantly darted around, the speed that she spoke with, and the urgency in her voice. Willow blinked as she took the water bottle, and then asked, “...Are you okay? I… I know yesterday must have been rough on you.” 

The weight that the water bottle had caused Skara didn’t fade in the slightest. 

Why? Skara just blinked, dumbly, not sure what to say to that. Why? Why was she pretending to care? Sure, yesterday she couldn’t just ignore Skara crying - Her conscious or whatever wouldn’t let her - but now? 

After she almost certainly had spent the whole morning telling all her friends about it, using her new popularity to get back at her? 

What was the point? Why bother? Why pretend ? 

Willow asked again, “Skara? Are you - “

“Who did you tell?” The Bard finally snapped and just outright blurted out, the words coming before she could really even think them through clearly. She resisted the urge to clasp her hands over her mouth, both immediately regretting her decision to speak, and feeling her desire for answers force her to pay attention.

For a moment, there was total complete staticness between her and Willow. Nothing moved, and neither of them breathed. It actually seemed like the rest of the world stopped moving too, since no one else was around to shatter the moment's stillness. 

When Willow finally did move, her expression morphed into one of abject bewilderment. 

“...What?” She sounded shocked and confused, her eyebrows scrunching up in confusion. Her eyes narrowed, and one eyebrow rose above the other. “Who did I - What?” 

A second passed, and Skara blinked again. Normally, Skara would call out someone for playing dumb in this situation, but the way that Willows face shifted, the way her voice strained and twisted, and the way she stammered over her words -

She legitimately had no idea what Skara was talking about. 

Somehow though, that just made the feeling of franticness that had been building inside her begin to boil over. “Yesterday! Who did you tell about yesterday? Was it Luz? Amity? Why do people know about what happened with me and Ves and - And why isn’t anyone asking me about what happened when you found me?” 

“I… Have… No idea about the last two things.” Willow flatly stated, blinking as she tried to even process what Skara had just blurted out at her. "What - Whatever those are, I don’t know, but - Why in the Titan name would I ever tell anyone about our talk?” 

Again, she sounded legitimately confused - Like the idea hadn’t even occurred to her. 

….It hadn’t, had it. 

“You were crying and in distress!” A sudden franticness of her own had entered Willow's voice, like she was concerned that this was even a topic that needed to be talked about. She was clearly taken aback, and trying to figure out what exactly Skara meant. “A - Am I supposed to just tell everyone about that?"  

"Yes!"

It came out as a yell. 

Willow froze, and Skara did too. For a solid fifteen seconds, neither of them moved or said a word. All Skara could think of was that she was thankful more people hadn’t been around to hear that. 

There was a look on Willow’s face that she couldn’t even begin to describe or decipher. Her eyebrows were furrowed, but curled upwards. Her mouth was hanging ever so slightly open, and there was a… Something in her eye that she couldn’t quite place. Shock? Surprise? Confusion? 

After the fifteen seconds were up, Skara’s shoulders slumped, and she let out a defeated sigh. "That… That's just how it works."

“How… How what’s always worked?” 

“...This!” Skara’s arms flung open. “Hexside! School! This whole… Thing! People talk about the bad and the embarrassing things that happened to the people around them and then everyone mocks them and the person who told everyone gets social points! That - That’s how this all works! That’s just what happens!”

That was how Hexside had always worked for Skara. Pretty much every day was a drama circle where people would bicker about small, stupid things to try to get one up on each other and gain some kind of social standing. And something like what Willow had, what she could reveal to people about Skara - That was a proverbial goldmine! It was just how Hexside worked . 

How it would work with Boscha… How it did work with Boscha.

“...Why?” Willow asked. 

“It… It just does.” 

“Why, though?” Willow asked again. “What exactly means it has to work that way?” 

“It… It doesn’t - It doesn’t work like that!” There… Wasn’t a reason. It wasn’t physical. It wasn’t like there was a series of events that meant that this was how things worked. It didn’t make sense, but it just… Was, and Skara didn’t argue that. “It… It just... Does.”

"...Maybe that’s how it works with you and Boscha… " 

Skara lifted her head to look at her.  

"...But that isn't how it works with me or my friends. And... Maybe that shouldn’t be how it should work at all." 

And again, Skara just blinked. 

Was... That even an option? It had always been such an ever present force that Skara hadn’t thought to even question it. Everyone around her always seemed to work this way. Wasn’t that just… How it worked? 

But she couldn’t find herself doubting Willow here either - Somehow she just knew that she was being genuine here. 

“...Maybe you should... Think about that.” Willow tried to give a small smile, her lips barely quirking up. It quickly fell though, as she saw the…. Bewilderment on Skara’s face. For the second time today, and the third time in two days, Willow asked, “...Are… Are you okay?” 

There were a half dozen questions that ran through Skara’s head now. 

How did Willow just… Not take part in this? It was ever present - You couldn’t just… Not be involved in it, Skara thought. 

If it wasn’t necessary then… Why was this how Boscha worked? 

Why didn’t Willow just… Tell people? 

...And if she hadn’t told people about her and Ves, who had? 

Today though, unlike yesterday, Skara answered Willow’s question without resistance. But also without any certainty or conviction. Her face fell towards the ground again, and her answer came out a few seconds later, as a quiet whisper. 

“...I don’t know.”

Chapter Text

The day passed by without any further incident - A couple of glances in the hallways here and there, but nothing like what Skara had expected throughout the day. Nothing that she could even be certain was related to her breakup with Ves. For all she knew, they just noticed how much of an exhausted mess she looked.

None of her classes were able to fully capture her attention. Half the time she would stare off into space, and the other half staring blankly at her stationary, trying to summon the effort to write something down, or do the basic arithmetic in her head, or at least try to focus on what her teachers were saying. 

Her mind was too full of jumbled thoughts to do that though, even worse than it had been that morning. The lack of sleep also piled on, making it even harder to focus. And with all of that merging into one big blob of thoughts and feelings and just… Things weighing on her mind, time felt like it had slowed down to a crawl, and she spent the entire day just waiting for classes to end so she could go home and pass out. 

When the final bell of the day eventually arrived with it’s normal scream, it took Skara a second to actually realize it had gone off, only noticing that it was time to go as her classmates started to pack their things up to go home. A sigh escaped her. 

“Thank the Titan.” She muttered, dragging all her belongings into her bag in an unkempt and undignified manner, slinging it over her shoulder, and quickly making her way out the door and into the corridors. The sooner she was away from Hexside, the better.

She made her way around the groups that formed in the hallways as people met with their friends, stepping in between and around anyone who got in front of her, and turning corners as sharply as she could. Somehow, she could feel that at least a few people were giving her funny looks, but she wasn’t in anything even approximating a good enough mental state to care. She just wanted to sleep at this point. 

As she turned another corner sharply, Skara caught a brief flash of colours in the shape of a witch. On instinct, she and the other person both skidded to a halt. 

“Hey, watch it!” The other person snapped - Skara recognized the voice before she had even looked up to see their face - Boscha. When they registered one another, Boscha’s face relaxed from one of anger, to a scowl or mild annoyance. “Oh, there you are.” 

“Oh - Hey. Sorry, I -”

“There you are, Skara! We were just about to start looking for you!” 

Behind the Potions Witch, Amelia - Who’s voice the Bard had heard - and Cat were in tandem, and all three of them were wearing their Grudgby uniforms. Skara blinked a couple of times, and then she realized that after everything that had happened the last few days, she had completely forgotten - Today was supposed to be Grudgby practice. 

Possibly the absolute last thing that she wanted to be doing right now. 

“Where’s your gear?” Boscha asked, flatly. Her eyes narrowed as she glanced at Skara’s school uniform, like it was suspicious that she hadn’t already changed. 

“I er…” Skara floundered for a moment, and for a brief second she felt like she needed to come up with an excuse. She settled down after about half a second though, and realized that she didn’t need to lie about anything. “I… Honestly I’m… Not feeling too great. I was gonna just go home and sleep.” 

Boscha’s left eyebrow raised. Behind her, Cat just shrugged. “I told you she probably wasn’t gonna be up for it today.” 

The Potions Witch turned around and gave Bo a look that Skara couldn’t see, but knew perfectly well. Bo seemed to shrink, and turned away from the team captain. Turning back to Skara, Boscha raised her eyebrow again, like she was inspecting the other girl a second time, before letting out the smallest of sighs. 

“...Fine.” She said, with a shrug. “You don’t look like you’d be a great player today, anyway. We’ll see you tomorrow.” 

With that, Boscha just walked around Skara, and that was that. Amelia and Cat followed, though they both looked to Skara as they passed. Amelia offered a sympathetic look, though didn’t say anything, but Cat offered her a small smile as she passed. “Hope you feel better soon.”  

And after that, she followed Boscha and Amelia, and Skara found herself alone again. 

A sigh escaped her, and she ran a hand down the side of her face. She just considered herself lucky that Boscha hadn’t been angry at her. The last thing that she needed right now was that. Well, that and Grudgby. She didn’t even like Grudgby. Not really. Not enough to do practice like Boscha did, anyway. But it was one of those for-friend things that you were supposed to do, so she went along with it. 

Maybe that’s how it works with you and Boscha… But that isn't how it works with me or my friends. And... Maybe that shouldn’t be how it should work at all.

“Shut up.” Skara shook her head, and hissed at the familiar, internal voice. 

Noticing a nearby group of students looking at her with confused expressions, Skara quickly decided that she needed to be… Basically anywhere other than here. She kept her head low, and carried back on the route that she had been walking down, towards the exit of the school and towards home. 

Everything else on her mind, all the other problems that were surrounding her, and the emotional and mental state that she was in, she really did not want to add… Whatever it was that Willow had been implying onto her list of things that she needed to deal with. Just… No. 

There was already so much on her mind. She didn’t want to have to add something else to the pile. She didn’t even know what it would mean to add this onto the pile. 

She didn’t even know what it meant to begin with. 

The way that Boscha and her interacted - That was just how friendships worked. How her and Boscha’s friendship worked. That was just how things were. The way that the social hierarchy worked. That was just how Hexside worked. Skara hadn’t ever questioned that. It was just how it worked. What was there to question? 

What was there to think about? 

Passing down the final corridor, the Bard Witch made a beeline straight for the doors. The moment that she got outside, she felt like a weight had been lifted right off of her chest. 

Her shoulders relaxed, her head tilted back, eyes fell shut, and she allowed herself a long sigh. Hexside had felt both too cramped, and too large at the same time. Getting out of the building now felt like getting out of a prison cell - It felt good to be outside again. Her mind allowed itself to empty too. For just one brief moment, everything left her mind and she was able to allow herself to feel just a bit relaxed. 

It only lasted for a second though - No sooner had the weight left her chest had she heard the sound of a recognisable  laugh down at the foot of the steps. Her head craned itself back forward, and looked down to see that, yes, she had been right - It was Willow and her group again, minus Amity. 

Once again, the weight returned to Skara’s chest. 

Just… No. 

Pulling the hood of her cowl up over her head, and keeping her focus squarely on the ground beneath her, Skara made her way down the stairs. She didn’t want to deal with another run-in with Willow - She had had enough of those over the last two days as it was. She just wanted to go home, and the only way home was past that group. All she could hope for was to get past unnoticed. 

“...So, yeah, I’m not allowed to try summoning a phoenix for a couple of weeks. Or they might try and peck my eyes out. And also try to eat me. Again.” 

“I swear, you get yourself into situations like that every few days.”

“Hey, at least this time it wasn't my fault - No one told me that phoenixes didn’t like light spells!” 

“It’s a phoenix - It’s in the name!”

“...I - I feel like we have very different definitions of what a phoenix is?”

There was another round of laughter that came from Gus and Willow, and after just a couple of seconds, the Human joined them.

For a moment, Skara let her head turn to glance at the three of them out of the corner of her eye. It bothered her… More than she was willing to admit right now. She believed what Willow had said earlier - At least, about not having told anyone about their encounter the other day. The part of her brain that told her that Willow had to have been lying, or was just waiting to do it later so she could feign ignorance, or some other thing that Skara couldn’t fathom wanted to yell at her for believing Willow. But the rest of her mind just… Wouldn’t let that part of her talk over it. She didn’t believe it. She was beyond certain, more than anything else right now, that Willow had been honest back then. 

And she just didn’t understand why. 

For a moment, she just watched the group of them interact. She couldn’t hear much, but from what she could, they told stories about how their day had gone, jokes, that kind of thing. It wasn’t too dissimilar to how her own friend group operated, at least from a distance. And a part of Skara wanted to feel angry, believe that she was having some sort of elaborate prank being pulled on her or… or something. Something that would make more sense. But she couldn’t bring herself to believe it. 

Watching them though, the dynamic that they had wasn’t at all like the ones that existed within her own friend group. From what she could tell, they didn’t really have a leader, like her friend group did. They didn’t treat one another all that similarly to her group either. It was just… Different. Lighter somehow. Some other people looked at them as they passed by. A few people gave them raised eyebrows, but none of them seemed to care. 

It reminded Skara of the books she read when she was growing up. The books she read to this day. 

There was a split-second where Skara noticed something change, and based purely on reflexes, her eyes darted towards the Plant witch. 

Willow was looking directly back at her. It couldn’t have been for longer than that split-second, if even that, but she had noticed the Bard watching them. 

Instantly, Skara turned on her heels and made her way down the path, away from the school, away from Willow, and with any luck, away from all the intrusive thoughts that had wormed their way into her head just now. She needed to sleep. To get her head back on straight. She needed to be away from people. 

Behind her though, she could practically feel Willow’s eyes still on her.

She shook her head, and picked up the pace.

“I mean… It is right there in the name.” 

“Gus said the same thing - “ 

“- And I was right!” 

“- But like, how? I don’t get how you get ‘Will attempt to eat you if you show them bright lights’ from ‘Phoenix’!” 

“You said Humans had myths about them back on Earth, right?” Amity questioned. Luz nodded her head, to which Amity’s face scrunched up slightly as she thought about it for a moment. “Maybe they just ended up having different etymological origins?”

“Er… Etymo-what now?” Luz blinked. She looked towards Gus, who gave her a shrug, apparently equally as confused as the Human was. 

“Etymology.” Amity repeated. Luz and Gus just blinked again, still clueless. “The origin of words? I’m saying maybe the origin of the word phoenix is different in your world than it is to ours.” 

“Oooooh…” 

There were only a few paths that led to Hexside, and by extension, that meant that there were only a few paths that led away from Hexside as well. Just about all of them ended up in Bonesborough, and when it was time for classes to end, all of Willow’s friends would take the same path, even though for most of them, it was a fairly roundabout path back home - But they all got to hang out, so none of them minded at all. 

For Willow, these were always the best moments of the day. Where she engaged with the friends who mean the most to her in the world. Whether it be hearing Luz explain the most simple of magical feats as if they were the most exciting game of Grudgby ever, to hearing Gus ramble about his latest bizarre and often immediately debunked claim about human, Willow could always come up with a fun observation or piece of extra information or, in her best moments, even a snappy zinger. Even despite their awkward past, Willow could even talk to Amity more as if they were, if not best friends, at least starting to get closer to a friendship they had shared before during these walks. 

Most days, Willow was happy to talk with her friends and walk with them down the wrong paths, just so she could spend a few more precious hours of her fleeting youth with people she cared about.. 

But this was not one of those days. 

“So, where does the word ‘phoenix’ come from on the Isles, then?” Luz questioned. Willow’s eyes glanced towards her group again to observe, but she stayed quiet herself. 

“It’s an old word.” Amity explained. “Long before the Emperor arrived, but based on what little we know, it came from a word meaning ‘Light Eater’.”

“Wow that is a… Very direct translation.” Luz said, extremely flatly. She pondered it for a moment, before nodding her head slightly. “Y’know what, I think that's the most likely explanation then.” 

“Is… Anyone gonna ask why Amity just like, knows that off the top of her head?” Gus asked, his eyes jumping between the Human and the green-haired Witch.

“Hey, Amity’s like, super smart!” Luz answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and without even the slightest hint of reservation. “I bet she knows everything about eatomal… atomal… eginal - However you say that word!” 

Despite Luz’s inability to properly speak, the sudden compliment made Amity’s face flush, and she looked away in an effort to hide it from the Human girl. Willow allowed herself to smirk at the interaction - It wouldn’t ever stop amusing her the way that Amity reacted to Luz being, well, Luz. And how someone with eyes as wide as her’s  didn’t see Amity’s crush was truly beyond Willow. 

Plus, it was extremely cute. 

After just a few seconds though, the smirk on Willow's face faded, and she found herself being pulled back into her thoughts. She kept thinking back to earlier, just in front of the school. 

That had been Skara she’d seen watching them, right? 

While it had only been for just an extremely brief moment - Not even a second, really - Willow was certain that it had been Skara’s face under that hood, watching them, before they quickly turned away. Their uniform was also adorned with the darkish red signifiers of the Bard Coven, so it felt like that narrowed it down even further. And for some reason, Willow wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that.

The last couple of days had been… Bizarre, to put it lightly. Of all the people that Willow had expected to have had… These sorts of interactions, whatever they were, Skara had been one of the last. Maybe, she supposed, if the worst came to it, Amity, if it turned out Luz didn’t reciprocate her feelings, or maybe Luz if she fell for someone else and the exact same thing happened. But… Skara?

It was hard to explain, even to herself, even just in her own head. Their interactions had been sparse and minor - just a couple of five, at most ten minute talks in the last two days - but Willow found that she was bothered by them. And it had nothing to do with the fact that she and Skara had a bad history. 

No, it was more how Skara had reacted. What Skara had said .

That… That's just how it works. Hexside! School! This whole… Thing!

To Willow, the idea of telling people about Skara’s breakup to be popular just seemed cruel. But to Skara, it seemed normal, almost necessary, as important an act to survive as breathing, that when someone else didn’t do it, it completely threw her off. And yet, when even just slightly pressed, Skara had struggled to explain it to her, like she didn’t even properly know herself. Willow had never seen this side of the silver haired Bard before. Even when she was bullying Willow, she never seemed to act like… that.  

Then again, Willow had always tried not to think about, or pay too much attention to Skara anyway, so maybe she just hadn’t noticed any of this when it happened. But she had noticed it now. 

And it was sticking with her. And seeing Skara watching them had only just made it more pronounced. 

“Willow?” 

Blinking out of her thoughts, Willow looked away from the ground, and up towards the rest of her group. Gus and Luz were still talking between themselves - It had actually just been Amity who had tried to get Willow’s attention. “Oh - Amity? I - Sorry -  What’s wrong?” 

“Are you okay?” Amity questioned, an eyebrow raised. “You looked… Really interested in the ground for a while there.”

Letting herself laugh just a little, Willow then scratched at the back of her neck. “I’m fine. Sorry, I just… I had something on my mind, that’s all.” 

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

For a moment, Willow really did think about it, before she let out a sigh. “...Kind of? But… I don’t know if it’d be right for me to. It’s not really my… Thing to tell.. Well, it kind of is, but...” 

Amity gave her a look that conveyed confusion - Understandably so, Willow supposed. What she had just said wouldn’t put anyone’s mind to rest. But the whole situation really didn’t have much to do with Willow outside the few run-ins that she had had with Skara, and after today, and the way that Skara had acted, she wasn’t especially keen on breaking her word now. She sighed though; she couldn’t just not say anything to Amity now. 

“Have er… have you noticed Skara acting... oddly, over the last few days,” she asked. Depending on how much Amity knew, Willow would be able to figure out what she could say, and what she couldn’t. 

Amity’s eyebrow rose even more, and she blinked.. In her expression alone, Willow could already tell that Amity was wondering why in the Titan’s Name Willow was even remotely concerned with anything related to Skara.

Still, the Abominations Witch mulled it over for a second. “Noticed, no, but… I remember hearing something about her and her boyfriend in my Abominations Class earlier, but that's about it.” She shrugged. “I’m guessing they had a fight, or broke up, or something. Those kinds of rumours don’t usually start unless that's one of the reasons. I didn’t really pay any attention to it after that.” 

Amity’s head then turned so that she was looking directly down the forest path, a slightly distant look in her expression. 

“And I try not to pay any attention to that part of my life anymore.” She shrugged, and the distant expression went away. She turned back to face Willow. “Why?” 

“It’s just… I had a run-in with her -“

“What - When?” Amity immediately stopped walking, straightened her back, and raised her voice slightly, though it sounded unintentional. “What happened?” 

“Wait, what ‘what happened’?”

Luz and Gus both noticed Amity’s sudden voice change. Their conversation immediately came to a halt, as both started paying attention to Willow and Amity’s conversation. All four of them now stood in the middle of the forest path together, all looking towards Willow and Amity.

“Willow had a run-in with Skara.” Amity quickly told them. 

Holding up her hands like it would physically stop the barrage of questions she knew all of them had, Willow quickly rushed to explain herself to them, “It - It wasn’t anything like what you’re thinking. We didn’t fight or anything. I just - “ 

She stopped herself before she said anything along the lines of ‘I found her crying in the hallways’. The breakup was a personal issue for Skara to deal with. Regardless of what their relationship was, Willow wasn’t going to do what Skara had been afraid of her doing, and just start telling people. 

Quickly, she came up with something else. “I just - I thought she looked really depressed today and… I don’t know. We kind of… Literally ran into each other in the hallway and just… She seemed off.” 

“Did she say something mean to you?” Gus asked. 

“No.” Willow said. It wasn’t even a lie, either. “That was what was weird about it, I guess.” Among other things.

Gus and Luz just looked at one another. Eventually, Luz turned towards Willow, scratching at her cheek. “I… Remember hearing from someone in one of my classes that she and her boyfriend broke up. If that's true then that probably had something to do with it, right?” 

Willow blinked. There were already rumours about it going around? Really, it shouldn’t have surprised her, but it did. Skara had been paranoid for a good reason, apparently - Maybe Ves had told one of his friends, or someone had overheard their conversation, or… Something else happened? 

Still, at least it meant that Willow didn’t need to pretend that wasn’t what had happened anymore. “I er… I heard something similar.” 

For her part, Amity’s expression was… Difficult to read. Her arms folded, and she glanced sideways. “Ves and Skara were tip-toeing around each other for months before Grom. They pretty clearly liked each other. It was hard to get Skara to stop talking about him sometimes.” 

“If those rumours are true, then I guess that might explain it.” Gus said, his hands shovelling into the pockets of his uniform. He didn’t sound all that sympathetic - Not that it was unwarranted, Willow reminded herself. He’d been on the receiving end of Boscha’s gang too. “Are you okay though? It can’t have been fun to have to deal with her again.”

“I’m… Fine.” Willow assured him. “I guess it was just... On my mind, that’s all.” 

“Hey, if you ever need to talk about it…” Luz made a couple of gestures with her hands where she pointed to Willow, and then to herself - If she ever wanted to talk about it, Luz would be there for her.

It made the Plant Witch give her a small smile. “Thank you, but I’m okay, really.” 

She wasn’t lying, either - It wasn’t like the encounter had shaken her up or anything like that. Mostly, she was just surprised by it all, really. And the way that Skara had acted… Well, there was something about it that bothered her. But she didn’t want to bring it up with her friends. She knew what their response would be. 

Heck, she knew what her response should be, logically. 

“If you say so.” Luz offered another kind, sympathetic smile. “But, hey, if you ever need it…”

“I’ll let you know, Luz, I promise.” 

That seemed to satisfy Luz. With that, the group began to walk down the path once more. It took a short while, but conversation between them did eventually pick up again. And as it did, this time Willow made a concerted effort to join in at least occasionally, if for no other reason than to let her friends know that she really was okay. But in her head, the interaction with Skara still actively remained, as well as the fact that she had seen the Bard watching them after school had ended.

She wasn’t sure how she would begin to explain that to her friends. She didn’t even really know how to explain it to herself. 

Something about the whole situation, and the way Skara acted just didn’t feel right to Willow. Like there was something just… Really wrong with the way that she had behaved. Obviously she was hurt, that went without saying. Willow hadn’t ever seen Skara get upset by anything like this before, so she didn’t have any kind of reference to work with, but… Something about it just seemed wrong. She couldn’t put her finger on it. 

Rumours were cruel - Willow had had to grit her teeth and bare a number of them directed towards her throughout her time at Hexside. She remembered a number of them; that she was ‘cursed’ to look the way she did, that she was a literal half-witch, or whatever worse, nasty thing people could come up with. 

It made sense to her that Skara didn’t want any spreading - But it was the fact that she expected them to, that she claimed it was the way that things were, and how utterly shocked she seemed by the fact Willow hadn’t done that… 

...Like she thought it was some sort of force of nature, rather than something people did consciously. 

In the back of her head, the part of her that was still angry about everything that had happened between them in the past was telling her to ignore it - That this was a mess of Skara’s own making, and that she could stew in it. It wasn’t any of Willow’s business anyway. That was why she hadn’t just blatantly shared it with her friends. It wasn’t her story to tell, and it wasn’t her issue to get involved in, either. 

Being honest, it was hard not to just listen to that part of her brain. 

But like Willow had said to Skara after finding her in the hallway, she knew what it was like to be alone.  

Maybe that was what was bothering her more than anything. The fact that Skara seemed like she was completely alone. Heck, for all Willow knew, Skara hadn’t told any of her friends. It seemed like she had wanted to keep this as quiet as possible. Even though it clearly hurt her.  

And Willow… A part of her wanted to just ignore it, but… 

For some reason, she couldn’t.

Eventually, the group began to split off from one another - Gus left first, claiming that he and his father had some sort of plans for the afternoon. Luz left shortly after as well, after having to duck into a potions store to collect some sort of supply for the Owl Lady. She didn’t leave before she gave both Willow and Amity a hug each. Willow let herself smirk at Amity’s usual reaction to the gesture. 

Once Luz was in the store, and Amity had calmed herself down, she turned to look at Willow. “Shut up.” 

“I didn’t say a word.” Willow said, eyes looking away, but her smirk still wide and knowing. 

After that, they continued on, in relative silence. Willow’s home was in the same direction that Amity had to go from where they were, at least for a short while. After patching things up, at least a bit, their relationship had improved, but it was still finding its footing again. Nothing had been ‘fixed’ yet - It was a process that they had to work out. 

But, it was getting there. Even if there was the occasional roadblock. 

Just a couple of minutes after they had split from Luz, Amity finally spoke. “...You said that Skara wasn’t acting like herself earlier.” 

Willow blinked, but nodded. “Yeah.” 

Amity sat with that for a moment. Her face turned towards the ground, and was scrunched up in thought. It made sense, Willow supposed. Amity had spent years around Skara. It would make sense that knowing that would at least concern her a little bit, even if she at the end of the day, had nothing to do with the Bard anymore. 

When Amity didn’t speak for a short while, Willow thought that that may be all that Amity had had to say. 

“She’s not necessarily a bad person.” Amity eventually said. “Boscha spends time around people far worse than Skara, but I’ve never had a huge issue with her. We weren’t friends, really. Well, I didn’t think that we were, but… She’s mostly harmless. She’s not like Boscha, at least. If it wasn’t for our parents, I don’t think that she would have spent any amount of time around me or Boscha at all. But, our parents did their thing and, well, here we are now.” 

“I’m sorry, Amity, but I don’t get it. What’s this got to do with anything?” 

“Because I know the kind of person you are, Willow.” Amity sighed. “You’re like Luz. And I know exactly what Luz would be thinking of doing in this situation. And…” 

There was a brief pause. 

“...We were all horrible to you. We really were.” Amity bit down on her lip as she said it. “And… Honestly, sometimes I don’t know why you even decided to spend time around me after all that I did to you. You could have told Luz that you were uncomfortable with me and I’m sure she would have respected it.” 

“She actually wanted to make a big ‘Make us friends again’ plan.” 

For a moment, Amity just stared at Willow, before letting out a single laugh. “That… Does sound like her.” The usual accent of pink that coloured Amity’s cheeks whenever she talked about Luz made themselves known, but quickly faded away. “But - But if you had been firm with her, she would have backed down. Luz is… Insistent, but she knows when she should stop. Usually, anyway.” 

That much was true, Willow supposed. 

“Look, the point I’m making is… Skara might not have been the ringleader like me or Boscha were, but she was still a part of it. I don’t know what you’re thinking about doing, and I don’t know if it needs saying, but you’re not under some sort of… Egalitarian obligation to.” Amity’s shoulders slumped slightly. “You would have been well within your rights to tell me to get lost.“

She looked back at Willow. 

“And you’re within your rights to leave Skara to whatever mess she’s in now.”

Willow just nodded. She knew all of that - Of course she did. Of course she knew that she didn’t have some… Sort of moral obligation in any of this. It did go without saying. 

Still, she appreciated Amity saying so anyway. 

As that happened, the two of them came to a fork in the road, where their paths diverged from one another. Maybe it was the topic of the conversation, or the fact that they were still trying to figure out where they stood with one another, but there was a brief moment of awkwardness between the two of them before they split up. 

“I’ll… See you tomorrow.” Amity eventually offered. 

“Yeah.” Willow nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Amity gave her a final look, nodded back, and began to walk down her own path. Once she was out of earshot, Willow allowed herself to exhale. Of course, Amity was right - Willow wasn’t under some kind of moral or ethical obligation. Heck, she didn’t even like Skara as a person all that much. If she wanted to, she could just ignore it. 

She didn’t want to, though. 

Frankly, she didn’t know what she wanted, or was going to do. Or if she was making any sense, or if she was right to be suspicious in the first place. Or maybe she’d just lost it - She just knew that she didn’t want to leave this alone - Couldn’t leave it alone. She knew what it was like to have no one to turn to, no one in the world willing to understand her. And while Skara DID have some friends, maybe even a few real ones, she clearly didn’t feel comfortable talking about her emotions with them.

Willow internally groaned, trying to figure out why this mattered so much to her, why she cared about this. After everything, all these years…

And then she remembered Skara giving her back the water bottle. 

Obviously it didn’t matter in the long run. It wasn’t a remotely sentimental object to Willow. It was a water bottle. It didn’t do anything other than hold water, and even if it did more that that, or meant more, it wasn’t like Willow had asked for it back. It didn’t matter to Willow.

But, for whatever reason, it had mattered to Skara. 

And maybe that was why it bothered Willow. It wasn’t like she had any other explanation. 

If Willow could walk away from this, she would have done so when she found Skara in the hallway. 

She hadn’t been able to then, and even if it ended up being a minor thing, she couldn’t now.

Chapter Text

The view from Skara’s bedroom window had always been quite scenic - Her house was on one of the upper cliffs, on the outskirts of Bonesborough. It was built near the edge of a cliff, but not directly atop it, and had a fairly wide berth from other buildings around.

Still, it was close enough though that when she looked out her window, Skara could see one of the streets that ran near the cliff's edge, and saw people going about their days. From the angle her house was at, she could also see the edges of the forest, and the reds and browns that made up the flora that marked the end of the town borders off in the distance. 

Beyond the cliff's edge, she could see out to the Boiling Sea. See the waves sparkle as the sun or moonlight hit against the water, and bounce back into the air. Sometimes she could spot giant, multi-limbed aquatic monsters jumping into and out of the sea, doing… Monster things, she guessed - She didn’t know the life cycles of half the creatures on the Isles, and honestly, she never really thought about it. 

Sometimes, she was happy to just do that - Just sit and stare out the window for an hour or two, with a song playing over the speakers. She found it relaxing. Calming. And it normally helped her to think. 

She watched the ocean waves under an orange-fading-to-black sky in silence today though, with a heavy weight on her chest. Her head rested in her left hand, her other hand balled up into a fist, tapping against the windowsill at a steady three-four tempo. In the back of her mind, she absently knew she was hitting maybe sixty-five beats-a-minute, but she didn’t pay any real attention to it. Skara had never thought that she’d reach a point where she’d say it, but right now, music would be of no help this time. It would be a distraction. 

This wasn’t one of those times where she was ‘happy’ in any sense of the word. 

There was just… Too much in her head for her to think clearly, either. 

Prominently, what had happened between her and Ves occupied her thoughts. The wounds were still fresh, and she knew that they would be for a while. In her head, Skara second guessed every interaction she hadn’t even paid a second thought to at the time throughout the past month, looking for some sort of explanation for why he broke up with her. At the very least, for some sort of closure. 

As much as she tried though, she couldn’t find anything. Ves really had never given her so much as a hint as to what had led to… This . 

Things had seemed fine, for so long, and then they just … Weren’t, anymore. 

A groan escaped her, and her tapping increased it’s speed to seventy-three beats-per-minute. Not knowing was just… It was eating her up. It bothered her, to the point she struggled to focus on any of her schoolwork, and made it impossible to focus on playing any of her instruments properly. And that in turn just frustrated her even more. 

So she sat down, trying to think it all through, even though she’d rather be doing just about anything else. Wanting to try to resolve some of the thoughts that were running around in her head like a gaggle of gryphons. But that didn’t work either. There just wasn’t enough information to make sense of anything.

And it was bad enough she had that on her mind… But it wasn’t the only thing she was thinking about, either. 

She still found herself wondering what was going on at Hexside. 

By all rights, Skara knew her reputation at Hexside should have been dust by now. That she should be the school's laughing stock. That she should be spending each day just gritting her teeth and waiting for someone to make fun of her, or try to cut into her with some kind of personal attack, or just try to make her life miserable. And maybe that would happen eventually - The rumour mill didn’t wait for anyone. Maybe they were just whispers now, but rumours still had a way of spreading, quickly, and ferociously. 

It should have been like an explosion though - Immediate, loud, and ringing in her ears for hours on end. But it wasn’t like that. 

And if it were down to Willow… It wouldn’t have even caught on at all. 

Plants had personalities - That had been something Willow had learned very early on when it came to her fondness for them. Even the ones that didn’t have eyes or mouths, they still had their own needs and requirements in order to bloom. Some needed to be trimmed and pruned, while others needed more water than others. A few needed special soil, and more stubborn ones required different kinds of Magic as a source of food and energy. And these weren’t always requirements that came with the varying plant species either; sometimes, individuals of the same species had different needs. 

It was a part of her routine to make sure that all of those requirements were met at least once a day. She normally did so during the evening, when things were calm, and any heat from the day had faded as the sun began to set. None of it was especially difficult, but figuring out what each plant needed was more a trial-and-error issue more than anything else. She had looked after plants for much of her life though, and knew what she was doing. At this point, daily maintenance was something that she could do in her sleep. 

Doing this under the orange-fading-to-black sky usually made Willow feel more relaxed than anything else. It let her contemplate her day, what she had left to do, what chores needed to be done, and what homework she may or may not have left to complete. A calming way for her to assess her day, and to make sure nothing was outstanding.

Today though, the normal calm that came with tending to her little ecosystem didn’t come. Too much clouded her mind.

As she tended to the plants, one of the smaller, more aggressive ones, hissed at her as she tried to reapply Magical energy to the soil. When that didn’t stop Willow, it lunged, bitingher. 

“Ow!” Willow shook her hand as she pulled away from the plant - It was only a minor injury though. The plant was small, and could only really nip her. Under normal circumstances, when her mind wasn’t full as it was today, it wouldn’t have even hurt. Still, it had caught her off guard. With her unbitten hand, she pinched at one of the petals on the stem of the plant - Not so it would hurt it, but so it would calm itself down. “No. Bad Bitey. I keep telling you not to bite people.” 

The combination of being scolded and having it’s leaf pinched calmed the plant right back down again. It made itself smaller, and stopped baring its teeth. Willow sighed as she cast a small spell on the soil, making it glow ever so slightly. This was a habit of Bitey in particular - Hence the name. Small but aggressive, and lashing out when it didn’t know what was happening. 

Like how Skara had acted today. 

Willow sighed, and picked up a watering pail, and began to water another set of plants. As she did so, her mind wandered back to earlier that day, and her interactions with Skara. No matter how much they had occupied her thoughts throughout the day, something about the way that the Bard had acted just didn’t sit well with Willow. The way that she assumed people acted, the perception of Hexside’s student populace, and, well, everything that she had said. 

Maybe it was just the fact that she seemed to be utterly dejected by her break-up, and that was it. Willow didn’t like seeing people upset. But if that was all it was, she wouldn’t be considering… Doing something about it. That would be Skara’s situation to deal with. 

But the way that she had automatically assumed the worst, and thought that the only logical thing that Willow could do in that situation was to expose everything that had happened - That didn’t sit right with her at all. 

Did any of her friends even know about this, or that she was having a hard time? Skara had hidden away from everyone when Willow first came across her under the staircase. Had she even told anyone about what had happened? 

She said that people knew. And Luz had even reinforced this by saying she’d heard rumours about the situation too. This whole thing was confusing, and the only thing Willow was really certain of about the entire affair was that she didn’t understand exactly what was happening, or why Skara acted the way she had. 

That, and Skara didn’t have anyone else. 

Two times, and in just as many days, Skara had found herself being… Thrown off by Willow. By the things  she said, and the things she did. By the way that she just… 

...It didn’t make sense to her. It just didn’t. 

Willow didn’t act the way people were supposed to. Skara had spent enough time around Boscha to know how it worked, how the social hierarchy operated. For the Titan’s sake, Willow had obeyed the way that it was supposed to operate for almost as long as Skara had even known of Willow’s existence - It was only recently that she had stepped outside those boundaries. 

Certain actions had certain consequences. If you showed that you were weak, you got mocked for it. And if you showed that you were strong, then you stood above the rest. And that was just how it worked. How it had always worked. That was just how people worked. 

Skara thought. 

But Willow… Willow wasn’t acting in accordance with that rule. Not dealing with the way that… Any of Skara’s social circle treated her. Not anymore, anyway. Willow had done so for so long, but ever since the Human had shown up, and ever since Amity had started to get along with her again - Ever since that Grudgby match - Willow had been acting different. More… 

...Not like the Willow that Skara had been aware of for the last decade now. 

And Skara knew in her head that it shouldn’t make a difference. That it was still the same Willow underneath all of that new bravado. The same person. The same Half-a-Witch that needed to learn her place… 

...She thought back to the Grudgby match, though. How they had faced off against one another on opposing teams. And while a part of her knew that they were supposed to be opponents, and while she didn’t even like Willow, there was just… Something about how she acted, how she played, that made those thoughts evaporate. She was… Approachable? It had been fun - At least for a short while. It made her want to approach the Plant Witch. She even had, touching her shoulder, congratulated her. 

In hindsight, a mistake, she thought.A moment of weakness. One shared with Amelia and Cat, but nonetheless, a moment of weakness.

And certainly not one that Boscha had let anyone live down since. 

Especially now. 

When it came right down to it, Skara knew the dynamic they had - It was the same as anyone else in Hexside. If you were weak, your were walked all over. If you were strong, you did the walking. And Willow was weak, and Skara was strong. 

Until what happened with Ves. Then, Skara was weak, and Willow was strong. 

And Willow stopped to ask her if she was okay. 

That went against… Everything that Skara knew about how people worked. That wasn’t how it was supposed to work. Willow should have used it as ammunition against her, but instead she just… Didn’t. It didn’t make sense. That wasn’t how it worked anywhere else in Hexside. That wasn’t how it worked in Skara’s friend group. That wasn’t how people worked. 

But it was how Willow worked, apparently. 

Speaking of how someone acted, Willow still didn’t know what in the world to make of seeing Skara watching herself, Gus, and Luz earlier that day. Especially after the two of them had run into each other earlier that day. If she wanted to be entirely selfish about this, Willow would confess to wanting an answer to what that had been about. 

If Willow had been able to leave this alone, she would have done it back when she found Skara under the staircase. 

Amity was right when she said that Willow had no obligation to care about what happened to Skara, but the idea of doing nothing was one that Willow found that she couldn’t stomach. 

She wanted to do something. 

What exactly she could do in this situation was something that she contemplated, as she clipped away a few pieces of parasite-bark off one of her plants. She didn’t have even a remotely comprehensive understanding of the situation, what was going on in Skara’s head, or what she could do to make the situation better without making it worse. 

Plus, it didn’t seem all that likely that Skara would want her getting involved in her personal life. Good intentions or not, Willow didn’t like it when other people tried to do that with her. She’d had to tell Luz to not get involved when it came to her and Amity for that exact reason. The two situations were at least slightly equivalent, when Willow thought about it. 

So… What did that even leave her with? 

Not a lot, honestly. 

Was there even anything that she could do? 

Before she could contemplate anything further though, her ears began to twitch as the Crystal Ball in the corner of her room began to chirp, telling her that she was being called. With everything in her mind, it took her a few seconds to register what was happening, but once she did, the Plant Witch made her way over to the Crystal Ball, and answered it. 

An image of Gus flashed within the Crystal. “Hey, Willow! How’s my favorite Plant Witch bestie doing?” He asked, flashing her a toothy grin and what Luz at one point called ‘finger guns’.

Willow chuckled at Gus’s enthusiasm. Willow didn’t know how she ended up friends with not one, but two of the Boiling Isle’s most infectiously happy people, but she wasn’t complaining. “Gus, I’m your only Plant Witch bestie.”

“Eh, I don’t sweat the small details,” Gus said, waving his hand dismissively. “I mean, it doesn’t make it any less true, right?”

“I suppose.”

Gus’s grin fell, if only a tad. “Hey… So, I was actually calling cause…” He sighed. “I wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

“Oh?” Willow figured that, honestly. With everything on Willow’s mind, it wasn’t surprising Gus could see it. And after mentioning Skara...

“Just... You seemed off. Sad, I guess.” He shook his head, then beamed. “And no bestie of mine is gonna be sad if Gus Porter, happiness expert extraordinaire, has anything to say about it!” 

The Plant Witch shook her head, a small smile on her lips. “Is that what you’re calling yourself these days?”

“I mean, I’d say it’s the tiniest bit better then “Agustus Porter, Boy of Mystery.” He posed, looking up at Willow with wide eyes and comically puckered lips.

Again, a smile spread across Willow's lips, and she let her eyes roll slightly.  “Well, ‘happiness expert’, you’ll be happy to know that I’m doing okay now. Just a little tired.”

“...If you say so. But, just remember, I’m always here for you if you need to talk. About anything on your mind. Okay, Willow?”

Gus bit her lip. “Yeah. I know.” She smiled, though with a twinge of guilt and sadness behind it. “Thanks, Gus. You’re… You’re an awesome friend.”

He blushed a tad, waving the compliment away. “Oh, you. Think nothing of it. After all, what are friends for?”

Willow only nodded in response. “Gotta go finish taking care of the plants! Talk to ya tomorrow, ‘Kay?”

“Oh, but which ‘me’ will you be talking to?” Gus stepped aside to reveal another Gus behind him, waving. “Hey, Willow.” The equally possibly illusionary Gus said. “Talk to ya tomorrow.”

Once again, Willow chuckled again before turning her crystal ball off.

What are friends for, indeed....

Skara groaned. It felt like the last couple of days had just been one thing after another. One problem after another, and an incident that she couldn’t wrap her head around. 

Her body shifted, and turned so that her back leaned against the windowsill. Another creature, one with large wings coated with a thousand eyeballs, jumped from the sea and fell back into the water as she did so. 

It was an incident. That was it. That was all it was. Why Skara was letting it bother her so much was honestly beyond her. In comparison to the situation with Ves, or the rumours that were starting to circulate, whatever the heck Willow did or didn’t do was entirely irrelevant. 

If that was how Willow wanted to play the game that was Hexside, then as far as Skara was concerned, it wasn’t any skin off of her back. It didn’t make any sense, but if it meant that she didn’t have to worry about Willow spreading rumours, then fine. It was just unusual. It had just caught her off guard. That was it. 

That was it.

Still, why Willow acted so differently to how Skara was used to stuck in her head. Why her group of friends seemed to be more like… 

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Skara cast a spell to start her music playing. Louder than usual. 

She’d had enough of thinking for one day.

The next day had started as regularly as any other day for Willow - She got up, went about her morning workout routine, got ready for school, and left to meet up with Gus and Luz. They then met up with Amity when she got to the school, and after waiting for the first bell to scream, began to make their way to their respective classes.

Though today, even by her normally high amounts of excitement, Luz seemed to be a lot more enthusiastic about today than she normally did.

“Alright! Bring it on, Hexside! I’m ready for whatever you wanna throw at me today!” 

When it came to showing eagerness about basically anything, Willow honestly didn’t know anyone who had more of it than Luz. Today though, she sounded like she was on a mission. Challenging the school directly was usually considered bad luck - Not that the Human seemed to be letting that stop her. 

Amity’s hand was covering her face as Luz yelled at the building around them. Both Gus and Willow glanced at her, and Amity sighed. 

“I… Last night I mentioned I was feeling a bit anxious about today’s Abominations Class to Luz.” She explained. “Because of what happened the other day. Now she’s determined to,” Amity’s other hand rose, and as she spoke, made small quotation-gestures with her fingers, “ ‘Have such an awesome day that A.P forgets all about the Abomination-Glyph incident.’ ”

Willow let herself smirk lightly, and roll her eyes, amused. “Well that's… Sweet of her.” 

“She’s going to get herself into trouble.” Amity replied, flatly. “Or hurt. You know what she’s like.” 

“Oh, c’mon, Amity!” Gus piped up. “When has Luz ever not been able to take care of herself?” 

Both Willow and Amity just blankly looked at Gus. 

“...Okay, fair point.” The Illusionist conceded. 

The group walked through the corridors of the school, eventually splitting up from one another as they headed towards their respective classes. Luz and Amity first towards the Abomination home room, and Gus shortly afterwards towards his Illusion class. 

For her part, Willow headed for her locker, wanting to retrieve some of the textbooks that her first class of the day would require. The space was full, with a dozen or so other students doing the exact same thing. Quickly, she approached her locker, tickled it open to get her books, and closed it again just as fast. She turned around, ready to make a beeline straight for the Plant Track home room, when another student caught her eye.

Skara again. By her locker, doing much the same as Willow had done; gathering her books, and a Bard instrument from inside. For a moment, Willow paused, as their interaction from the previous day filled her head yet again. 

Just watching her, somehow Willow had a feeling that the Bard hadn’t slept. She was moving sluggishly, slowly, without even a modicum of the energy that other students showed even towards their most hated classes. And from the angle she was at, the Plant Witch could only see just the slightest portion of her face, and didn’t spot even the slightest bit of… Anything. Maybe a hint of mild annoyance as she rummaged through her locker, but that was it. 

That same desire from yesterday to… Do something sparked in Willow’s gut. No matter their history, seeing someone like this just didn’t sit well with Willow. Skara was obviously hurting, and the way she seemed to expect the worst out of everyone around her only made Willow feel more compelled to do something, even if it was just a small thing. 

Tepidly, she approached Skara. As she got closer, she could hear the Bard muttering to herself as she rummaged through her locker.

“No… No… Definitely not. No… Aha, there you are, you little - “

“Uh, hey.” 

The response Willow had hoped for was another “Hello.”

The response she’d expected was a bit more negative than that.

She certainly didn’t expect Skara to be so startled she jumped, slammed her arm into the roof of her locker, hissed in pain - 

“Ow!”

- And finally, get the locker to shut its mouth with her arm still inside.

“What the - Hey, let go of me!” Skara yelled as she tried to pull her arm out. Attempting to get more leverage against it, she brought her leg up and pushed her foot against the door, though it didn’t accomplish anything - Her locker remained firmly shut. 

Quickly, Willow moved to help, grabbing hold of her trapped arm, and pulling as well. Again though, it didn’t achieve anything. Skara’s arm was firmly trapped. 

“Try using your other hand to unlock it?!” Willow suggested, still tugging all the same. 

Skara followed the suggestion, using her free hand to coax the locker open in the way she normally would. For a few seconds, it didn’t seem to do anything. Thankfully after that though, the sentient storage space started to emit a low-pitched giggle, before finally opening its mouth wide again.

Once it did so though, both Willow and Skara were sent tumbling backwards, and onto the ground. 

“...Ow.” Willow muttered, getting herself onto her feet quickly again. She turned immediately to Skara, and offered her a hand up. “Are you alright?” 

For a second, Skara just looked at the hand. Then at Willow’s face. She didn’t accept it - Instead, getting back onto her feet herself. “I’m just peachy.” 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” 

“...Whatever.” Skara sighed. She walked back to her locker, stuck her hand in again, retrieved what she had been looking for in the first place - Some kind of Bard Brass instrument - closed the locker, and then turned back to Willow. “What do you want?”

An awkward beat passed. “I… I wanted to see if you were alright.” 

“Until about twenty seconds ago - “

“I meant about yesterday.” 

That made Skara stop talking. She just looked at Willow for a few seconds, with an expression that Willow found extremely difficult to read. 

“...I’m fine.” The Bard finally answered. Her voice was a bit more… Strained, though. “About as well as I can be, considering.” 

“That’s… Good.” Willow... Didn’t really know what to say after that. She hadn’t actually thought through what she was going to do once she had approached Skara. 

Another few awkward seconds passed. 

“...I’m glad you’re okay. Considering.” 

Skara’s expression shifted again. An eyebrow was raised ever so slightly. It was still unreadable, but the closest expression Willow could compare it to was confusion. 

“...So is… That it?” The Bard asked, her voice still strained. 

“...More or less.” 

“...Cool. I’m going to class now.” 

With that, Skara speed-walked right by Willow, and in just a few seconds, went around the nearest corner. Willow sighed. It hadn’t exactly gone as planned, but at least Skara had spoken to her. 

That was something. Even if it had been, well, awkward. 

Awkward had to be better than being more or less completely alone though, right?

It wasn’t like she had gone out of her way to look for Skara - Skara had just been there at the time. But it seemed like a good idea, and, aside from the whole arm-trapped-in-locker thing, it wasn’t like Skara had told her to get lost or anything. So, that was something, right? It was an improvement if she considered their history, at least. 

Maybe that was all she could do. Just make sure she was okay if they ever ran into one another. Not to pry, but to let her know that if she ever needed it, at least someone who wasn’t part of this weird… Thing that Skara thought Hexside was, was there. Someone who wasn’t into this weird, stupid ‘strong versus weak’ mentality Skara seemed so adamant about. 

And if that was the case - She was going to have to get used to a little awkwardness.

It didn’t take too long to get used to feeling a little awkward. Willow had spent most of her time at Hexside being picked on by people - She’d gotten used to dealing with feelings she didn’t like a long time ago. This wasn’t anything new. 

Over the next few days, Willow made it a point to, whenever her and Skara’s paths crossed, just check in with her. Only once or twice on the same day. Sometimes, their paths didn’t even cross all day. It wasn’t anything too intrusive - Just approach her, and ask her if she was holding up okay. Skara normally told her that she was fine, and Willow would leave her to it. 

Progressively though, these interactions got slightly friendlier. One thing that Willow had learned from Luz was how to just power on through awkwardness and just be friendly to people, even if she didn’t know them. That was how she had made friends with the 'Troublemakers from the Detention Track, after all. Heck, it was how Willow and Luz had become friends in the first place. It was an effective template, and one Willow tried to use when it came to Skara… If slightly less intense. 

Sometimes, it seemed to work - Skara would talk a little more on some days than on others, but Willow never pushed her luck. At the first visible sign of discomfort, she backed off. 

She couldn’t tell non-visible signs of discomfort though. The heightened pulse, the steep breathing, the racing thoughts. Every time Willow came to ask Skara how she was, the Bard felt a wave of anxiety rush through her.

These non-visible signs of discomfort affected Skara every single time Willow approached her. She didn’t say anything, though, because what exactly could she say? The words never came to her, the first time in her life a Bard just couldn’t find the words. So she let Willow walk to her, let her ask her dumb questions, and let each other go their separate ways.

And it worked out. Mostly.

For a while...

Right after the final bell screamed, a tired and bored Skara picked herself up from her desk and wandered out of her Practical Magic 101 class. 

It hadn’t been the worst day, admittedly. Just the longest one she’s experienced in a while. First she’d had a big test over the various different meanings of musical notes for Bard Magic, which she’d had to study all weekend for. Then, she had to attempt casting a wind spell for her Elemental Magic’s class, which ended up with it quite literally backfiring and sending her hurling into a wall and turning her hair into an untamable mess. 

And the day wasn’t even over yet. She still had to dread the upcoming training for the team's next Grudgby match: Glandus.

Boscha was well known for her… Incredibly stringent attitudes on Grudby practices. She earned her reputation not just at Hexside, but across the entire Isles’ school leagues for demanding every practice be as tough as possible, believing it was the only way to keep her team in the proper shape for such a demanding sport. Fifty times dodging the slicer, avoiding twenty fireballs, and scoring a hundred goals without being hit by an abomination!

And that was just for the rookies.

But even by those standards, Boscha went wild when it came to Glandus. She wasn’t sure if Boscha got possessed by a school spirit during this time, or if she had a bone to pick with the Glandus Phoenix’s, but Skara always felt that the triclops became even more intense in her training whenever they were the next match. Her yelling got louder, her insults more personal, her throws more impactful. Boscha’s already intense training began to make even the most professional of coaches raise an eyebrow and wonder if she was overdoing it just a tad. Her regime was unrealistic even at the best of times, but when it came to matches against Glandus, it was like she expected them to single-handedly face down the Emperor.

Least I’ll get the shorter end of the stick. 

Skara was a bench warmer; her job was to sit on said bench and wait for an injury that the Healing Coven members couldn’t fix in a matter of seconds. Thankfully, even for a sport as intense as Grudgby, a few healing spells were enough to fix a student right up, so Skara didn’t really play much. It had been Boscha’s call when Skara had first joined the team, and well, Skara couldn’t argue it. 

Boscha’s right. That’s for the best, Skara thought to herself, as she stepped into the locker room to change. The last time she tried practicing on her own, she had been the one who had been thrown into the goal, rather than her throwing the ball into it. I’m not exactly built for a game like this. I’m too wiry, too lean. Best I just sit back, use it to look good on a resume. ‘Played on the best Grudgby league in the Boiling Isles high school circuit.’ Not too shabby I guess.

She hadn’t thought about it in a while though. 

After a quick change from her school uniform to her Grudgby uniform, Skara stepped out onto the field. Cat was already running laps around the track, a pair of gryphons close behind, and looking quite hungry. Skara began to walk out to join her.

“You’re late.” A harsh voice spat out with enough venom to put a Slitherbeast to rest. “Two minutes and twelve seconds late, to be exact.”

Freezing up, Skara turned to spot Boscha, leaning right outside the entryway behind her, just lying in wait. Her face was etched with a glower that still sent a shiver up Skara’s back whenever she saw it. Her ‘war paint’ as she’d taken to calling it, usually made her appear to be crying, to match with the Banshee mascot. But today, Boscha had drawn it on more angularly, making it appear as if her eyes had fangs underneath them. She looked just like how Boscha always acted:

Dangerous.

“Sorry,” Skara muttered. She’d gotten here as quickly as she could. “I only just-“

“Look, we didn’t have a game last week, and yeah, you kinda had the whole breakup thing to deal with.” Boscha stepped away from the wall and wrapped an arm around the Bard's neck, in an almost-but-not-quite friendly manner. “So, out of the kindness of my heart, I let you skip practice then.” 

The crook of her elbow tightened slightly, and Skara could feel her neck tighten at the pressure.

“But!” Boscha hissed. “This is the Glandus game, Skara. The biggest game of the year.” Her arm tightened again for a couple of seconds, but she removed it, stepping out from next to Skara to stand in front of her, arms on her hips, all three eyes glaring at the silver haired Bard. “We can’t afford to cut anyone slack. Not even the bench warmer.”

Skara looked down, nodding. “Yeah. Sorry Bosch.” 

“You can show you’re sorry by you and Amelia joining Cat in laps. Fifty of them.”

Looking back into the field, Skara blinked. The sight of gryphons hungrily swiping at teammates as they tried to outrun them wasn’t new to Skara. But she noticed something was, in fact, off about today’s run.

“Uh... Where is Amelia?”

The Grudgby Captain gave her a look. “I thought she was with you. Thought you got caught up gossiping or whatever.”

Skara winced, but shook her head. “Does it look like she’s with me?! Haven’t seen her since lunch.”

Boscha blinked, then groaned. “Well, ain’t that just swell…” She pinched the bridge of her nose, and exhaled. “Okay, I gotta stay here and make sure Cat doesn’t end up as gryphon chow -”

“YOU TOLD ME THESE WERE VEGETARIAN!”

“- You , meanwhile,” Boscha continued, poking Skara in her uniform's gem, “are gonna have to go find our teammate and get her here, so you both can do your seventy-five laps as punishment.”

Skara sighed. “Yeah. Sure. Okay. I got this.” She turned to the entryway. Then, she turned back to Boscha. “Uh… Any idea where that girl might be?”

“If I knew that , I wouldn’t be telling you to go find her, now would I?” Boscha groaned. “I don’t know, go check the Plant Track greenhouse or something. Probably trying to photosynthesise herself a way to get out of her hundred laps. ”

If only for a moment, Skara felt her heart clench. The greenhouse? Where Plant Witches are?

Well, Amelia’s in the plant track so… Yeah, duh. 

But what if… What if Willow’s there? 

The Bard wanted to kick herself. In Boscha’s voice, she asked herself, What’s that, Skara? Scared of half-a-witch?

“No, ‘course not.”

“I’m sorry, you say something?”

Skara froze as Boscha glanced back at her, her attention off of a screaming Cat, who was now being carried off in the talons of the two gryphons, alongside a very unlucky Beastkeeping student.

“Nothing.”

“Good.” Boscha sneered. “Now, get going.”

Following her orders, Skara only nodded and walked away, as Boscha began to yell angrily into the sky.

You’re not scared of Willow.

That’s the dumbest thing ever!

As she wandered Hexside’s halls, Skara’s mind furiously tried to justify this strange, unsettling anxiety she felt as soon as she was sent on her way to the greenhouse.

She’s not intimidating. I’m not even remotely scared of her!

She’s just, kinda…

Annoying! 

Yeah! That’s it. She’s just kinda buzzing around me, all “You ok, Skara,” “Everything alright, Skara.” It gets so irritating. Like, we get it, you don’t have anyone else to bug around, but shoo!

That’s why I keep feeling so worried about seeing her!

After a bit of walking, and accidentally walking down a wrong corridor because she was so wrapped up in her thoughts,  Skara finally reached  the greenhouse door. Stepping up to the window, she peered inside. 

The first thought was that Skara had never seen so much green. Among the copper and rusted colors of the Isles’ flora, she rarely saw plants that weren’t red or orange or yellow. Yet in this room, wall to wall, the room was covered in some of the greenest, liveliest plants the Bard had ever seen. 

And green was, by no means, the only colour there. Only the most common one. Blues and pinks, the usual reds, golds, silvers and indigos… It was so pretty. Maybe, she thought, and if she didn’t have to worry about Willow in the future, she could ask Amilea to let her in here to study sometime. 

The second, thankfully, was Amelia - Her fellow Grudgby player stood with her back to the door, scribbling notes in front of some kind of large looking flower. Skara pumped her fists at the small, minor victory.

Found her! And with Willow nowhere in sight!

She took a deep breath, forced on a smile and peppy attitude. Opening the door, she waved furiously. “Yo! Amie!”

The green haired witch spun on her heels, puzzled, before beaming. “Skara!” She began to rush over.

“We gotta go girl, Boscha’s probably gonna-“

But Skara didn’t get to finish, as Amelia pulled her over to the large plant she had been taking notes next to. “Check out this unbelievable plant for my paired project!”

Skara looked up and had to admit that, size wise, the plant was certainly amazing. It towered over the rest of the plants, almost reaching the impressively tall ceiling. It’s stalk was large and thick as a tree, with a variety of sharp and pointed thorns. It wiggled though, clearly still flexible. At its bottom, it’s roots were so massive that part of them leaked over it’s pot. And at its top, a large, violet bud lay closed, unopened to the wider world.

She whistled at the sight. “Dang. That is impressive, I’ll admit.”

“I know, right!” The smile on Amelia’s face was so wide and joyful that Skara had to wonder the last time she’d seen Amelia remotely this happy. And honestly, she was drawing a blank. Amelia twirled, then presented the flower, arms outstretched, grinning. “A real adult Vehemence Witch Trap! One of the single largest plants this side of the Boiling Isles!” 

“ One of?” Skara asked, nervous to see whatever plant could possibly top this .

“Yeah!” Amelia could hardly contain her excitement. “Can you BELIEVE our teacher let us study this thing as freshmen?  “I call this one Amelia II. It’s AMELIA-ZING!”

Skara groaned at the pun, but let herself smile, just a little. “Oh? So that’s how we’re putting it now?”

“Trying something out, seeing if it sticks, ya know,” Amelia said coyly, still unable to repress her abundant glee.

Skara had to admit that, honestly, it was nice seeing Amelia so excited. She never acts like this with Grudgby. 

“Must really love this plant stuff huh?”

Amelia nodded. “Yeah! It’s really neat. And especially awesome if you have a partner to help you study it.”

“Really?” Skara asked, glancing around the room. “Cause it looks like they’re... Kinda not here right now?”

Amelia shook her head. “Oh, Willow’ll be back in a bit. Just needed to grab some blood meal’s all.”

The Bard’s blood ran cold.

“What did you-“

“Okay, I’m back, I - Oh! Hey, Skara!” An all too familiar voice called out, coming out from behind the Witch Trap, carrying two large, whole bags of blood meal on her shoulders. “Whatcha guys talking about?”

Feeling her nails and fingers dig into her thighs, Skara made herself grit that friendly voice.

“How Amelia and I should be at Grudgby practice.”. Her demeanor shifted, with her body attempting a casual exterior, while her inner self tensed. Right now, her goal was to just get out of here with Amelia.

“Wait… That was…” Amelia stuck out her tongue, visibly trying to remember exactly when the next Grudgby practice was. Then, her eyes widened. “Oh, Titan ! That was today!” Amelia slapped her forehead, groaning. “I got so lost in my project I completely forgot about practice!”

Skara turned her eyes to Amelia, trying to avoid looking any further at Willow, nodding. “Yeah. Probably should get a move on. Boscha’s not happy on a good day, but with Glandus? We’ll be lucky if we can feel anything at all in the morning.” She tried to keep her voice full of that faux-peppiness. With Willow around though, that was a failing effort now. 

Amelia sighed. “I’ll head out - I just need to check up on a few of the plants in the back, a few minor things is all. Promise, won’t take more than five minutes!”

Skara tried to protest, to tell her that, no, they had to leave right now - But before she could say anything, Amelia had already shoved her notes into Skara’s hands and ran to a door in the back of the greenhouse, leaving Skara and Willow alone.

Skara looked down, trying to avoid looking at Willow, attempting to ignore her, pretending she wasn’t there.

If I can’t see her…

But of course, that logic didn’t exactly pan out.

“Hey,” Willow said. Her voice was gentle. Insufferably so. “You doing ok?”

Skara remained silent.

“...I’ll... Take that as a no, then?”

Skara glanced up slightly, trying to avoid looking directly at Willow, but failing miserably. She saw the Plant Witch looking at her with a concerned face. That same concern she’d shown time and time again, ever since that day she found Skara all alone, crying over Ves. That progressively more and more kind-sounding, and friendly-seeming concern. 

The same concern that… Annoyed Skara.

“No, actually.” She mumbled. “I’m fine.”

The smallest hint of doubt crept onto Willow’s face. “That’s… good. But if somethings bugging you-“

“Yeah. You.” 

Something in Skara snapped. 

She looked up, scowling, at Willow. “I am fine,” Skara repeated. She held up a finger, and as she spoke, rose one after another. “Just like I was the last time you asked me. And the last time. And did I mention the time before that?”

“Skara-“

“I am FINE !” She yelled. Where this had all come from, she didn’t know, but now that it was pouring out, it wouldn’t stop. “I’ve been FINE this entire time, but, what, you just think I can’t handle myself, is that it?”

“I didn’t even-“

“Well I CAN handle myself!” She shouted, even louder. “I don’t need you buzzing around me, checking up on me like you actually care!”

“Skara, calm down ple-“

“I. AM . CALM! ” Skara shouted. In the ultimate display of just how calm she was, Skara slammed her hand full of Amelia’s notes down onto a nearby table on her last syllable. Her breathing could be heard from behind gritted teeth.

Behind her eyes, Skara suddenly felt a strange sensation. One that wiggled into her brain and burrowed its way into her mind. She rubbed her head, trying to push it out. No luck. 

“Ergh, great.” She muttered, her fingers digging into her temples. “ Great . Now I’ve got a headache. Shows how much good you’ve done for me.”

“Skara,” Willow stated, slowly, deliberately. She took a single step, and held both her hands  in front of her, open. “Back. Away. Very. Slowly. From. The. Giant. Plant.”

“Oh?” She asked, her voice mockingly mimicking Willow’s. “And. Why. Should. I. Do. That?”

Willow slowly pointed above Skara. 

Skara lifted her head upwards.

The giant bud atop the monstrously large flower had fully opened, revealing an even more monstrously horrifying face underneath. Each of its dozens of thin, wiry petals were dotted with dozens of eyes, and the outer reaches of its petals dotted with sharp, carnivorous teeth. The teeth wobbled, some sort of plant-saliva coating them, and the irises shook as they darted in a dozen different directions. Its titanic roots, once trapped underneath its soil, were now so massive they overflowed from it’s pot, leaking over the sides and onto the floor. And surrounding it, a shadowy crimson aura, adding a touch of demonic energy to the already frightening appearance.

It growled at Skara. 

“...Oh. That’s why.”

The Witch Trap roared in response, shooting out a dark purple liquid from it’s gaping maw. 

“GET DOWN!”  

There wasn’t any point to remaining still or quiet anymore - Willow sprinted towards Skara and dragged the pair of them out of flower’s way. She dragged the Bard from the open, and behind the nearest solid object that she could put between them and the plant - One of the pillars that held the roof up. 

Having lost sight of the two of them during its attack, the plant continued to screech it’s horrific screech, lashing out around itself randomly. 

Shaken from what had just happened, and why in the Titan’s name that the flower had just started to lose it’s mind and become so aggressive all of a sudden, Skara whispered, ”What just happened?”

No answer came. Willow just turned, and pressed her finger against her lip, telling Skara to hush. “Follow me.” She said, rushing to a nearby table lined with other plants, most of which were cowering from their larger cousin. Skara did, rolling underneath the table.

“What just happened?” Skara repeated with a hiss. A loud clatter followed as a table on the other side of the room was flipped over. “And more importantly, how do we stop that thing?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure I know why it became aggressive,” Willow muttered. “But I’m not sure you’re gonna like it.”

“What? What is it?”

“It’s reacting like this because of you.”

“...What.” Skara asked, incredulously raising an eyebrow. “How-”

“Look closely .” Willow whispered, pointing back to the now flailing flower. “Look at the colors of the aura.”

“Well, it’s very red…”

“Anything else?”

Squinting slightly, Skara noted the darkish red color again. She was going to ask what she was looking for before she noticed something. Another color, less apparent and much smaller, in tiny specks, but still there in the glow.

“Ok, I think I see some silver.”

“Yes!”

“And that means… What exactly?”

“The Vehemence Witch Trap’s usually a docile flower,” Willow explained. “But if it senses intense emotions, it’ll worm its way into your head, sense all your emotions, and it won’t stop until the emotions are gone. And the aura uses the colors of the Witch the Vehemence is associating with.” Willow pointed at Skara’s silver hair. “And, given your track, your hair, and your attitude, I think it’s associating with you.”

“Well, is there any other way to stop it?”

The flower began to hack and wheeze, and a second later, out flew a witch’s skull.

“...Not unless you wanna be the next skull it hacks up.” Willow muttered.

“Why would they give a plant that eats people based on how intense their emotional state is to teenagers ?!”

“Don’t you play a sport where you almost get sliced in half once a quarter?!”

“Okay, but - “

“Oh WOW!”

The two turned their attention away from the flower to right next to it, where Amelia stood, holding her Grudgby uniform and face paint.

“You’re awake! Ooooh, I've never seen a Vehemence Witch Trap so lively before!”

A small root slithered towards Amelia’s leg, but she didn’t seem to notice.

“AME!” Skara shouted, no longer caring if she gave away her location. “RUN! THAT THING’S GONNA EAT YOU”!

“Oh, don’t be so silly,” Amelia said, dismissing Skara’s fear - Also apparently not questioning why her friend was hiding under a table. “Amelia II would never try to eat it’s own mother, right?”

She then noticed the root wrapped around her ankle.

“Uh oh.”

With a flick of its root, the second Amelia flung the first into the air, launching tendrils from its jaws to wrap around its new prey.

“AMELIA!” Skara and Willow cried in unison.

A single second passed. 

Then the plant swallowed her whole.

“HEY!” Skara shouted, running out from under the table. “LET MY FRIEND GO, YOU OVERGROWN WEED!” As the Trap turned to her, Skara spun a spell circle, summoning a harp from thin air.

“SKARA, WAIT!” Willow shouted. 

But the second Skara grabbed her harp, Willow’s plea fell on deaf ears. Clutching the strings, she began to play a fierce battle tune, a riff that roared to life and sent waves of magic-infused sound waves to reverberate inside the Witch Trap’s cell walls. 

A direct hit.

It roared at the sensation, but before she could so much as grin at the success of the hit, Skara’s headache suddenly, and very sharply returned in full force. She fell to her knees, dropping her harp and clutching the sides of her head.

“Owwww!” 

Willow rushed out after Skara, standing between the Bard and the plant. “That thing’s in your head! If you hurt it, it’ll only hurt you worse!”

“Yeah,” Skara mumbled. Her hands gripped against her skull. “Kinda… Wish I figured that out a bit sooner…”

The flower roared again, this time growing up to the ceiling as its roots thickened and writhed along the ground. It was like a feedback loop - The more Skara’s head hurt, and the worse this made her feel, the more the plant continued to grow. Pretty soon, the room wouldn’t be able to contain the thing. 

“Can’t you… I don’t know!” Skara cried. “Get it to stop with plant magic?”

Willow held out her hands, a green glow emanating from them as she tried shoving them forward as hard as she could. From around her, the surrounding plants became imbued with power, some growing in size, some growing from seemingly nowhere. They began to tackle the flower, throwing themselves at the Vehemence to combat the attacking monstrosity. The flower only screamed louder. 

“I can hold it back a bit, but I can’t stop it!” She hissed, straining as though she herself were fighting the attacking plant. “If I try to, it’ll only hurt you, and maybe Amelia inside of it!”

“Then HOW DO WE GET OUT OF THIS ?”

“First you need to calm down!”  

One of her arms fell to her side, and for a second, she grunted with strain as all the weight of her Magic was transferred into the one arm. With that done, Willow was able to turn to face the Bard Witch. Skara’s own eyes widened as she saw the Plant Witch’s eyes glow green, but neither mentioned it. 

“Skara, I think whatever your problem with me is, it’s what’s causing the Vehemence to go crazy!”

“What are we supposed to do about that?!” 

“Just - Just tell me what the problem is!” 

“Wait, seriously?!” Skara shouted, shuffling back to her feet. “This thing’s only gonna stop trying to kill us if we have a therapy session?!”

“I don’t know if it’ll work!” Willow grunted, and her body jerked slightly, as though being pulled by an invisible force. “But do you really want to waste time on trying to find something else?”

For a moment, Skara stroked her chin, genuinely considering which would be more painful.

“SERIOUSLY?!”

“Ok, ok! Fine!” Skara relented and groaned. It wasn’t like they had much of a choice. “Well… Well, you’ve been pretty annoying, with all your going out of your way to check up on me! I don’t like it!”

“Fine!” Willow grunted, clearly losing the battle to keep the Trap under control. “I’m sorry, okay?! I won’t do it again! Does that help?!”

Skara thought about it for a moment.

“...No,” She realized. “No it doesn’t…”

It didn’t do anything for her - Not in the slightest . 

And that in and of itself bothered Skara far more than any interaction they had. Every time Willow spoke to her, that irritation, that wriggling, skin crawling feeling always made itself known to her. Getting rid of Willow should have gotten rid of that feeling, shouldn’t it? But it didn’t. 

Why in the Titan’s name didn’t it?

“Then it’s got to be something else!” Willow shouted. She stepped back, hung her head a tad as she tried to push back again. She swung her free hand back into things, trying to steady the incoming assault. “Skara, think! It’s gotta be something more than that!”

“Well, what more could it be?” Skara shook her, rubbing her temples. “You keep coming to me, trying to talk to me, poking me and prodding me, ever since…” Skara stopped, and turned to Willow. “Wait! That’s it!” She looked at Willow, pointing a finger. “ARE YOU TRYING TO GET ME TO FESS UP STUFF ABOUT VES TO DATE HIM?!”

For a second, Willow didn’t move. 

Then, she spun around, eyes no longer glowing, a face of utter bewilderment .

“WHAT?”

It was all the Vehemence needed to break free of Willow, launching a tendril at the two girls, knocking them atop table, Willow collapsing on top of Skara. Both of them laid for a moment in a daze. The plant’s continued to attack the Vehemence, but now with Willow so weak and distracted, the flower was able to slap most away like they were nothing.

“I’m sorry, what,” Willow repeated, pushing herself off of Skara. “You.. you think I like Ves?!”

“Well, why else would you be going after me ever since we broke up?” Skara scuttled off her back, trying to avoid touching the dirt from fallen and broken plants. “You probably saw an opportunity to learn allll about him and took it, right?”

“That’s... First of all - I don’t - I don’t even like g…” Willow shook her head. “Skara, I don’t like Ves, I don’t even know the guy!”

“Then, then you’re trying to humiliate me!” Skara snapped back. “You want to try and make me look weak and stupid so you can get everyone to laugh at me!” She was grasping at straws. 

She knew it too.

Willow blinked again. “I told you this when you thought I started the rumours, I’m not-“

“Or, or you’re trying to make me think you care, then just pull the rug from under me and-“

“Skara, why would you think any of that?!” Willow looked stunned again, though the original horror was replaced with something closer to the concern she showed whenever she asked if she was okay.

This was why Willow had been so concerned, so determined to make sure Skara was okay - Because whatever this was about, whatever this was - This wasn’t okay.

“Do you actually think I’m that sort of a person?!” She questioned. The plants defending the two began to get weaker and weaker. “I don’t care about that kind of thing! I keep telling you that! Why do you think that I -”

“BECAUSE WHO AM I IF YOU’RE STRONGER THAN ME?!!”

The two grew silent. Skara clutched herself, as if she was the only life preserver in the whole of the Boiling Sea. She looked away, trying to avoid eye contact with anything.

“Just… I… I should be able to handle this by myself, should be able to just get over this stupid breakup but… But I can’t. I can’t , okay?!” 

Her hands gripped onto herself and her teeth gritted further. She felt so beyond weak, she hated it.

“I’m supposed to be tough, supposed to be able to handle myself, supposed to not be broken up by stupid things like this but - But I can’t! I’m on the Grudgby team, I’m one of the top Bards in my class! I hang out with Boscha for Titan’s sake! You don’t get to show any weakness around them - You don’t get to! I should be able to handle this! And!... And it sucks, because…”

Teeth gritted together even tighter. 

“...You’ve been the only person who seems to genuinely care about it. Amelia, Cat, even Bo, they’ve asked, but you’re the only one who just keeps making sure, asking me if I need anything, and I feel so helpless, so frail and… And I gotta know. W hy ? After everything, why do you keep asking? It can’t be ‘cause you like me. It can’t be ‘cause we’re friends. So… So just-”

“Because I know what it’s like.”

Skara blinked, cocking an eyebrow. “To break up with Ves?”

Willow sighed, shaking her head. “To feel alone. To have no one to care about you.” She looked Skara dead in the eyes. “Skara, I told you this back when I first found you crying, didn’t I? I spent a lot of my childhood with barely any friends. After Amity left, I didn’t have any friends. Just… A lot of bullies.”

Like her. Skara winced.. 

“...Look, Skara. I’m not trying to be your therapist. I know I don’t owe you anything, that I can leave you alone and be… Totally fine. But when I saw you, crying, all alone…” 

She sighed.

“...I saw myself, Skara. When Amity left me alone. So, I decided to be the kind of person I needed back then.”

Skara looked deep into Willow’s green eyes. No matter how deeply she looked, though, Skara never spotted anything resembling a lie in them.

“And… Maybe that was wrong of me. Maybe I shouldn’t be trying to get involved in your personal life. If… If you want me to stop, just say so. We can stop talking, go about our separate lives. Pretend none of this happened. All you have to do is tell me.”

There was a beat. Skara took a moment, lost in thought as she contemplated what exactly Willow was asking.

She opened her mouth.

And then she blinked. “Hey, uh… W - Wasn’t there like... A giant flower trying to murder us?”

Willow’s eyebrows raised. 

Both girls turned, then gasped. The once monstrous flower, though still large, had shrunk to its original size. The bud had returned to its original closed shape, and the aura had disappeared. The few plants that hadn’t been knocked over or been destroyed seemed to raise their leaves in victory, before collapsing entirely.

“...Huh. I think calming down got it to let you go,” Willow said, triumphantly, and with an exhausted smile. “Can you still feel it in your head?”

Skara raised a hand to the side of her head. “I… I don’t think so, actually.” She grinned. “No more headache, no more weird tendril feeling… I… I think it’s gone now.”

“I’m… Surprised that it worked to be honest.” The Plant Witch shrugged. “Okay, let’s see about getting Amelia out of that thing before-”

“Before what , exactly?”

The two girls jumped, turning to spot a very angry Boscha, accompanied by a very scratched and torn up Cat, leaning against the Grudgby Captain, her hair erratic and her glasses crooked. 

“So dizzy… So many claws… So little blood… In my system…”

“Boscha -” Skara began, but Boscha glared at her.

“So, I send you out to find my missing player, and I find you canoodling with half-a-witch while  Amelia’s ‘stuck,’ apparently?”

“We weren’t-” Willow began indignantly, then stopped, sighed, and rubbed at her forehead. “Nevermind. I’m gonna try to save Amelia.” She jumped up onto a nearby desk so that she could reach the head of the enormous plant, and then raised her hands up to Amelia II’s bulb. Her eyes glowed green, ever so lightly. “C’mon, Amelia II. Spit out mommy.”

The flower began to hack and flail, until finally, it spat out Amelia’s Grudgby uniform, where it fell unceremoniously onto the ground. 

“AMELIA!” Cat cried out, whatever intense haze she’d been under from the blood loss temporarily overtaken by horror. She rushed over to it, clutching the slime covered uniform to her chest, sobbing. “Amelia… why… you were so young…”

The flower began to hack again, and this time it hacked out the original Amelia. She slid across the floor, to Willow’s feet, before stopping.

“OH THANK THE TITAN,” Cat cried, dropping the uniform and rushing over to the unconscious Plant witch. “ARE YOU OK?” She took her friend’s arm, placing two fingers against her wrist. “Oh, Titan’s mercy, I got a pulse!”

“I… I now know the smell of Death,” Amelia mumbled, slowly opening her eyes. “It’s… A lot like vinegar, actually.”

“Okay, Amelia, how many fingers am I holding up?”

The correct answer to Cat’s question was three.

Amelia’s answer was to bite them.

“Ouch!” Cat hissed, shaking her hand.

“Hmmmm… Tasty…”

“Ooookay, what’s wrong with her?” Skara asked, kneeling over her. As she did, she noticed Amelia’s eyes. Normally a dark olive green, her pupils had now overtaken the surrounding color. And the rest of her eye to boot. “Oh, Titan! Anything we can do?”

“I - I don’t know.” Cat sighed. “I’ll... Take her to the Healers Office.” She helped Amelia up to her feet, then wrapped an arm over her shoulder to steady her. “C’mon, girl. Let’s get you some help.”

“Okay, pretty bunny,” Amelia muttered, toying with Cat’s hair.

“Uh, it’s Cat.”

“Okay, very pretty Cat.”

If Skara didn’t know any better, she could have sworn that she could see the faint outline of a blush on Cat’s cheeks.

Boscha watched on as Cat limped out of the room with Amelia, her back to Skara and Willow. She didn’t make any move for a moment.

Then, she spun around, all three of her eyes filled with fire and brimstone.

“You!”

She pointed a very angry finger at Willow’s chest.

“You did this!”

Willow stood, somewhat shocked at the fierce anger. “What? Boscha, I didn’t-”

“Y ou did this to try to ruin our big Glandus game, is that it, ” She growled. Even by Boscha’s standards, she was angry. She spun around, quickly forming a spell circle. A purple fireball formed in front of her, and she aimed it directly at Amelia II. “Well, if THAT’S how you wanna play-”

“NO!” Willow shouted. Her eyes began to glow, but before she could act- 

“STOP!” Skara shouted, stepping in front of Boscha’s fireball. “Willow didn’t do it! I did!”

The other two girls stared at Skara, clearly surprised. Even Skara didn’t entirely understand what she was doing. All she knew was that, in this moment, standing directly in front of a fireball was the right thing to do.  

And also probably very stupid but she was there now, and had already all but hung herself with her own words, so, no backing out now, anyway. 

Boscha glared down at Skara. She said nothing, then sneered. “Oh?”

Skara pursed her lips. “Well, I… I kinda got angry. And that apparently makes the plant act wild and well, it... Went wild. And…” Skara looked over, and spotted her harp, still lying where she’d dropped it during the fight. Holding her arm outstretched, it came flying towards her hand. “And if you want to burn anything, burn this! I hurt Ame, so...”

For a second, it looked as if Boscha was about to do just that.

But the purple flame was snuffed out, and Boscha’s sneer turned into a smirk.

“...Okay then.” Her tone was much more relaxed. Friendlier , even. 

And it chilled Skara to her bone.

“W-wait. You’re not gonna burn my harp?”  

“Why would I?” Boscha said. She wrapped an arm around Skara’s shoulders. “After all - I’m down a man.” 

Skara froze. “W-what?”

“Oh, didn’t ya hear me, benchwarmer?” Now the voice showed hints of Boscha’s usual anger. Her arm tightened again. “I can’t train a full team with only two people - So until Amelia is back and ready to go…” 

A grin appeared. 

“...Guess who’s filling in for her.” 

And everything that that entails, Skara realized. 

A hundred laps while being chased by hungry gryphons suddenly didn’t sound too bad. Or fighting a giant emotion-eating plant monster, for that matter. 

Boscha let her go, and all but marched out of the Track room. “Come on.” She barked, firmly, not waiting for Skara at all. 

“...Great.” Skara muttered to herself. “Just… Great…” She turned to look back at Willow, and then around the utterly disarrayed room. “I er… Sorry. About the room.” And that was all that she said, before sighing, and following Boscha back outside. 

Leaving Willow to ponder what she had just witnessed. 

And the fact that she never got an answer to her question.

Chapter Text

“You’re sure that you’re okay, right?” 

“I’m fine, Gus, really.” Willow assured her friend for perhaps the twentieth time since she had begun explaining what had happened to him. She had to let out an ever-so-slightly exasperated exhale as she did so, but let herself smile just a small bit too. “I’m totally fine. No broken bones, or poisonous cuts or bites or anything.” 

Luz and Amity had been made to stay behind after school - Apparently due to some… Very colourfully described antics by one of their teachers that Willow didn’t even try to make sense of. Whatever had happened, they had to stay behind leaving her and Gus to make their way back to Bonesborough alone. 

Although Willow adored Luz, and her friendship with Amity was mending itself more and more with each passing day, and in spite of the relevance that Amity might have had to the situation, Willow wasn’t sure about talking about the incident with Skara in the Plant Track homeroom with either of them. Her choice to… Approach Skara like she had been doing for the last week had been a personal one, and one that she wanted to keep personal. She didn’t like lying to her friends if it was avoidable, but she wanted to respect Skara’s privacy, and that had taken precedence in her mind, especially given how upset Skara was at the idea of her situation being mentioned to others.

So she kept it to herself. She was close to Gus though - Very close. Given everything that they had been through together over the years at Hexside, and how they had been social outcasts for the longest time, it was unavoidable. She trusted him with her life. 

When he mentioned seeing Amelia and Cat heading towards the Healers Infirmary, saying that when he saw them, it seemed like they were coming from the Plant Track homeroom, and asked if she knew anything about it - Willow was in the same Track as Amelia, after all - Willow told him, under the condition that he not repeat it to anyone else. About her checking in with Skara, and about what happened in her homeroom. 

She didn’t mention why though, nor how she found Skara crying last week, nor why she was checking in with her - All she said was that Skara looked upset and that if she saw her, she would check in with her and make sure she was alright. She wasn’t going to play into the fears Skara had about rumours spreading. And Gus respected that, and swore himself to secrecy. 

It didn’t mean he was happy with what he had heard though. 

“I didn’t mean physically.” He clarified. 

There was a pause. 

He let out a sigh. “...How’s Amelia? D’you know?” 

“As far as I know, she’s gotta stay with the Healers overnight.” Willow explained. “Vehemence Witch Traps are… Not the greatest plant to get almost eaten by. She should be okay, just... Might take a while.” 

“...I thought that Boscha and her crew learned their lesson after that Grudgby game.” Gus grumbled. “They’ve left us alone since. I thought we’d gotten past it.” 

His anger was understandable, Willow knew. He had put up with as much taunting and mockery from Boscha’s crew as she had, almost exclusively because he refused to abandon her when it began. 

But still.

“It wasn’t… Entirely Skara’s fault, you know.” 

“All you were doing was making sure she was okay.” The Illusionist argued. “And she snaps at you for that, riles up your plant, and Amelia gets thrown into the Healers Infirmary! That’s not on you, Willow!” 

“It’s not fair to put Amelia on her, Gus. She didn’t know about the Witch Trap. And it only got riled up because I… I was making things worse, apparently.” Willow sighed. Her mind floated back, remembering the things said in the exchange. 

What, you just think I can’t handle myself, is that it?

I don’t need you buzzing around me, checking up on me like you actually care!

I am FINE!

It was… Obvious that she wasn’t. And by the end of that entire incident, she had admitted as much. How the break-up had affected her as much as it had, how weak it made her feel. How alone it made her feel. How she was forcing on a smile. 

Yet… She didn’t tell Willow if she wanted her to leave her alone or not.  She’d made it clear that she didn’t like Willow approaching her, and Willow told her she just had to say so but… She never did. 

And now, Willow wasn’t sure what to do. 

Gus sighed as well. “I should give her a piece of my mind - “

“ Do not do that.” Willow said immediately, giving him a very stern, and very serious expression. “I’m serious. She’s… She’s got enough going on as is.” 

On top of her break-up now, and how difficult she said it was for her, Willow remembered how Boscha had spoken to her. What she now had on her plate, and the way that she reacted to it. That entire environment she was in, just… Whatever that all was. She didn’t need more piling on top of that. 

For a moment, Gus looked away. His hands had been balled up into fists, but after a couple of seconds, they relaxed. “...Okay. I won’t, but… Look, Willow. You know I’ve got your back no matter what, right?” 

“...Yes?” 

“I won’t say anything to anyone but… It sounds to me like she doesn’t want your help. And if she doesn’t want your help, then…” 

Another sigh escaped Willow. She… Never did get an answer to if Skara wanted her to leave her alone. All she knew for a fact was that Skara wasn’t comfortable when she did check in on her. 

What was she supposed to do? 

“...Maybe.”

Skara liked to try to find the joy in just about anything. 

It had been difficult, especially recently, with Ves and Willow and the Vehemence Witch Trap and everything else, but Skara had started to try to return to her old self. And a part of that was trying to see the good in things as they came her way.

When she got a C+ on her music note test, she thought about how she could have gotten a C, or worse. When she tripped her way down the stairs after rushing out of Hexside too fast, she took it as a reminder that slow and steady wins at life. 

And when she spotted Ves for the first time in weeks walking down the hall, cramming herself inside of a nearby locker certainly gave her an appreciation for its toothy inner workings.

Okay, some of her efforts were a little more forced than others, but she was trying at least.

She was nowhere near her normal self - That was for sure. All of that pain and sadness was still there, she was just… Trying to let something else be there too. 

Sometimes she failed. Most times, actually. But she was so sick of feeling miserable so she tried, at least. She tried to find the joy in anything that she could.

Except for getting up at four in the morning on a school day so she could endure an impromptu Grudgby training session.

That was… Completely devoid of joy.

Of anything even resembling joy, for that matter. 

“Com’n, Skara! Put your back into it!”

“I… am… Boscha!” Skara strained out. “I don’t… know how… you can’t tell… you’re... literally… on... my back!…”

Skara mentally attempted to keep count of just how many push-ups she'd managed to pull off while Boscha sat atop her, yelling to ‘motivate’ her. 

Normally push-ups weren’t the most difficult thing in the world. Doing a ton of them in a row was more difficult, but after Skara had joined the Grudgby team at Boscha’s behest, even though she was the benchwarmer, she had been made to join in the physical fitness portions of training, if not the strategies or plays. She’d gotten fairly decent at, at the very least, keeping up with the rest of the team, if only for a short while. 

Not that that was good enough for Boscha anymore - Now that Skara was needed to help train the others, Boscha was pushing her to the nth degree. To that end, when Skara had dropped to perform her set, Boscha had come and sat crossed-legged on Skara’s back, just to make it that bit more excruciating.

Doing push-ups with someone on your back, it turned out, was difficult. Everything today had been difficult. Extraordinarily so. 

Boscha’s new training methods were… Certainly creative, to say the least. If Skara didn’t know any better, she’d guess that Boscha was enjoying putting her teammates through hell. 

“Two-hundred forty…eight!...” Skara exhaled, from behind gritted teeth, with muscles so weak she could barely feel them anymore. “Two-hundred forty… Nine!… Two-hundred and-“

She could barely finish as she collapsed onto the grass, her breath feeling heavier than the weights she’d been made to lift earlier. Her arms felt like they had escaped to some sort of ethereal plane of existence, one that was very damp and sore, where physical touch was a long distant memory. She couldn’t even feel her hands. 

“So… Tired… Crave… Void...”

“Hey er… Boscha?” Cat walked out, similarly panting and covered in sweat from running laps. “I think… Me and Skara… Kinda did enough.”

Boscha stared at her for a moment, before sighing, and looking at her watch. She looked at it for a few seconds, before actually standing up and finally getting off of Skara. “Alright, fine. It’s thirty minutes until classes start. Guess we should hit the showers and get ready.” She quickly began sprinting towards the locker room. “I call the good shower that actually runs hot water!”

A part of Skara actually wanted to call that out; Boscha had done the absolute least amount of work out of any of them - Nevermind that she was barely even sweating, she could still actually move , for Titan’s sake - At the very least, either her or Cat should be allowed to call dibs on the one decent shower, right? 

Apparently not though - And honestly, she was way too exhausted to even remotely care right now. 

“I’m just gonna… Lay here. Forever.” She muttered. What little strength was left in her arm, she used to try to make a waving-away motion. “”I’ll… See you all in the next plane of existence.”  

There was the slightest laugh that followed from Cat. “Come on, Skara, get up.” 

Skara groaned as Cat helped her up onto her feet. Cat looked absolutely exhausted too, but she had been on the main team for a while now, so she was a bit more used to the demanding training regimen. 

“So… How d’you think your first early practice went?” She offered Skara a water bottle once she was on her feet - And right now, water sounded like it was worth its weight in gold.

Quickly, Skara swiped the bottle, gulping down nearly the entire thing in a single swig. Normally, she would have tried to be polite, or appear thankful, or at least try to show a modicum of grace in what she was doing, but after such an intense workout, all Skara was focused on was catching her breath, making her throat less dry, and getting some sensation back into her body.

“Thanks.” She panted, returning the bottle. She took a few moments to catch her breath again before answering. “And… I… I have no idea… I’m.. So exhausted…”

“They’ll do that to you.” Cat nodded, though she did let herself smile slightly at Skara’s reactions. “Unless you’re Boscha, apparently. She thrives under these practices.”

“Boscha barely did anything.” Skara muttered.

“Well… Fair point…” A slight pause. “Anyway though, you did well. It… Gets a lot easier, promise.”

“I hope so. I don’t… I’m not built for this kinda thing.” 

“You’ll get there.” 

Another slight pause.

“Is… Is Amelia doin’ okay? Is she gonna be ready for the Glandus game, or in time for next practice, even?” 

It wasn’t meant to sound as selfish as it had come out. Skara did care if Amelia was okay, genuinely. But a small part of Skara also liked the idea that, if she felt better sooner rather than later, maybe Skara would be allowed to escape another one of these nightmare training sessions.

Cat gave her a slight look for a moment, and then sighed. “Well, she doesn’t think I’m a literal cat now.”

“Hey, that’s awesome! That’s progress, right?”

“Er… kinda? Now she thinks she’s some sort of lizard queen, so…”

“...Oh.” Skara’s face fell. “So... Not a ton of progress, then?”

“No, I’m afraid.” Cat shook her head. One of her hands came up to her mouth, and she bit on one of her nails. “Still saying crazy things she never would unless she was under some sort of spell, like being the lizard queen, or talking about ‘moon pants’, whatever those are supposed to be, or telling me how she thinks I’m pretty and funny and that she really really really- ” She cut herself off. 

At this point, Skara began to raise an eyebrow at Cat’s descriptions “You er, doin’ alright?” 

“I - I’m fine. Anyway, the, uh, other Healers insist she’ll be ok, that it’ll just involve a little blood magic to get it out of her system. But they don’t see these sorts of cases every day. It’s usually the normal stuff baby student’s go through, like deep gashes and torn limbs. But a hallucinogenic like this? It, er… It might take them more time than we hoped.”

The former benchwarmer felt a pang of guilt as she remembered just why exactly Amelia was in such a sorry state. Maybe if I hadn’t been such a baby about… her…

Unfortunately, Cat, being a Healer, and not an Oracle, was unable to read that Skara did not want to be reminded of a certain other plant Witches name.

“Hey, you doing ok? You’ve been kinda out of it since the whole Willow thing.”

Skara felt her entire body physically cringe at the reminder, both from Cat calling Willow by name and at her asking the same question she always had.

“I’m… I’m fine. Swear on the Titan.”

It wasn’t a full lie, sort of. On one hand, the breakup that had consumed her for so long had begun to fade to the back of her mind. It was now more a creeping spider then howling yeti; still there, but much more out of sight.

The problem, sadly, was that it had been replaced entirely with frustrations over Willow. 

Why she still felt so frustrated over this, Skara wasn’t sure. Willow had been the one bugging her, poking her, prodding her… It wasn’t Skara’s fault she’d gotten frustrated over it. Right?

Well it’s not like that’s a great help for Amelia…

“Well, ok,” Cat said, smiling as politely as possible. It was clear she didn’t believe Skara, but she didn’t press on.

“Uh, tell Amelia I hope she gets better soon, ‘kay? And… That I’m sorry? I don’t have the time to go myself, but-”

“I gotcha.” Cat nodded. “I’ll tell her, promise.”

She patted Skara on the back and waved her off as she jogged to the lockers, probably hoping to grab the second best shower, the one that might, on occasion, once in a blue moon, could actually produce hot water. 

Skara, though, stayed on the field. She sat herself down, legs crossed, as she placed her chin in her hand.

Why… Why can’t I just stop thinking about what happened? Why can’t I just move on?

She groaned, plopping herself onto her back. Sure, a Grudgby field was the most dangerous place to simply sit and rest in the entire school, but at least if she was crushed or cut open or eaten she wouldn’t have to face Hexside or Boscha or Willow…

Another groan - It didn’t make even the remotest bit of sense. It made so little sense, it frustrated her beyond measure. 

Why? Willow hasn’t tried talking to me since that stupid plant attack. I can just ignore her in classes. 

It had been what she had wanted since it had begun. Willow was leaving her alone. 

After the incident with the giant flower, she knew that Willow leaving her be wasn’t the be-all end-all fix to her problems. She knew that, but it didn’t change the fact that it had bugged her that Willow kept trying to talk to her -  She hadn’t been wrong on that. And now, Willow was leaving her alone. She had gotten what she wanted. 

And it only seemed to make things worse . And it didn’t make any sense. 

Sometimes, Skara would see Willow in the corridors, in the halls, just around Hexside, and she’d feel… Bad. It was impossible to properly describe. It seemed like Willow just did everything in her power to avoid looking at Skara, or being near her in the slightest, and it all just… Made her feel bad. 

There’s… There’s no reason I should be this ...

Her mind froze for a second.

...I - I don’t even know. Stupid? Guilty?

She didn’t even know what it was she was feeling right now. 

Only that she didn’t like it. 

The strangely beautiful early morning sky, a mashup of warm oranges and dark hues, was at least a nice sight to see, she supposed, but it wasn’t exactly comforting to Skara in this instance. Though she couldn’t tell if it was because of the utter brutality of the training that Boscha had put them through, or her emotional state that was preventing that. 

Her head fell as she let out another sigh, and as she did so, she spotted a small flower off in her periphery. It had a single stem with a large, white collection of fuzz on it’s top. Skara remembered hearing Amelia call them “Tufts,” or something similar. It seemed frail, almost too frail for the Isles. Like a single burst of concentrated air could send all it’s little pieces out into the sky.

She decided to test that theory. Taking it between her middle and index finger, Skara plucked it from the ground, spinning it as she drew it to her face. Then, with a deep breath, she blew hard onto the tuft, sending all the tiny little seeds out into the world, to create more of these flowers or, more likely, to be eaten by whatever random feral beast wandered into Hexside next.

I just… I hate this. I wish I could just forget all this. That it even happened. That-

Skara heard a loud click from above her. And as an oversized guillotine blade descended upon her, Skara decided it was probably time for her to hit the showers.

One extremely frozen shower later, Skara less walked, and more staggered her way to her locker, about as ready for her day as any other student who started it with an overly intense workout. Her legs felt like jelly, and she had to lean against the walls as she made her way through the halls, just to avoid falling over. 

Hexside was filled up with all sorts of students, and apparently one of those groups were a bunch of fitness-freaks that passed Skara as she tried to reach her locker. She heard something about them ‘Pushing their muscles to the breaking point’ or something, she barely paid any real attention to it. How anyone could enjoy this sort of thing was truly beyond her. 

There was no one on the Isles who could possibly enjoy the sort of torment Boscha had just put her through - Skara outright refused to believe that was possible. 

Thankfully, as she dragged herself towards her lockers, people who had been leaning against the walls moved out of her way, apparently deciding to just not question what the heck she was dragging herself along the walls for. Which was good, because if they asked, Skara didn’t know if she even had the energy to explain. 

And even if she did, it would be extremely difficult for her to properly convey just how little she was exaggerating. 

So she just kept dragging herself along, trying her hardest to just not pay attention to the looks she was getting. She kept on keeping on, through the hallways as quickly as she could manage, before finally making her way towards her locker, and leaning against the wall for just a moment.

“But that wasn’t even the weirdest thing that grew on my head!”

Skara’s heart sunk as she heard the human’s voice, no doubt regaling her friends with some stupid tale from The Owl Lady’s shack or... Wherever. And amongst those friends, she knew one of them had to be…

She tried to ignore it, turning herself to work on opening her locker. It wasn’t incredibly difficult to do, just required knowledge on where to tickle. But she tried to put so much effort into it that she could ignore Luz and Amity and Gus and her as they walked by her, that her locker began to cough - A sign that she was tickling it with far too much effort . 

Looking at her was… the last thing Skara needed. It felt…

...Way too awkward to, at this point.

As Skara finished, Luz’s voice faded, turning across the corner and out of earshot. Skara breathed a sigh of relief. But her wandering eyes couldn’t help but glance over to where they gone, just to make certain she was safe.

The good news was that she seemed gone. But for a moment, their youngest member leaned out, glaring in her direction, almost shooting literal daggers at her as he did.

Skara blinked, and he was gone. 

Her imagination, maybe? She was utterly exhausted. She rubbed her eyes. 

A sudden tap on her shoulder. “Skara?”

“Gah!” 

The Bard jumped, spinning around in surprise as she spotted Bo, now recoiling at the sudden reaction she’d had. 

“O - Oh, Bo!” Skara awkwardly stammered out. “Hey!” 

“Er… Hey.. What, er, what’s got you so jumpy this morning?”

“I, uh… It’s nothing.”

“Oh,” Bo said, biting her lip. Like all of Skara’s friends, it was clear Bo didn’t believe her. “Uh, are you-”

“ Yes , Bo, I’m fine, really, truly, honestly, one hundred percent absolutely positively fine. ” She stopped, realizing just how defensive she sounded. She took a moment to just breathe , and then slowly, exhaled. “I… Sorry. I just-” 

“Student’s of Mr. Basilisk’s classes.” 

Before Skara could attempt to explain, she found herself cut off by the sudden skwarking of the school loudspeakers, and then, Principle Bump’s voice coming through.  

“Today, he has planned for you all a surprise trip to the Knee. Accommodations will be made for any and all students who lack the proper attire for the environment. And… Please, nobody try to feed the Slitherbeasts this time. I can only survive so many spirits haunting me…”

The loudspeaker crackled to a halt. Both Skara and Bo blinked at the news. A surprise trip to the Knee? That was… Odd.

“...Huh.” Bo blinked for a moment, but then smirked, apparently once the news had properly registered in her mind. “Oh, cool!” 

Skara faked a chuckle as her mind raced with trying to figure out who would be coming...

Well, I have him for Ancient BI History, so that means Boscha’ll be with me! And Bo has him in one of her classes, so that shouldn’t be too bad!

But then there’s Luz. And Amity. And Gus. And…

Ten minutes later, and a few hard pulls, Bo finally ended Skara’s plan to once again learn about the shadowy escape of the Hexside lockers.

Field Trips weren’t exactly uncommon with Hexside - A lot of the teachers at the school thought that it was good development for their students to be exposed to as many different environments that the Isles and that Magic had to offer. Even young Witches in the Baby Class would find themselves visiting the Astral Plains or one of the seven Spirit Realms, or to the Skull. Rumour was that even the Emperor himself encouraged it.

Some of those trips were so common that they were presented as a surprise to the classes that went on them. At least, ones that weren’t day-long affairs. If a trip was to take up most of a day, then normally, the class would be informed beforehand. 

That was what made the announcement of the trip today so unusual to Skara. Why hadn’t they been informed beforehand? 

She contemplated all of this as the Flying Boat that was taking them to the Knee flew above Bonesborough, and as she watched her hometown become smaller and smaller as the boat began to fly. Getting to the Knee wouldn’t take all that long at all - It would take less time than it would have taken to get to Glandus, or to the Emperor’s Palace. To that effect, a protective barrier spell had already been cast, designed to keep all the students and the faculty warm from the cold as they approached their destination. 

Skara had taken her seat next to Bo, while Boscha took a seat behind her. Skara didn’t really know what to do the entire trip, what to say or do. She occasionally closed her eyes, tried to catch a few extra minutes of blissful sleep, but a sudden lurch of the boat or a sudden shriek from a random student over one stupid thing or another forced Skara wide awake.

This, she thought, rubbing her eyes after the third time being interrupted, is gonna be a long trip...

Once the flying boat landed, everyone made their way to disembark. When Skara passed the protective barrier and stepped off the boat, she felt her foot sink up to her ankle in fresh snow. 

She shivered, and began to hug herself. It was extremely cold. The Knee was one of the coldest regions of the Isles practically the entire year round, granted, but even then it was colder than she had expected, even with their protective, fur-coated cowls, coats, and insulated boots. 

Maybe it had just been the sudden shift in temperature - Thanks to the protective barrier, everyone had been protected from the winds and sheer cold that characterized the Knee until they had finally stepped out of it, and experiencing it so suddenly felt like the temperature equivalent of running into a wall. 

Either way though, it felt a lot colder than she was used to. And around her, she could notice that the other students were reacting in a similar way. 

Mr. Basilisk, seemingly also cold, formed a spell circle, and a large fire burst forth from the nearby snow,  which everyone quickly settled around. It was still colder than it had been on the boat ride over, but it started to help people acclimate to their new environment. As soon as that had been done, Mr. Basilisk went off to join the rest of the teachers as they discussed… Teacher things, Skara supposed. The students began to congregate into small groups around the fire, chatting idly while they waited for an announcement on what they were doing here. 

“Brrr!” Bo shivered, making her way to the fire to heat up. She held her hands open in front of the flames, allowing them to heat up. “What d’you think they’ve brought us out here for?” She asked. 

“No idea.” Skara answered, rubbing her hands together to generate warmth. She took another scan of the area, though she wasn’t looking for anything in particular. Predictably, that didn’t help. “Hey er, am I going crazy, or was this trip not mentioned yesterday?” 

Bo shook her head. “Not that I remember. I heard about it for the first time with that announcement.” 

“Ah.” Was the only response Skara had. If that were the case, she could at least take comfort in the fact that her emotional, mental, and physical state hadn’t distracted her so entirely that she had missed some sort of relatively big announcement.

Although that did confirm that this kind of trip was at least a little bit out of the ordinary, then. 

“Hey.” Bo said. “You never did tell me what’s got you so jumpy today.” 

“Oh. Sorry, I just… I had to do Grudgby training this morning, ‘cause I’m substituting for Amelia and…” She yawned. “...I’m gonna be honest, I’m… Beyond exhausted.” 

“Well, that explains you nearly falling asleep on the ride over here.” 

“Yeah… Guess I’m a bit… Out of it.”

“You okay?” 

“I… I’m fine.” Skara smiled, although it was still a very forced and fake one. Out of all her ‘friends’ at Hexside, Bo was probably one of the ones that Skara kept the shortest distance from. 

“Attention, everyone!” 

All eyes turned back towards the teachers, who had now all taken a position just slightly higher up the mountainside so they could look down at the students. Mr. Basilisk stood ahead of the other teachers, and was also the one who had addressed the noisy students in front of him. 

When everyone had silenced themselves and were focused on their Magical History teacher, he began to speak again. “Thank you - Now, I’m sure you’re all wondering why you’ve been brought here without any warning.” 

The thought had crossed my mind, Skara thought to herself.

“To answer that - Mrs. Haruspex?” 

Mr. Basilisk took a step back, and Mrs. Haruspex took a step forward. The only things Skara knew about this particular teacher were what she could see right now - They had green skin, four eyes, and looked to be an elder. And that she was an Oracle Track teacher, if her dark-purple clothing with a weird upside-down eye symbol on her broach indicated anything. 

“You’ve all been brought here to expand your horizons as Witches.” Mrs. Haruspex told them. Skara couldn’t tell from this distance, but she could have sworn that the eyes of the woman all scanned different directions. “Magic, just as anything else, has an enormous number of utilities, many of which most of you will have not even considered before. A number of you have changed your Tracks, some a number of times, because you learned that you are more suited to another type of Magic.”

For the first time in the last couple of weeks, Skara thought of Willow without it being in some sort of confusing miasma - She’d previously been in the Abomination Track, but had gotten transferred to the Plant Track. Changing what Track one was on wasn’t exactly unheard of. 

“Perhaps after we’re done here, you will discover that you chose the wrong type of Magic once again, or that you’re now more certain in your current choice of Magic. Eliminating that uncertainty is why we’re here today. And once that uncertainty is eliminated, perhaps then you will find yourself with a new focus and drive.”

A few students glanced back and forth with one another. Was that what they were here for? A certainty check? 

Two of Mrs. Haruspex’s eyes began to glow a purple haze as she spoke, and she took off her Witch’s hat from atop her head. Inside it was more of that purple haze, but it seemed to be more concentrated, with certain areas seeming to be thicker while others were almost paper thin, as though there were multiple, distinct pieces of the haze within the hat, constantly overlapping one another. 

“To that end, you are all going to be paired up with another student.” 

She reached into her hat, seemingly grabbing pieces of the haze, and then throwing two of them out into the air. All of the students' eyes were on them as they floated in the air for a few seconds, before they shot down towards a group of students, enveloping their heads. 

Amity and Gus. 

The pair of them, although only a couple of feet apart from one another to begin with, were essentially dragged by their heads towards, and almost into, one another before the spirits released them, and returned to the teacher’s hat. Amity and Gus both just looked at one another, confused, before returning their attention back to their teacher, watching the pair of them almost like she’d been waiting for them to look back at her. There was an ever-so-slight smirk on her face.

“The spirits will look into you, and shall then select you and your partner based on your potential for growth” She explained. An almost sinister, mild chuckle followed. “Trust in the spirits, children.” 

Another pair of spirits were thrown into the air, and they fell towards, and dragged another two students together. And another, and another, and soon, nearly everyone seemed to be criss-crossing through the snow as the spirits pulled them by their heads towards whom they decided would benefit the most from working with them. 

At one point, with a yelp, Boscha was dragged around the fire, behind and past Skara and Bo, towards her chosen partner - Mattholomule, from the Construction Track. 

Pretty evidently not her first choice, judging from her expression.

“Man, Boscha does not look happy with that.” Skara muttered to herself, watching as the Potions Witch’s expression twisted in disgust, until she looked like she'd just been slapped in the face. 

“Hm? What’d you sa- “ 

Bo hadn’t even managed to finish her sentence before her head was enveloped, and she was dragged to the opposite side of the fire towards her newly assigned partner - Which apparently, was Luz. 

They both looked at one another with the same surprise Skara felt. How in the heck were they going to benefit from one another? Did they even - 

Suddenly feeling a spirit envelop her own head was an… Odd experience, to say the least. It was like suffocating, or drowning, but being able to breathe at the exact same time, so it… Wasn’t really like either of those things at all. Skara wasn’t sure how to describe it in the single second that she had to register what had happened, before she found herself being dragged by the head towards whoever it was that she was going to find herself assigned with for this. 

It was only a second or two of being pulled along before she was all but essentially thrown at her partner for all of this.

And somehow, when she looked up to see who she had been paired with, it didn’t even remotely surprise her that she had been partnered with Willow. 

“...Hey.” Willow spoke first, and it reminded Skara of that first time that Willow had approached her, which ended up with the Bard getting her arm trapped in her locker’s mouth. Awkward and unsure. 

“...Hi.” Skara responded. 

Neither one of them could think of a single thing to say after that - They both just turned back towards the fire and the rest of the student body, waiting for the partnering process to be completed. When she turned, Skara saw all of Willow’s friends looking towards the pair of them, a different expression on each of their faces. 

Confusion on Luz’s. 

Apprehension on Amity’s. 

And anger on Gus’s. 

Willow walked the few steps needed to return to her friend group. Skara remained exactly where she was. 

It took a few minutes for the rest of the student body to be fully paired up, but eventually, everyone had a partner assigned to them. Some were very clearly less happy than others, and some pairings, like Luz and Bo, didn’t make even the slightest bit of sense. That was the way of the spirits though, apparently. And there weren’t any ‘takesies-backsies’, as a couple of pairs that attempted to do found out, to less than non-explosive-and-flammable results. 

Mrs. Haruspex took a few steps back after the final spirit had returned to her hat. The entire time, that same, almost sinister chuckle was with her. She stood next to the other teachers, and her eyes remained hidden behind the rim of the hat now back atop her head, and not once did she show any signs of stopping her chuckling.

“...Is it just me or is that teacher… Really creepy?” Skara heard Amity ask. 

“Actually that's… Pretty tame for Mrs. Haruspex, all things considered.” Luz responded, flatly. 

Skara found herself quite happy that she hadn’t opted to go for the Oracle Track, suddenly. 

“Ahem.” Mr. Basilisk cleared his throat to gather the attention of the students again. Once everyone was silent, he began. “Thank you. Now that you have been paired up, I shall now inform you as to what your lesson here will be.” 

He took off his rather large backpack, placed it in front of him, and opened it up. He reached in, and from it, he produced a single piece of paper, which he then threw gently to his side. The paper began to float on it’s own for a few seconds, before it then, seemingly out of nowhere, unfolded, over and over and over again, until it was nearly ten times the original size.

It was a magical map of the Knee. 

At the top of the now unfolded map, the peak of the knee was shown, complete with small, simplistic, yet stylistic drawings of the ruins that were scattered atop it. Towards the bottom, was an equally stylistic drawing of the fire they were all surrounding. A red dot flashed off and on again, catching the eyes of the students. 

“You are here.” Mr. Basilisk pointed towards the blinking red dot. “And your task for this trip will be to reach here.” His hand trailed towards the peak of the Knee. “However - Each pair will receive a unique map, and on that map, you will find a number of similar markers, in a different colour.” 

Brushing his hand against the page, a series of lights began to burn onto the page. Some orange, some yellow, some green, and others a variety of colours. Some were located in the tops of trees, others in some tiny ruin that scattered the sides of the mountains, and some seemed to be buried by snow.

“These markers will indicate the location of a series of orbs that have been scattered throughout the area.” Mr. Basilisk continued. “Your task will be to find each of the ones located on your map before you reach the summit.”

“Ooooh, so it’s like orienteering.” Luz muttered quietly. When her friends turned to look at her with confused expressions, she explained, “It’s a thing that we did in sports classes back on Earth. You had to use a map and compass to find like, numbers or tags or something that were hidden throughout an area.”

“...What's a compass?” Willow asked.

“A thing for helping you know if you’re heading north or south.” 

“Oh.”

“Each one of these maps has been designed so that your likelihood of running into another pair is severely limited.” Mr. Basilisk continued. “This is to ensure that you have to rely on your partner - And you will have to rely on your partner to get through this experience.” 

There was a pause that followed, as if he wanted the students to let that knowledge sink in. A few pairs glanced towards one another. There were a variety of reactions. Some looked pleased and eager, while others looked disgusted and irritated. 

Willow glanced towards Skara. Skara looked away. 

“Teams will leave in five minute intervals from one another, so you can’t rely on following another group.” Mr. Basilisk said, as he recalled the Magical Map back to its regular size, and into his pockets. He then moved his rucksack so it was easier for the students to reach into it. “Come collect your maps, and make your way towards Professor Necneque. They will inform you when you’re allowed to begin!”

One by one, the pairs of students made their way towards the rucksack to claim their maps. The pairs would then make their way towards the professor, and they would send them off on their way after the set amount of time had passed. 

Throughout the process of waiting, Skara kept her distance from Willow and her group of friends. They all stuck together, talking the entire time, and laughing about something or another. Skara didn’t pay too much attention to what exactly they said, just sort of tuning it out. Somehow, she got the distinct feeling that she wasn’t wanted. 

So instead, she looked up the paths that led up the Knee, and wondered which ones she was going to have to take. How long it was going to take to scale. What the purpose of this entire field trip and lesson was supposed to be. And what she was even supposed to say or do in regards to Willow throughout the entire event. 

I have to rely on Willow for this?

In the corner of her eye, she saw Willow looking her way. When her head turned, the Plant Witch looked away. 

A sigh escaped Skara.

“Hey… You doing okay, Skara?” Bo asked, tapping her on her shoulder. 

“Huh?” Skara turned back towards Bo, surprised for a moment. “Oh - Yeah. I’m fine. Just… Tired. From Grudgby. Not exactly looking forward to trekking up there for the next few hours.” She pointed behind her, up the Knee with her thumb as she spoke. It was only a half lie, too. 

Everything else aside, she wasn’t exactly excited about the prospect of a mountain hike for whoever knew how long. 

“Okay - Skara and Willow, you’re up!” 

Hearing her name and that of her assigned partner called up, Skara stiffened up, and then let out another small sigh. She looked over at Willow, and at the same time, Willow looked over to her. There was a brief pause where they both stood still. 

And then they both began to set off. 

“...She’d better not mess with Willow.” 

Skara’s ears twitched - That had been Gus’s voice. And there was an edge to it. An anger. One Skara hadn’t heard from him before. 

He’d only spoken about her once he believed her to be out of earshot - But she was a Bard. Her hearing was a lot better than most. Skara could have turned around, stared him down, made it clear she could hear every word he was saying. It would have shut him up. 

...But what would have been the point? 

“Does… Anyone have any idea why those two would’ve been paired up?” Luz’s voice. There wasn’t any sharpness to it though. Nothing like Gus’s. Just confusion, and concern. 

“No idea.” Amity’s. 

“I don’t care what the reason was.” Gus’s again. “If she does anything to hurt Willow-“ 

“I know Skara isn’t exactly your favourite person, but she’s not just, pointlessly malicious like that! She... Won’t do anything like that.” 

That was Bo’s voice. That almost made Skara turn around. 

It almost made her smile. It… It was nice, to know that at least someone was willing to speak up for her. 

...It was just a shame that after Hexside, it wouldn’t matter.

If there was one person that Willow did not want to be partnered up for this, it was Skara.

To be fair, it wasn’t because Skara was being a jerk. It was quite the opposite, actually.

Skara hadn’t even really said... Anything. The two of them had wandered through the forests of the knee in a relative silence, Skara wandering behind Willow like a crimson ghost, not making any sound at all for the longest time, not even letting her footsteps in the snow make any noise. It was almost like she wasn’t even there 

The trouble was… Well, she was there! Right behind her, always. Constantly forcing her to drudge up memories of everything that went down. 

After everything with the Vehemence Witch Trap, Willow hadn’t been sure what she was supposed to do when it came to Skara. 

She took another look at the map briefly, just to make sure that they were headed in the right direction. As far as she could tell, they were - The orb that they were looking for was yellow, and it was supposed to be in a clearing fairly deep into one of the forests that dotted the Knee. They seemed to be making good time. She closed the map, let out a small sigh, and ever so briefly, glanced behind her. 

It had only really just then occurred to her just how… Utterly convoluted and complicated a situation that she had found herself in. How Skara was internally handling the break-up, how it was all processing in her mind, combining that with her… Frankly warped perception of friendship, and the fact that she didn’t seem to even comprehend the idea of being concerned about someone without an ulterior motive of some sort. And combining all of that with… Whatever it was that she had seen between Boscha and Skara after all of that  had been said and done. 

Honestly, Willow didn’t know how welcome she was in this entire situation. Skara had made it clear that she didn’t want Willow’s interference, even though she never actually said it when Willow prompted her to. 

But Gus had been right, she realized - Skara had to be the one to approach her, after everything that they had said had been said. Skara needed to tell her that she wanted her to try to reach out. That she didn’t want Willow to leave her alone. 

Otherwise another incident like the Witch Trap was inevitable. And the first one had put Amelia into the custody of the Healers. Willow didn’t want to repeat it. 

And she had been pushing Skara without realizing it. She didn’t want to repeat that, either. 

It did leave being around Skara… Awkward though. 

Willow led, Skara stayed a healthy distance away from her, and everything continued smoothly.

Unfortunately, they didn’t continue smoothly for long.

“...Are… Are we there yet?” Skara groaned, the first words out of her mouth since the two began their trek. She sounded utterly exhausted. 

“We’ve... Only been hiking for about ten minutes.” Willow replied. She took another glance at the map. “It’ll be about an hour or so hike to our orb from the looks of the map, so-”

Skara groaned again. This time, her tone was a lot more visceral.  “ Great. I get up at four in the morning for stupid Grudgby practice, and now I get to spend the next hour hiking. What a perfect day for my feet…”

“...Look, Skara.” Willow sighed and turned, staring at Skara and speaking like a teacher with a particularly troublesome student. “All we have to do is follow the map, get to the orb, go through whatever…. Weird thing the spirits want from us, or whatever is supposed to be happening here, and then we’re done with it, okay? So please, just... Don’t whine about this? I’m not entirely happy about it myself, if it helps any.”

The Bard blinked, seemingly in surprise, before narrowing her eyes. “Ok. Fine, sure, whatever. Works for me.” She gestured for Willow to keep moving. “Lead the way.”

This felt a lot more like the Skara that Willow had known for the last few years. 

She bit her tongue. A part of her wanted to make a snide remark. It wasn’t as if it wouldn’t be just and deserved. But Willow also knew that saying anything wouldn’t help either of them. If she tried, it would just end in the two of them bickering and fighting. And the last thing Willow wanted at this point was to spend any more time than needed with the Bard. And she was getting the distinct feeling that the Bard felt the same way. 

So… That’s that, then.

With a small turn, Willow marched herself forward, and Skara followed, apparently now not caring if Willow could hear her footsteps in the snow anymore. 

They aimed upwards, up towards the location on their map where they could collect their orb, and then up to the summit. 

And after that, they wouldn’t have to say a word to one another ever again.

The hike continued, onwards and upwards, for about an hour. 

It wasn’t a completely clean climb, either - They had run into a few obstacles, like fallen trees blocking the path that they had needed to climb over, losing exactly which path they were following for a brief period of time under the snow before finding it again, and one time, having to be extremely careful with how much noise they made, lest they anger a Slitherbeast they spotted just below a cliffside that they walked upon. The most difficult thing that they had encountered was the fact that occasionally, some flakes of snow would fall from the sky.

Not completely clean, but certainly not painful.  

Each of these obstacles, they managed to make their way around, in a fairly decent time. None of them were especially difficult to work around. In fact, that described much of the initial hike - Not especially difficult. 

That raised the question though, at least in Willow’s mind - Why had they been paired up for any of this? This wasn’t a difficult climb. Time consuming, but not difficult. 

Sure, it made sense to not just let teenagers climb the mountain on their own, if only for legal reasons - Willow recognized that - But they had made… Such a big deal about how the spirits had chosen them specifically based on their potential for growth, and that they would need to rely on one another. But so far, Willow and Skara hadn’t needed to exchange much in the way of words, nevermind rely on one another to accomplish the climb. 

So, what was this all supposed to be? The questions occupied most of Willow’s thoughts - 

Then, Willow stopped. Unfortunately, a completely unaware Skara didn’t see this, and walked right into her.  

“Oof!” Skara stumbled for a second before regaining her balance. “What - “ 

“We’re finally here.” Willow said, a sigh of relief escaping her lips. “Just beyond this clearing.”

“ Oh, thank the Titan !” Skara grinned, and showed even the smallest bit of energy for the first time since their climb had begun. 

Willow formed a small spell circle, and the pine tree's branches that obscured their way rose themselves up, like tiny antennas up into the skies, and revealing a small clearing. 

“Behold,” Willow said, gesturing to the clearing, “The first leg of our journey, complete!”

At the centre of the clearing, surrounded by small mounds of snow underneath the heavy canopy of trees, sat a glowing orb atop a tall pedestal. Skara, just a moment ago seemingly too tired to keep herself awake, dashed her way past Willow, rushing to the crystal ball with a wide grin on her face. “Alright! Let’s get this thing!”

Willow rolled her eyes, but walked behind Skara, keeping her eyes on the light brown or-

Wait.

“Hold on...” Willow muttered. “I could have sworn…”

In her hands, Skara held the orb, a grin on her face nearly reaching ear to ear. “We got it! Now we just need to get to the summit, right?” 

Willow stared into it. The orb was… Not Yellow. 

It was green. 

“That… That isn’t our orb.” She realized aloud. 

“Eh?” Skara blinked a couple of times. “It’s not what, sorry?” 

“It’s not our orb.” Willow repeated, her hand reaching for her face, and pinching at the bridge of her nose as much as her grip would physically allow her to. “Our orb is supposed to be yellow, like on the map.” Her other hand showed the map to Skara. “This is green. This isn’t our orb.” 

For a moment, Skara just stood there. She didn’t say anything, or do anything. 

Then, with a mighty heft that only a Grudgby player could match, she tossed the stupid thing as far as it could go. It was launched at such speeds that Willow didn’t actually see where it ended up. She didn’t even hear it land . 

“Well!” Skara shouted, throwing her hands into the air. “Isn’t that just great! !” 

She paced back and forth, annoyed and frustrated on every level. It seemed much more like an explosion of pent up frustration than anything else. Like with the Vehemence Witch Trap. 

“Fantastic! Just fantastic!” 

She kicked up some snow as she paced. 

“Today’s just been swell!” She was no longer shouting, but her voice was utterly coated with the thickest sarcasm and cynicism Willow had ever heard in her life. “First I get dragged out of bed to a stupid sportsball game I don’t even like and get run ragged, then this stupid field trip to a frozen tundra, paired up with you-” 

Even if they weren’t anything even approximating friends, that did still sting Willow. 

“-And now you’re telling me that we traipsed all this way to find some stupid orb, and because you can’t even read a map right , we ended up at the wrong orb?!” What sounded like an actual, but very bitter laugh escaped the Bard. “There aren’t even any other orbs marked on the map! How did you even accomplish this!?”   

“I just followed where it told me to go!” 

“So you’re telling me the map somehow just led you to another orb - Just not the one we’re supposed to be looking for? What, is the map defective?”  

“I don’t know - Maybe we ended up on the wrong path after it got buried by snow earlier, or we took a wrong turn or -” Willow shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll have to retrace our steps until we know where we are, or head back to the starting camp, or -” 

“Oh, yay! Another hour of wandering around in the snow with, evidently, n o clue where we’re going!” ” Skara kicked up another pile of snow, and then took a seat on a nearby log. She rested her elbows on her knees, and held her face in her hands. “Just great.” She mumbled, a slight hitch to her voice. “Just - Just wonderful.”

It wasn’t like Willow didn’t understand the frustration, but...

“Well... The sooner we start going back, the better. So…” Willow turned herself back towards the way they’d come, and began to walk. But as she exited the clearing, she heard a ‘fwump’ sound. 

Turning back, she spotted Skara, splayed out on the snow on her back, groaning. 

“Uh, Skara?”

“Just... Put me out of my misery.” The Bard grumbled. “I can’t walk back.”

...Willow only had so much patience left. 

“Skara, please don’t do this.” She tried to make it as clear in her voice as she possibly could that she was in absolutely no mood for any of this. “We’re behind everyone else as it is.” 

Another groan. “I’m working on five hours of sleep, and nearly six hours straight of physical exercise - I need a break.” 

“I want to make good time back. We don’t have time for a break.”

“Just ten - five minutes. Just give me that.” 

“We don’t have time.” 

“We’re already an hour behind everyone else at this point - What’s wrong with a little break?”

Because I don’t want to be your partner anymore. Because I want to go back to Hexside and never have to think about you or everything that’s happened ever again.

“Because I said so,” Willow muttered. “Now come on, let's go?”

“No.” 

“What?” 

“I told you, I can’t.” Skara repeated. “I’ve barely even been able to feel my legs for the past six hours. I need a rest. If you wanna go, you go on ahead, and I’ll just lay here ‘till I’m ready.”

Willow could feel her bile sac pumping faster. “Skara, we’re a group. We shouldn’t leave each other behind-”

“You want to be in a group with me about as much as I want to be in a group with you, so what the heck do you even care?” 

Skara got her there, Willow had to admit. 

“...You know what? Fine.” Willow spun around. “Fine! Screw it! No one gets to say I didn’t try my hardest!” 

Both with this trip, and with Skara.

“Just lay there. I’ll see if we can get the longboat to come here and pick you up! Or maybe a Slitherbeast’ll find you and eat you by then! See if I care!”

Her patience having finally snapped, Willow began to make her way down the same path they had come up, feeling a burning anger in her gut. She’d done everything that she could, tried her hardest, put up with far more than she otherwise would have, done everything she could have thought to do, but in the end, Gus had been right. 

Skara didn’t want her help, and Willow had no intention of wasting it on her again.

Skara couldn’t believe Willow! After over an hour of walking, she just wanted to keep doing it? No breaks? Even at her best, Skara wasn’t sure she’d be able to pull it off. But now, as exhausted as she was, with her muscles aching and with barely even a minute to catch her breath? 

All she wanted to do was lay down and take a nap. It didn’t matter that the snow surrounding her was wet and freezing her solid, it was better than taking another step with Willow.

“Well, at least she’s finally gone.” Skara formed a small pile of snow and nuzzled the back of her head onto it. If she ignored how clearly un-pillowlike it was, she could convince herself it was, in fact, a pillow.

As she tried to set herself up for a proper nap, she thought to herself about what Willow had yelled.  

Just lay there. I’ll see if we can get the longboat to come here and pick you up! Or maybe a Slitherbeast’ll find you and eat you by then! See if I care!

Stupid Willow. At this altitude, it wouldn’t matter - Slitherbeasts avoided this altitude. Why exactly wasn’t known, they resided in regions both above and below this altitude, but they avoided this height. It just seemed to be one of their quirks. 

...Titan, and she was doing so good at not thinking of Ves.

He always loved the Knee beasts the most. He’d go on about them for hours. It was really dorky and silly.

Apparently, she wasn’t doing as great as she had thought that just maybe, she was.

Skara shook her head, trying to shake away the melancholic memories. “Well, who needs him ? Who needs Willow ? I’ll just take a small nap, and by the time I wake up, I’ll be able to make it back down to the boat in no time!”

On one hand, Skara knew taking a nap in the middle of the coldest place on the Boiling Isles was... Probably a bad idea. And under even remotely normal circumstances where she wasn’t infuriated, depressed, and exhausted beyond measure, she wouldn’t even dream of it. On the other hand, wasn’t that what her parents had always told her youth was for? To have bad ideas, make dumb mistakes, so that when you were older you could both know better, and have amazing stories to tell your friends?

...Well, whatever. It was what she wanted to do, and screw what was smart.

Besides, if any piece of knowledge that her ex had taught her had stuck, it was that this far down the Knee, there weren't that many predators dangerous to Witches. Maybe the occasional Spider-Yeti, but those things were practically extinct!

Wait… Was it extinct or exorbitant? Hm… Oh, it was definitely extinct.

90% sure of it.

Skara sighed. “Well… Guess I’ll just try to get a little rest then.” A small magic circle summoned her harp, and Skara began to play a lullaby to herself. “Good night, harp.” She yawned. “Good night, snow. Good night, trees. Good night, Spider-Yeti. Good night, Skara…”

She closed her eyes.

And then opened them, looking straight up into the treeline as a large, white shape descended upon her.

Quick as she could, she tried to cast a spell on her harp to fend it off, but before she could, it slammed itself on top of her, and screeched in her face, a horrific sound like the dying wail of a thousand lost souls. And in Skara’s paralyzing panic, it shot it’s venom at her. 

All she could do was scream before everything went black.

Willow’s ears perked at the sudden cry as it echoed out across the air. Without even a moment of self doubt, Willow knew exactly who it was.

“SKARA!”  

Turning on her heels, Willow bolted full speed back to the clearing. She dodged trees and fallen branches, trying to find the best path to follow back. She could feel her heart pumping, bile sac thumping against her chest. 

She was such an idiot!

Well, great! Just great! You let Skara out of your sight and now she’s probably getting eaten or mauled or something horrible because you couldn’t take a break!

Or rather, because she was selfish. Because she hadn’t wanted to be around Skara. And now, Skara was in trouble, because of her. 

And Willow wasn’t going to let her get hurt. 

As she reached the clearing, a loud rustling in the tree’s broke her concentration. Looking up, she spotted a fast blur of white, darting from tree to tree. Some sort of beast that lived on the Knee - Willow didn’t have even the slightest idea what it was supposed to be. It had a lot of limbs and white fur, but that was all that she could make of the creature. 

And as she watched, she realized it held on its back a Witch sized web cocoon. Her heart froze. 

That thing must have grabbed Skara! 

Immediately, she bolted after it, only ever taking her eyes off of it to make sure that she wasn’t about to slam straight into a tree or a rock or anything like that. The creature moved fast, but in between it’s leaps from tree to tree, it needed a few seconds to calculate it’s next jump, which gave Willow the few precious seconds she needed to keep up with it. 

Willow’s mind raced with ideas of what she could do as she sprinted after it. I could control the tree’s to attack it. But I can’t guarantee Skara’s safety that way. I could try to take it down myself… No, that’s insane! I don’t even know what that thing is…

Finally, she settled on the best idea she could come up with on such short notice.

I’ll get to its lair. If it hasn’t eaten Skara yet, it’ll probably save her for later, so maybe I can free her before that happens. Solid plan!

It was an absolutely terrible plan and she knew it.

But it wasn’t like she had any other options.

The white blur kept flying through the treetops as Willow continued running, trying to keep it in her sight without being detected. The last thing she needed was to join Skara as it’s orderve.

Eventually, the… Thing that had taken Skara slowed. Willow stopped as it began to crawl down the tree’s side, and towards a cave on the side of the nearby cliff. And Willow got a good look at just what exactly had taken Skara.

It was a larger than average spider, obviously; eight legs, creepy pincers, and a lot of eyes. Lots of eyes. All the hallmarks of a classic spider if Willow had ever seen one, albeit blown up about as large as a Slitherbeast. But unlike most spiders Willow had seen, this one was absolutely covered in snow white fur, from its head to its toes. A noise that she could only describe as clicking came from its mouth, and it skittered about the place too, staying utterly still for a few seconds, before quickly scuttling around, or twitching one of it’s legs, like a normal spider would, creating a very… Uncomfortable display.

The Plant Witchgulped. She didn’t enjoy most bugs on a good day, but this…

“It’s okay, Willow.” She whispered to herself, watching as the spider crawled it’s way into the cave. She made herself breathe steadily. “Just tiptoe inside, open Skara’s cocoon, run out. Everything will be fine! No problems.”

Willow wished she was better at lying to herself.

But, confident or not, Willow took in a deep breath, let it out slowly, and began to trek towards the spider's cave.

The cave didn’t seem too unpleasant, so long as she ignored the fact that she was in a giant spider's cave, the dripping walls and crunching noises beneath her feet that were definitely not bones so long as she never looked down! 

Why does every creature on the Boiling Isles with a cave have to leave their... Twigs everywhere?!?

She forced herself to calm down - Skara was in here somewhere. Unless she had already been eaten. In which case this entire escapade was completely pointless but if there was even a chance she was in here, then Skara needed her, and Willow needed to find her. 

Just one step at a time… Just continue to breathe…. Just ignore the bo - the twigs. Just ignore the twigs… 

Before Willow could further unsettle herself further by… Acknowledging where she was, she reached it; the central hub of the cave. It was a large, domed cavern, adorned with spider webs of all shapes and sizes across its walls. About as barren as one could expect a cave to be, honestly, though the hub was fairly large, relatively speaking. 

On the opposite end, the largest web, adorned with torn up shards of webbed up cocoons.

And near its top, one perfectly intact.

Willow looked around, attempting to spot the spider. Unfortunately, she did spot it, and spent the next minute attempting to wash away the horrifying sight of its feasting.

That’s what's gonna happen to Skara if I don’t do something. Fast!

At least the spider looked like it would be feasting for some time, leaving Willow with ample opportunity to try to save Skara. Her eyes darted across the floor in search of anything that might be able to slice through the webbing. Finding what she could only assume to be a white stone that just felt like a half chewed rib piece on the ground, she drew out a small spell circle for a root to pick her up. Willow couldn’t risk the spider hearing her footsteps across the… twigs, but the root, wrapped firmly around her, slid through the air as silently as possible. She kept her eyes on the spider the whole time, readying herself for an attack.

I don’t want to hurt that thing if I don’t have to. But if I have to…

Luckily, it didn’t notice, still enjoying what Willow could only assume was an earlier victim. As she finally reached Skara’s cocoon, she lightly tapped the root. “It’s okay. I got this now, buddy.” The root stopped, allowing Willow to prepare her ‘rock’ knife. 

Here it goes…

She cut through the webbing, trying to only hit deep enough that she could get to the centre herself so she didn’t hit Skara. When she did, Willow smiled; the webbing fell apart, revealing an unconscious Skara lying inside, almost peaceful in her posing, like she was asleep and not about to be eaten by some large spider.

“Yes!” Willow hissed, pumping a fist in the air in victory, and instantly regretted it. 

Afraid she was too loud, she clamped her fists over her mouth, hoping to silence any future noise. But luckily, the spider seemed too focused on it’s meal to hear her. So Willow reached out gingerly, tore through the few strands of spider webbing left, and grabbed Skara, pulling her out of the cocoon. 

“Gotcha!”

Sleepily, Skara opened her eyes. First to slits, then to a half lidded look. She didn’t seem to be fully aware of where exactly she was.  

“Mom?” She yawned out, without any care for who could hear her. “I feel fun-”

Willow clamped a hand over Skara’s mouth. Her half-awake eyes now widened in panic, realization dawning on her that, no, this was not her mother, and no, she was not in her room, but about thirty feet in the air, being held aloft by, of all people, Willow.

The Plant Witch shushed Skara with her free hand, and then pointed towards the giant spider. Skara’s eyes followed the finger, until she finally saw it. 

Her eyes only grew wider, and it looked as though everything that had happened prior to being rescued suddenly came flooding back into the Bard’s memories. She looked as if she wanted to scream, clearly terrified. Willow could practically feel the blood pumping through Skara, hard and fast. Willow had to think of something.

“Hey, hey,” Willow whispered, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. “Look at me, okay Skara?” 

Skara looked to Willow, clearly no less terrified of the situation simply by looking away from the giant spider. So Willow continued.

“You scared?”

Skara nodded.

“Me too. But see, there used to be something I was even more afraid of! It was this big, humongous hurdle in my life.”

The clearly terrified Bard raised an eyebrow, still scared, but also deeply confused.

“But don’t worry - I got over it.”

For a second, there was absolutely no response. 

Then, Skara’s eyes twitched, blinked, and then widened again. This time, in amused bewilderment. Willow felt hot air against her hand - Which, honestly, was a welcome feeling on this frigid Knee - as the once terrified girl began to snicker.  

“S - Seriously?” She heard, muffled through her hand. “W - What was that?”

“My attempt at humour.” Willow shrugged as the root gently placed the two down at the entrance to the room. Skara was still snickering at it, so she quietly hissed, “Hey, you’re the one laughing at it!” 

Skara chuckled, sliding out from Willow’s arms and standing back on her own two feet. “I wasn’t expecting a joke - And I wasn’t expecting one so horrendous .”

Willow rolled her eyes. She gestured for the two of them to make their way out of the cave, and for a short while, neither of them said a word. They walked as quietly as they could, trying to get away from the giant spider monster before they accidentally alerted it. 

Eventually, they made their way to the entrance - Alive, uneaten, and not having alerted the monster to having ever been there. 

“Okay.” Willow said, holding her hands in front of her. “My joke’s lame. It still helped you a bit, right?”

For a brief second, Skara laughed at being reminded of the joke, but quickly calmed down. “A… A little, honestly… Yeah.” 

And for the first time in… Quite a while… Skara smiled.

Not a fake smile that she put on for the sake of the people around her or to keep up appearances. 

But a real smile. 

“Good.” Willow smiled too. “Okay, now, let’s get out of here quickly, before-”

She was interrupted by a sudden hit from behind. She slammed to the ground, the impact causing her head to spin. Skara rushed over to her. Willow could tell she was saying something, but her ears were ringing too loudly to make it out. 

But as she laid there, her mind reeling, only one thought came to her mind.

I… I can’t feel my bile sac…

I can’t do magic.

NONONONONONONO

Panic shot through Skara’s body as she rushed towards the venom-smeared Witch who had just saved her. Willow laid in the gooey, black liquid, clearly caught off guard and confused. 

“Willow,” Skara shouted. “Are you ok? Can you hear me?”

“Wh-what…” Willow muttered, weakly. “I… I can’t…” 

The Spider-Yeti smashed into the ground, screeching angrily at its escaped prey. The clicking became more and more rapid, and Skara could have sworn that she saw the very souls of death within its giant, glistening eyes, focused entirely on the two of them. 

Quickly, Skara knelt down to grab Willow and run.

But stopped.

I can’t touch that stuff! If it’s half as bad as…

She looked back up to the spider, now rushing towards them. Fast.

Skara had only four seconds to save her and willow.

In the first, she formed a plan.

The spider scurried closer. 

In the second, she summoned her harp.

Closer.

In her third, she prayed it would work.

Closer...

She strummed a few chords on the harp, imagining the furthest corner of the cave she saw out of the corner of her eye.

The spider was right in front of her…

And then, a loud, booming screech from within the cave.

The spider froze, turned back. It hissed, rushing now in the exact opposite direction of the two Witches who had almost been made its lunch.

On the ground, Willow began to stir. “What just…”

“C’mon!” Skara said, taking her cowl off of her uniform. “Spider-Yeti’s are very territorial, but they’re also incredibly good at hunting escaped prey, so I don’t know how long that little trick will work.” She began to wipe at the spots the spider’s venom had hit Willow, careful not to touch it too roughly so as to get it on her skin. “Once I get all this off, I’ll try dragging you out.”

“I feel… I feel like I just got my soul absorbed… By a Greater Basilisk…”

“This stuff’ll do that to you,” Skara confirmed. “It soaks into the skin and gets into a Witches bile sac. It’s not nearly as permanent as a Greater Basilisk, though.” 

Willow groaned. “I feel… So weak....”

Skara finished wiping up Willow as best she could. The back of her pants were still soaked in it, but everything above that was fairly clean now. Skara grabbed Willow’s hand and tried pulling her up to her feet. “C’mon, get up. I’ll try and... And help you…”

Skara threw Willow’s arm around her neck, lifting her to her feet and helping her to move. What little strength Willow had in her legs, she used to try to walk, but relied on Skara heavily for any basic movement. 

Least getting taken by a giant spider gave me the chance for a power nap. 

The Bard carried the slumping Willow out of the cave. She made it another fifty  feet before the return of the direct, freezing air hit her, and the adrenaline crash came in, making Skara stop and pant. 

“Well… Great…”

The Plant Witch moaned, moving her arm away from Skara’s neck and placing herself against a tree. “I’ll be okay… Just need to rest…”

A small part of Skara wondered if she should bring up the irony of Willow saying that. But she quickly thought better of it.

“Willow, girl, we have to get to the boat, now ! It’s only a matter of time before that thing hunts us down again. Give me the map, we can find a way home from there.”

Willow looked to Skara, a blank expression on her face. “The… what?”

“The map back to the boat!” 

“The… Oh, right, right, the map.” Willow dug her hands into her pockets.

And then she patted against them. 

And again. 

And then Willow froze.

And Skara froze too.

“Willow… Where’s the map?”

For a moment, Willow said nothing. 

“I… It must have slipped out when I was running after that thing.”

Skara’s heart sank.

She cursed the Titan.

She felt her heart palpitating.

“Okay… Do… Do you know the way you came from?” 

“Yeah… Yeah, it -” Willow paused again. And her face turned pale. 

“Willow?” 

“...When did it get so… So snowy?” 

They had been running on adrenaline. On fear. On trying to just get away from the Spider-Yeti as quickly as they could. Nothing else had even registered. 

But Willow was right - What had started as just a small snowfall had, in the time that it took since Willow had entered the cave and they had gotten out, had turned into a downfall of snow. Everything around them was white. Even the tracks that would lead them back to the cave were almost covered. 

They had no map. No way to backtrack. 

And they were caught in a blizzard. 

Chapter Text

Lightning streaked across the sky, crackling between the clouds, and the flash bounced against all of the settled snow, with enough force that it would blind anyone who witnessed it directly. A sharp, loud crack of thunder, boomed across the entirety of the Knee shortly after. An almost physical force followed it, like the sound itself was hitting those who heard it. 

It was far more like an explosion to  Luz - And in her surprise, she jumped at the noise and the flash.

“Whoa!” She yelped. She craned her head and looked around, searching for a source, before a second, smaller crackle made her realize that, at the very least, it wasn’t an explosion. “That - What the heck’s going on?! What’s that noise?!” ”

“Thundersnow.” Bo said plainly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the universe. 

“Thundersnow?” Luz’s head jolted back towards Bo, eyebrow raised. “What, like a thunderstorm while it’s snowing?” 

“Yeah. Do… You not have thundersnow in the Human Realm?”

“Uh…” The Human blinked. “I… I feel like I’ve heard of it but… Not sure, honestly. Maybe? If we do, I never saw it.”

“Huh.” Bo blinked, then shrugged. “Well, they’re common up here in the Knee. Get them in town sometimes in the winter too.” As she spoke, Bo stepped underneath the branch of a pine tree, and looked back down at the map back to their ride. They were still on the right path. It wouldn’t take them long now. “Thankfully, it sounded kinda far off. We should be okay, for now at least.”

“Oh, good!” Luz exhaled a breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. 

“Thank God for that, I, uh… I had enough trouble today in that... Dream Realm… Thing, whatever it was .”  She shivered at the memory. “I already dealt with… That which will not be named .  The last thing I wanna deal with after that is  getting hit by a lightning bolt in a blizzard.”

Bo nodded. “A-greed.” 

There was a brief moment of silence, before Luz spoke up. “Er, is any of this looking familiar to you? It all just looks like trees and ice and snow to me. You sure the map is taking us to the right place?” 

“‘Weather Warning - All students, return to the landing as it is located on your magical maps.’” Bo repeated the message that was emblazoned in red across the top of her map. “We’re getting close, trust me. I think I recognise some of the trees here.” 

“I really hope you’re right.” The Human muttered, shivering again, this time at the cold. Snow began to fall as she shook, as if to punctuate the matter. “I really don’t wanna be out here when that bad weather hits us.” 

Both of them carried on down the pathway, trying to pick up the pace to outrun the storm behind them. They ducked under branches and climbed over the rocks that were in their way. Their increased pace meant that just a few minuites later, they had gotten where they wanted to go. 

“Aha! We’re here!”

There it was - The clearing, and the longboat. A barrier of some kind was surrounding the entire clearing, though it was clearly more for keeping out weather since several students were walking inside. . From inside, the teachers were directing students onto the boat, while around it, other pairs of students filed in.. 

Laughter escaped Luz. “Haha! We made it!”

“See?” Bo smiled. “I told you I knew we were headed in the right direction!” Her smile was wiped off her face when a sharp gust of icy wind hit both of them from behind. Frigid chills ran throughout both of their entire bodies. Both of them clutched their waists to try to regain some lost heat. “Brrr! And we got here just in time, too. I think the storm is headed this way.”  

“No kidding.” Luz ran her hands up and down her arms to try to warm them up. “Can’t wait to go back and get me some hot chocolate. Or… Uh... Whatever warm stuff you guys drink in the winter here. Hot… Screaming death, maybe?”

“No, we just have hot chocolate here.”

“...Huh.” 

“Yo! Luz!”

Immediately, a grin appeared on her face, and she turned to face the direction of the voice.

“Gus!” She shouted, running up to her youngest friend and giving him a great big bear hug, which he responded to in kind. “Oh man, you won’t believe what me and Bo did!”

“If it’s anything like what we just went through, I’m sure we’ll believe it.” Another sardonic, yet sweet voice stated.

“Amity!” Luz immediately let go of Gus and wrapped her arms affectionately around Amity’s waist. 

She knew she should have asked first, particularly when it came to Amity, since she was a lot more reserved about this sort of thing compared to Gus or Willow - And that was only reinforced by the fact that Amity didn’t hug her back like Gus had, and was more just sort of frozen in place...

But gosh dangit, she was so huggable! And warm. And soft. And-

Without warning, another crackle and boom of thunder erupted from the clouds - The vibrations were so strong that the snow caught on the nearby trees was shaken off. Luz less let go of Amity than she had her hands physically ripped off of the Witch by the air itself. 

Snow began to fall from the sky a lot heavier now, and the wind began to pick up speed. It began to rock the longboat, and nearly knocked one student over the edge of the clearing, were it not for Mr. Basilisk’s levitation spell catching said student at the last minute, and bringing them back to the clearing.

“Alright, kids! Last call! The blizzard is coming this way, and we can’t stay any longer!” 

Those students that weren’t yet on the longboat made their way towards it quickly, and found their seats as quickly as they could. What little equipment had been left in the clearing, teachers ran out to grab, making sure that there weren’t any students that were approaching at the last minute. 

“You heard him.” Bo urged. “We should get on board.” 

“Right!” Luz took Amity’s hand instead, almost entirely just to spite the wind, and led her to the boat. “Come on, you guys! I wanna hear what you all had to deal with in the Dream… Thing.” Her eyes were on Amity. “From you-”

“Everyone in?”

“And Gus-”

“Alright, no one seems to be saying no.”

“And Wi-”

Luz stopped.

She looked around the boat.

She saw a pair of freezing, fuming bullies in Boscha and Matt - who looked like they’d spent the entire trip trying to kill each other.

She saw Amity and Gus - Gus shivering, while Amity’s face seemed to be radiating enough heat for the whole boat.. 

She saw Bo, looking back at Luz with wide eyes as they both had the same realization.

That two people were missing.

“WAIT !" Luz stood up and yelled, trying to stop the boat.

But as a crack of thunder ripped through the sky, and snow began to start pelting the boat, it took off into the sky.

Carrying off all Hexside’s students it came with. 

All, of course, except for Willow and Skara.

Skara didn’t have even the slightest idea how long she and Willow had been wandering around, trying to get back to the longboat. She didn’t have the slightest idea where the longboat was. All she did have the slightest bit of was the need to find somewhere for her and Willow to stay safe.

Skara was dragging Willow along by the plant witch’s waist, helped only by the tired, limp Willow’s arm draped over the Bard’s shoulder. With Willow still struck by the Spider-Yeti’s venom, which made it difficult for her to walk, Skara had to help her to move, step by slow, sluggish, ankle-deep step.

How long have we been stuck in this blizzard? 

An hour, at least? Probably?

It was scary how one’s sense of time could be lost along with their sense of direction.

Checking around her surroundings once again, Skara saw the exact same thing that she had seen the last Titan-knew how many times that she looked around - That was to say, nothing at all.

Nothing but a cold, formless white. 

In a blizzard on the Knee, an entire foot's worth of snow could fall in minutes, potentially covering the landscape entirely that nothing stood out. Snow fell so rapidly that it became difficult to see even a few meters ahead, and each flake that fell was nearly the size of Skara’s  thumb. All sense of direction was completely lost to those stuck within a blizzard like this. Even just the act of moving became a monumental task as more and more snow settled. 

Not to mention, the cold was unspeakable.

“Are… Are you alright?!” Skara asked, yelling so that her voice could be heard over the sounds of the wind around them. “Is the venom wearing off yet?!” 

“I… I don’t think so.” Willow had to use all of what little strength she had to just respond. She wasn’t particularly loud, either - They didn’t have the energy to yell. 

The venom was sticking with her a lot longer than it had for Skara. And that made her nervous.

All Skara could do was groan, and keep on pushing  in a straight line, hoping to the Titan that they were getting somewhere. 

Every part of her felt frozen. Snow had gotten inside her clothes and had melted, she still hadn’t really rested from the hours of Grudgby practice that morning, she was still shaken up by nearly being eaten by Spider-Yeti’s, on top of the fact that she was essentially carrying an entire other Witch -  Frankly, she was amazed she hadn’t completely collapsed already. 

She just kept pushing on though. It wasn’t like she had much other choice.

At one point, Willow spoke up. “I… I… I think the venom has… Worn off a little…” 

“Okay! Good!” 

“I’m… Gonna try and put some weight on it.” 

“What? Willow, wait -” 

No less than a second after attempting to do so though, Willow immediately groaned, and collapsed face first deep into the cold snow, dragging Skara down with her. 

Floundering for a few seconds, Skara managed to dig and push herself out of the snow, - Now soaked to the bone - quickly dusted herself down, and spat out the mouthful of ice she’d inhaled from the fall. 

She then immediately turned to Willow, and found her still laying face down, not even having the strength to pick herself up.

“Willow!” Moving quickly, Skara pushed her onto her back. 

Willow spent a couple of seconds just looking up into the sky in a sort of daze, before it seemed that she regained her senses, and looked towards Skara. She gave the Bard an almost… Amused look. 

“I er… Guess that was a bad idea.” 

A single laugh escaped Skara, though she couldn’t tell if it was because it actually amused her, or if the absurdity of the mess they were in just made her chuckle. 

“Y’think?!” 

“Sorry. I thought I could - “ 

“Don’t worry about it. Just tell me next time, ‘kay?” 

The Plant Witch nodded. 

Just as she did though, a crack of thunder echoed throughout the entire landscape, and sparks of electricity began jolting throughout the clouds. A white streak of lightning struck a few miles away from the girls, the only thing that either of them had been able to see since the blizzard began. 

“Thundersnow.” Skara said aloud. She glanced to her right, trying to see if she could spot anything new in the blizzard - Anything at all. Nothing. She turned her head. “We just need -“

When she looked to her left, she finally saw… Something . 

“What the…” 

It was large - That was really all that Skara could be certain of. The fog and snow made it difficult for her to even see her hand in front of her, let alone whatever this was. No details stood out. It just appeared as a shadow to her. Two shadows, really, both roughly of equal height, with a fairly large gap between them. Both remained completely stationary. Had Skara not stopped to look in either direction, she probably wouldn’t have noticed it for all the fog, the falling snow, and her single-minded drive to get her and Willow out of the blizzard. 

Whatever the heck it was though, it was something , and something was better than nothing right about now. 

“Huh?” Willow asked, trying her best to prop herself up so she could see what Skara was looking at. “What is it?” 

“Come on.” Skara responded, wrapping one of Willow’s arms around her neck again, and pulling her upright. “I think I’ve found something!”

It seemed to be some sort of chasm - A gap within a sheer cliff that followed either side. 

Roughly, it was about the width of a Grudgby field, and created a pathway that let Skara and Willow to follow the fissure without any issues whatsoever. At the edges of this pathway, the cliff began again, at an almost ninety-degree angle before reaching the top again, which was, Skara’s incredibly mathematical brain summarized, the definition of... A really long way up. 

Snow still drifted in from the topside, but it wasn’t anything even remotely close to how bad it was out in the open, as the edges of cliff’s at either side of the gap caught the majority of the snow before it fell down the chasm. The pathway was still scattered with snow, though the actual surfaces beneath it could still be seen in patches. It was mostly just barren rocks of gray and brown, but it was more than anything the two Witches had seen in the last who-knew how long. Neither girl, in all their lives, had they been more elated to see rocks . 

The first thought Skara had was that they were… Extraordinarily lucky that they hadn’t gone along the topside path before finding this chasm. If they had, she seriously doubted that they would have survived the fall.

And the second was that, while it wasn’t exactly much, it was, at the very least, some sort of protection from the harsh elements battering them.

Both Willow and Skara both looked at one another for a brief moment. Then, through a combination of sheer force of will and adrenaline, Skara all but carried Willow into the chasm. There really wasn’t any conversation to be had - They needed shelter, and this was the best that they were going to get. 

“We should… Go a bit deeper.” Willow said, after they had entered the chasm. Weakly, she tried to point further in. “The snow, it… It seems to thin out the further in you go.” 

She was right, Skara noticed - The piles of snow seemed to slope the further inwards it went, and there were more rocks that were still exposed to the air. The deeper the chasm went, the less likely they were to be touched by the blizzard.

Following the instruction, Skara took them deeper still. There was a gradual corner in the chasm that she followed. 

She walked for what felt to be a mile, her legs sore, her breath heavy, continuing to hold Willow up, despite the fact that the average Witch should have felt better hours ago by this point. She was about ready to simply fall to the ground, giving up on everything... 

Until she saw a cabin. A lone cabin, made of wood. Just in the middle of the path. 

Skara stopped dead in her tracks, and just stared at it for a short while. She blinked once, twice, three times in surprise, and then made a deliberate effort not to blink in the slightest, fearing that if she did, it would somehow evaporate into the air like a snowy mirage, or an illusion. But it remained all the same. 

A cabin - Here? In a chasm? On the Knee of all places?

It almost felt like it was some sort of trap - It was too good to be true. Like she should expect some sort of… Bandit or criminal or…. Titan-knew what to jump out and attack her the minute that she and Willow were within three feet of it. She looked at the cabin, and then back at Willow. The Plant Witch’s head was hung, and her arms seemed to be limp. 

Whatever worries Skara had about finding a cabin like this in a chasm here, she could deal with them later. 

Upon approaching, Skara was able to get a better sense of scale for the cabin - It was a fairly small building overall, but with two floors. The entire thing seemed to be made out of a special kind of wood, used for construction purposes, although she didn’t recognize the architectural style from anything she’d seen anywhere on the Isles. It didn’t remind her of anything that the Construction Coven would make. It looked… Old. Ancient, even. 

Rushing as fast as she could while still carrying Willow, Skara hoped the door could was not...  

“...Locked.” She huffed, and her head hung. 

Then she slammed on it, hard as she could, hard enough to hear the sound of it reverberate from the inside out. 

“Hey! Anyone in there?! Hello?!” 

Again, nothing. Was it abandoned? 

A small groan escaped Skara. She knelt down, and rested Willow against the wall next to the door. Willow looked up at her, still weak. “Skara?” 

“I’m gonna try and find another way in, okay?” Skara told her, getting up onto her feet. “Just wait here, alright? Don’t go anywhere.” 

“…I wasn’t exactly planning on it.” Willow muttered, sarcastically. “I can barely even move.” 

Skara barely heard her though - She had already run to the other end of the building, around the corner. Maybe there was a side door, or a window, or something that she could use to get in, or just... Something . 

One quick check around the building later revealed that the only door was the one she had tried to open. However, there were a series of windows - Seven in total, four on the ground floor. Peeking into the ground floor windows showed little more than dust and disrepair. At least from the outside looking in, there didn’t seem to be a single person living there, and there probably hadn’t been for a long while. 

And if there was... Well, she’d worry about that later. Dealing with that would be better than freezing out in the open. 

Facing a window, she made a spell circle. The air around the window began to vibrate, and after a few seconds, the glass cracked, before finally shattering. 

Covering her arm with her coat so she didn’t cut herself, Skara wiped away the shards of glass that remained on the windowsill, before climbing into the cabin. She took a brief look around the room she had ended up in - A kitchen of some sort, but not one that looked similar to how Skara had ever seen one laid out. There were cooking utensils like knives and forks, a countertop and the likes, but there were other things that were a bit more unusual. There was a cauldron in the absolute center of the room, with symbols probably older than Skara’s grandfather carved into it . It was a small detail, but one certainly stood out to the Bard. 

The room somehow felt… Empty, but it also wasn’t. Like everything had been kept neat and tidy, like someone had been planning to come back one day but never had, and what mess there was had come from the passage of time more than anything else. Dust, some things scattered along the floor, that sort of thing. 

“Hello?!” Skara called out into the building. Her shout reverberated against the walls of the room.  

She got no response. So she confirmed at least that no one was inside when she broke into a building . That was a plus, at least. 

She quickly moved through the rest of the cabin without taking any notice as to the interior of the rooms she ran through, eventually finding the front door. Thankfully, it was a lock that didn’t require a key to be opened from the inside. She twisted the knob and smiled as she turned to the latest victim of a Spider-Yeti’s venom. 

“And we’re in!” She declared as she knelt down to pull Willow onto her feet, the bards arm around Willow’s neck once again. 

As soon as they were both inside, Skara scanned the front room for the nearest place that she could put Willow down to rest. There was a couch that was set up just in front of one of the windows. That would work. 

The Bard kicked the door behind her shut, and helped Willow over towards the couch. She lowered the Plant Witch onto it as gently as she could, resting her head upon the armrest, with a couch-cushion quickly slid underneath it for use as a pillow. 

“There we go.” Skara murmured. Taking her expedition partner’s arm from around her neck and resting it by her side, Skara stood upright, and stretched her neck until she felt it click in her hands. All but carrying Willow all this way had been… Well, exhausting was putting it lightly. “You feeling alright?” 

Willow’s eyes flickered for a moment, before they landed on Skara. The expression that she made was difficult to read, but there was... At least something of a small smile there. “...I’m… Okay.” 

“Can you use Magic?” 

“I don’t feel any Magic in me so… No, I guess.” 

Skara blinked. Still? How in the - 

She shook her head. She’d worry about that later. 

“You… You should rest.” She told Willow, taking a glance around the room. “I’m gonna… Try and figure out where in Titans name we are.” 

Her sentence hadn’t even finished before Willow’s eyes had shut, and she was fast asleep.

As far as Skara could tell, the whole cabin was made out of wood - Some sort of Magic-infused wood if she had to guess, because  there wasn’t even the slightest sign of wood rot anywhere. 

There were only five actually usable rooms in the entire house - Two on the ground floor, and three on the top floor. There were four other, smaller rooms, but they seemed to be used for little more than storage purposes, and were almost entirely filled with either empty boxes, or boxes that were filled with extremely useless things right now. Mostly old clothes and the likes, that looked like they had gone out of fashion a hundred years ago. All of them were covered in dust, apparently undisturbed for who knew how long. 

The kitchen and the lounge were the ones that were on the ground floor, and were separated only by a wall with a door frame, but no actual door. In its place, a bead curtain was hung, with patterns inscribed onto it that seemed to zigzag, black, then white, black, then white, and so on and so forth. The curtains that covered the windows were more like the ones Skara was used to. And while on the subject of windows, Skara had used what little Magical energy she had left in her to repair the window that she had broken in order to get inside. It still had a number of cracks within the glass, but it held, and none of the cold was able to seep in. 

Checking some of the cupboards, Skara found basically nothing. Just pots and pans that were about as old as the rest of the place. She checked the storage unit next to the kitchen counter, and to her surprise, a purple hue began to envelop it, before fading away. 

And inside it, to her surprise, was an array of food - Mostly fruits and vegetables, but all seeming to be as fresh as anything in her own home. 

A stasis spell, Skara realized. Whoever had been here had been planning on coming back, but never did, so the spell lasted for… However long it had been before she and Willow had arrived. 

Well, at least we won’t go hungry. 

The lounge was… Fairly cozy, actually. There was a fireplace, a large chair and sofa, arranged so that both seating arrangements  would be facing one another and the fireplace. Bookshelves lined the walls, old photos and tapestries framed on the few free spaces that existed. In a lot of the pictures, there was the same couple, two women, seeming to be of varying ages in each of the pictures, but most frequently appearing in what Skara guessed was their mid-twenties. 

One was shorter, with golden braided hair that seemed to shine, eyes as red as the Isles skies, a face full of freckles, and a penchant for smiling in every photo. She also seemed to be playing a musical instrument in every photo she was in, and a wide variety of them too - a guitar, a drum set, a theremin, and half a dozen instruments Skara didn’t even recognize. A Bard, Skara guessed,, or at least practiced the magic.

The woman always with her, meanwhile, was taller, with dark skin, short auburn hair, and eyes that reminded Skara of the Plant track colours. It was harder to pin down any sort of Coven for her, since she never seemed to show or do anything magical, but Skara took a stab in the dark and decided Healing, since she reminded her of an old Healer Skara had.     

Probably the people who lived here, Skara initially thought. Then she thought about it, and shook her head. If they did, then all things considered, this place is pretty barren and cramped. Maybe it was like a vacation house or something.  

...What kind of people vacation in a ravine? 

Upstairs was a landing, which led to three usable rooms, and one smaller room, full of more boxes. One of the larger rooms was a restroom, which actually had running water - From where exactly, the Bard had no idea, but she certainly wasn’t complaining. 

One of the larger rooms was completely empty. Just barren, aside from a carpet, and some comparatively brighter coloured walls, with swirling patterns painted continuously and horizontally along them.

...A kid’s room. That was the only logical answer. Or rather, a planned kids room. One that never got finished. 

The final room was a master bed. Wardrobes that were full of old clothes again, and other basic utilities. Shampoo and the likes, although Skara didn’t recognize any of the brands. Actually, there didn’t even seem to be any brands. The only reason Skara knew it was shampoo was because of a note on the bottle that said ‘Artis’s shampoo concoction - Do not wet your hair before using it, Fex’.  

Nowhere in the building was there any indication of its actual use. It just seemed to be a cabin where someone used to live, or at least spent time within, at some point in the past. 

In the not-too-distant past. 

Artis and Fex. Were those the names of the people who lived here?  

After she had checked all of the rooms, Skara went back down into the lounge, and saw Willow, still fast asleep. She turned her head, and browsed the bookcase briefly, and used her hands to pat away the build-up of dust. ‘The Myths of the Before’, ‘From on High’, ‘Remedies of the Isles’, ‘Magic in its Infinite Diversity’. A diverse combination...

...Her eyes drifted back to Willow. A sigh escaped her. Once again, Willow had surprised her. Caught her off guard. 

…Why did she come after me? 

This wasn’t like the Vehemence Witch Trap last week. Willow was in as much danger as Skara was after it began attacking everyone and everything around it - Helping Skara then, the Bard could write off as self-interest if she wanted to. 

But she couldn’t do that with the Spider-Yeti’s. There was no self-interest involved in that. It was practically the exact opposite. Considering how much danger Willow had put herself in, and how… Utterly poorly Skara had treated her just minutes before, it was a wonder she came to save her at all. And even if she had been concerned, she could have run off to find someone else, her friends, or a teacher, or... Anybody. Going alone had been all but suicidal. Frankly, it was a miracle either of them were even still alive. 

If Skara didn’t know any better, she’d be tempted to conclude that Willow was some sort of bizarre variety of masochist. But that wasn’t the case for Willow. 

And… Somehow that made it worse. 

Because that meant that Willow wasn’t some sort of odd exception. 

Because that meant that , maybe, Skara was wrong about how the world worked. How people worked.

...Because she knew Boscha and the rest of her friends wouldn’t have done the same thing for her. 

And that made the question burn all the more.

“Wh… Whu?... What -” 

Willow awoke to the feeling of wild spiders crawling all over her, their tiny legs marching on her skin, causing her to squirm in disgust. What’s going on? Why are all these spider in my bed? An infestation? 

“Papa!?” Willow shouted, opening her eyes.

And then she remembered. 

Venom, sleep… It took her a minute to think of everything that happened in the last few hours. She blinked, rubbing as much of the drowsiness as she could from her eyes…

“Wait a minute,” Willow muttered. She held her hand up, in front of her face, looking it over for a moment before it dawned on her 

She could actually move her body again. 

“Yes,” Willow hissed, pumping her fist in the air. “I can move again! Take that, stupid spider ven-”

A dull pain shot underneath her ribcage, and she keeled over, clutching her side and letting out a low groan. “Owww....” 

Not completely, then.

Once she was sitting upright, she let out a small sigh, but smiled nonetheless. It hurt, but it was good to finally be able to move again. She let herself scan the room, realizing just how completely foreign the small wooden room was, and blinked a few times. 

Where am I?...

“Willow? Willow!” 

The Plant Witch turned her head, facing the nearest entryway, one covered with a bead curtain  Skara emerged from it, pushing the curtain aside while staring at Willow. Willow blinked, both at seeing Skara herself and of… Something else.

"Skara? Is that a “I’m a Bad Witch” apron?” 

“You’re…. Up.” Skara said flatly, approaching cautiously while ignoring her question. “Are you able to move again?” 

“I… I guess so.” 

“You, uh… how are you feeling?” 

“I can move myself a bit at least, so… I suppose a little better.” Willow answered, a bit uncertainly. She opened and closed her hands as if to make sure her prior movements hadn’t been a fluke. “I… Still don’t think I can do any Magic.” 

“I don’t think you’ll be able to until tomorrow.” Skara said, matter-of-factly. “Spider-Yeti venom is… Weird. It’ll seep into your bile-sic through your skin and suppress your Magic as well as paralyse you for a while, but it seems to last longer on Witches who have a lot of Magical ability.” 

A lot of Magical ability, huh? Willow allowed herself the teensiest, tiniest moment of smug satisfaction. Guess I must be super Magical, huh?

Then, she paused, realizing something.

“...Weren’t you able to use Magic not long after you’d been captured?” 

“Well, it was planning on…” A slight pause, during which Skara bit her lip. “...Eating me, so it didn’t use too much on me. Just enough to knock me out. If it used too much I would have been… Inedible.” 

Skara shivered. Willow gulped.

“P - Plus, it also depends on the Witch and on the Spider-Yeti.” Skara explained. “Some of them have less effective venom, while some can kill a witch in an instant, and some Witches have a better natural resistance to them… It varies a lot. I’m just… More resistant to it than you, I guess. Although that’s not saying much. I don’t have much Magical left in me either. And what little I recovered, I used to break into this place, and then to fix the window I broke.” The Bard shrugged. “I’ve got a little, but not enough to do anything even remotely useful.” 

Willow nodded. She took another scan of the room, before her eyes were drawn, once again, to the most gaudy thing she could find. . 

“Okay… So, where are we, and… What are you wearing?” 

A light tinge of crimson crossed Skara’s face as she put her arms over the apron “ Uh… Do you not remember where we ended up?” 

“Not… Really.” 

“Ah.” Skara nodded. “I guess that makes sense. The venom really messed you up. You were pretty out of it by the time we got here.” The Bard looked around the room as well, before taking in an inhale, and then letting out an exhale. “I saw a chasm in the middle of the blizzard and we went inside, and found this place. I dunno what anyone was thinking, building a cabin here but, well, here it is, and here we are.” 

“And no one lives here?” 

“I’m pretty sure it was abandoned… A long time ago. Probably a Wild Witches hut. A lot of the stuff here is really old, and there's a bunch of carvings and patterns around the place, so...” 

Again, Willow looked around. She blinked a couple of times. The room… It actually sort of looked similar to the living room in the Owl House, now that she thought about it. Certainly not exact, but it was a point of comparison. Both were disorganized, filthy, and ugly as demons. 

“Right… And the apron?” 

Skara took a deep sigh, knowing that she couldn’t run from the embarrassment anymore. “Look this was the only apron this place has, okay?” 

“And… Why do you need an apron?” 

“Turns out there’s some food in one of the storage units.” Skara answered, pointing behind her towards the kitchen. “It had a stasis spell on it, so it’s all fresh. Figured I’d try to make us something...” She trailed off, as if there was more she wasn’t saying.

“...I er, can’t help but feel like there’s a ‘but’ coming.” 

“.. But , like I said - I don’t have the Magical energy to make a fire, so…” She put on a clearly forced smile. “...Cold vegetable soup sound good?” 

Very clearly, it didn’t to Skara. And it certainly didn’t appeal to Willow.

“...Well, luckily, we don’t need Magic to make a fire.” 

Skara raised an eyebrow. “Eh?” 

“Here - Help me up? Please?” The Plant Witch held out a hand to the Bard.

The Bard looked at the hand quizzically, but took it, helping pull Willow onto her feet. It took them a couple of seconds to find her balance, still woozy from the venom.

“Willow? You need me to-”

But Willow shook her head before Skara could finish. She made her way towards the fireplace, inspecting the hole and it’s surrounding wall intently. After a few seconds, she nodded, and turned back to Skara. 

“Are there any knives in this place?” 

“There's a bunch of them in the kitchen.....” Skara raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “Wait, Why? That spider venom isn’t… Messing with your head, is it?” 

Willow rolled her eyes. “Skara, I promise I’m not gonna murder you.” She said, flatly. “Just bring me one, please? The biggest and strongest one you can find?” 

She seemed a tad hesitant - maybe asking for the biggest, strongest knife wasn’t the best idea, to be fair - but she still  ran off to grab what Willow asked for. A moment later, Skara rushed back out. “Got something!” She held out her arm, showcasing a butcher's knife.

Oooh, it even has dark red spots! For decoration, obviously. 

“Thanks Skara.” Willow took the knife from the Bard and stared at its not-red spotted sections. It was about the length of her forearm - That would be long enough, she hoped. 

To start, Willow began to shave pieces off of one of the larger logs, creating thin, curly strips  that began to collect at the bottom of the fireplace. Once she had a pile of the stuff so that it covered the base of the fireplace, she picked up a metallic fire-prod that was located to the side, and struck the knife against it, lengthways. 

Then she did it again. And again. And again. She struck it as hard as she could, without damaging the knife and ruining their hopes entirely. Unfortunately the preservation spell didn’t seem to work on the metals of the knife and Willow wondered for a moment if it would eventually fall to rusted pieces... 

Until eventually, sparks flew out, and hit the thin strips of wood - And suddenly, there was a flame. A small, tiny flame, but it was a flame nonetheless. And quickly, it began to spread until it began to engulf the chips, creating a perfectly sized fire for staying warm throughout the cabin.. 

“…And there we go.” Willow exhaled, wiping her brow as she sat up, and let herself smirk slightly. It hadn’t been a ton of physical labour, but with the venom still in her system, it wore her out more than it should have. “Phew!” 

“Where the heck did you learn to do that?” 

Skara was impressed, if her voice was anything to go by, but also confused, if her raised eyebrow was anything to go by. It made sense to Willow though - Just about every Witch on the Isles could make a small fire spell. It was so common that most Witches never learned any other way of making them. Some didn’t even know that making a fire the way Willow just had was even an option. And Skara was apparently one of them.

Before she got an answer to her question, Skara had already ducked back into the kitchen to grab whatever it was that she had been working on before Willow had woken up. Some clattering echoed throughout the cabin as she went about her business. 

“It’s gotta be the Human, right?” She guessed, asking just before the sounds of liquid hitting metal followed the question out of the room. “Before they found that weird fire… what was it, Gif?” 

The Plant-Witch let out a small, single chuckle. “It’s called a glyph, actually. And, no, not really. It… My Dad’s taught me how to do it.” 

“Your dads?” Skara asked, re-entering the room with a cooking-could run in hands. She made her way towards the fire, and hung it above the flames by hooking it onto the walls of the fireplace. 

Willow nodded. “Yeah. We go camping a lot. We have since I was little, and they wanted me to learn how to make a fire without Magic, just in case anything ever happened to me.” 

“…Well, I’d say this whole mess qualifies.” 

A single chuckle escaped Willow. “Me too.” 

“Well, thank the Titan for them, then.” Skara clapped her hand, beginning to set up the materials necessary for cooking around the flame. 

“Yeah.”

A brief silence fell between the two of them as they waited for the vegetable soup to warm up. It was… It wasn’t a completely awkward silence, but it wasn’t exactly comfortable either. Neither of them knew how to describe it. 

“…How long was I asleep?” Willow asked after a couple of minutes. “How long have we been here?” 

Skara’s eyes looked towards Willow, then the ceiling, and she did some brief numbers work with her fingers. “…About an hour, I think. Maybe two? I’ve not exactly been keeping track of time to be honest.” 

“Is it still snowing?” 

“Mmm-hm.” Skara nodded, and pointed towards the window behind her. Snow fell from the sky at a quick, but gentle pace. “It’s not as bad here ‘cause we’re protected by the cliffs, but it’s still really bad.” 

“Did you go out and check?” 

“About twenty minutes before you woke up.” Skara nodded, She shivered involuntarily at the memory. “Still thunder and lightning too.” 

Willow just nodded in her understanding. 

There was another brief silence. 

“...So,” Willow drawled out, “You know how to cook?”

Skara raised an eyebrow as she threw a slice of goremato into the soup.

“No offense, but I thought someone like you has abomibutlers or servants for that sort of thing. At least using magic for it.”

“Well... You’re not exactly the only one with parents who love to teach you how to do things without Magic.” She began to stir the pot, smirking, as if reminiscing about simpler times. “Yeah, most days we had servants make us a nice little meal. But, growing up, we gave them the weekends off. My parents, they met in a Cooking Club at Hexside, and-”

“Wait, really?” 

“Yeah. Anyway, they met in the Cooking Club back in Hexside, and they’d often try to test their chefs true skill by having them cook without magic. One day, my parents faced off against each other, seeing who could make the best Slitherbeast roast. Dad blew mom out of the water, he says, but mom always says she was this close.” She took a pinch of salt, threw it into the cauldron, then kept her fingers together. “Anyway, they were rivals for a bit, then they became friends, then one thing led to another, and after a few years, boom ! They got married, and had me, so happily ever after’s all around.”

Willow raised an eyebrow. “Huh....”

“Well, they really wanted me to like cooking too. So they’d always have me help them out. Didn’t do a whole lot, ‘cause of the whole... Being a kid thing, but I got to lick the spoon whenever we made frostings for desserts so I did my part.”

Something about the way Skara expressed that, with an almost childlike smirk and a bright twinkle at the memory made Willow chuckle. “Huh. That’s… That’s actually surprisingly sweet.”

“I mean, with a kid as sweet as me, how could it not be.” Skara beamed. She had meant it as a joke, clearly. 

But something about how Skara said it… Something about her calling herself ‘sweet’ after…

Willow shook her head. “Yeah.” She mumbled, looking away.

Skara stopped smiling, taking the hint. She looked down, turning all her attention to her cooking. 

The awkward silence returned.  

After a while, Skara checked the soup, using a spare ladle. “Hmm… not my finest work, I’ll admit… But I think it’ll work.”

She went back into the kitchen, and after routing around the cupboards for a short while, returned with two wooden bowls, both with the same intricate patterns that were spread throughout the cabin, and two smooth, wooden spoons. She filled up one, stuck the spoon in it, and handed them to Willow. 

“Here.”

Willow paused for just a moment, then took hold of the bowl with both her hands, placing it on her lap. She took a look at it, and to her surprise, it actually looked and smelt good. If she hadn’t said earlier, Willow might have guessed that Skara’s parents were part of a Cooking Coven as opposed to a club. She took a small sip from the bowl.

It… Was as good as it looked, actually.  

“...Thank you.”. 

Skara nodded. 

The Bard filled up her own bowl, and took a seat on the chair opposite Willow. She began to eat her own soup, quietly. 

“...I guess I should thank you again.” Willow said after a few moments of silence. When Skara looked at her, she explained, “For finding this place, and for carrying me here. I… Don’t want to think about what would have happened to us if....” 

For a moment, Skara just stared at Willow. Then, she sighed. “...We’ll... We’ll call it even. You… Did come and help me after I got caught by the Spider-Yeti, after all.” 

For reasons I still cannot fathom.

“You don’t need to thank me for that, you know.” Willow offered, along with a small smile. She was speaking softly and gently again, in that way Skara had hated a week before, and now… Now… 

“...Well then, you don’t need to thank me for doing this.” Skara responded, before filling up her spoon again. :We’re both just… doing our best in this crazy little life. Seriously. Don’t mention it.”

To that, Willow nodded. She glanced towards the window. “...Do you think the snow will stop soon?” 

“I doubt it.” Skara said, her voice slightly heavy. “When a storm this bad starts up on the Knee, it can take a while before it settles. I… I have a feeling we’re going to be stuck here for a while.” 

“How long is a while?” 

“...Tomorrow morning.” Skara admitted, her voice even heavier. She could hear Willow exhale at that too. “At the least , if we’re lucky. If we’re not, we could be here for days.” 

Stuck in some cabin with Skara for days? 

“...Still, it’s not all bad.” Skara eventually offered. She glanced towards the window herself now. “The blizzard’ll keep the Spider-Yeti’s away from us. They’re good at tracking prey, but they still need to wait out blizzards like this.” 

Tilting her head slightly, Willow turned back to look at Skara. “You… Seem to know a lot about Spider-Yeti’s and the Knee.” A pause. “I mean, I’m not complaining or anything, you probably saved our lives, but - “

“Ves taught me.” 

Immediately, Willow shut her mouth. 

...But Skara kept talking. 

“He… He liked the creatures that live around here.” She carried on. “He thought that they were interesting. Slitherbeast’s, Spider-Yeti’s, Arcticdacty, all kinda of stuff. Sometimes he’d tell me about them, and how they were adapted to survive on the Knee and what kinds of issues they had to face and I… Guess I just remembered some stuff he told me before...” She trailed off. 

“...I didn’t mean to remind you of what happened.” Willow said once Skara fell silent. “I’m sorry.” 

“...It’s alright.” Skara sighed. “You… Didn’t know.” 

Another pause. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

“...No.” Skara shook her head. Her voice was shaken, but… More level than the other times it had come up.  “Not… Not now.”  

Quietly, Willow dropped the subject, but she couldn’t help but take note of Skara’s choice of words. 

They weren’t ‘No I don’t. ‘

They were ‘ Not now’.

Not Now. 

Maybe… Maybe someday, though.

They both ate their meals in relative silence. Once they were done, Skara collected the utensils, and returned them to the kitchen. She also made sure to put a lid on the cauldron, to keep it from spoiling in case they decided they were hungry later. 

After all, they didn’t know how long they were going to be here for. 

As the hours passed, they both lounged around, killing time, with little else to do. Willow remained in the lounge, trying to recover her strength, helping herself to another bowl of soup - It helped her to replenish her energy, and gave strength to her muscles. Plus, honestly? It was a very tasty soup. 

For her part, Skara went from room to room again, looking to see if there was something that she had missed - Mobile Crows, a crystal ball, even a scroll, anything that they could use to let someone know where they were. But there was nothing. 

There really was no sign of the blizzard slowing down, either. A part of Skara hoped  she’d been wrong, but the sky began to turn dark, and the snow showed no signs of slowing down. 

Not to mention, even if the blizzard had let up… They were in no position to travel. 

After a while, she finally spoke to Willow. 

“We should probably figure out what we’re going to do.” 

Willow looked at her for a moment, before registering what was being suggested. “Ah.” She sat up straight, and nodded. “…Yeah. We probably should.” 

Skara sat down opposite Willow again, and leaned forward in her seat. “I think we’re going to have to stay here tonight.” She leaned back, as she explained her reasoning. “It looks like I was right - The storm isn’t gonna let up soon - “ 

Almost as if to punctuate her point, the sounds of thunder echoed throughout the chasm and into the cabin. 

“…And even if it was, I still can’t feel any Magical energy in me. Do you?” 

“No.” Willow confirmed. She attempted to draw a Magic circle in the air, but while the light formed, and so did the circle, it crumbled the second the circle itself formed, like it was dust. “I can’t even perform minor spells.” 

“Me either.” Skara nodded. “…Which means I can’t get my hands on my Scroll, so even if there was a connection up here - And I seriously doubt there is - I can’t get it, so we don’t have a way to contact anyone else to tell them where we are. And even if that wasn’t an issue, travelling across the Knee without Magic is… Not a good idea. Some of the monsters here are… Not pleasant.”

Again, Willow agreed. “I… Don’t wanna run into any more Spider-Yeti’s, either.” 

Skara shivered. 

“Okay.” Willow said, scratching at her cheek lightly. “So, we’re staying here for the night, at  least until we get our Magic back. Then we need to wait until the blizzard dies down, and if we can’t get in touch with anyone else, we try to make our way back to Bonesborough on foot?” 

“That’s… Basically what I was thinking.” Skara nodded. “The only issue is, I don’t know how to figure out which way that is.” 

“The sun rises in the south and sets in the north.” Willow told her, sounding like she was reciting something she had been taught - Probably by her Dads. “And Bonesborough is north of the Knee. If we just go opposite to the sun rising, or with it when it’s setting, we’ll be able to figure out which way Bonesborough is fairly easily.” 

“You’re sure about that?” 

“A hundred percent.” 

A slight pause followed. Then Skara nodded. “Okay. Okay, that’s the plan then?” 

“It sounds good to me.” 

“Okay.” Skara nodded again, this time, more confidently. “That's the plan then.” 

It was the only real choice, Willow knew. It wasn’t like they had a whole lot of other options. But she had to admit - She felt better knowing that the two of them officially had a plan. 

Now all they had to do was wait until they could put it into action.

To say that today had been… Eventful, Willow decided, was probably the biggest understatement of her life. And would probably remain the biggest understatement of her life for the foreseeable future. 

At least, she hoped it would. 

She looked at her reflection in the bedroom window, sitting on its ledge. The clothes Skara had dug out of the cabin’s wardrobes for her were a little too big, and looked odd on Willow, even though they were different shades of plain green. Yet at the same time, they only complimented her expression - She looked as exhausted as she felt, and she felt like she was about to pass out at any moment. In fact, given less bizarre circumstances, she probably would have, but for right now at least, she was still trying to properly understand what exactly had happened today, because when she actually sat down and thought about it, she only then really realized exactly just how crazy a day it had been. 

In less than twenty-four hours, she had been dragged to the Knee by her teachers without any explanation, paired up with someone she barely even knew or liked, been made to trek through the cold, unforgiving snow of the mountains, rescued said partner from being eaten alive by giant winter bugs, almost suffered that same fate when she lost her magic, and to wrap it all up, had been essentially carried in the middle of a thundersnow blizzard to some remote, unknown, and apparently forgotten cabin in the middle of a giant, wintery chasm, where they were going to have to stay for, if they were lucky, tonight, and if they weren’t, the next few days. 

And there was only one thing that all of these events had in common. Just one thing that tied all of this together. 

Skara. 

A girl who used to bully her. Who was still a part of the gang that had tormented her for years. Who, several weeks ago, she’d caught crying over her breakup. Who she tried to help, and failed to. The person that Oracle spirits had decided she would ‘grow’ the most from. And now, who had just saved her life from a Spider-Yeti and a blizzard. 

One of the last people that Willow would have wanted to be partnered with for an event like this, or be stuck in this exact situation with. And yet, here they were. 

The day had been... Odd, to say the least. 

There were certainly… Less interesting directions their relationship could have gone, Willow supposed. Although to be perfectly honest, she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. 

To be perfectly honest, there were a lot of things that she wasn’t sure about when it came to Skara these days. 

She sighed, watching the storm raging outside. Not to check to see if it was still going, but just to watch it for the sake of nothing better to do. Now that it had calmed, if only just a bit, and she wasn’t in it herself, it actually was kind of... Nice to watch. The harsh winds and occasional streak of lightning across the sky were as dangerous as any other Boiling Isles phenomenon - But now that she wasn’t at risk in it, it looked almost… Picturesque. Snow fell down from up top, creating a flurry of white against the greys of the walls of the chasm, and dark clouds occasionally flashed with brilliant whites and yellows, and the lightning almost created patterns within them.  

It was certainly more beautiful than any kind of Boiling Rain or Gorenado that Willow had ever seen. 

Trying to make sense of everything that had happened over the last couple of weeks felt like a monumental task, but Willow tried anyway. If, again, only because she didn’t have anything better to do. 

When she had first seen Skara crying, she knew that she could have just left her to herself, and that it wouldn’t have been undeserved, but her conscience wouldn’t let her. In the moment, helping Skara had just been the right thing to do. And after that… No, even then, she had been able to see herself in the Bard. Or at least, what she was going through. 

And after that, it had just been her acting on that. Her trying to help Skara because she wanted to be the person that she wished she had back when her and Amity’s friendship deteriorated. 

Skara wasn’t Willow, though. She didn’t react the way Willow had thought she would, or even wanted to help Willow had wanted back then. 

But at the same time, the things that she said, and the way that she acted said something… Different. There was how she talked about Hexside, and her philosophy that Willow couldn’t really comprehend, and the way that she talked about her friends just leaving her to her devices when it was clear she was upset. Her mind drifted back to the Vehemence Witch Trap. The way that she talked… 

‘I should be able to handle this by myself, should be able to just get over this stupid breakup but…But I can’t. I can’t, okay?!’

‘I’m supposed to be tough, supposed to be able to handle myself, supposed to not be broken up by stupid things like this but - But I can’t! I’m on the Grudgby team, I’m one of the top Bards in my class! I hang out with Boscha for Titan’s sake! You don’t get to show any weakness around them - You don’t get to! I should be able to handle this! And!... And it sucks, because…’

‘You’ve been the only person who seems to genuinely care about it. Amelia, Cat, even Bo, they’ve asked, but you’re the only one who just keeps making sure, asking me if I need anything…’

It was like she wanted help - Like she knew she needed help - But didn’t know how to accept it. Like she didn’t even realize it was an option to accept it. Like it was just…. Something that didn’t occur to her. 

Like she didn’t even realize other people could offer it. 

At Hexside though, Skara was popular. She had friends. Heck, Willow was all but certain that Skara seemed to know at least a few people in just about every class at the school. Until the last few weeks, she’d barely ever seen Skara on her own. And none of those people had noticed? None of them had offered to help, or be a shoulder to cry on? 

That had been what Skara had said during the Witch Trap incident. 

Willow… Didn’t know what to make of Skara. That was the honest answer. She wanted to help Skara because of what she saw in herself, but she didn’t know how to. 

It was this sort of contemplation that made sleep impossible right now. 

After a few more minutes of watching the storm outside and trying to make sense of everything, the door creaked open, and Willow turned her head to see Skara enter the room.

The Bard had dug around inside some of the boxes of the smaller rooms, and from them had found something that fit her, even if it was still roughly a size too big for her. A sleeveless vest and some shorts that went down to her knees, both plain white and black respectively. Her hair was wrapped under a towel from the shower she’d just taken. 

“Haaaah...” She let out a long exhale. Her expression was, probably for the first time in weeks, relaxed. “Oh, I needed that. I can actually feel my fingers again.” Then, looking at Willow, “Uh, outside of your fire downstairs, I mean.”

Willow simply gave a half smile. “Nah. I gotcha. I’m still surprised this place even has warm running water.”

“I’m amazed that this place even has running water.” Skara added on, her hands rubbing the towel against her hair to try to get all the water out. “I would have taken a cold shower at this point. I wouldn’t have been picky after getting covered in webbing, venom, and whatever else was in that cave.” 

“Agreed.” Willow said, simply. After everything, actually getting to bathe felt like a cleansing of her spirit as well as her body. She’d never felt cleaner. 

It was an extremely simple feeling, but after everything that had happened today, that simple feeling of cleanliness made everything feel that much better. 

“I dunno what was in the shampoo I found, but..” 

Giving the towel on her head a tight squeeze before dropping it to the floor, Skara’s silver hair hung down, cascading down in one large poof. Willow realized, as she watched Skara begin to wring out what little remaining water there was onto the towel, that it was the first time since she’d met Skara that the Plant Witch had seen her hair down. And it was almost already completely dry. 

“...It helps dry out hair faster too.” That was something Willow had noticed from her own shower as well. There was just a bit of water left in Skara’s hair, and what there was seemed to almost just slide right off, taking whatever debris was in the hair along with it. “And it seems to get pretty much all the dirt out too, thank the Titan. I don’t even wanna think about what the heck was stuck in my hair after being trapped in that cocoon…” 

The chatter was extraordinarily simple and almost pointless - But it was a sign that Skara was feeling better, at least a little bit. One thing Willow had learned about Skara over the last couple of weeks was that when she was upset, she didn’t talk much, and was usually snappy or blunt with her words. The fact she was just chattering about a shower and her hair of all things was a sign that for now at least, she wasn’t hung up on anything that had happened, or upset about something. She was more like the Skara that one would normally see in the corridors at Hexside. 

It was… Actually sort of nice to see her like this, after the last couple of weeks. 

Willow leaned her head back against the wall, and offered her a small smile. “I’m… Glad you’re feeling a bit better, Skara.”

For a moment, Skara just looked at Willow. Then, she nodded, and gave her a little smile in return, and tried to squeeze out what little water was still in her hair. 

Once that was finished, she kicked the towel towards the corner of the room and let out another, relaxed sigh.  “I don’t know about you, but I’m completely exhausted.” 

A single laugh escaped Willow. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more tired in my life.” 

“Says you.” Skara let out a single laugh of her own. “I’m the one who got dragged out of bed at the crack of dawn for Grudgby practice, then dragged up the Knee, and then had to carry you in the middle of a blizzard. And fleeing a Spider-Yeti in a blizzard takes a lot out of you. Y’know, shockingly.”

This time, it was just a snicker at Skara’s sarcasm, but Willow was amused all the same. She nodded, turned in her seat, and hopped out of the window ledge. Okay then. So, time for bed?”

“Well, sure. But, uh…” Skara blinked a couple of times. “Have er, have you not checked all the rooms in the cabin?” 

“Not… All of them. Why?”  

“Er… When I looked around, this was the only bedroom...”

She didn’t clarify the next point, but Willow heard it loud and clear: Which means there’s only one bed for us to take.

“...Oh.” Willow looked to the bed. She wasn’t any sort of mattress expert, but it looked to be roughly about the same size as the mattress her dad’s slept on, so it could fit both of them if they wanted to take it, probably with room to spare. 

But given Skara’s trailing off, that idea didn’t seem to sit well with her. And there were bound to be a variety of reasons for that. 

Right now though, the main one she was concerned with was making sure that this side of Skara - The side that was happy to talk about basically nothing, the side that had been hidden away because of the breakup, the side that Willow had wanted to help - didn’t retreat back inside because of discomfort. 

“Well, if you wanted to take it, then I can just take the couch downstairs and-”

“Nah.” Skara said, suddenly. She looked at the mattress, and then back to Willow. “Y’know what, nah. Just throw me a blanket and pillow, and we’ll go top-to-toe. It’ll be fine.”

Willow looked up, blinking. That had... Not been the reaction she had expected. “You’re... Sure?”

“The couch downstairs isn’t exactly the most comfortable thing in the world, and I think we could both use a good night's sleep. I’m fine with it if you are.” She offered a small smile. “You literally saved my life earlier today. The least I can do is handle a little awkwardness so we can actually get some rest.”  

“...Well, okay then, if that’s how you want it.”

Skara nodded, before taking the top blanket, a heavy silver comforter, and one of the multitude of pillows from atop the bed. “Works for me.” She dropped the pillow at the foot-end of the mattress, wrapped the blanket around herself tightly, and flopped her head onto the pillow. 

Wrapped up like that, Skara almost looked like… Well, someone who had been caught in a spider’s web, and was wrapped up in a cocoon, ironically enough. Willow couldn’t help but chuckle to herself. Quietly, of course.. 

“Uhm, hey” Skara let out. The tone caught Willow off guard. It sounded… Embarrassed, almost. “So, I was wondering… I kinda get a little, you know, freaked out, sleeping in unfamiliar places, and after everything that happened with the Spider-Yeti… Do you mind if we keep the light on? Or just dim it only a little? I… Know it’ll burn up whatever Magical energy is left in this place, but…” 

The idea that Skara needed a nightlight was… Surprising, on its own, mostly because of their history. To Willow, it just didn’t seem very… Skara-y, she supposed. Maybe, though, it wasn’t as much of a surprise as Willow thought, when she realized that she herself was also somewhat freaked out.

Actually, now that she thought about it, maybe a nightlight wasn’t a bad idea.

“Sure, but, I have a better idea. Is there any paper in this room?” 

“Pretty sure I saw a bit of everything in the storage units under the bed.” 

Kneeling down and pulling the units out, Willow rummaged around for a couple of minutes until she found something paper-y - Maybe an old clothing tag or something, she wasn’t totally sure - and a pencil. She’d seen Luz make light glyphs dozens of times now, she remembered what they looked like. 

One quick drawing and a tap later, the glyph crumpled up and turned into a ball of small, dim light, that hovered in the air, slowly floating up to the ceiling, and emitting a faint glow throughout the room.

The Plant Witch let herself feel a small twinge of pride. It wasn’t like one of Luz’s orbs. It was smaller, fainter. Yet somehow, it was still captivating, like a star in the night sky. Exactly what she had been going for. 

Not bad for her first ever glyph spell. 

“...Thank you.” Skara muttered, her head having half-way sunken into her blanket cocoon.  

“Don’t worry about it.” Willow said, trying to reassure her. “To be honest I… Am kind of glad you asked. I dunno if I’d sleep any better here without a light.” 

She flipped the main light off, got herself into bed, and pulled  her blanket up to her neck, and laid flat on her back. It was slightly awkward, knowing that she was going to be sleeping next to Skara, but, well… After everything that had happened today, a little awkwardness was something that she could handle. 

Plus, she was too tired to dwell on it too much. 

“Well… Goodnight.” She said through a yawn, turning away from the light.

“Yeah.” Skara replied, almost in a whisper. “Goodnight.”

Willow closed her eyes, attempting to find any sort of sleep.

And unfortunately, finding none.

There was no getting comfortable. It wouldn’t matter if it was on the downstairs couch, on the wooden floor, or on this mattress. Skara could not make herself comfortable.

She tossed and turned in her blanket cocoon for what felt like hours, trying and failing to sleep. She was exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally - She should have been able to fall asleep the second her head hit the pillow. She was so tired, she would give practically anything to be able to just get some sleep, but she just… Couldn’t . 

It wasn’t the light, she could easily turn away from it. It wasn’t the memories of the Spider-Yeti’s, unpleasant as those were. The problem wasn’t even the location, unsettling as it was. 

It was something else, something much more personal. 

Her mind was what was keeping her awake now. 

She tried not to think about it, not to say anything about it, just like she had throughout the entire day now, but a question rolled in her mind, one that she needed an answer to, but just couldn’t get. One that frustrated her, hurt her, that-

“Hey.” 

Skara stopped, then turned up to see Willow, now sitting up and looking over to her. The pair of them made eye contact. 

“...Hey.” Skara repeated. 

Willow looked up for a moment at the light, like she expected it to greet her as well as well. In reality, she was thinking, trying to figure out how to best phrase what she was going to say. “You’ve been tossing yourself around like that since, well, you tried going to sleep.”

Skara bit her lip. “Yeah.”

“It… Kinda makes it hard for me to fall asleep too.” 

“...Sorry.” 

“And… I’m guessing that it’s not much fun for you either.” 

“...Nope.” 

“That… Sucks…”

Neither of them said anything for a moment, but Skara knew exactly what Willow wanted to ask. They both just sat there in an awkward silence for a short while, neither of them even moving, waiting for the other to make the first move. 

“...No.” Skara finally said with a sigh. “No, I’m not okay.”

“...Yeah… Yeah, I figured.” Willow bit her lip. ”I er, I wasn’t sure if I should ask, or...”

It wasn’t like Skara could blame her for not asking. Last time she had asked, Skara had all but exploded at her, and nearly gotten them both eaten by a giant emotion and also Witch-eating plant. Not that there were any of those on the Knee. She hoped , anyway. 

Still, she knew where Willow’s hesitancy came from. In a weird way, she was almost grateful for it. At least it showed that Willow recognized the impact that it had on Skara, even when it was difficult to explain why. 

 “Do… Do you want to talk about it?” 

“...Not really.” Skara admitted. Her head flopped backwards onto her pillow, and she stared up at the roof. “...But I am… So tired, and… I don’t know if I’m ever gonna be able to get to sleep if I don’t talk about it.”

There was no follow up question by Willow. Instead, she just sat, and waited. She would let Skara talk at her own pace, about whatever it was that she wanted to talk about. 

A few minutes of silence followed. 

Then finally, Skara sat up. 

“...Why did you save me?”

That… Hadn’t been a question Willow had expected to hear. She just looked at Skara, like she had just asked if she could bring a niece-eating queen queen cobra to her niece's birthday party. 

Was it… Not obvious?

“Uh…” Willow actually struggled to answer for a couple of seconds with how caught off guard she had been. “Be… Because you were in trouble, and-”

“But you didn’t think to look for anyone else.” Skara insisted. “You didn’t find other classmates, or ran back to the boat. You just… You just ran after me on your own.” She shook her head. “You just… You didn’t even think. You just… Did it.”

“I… Well, I guess that’s a bit of Luz rubbing off on me.” Willow said, nervously chuckling. She wasn’t really sure what else to do. 

“But…” Skara’s eye drifted away from Willow, and more towards the floor. “...But after everything I did… Everything I’ve done. After how I treated you…” Skara shook her head. “You wanted to help. And… And I treated you like a threat, like a nuisance, and I… I…”

A pause. 

“...It wasn’t like the Witch Trap. You didn’t have to help me. You could have just left me to get eaten, and… And I don’t think anyone could blame you for it.” 

Another pause. 

“...I don’t think I could have blamed you for it...”

A third pause. 

“...But you didn’t. You came after me and… Now we’re here.” Her eyes slowly started to look back towards Willow. “...You’ve gone further for me than I think any one of my friends has and…” Her eyes drifted away again. Looking at Willow was hard. 

“...You… Never did say if you actually wanted me to stay away from you.” Willow pointed out, carefully. “I... I assumed it, but I wasn’t sure….”

Another pause. This one was the longest yet. 

“...I… I didn’t. I didn’t want you to stay away…”

Skara could feel herself begin to verge into some deeper, less emotionally comfortable places for herself. But, the genie was out of the bottle, and like a real genie it clearly wouldn’t leave her alone until Skara let everything out and set it on fire.

“I just…”

…Screw it . 

“...I didn’t like being reminded about it, okay?” Skara admitted. “Of the breakup. Of Ves. I thought if I could just power through it, be my own witch, and move on by myself, that I could just pretend that it didn’t happen.” She sighed. “I just wanted to power through it…” ”

“...You… You said that you couldn’t do that, though.” Willow pointed out, though she was tepid with her words and her tone. “When we fought the Witch Trap, you… Said that you couldn’t.” 

Skara nodded. “...Yeah. I know.” And then, she sighed again. “...So I guess I’m just screwed no matter what I do.” 

There… Wasn’t an easy way out of this. There was no formula that she could follow that would make everything alright. She couldn’t pretend that she was okay. She couldn’t just power through it. And talking about it didn’t automatically make it feel better either, as she was discovering now. 

This was just something that she was going to have to ride out, for however long it took. 

Her hands grabbed onto her blanket, and held onto it tightly. 

“And you… You kept asking. It was hard enough, but every time I saw you, you asked me about it and… And I didn’t want to be reminded about it.” 

“I… I’m sorry, I-”

“No, no, it - That’s just it, Willow. It wasn’t just you.” 

Skara unfurled her cocoon enough to sit up and look at the Plant Witch. 

“Well, I mean, you did remind me of it, but… But you also made me feel…” She sighed. “This is gonna sound lame, but you made me feel weak.” She shook her head. “Like I wasn’t able to handle this on my own. Like I needed someone else to help me. And… I don’t know what to do with that. No one else did that.” 

“...What about your friends?” Willow asked. “You… Said that I was the only one who kept checking on you, but didn’t they at least… Try?” 

“That’s… Not how friends work.” 

Willow cocked her head at Skara in utter bewilderment. What was that even supposed to mean? “Skara…. What do you think friends do , exactly? You talk like you don’t even really have any.”

“They… They gossip. They play Grudgby. They do Moonlight Conjurings. They-”

“Help each other? Isn’t that something they also do?”

Skara blinked. “Well, maybe. Sometimes, if it’s serious enough. But you’re supposed to be able to handle it yourself. You’re supposed to be able to get through it on your own. When you’re powerful, when you’re at the top of the food chain, when you’re the best… That’s just how it’s supposed to work.” Her voice got quieter. “...That’s how it’s always worked. It’s how it’s worked since I was a Witchling...” 

“...Is this the social hierarchy Boscha talks about?” Willow asked, but she already knew the answer. The way that Skara was talking wasn’t the way that Skara talked about… Basically any other subject. This was Boscha talking. 

The nod that followed was… Unceremonious. 

Leaning back against the wall, Willow sighed. She… Well, it explained a couple of things, she supposed. Like why Skara defaulted to Boscha as the new head of their group of friends after Amity had left. Why she seemed utterly baffled by the concept of someone not taking every single advantage that was given to them to socially upstand someone. Why she… Why she seemed so confused as to why Willow wanted to help.

The Plant Witch… Didn’t even want to imagine what living like this would be like. To have such a warped view of how friendships and basic relationships worked, even when she was as surrounded as she always seemed to be by other people… All she could imagine was a cold sense of isolation, even though everything around her was warm.  

“...Well, does Bo believe that?” She asked. “She doesn’t seem to be on the top, but you get along with her, don’t you?”

“Bo can get along with anyone..” Skara muttered. “Besides, she’s… Different. She’s… temporary.” Her voice was extremely heavy. “ Boscha, Cat, Amelia, we’re all gonna be powerful. That’s what we were raised to be. So we gotta stick together. We don’t have much of a choice. But Bo… She’s just…” She trailed off.

It was a fact-of-the-matter way of speaking - It was obvious Skara didn’t like it, but she believed it all the same. Like this was all inevitable. Like it was just the way of the world, and there wasn’t a thing that she could do to stop it. 

“...A friend.” Willow said. “It sounds like you’re talking about a real, honest friend who’s more of one then Boscha and her gang ever have been.”

“It… It isn’t all that bad.” Skara sighed. “Cat and Amelia are… Cool.”

“And Boscha?”

“...She… She has her moments...”  The way that she spoke was… Different. 

It was hard to imagine Boscha ‘having her moments’, whatever that meant. 

“...Skara…” Willow looked back at the window, trying to figure out what exactly to say. The situation was so… Messed up that figuring out exactly the right thing to say was difficult. 

But this was the most that Skara had ever opened up to Willow. She was talking because she wanted to. She was explaining herself. She was.... Reaching a hand out. Willing to listen. Willing to talk. And now that she had some idea of what was happening, of how Skara’s mind was working, and the environment she’d ended up in that led her to thinking this way... 

...There was no way that Willow couldn’t try. 

“...Look… Maybe friendship isn’t just… about being powerful or the top or whatever. Maybe it’s about caring for each other, about helping build each other up without any power dynamic stuff involved. Maybe it’s about more than just social hierarchies and the like.” She smiled, ever so lightly. “That’s how it is with me and my friends, and… Maybe I don’t have as many of them, but… I don’t think that there’s anything we wouldn’t do for each other. And…” 

A slight pause. 

“...And… And I don’t know if you need to hear this but… You’re not a bad person. Not really.” 

A part of it was hard to say. No matter which way she looked at it, Skara had been there, helping to torment her for years. And those weren’t pleasant memories. And somehow, Willow already knew that they were always going to be there, no matter what. 

...But she believed what she was saying too. The much bigger part of her. She’d seen too much of Skara not to. Learned too much about her to believe that. 

She could feel Skara’s eyes turn to look at her. She continued, “I… I don’t think you are. Even after everything, I… Maybe you just… I don’t know. Maybe it’s because of who you’ve spent time with, or how you grew up or… Something, but… I don’t think you’re a bad person. You risked your life to help Amelia the other week, and you risked your life again to help get me here. You… You aren’t a bad person, Skara. And…” 

Her fingers dug into the blanket, just a little more. 

“...You said that you didn’t understand why I came to save you after everything that’s happened between us. Well… That’s part of it too. I don’t think that you’re a bad person and… And you don’t have to do those things, either. The way you talk about them, you say it like it’s something you have to do… But… You don’t.” 

There was a solid minute of silence. 

For about half of it, Willow found herself regretting having said so much - That maybe she had said too much, and gone too far.  

“...Maybe,” Skara whispered, finally, alongside another small sigh. Another pause. “Maybe…” 

Another pause. 

Then she looked up, towards Willow.

And said something that had been a long, long time coming.

“...I’m sorry.”

Willow blinked, and her ears twitched. 

She almost rubbed the insides of her ears at the words, to make sure that she was actually hearing things properly. They sounded... Foreign. Almost alien to her. Not because of what was said, but because of who was saying it. She turned her head to look at the Bard. 

“Skara…”

“I’m... Sorry about the Vehemence Witch Trap, I'm sorry about the Spider-Yeti’s, I'm sorry about pushing you away, I’m sorry I never thanked you for trying to help me…”

The words spilled out so fast, Willow didn’t even have time to correct her on the plant’s name.

“I’m just… I’m sorry.” Skara let out a long breath at her final words, still looking at Willow. “I… I know it doesn’t fix any of it, but…” 

For the first time in a while, Willow was truly, and completely, speechless. 

Here was Skara, a self-centred girl she’d never seen apologize to anyone before, someone who had taken part in the torment she'd dealt with throughout her life at Hexside, someone who had only pushed back every single attempt that Willow had made to help, was now apologizing. To her. 

Somehow, Willow hadn’t even considered that as a possibility .

And she didn’t sound like she was joking or trying to worm out of something. It seemed genuine, honest.

It felt… Surreal.  

Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time someone Willow had a bad history with apologized to her…

She thought back over the last couple of weeks. Thinking about how she and Skara had spoken to one another. What she had learned about the Bard. Everything that had happened between the two of them. And she thought of what to say. 

“...Thank you, Skara.”

It was honestly the best she could come up with.

“Please… Don’t thank me.” Skara shook her head. “After how I’ve treated you, it… Feels weird .” 

 “Well… You aren’t entirely wrong about that.” Willow said, a very small laugh following her. 

Yet another pause followed, but it felt… Different.  The atmosphere of the room had changed and everything felt… Different. A good different. Lighter, almost.

Looking at Skara, Willow noticed that she seemed… It was hard to say. 

Less burdened? 

“...Are, um… Are you feeling any better?” Willow asked. 

For a moment, Skara didn’t answer. “...I’m… Not sure. I… I don’t know.” 

Understandable, Willow supposed. She wasn’t even sure if the reality of the conversation had fully hit her, either. 

“...I am sleepy now, though.” Skara added, a yawn following her. “So, um…” 

Willow almost laughed - But before she could, a sudden wave of exhaustion hit her all at once. The conversation had been… Heavy, she supposed. It made sense that it had tired the both of them out, even if they hadn’t realized it at the time. 

“...Yeah.” Willow yawned as well. “Sleep sounds… Amazing, right now.”

Both of them laid back down on the mattress - Skara, wrapping herself back up into her blanket cocoon, and Willow bringing her blanket back up around her neck. Whatever the long standing effects of this conversation might or might not be, they would figure it out tomorrow. 

“...Night, Willow.” 

“...Night, Skara.” 

A few minutes later, and with a small, miniscule, but existing smile, Willow drifted off to sleep.

Gilbert and Rowan Park sat in silence, clutching the others’ hands in comfort, as they waited for the teacher to get off of her mobile-crow. 

They sat across from Principle Bump, who sat at his desk, straighter than usual. Gilbert knew this was straighter than usual because he’d seen Bump sit in that chair so often. All but once, when the two came, was because of the bullying Willow had endured. The only time it hadn’t been was to sign the papers confirming Willow’s change to the Plant track. 

But this was the first time they were here without Willow. And that terrified both of them.

And, judging by how Skara’s mother was playing with her long, silver hair, and how her father outright refused to sit down, but was pacing back and forth behind all of them, they weren’t any better off.

Neither pair of parents knew the other - It was only today that they had learned that they were this ‘Skara’s’ parents. Gilbert had heard more than enough stories from Willow about the kind of person this Skara was. His first instinct had been to yell at them, to demand some sort of justification or explanation as to why their daughter had taken part in such pointless, cruel tormenting of his child. And he knew Rowan felt the same, but he had grabbed his husband's hand and pulled him back before he had a chance to say anything to them. 

Now wasn’t the time. Their daughter was missing too. 

“Hmmm. Okay. Alright. I’ll let them know right away.” Mr. Basilisk noted, releasing the crow and letting it fly out the window. His expression was grim. “Well, I have some good news… And some bad news as well…”

“I take it that they haven’t found either of our children yet.” Gilbert asked, already knowing the answer.

“Well…” The teacher's expression strained all the more. “That is the bad news, yes… But! The good news is that they haven’t found any signs of either of them being eaten or frozen or potentially even-”

“Okay, that will be all.” Principle Bump stated flatly, raising a hand. “No further words are necessary.”

“Oh, further words are absolutely necessary!” 

Skara’s mother snapped. She slapped her hands onto Bump’s desk and stood, an act of pure authority that commanded the entire room's attention. 

“ MY. DAUGHTER. IS. MISSING! IN ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACES ON THE ENTIRE ISLES!”  She grabbed him by his collar, desperately shaking the man, an act of parental rage that continued to demand everyone’s attention. “ AND NONE OF YOU CAN FIND HER? AT ALL?”

An almost screeching sound followed, and the louder the enraged parent got, the louder it seemed to get - Some kind of Bard Magic?

“Lulea, love.” Her husband stated, placing a hand upon her shoulder. “You’re doing the thing again. Please, take a nice, calming breath, dear.”

It took a second, but Lulea stopped, let go of Bump, and raised her hands into the air, releasing a small stream of calming breaths. “In, out. In, out…”

“Better?” 

“...Somewhat… I’m sorry Boras, I-”

“It’s alright.” 

Turning back to Bump, he grabbed him roughly by his collar, flinging him around in his seat with far more force than his wife had had. 

“NOW, YOU GET SOMEONE OUT THERE TO FIND MY DAUGHTER OR I SWEAR TO EMPEROR-FORSAKEN TITAN I’LL-”

“Everyone, calm yourselves!” Gilbert raised his hand, playing the peacekeeper. “I know we’re under a great deal of stress, but attacking this man will get us nowhere!”

“No, but it sure feels good!”

Bump raised his arm and formed a quick spell circle. A dark purple hand arose from Boras’s seat, grasping the enraged man, and dragging him back, keeping him locked in. The man didn’t calm down, and Bump took a moment to straighten out his clothes. It was…

...Infuriatingly calmly done.

“If we’re all done assaulting me, I assure you, all of you, that finding your children is my top priority. I can only afford to lose one student per semester, and with three gone already…” Bump shook his head, clicking his tongue atop the roof of his mouth. “That petting zoo trip was the worst decision of my career…”

“Great.” Rowan said, his own temper flaring up at the borderline callous disregard the principle was showing. “Then search for them!”

“I’m afraid I can’t at the current moment.” Perhaps the first strain in his voice finally came through. “The blizzard makes it impossible to traverse the mountain safely outside of the areas already searched, and no magic can disperse it in time. I’m not going to risk more people getting lost while trying to find two students that we don’t even know the location of!” 

By the end of his sentence, he had been shouting. He then let out a small sigh. 

“...If, in the morning, the storm seems to have settled on the Knee, or at the very least calmed down to a manageable level, you are more than welcome to join the search parties to find both of your children..”

“And we’ll be there to help!”

Everyone in the office turned and stared at the door, confused at the much younger, much more optimistic voice coming behind it. There were a few awkward seconds where without even seeing them, Gilbert just knew that whoever was on the other side of the door was now kicking themselves for having made their presence painfully obvious.

Bump cleared his throat. “Miss Noceda, you and your friends can enter now, unless you prefer eavesdropping on my conversations.”

There were a few seconds of no sound or movement, and then, the door slowly creeped open, and one human poked her head through the door. Alongside three other Witchlings.

“Miss Blight, Mister Porter, and-”

“We’re sorry for eavesdropping, Principle Bump.” Bo interrupted, speaking quickly. But Skara’s in trouble, and so’s Willow, and we couldn’t just… just stand around and do nothing!” She rambled everything out, sounding almost as stressed about her friend's disappearance as the parents were.

Luz placed a hand on a stressed Bo’s shoulder. “Look, Mister and Mister Park… Skara’s parents. We can help! Eda would be perfectly willing to join, and King is a super good tracker, when you bribe him with enough belly rubs.” She sighed. “Look, we care about Willow.”

“And Skara.”

“And her too.”

“Willow’s my best friend!” Gus declared. “She’s stuck her neck out for me more times than I can count! I can’t just sit here and not do anything!” 

Behind him, Amity placed a hand on his shoulder, and nodded along. 

“We’ve been through worse places than the Knee!” Luz carried on “And everything worked out without a hitch.”

“Didn’t you and Mr. Porter destroy the Detention Track? And you and Ms. Blight put the entirety of the Isles in danger with Grom? And then you unleashed Griffons onto the Illusion Track. And-”

“The point is, ” Luz continued, “that we can handle it. So if you guys are going tomorrow, then-”

“Then you can help us in our search.” Boras interrupted, calmer then he had been thirty seconds ago. 

He said it almost with authority - The kind of authority that someone only used when they knew that everyone around them was already in favour of what was happening. 

And indeed, not a single parent objected. And neither of the teachers did either. 

Even Bump just sighed. “If I refused, you’d just sneak on the longboat anyway, so there really isn’t a point in trying to stop you, is there?”  

“...Huh.” Luz just blinked. “I was expecting a bit more pushback… I had this whole speech planned out, some shadow puppets maybe…”

Gilbert chuckled. “That won’t be necessary, dear.” Lifting himself from his seat, Gilbert knelt before Luz, looking at her from eye level. “So, you must be Willow’s friend Luz I’ve heard so much about, huh?”

“Yep, that’s right.”

“Well,” Rowan stated, “It’s an honour to meet you then.” He picked himself up as well, walking to Luz as well and smiling. “Any friend of Willow’s is family as far as we’re concerned.”

Luz smiled, then threw herself at Gilbert, her arms wrapping around him in a surprise hug. “Don’t worry, Mr. Park. We’re gonna find her.”

Gilbert was taken aback for a moment, before hugging her back. 

We will. I’m sure of it.

I hope...  

Chapter Text

Skara had never liked to be woken up early. Especially when it was caused by an irritating noise. She utterly despised morning alarms for this reason - She was a Bard, after all. Alarms to her sounded like nails being dragged against a chalkboard. So she always tried to make sure that she got enough sleep so that she woke up before any alarm woke her up - She would wake up when she was ready to, not before. 

And as utterly exhausted as yesterday had left her, she had no intention of waking up until she was good and ready to. 

But for some reason that was completely beyond her, she found herself stirring awake while she was still totally exhausted. She tried to squeeze her eyelids shut tighter to try and fall back asleep, but after a few seconds, her ears picked up the source of what had woken her up - A noise. 

It sounded like… A wail. But not from a person. It was more… Ethereal than that. 

More... Ghostly.  

And all of a sudden, it was piercingly loud. 

She bolted upright, still wrapped in her cocoon blanket, clutching it even tighter as her eyes darted across the room. Immediately, the noise had stopped, and looking around, nothing looked… Different. 

Although admittedly, she didn’t have a lot of experience in this room, so maybe something had changed, but if it had, Skara didn’t notice it. It took her a couple of seconds to remember exactly where she was, but once she did, she couldn’t think of anything that stood out to her as out of place. The room still looked like an old cabin bedroom, the bed still looked like it was against the wall, and Willow…

Well, Willow still laid asleep, curled up underneath the blanket, lightly snoring. 

The Bard rubbed her eyes. The sound had been… So loud, so clear, and so, so sharp - Like needles had been shoved down her ears. And she had heard it with the most absolute clarity. It had been a wail, she was sure of it. One of the loudest that she’d ever heard in her life. 

And yet, Willow hadn’t even reacted to it in the slightest? 

It confused the still tired, but now wide awake Bard for a moment, as her brain tried to catch up with the rude awakening it had received. Either Willow was the deepest sleeper Skara had ever met, or, the more likely answer, the noise had been part of a dream she already couldn’t remember. 

Or, a third option - Maybe it had something to do with the weather outside the cabin? Skara looked out the window, expecting the wind to be battering against it.. But to her surprise, in the thin rays of dawn, the wind barely seemed to be flowing at all. 

They were still in the chasm, so it was still very possible that outside of there, the wind was still strong and bellowing, but noticeable, there wasn’t any snow falling from up top. Not even a single snowflake. She could see the sunlight reflecting against what snow had settled overnight, and could feel it bouncing back through the window and onto her. It was… Actually warm. 

The storm was over.

It must have ended during the night, while they were sleeping - Storms on the Knee were capable of lasting for days, and that had been what Skara had expected once the thundersnow had begun; days stuck in the cabin. The fact that it hadn’t honestly threw Skara for a loop. It took a few seconds for what that meant to actually register with her.

Me and Willow can try to get home!! 

A grin that was impossible to stop spread across her face - Her hands pumped into fists, and they shot into the air. A squeal escaped her, “Yes!” 

Immediately after, she slapped her hands over her mouth, worried that her excitement, movement, and squealing had just woken Willow. She glanced down at her to see if she had. Thankfully though, Willow simply gave a small snorting snore before turning onto her back, arms splaying about as she did so. Skara sighed, grateful that she hadn’t just accidentally woken her.

Skara knew that there was no way she’d get back to sleep; she was the type that, once she woke up, couldn’t get back to bed, especially after hearing… Whatever that noise had been in her dream. So, slowly, ever so slowly, Skara wiggled herself off of the bed, standing upon the floor, before dropping the blanket to the floor, and tiptoeing to the bedroom door, quietly as she could.

Closing it shut slowly behind her, Skara breathed a sigh of relief, and leaned back against the door. “Phew.” She muttered. “Didn’t wake Willow up. Good.” 

They were going to be travelling all over the Knee today if they wanted to get anywhere, assuming the weather held out. Skara wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep, but there wasn’t any reason to wake Willow up. She might as well get all the rest that she could get. They were going to need it. 

Stretching as she walked down the stairs, Skara thought to herself about … What exactly had transpired between her and Willow last night. 

‘...Look… Maybe friendship isn’t just… about being powerful or the top or whatever. Maybe it’s about caring for each other, about helping build each other up without any power dynamic stuff involved.’

‘And I don’t know if you need to hear this but… You’re not a bad person. Not really.’

Hearing all that, especially from Willow of all people, was… It was weird, to say the least. It was… Difficult to explain, but coming from Willow in particular had been… Well, weird. But maybe not an entirely bad weird. More like an… Unexpected weird? 

It was hard to describe.  Especially given her and Willow’s history. 

You’re not a bad person. Not really.

Skara couldn’t help but feel a strange combination of a heavy heart and a light head at the memory of hearing that. It... 

She shook her head. She needed to think of something else. She wasn’t a fan of… Whatever this was.

The Bard looked around the room, trying to spot anything that could distract her. Nothing caught her eye though, and Skara had already seen pretty much all of it yesterday. The walls and their weird, indecipherable carvings, the windows and their outsides, everything that was in the kitchen, the couch, the photos…

Hmmm…

Glancing at a small table that was in the corner, between the dividing wall to the kitchen and a bookcase, Skara noticed that there was one framed photo on said table, and nothing else. In everything that had happened yesterday, this particular photo, she hadn’t noticed. She walked over and picked it up, looking at it closer.

Unsurprisingly, it was another picture of the two probable owners of the cabin. It wasn’t anything too exciting, really; simply a photo of the two women, Artis and Fex, together in matching wedding dresses, the taller woman - Skara had decided to dub her Fex, though she had absolutely nothing to base this on. She just looked like a ‘Fex’, Skara supposed - holding her lover - Artis - in the classic bridal position as the smaller woman held up a guitar. Both were smiling widely, as one would expect from the supposed happiest day of their lives. It wasn’t anything too special. Just a standard wedding photo, the kind her own parents would show her whenever they got sentimental. They were happy in the picture, and Skara smiled slightly at that too. 

Still, she pondered it for a moment. She inspected the photo more closely, and carefully, like moving it too quickly would somehow lead to the frame shattering. 

Looking closer didn’t show anything odd about the concept of the photo, or anything that looked out of place. But it did show two things Skara hadn’t noticed before, that made her blink. 

First, the guitar in Artis’s hands. It appeared to be a standard wooden guitar at first glance, but a closer look showed off its unique markings. It was covered in strange symbols, ones that sorta resembled the carvings on the walls of the cabin. They sort of reminded Skara of the Human’s glyphs, but from what she’d seen, her symbols were circular and round. Even if she couldn’t make out all the details, she could note that these symbols were more angular and rigid. 

Huh. Maybe different wild Witches practiced different forms of Magic?

The second detail she noticed, however, involved Fex. Specifically, a set of freckles against her shining bronze skin.

Specifically, the ‘shining’ point.

Lined across Fex’s body were small freckles, but ones that gleamed and twinkled a variety of colours, mostly warm reds and oranges. They reminded Skara of the stars she would see out her window, though now downsized for a Witch’s body.

Huh. Never seen… Anything like that before, Skara noted . Pretty cute, actually.

She stared at the photo for a moment, contemplating the new details. Even when most of her evening yesterday had been dedicated to staring at these photos, and scavenging their house for food and clothing and whatever else could be used, she was surprised that she could still find new details to learn about these two strangers she’d probably never know anything more about than she already did.  

There was only so much information about them here, after all. This was probably the most that she was ever going to know for sure. She couldn’t even be sure that she had gotten their names the right way around. 

Then, an idea popped into her - A piece of advice from her mother when Skara had decided to become a Bard.

Bards are at their absolute best when they can craft a story from anything! If you ever  want to test yourself, look at any random person, place, or thing you know only a little, or nothing about, and try crafting a story about them.

“Hmmmm… I wonder… Just who are you, Mrs. Artis and Mrs. Fex…”

She turned the photo in her hands, attempting to view it at every angle, even the ones she couldn’t see anything of the photo of. Finally, with a snap of her fingers, she smiled.

“I’ve got it!” 

Placing the photo back onto it’s table, she began to pace the room, her mind racing just as quickly as her steps did.

“Miss Fex wasn’t merely a Witch!” Skara spoke aloud as she crafted all the story pieces together in her head. “She was a celestial being , sent here by... Whatever lies out in space, to destroy the Demon Realm! But a lone woman, one beautiful Bard, Miss Artis, found you, and played our music, enchanting you with its inspired melodies and notes. You were so enamoured, you fell in love near instantly, and flew across the sky to go and kick your bosses to wherever they came from! No no, you brought Artis with you and you beat them together , and in the end you got married, built a little cabin, and… uh… I guess, went back into space sometime? Maybe?”

The Bard  chuckled to herself. It had honestly been a while since she had crafted a story like that, and she’d be the first to admit that it was a bit on the rough side. 

What it was though, was fun .

“I mean, it’s not my best work, but maybe I could write a better love story than Night-“

As she continued losing herself in her own head, now filled with thoughts of writing something to surpass even Rulers Reach, her foot caught hold of a loose board.  

“-LIIIIIIGHT!” 

The Bard landed with a hard THUD against the floor. She wasn’t hurt too much, but the fall did leave her dizzy. Now, the stars she was seeing weren’t in a photo, but in her head.

“...Ow…”

With a groan, she raised her head, glaring down at the upturned board. She was irritated by it, like it had tripped her up on purpose . With a scowl, she kicked it, attempting to knock it back in place.

Instead, the board snapped in half, one piece dropping down into hole.

...Oops.

Scurrying over, Skara looked into the hole she had created. She was about to start cursing the Titan for causing her to break the board-

When she stopped.

As she looked down the hole, Skara spotted... Something. It looked oddly long, and was the same colour coat as her school uniform’s sleeves. She squinted at it through the dark of the cabin, but couldn’t make out too many details. 

Well, now she was curious. 

She pulled at a couple of the other boards, and to her surprise, they lifted right out of place, apparently having never having been hammered in properly to secure them to the floor. The only thing that she could think was that she had uncovered some sort of secret stash. 

And eventually, found it’s treasure. 

Underneath the floorboards of this neglected, ancient cabin, was a guitar case. At least, that was what it looked like. A pure red one, like the Bard colours. 

Skara raised an eyebrow, and reached into the hole. Her hand went down the length of the guitar case’s side until finding the proper handle to grip it by. Grinning, she tugged the case out from beneath the boards, careful not to hit any of the other floorboards so as not to scratch the case or its contents inside, if it had any.

Stood upright, the case reached up to Skara’s shoulders, and she noticed that there were a few symbols and icons on the case that she couldn’t decipher the meaning of - But did note that they looked similar to some of the symbols she had seen throughout the cabin. Curious, she found the zipper on the side of the case. Picking it up, she placed the case flatly on the couch, and opened it. 

And inside, she found her next musical love.

In Skara’s eyes, the most beautiful guitar known to any Witch in the world rested inside the case. While it lacked a lot of intricate details, though some were painted along the sides, there was something about the way in which they were done that conveyed that less was more in this instance. It was difficult to describe, but Skara could tell that the markings were done with a great deal of artistic care. But even those aside, the colour alone, the almost genuinely crystalline ruby red, made her Bard heart skip a beat at the sight.

Even the strings were a gorgeous shade of red. It was unlike any guitar that she’d ever seen before.

Is it possible to fall in love with an object? 

Picking the guitar up and holding it in her hands, Skara let her fingers caress the neck of the guitar, feeling how smooth it was, and she smiled at the feeling of touching something so… So perfectly beautiful. 

Skara had a particular fondness for strings. Like any good Bard, she took a jack-of-all-trades approach to musical instruments, learning the basics of every kind of instrument that the Bard Track made available. But her first love was, and always would be, strings. She still remembered the note her mother had left her on the birthday present that led her down this road; To my little cherub, may you rock the world as you rock ours. She’d eagerly opened it to find her first harp. 

Somehow, this entire event reminded her of that day.

But then, she blinked, suddenly, and glanced back at the photo that was resting on it’s own special table behind her once again. This time, her eyes focused in one one thing very quickly - The guitar in Artis’ hands. 

The very same she now was holding in her own hands. 

Photography didn’t do the guitar even the slightest bit of justice, was Skara’s first thought. 

Her second was to wonder - What in the world had it been doing buried under the cabin?

She bit her lip in confusion, trying to come up with any potential stories that might make any sense for why that might be the case. 

A potential treasure hunt, she thought as she turned the guitar over in her hands, admiring the strange runes and completely smooth wood, free of cracks or splinters. ... Eh, no. There’s no way that makes any sort of sense… Maybe Artis threw it there during a break in? Nah. That’s stupid. Even if she had the time to throw it in before someone robbed the place,  who would rob some random cabin on the Knee?

Making up a story, she could do. Deducing what events would have led to the guitar being left underneath the floors of an abandoned cabin when she didn’t know much of anything about the people who lived here? Being a detective wasn’t her forte.

Then, Skara stopped turning it over in her hands. She blinked at the seed of an idea that quickly sprouted in her mind.  

You know…  I think I got a better story for this thing…

Once upon a time, a couple owned a really cool guitar. But they left it in a deserted cabin, and after a little time, a cool Bard found it and decided to make it her own.

Her smile faltered, however, when she thought for a moment about her plan. Her father flashed into her mind, his rough, gruff, ‘serious’ voice entering her mind. It was apparently an old Oracle saying, the sort of thing he’d say as some piece of wisdom that would have no practical application to Skara’s life, but that they still insisted on preaching anyway.

The fastest way to become a ghost? Steal from one.

For a moment, Skara considered simply putting the guitar back in its case, dropping it back into the hole she found it, and never looking at it again. If it had been Artis’s in life, then there must be a reason it was buried in her home.

Right?

Well, maybe… 

...Buuuuuuuuut, she thought,, is Artis really dead? She could be out there in the stars, with her wife, enjoying space together! 

Okay then, in that case, she was stealing from a living person. Fantastic. 

She knew it was a lame excuse, but it was a genuine one - At least in the sense that she didn’t have even the faintest idea about the fate of either of the people that lived here. In either case though, the place was abandoned. And they wouldn’t leave an instrument this beautiful here unless they meant to, right? And the cabin had been abandoned for decades, if not centuries, anyway. 

Besides, she reasoned, I’ve already broken into their home, ate their food, slept in their bed, broke their floorboards… if there was a spirit here, I would have heard from it by now, right?

Skara’s face began to regain its composure, her smile returning as her completely flawless reasoning justified her only potential grave robbing. And hey, if a spirit did end up coming for her, she’d return the guitar without any hesitation, and apologize for the whole incident. 

Assuming for a moment there was a spirit here, they hadn’t made themselves known already, so presumably neither her nor Willow had done anything to anger it, and leaving the guitar here just felt… Wrong. Although, that part might just have been her Bard sentimentality. 

You couldn’t just leave something this beautiful to waste away in a place like this.

...Alright then, she decided. 

With the giddiness of a child receiving the biggest Hexmas present she could have hoped for, Skara threw herself onto the couch, placing the tips of her fingers against the crimson tuning pegs.

You and me, guitar? I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

The creatures of the Knee were known for many things. Their ferocity. Their intelligence. Their appetites. 

Few, if any, were known for their forgiveness.

As the Yeti-Spider crawled slowly out of its cave, it sensed that the storm had passed. That it was now capable of leaving its cave. As it began to process this, it also began to process something else.

The scent of Witches.

The scent of the Witches that had escaped . 

A scent, they decided, that was too… Delicious to ignore….

“Okay… Let’s try… This...” 

Skara fiddled with the guitar, adjusting the tuning keys and plucking at the strings, trying to judge by sound how well tuned it was. The strings looked old and worn, so they should have been set at some point, but they also looked like they hadn’t been used in decades, so they had fallen out of tune, and if she wasn’t careful, they would probably snap. When they got back to Bonesborough, she decided that she’d probably need to get some new strings for the instrument. It would take a little while for them to settle in, and she would miss the beautiful crimson colours, but it’d probably be easier in the long run. 

Skara spent a few minutes fiddling gently with the tuning pegs, wanting to try and give the strings a few strums before their unfortunate removal. Testing them by ear, she strummed the strings gently, careful not to put too much stress on the ancient wire. Hmmm… E sounds nice… A’s not too bad either…. D’s solid… Huh, so’s G...

It sounded… Good. A lot better than Skara would have expected an instrument like this to sound after being unused and uncared for for decades at least.She played a few more notes, running her left hand up and down the neck, and her fingers along the fingerboard, trying out note after note. One by one, Skara tested them, and found that they sounded almost as pristine as any of her instruments back home. 

...Huh. Maybe it won’t need new strings after all.

The Bard strummed the chords a few more times, before putting it back into its case, and up against the couch, satisfied that it was in decent shape. How in the world it had stayed in such good condition without the care that was necessary to maintain it was truly beyond her, but she wasn’t complaining. It had an intricate design, with beautiful patterns painted onto the wood, and it sounded good. Those things just made her more sure that taking it with her was the right thing to do. 

Instruments were made to perform beautiful music, not to be locked away in forgotten cabins far away from everyone else. And whoever had made the guitar - Probably Artis, if she had to guess, though that was more out of a lack of other options - clearly put in too much effort for it to just be discarded and forgotten. Leaving it here for the wires to inevitably rust and the wood to eventually degrade, instead of doing what it was designed to do just seemed… Wrong to her. 

At least this way people’ll get to hear it again. 

Well, she hoped that logic would appease any of the spirits her dad warned her about, at least. Not that she didn’t believe it, but still. 

Content with her newfound instrument, Skara turned her attention to the kitchen - They didn’t know how long it would take to get back to Bonesborough, and the last thing that they needed was for either her or Willow to start getting hungry while on a, worst case scenario, day-long trek. They were going to need all of the strength that they could get. Plus, now that Skara had opened the pantry, the stasis spell had gone off. They might as well use whatever food they needed before it started to rot. 

“Better safe than sorry.” She muttered to herself, parting the bead curtain aside. “Wonder if there’s any-”

A shadow fell over the room. 

It was only for a moment, but in that moment, all of the light from within vanished. Reacting instinctively, Skara turned on her heels to face the window. 

By the time she had, the light was filtering into the room again. Like nothing had even happened. 

“...What was that?” She whispered after a few seconds of staring at the window, like she was waiting for whatever just happened to block out the light to happen again.

It didn’t though.

...It was probably just snow. She thought to herself. A big chunk of it must’ve fallen from the cliffs up top and blocked the window for a couple seconds. 

Skara, you’ve seen too many horror shows to know it’s never just that.

With a gulp and a small plea to the Titan, she made her way over to the window. She could feel her bile sack coursing magic faster, preparing to cast a defence spell the first sign of trouble. It couldn’t be something that bad though, right? Maybe some kind of cute, adorable, absolutely-not-at-all horrifying creature that just wants to be friends. Totally believable.

With a shaky breath and a finger at the ready for a spell circle, Skara peered out the window. 

A small sigh of relief escaped her. It had just been snow falling from the cliff top. Thank Titan. Maybe by the wind or -   

Something moved in her peripheral vision, on the side of the cliff. Skara reflexively spun towards it, shaky finger raised.

For exactly one full second, Skara made eye contact with the Spider-Yeti.

Neither moved - Not fully registering what exactly they were looking at for that second. Terror finally gripped Skara’s heart. 

And then, the Spider-Yeti lunged.

“HOLY TITAN’S-”  

The wall all but exploded as the monster collided with the cabin, and Skara was thrown back, crashing onto the ground and skidding along the floor until her head hit, with some force, the lounge-kitchen dividing wall - She was slammed into it before she even realized what the heck had just happened. The entire room was spinning as she clutched her head, wincing at the pain before forcing herself to look at the attacking beast. 

A Spider-Yeti sized hole now existed in the wall Skara had previously been standing by, and the debris that had made up said wall now covered the monster, mostly in the form of splinters. It shook the debris off, before it stood imposingly tall, and let out it’s horrendous screech, it’s eyes fixated on Skara with the predatory glare that only a hunter could give to its prey. 

It had tracked them - Somehow, it had managed to track them . 

About a billion questions instantly and simultaneously shot through Skara’s brain - How had it gotten here? How had it found them? They weren’t supposed to be able to track in the middle of a blizzard! She was certain that - 

Skara spotted the venom beginning to form in the spider’s maw and she knew she had to think fast. The Bard rapidly picked herself up, and leaped out of the way of the monster's attack, hiding behind the couch for cover. Itlet out another screech, and Skara’s hands smacked her cheeks. 

She would have to worry where it had come from later! 

Moving fast, she cast a spell circle, summoning it above the couch as she stood up to take aim. The second that she was sure that she could hit it, she thrust her left hand through it. It was the same spell that she had used to break the window of the cabin yesterday, only much larger and much more powerful. 

A large, almost visible ball of vibrating air shot out of Skara’s hand taking aim towards the Spider-Yeti. The impact knocked it back and landed it outside the cabin walls through the already existing hole. 

Almost immediately after though, all it did was roar again - Skara’s attack seemed to do was push it back and further infuriate it. Skara flinched - She knew Spider-Yeti were tough but she was hoping to have done more than that.

What the heck were they supposed to do against this thing?!

“Skara!” 

The Bard turned her head towards the stairs, and saw a finally awake Willow was halfway down them  when she spotted the Spider-Yeti. She skidded to a halt as the Spider-Yeti  realized  she was there too. It let out another screech, and got readied itself pounce. 

As quickly as she could, Skara cast another spell, this time utilizing her magic to create a barrier between the two of them and the attacking monster. Made of air that packed together to create a see-through shield, the barrier manifested itself just before the Spider-Yeti re-entered the building. It’s inability to enter confused, and angered the monster all the more. 

Skara knew her little shield trick wouldn’t last forever. She racked her brain for a moment, attempting to come up with something, anything, that could hold the Spider back.

“Willow!” She yelled against the strain of holding the barrier up. “I need you to use your Plant Magic to hold this thing in place!” 

If Willow can keep the Spider-Yeti in place, and I grab the guitar and use some Bard Magic, then maybe we can send this stupid spider scuttling!

It was better than no plan, at any rate!

“I can’t!” Willow yelled, running down the rest of the stairs and up to Skara. 

“You still can’t do magic?!”

“I can, but the plant life’s too buried under snow! I can’t connect to it properly!“ 

The Spider-Yeti lunged at the barrier again, striking it with its teeth. It didn’t break through, but it certainly did get angrier.  It screeched, its front legs pounding against the solid air with intent to destroy it. All the reverberations were sent through to Skara, directly through her body. She put in all the physical and magical energy she had into maintaining the barrier, but she had no idea how long she could keep this up... 

“Titan - “ But before Skara could curse, a lightbulb went off in her head. “Check the storage unit! There’s fruits and vegetables there! Those should - Urgh!” She groaned as the strain of upholding the barrier hit her arms. “Something in there should have seeds!”

Needing no further encouragement, Willow sprinted into the kitchen, and flung the storage unit open. Inside she found what she needed - Gorematoes, Scaly Dragon’s Fruit, Firemelon, Comet Fruit, and all manner of foods filled with seeds!

The Plant Witch grabbed just about everything that she could carry, and dashed back into what used to be the lounge. The Spider-Yeti continued to bash itself against the barrier, over and over again, and Skara was struggling to stay on her feet, each strike draining her of more and more of her ability to keep the barrier up. 

Willow dropped all the fruit on the floor. “Skara, switch with me!” 

Skara did so - Allowing herself to drop the barrier, and to fall back so that she was alongside Willow. The Spider-Yeti eyed them both, bared its pincers, and let out a horrible, rapid clicking noise. It’s various eyes glanced between Skara and Willow, as if debating which one of the two it was going to attack first. 

Willow acted before it got the chance to decide. 

Her eyes began to glow, and she held her arms out to her sides. From the fruits she’d found, various large vines and plants of all shapes and sizes began to rapidly sprout,

It caught the attention of the Spider-Yeti, who watched as the vines began to wriggle and worm in place. The creature did not move, keeping it’s distance from the two Witches. It scuttled side to side, but made sure not to get any closer. It waited, to see what the vines were going to do. 

Finally, Willow attacked - She swung her arms back behind her, and then in front of her, and all of the vines lunged straight for the Spider-Yeti at speed, each aiming for a different part of the creature's body. 

But the Spider-Yeti had been waiting, watching, preparing for the perfect opening to strike.  And it finally came. Leaping from the floor to evade the attack, it landed on the wall of the chasm, and from there, immediately right back down to the ground, finally closing the gap between itself and it’s prey as it landed with a heavy thud. It towered over the two of them, mandibles clicking, and dripping with venom. 

Trying to react, Willow attempted to use the vines to attack the creature again, but before she could, it used one of its front legs to strike her, and toss her across the room until she slammed into a wall with a sickening crack. 

“Willow!” 

Immediately, the Spider-Yeti lunged at Skara, mouth wide open - Skara leaped out of the way before she was caught, landing next to her guitar, which she grabbed hold of and held as tightly as she physically could. 

The beast's head cracked as it turned to look at Skara, the clicking noise ever more present. The more that she heard it, the more Skara began to realize that it sounded similar to the snapping of bones. 

Skara drew a quick spell circle, and, as hard as she could, slammed the chords with her hands. From the circle came a huge blast of noise and Magical energy that struck out in sound waves, which slammed against the creature. It shrieked, and backed up, but only slightly, still looking for an opening. 

Around her, Skara noticed that the environment began to… Change. 

The symbols and the patterns on the inside of the cabin, the same ones that had made little sense to her when she first arrived here, began to emit a faint white glow. Even ones that Skara hadn’t noticed before, like some that were on the roof, instantly caught her eye. 

“What’s happening?” Picking herself up, Willow noticed all the glowing symbols too. She scanned all around her, trying to find an answer to the same question Skara was asking herself. 

Even the Spider-Yeti reacted to it - The clicking became more rapid, and higher pitched. It’s body and head craned down, and it prepared to spit more venom at the pair of them - But it was clearly becoming more cautious. Just before, it had been on the aggressive attack. Now, it was hesitating. 

What did it mean? What had made the symbols start to glow? What changed? What - 

Skara blinked, then looked at the guitar in her hands. All that she had done was cast a spell while using it. That was the only thing that correlated with the sudden glowing symbols. That was the only thing that she could think of. The glowing hadn’t happened when she had just been testing the strings earlier, so it had to be the Magic, right? 

She tested the theory, plucking at another one of the strings. A series of symbols, that looked like the outline of a semicircle, with a vertical line running through the centre at both ends, began to glow all the brighter. Another, and a triangle with a dot that kind of looked like an eye began to glow too. Another, and a diamond with an X on the inside that ran to each parallel line. That was when Skara realized. 

They’re not cultural decorations - They’re ancient Bard notes!

Skara didn’t know much about the history of Bards. She was more into the application side of things. But she knew that the symbols and their applications had evolved over the centuries, changing and morphing over the years, like language or animals. The latest version was only as old as Belos’s reign. The standard version before that, if Skara remembered correctly, lasted about two-hundred years. But these symbols… These seemed even older. 

But even if they were older, the symbols seemed to emanate a power that made Skara’s standard instruments seem tame by comparison. All that power, all that Magic...

And they were connected to this very guitar! Whenever she played a new note, a new symbol began to glow. And when she played them in groupings, they glowed simultaneously. She could feel a force from them too - The notes near her, she could feel almost pushing against and through her, and towards the Spider-Yeti, like it was trying to repel the creature. 

But as fascinating as that was, there was still the matter of the whole monster-trying-to-kill-them-thing.

Skara turned her attention back to the Spider-Yeti - That thing was the threat here… But when she played the notes...

The Bard. And then she blinked again. And that was when it hit her. 

She was an idiot!

Yesterday, she had been in a blind panic, and when the Spider-Yeti had attacked her after Willow had rescued her, she acted on the one piece of information that she could actually remember: That Spider-Yeti were absurdly, almost illogically, territorial. Even if they had prey in front of them, at the mere indication of another Spider-Yeti invading their territory, they would drop everything and immediately return home to fight the aggressor. And it had worked, but it had only been a temporary measure, and she had said as much at the time. 

But their main weakness though - It was light. Sunlight, they could handle, but bright, intense light - Like, for example, a number of symbols carved into the walls of a cabin all flashing at once, which only seemed to get brighter the more the notes were played? 

They fled from - Like their lives depended on it. 

All the symbols in this house were a  defence mechanism! 

It wasn’t a mechanism specifically for Spider-Yeti, but it did the same job either way! 

A plan quickly formulated in the Bard’s head. “Willow! We need to lure it in closer again!” 

“…`What?!” 

“Trust me! I know what I’m doing!” 

Understandably, Willow was hesitant - They had fled from this thing just yesterday, right now it was trying to kill the pair of them, and Skara’s descriptions of what exactly would have happened to her had Willow not come to her rescue were less than pleasant. They had just managed to get a bit of breathing room between them and the creature - And now Skara wanted to invite it up close again?

But there was no time to argue - No time to think . All it came down to in that exact moment, in that instant, was the question of if Willow trusted Skara. And the answer she got surprised her. 

She did. 

“...Okay!” She yelled back. Her eyes began to glow as she began to control the vines again. “Just box it in so it has to come closer, right?” 

“Right!” Skara called back, getting herself ready. “Do whatever you need to do, just get it closer to us! Wait until I tell you to attack, alright?”

“Alright!”

Seconds passed as the two Witches stared down the Spider-Yeti, still clicking and preparing itself to attack. Keeping an eye on the symbols, Skara checked to see if with a period of inactivity, the glow would begin to fade. As she had suspected, they did. 

“Now!” 

Willow lashed out instantly, attacking in much the same way as she had before, vines going straight to grab hold of the creature, making an effort to subdue it. Hopefully if she could catch it this time, then they could still enact Skara’s plan, but with even less fundamental risk! 

This time though, the creature reacted differently, It leaped onto the opposite wall this time once again completely avoiding the vines Willow had sent it’s way due to it’s incredible speed. The moment that it landed, it’s mouth unhinged itself, and it launched a huge glob of venom towards the Plant Witch. 

Reacting quickly, Willow pulled the plants to block the venom by creating a plant shield meters away from her before it could get anywhere near her. The effort was successful, but the plants, affected by the venom in the same way Witches were, began to wilt and falter and die from the effects. 

At the same time, the Spider-Yeti leaped back to the ground, and began to charge straight through what little remained of the plants, and lunged straight for Willow, mouth wide open and fangs brought to bare. Willow pushed herself off against the wall, and skidded underneath the body of the monster, clambering herself away from it. 

“To me!” Skara yelled, encouraging both the Witch and the Spider to focus on her. 

Following the instruction, Willow vaulted over some of the debris and got behind Skara. The Spider-Yeti’s attention was once again on the Bard, and it let out another scream. The Bard felt her heart freeze, sweat running down her face as it repositioned itself to strike, legs jittery, but eyes focused. 

As fast as she was able to, she drew the largest spell circle that she could physically create. Hopefully, the notes didn’t correspond just to how often the notes were played, but the strength of the spell being cast too!

The beast lunged at them.

“Skara!” 

And with all her strength, Skara slammed the chords once again. 

The walls began to glow.

“I see them! Over there!”

“King.” Luz grumbled, gripping at the bridge of her nose as tightly as she could, trying extremely hard not to snap at her friend. She took a deep breath, and let out a long exhale. “Those are the same rocks you spotted ten minutes ago. I’m pretty sure Willow and Skara weren’t rocks the last time I saw them. And even if they were rocks, they’re definitely not those rocks.”

“Are you blind, Luz? Those are definitely … ” King blinked, and narrowed his eyes to get a better look. He blinked again. “...Huh, you’re right. Those are rocks.”

“They don’t even look vaguely like Willow or Skara! I don’t even understand how you got confused!”

“I thought maybe one of them was trying a new hairstyle!” 

“While lost on a mountain?!” 

“They’ve gotta have something to do while being stuck in this miserable place!”

At this point, Luz was seriously regretting bringing King along for this search mission. He hadn’t exactly been of much help since they had gotten there, claiming that he wasn’t able to pick up a trail, mostly likely due to the fact that the blizzard had covered any scent they may have left behind. His other senses, like sight, were almost useless too, since he apparently couldn’t tell the difference between a rock and a person - And was now just inventing possibilities, apparently? 

She tightened her grip against the longboat, trying to contain her rapidly growing frustration. She took in another long inhale, and let out a longer sigh.

“King. You are my friend and I love you dearly-”

“Awwwe, thanks Luz!”

“ But we’ve been flying around for three hours now, and all you’ve been able to sniff out is snow!”

“Sorry,” King said, rubbing his nose with a clawed paw. “It’s the cold. Messes with my senses.”

“Well, can it maybe not!?”

“Hey, I wanna find Willow too, you know!“ King snapped back. “She’s my friend too! Don’t get mad at me ‘cause this stupid weather screws me up!”

“I-”Luz’s face fell, and she shook her head. She rubbed her eyes. “Y… You’re right. I’m…. Sorry. It’s just…” 

The truth was, Luz herself was starting to panic. The entire Knee seemed to have been covered in inches of snow, and the cold even during the day was overwhelming. What it would be like during the night, she didn’t even want to guess - But that was what Willow had been stuck out in, without any shelter at all. There wasn’t any sign of her. 

And she was starting to get scared that there wouldn’t be any signs of her friend for them to find. 

She shook her head. She… Couldn’t be thinking like that right now. 

“...Look, let’s just... Go meet up at the relay site. Maybe if we’re lucky, one of the other search parties found them.” 

She wasn’t too optimistic if she were being honest. The reason that she and King had been given the boat was because of King’s tracking abilities, which weren’t working. 

If his abilities weren’t working, she didn’t exactly have high hopes for the rest of their efforts. 

But, well, someone had to turn up something , right?  

King hesitated for a second, but then nodded, and Luz began to steer the boat back in the direction of the rallying point - The same place the Hexside students had landed during their… Eventful fieldtrip. 

There, above the clearing, Luz spotted all the different search groups that had come together to find Willow and Skara, sitting around in a circle. 

The Blight siblings, the eldest two trying to console their younger sister. The twins had volunteered to help when they heard about what had happened, and saw how much it was bothering Amity.  

Eda and Lilith, their usual sibling squabbling postponed by the same, shared look of frustration. When Luz had told them what had happened, like Amity’s siblings, they had offered to assist the search.  

Gus and his father, Perry. Being one of Gus’s closest friends for years before Luz had ever arrived on the Isles, Perry knew Willow quite well. Apparently, he hadn’t even needed to be asked before volunteering to help. He was sitting next to his son, patting him on the back, trying to comfort and reassure him. 

Bo was there as well, and she was almost a perfect mirror into the anxiety that Luz herself was experiencing. She didn’t seem to be able to keep still, fidgeting, biting at her nails, and pacing back and forth.  

And of course, both sets of parents - Willow’s, walking around the circle in thick wool parkas, attempting to console and help the rest of the group, and Skara’s, standing around six feet away from the others, as if they were infected by some sort of plague.

Or because think they’re too good to be here with us lowly...

Luz  scolded herself for thinking so bitterly.. Maybe Skara was a jerk, and her parents seemed…  Similar, but….

No one deserves this. To have no idea where their kid is, to not know if you’ll ever get to hold them again…

For reasons completely unrelated to any guilt Luz may be feeling in regards to the Human Realm, she pushed those thoughts deep, deep down inside of her, in a little mental box she would hopefully never have to ever open.

Landing the boat with a thud, Luz carried King out onto the snow, rushing over to join the others. Forcing at least a little optimism into her voice, she approached them with finger guns up. “Hey, guys, gals, Witch pals. Any luck?”

Every group looked at each other, and Luz got her answer. The optimism faded quickly. 

“...Sorry, kid,” Eda sighed, running one of her hands through her hair. “Me and Lily looked over the entire south side of this mountain. Found nothing but snow, snow and… Well, you get the idea. No sign of Willow or this Sascha.”

“Skara.” Her mother hissed.

“Sorry.”

“This just in.” Perry muttered. “Nothing but snow and trees on the east side. And sadly, none of the trees were Willow’s….”Edric nodded. “We looked across the entire mountaintop. Saw some Slitherbeasts, but nothing else.” He stood next to Amity, who simply looked down, not showing her face to anyone around. He placed a hand atop Amity’s left shoulder, giving it a tight squeeze. Emira mirrored the gesture. “But there’s bound to be something around here. Two people don’t just vanish.”  

This wasn’t the first time Amity hadn’t been able to make eye contact with her, but this time felt different. After so many years of their relationship being what it was, Amity had finally begun making things right between the two friends, and now…

Luz walked over to Amity, while King climbed off of her head to crawl to Eda’s hair. As soon as she reached her friend, she wrapped her arms around her and pulled her into a comforting hug. 

“Hey,” She muttered, lightly rubbing her friends back. “We’ll find them. I promise.”

Amity froze for a moment, not moving at all. After a few seconds, she returned the hug, her hands balling up into fists as she grabbed hold of Luz. “Yeah. I know.” 

“Yeah,” Emira interjected, attempting to replicate her brother’s chipper tone. “Don’t worry guys. I’m sure Willow’s okay! Just gotta stay positive, like good ol’ Luz.”

One of my best friends is missing with one of her biggest bullies on one of the most dangerous places on an already incredibly dangerous island and we have no idea where they could be. I am a complete wreck, and the only reason I’m not sobbing on the floor is because I know doing so would make you all worry about me when we should be searching for Willow.

“Yes!” Luz stated, letting go of Amity, a crooked, blatantly false smile crossing her face as she raised a thumbs up. “Yep! Totally. Super positive!”

Eda and Lilith side-eyed each other, but remained silent, as did everyone else.

It was Skara’s father who finally broke the silence. “Well, if you all are busy feeling bad about not finding your friend, I think I’ll actually try and find my daughter.” 

He stepped away from the others, his wife trailing close behind. He pulled out a small amulet from his pocket, the Oracle Covens symbol. It glowed a dark purple as he pressed its center. All Luz could really recognize was that it was similar to some of the pendants she’d seen during Oracle Track classes - Otherwise, she didn’t have even the faintest idea what he was doing. 

“Those spirits of this Mrs. Haruspex you mentioned… Are they native to the Knee, or did she bring them with her?

Luz blinked. “Uh... I think they were friends she brought with her? Like, I don’t know their exact relationship, but-”

“Wonderful.”. He grunted. “No wonder I can’t sense them...” Before Luz could ask what he meant, he pressed his thumb to the pendants center, and his eyes flashed a sudden dark purple. “All the spirits seem to have gone underground, hibernating.” He pointed across the forest, deep into the wooded area. “The closest ones seem to be a few miles down that path. Perhaps if I go, I may ask them about Skara...”

 Gilbert took his husband’s hand and stepped forward with them. “We’ll come with-“

“Oh, I don’t think so.” Skara’s father spun, pointing towards the Parks. The moment his finger was pointing toward them, the Park’s stopped in their tracks, a purple aura encompassing them both. Both found themselves completely unable to move. 

“What the - What do you think you’re doing?!” 

“I don’t think we’ll be requiring your help.” The Oracle declared. There was a very clear edge to his voice, of irritation and bitterness. The clear frustration that he’d been dealing with since the search began had finally hit the boiling point. “You’re all very clearly far more interested in searching for the girl who caused my child to go missing, so we’ll focus our energy on finding Skara, and you can search for her yourselves.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Luz exclaimed, waving her hands fiercely. “I guarantee you that Willow’s not the reason Skara’s missing!”

“Yeah!” Gus interjected, standing upright and raising his voice. He was far less surprised than Luz was, and more furious . “If anything, it’s Skara’s fault! Willow knows how to read a map at least, which is better than anything I can say about your kid!”

Skara’s mother stopped, bristled, and visibly gritted her teeth. Her eyes narrowed right onto Gus. “You dare you insinuate my little cherub is incompetent enough to get herself lost out here?”

“Look,” Lilith interjected, raising her  hands in front of her as she tried to address everyone.. “It’s clear that tensions are high, and everyones a little on edge. We’re all worried about the children up here. So I’d suggest we calm ourselves and-”

“Oh, and now a deserter of the Emperors Coven’s meant to preach to us about how we should act?” Skara’s father snapped back. It was getting harder to tell what he was saying out of worry for his daughter, or out of legitimate dislike for the people around him.  “Forgive me, but your opinion carries very little weight with me. Why the Emperor didn’t throw you into the Conformitorium is utterly beyond me -” 

“If anyone should be sent to the Conformitorium, it’s you two!” Rowan snapped back at them. “For raising a bully!.”

The sheer surprise of what had just been said actually made Skara’s father release both Rowan and Gilbert. Both Skara’s parents looked at him, their eyes filled with an expression of abject fury. Luz bit at her lip - Hard.  Oh, this is going in a very not good direction…

“What.” Skara’s father growled., “Ddid you just call our daughter?”

“You heard him,” Gilbert stated. No longer held back by magic, he stepped to stand with his husband, staring the opposing parents down. “For years your daughter’s been a part of thea group that’s been bullying our sapling for her entire school life!”

“How dare you slander my child !” Skara’s mother’s eyes were lit like flames, her voice literally reverberating across the cliffside loud enough to shake trees. Luz landed on her back, thrown off by what was almost a physical force. Even her husband had to step back, shielding his ears. 

It genuinely was not possible to tell if this was Magic, or just the sheer power of the woman’s voice. 

“I swear in the name of the Titan, if you dare say another word about my daughter, I’ll-” 

“ENOUGH!”

Luz looked up, blinking. That was… Not Skara’s mom.

Indeed, even Skara’s mother seemed just as surprised at the shouting. As did everyone else. Everyone in the circle looked amongst themselves, surprised at the yell so loud it overtook something comparable to a banshee’s screech. 

All, of course, except for the person who’d yelled in the first place.

Bo.

“Seriously ?! SKARA’S out there missing! WILLOW’S out there missing! Our friends , your kids! We can’t afford anyone wrapping themselves up in their own problems!” She stepped to the center of the circle, all eyes on her. “Wasting energy on this… Look! no Conformitorium, no blaming anyone! We just go out there and we keep searching! It’s not as if we can keep fighting while we wait for some kind of signal!”

As Bo finished - The literal second she had finished - A bright flash of light erupted from behind her.

After a moment of being totally blinded by the light, everyone immediately ran to the ledge of the cliff, trying to spot whatever had made that flash. It was Gus who spotted it first.

“There! That chasm! I can see the glow!”

Sure enough, a thin, golden glow could be seen, faintly emanating from within.

Everyone, from the Park’s to the Clawthorne’s, stared. For a full five seconds, nobody blinked.

“...So, Freckles,” Eda finally drew out, mounting her staff. “Twenty snails says that thing just proved you wrong.”

For both Willow and for Skara, the explosion of light had been immense - Both their eyes slammed shut and their arms shielded against as much of the barrier as they could. A loud hum followed, and Skara honestly couldn’t tell if it was being emitted by the symbols carved into the walls, or the shining blockade itself. Everything was just covered in an overwhelming white, for just a few seconds. 

Yet at the same time, it seemed to have only a minor, temporary effect on the Witches - While the spell was potent and powerful, Skara and Willow were able to open their eyes again almost immediately after the initial flash. The light and protection that came from the symbols hadn’t affected them all that much, at least relative to the power of the spell itself. 

At worst, they were slightly dizzy.

The Spider-Yeti on the other hand though, was thrown completely out of the cabin. Whatever forcefield had popped up to protect the girls from the monster may have been faint, but it certainly did its job. It landed on its hind legs, it’s three other pairs twitching and flailing around as it staggered, wobbled, and let out a long, guttural shriek, jaw unhinged. It’s scream felt like it shot straight through both Willow and Skara, who got themselves ready just in case the beast attempted to attack them again. 

It never did though - When it finally fell back onto all it’s legs, it barely even seemed to realize that Skara and Willow were still anywhere near it - It just scattered, as rapidly as it could, climbing up the walls in a haphazard pattern, screeching all the while. The echo of it’s screeches remained in the chasm after the creature itself had left, at least for a short while. 

After that, there was naught but silence. 

They had repelled it. They were alive. 

For a moment, both Willow and Skara were stunned - Both by what had happened with the cabin symbols, and by the fact that they had somehow managed to survive the attack.

“Well…” Willow said, still completely in shock. “That was certainly… er… well, Titan…”

“I mean… You aren’t wrong.” Skara looked down at the guitar. She couldn’t help but smile as touched each of the symbols that had saved them, as if in silent thanks. 

“Hey,” Willow said, bringing Skara’s attention back to the Plant Witch. She seemed to be… kinda nervous? Scared? Unsure? “Uhm… Look, I was… I kinda didn’t think that was actually gonna work.”

Skara blinked, then grinned. “Eh. To be honest, I didn’t either.”

“Well, still. If you hadn’t made that barrier or shield or…” Willow shook her head. “Thanks, Skara.”

The silver songstress blinked before turning away. Something about Willow thanking her, not once, but twice in as many days… It felt surreal.

But still, nice.

“Don’t thank me yet. Still gotta get home, ya know?”

Willow nodded. “Yeah. I’ll get the stuff we brought, you get any supplies you think we’ll need. Sound good?”

Skara nodded. “Good to me!” 

As they picked up what few things they could think to take from the cabin - including the guitar - Skara explained what had happened, and how she had figured out that the symbols were used to do, how it was a defensive mechanism that had been carved into the walls, and how it was linked to the guitar itself. 

“Wait.” Willow blinked as Skara explained. “If it’s a barrier spell, then why didn’t it send us off like that spider? We just stayed in place and got a little starry eyed.” 

“I’m… Not exactly sure.” Skara admitted, glancing at the nearest wall with a symbol on it. “Maybe it was designed to identify Witches so it didn’t hit them?... I dunno, I’m just guessing.” She shrugged, and then sighed, gently, before smiling, just as gently. “I’m just glad it worked.” 

To that, Willow just nodded. 

After a few more minutes, the pair of them had everything that they could think to take with them bundled up into a make-shift bag by using a drying towel from the kitchen. It was filled up almost exclusively with food. 

Leaving now wasn’t as much a choice as it was a necessity - Even if the cold wasn’t a factor to be concerned about, the chance that the cabin might collapse sealed it. 

Still, neither of them could help feeling… Almost sad, and a little bit guilty about leaving. 

Whomever’s cabin this had been, they had left it almost in ruins. Everything inside would be exposed to the elements, and covered in snow and ice eventually. All the books and photos and everything else would be lost. Granted, the place had almost certainly not been in use in decades, if not centuries, but something about it still felt… For lack of a better word, ungrateful about leaving it like this. 

When they needed a place to hide from the storm, there it was. There to provide them with shelter from the cold and the snow, a place to recover from Spider-Yeti venom, and there to provide them with food and a place to sleep. Finding a place like this on the Knee was, frankly, so unlikely, that a part of Skara wanted to believe that the spirits, or even the Titan itself, had seen their plight and put it in their path. 

But now they were leaving it like this. 

Of course, it wasn’t their fault - But they couldn’t help but feel some of the blame all the same. Even if the person who owned this cabin was by now, long, long dead, it didn’t help either of them feel much better about it. 

“…Come on.” Willow finally said, turning away from the ruins of the cabin. “We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.” 

“…Right.” Skara nodded. Drawing a spell circle, she opened a small portal to the same storage location where all her other instruments were kept. She lifted the case.

Then paused.

The fastest way to become a ghost? Steal from one.

Skara hadn’t seen any ghosts in the cabin. But that noise…

Had been a dream, she reminded herself. There wasn’t any other explanation for it. And after everything that had happened, a spirit was the least likely thing that she was going to find here. 

Look, she thought, you already got this whole cabin torn down. If a ghost cared about this thing, you wouldn’t be around to ask about this. So, that leaves you two options; leave it here to get destroyed and bullied by the elements…

Or take it with me. And if a ghost does get upset with me, just give it right back.

Well, when she put it like that, she only really had one choice.

She gently dropped the case into the ethereal, near endless hole of a storage unit she kept for her instruments and turned to follow the Plant Witch and walk out of the chasm…

“So.” Skara started, once she had caught up to Willow. “You’re the survivalist - How long do you think it’ll take us to get back to Bonesborough?” 

“About a day.” Willow answered, plainly. “If we make good time. And if the snow from the blizzard isn’t too deep outside the chasm.” 

“ Great .” Skara muttered. 

But, as it turned out, neither of them ever had to walk out at all.

“WILLOW! SKARA!”

Both girls looked up to the sky. At first, they thought it could just be them hearing things. The same thing, at the same time, apparently. As if that would be the weirdest thing to have happened to them today.

But no. 

Grins crossed both their faces as a longboat flew above them, their friends and families waving their arms frantically at them. For a few seconds, it didn’t seem real to Skara - Like when she had hit her head against the wall, everything had turned into one big dream and in reality, she had been knocked out. 

But it wasn’t. 

Maybe it was the surprise of what she was seeing, or the juxtaposition of what she had felt when fighting the Spider-Yeti, or just sheer relief. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter - Skara couldn’t help but feel a tear form in her eye as the boats landed, all their passengers leaped out, rushing towards them.

“Sapling!”

“Papa! Dad!” 

Willow cheered as she charged her parents, laughing as she wrapped her arms around them in a bear hug. It wasn’t long until her other friends joined in, Luz, Gus, and Amity rushing in to join in on the affection.

Skara couldn’t help but smile at it. 

“Skara!”

She turned, and saw, to her surprise, Bo rushing up to her. It took her a moment to register her friend, but as soon as Bo had run up and hugged her, Skara couldn’t stop herself from  laughing as she returned the hug, which only seemed to make Bo hug her all the tighter. 

“Whoa, easy there, Bo, careful! Don’t wanna break any ribs here.”

“Afraid I can’t promise that, angel!”

Before Skara could reply, she felt her father almost physically drag her out of her hug with Bo - Bo made way so her father could reach her - And raised her mid-air, squeezing her as tightly as possible. Her father laughed, though Skara herself had to admit, the move was painful.

“D-Dad…. C-can’t br-breathe…”

He only laughed as he placed her to the ground, the smile still plastered on his face. “Sorry, Skara. I’m just-“

“SKARA!”

“Oh, Titan no-“

If Skara’s father bruised her ribs, her mother figuratively broke them. Her arms wrapped so tightly around Skara’s body that she feared being snapped in half.

“M-Mom… Please…”

“Are you okay?” Her mother finally placed her to the ground, but refused to let go of Skara, instead taking her cheeks and spinning her head around, observing every part she could. “Are you hurt? Were you emotionally scarred? Did you miss us at all??”

Skara couldn’t help but laugh as she removed her mother’s hands from her face. “Yeah, mom. I missed you guys. But you’re gonna miss me again if you two crush me to death!“

“Lulea, dear,” Her husband chuckled. “Your hair is doing the thing.”

Sure enough, Skara’s mother’s transparent hair had started to raise itself, the edges rising out in ghostly, glowing strands. She reached to try to hold it down, back in place, blushing at the involuntary display. 

“I know, I know.” She stated. “Just… OHHH, I’M SO HAPPY WE FOUND YOU!” She reached out to hug Skara again, pulling the young Bard into another tight squeeze. 

“Ahk!” 

The chasm was, for a short while, filled with very little else other than pure joy and relief and laughter that this entire incident, and everything that had come with it, was finally over. It was impossible not to laugh. For a while, anyway. 

But Skara’s father no longer seemed amused. 

“You.” He growled out. Turning on his heels, he began stomping his way towards Willow, his eyes glowing a dark shade of purple. “You put MY CHILD IN DANGER!”

Unsurprisingly, Willow was stunned by the sudden yelling of a complete stranger directed at her. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked over in the direction of the noise. 

“S-Sir,” Willow stated, stammering in surprise. “I-“

“YOU GOT HER LOST ON THIS TITAN FORSAKEN MOUNTAIN! ALMOST HAD HER CRUSHED!”

“Dad, it wasn’t-“

“I SWEAR ,” Her mother interjected, “IF I FIND A SINGLE HAIR OUT OF PLACE OF HER I WILL PERSONALLY MAKE SURE YOU NEVER STEP FOOT WITHIN 100 FEET OF A SCHOOL AGAIN!”

“Mom!”

“Hey, back off!” Gus interjected. “It wasn’t Willow’s fault for any of this! Probably was Skara’s anyway.”

“Why you slanderous little-“

“ HE’S RIGHT!” 

Both Skara’s parents turned to her in confusion. 

“Skara?” her mother asked, bewildered. “What are you talking about?”

“We… We had to find an orb for classes, and I was exhausted from Grudgby practice.” Skara began, her eyes looking away from her parents as she spoke. “When we couldn’t find our orb, I just tried to take a nap in the snow It was stupid and I was being an idiot. And this Spider-Yeti,  it sprayed me with venom and dragged me away… Willow was the one who came and saved me.” She looked over her mother’s shoulder, weakly smiling towards Willow. “If… If it hadn’t been for her, I’d be chow by now…”

There were a few seconds of silence. 

“...W … Well.” Willow continued, “It... The spider had probably been stalking us for a bit before. It would have attacked us eventually, so, I don’t think it was your fault it attacked us, Skara.. It just… Took advantage of the moment.” 

Somehow, Skara hadn’t considered that. 

“And, hey, if you hadn’t been for you, I would have been spider chow myself. Probably wouldn’t have found the cabin either, and, well, being stuck out here during that blizzard wouldn’t have been pretty, so....”

Skara blinked, now confused herself. Then, the tips of her lips twitched upwards. Hearing a genuine compliment from Willow… It felt... Nice.

There were another few seconds of silence, and eventually, all eyes fell on Skara’s father. He blinked a few times, before he glanced around, and seemed to realize the full extent of what he had just done - Walk up to a child he knew nothing about, and screamed at them for something they hadn’t done. 

 Slightly flustered, he cleared his throat. “...Ah. Well… I suppose in that case… I… Apologize for my present and… Earlier behaviour.”

“...As do I.” Her mother muttered. 

Skara didn’t know exactly what ‘earlier behaviour’ the two were referring to, and honestly, given what she knew about them when they were high-stressed… She wasn’t sure she wanted to.

“Alright everyone!” From back on the longboat, a voice called out. It took her a second, but Skara recognized the white haired speaker as Eda, the Owl Lady. “All this wonderful wholesomeness happy ending stuff aside, I’d kind of like to get back to Bonesborough before another blizzard hits us, so if we can keep this mobile?” 

The mere mention of the possibility of being stuck on the mountain for another night made Skara shiver. 

“Agreed.” Willow said, before Skara had the chance to say anything. “I’d like to go home.” 

“Yeah.” Skara nodded. “I wanna get as far away from the Knee as possible.” 

With that, the group began to make their way back to the longboats, boarding, and huddling into a couple of distinct groups as the boat began to rise into the air, and make its way back to the town it had come from. 

As they left, Skara couldn’t help but look back at the Knee, and back towards the cabin that she and Willow had remained in. She thought about the night there, what they had talked about. She thought about how they had arrived here yesterday, and… Well, about everything that had happened since then. 

How differently it had ended than it had begun. 

“Hey, Skara,” Bo asked, putting a hand on the Bard’s shoulder. “You doing okay?”

Skara blinked. She’d heard that question so often over the last couple of weeks, and each time she’d lied or, when pressed, admitted to feeling terrible.

But she turned back to the rest of the group, and saw Willow.

And smiled.

“Yeah,” She said, honestly. “I’m okay.”

Chapter Text

“Hey… Where… Where did the unicorn lady go….”

Skara observed Amelia out of the corner of her eyes, watching her just sort of toss and turn and ramble incoherent nonsense. It had been a while since she’d seen Amelia - A combination of Grudgby practice, dealing with her messed up emotional state, and guilt for being the reason the Plant Witch was here in the first place. 

The last time Skara had seen Amelia, it had been just after almost becoming plant food.. And she had seemed more… Coherent back then. 

That was… .Disconcerting, to say the least. 

“Um… Who’s the unicorn lady?” Skara turned her eyes back towards Cat and Bo, an eyebrow raised. 

“That… Would be me.” Cat admitted, with a slight red tint covering her cheeks. She took hold of Skara’s arm, and rolled up her sleeve so she could inspect it for injury or strain. There were a few cuts and bruises that she had received during her fight with the Spider-Yeti, though nothing too deep. Cat drew a spell-circle in the air, and it roamed up and down, just above Skara’s arm, sealing up the wounds. 

The Bard blinked in confusion. “I, er, I thought you said she was calling you a Lizard Queen?”   

“It changes.” Cat answered, flatly. “Yesterday I was a cactus.”  

“….A - Are we sure she’s alright?” 

The injuries that she and Willow had suffered were, thankfully, minor ones. They’d been checked for just about everything, from hypothermia to frostbite, and anything else, no matter how minor it might have been. Thankfully, a few bruises and cuts from their fight with the Spider-Yeti earlier in the day, and some residual venom in their systems was all that they had to deal with. And that could be passed onto Healing Track students who needed the practice. And for Skara, that turned out to be Cat. 

Meanwhile, Bo was there mostly because she wanted to make sure her friend was okay. For that, Skara was thankful. 

If a little… Uncertain. 

“She is getting better.” Cat assured her, glancing over at the Plant Witch with an almost bemused smile. “This just seems to be a side effect of that Witch Trap… Stuff. It has to get worse before it gets better, but it’s just a matter of time until she’s back to normal.” 

“I hope so…” Skara muttered. 

“Some days are better than others.” Cat carried on, now focusing her attention on a bruise on the back of Skara’s neck. Another Healing spell was cast, and the bruise went down, though this time, the healing stung, making Skara hiss. “It was… Really bad earlier. She kept yelling something about a thousand eyed Seraphim Lady in the ceiling.”

“Uh… D’you mean, ‘on the ceiling’?”

“Nope.” 

“...Yikes.” 

“Yeah.” Cat let out a small sigh. “I’ve just been... Trying to keep her calm most of the time she’s been here...” 

“She wanted to come with me.” Bo said, making both Skara and Cat look towards her. “She was all ready to come and help look for you, but Amelia started acting up and she decided to stay.” 

Skara blinked. “Huh?” 

Another flush of red hit Cat’s cheeks, as well as a look of guilt. “I… I couldn’t leave her like that. I just…” She glanced over to Amelia, lingering for a couple of seconds, before she turned back to look at Skara. “S… Sorry.” 

It took Skara a few seconds to register what had been said to her. So Cat… Wanted to look for me?

She felt a mixture of… Surprise was probably the most prominent emotion, and the rest were a confusing, unexpected, inexplicable drabble. It was the same surprise that she had felt when she’d seen Bo running up to her back on the Knee. Not an unpleasant surprise, just… 

...Honestly, she’d never thought that Cat was willing to help look for her.. 

“...Huh.” Was all that she could say. 

A couple seconds of awkward silence passed. Skara realized both Cat and Bo had expected… More of a response than that. But honestly, she just couldn’t give them more. She couldn’t think of anything else to say.

So instead, she just went back to the previous topic. “...A - And they only have students working on her because?…” 

Cat blinked, but then answered. “W - Well, the other Healers help, but…” She picked up Skara’s other arm, and began to cast another spell on it, and turned to face towards Amelia, who now seemed to have fallen asleep. “She only really seems to respond to me, so I… I guess they just decided it’s best if I’m around her the most. I… I’m the only one who really gets her, you know?” 

Her tone was wistful, dreamlike, as if she wasn’t just staring at her friend, but at someone precious, something pure. Someone she viewed as the best thing in her entire life -

Ah.

Normally, Skara would have found it adorably charming - If, in her distracted state, Cat hadn’t started cauterizing her uniform.

“Uh, Cat? ” Skara asked. Cat apparently didn’t hear. A small flame began to appear on her arm. “CAT?”

“Huh - Oh, TITAN!” Cat yelped as she realized what was happening. She cast another spell circle above the flame, and an ice pack fell onto it. It extinguished the flame with a hiss. “Are you alright, Skara?!” 

There were a couple of seconds of absolute silence, in sheer disbelief at what had just happened. The silence just made everything feel more intense. Under the circumstances, yelling and screaming was the more expected response. 

But Skara surprised everyone - Including herself. 

The Bard just laughed . 

“Pfffft!” 

Both Cat and Bo looked towards one another, confused. “S - Skara?” 

Maybe it was the sheer stress of everything that had happened over the last few weeks and of the last twenty-four hours in particular, and maybe she was just relieved to be back in Bonesborough, or maybe it was because of Cat being a complete disaster with Amelia, and the whole thing had tickled Skara - Or maybe it was just the irony of it all. 

Whatever it was, Skara couldn’t help but laugh! 

“S - Sorry, sorry!” She giggled. “Just - I nearly freeze on the Knee, and then the moment I get back here, I nearly catch fire! Just - Pft!” 

It probably didn’t make even the slightest bit of sense to anyone else, but Skara honestly didn’t care - Something about it just made the Bard laugh. 

And she hadn’t laughed in what felt like a very, very long time.

Well, actually, when she thought about it…

But don’t worry - I got over it.

Another snicker escaped her. 

“Er, well then,” Cat said, through a slight, but very confused grin that had formed at the sight of Skara’s laughter, “Aside from your… Odd response to catching fire - I really am sorry about that - other than the cuts and bruises you seem like you’re in surprisingly good shape.” 

“Surprisingly?” 

“Getting stuck on the Knee overnight, I’d honestly expected you to have some sign of frostbite, or kelvin’s burn, or necrocicero, but you don’t have any of them. Other than the cuts and bruises, physically, you’re fine.” With a wave of her hand, the Spell Circles dissipated, and she walked around the examination table so that she was in front of Skara. “The only thing that’s concerning is the Spider-Yeti venom effects. I’ll need to check with the senior Healers, but I think you’ll need to be put on an antidote potion regimen for a week or two. So you’re gonna have to wait around the place a bit while I get that sorted, but other than that, I think you’re good to go.” 

Hopping off the examination table, Skara allowed herself to stretch her arms into the air once she stood upright. “Gotcha. Thanks, Cat.” 

“No problem.” Cat answered. She allowed herself to turn her grin into the prideful smile synonymous with the Healing Track. For a moment, it remained. Then it fell. 

A brief pause followed. 

“…I’m glad you got back okay.” 

“…Thank you.” Skara allowed herself to nod, gently. “Me too.”  Maybe she didn't properly know how best to respond to such shows of concern, but - 

“Heeeeeyyyy… Where’d the snow kitty go?…” 

Amelia piqued up once again from her bed, tossing around and demanding to know where her shape-shifting caretaker had gotten off to. The arm and leg that were hanging off the side of the bed were attempting to flail, but couldn’t really manage to move more than a few inches. She almost looked like she was having a nightmare, but was too tired to really react to it.

A lone chuckle escaped the Bard as she turned to Cat. “I thought you were a unicorn lady a couple minutes ago?” 

Cat let out a small, bemused sigh. “I honestly don’t think she’s even remotely aware of what she’s saying right now.” She looked over towards Amelia, a slight look of concern covering her face. Skara could tell it was the expression of someone who knew that the subject of their concern would be fine, but couldn’t help but be worried either way. “I er… Do you two think you could, um, give us a bit of space? When she gets back to normal, I don’t wanna have to explain to her that everyone heard every weird thing that she said while she was like this.” 

“Hey, my lips are sealed.” Skara assured her, holding her hands up as if to show her sincerity. An idea popped into her head. “We okay to just walk around the place?” 

“Yeah.” Cat nodded. “I’ll text you after I’ve got everything sorted.” 

“Got it.” Skara turned to make her way out of the door, but then paused, before looking back. “…Thanks again, Cat.” 

“Hey, don’t mention it.”

Skara nodded, and both she and Bo made their way through the exit door, and found themselves in one of the many hallways of the Healers offices they were in. Both girls let out a small exhale of relief, partly at Skara’s diagnosis, and partly because of being free from the comparatively cramped room. Accidents weren’t exactly uncommon in the Boiling Isles, so Offices had to be fairly compact to be able to deal with the constant flow of people who had been bitten or poisoned or cursed or what-have-you on a daily basis.

Getting out of the room was, frankly, liberating. How Cat had been able to stand being cooped up in there every day looking after Amelia was beyond Skara.

Well, maybe “looking after Amelia” was the answer to her question.. 

“So… Cat and Amelia, huh?”

Bo just shrugged, and offered a knowing smile. Skara allowed herself a small chuckle, and the pair of them began to wander through the building, no real destination in mind. 

The Healers Hospital was built in a similar way to Hexside, at least internally - Long corridors, arched ceilings, and large windows, though it was a bit more brightly coloured. The marble that made up the floor was a dark shade of purple, for instance, and every other window was made up of stained glass patterns, often in bizarre amalgamations of wild artistry that both impressed and slightly unnerved Skara.. 

For a few minutes, all Bo and Skara did was search the corridors. Skara’s parents had wanted her to tell them when she was finished, but honestly, after everything, Skara just kinda wanted to wander aimlessly. While she loved her parents, she also knew that calling them back to get her would lead to a nonstop barrage of questions and hugs and honestly, she was a bit too tired for that right now. 

So instead, she and Bo simply walked through the corridor in silence, observing other patients, watching the Healers make their rounds, and just losing themselves to their thoughts. 

For a bit, Skara’s mind only thought about her appointment and Cat’s obvious crush and Bo being one of her best friends…

But soon, another, louder thought came in.

I hope Willow’s doing well, Skara thought. Maybe… I could see?

Skara blinked. It wasn’t the first thing she should have thought of. But for some reason, the idea of seeing Willow again, after everything that happened… 

She thought it might be nice.

Turning to look at Bo, who was tilting her head in thought over one of the stained glass windows, Skara opened her mouth to ask if she knew where exactly Willow was-

Before she could though, she heard the pinging of her Scroll ring out. She and Bo both looked at one another. Cat already?

Skara summoned her Scroll and unravelled it, tapping the notification symbol and finding that the person who messaged her had, in fact, not been Cat. 

It had been Boscha. 

‘Hey - Heard you got back from the Knee. Glad to hear you’re alright. Sorry I couldn’t join the search. I had to deal with Grudgby stuff at Hexside. Besides, I don’t think Half-a-Witch’s merry band of weirdos would approve. I’ll see you at school.’ 

Skara blinked at the message, and then read it again. Then, she blinked again. 

And then, she got mad . 

Seriously? That’s it?

It wasn’t like Skara expected…. Much, but, well - How long had she and Boscha known each other? Years! Since they were kids. And she knew that this was how friendships worked, that she had gotten into that situation on the Knee herself and didn’t exactly deserve a medal for having been rescued from it. It’s not like Boscha had had an obligation to help, but Bo had, and had it not been for Amelia’s condition, Cat would have too! 

At the very least she could have come to see her in the hospital, right? Maybe Willow - 

A pause. A sigh, and then the anger was gone. Boscha was probably right. She couldn’t exactly see them getting along with Willow’s friends while they were searching. And from how her own parents had acted towards the Parks, she had to guess things had been tense enough within the rescue group. And if she were being honest, the idea of the people who were trying to rescue her constantly arguing wasn’t one she was all too fond of. 

I guess… Maybe it had been for the best. Besides.. .  

It wasn’t like she had an obligation to help.  

“Skara, what is it?” Bo asked suddenly, her hand landing on the Bard’s shoulder. Skara felt herself jolt at the touch, and turned to face her friend. “You looked… Upset for a minute there.” 

“O - Oh.” Skara blinked, and then shook her head. “No, sorry, I just - I got a message from Boscha, that’s all.” 

Bo’s expression fell ever-so-slightly. “Oh. Yeah. We told her that we were going to help look for you, but she said she was… Busy.” 

“With Grudgby.” 

This time, Bo blinked. “With what?” 

“Grudgby.” Skara repeated. “Y’know, the sport that puts way more people in the Healers care than any sport should - “ 

“I know what it is.” Bo clarified. “She… Couldn’t come help because of a sports game?”  

“Well, there’s a game against Glandus soon, and Boscha gets pretty focused on beating them like, every year, so…” 

As Skara spoke, Bo’s hand raised up to scratch her head, and her expression continued to shift into… 

...Angry confusion was probably the best way to describe it. 

“I thought she was like, being dragged out by her parents or something. Just… I don’t - In what world is Grudgby more important than helping your friend?!” 

“That’s… Just how Boscha is. She takes Grudgby really seriously.” Skara answered, frankly a little surprised by how upset Bo seemed to be by that answer. “Boscha doesn’t get on with any of Willow’s friends, so, like, I dunno if her going along with you would have helped much anyway! Wasn’t everyone fighting before you found us?” 

It looked like Bo wanted to shout something in response to that, but her brain caught up to her before she could. She paused for a couple of seconds, before she let out a sigh. “...I guess you’re right. But, still though.” 

Skara let herself sigh as well. Somehow, she hadn’t expected such a… Lively response. 

They continued to walk down the corridors, and for a few moments, they did so in total silence. Eventually though, Skara’s surprise turned into a curiosity. 

“...Hey er, you mind if I ask you something?” She asked. 

Bo turned and looked at her, with a raised eyebrow. “Sure. Ask away.” 

“Why… Did you help the others look for us?” 

Again, Bo’s expression changed. 

Notably, it changed in the same way that Willow’s had last night. 

“...Because we’re friends?” She sounded… Confused by the question. “Why?”  

“...I - It’s nothing.” 

Clearly, Bo didn’t buy that answer, but good luck saved Skara - another ping from a Scroll filled the air around them, this time from Bo’s. The Healer blinked, and called forth her own Scroll. When she saw the message she had received, she scowled, then sighed. 

“I… I’ve gotta go.” She revealed. “My moms want me back home. I… Kind of didn’t tell them where I was going today, so... “ 

“It’s fine.” Skara assured her, giving her a small smile and a nod. “I’ll be alright on my own.” 

“You sure? I can try and tell them I’m busy - “ 

“I’m sure. Really. I’m not totally helpless, you know.” Skara’s smile spread a little wider. “Thank you, though.” 

Bo sideyed the hallway, as if deep in thought. Then, before Skara knew what was happening next, Bo closed the difference between the two and pulled her into a hug. 

“Okay. Look after yourself. I’ll see you when you’re back at Hexside, okay?” 

“Y… Yeah.” Skara paused for a moment, and then hugged her friend back. “I’ll see you then.” 

She then watched as her friend made her way down the hallway. Before she passed into   a turn, she looked back and waved her friend goodbye, before leaving the Bard’s line of sight. 

 For a short while, Skara just stood there. Thinking. Remembering. 

‘What do you think friends do, exactly?’

‘It sounds like you’re talking about a real, honest friend who’s more of one then Boscha and her gang ever have been.’

‘...Skara ...Look… Maybe friendship isn’t just… about being powerful or the top or whatever. Maybe it’s about caring for each other, about helping build each other up without any power dynamic stuff involved. Maybe it’s about more than just social hierarchies and the like. That’s how it is with me and my friends, and… Maybe I don’t have as many of them, but… I don’t think that there’s anything we wouldn’t do for each other.’

It was… Hard not to hear Willow’s voice in her head as she thought back on their conversation. 

She hadn’t expected… Any one in her group to come looking for her. Not really. It was a situation that she had gotten herself into, and it should have been down to her to get herself out of it. At best, if a rescue team did come, she had expected it to be organized by the school. And when it turned out it was full of Willow’s friends and her parents, that had been about as much as she had expected. She hadn’t expected to see Bo with them. Nor hear that Cat had been willing to go along with them. It surprised her. It felt… 

...Nice. To know that people were so concerned for her. It wasn’t what she was used to, but it was… Nice to know that some of her friends were willing to come to help her like that. 

And… Knowing that some weren’t was… 

Her mind drifted, remembering the entire scene of the rescue as a whole. A small smile appeared on her lips as she remembered the jubilation everyone expressed. But then, it fell, when she remembered how her parents had acted. Particularly towards Willow. 

They weren’t bad people - Not in the slightest. They were always there for Skara when she needed them, and they listened and supported her whenever she needed them to. Skara honestly struggled to remember an incident where they had even raised their voices at her. She knew they loved her. That they were proud of her…

But how they had treated Willow… 

Willow didn’t deserve that. Sure, they  apologized, but… Now that it was in her head again...

She glanced back down the hallway, and looked at the wall with all the doors leading into rooms. 

Hmmmm, she thought to herself. I wonder where Willow is…

The sudden light shot in Willow’s eyes, practically blinding the already near-sighted Witch. Her body reflexively recoiled, but she tried to sit straight and look into the light, though she had to squint to do so.

“So, any headaches, nausea, fevers?”

“Nope.” Willow answered. 

“Any tears, scrapes, or bruises I haven’t seen yet?”

“None that I can feel.” 

“Any wyrms, ticks, or fleas in your coat?”

“Er…. No?” 

“Y’sure? I could have sworn I saw like, five of each in your hair when you came in.”

“...Uhhhh...”

“Hah!, Just messing with ya. Little Beastkeeping humor.” 

Willow had to admit - She wasn’t sure if she even understood what the punchline was supposed to be. 

Viney chuckled at her own joke as she clapped her hands over the ball of light, the orb disappearing betwixt them. As Willow rubbed her eyes, the student Healer - very specifically recommended to her by Luz - walked over to the counter, picking up a small pad and paper. 

“Alright, you’re good, kid. For the most part, anyway. I wanna prescribe you a potion to help keep any residual venom in check, but aside from that, you seem pretty much good to go.” She scribbled something onto the paper before handing it to the Plant Witch. “Just give this to Morton in town, he’ll give ya something to help with it. Take all of it, even if you feel totally fine, and even if it tastes like sand and blood.”

“R-Right.” Willow agreed, putting the slip in her pocket. Somehow, she had a feeling she wasn’t going to like this particular batch of potions. “So um, am I free to go?”

Viney nodded with a smirk, and a mini salute. “Yup, so long as you take your medicine, you’ve got Doctor Viney’s seal of approval. Healthy as a Huphleback.”

“WOO-HOO!”

Both Healer and patient looked towards the door, the all-too-familiar, energetic voice making both smile. Somehow, neither of them were in the slightest surprised to know that it’s owner had been listening in as close as she could. 

“Hey, Luz,” Viney chuckled. “If your friend is cool with it-“ Viney paused for a moment while she turned to Willow, asking her permission without needing to say a word. Willow nodded in response. Viney smirked, and turned back to the door. “-Alright,  y’can come in now if you’d-“

Viney wasn’t even able to finish inviting them in before Luz barrelled through the door, followed closely by Amity and Gus. For the briefest of moments after they saw Willow again, they just stood there, like they still needed to register that their friend was here, and had somehow managed to get out of the situation she had landed herself into. Like they had expected to learn that something was wrong with her, and it wasn’t quite real yet that she really was totally fine, and back with them again. . 

Of course, Luz was the first one to recover. 

“WILLOW!” Essentially leaping towards her, Luz all but crushed Willow as she pulled her into the biggest bear hug the Plant Witch could physically imagine  -Although somehow, that probably was probably nothing compared to what Luz was capable of. “Oh my God Willow I was so worried about you!”  

“I am never letting you go!” Gus choked out, his voice a clear indication of the tears he’d been shedding, and was continuing to shed.

Even Amity joined in, giving Willow a tight squeeze as she hugged her. “Oh, I’m never letting you out of my sight again!” 

Willow couldn’t help but chuckle, even as all her friends crushed her ribs. It was nice to feel wanted, at least.

Still, they really were crushing her.

“G - Guys… Kind of... Can’t…. Breathe….” 

Immediately, most of the hug-pile loosened their grip - Although Luz did give her one final squeeze before she let go - and let the poor girl take a breath. Willow still felt all the love from before, now just with about twice the lung capacity.

“Alright, buds,” Viney interrupted, though with a clear smile on her face. “ I’ve got a hot date tonight, and you’ve all got parents to get to and drive insane, so, I think it’s time you guys took your big hug pile outside.”

“Sure!” Luz agreed, and wrapped an arm around Willow’s neck, and the other around Amity’s. “Ready, bud?”

Willow smiled, and nodded. “Absolutely.” She wrapped her own arm around Luz’s neck, then her other arm around Gus’s. “Thanks, miss-”

“Oh, Viney’s fine.” She waved off Willow’s attempted formality with a smile. “And hey, it was my pleasure.”

“Hey, Viney!” Luz asked as she led her friends out the door. “Still up for Troublemakers Tuesday, right?”

“When am I not? ”Viney smirked, and offered a small wave as they exited the room. 

Luz waved back, and after a couple of seconds, the door swung shut.  The moment it did, Luz stopped the group and turned her head to Willow. “Tell me everything ! I want every little embarrassing detail!”

“Eh? W - Well-”

“Are you hurt?” Amity asked, taking Willow’s face in her hand. “Did that Yeti-Spider hurt you?!” 

“Amity,” Willow deadpanned, her voice slightly muffled by Amity’s hands. “A Healer literally just said I was okay, and I feel totally fine.”

“Just, you know, trying to be thorough.” Amity let go, slightly awkwardly. “Wanted to make sure you were really okay.”

“You’re fine.” Willow chuckled, and patted the nervous Blight on the back. “Thanks for checking.”

“Sapling?” 

Willow looked up to spot her fathers turning the corner, in an almost sprint, like they’d had to run here. Like her friends had done, there was a brief half-second where both parties just stared at one another as they registered the other’s presence. 

This time, Willow was the one who broke the stalemate. 

”Papa! Dad!” She  smiled again, running up to her parents and giving her Papa the biggest hug she could the moment that he was in arm’s reach. Almost the moment that she did so, her Papa wrapped his arms around his daughter, tight as he dared, still afraid if he held her too tight, he’d hurt her.

“Are you feeling okay, Willow?” Her dad asked from behind the two of them, a clear worry still present in his voice. 

“I feel… Tired. But I’m okay aside from that.” 

“What did the Healer say?” 

“They said I was all good to go. I got a prescription for a light healing potion for the venom, but that’s all.”

“Oh, thank the Titan. I was so worried about you.” The slightest smile , that only Willow and her Papa would recognise.  “ heard you’d have to lose all of your left side…” 

As soon as Willow realized what he was doing, she couldn’t stop herself from smirking. “Nah…” 

And apparently, Luz noticed. “Oh please no.” 

“….Turns out I’m all right!”  

Groans followed all around as Willow finished the joke. She and her parents were grinning ear to ear and chuckling, while everyone around her looked almost physically disgusted, like they’d been slapped with garbage.

“Well.” Amity stated, clasping her hands fiercely together. “It’s been a fun time for all involved,” she said in a way that bluntly told Willow that her dad's humor was... Not her style. “But I think we should probably start heading out. Agreed?”

“The sooner I never have to hear another dad joke the better...” Luz grumbled.

“Yeah,” Gus stated. “I uh… I think we should head out now.”

“Good with us,” Willow’s papa stated. “Just gotta sign some stuff in the waiting room and we’ll be all set. Sprout?”

Willow paused. She wanted to say yes, but something, for the briefest of moments, stopped her.

What about Skara? Is she gonna be okay? Should I go look for her? Should I…

But Willow stopped. She knew that bringing up Skara here would be a… particularly sore subject. Especially with her folks to listen in…

So Willow simply smiled and nodded. “Sure,” she stated. “Let’s go.”

“You didn’t even find your orb?”

Luz’s expression was a mixture between disappointed, and utter confusion. The confusion at least, Willow shared. 

“No?” She blinked. “We found an orb, but we found the wrong one.”

“...How did you even manage that?” Amity questioned. “The maps led you to where your orb was, and told you where you were in relation to it at pretty much all times.” 

“I have no idea.” Willow shrugged. “We must have taken a wrong turn, or I must have misread it or… Something, I don’t know what happened, but we found the wrong orb.”

The Reception area for the Healers Offices was packed, with only a few seats free. Thankfully, the chairs Willow and her friends had been able to snag were better than the ones on the opposing walls; the ones they sat on were wood, while those on the opposite end were literally living, breathing flesh molds, covered in stitches and large, unsettling eyes. Plus, they were extremely uncomfortable. 

Both Willow’s Dads were busy signing off a bunch of various forms and pieces of paperwork up at the front desk, and apparently the sheer number of release forms they needed to sign was… Frankly absurd. So Willow and her friends had found some seats, and waited for them to wrap it all up. During the downtime, Luz had asked Willow about her and Skara’s orb. Why Luz cared was still a mystery to Willow, but she went along with it either way.

“I’d thought something happened to you during your orb journey that made you and Skara get lost.” Amity said. “Or that it knocked you both out or something. I thought that was what Skara meant when she said she tried to sleep in the snow?” 

“No she was being… Very literal when she said that.” Willow deadpanned. 

“Shoot.” The Human sighed. “I wanted to hear what crazy, embarrassing stuff happened to you on your orb journey.” 

“Yeah, I was going to ask about that.” Willow said, looking towards Luz. “I was wondering what you meant when you said you wanted to hear about ‘embarrassing details’.” An eyebrow was raised. “Why, did something embarrassing happen to you in your - “

“We do not speak of what I saw.” Luz answered completely without any emotion whatsoever, staring off into the distance like she was remembering some great horror. “That goes to the grave with me.”

“....Ooookay then. Amity, what about you?” 

“I just remember something about a princess that I had to help Gus rescue?... And then something about sun worship? And then the words “Game Over ' appeared in red before I came out of it?... It’s all… Kind of a blur to me, to be honest.” Amity shrugged. “You’d have better luck asking Gus.”

“Well, that would have been good to know twenty minutes ago.” Willow drily joked. Gus’s dad had had to take him back home not too long after they had arrived at the reception - Something to do with his job and some surprise home inspection of some sort, the specifics hadn’t been all that clear, but Gus needed to be there. He hadn’t left until he’d given his friend as big a hug as he could manage, and promised her he’d call her the first chance he got. “I’ll ask him when I hear from him.” She added on, assuring her friend. 

Just then, a ping from Amity’s scroll sounded, and the Abomination Witch summoned it into her hand. 

“What did you do this time Ed?” She asked, plainly. “No, I don’t think you called just to say hi, I know you.” She sounded frustrated, as if she knew for a fact something had gone wrong. 

There were a couple of seconds of silence as Amity’s siblings spoke on the other side of the Scroll. Amity’s eyebrows raised as she listened. 

“What, you mean the cauldron that’s been brewing in my room for the last three days?” A slight pause, during which Amity’s eyebrows fell, and she looked thoroughly unimpressed. “No, Ed. I’ve got no idea what that was doing in there.” She sighed. “What did you do to it?” 

Another pause, during which Amity just continued to look more and more unimpressed, until finally, her head just fell into her open palm. 

“How did you even - What did you - urgh. I swear, if you two don’t get yourselves killed first, I’m going to kill you.” Amity pinched her nose and sighed. ”Look, I’ll be there in about twenty minutes. Go nowhere near anything alive, and don’t leave the house.” Another pause. “ Yes that means don’t go near mother!”  

She shut off her phone and sighed. 

“Urgh…. Titan’s Mercy… Those two will be the death of me.” She turned to her friends, biting her lip. “Hey… So I wanted to stick around but-”

“Oh!” Luz said, shooting upright. “I - I’ll go with ya! Make sure you get there okay and that nothing too crazy is happening when you get there!” Then she paused. “Oh, wait, Willow - “

“It’s okay.” Willow said, waving a dismissive hand and smiling. “Really. You take care of whatever insane thing your siblings did. I’ll see you guys soon, okay?” 

Luz and Amity both looked at one another for a moment. Luz looked like she was kicking herself for acting without thinking and wanted to protest, but didn’t want to push against what Willow said, given everything that had happened. 

“A… Alright.” She finally said. “But first chance we get, we’re celebrating you getting home safe!” 

Willow chuckled. “Alright, Luz. I’ll see you both later!”

Both of them waved back towards Willow as they left, and Willow waved back, smiling. As the door shut behind them all, though, Willow’s arm fell, and she sighed. He sat there, waiting for the hopefully inevitable end of the paperwork her dads were getting through.. Though, for whatever reason, it seemed to be taking… Quite a bit. As the minutes passed and Willow could feel herself getting older with each, she thought about the Cabin. And Skara. And everything that had happened in their little adventure. 

“Alright.” Willow’s papa’s voice stated, grabbing Willow’s attention, and she looked up to see her dads sliding a stack of papers to a very bored looking receptionist. “All three-hundred-sixty-five forms, signed in triplicate, initialled in the corners, and with a small drop of blood as each period. Is that everything?” 

The bored, reptilian receptionist took the stack, flipped through them faster then Willow could blink, and sighed. “You missed thirty-four periods, but sure, you’re fine.” 

She then took the papers and threw them into a nearby fleshy trash can, which swallowed the papers whole.

Her dad appeared to be rightfully irritated at the wasted time - And blood- but her papa rubbed his back gingerly. “Forget about it, Rowan.” He said. “Let’s just get our little girl home and have a nice night in.”

His husband looked as if he wanted to protest, but stopped, looking at his daughter, and smiled. “Yeah. That does sound nice.”

Willow jumped out of her seat and stretched. “It certainly does. ‘Specially when you’re tired like me.”

Her dad’s chuckled as they walked to the exit way.

A yawn managed to escape Willow when she and her fathers made their way out of the hospital. It had been an eventful couple of days, and a particularly eventful morning, between the attack, and the tests and checks that she’d been subjected to to make sure she was okay. Frankly, she was looking forward to being able to go home, and just take a nap.

Just as she stepped out of the building, a voice called from behind her, “Willow!” 

She recognized the voice instantly. She knew exactly who to expect, but as she turned, she couldn’t help  still being a little surprised. “Skara?” 

Her parents turned as well, and all three of them saw the Bard in a light jog, stopping a couple meters away from Willow. For a moment, she didn’t say anything, needing to catch her breath. Apparently, she had been moving throughout the building like that for a while, at least. 

Once she had her breath back, she stood upright, and spoke. “I er, I asked the receptionist where you were. Wanted to catch you before you left.” 

“Well… You managed it.” Willow said, matter-of-factly, still a little surprised - In the back of her head, she was aware that this was the first time that Skara had willingly approached her since… Any of this had begun. “What is it?” 

“I…” Skara looked slightly past Willow, and saw both her fathers watching the two of them, both looking a mixture of confused and suspicious at her which honestly, after what she saw her own parents do when they found her, she couldn’t exactly blame them for. She couldn’t help but feel a whole lot smaller for it. They were close enough to hear if she spoke with her normal voice, so she lowered it to a whisper. “...You er… It okay if we speak on our own?” 

Willow blinked a couple of times, and there was a brief pause. 

Then, she turned around. “Dad, Papa? Could you… Give us a moment, please?” 

Both her parents looked at one another for a moment, exchanging glances that Willow couldn’t quite make out from this angle. A couple of seconds later, they both shifted, and looked back towards Willow, giving her a short nod. 

“We’ll wait for you on the other side of the street.” Her papa told her, before moving off. Her dad stood there for a moment, before his husband gently pulled on his shoulder, bringing him along as he walked away. 

A couple of moments later, they were out of earshot, and Skara let out a long sigh of relief.

“Thanks.” 

“It’s fine. What is it?” 

“Right, er…” Skara scratched at the back of her heck, and looked away. “I… I wanted to say sorry for my parents again.”

“Oh?” Willow blinked. Somehow that was… Not what she had been expecting. 

Then again, she wasn’t entirely sure what she was expecting in the first place. 

“Yeah. I - Look, they’re not… Normally like that.” She shuffled her feet, eyes downcast. “They were worried about me and when they’re worried they get kinda like that, but…” She looked back towards Willow. “...You didn’t deserve how they talked to you, so… I’m sorry about that.” 

“That - You don’t need to apologize for that, Skara. That wasn’t your fault.” 

“Still…” 

“…Well… Don’t worry about it.” Willow offered a small smile. She had been surprised and honestly, a little scared by the way that Skara’s parents had acted towards her - They’d been very angry, and very loud - But…

“It wasn’t your fault, really. You’re fine..” 

Skara managed to offer up a small smile back at Willow, but it fell, and she glanced to the side again. “Well, I… I know I said it last night but, about how I treated you while we were up there… And these last few weeks…” 

“...You’ve been having a... Rough time. I understand.” Willow offered another small smile. “Plus, I lost my temper a couple of times too…” 

“You lost your temper after I acted like an idiot.” Skara deadpanned. 

Something about the absolute bluntness of how Skara had said it made Willow let out a laugh. “Fair enough, but still.” 

“Well, either way, I don’t think -“ A pause. “…I know that if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have gotten out of that mess alive, so…”

“…Like I said yesterday. We’ll call it even.” 

“…I’ll think about it.” 

Willow blinked. “Huh?” 

“About what you said. About… Friends, I guess.” Skara seemed to struggle to look at Willow, but she made herself face the Plant Witch as she spoke. “You said it weeks ago and I ignored it. But after everything that’s happened…” 

Her smile returned. 

“…I’ll think about it.” 

In that moment, the pair of them knew that there wasn’t anything else for them to say to one another, but they stayed that way for a moment regardless. It was comfortable. 

It was nice. 

“I’ll er, I’ll let you get going.” Skara broke the silence first. Her eyes had left Willow, and were now over her shoulder again. “I think your dads want to get you home.” 

Checking over her shoulder, Willow could see the pair of them watching the two schoolmates. They both had a slightly impatient and worried expression. She let out a small sigh, and smiled. “I guess so.” 

She turned, and began to make her way towards the pair of them. 

“Hey, Willow?” Skara called out again. 

Once again, Willow turned to look back towards the Bard. 

“…See you at Hexside.” 

The smile returned. “See you there.”

Night had fallen upon the Knee.

The sky was dotted with as many stars as there were flakes of snow surrounding a small cabin. It was a small place, wooden and old, older than almost anyone who lived on the Isles today. It had stood for so long, foundations as strong as the day they were first laid, and had remained virtually untouched over the years, for so few ever ventured to the Knee in search of anything but an escape from their mortal coil. 

But now, it had been touched.

No. Not just touched. 

Torn apart. 

On its own, the cabin stood, silent, dark, for hours after the Witches who had used it to escape the blizzard had left it in ruins during their fight with the monsters of the Knee. In all that time, nothing shifted or changed, save for the snow entering through the wind. It was still. Vacant. 

Empty.

And then, a soft, ethereal light could be seen by any living thing close enough to peer through the windows, or look through the hole in the wall. It was followed by a light, musical hum, that extended just beyond the cabin itself. Had anyone been there to hear it, they would have described it as a sweet sound. Almost motherly, like a lullaby.

Then, the humming stopped

Now, the cabin had been touched.

And it had been robbed.

The ethereal light pulsates briefly. Then stopped.

And then, it wailed, a wail so loud that the mirrors shattered and the walls shook, and for a second, one might even fear the entire mountain itself was shaking.

Then, it stopped. 

The shattered pieces of the wall became coated in the same mysterious, ethereal glow that had glowed moments before. One by one, the debris began to float. The pieces began clicking together, being slotted back in place, leaving the outside of the cabin appearing as if it had never been touched.

The glow died. 

The wail remained.

Chapter Text

Bellatrix wandered the Bogs of Unfathomable Terror, her trusted lute clutched tightly to her heart. The stench of her surroundings were so immeasurably awful that the very concept of having the ability to smell disgusted her, and the thick sludge she walked through would stick to her clothes for an entire year. But if what she sought was still here, then it would all be worth it.

“The darkest holes hide the brightest treasures,” she reminded herself. “Surely, she must still be here, she-”

A chill ran down her spine as a piercing wail stretched the entire Bogs length. An animalistic cry, one like a tormented goat and crab singing in harmony.

But faintly, underneath, another cry. A more familiar, friendly one, in familiar screams of violence.

“Blasted Gortle,” she muttered. “What trouble have you gotten in today I wonder?” 

With the swiftness of a thousand lightning bolts, Bellatrix ran through betwixt the trees and, darting left and right with the grace and precision of a trained dancer. Her heart thumped as she imagined what horrific beast Gortle would now be having the displeasuring of almost being eaten by today.               

When she finally spotted the beast, she froze; it was a large, very large, indescribably large beast, with a tail equipped with an oversized stinger and a gaping maw of a thousand and one sharpened teeth (her keen eyes could count them all in fractions of seconds and her brain calculated the approximate number shortly after). It bore no eyes, but instead two empty, soulless holes, and the rest of its sickly green scaled body looked like a combination of a long-forgotten tree and a firebee’s thorax. It was a monstrous creature, no doubt.

But what truly drew her in was the Witch, clinging onto a sword wedged deeply into the beast's gums.

She was a large woman, muscular and strong, with shaved hair and a fierce hunger for action in her bright gold eyes surrounded by well-earned battle scars. She wore true knights armour, bulky and silver, save for the helm. Primarily because, to quote her, ‘It makes headbutts less personal.’

Beatrix groaned. “Gortle, yet again you find yourself in the midst of a harrowing and dangerous brawl with something bigger than yourself, and once again I must save you before it devours you, silver and all.”

Gortle smirked. “Ah, Bellatrix. Not quite! Once again, in fact, you have come to watch me tear open a monstrous beast from the inside out, spilling its bright, wet, gooey innards across the bog floor!”

“Vividly grotesque imagery aside, I fail to see how you can achieve such a goal out in here.”

“Like THIS!” And with that, Gortle threw herself into the beast's maw, laughing like the mad woman she was born to be.

Bellatrix sighed. “As always, Gortles thinks only of the stomach.” As she spoke, she spun a bright red circle in the air, and from it fell her Grand Pick of Destiny(!). As was custom, she placed it to her lips before strumming it against her lute, sending out vibrations towards the beast. At the sensation, the monster started to shake, violently convulsing and screeching like an angry cat. Bellatrix rushed behind a nearby tree, barely missing the engulfing explosion of green and yellow guts. 

Then, when all the parts and juices landed, the most bewitching Bard on the Isles slowly turned to spot Gortle, in the middle of the remains, groaning as she picked herself up, covered in both general filthy bog water and the creature's innards.

“My oh my, you really had them on the ropes.” Bellatrix smirked as she walked out, leaning down to raise a hand to the fallen soldier.

“Shows what you know,” Gortle huffed. “Another minute and I would have wretched it apart.”

“Another minute and I don’t think we’d be having this conversation,” Bellatrix countered.

“That’s what you said about the Slitherbeast back in Latissa.”

“And I was right!”

“As much of a worry wart as ever I see.”

“And I take note that your head continues to only be used for bashing in monsters' skulls and NOT, in fact, for coherent thought.”

Gortle stood, and stared Bellatrix down. They glared at each other for a good while, angry looks bearing into the others eyes.

And as always, Gortle was the first to break down into laughter as she took Bellatrix into her arms.

“It’s great to see you old friend!”

Bellatrix chuckled as she hugged back. “And I you, buddy.”

A smile couldn’t help but form on Skara’s face as she read the words. That particular passage was one of dozens that, no matter how much older she got, or how much her perspective changed, it always made her smile. 

She read over the words again, finding her grin grow wider, a small sense of contentment filling her as she let herself enjoy her little bit of escapism.  Especially after the… Interesting few days. 

The following week at Hexside had been a, frankly, odd one. 

Nothing really changed - In fact, nothing had changed in her social life. At home, her parents had all but smothered her with affection, telling her how glad they were that she was okay, and how sorry they were that they hadn’t been able to find her sooner. She couldn’t even go an hour without one of them asking if she was alright, or if she needed anything. Skara was about eighty percent sure she could have asked for an entire mansion of her own and they would have tried to find a way to buy her the entire Isles. It had taken her nearly the full week of asking every hour on the hour for them to at least act as if they believed she was okay.

In contrast, at Hexside, her friends who hadn't been involved in the rescue had rushed up to her, asked if she was okay, what had happened, and told her they were glad that she wasn’t hurt. Short, sweet, simple. Things that she had expected, really. 

After that though, things had turned to normal almost immediately. She returned to her classes, returned to Grudgby training, returned to talking about things that had nothing to do with her incident on the Knee. For most everyone else, Skara’s snowed-in knee trip was a simple oddity, and they simply forgot it in favour of some other strange news like her fellow students always did. 

Outside of Cat, Bo, and obviously, Willow. 

Still, it was weird jumping between those two extremes on a regular basis. But maybe it was more down to a shift in her own perspective. She’d read dozens of stories about people who had gone through harrowing experiences, only to come out of it on the other side with different outlooks on lots of things. Perhaps the same thing had happened to her, and she was still in the midst of adjusting to that. It certainly felt like that, sometimes. 

Of course, another explanation was that it had happened to Skara, so of course she was more affected by the dissidence between what happened on the Knee, and daily life at Hexside. 

In addition to that, she had remained true to what she promised Willow - That she would think about everything that she had said in the cabin. About friendships, and what they were supposed to be. Honestly, she had thought about little else. Thinking about both the incident at the Knee and most of the events at Hexside constantly… Honestly, it made her feel overwhelmed sometimes. 

So, she started to bring a book to Hexside with her during the day. Her favourite series of books in fact - Bellatrix Begrave, the Bewitching Bard , was something that she’d read since she was young; A series about a young Bard, traveling a mythical version of the Isles on a quest to prove herself amongst the best Bards in history, all while saving her occasional friend, occasional rival Gortle from whatever antics she’d gotten herself into. The last few weeks had been, to put it bluntly, difficult, and turning towards a form of escapism like reading to take her mind off things just hadn’t crossed her mind until recently. 

Just constantly thinking about the variety of things that had happened to her over the last few weeks, the various contradictory bits of information and impressions and behaviours and feelings and worlds she was in the middle of… She’d hoped thinking about it for a while would just have it leave her eventually.. But that wasn’t how it worked, and Skara had learned that the hard way. But when that was literally all she could think about, all she had really done was shift what was causing her this level of distress. And that wasn’t even taking into account that so much else still weighed on her mind. Especially when she didn’t have all the answers yet. 

Frankly, she needed to be able to just relax, calm down, and think about something else for a while in short bursts, so she didn’t go mad, or stress herself out to the point of counter-productivity. 

Bellatrix helped. 

Another smirk made its way onto her face as she read another passage. As she finished the passage though, she took a quick glance around the classroom, just to make sure that she was still aware of what was happening around her. There was still no teacher, and only about a third of the students for their next General Studies class were actually here. She still had a bit of time, she thought. She then nodded to herself, and turned back to reading her page. 

For a short while longer, she continued reading about Bellatrix and Gortle on their quests. Of course, she knew how it would end - She’d read it dozens of times before - but it kept her distracted and content for the time being. 

After that while though, she could notice around her, without even looking around, that more and more people were starting to file into the classroom. Most went directly to their seats, walking past her without so much of an acknowledgment. 

Except one. Skara didn’t even need to look up to know who exactly it was. 

“Hey.” Willow greeted her. Skara looked up to meet her and… Was surprised to find that in her hair, on the top of her head, was what could only be described as a dancing vine, perched atop Willow’s head, and waving its leaves around crazily.

“...Hey.” Skara said, slowly. Her hand rose up slightly, and pointed towards the plant. “You er… You are aware of the dancing plant in your hair, right?” 

Willow blinked, raised an eyebrow, and swatted above her head until she felt the lively plant. She tugged on it, and the odd flora that was far longer than it really should have been was removed from her head, and held up in front of her. It dangled between her fingers, all the way down to her feet, wriggling all the while. 

“Oh, there you are, Wriggly.” Willow said with a fond smile. Apparently, Willow was not even the least bit phased by the bizarre vine. She quickly cast a portal spell in front of her that she dropped the plant into. “Alrighty, back into the darkness with you. Shoo.” Once dropped in, the portal closed up, and Willow turned back to Skara. “I was wondering where that scamp had gotten off to. I thought I’d lost him in my last class.” 

“And… No one thought to tell you he was on your head?” Skara blinked, raising her own eyebrow. 

“Wriggly’s a Chamele-Wort plant.” 

Again, Skara just blinked. 

“He can camouflage.” Willow elaborated.

“Ah.” Skara then nodded. “So you just had a camouflaged plant in your hair that only now dropped the camouflage to… I don’t even know what that was, dance?” 

“Apparently.” Willow deadpanned. She chuckled, shrugging. “He’s a trickster, what else can I say?” 

Skara let herself laugh a little too. It was hard not to. 

After going through what they had been through on the Knee together, it was difficult for either of them to maintain the same level of dislike or distrust or distance or, well, anything that had characterized their relationship up until this point. For lack of a better term, and cliché as it was for a Bard to say, they had something of a bond that was forged through fire. 

Or, well, ice, she supposed would be more accurate, but the point remained. 

They weren’t exactly friends per se, but they were on far better terms than they had been before the trip. More than once, Skara wondered if those spirits of Mrs. Haruspex’s had somehow engineered the whole mess for that exact reason. And if that was the case, she was going to learn how to strangle ghosts, but that aside .

Whatever the case was, their relationship wasn’t thinly veiled animosity, open hostility, or full of suspicion and distrust anymore. They were certainly better towards one another, could even joke and chat, but Skara wouldn’t call them friends. To be quite honest, Skara wasn’t entirely sure what to classify their relationship as. Mere acquaintances? Battle-forged comrades? On-decent-terms classmates? 

Regardless of whatever it was, Skara had to be honest - She preferred this to… Well, everything in the past. 

“How’re you doing?” Willow asked, like she always did when they talked. 

For a second, Skara really considered her answer. “I’m okay, I think.” She said, honestly. “Just tired, mostly. And I have more Grudgby practice after this, so… That’ll be fun.” Practice had gotten more and more intense as the day of the match got ever closer, and Boscha’s methods were getting more… 

…’Extreme’ would be too mild a word.

Still, she was being honest - All those things aside, she was relatively okay. Certainly not good , but okay. Everything that had happened, from Ves to Amelia, to what had been said between her and Willow… It still weighed on her mind, but it had gotten easier to carry. 

Doing ‘okay’ was an improvement. 

“Aside from that, I’m alright.” She sighed. 

“Well, I’m glad you’re doing alright, at least.” Willow offered her a small smile. 

“Thanks.” It was still a bit of an odd feeling, being willing to accept Willow’s concern and acts of legitimate kindness. It was still something that she was getting used to, but Skara managed little by little, and even extended a little outward in the same way. “How’re you?” 

The smile on Willow’s lips grew that little bit they always seemed to when Skara offered to meet her halfway. “Well, aside from Wriggly being difficult, I’m okay. I -“ Something caught her eye, and she moved her head to look back at the classroom door. “Uh oh.” 

Skara’s eyes followed. Both girls saw that Boscha had just entered the room, and had spotted the two of them speaking to one another. She gave them a scowl, and continued across the room towards her usual seat, next to Skara, with no further acknowledgment of Willow’s existence. 

“I’ll er…” Willow gestured towards her own seat, and took a few steps towards it. Skara nodded, and gave her a small thumbs up, indicating that she understood. Once she’d gotten that, Willow turned, and took her seat. 

When Boscha reached her own seat, she sat down without a word, glanced at Skara, and then very deliberately focused her attention directly in front of her. Skara let out a small, slow, quiet exhale through her nose, and carefully moved her arms over her book, so Boscha wouldn’t see it. 

Boscha didn’t like Willow - Skara had known that for years . And she didn’t like the fact that Skara and Willow were, at the very least, on speaking terms with one another now. That much she hadn’t actually said, but Skara didn’t need to hear it to know that it was what the matter was. This wasn’t the first time she’d had this reaction, after all; Whenever Boscha saw the two of them speaking, she got into a far fouler mood than she otherwise was. Yet she never said anything about it. 

Then again, what was she supposed to say? That she didn’t approve of the fact that two people who had survived an ordeal in the frozen tundra of the Knee - Who she didn’t try to help - were on speaking terms with one another? There wasn’t really a scenario where that was even remotely acceptable, no matter who the two in question were. 

‘Status, after all, is everything’, Skara thought as she reminded herself of Boscha’s philosophy. 

A philosophy she was… Struggling with herself. 

Her relationship with Boscha had taken something of an opposite direction to what it had with Willow - There was a sort of tension now. Not an especially tense one, and not one that hadn’t existed before, but it was there. In part because of Boscha herself, and her unspoken disapproval of her new… Acquaintanceship, if that was even the right word, with Willow, and in part because of Skara, due to her dislike of the Grudgby she was being made to play, and, well… A lot of other things. 

It would pass, though. Skara’s friendship with Boscha always had periods like this. Friendships in general did, at least, they did in Skara’s experience. Boscha would get over it, and once the Grudgby match was over, everything would probably go back to normal. This was just a temporary thing. Over ten years of experience told Skara that. Boscha got bitter, she did something cool, everything went back to normal. Wash, rinse, repeat. 

More people filed into the classroom, including Luz, Amity and Gus. They waved towards Willow, and no sooner had they sat down had the teacher finally arrived themselves. 

“Okay, everyone, sit down, shut up, cease any and all forms of communication, and pay attention.” They said before they’d even gotten halfway across the room to the teachers desk. “That includes Scrolls.” He added, eyeing a student in the front row who hadn’t managed to unsummon their Scroll in time.

Dr. Hedgesmith, Skara noted. One of, if not the strictest teachers at Hexside. She internally groaned. 

She was not looking forward to this.

To the surprise of absolutely no-one, General Studies was about as fun as one would have expected when one had arguably the single most strict teacher in the entire school, who would snap at you if you so much as glanced out a window for more than five seconds - About as fun as a griffon attack. Skara tried her best to at the very least look like she was paying attention, but every time she tried to focus, her eyes would cross, her vision would blur, and her brain would jump to just about anything unreleated to her stupid class. 

She just had to thank her lucky stars that the lesson didn’t require any writing or note-taking. It was more a lecture than it was a class. In the spaces where she did manage to focus, she knew it was something about the history of the Isles and the Emperor's ascension to the throne. Stuff she’d already learned a long time ago, both as a Witchling in Baby Class, and as a Bard through the… Numerous ballads on the subject. 

Occasionally, she would look next to her, towards Boscha. She could see the impatience in her eyes, the way that she would bounce her knee up and down, how she tapped her pencil against the desk, and the doodles in her notebook. She wanted to be on the field, training for the Glandus match. 

Then, her eyes would shift over towards Willow and her group of friends. They had their books up so that it covered their faces and mouths, just enough so that it looked like they were still paying attention, but could get away with speaking to one another in hushed whispers. The only one not engaging in that sort of behaviour was Amity, though she still glanced towards them, occasionally smirking or rolling her eyes at whatever it was that they said. 

Skara’s eyes lingered on that perhaps a bit more than they should have. But she couldn’t get the association between them, and Gortle and Bellatrix from her books out of her mind. 

She’d thought of it in passing weeks ago, when she’d seen them outside the entrance to Hexside, but dismissed it almost immediately after thinking about it. 

Now, because she knew that it was genuine, and because she knew that Willow really did care for them, Skara couldn’t shake the feeling that the way Willow and her friends interacted was far more akin to the interactions in her books. Books that had influenced her since she was a child. Books that influenced how she thought school would be. How friendships would be. 

Books that she escaped to when the reality came crashing back down around her. 

After an hour of solid boredom, and forcing herself to not look at the group, she was pulled out of her trance by the shriek of the end-of-school bell. Almost immediately, everyone got onto their feet, and began to pack their things to get ready to go, even at the protest of Dr. Hedgesmith. 

“Finally!” Boscha all but leapt out of her seat, her things already tossed haphazardly back into her school bag. “I thought that would never end!” She turned to Skara. “Let’s go - We’ve got drills to run!” 

Blinking, Skara just sort of looked at Boscha in a daze, and then at her still cluttered  desk. She picked up her book, some pencils, a water bottle and reference books to put into her bag, all the  while trying to keep her book hidden from Boscha, and while trying to be quick about it.

C’mon, c’mon, gotta hurry…

Unfortunately, she had to take too much into her hands, and she dropped everything onto the ground. Her books fell onto the other side of the desk, though thankfully, the cover for Bellatrix was upside down, so Boscha couldn’t see what it was. 

The one silver lining in the fact that everything she had on her was scattered all over the floor.

After a couple seconds of just looking at the mess, exasperated, Skara just sighed. “I’ll… Meet you there in five minuites, okay?” 

Boscha blinked, and then shrugged. “Five minutes. After that, you’re doing a lap for every minute you’re late.” 

“Yes, ma’am.” Skara muttered under her breath, quiet enough Boscha couldn’t hear it. 

Almost immediately after her warning, Boscha bolted out the door, shoving past a couple of other students in her race to the fields. Skara shook her head as she knelt down to pick up her pencils and water bottle, putting them into her bag, silently cursing herself for having tried to do it all at once.

Titan, so stupid...  

Quickly, she got up onto her feet, ready to hop over the desk to grab her books, but as soon as she was on her feet, she saw Willow in front of her, arms outreached, books in hand. 

“Here.” 

Another, lighter sigh escaped Skara as she accepted them. “Thanks.” 

“No problem.” A smile. 

Skara offered a small one in return. “I’ve gotta get to the field. I’ll er, see you tomorrow.” 

“Okay. See you then.” 

Turning away from Willow as she quickly moved out the door and tried to stuff her books back into her bag at the same time, Skara headed towards the Grudgby field, hoping to get there before more laps were required of her.

Willow watched as Skara left, and couldn’t help but frown. It bothered her, seeing the Bard run around after Boscha like that.

At the very least, Willow knew where she stood with Boscha. Their relationship was as clear as crystal got: Boscha hated her guts, and Willow wasn’t too fond of Boscha either. That was fine with her. But Skara… She had a feeling that the Bard may not know where she stood with Boscha. Willow knew for a fact Skara didn’t like Grudgby, but was going along with it for Boscha’s sake. And Boscha was driving her far harder than most Witches could withstand. 

It all seemed so… Needlessly harsh. 

“Hey, Willow?” 

Feeling a hand on her shoulder, Willow turned around. Gus was the one who had gotten her attention, and when she turned, he had a slightly quizzical expression on his face. 

“You alright?” 

“Uh huh.” Willow nodded. “I’m totally fine.” 

“...Was Skara giving you a hard time again?”

“Huh?” For a moment, Willow was confused at the question. She shook her head. “No, not at all. She just dropped something and I picked it up for her.” 

“...Oh.” Gus deflated slightly, and looked away. 

“Are… You okay, Gus?” 

He didn’t move for a second, and then he sighed, and looked back at her. “Can I be... Blunt with you?” 

“Um… Go for it?” 

“Are you sure she’s… Legit, I guess?” 

“...I don’t follow.” 

“I mean that Skara’s been friends with Boscha for years! She’s been part of her crew for as long as I’ve known you, and she’s helped torment you for just as long! How do you know this isn’t some… Elaborate… Trick or something?” 

As ridiculous as it might have sounded to an outsider, to Willow, his concern did make perfect sense. Extending a hand of friendship, only to snatch it away and to make fun of her for even attempting to accept it;  It wasn’t exactly like that would be the worst thing either Skara or Boscha had done to her. 

Still, it didn’t exactly make a whole lot of sense , given the last few weeks. 

Looking over Gus’s shoulder for a quick second, she saw that Luz and Amity were both still clearing up their desks, and idly talking to one another. Unless either she or Gus went to interrupt them, like they had needed to the last sixteen times this had happened, Willow had a feeling that they weren’t going to shift their focus. Good. That’ll keep them distracted for… However long this conversation lasts , she thought to herself. She didn’t want this conversation being overheard.  

“Gus, we got stuck on the Knee together.” Willow said. “We got paired up at random by spirits. I don’t know how she could have planned that.” 

“Well maybe that was just a coincidence, but that doesn’t mean that she hasn’t been doing all of this as a way to get at you!” 

“She’s had to deal with a break up - Going through that seems like it’s a bit much just to pull a prank on me.” 

“It’s still possible!” 

“It’s possible that one of my plants is going to escape greenhouse and eat half of Hexside - That doesn’t mean it’s all that likely to happen.” A worry started to assert itself inside Willow. This… Wasn’t like Gus. He wasn’t usually prone to this sort of conspiracy or paranoia. “Gus, are you… Sure you’re okay?”

There was a second where neither of them moved in the slightest. Gus’s head dropped, letting out a noise that sounded somewhere between a sigh of frustration and a strangled cry. He tried to make… Some sort of gesture with his hands, though they conveyed next to nothing, other than his own frustration. A part of Willow started to think that even he was recognising that what he was doing was abnormal for him, but still felt that this sort of paranoia was warranted, but he didn’t know how to properly explain himself. 

He stood for a moment, saying nothing, while Willow watched on, not sure entirely what he would do next.

Finally, he did what Willow had decided to call “The Luz”: He just threw his arms wide open and rushed Willow, wrapping her in a giant bear hug. Willow was slightly caught off guard, but didn’t say anything against it as she hugged her best friend back, if somewhat awkwardly, on account of still being confused.

“You’re one of the kindest people on the isles, you know that?” Gus’s voice was small, almost too small to hear, but Willow could make out every word, crystal clear. “You’re kind and caring and forgiving and that’s one of the best things about you, but just… When it was Amity, I didn’t mind too much ‘cause you had history, and after we sorted everything out, she turned out to be cool. But Skara…”

Skara, she had no good history with. Skara, there was no logical reason to trust. Skara, Gus had even less reason to trust, because he hadn’t heard what Willow had heard, seen what she had seen. For Skara, there wasn’t really even a smidge of justification like Amity had. 

Amity at least could point to her parents as a reason for doing what she had done. It wasn’t exactly a good reason, but it was one. The best excuse that Skara had was that she was going along with Boscha. 

And not even Willow knew if that was true, or if Skara had gone along with it willingly from day one. 

“I’m not…” Willow sighed. “Gus, I’m not trying to be Skara’s friend or anything.” 

That much was true - It wasn’t like that had been the goal of her interactions with Skara. That had never a been part of any of this. Frankly, given everything that she had learned, she wasn’t sure that Skara fully understood what a friend was . 

“I just… She needed a shoulder to cry on, and… And I remember what it was like being in a situation like hers.”

“Yeah… But I know you.” The Illusionist said. “ If she’s lying, and this is something to get to you…” Gus pulled away from Willow, shaking at the idea. Whether it was anger or fear, it was hard to tell. “I just… I don’t want you getting hurt. I don’t want them getting close and doing something to screw with you or-.” 

“Hey, hey,” Willow said, smiling. “Gus, don’t worry. I’m gonna be okay. I know the kinds of tricks they play and I know what to look out for. I won’t give Skara the chance to do anything.” 

“You promise?”

“O’course.” Though in her head, Willow had the distinct feeling that a promise she didn’t need to keep. Skara wasn’t going to try anything, of that, she was certain. 

“…Alright.” Gus said, shaking his head. “Alright, just… If she does do anything, let me know, okay?”

Willow chuckled. “If Skara does anything to try and get to me, I’ll make her plant food.”

Gus smirked, then hugged her again. “Alright. But I want a piece of her too, okay? Don’t think my illusions are just all razzle dazzle.” As he finished, he opened up his hands, small strings of illusionary confetti flying out, and scattering all over the ground. 

“Uh… Woops.”

“…So, um, I suggest we get out of here before Dr. Hedgesmith realizes that that just happened?” 

“Agreed.” 

Just as Willow had thought, when she looked back to them, neither Luz nor Amity seemed to have noticed… Essentially anything of the conversation between her and Gus, or pretty much anything around them. She was half certain that they would stand there and talk like that until the next day if the universe allowed them to. 

“Hey er, we should probably go?” Willow said to them, loud enough to get their attention. “As in, right now?”

Left! Right! Duck! Now JUMP!

For the fifteenth time in a row, Skara hopped across the Grudgby field, dodging the swinging death blade, ducking before the screeching griffon took hold of her, and barely escaping the grasp of an oversized Abomination. 

All with her legs tied together . 

Not bad for someone who doesn’t even really like this game.  

Now, all she had to do was throw the ball through the triangular goal, and she could finally be done with at least this portion of nonsense. She moved to score. A hop, a skip, and a - 

“Aaahk!” 

OHTITANNO!

Her perfect goal was stopped before it began, as a stray stone tripped her jump, causing her to slam straight into the ground just as she had taken aim and began to throw the ball. 

“...Ow.” 

. The ball flew right above the goal post, and into out of bounds, where the griffon that had earlier almost caught her swooped in and, with a mighty caw , clasped its claws around the now screaming Grudgby ball, crushing it with an unsettling wet and crunchy CRACK.

Skara watched as it all happened, sighed as it passed, and then let her head flop to the ground. 

Welp. That’s… Just... Great.

“Y’know, I’ll say this.” Boscha stepped out from the side-lines, followed closely by Cat, who was writing furiously onto a clipboard as they both walked towards Skara. “If you hadn’t completely screwed it up at the end, it wouldn’t have been a bad goal.”

“Well, maybe if you let me use both of my legs.” Skara grumbled as the ropes glowed a bright yellow, falling off from her legs and returning to Boscha’s hands. Skara sat up, and rubbed her legs where the rope had dug into her skin. “Ow. Hey, don’t you think this all is a bit… Excessive?”

“What do you mean? All of this is just completely standard big game practice stuff.” 

“Standard - When the heck am I gonna end up in a situation where my legs get tied together in a Grudgby match?” 

“That’s not the point , Skara - The point is to be prepared for anything, no matter how unlikely it is. You never know what to expect in a match, let alone against Glandus.” Boscha summoned a storage hole, threw the rope inside, and pulled out what appeared to be a griffon’s still beating heart. “Now, here, put this on over your head and do the whole thing while walking backwards.”

Skara had every intention of not doing that.

But before she could tell her captain that she wasn’t going to follow such a blatantly ridiculous instruction, Cat spoke up. “Uh, Boscha? I think Skara and I could use a bit of a breather. We’ve been working on these drills and tactics for like, an hour and a half with barely a break, and we’re not really getting anywhere…”

All three of Boscha’s eyes glared at Cat, but a sigh escaped her lips. She pinched the bridge of her nose, and took the clipboard from Cat. “Fine, fine. Five minutes. But then you two better give me fifty laps after.”

“Alright, cool, totally.” Skara let out an exacerbated groan. It wasn’t something she wanted to do, and it seemed completely counter-productive to what Cat just said, but with Boscha, at this point, at least it wasn’t one hundred laps.

Taking a seat on the bench with Cat, Skara and her both let out a long sigh, and stretched. Skara’s sore muscles were grateful to finally get any sort of respite at all from the overly exhausting work Boscha put her through. She rubbed at the marks left in her skin, relief filling her entire body.r

Every single training method that Boscha had made her team do over the last week had been some flavour of what she called ‘Situational Conditioning’ - Preparing her players for some insane, improbable possibility, just in case something happened during the match that would need some sort of special preparation. Playing a match while wearing a blindfold, without being able to use a limb, only being able to use certain types of Magic, that sort of thing. And when that was done, she started to double them up, like she was today, and Skara… Could not begin to convey how sick of it she was getting. 

 It wasn’t just that Skara didn’t really care about Grudgby, either. It was also that Boscha cared a lot .

A lot a lot.

Too much of a lot , Skara thought. She knew Boscha cared about Grudgby a lot, and that was fine - That was what she wanted to do with her life after all. But why she was this worked up about Glandus specifically, was truly beyond her. She’d put her team through more exercises than Skara even knew existed in the name of victory against them. 

Still, at least now, Skara had some down time. A few minutes to let her muscles just relax and recover. 

Of course, her being her, just sitting there wasn’t exactly what Skara could call relaxing. She’d never been that great at just sitting somewhere without anything to do, or as was the case in the last couple of weeks, anything to contemplate. And she’d had enough of contemplation for one day. 

I can probably cram in a few more pages of Bellatrix... No, the less Boscha knows about that, the better. I don’t have any homework or anything… There’s always music, but I dunno what I’m in the mood for. Nothing energetic, that’s for sure. That’d be like playing dance music in the middle of a rainstorm. 

…Then again, playing music doesn’t sound like a bad use of time.

After all, that was what she used to spend most of her bench-time doing before she had to substitute for Amelia. 

Forming a hole in the air, Skara sifted quickly through her numerous instruments, sticking her tongue out in contemplation as she quickly scrounged through them all.

My trumpet?... Nah. Sax?... No, not feeling it. Theremin? When and where the heck did I even get this thing?

And then she spotted it, near the top of the pile.

 Of course!

And with a smile, Skara pulled out her latest, and arguably greatest, instrument: the cabin’s guitar. After a brief few seconds of re-tuning the guitar, the Bard began to do what she did best; play music.

 She started with a simple rift, one that she normally did when she was just warming up, but also one that always made Skara smile at the sound. Something about the melody sounded like… Well, music to her ears, for lack of a better phrase. And somehow, even with - or perhaps, because of the unreplaced ancient strings on the guitar, the tune sounded even better. 

Like the laughter of an old friend you haven't seen in years, yet click like it was yesterday, or the contented sigh after a kiss from the first ‘I love you.’ 

A laugh escaped her - Wow, re-reading those Bewitching Bard books had her feeling pretty poetic. The sound, and Skara’s own thoughts on how to describe it, made the Bard  grin like an absolute idiot.

“Oooh,” Cat gasped, breaking Skara’s concentration. “Never seen you play that guitar before! Is it new?”

“Nah. Just an antique I spotted.” Skara decided that going into any more detail than that would create a whole thing that she… Didn’t really feel like getting into right now.

“Wow… How old is it?” 

“I’m… Not exactly sure.” Skara admitted. She examined the side of it, like she was looking for some sort of inscription or pattern, or stylization that would tell her. “I think at least a century?” 

“It’s a century old, and it still sounds that good?” 

“Well, thank you.” Skara grinned, giving a small, overly performative bow from her seat. “I mean, half the beauty of a song is the musician playing it after all, so -”

“Alright, practice… Whatever that was on your own time.” Skara groaned as she turned to face Boscha. “Your break’s over. Time to get back to practice, you two.”

“Five more minutes?” Cat asked. “Boscha, we aren’t exactly going to be much good if we can barely even stand up. We need a real break, and-”

“A break? A real break? You -” Boscha shook her head, frustration and anger evident in her every move. “You two, I swear…” The captain took a deep, strangled sigh. “Okay. Do you two think Glandus needs breaks?”

“Probably.” Skara stated, flatly.

“WELL THEY DON’T! They spend twenty-three hours a day training, doing a hundred laps an hour, breaking brick walls with their skulls, and do you know what they do with the only hour they aren’t directly training?”

“Uhhhh….” Skara had… Absolutely no idea. “...Sleep?”

“WRONG! They strategize!” 

At this point Skara was actually becoming half concerned - Did Boscha legitimately believe these tales of a Grudgby team that didn’t need to sleep , or was she just making them up? 

Because she sounded like she believed what she was saying. 

“Glandus has one of the most dangerous teams in all the High School Grudgby League because they don’t just take anyone .” Boscha took Skara’s shoulders and squeezed, hissing her words. “They only take monsters . Cruel, heartless monsters, designed for nothing more than scoring as many goals as possible, no matter the cost to themselves or others! They literally drink the blood of-”

As much as it was an… Experience hearing about everything Boscha was accusing Glandus of being, Skara couldn’t keep her focus on her friend at - Something caught her eye, for a reason that she couldn’t really explain. 

A bush along the corner of the stadium. There were plenty of bushes around the place of course, but Skara was about ninety-nine percent sure this particular one hadn’t been there a minute ago. 

“Are you even listening to me?” Skara shook her head back, and turned to spot a very displeased Boscha, glaring at her with all three eyes. 

“Uh, yeah, totally.” Skara answered. “Glandus’s team drinks blood, gotcha.”

“Right.” Boscha agreed, nodding her head. “Glandus is ruled by strength and strength alone! They produce the worst players in history! And by worst I mean the best!”

Returning her attention to the strange bush after something about it caught her eye again, Skara couldn’t help but notice it... Rustling? A little, at least? But none of the other plants were, and she couldn’t feel much wind, if any. 

What in the world…

“And, and they’re all just… Just terrible!” Boscha now seemed to be lost in her own anger, just ranting for the sake of ranting. “They’re awful, and bad, and if we let our guard down for even one second , we’ll -”

At that point, a butterfly passed by the bush. Which Skara wouldn’t have noticed or cared about if someone didn’t pop out of said bush to try and grab it.

The short, stout orange Witch laughed as he ran after the butterfly, seemingly blissfully unaware of Skara, Cat, and Boscha staring at him as if he was the ghost of the Titan himself come to declare a messiah. It wasn’t until the butterfly flew too high for the boy to reach for that, in his now saddened state, he spotted the Banshee’s.

He stood frozen.

The Banshee’s stood frozen.

“...Er…” Skara… Had no idea how to respond to this situation. 

“...Hello there?” Cat offered. 

The boy remained frozen. 

The Banshee’s remained frozen. 

The boy slowly backed his way back towards the bush.

There were another few, incomprehensibly awkward seconds of silence as the Banshee’s just… Watched this happen. Each of them watched the Witch, and he back at them, and they could all just tell that he was hoping that the minute he was back behind the bush, that everyone would just go back to whatever it was they were doing and forgotten that they had ever seen him, as if that was ever going to happen.

“Angmar!” A voice from the bush suddenly groaned out the name. The boy stood stiff, and turned his head around. “Really? You couldn’t just stay put for five more minutes?”

At that, Skara noticed all three of Boscha’s eyes widened, and her grip on their clipboard grew tighter. “Oh no… That voice… That horrible voice…”

The bushes shook for a moment, before two figures emerged, standing either side of this ‘Angmar’ person. One was a tall, sturdy boy with a pointed chin and a small mole. But Skara noticed that Boscha had her eyes firmly placed on the second figure; an amber eyed girl with short, purple hair, a splattering of freckles on both her cheeks, and a cheery disposition that Skara didn’t quite trust. 

She looked vaguely familiar to Skara though; she’d spent a few years as the team's back-up replacement, so even if she spent most of her time reading or playing an instrument from the side, she could recognize her enough to put a name to her face: Bria.

And this certainly wasn’t the first time she’d seen Bria. Although, that was literally the extent of her knowledge - The fact that she existed. 

Well, that and the fact that Boscha and Bria had some sort of history - Skara had never really cared much for Grudgby or anything surrounding it, so she had never asked. And she only saw Bria during practice for some reason, so it had never come up.

As she emerged from the bush, Bria’s eyes met Boscha’s, and she gave a smile and wave to the Potions student.

“Hi, Boschy.”

Skara just blinked in utter confusion. That… Was not a nickname I expected to hear today. Or, well, ever.

Boscha herself, meanwhile, looked as if she was about to snap the clipboard in half. “You… You GLANDUS SCUM!”

Looking back at the three strange newcomers, Skara did realize they were all from Glandus: unlike Hexside uniforms, with a cowl and track colored sleeves, these uniforms featured a neck-piece that covered their shoulders and ran to their chests in a upside-down triangle.    

“Sheesh,” the girl muttered, waving a dismissive hand with a light tut tut . “So touchy , Boschy.” 

All three of Boscha’s eyes were practically ablaze in rage, her entire face was crimson red, and her teeth were gritting against each other so roughly Skara was surprised they didn’t crack. “Get off my field now , Bria, or I’m gonna make sure you and your whole team lose due to injuries of a fatal nature .”

“Oh, you and your empty threats.” Bria ran a hand through her hair, continuing to sound absolutely dismissive of Boscha’s anger. 

“We’re not even here for you, Boschy !” The Abomination boy said, snickering. 

Bria elbowed him roughly in the ribs, and, surprisingly, he doubled over, hissing in pain. Dang. She may be tiny, but she seems to pack a punch…

“Gavin is right, though.” Bria continued. “We didn’t even come for you. We wanted to check out your new player.” Stepping forward, she eyed Skara up and down, sizing her up. Skara almost felt like a caged animal at this point, forced to simply stand as everyone else watched her.

“…Eh?”

“Skara, isn’t it?” Skara cautiously nodded. “Good to know.” 

For a few seconds, Bria ran her eyes up and down Skara, seeming to inspect her. It was only about three or four seconds, and from that, Bria apparently decided that she had enough to make a judgement on. 

“…Not sure why I was ever worried.” 

“...Charming.” Skara muttered, still not entirely sure what the heck was even going on. 

“I’m surprised you’re being so generous, Boschy.” Bria said, without looking towards Boscha. “Normally Bard’s just end up as cheerleaders, but you , letting one live out her dream of getting to actually play? It’s almost touching.”

“Actually I don’t even like-“

“What’s the matter?” Bria glanced towards Boscha. “Not taking us seriously anymore, Bosch-” 

“Listen here, Bria .” Boscha suddenly hissed, like a Cobrat waiting for the perfect time to strike the cheese. “You’ve won, what? Two games?”

“Out of the two we’ve played against you.” Her voice was almost sweet enough for Skara to gag, but she could tell Bria took a weirdly sick pleasure in tormenting Boscha like she was nothing. “Oh, and all the other games against all the other schools in the League, but then again, who’s counting, am I right?”

“Unimportant.” Boscha sneered, stepping forward to get in Bria’s face. “So you won a few games. My team’s been training non-stop, day in, day out, no breaks, to win and we’re all ready to kick your stupid team into next week!”

“Oh?” Bria raised an eyebrow. “Is that why you needed Skara over here?” She gestured to the Bard. “‘Cause you’re all so motivated that your other player backed out?”

“Well,” Cat stepped in, “Amelia’s actually with the Healers. She-”

“Amelia!” Gavin interrupted, snapping his fingers, and then placing it on to his chin. “That’s who’s missing here - Your other useless player!” He grinned, smugly crossing his arms over his chest. 

Cat’s eyes widened, her face going crimson as she clenched her fists. “What did you just say about Amelia?” 

Gavin waved her off. “I mean, she never held a candle to ol’ Angmar over here, right buddy?” He clapped Angmar on the back, the shorter Witch grinning as he crossed his own arms cockily. “She could grow a few flowers, this guy here can grow giant vines! Trust me.” He laughed to himself. “Going to the ‘Healers’ was the best decision she ever made.”

“You know,” Cat hissed through clenched teeth, “if you wanna meet her, I’m sure I can make room for you in the Healers after I’m-”

“ENOUGH!” 

The field grew eerily quiet at Boscha’s almost animalistic roar. Her teeth were bare, exposing her sharpened and filed fangs. By this point, it was an absolute miracle her clipboard hadn’t been snapped in half. 

Skara had seen Boscha angry plenty of times before - It wasn’t exactly an uncommon occurrence. But this, this was different. This was the full brunt of all of Boscha’s anger and fury being brought to bare.

She… Felt the need to take a step away from Boscha. 

Lest she get caught in the crossfire. 

Hexside's Grudgby captain’s eyes met Glandus’s captain's, all three filled with the sort of rage only a Titan could emit. “I know you think you’re some big shot prodigy just cause you beat me.” Boscha’s voice was a growl, and she was clearly holding back as much of her anger as she could. “ And I know you think just cause you’re a little princess up at ol’ Glandy that you’re gonna get handed another win on a silver platter.” 

She pointed a finger into Bria’s ribs, practically stabbing her. Bria’s body had to jolt back slightly. 

“But I’m gonna win this time.” Boscha vowed. “ Me . I’m gonna crush you and your team, and I’m gonna put you in your place. I’m gonna make sure the entire Isles knows that you lost to me. I’m gonna knock your little tower down, princess. I’m gonna tear down this little ego trip of yours, and I’m gonna make sure everyone knows that no one, not a single soul , messes. With. Me. ” By the last few words, she was punctuating them by attempting to puncture Bria’s ribs. “Are. We . Clear?”

For a moment, Bria just stood there, looking Boscha in the eye, unflinching. Her face looked unmoved by everything, like Boscha had just attempted to ask her the time as opposed to threatening her. She simply stood there, totally unphased. 

Then, she smirked.

She raised an index finger, placing it beneath Boscha’s chin. 

For a split second, Skara genuinely expected Boscha to try and bite it, but, to her surprise, the Potions student simply stood there, breathing heavily through her anger, and her face somehow becoming even more crimson red. 

“Well… I guess we’ll see.” Bria smirked, a playful glint in her eyes. “Won’t we, Boschy?”

Skara just stared in warped fascination at the encounter, genuinely shocked at how strangely mesmerizing it was to watch. Seeing someone not just take Boscha in stride, but take the brunt of her anger and seem to see it as some sort of game… it was actually kinda impressive.

Bria let go of Boscha’s chin, and her face shifted from cocky to sugary sweet once again. “Well, we should probably get goin’.” She yawned, dramatically stretching. “Those twenty-three hour long practices sure do make me tired.” She turned to Skara, smiling. “Well, it was nice meeting ya, Skara. Can’t wait to see how ya play in a real game.” She looked past the Bard. “Oh, and Rat-“

“Cat.”

“Always a pleasure to see you!” She waved the three off, smiling as she, Gavin, and Angmar walked to the gates of the field.

Skara, for a moment, simply stared, having little to no idea how exactly she was meant to process what exactly just… Happened.

Boscha’s hands were balled up into fists and shaking, her breathing shallow as the three Glandus members walked off. Her face was still fully red, and she seemed to be breathing through gritted teeth, but as soon as they were beyond the gate, she took a single inhale, and then turned.

“Well?” Boscha asked, her voice filled with the sort of barely restrained anger Skara was surprised she could contain.

“Well… Uh, what exactly?”

“Well, how’d they look?”

Skara sideyed Cat, confused. “Uh...  I mean, Bria’s kinda cute, I guess? Not exactly my type personally, but-“

“YOU - ABOUT THEM SPYING ON US, SKARA! ” 

“…Oh.” 

Finally, Boscha snapped the clipboard, the anger Skara had been so impressed that she could restrain had now finally been unleashed upon the poor thing. “You just looked our enemies in the face, got acknowledged by them, and witnessed them trash talking us on OUR turf! You should be furious! Enraged! I mean, TITAN , THEY JUST CAME TO SPY ON YOU!!!”

That had…. Not been the impression Skara had gotten. Not in the slightest. 

Again, Skara couldn’t help but side-eye Cat. There was a look Cat was giving her that Skara couldn’t quite understand - Either she was trying to warn her not to say anything, or she was equally as confused by the whole event as the Bard was. Skara guessed that it was the latter. 

“Uh… You’re… Sure about that?”

“Oh no.” Cat muttered. Skara immediately regretted her decision. 

“What?” Boscha blinked. “‘Course she did! Why else would she be here?”

“W… Weeeeeeell, not to, I dunno, assume or anything, but uh…” They were already past the point of no return, Skara supposed. At this point, Boscha wasn’t going to stop without an answer. “I mean… She came from Glandus to… ‘Spy’ on me -” Skara decided to omit how ridiculous she thought the idea of spying on Grudgby players was. “ - But she didn’t seem particularly interested in me? She did seem to enjoy messing with you though. So… maybe that had something to do with it?”

All three of Boscha’s eyes blinked in unison. Then, her face scrunched up into a look of pure, crimson frustration.

“Uh… Boscha?”

“One. Hundred. Laps. Now.”

Dinner in Skara’s household was always a grand affair. Being a rather wealthy household and one run by a couple who met over cooking, all meals, especially dinners, were treated like a grand banquet, even if it was something as simple as cereal and toast - Apparently half the appeal of cooking was in the presentation, if they were both to be believed. 

Their meals took place within a grand, shining dining hall, complete with a large window overlooking the Isles woods, and on an ornately designed round table, with ruby gems along the sides and a slick golden top that no amount of grease or peanut butter seemed to stain. 

And that wasn’t even getting into the food itself. When Skara’s parents were too busy to cook, their Abomiton butlers were designed specifically to recognize the exact amount of every ingredient needed to craft some of the best delicacies on the Isles, from the correct temperature to make Roasted Slitherbeast to the exact amount of screamberries required for Screamberry Pie. The food was always divine, almost crafted specifically to make one's taste buds feel new and inviting sensations with every bite. And even better was when her parents did cook, because they were capable of making even the best meals their Abomiton’s made to shame. They somehow made their meals even better then they did, and all with an extra added flare that impressed even the most tasteless of Witches. 

They had…. Really enjoyed cooking when they were younger, and that passion hadn’t left them in the slightest. 

Honestly, if her parents decided to quit their current jobs and simply opened a restaurant, Skara was beyond convinced they would make more Snails in a day than they would in a month as a high end lounge singer and an Oracle medium. But, whenever she brought it up, they always reminded her that cooking was simply a hobby, not something they wanted to pursue full time. 

Turning a hobby into a career is a good way of making it no longer a hobby, her father would say. But we appreciate the compliment, sweetie.

So, bottom line, dinners were always good with Skara and her family. 

“And so,” Skara’s father stated, wrapping up his epic saga for the day, “With the help of the ethereal plane, I reconnected a daughter with her deceased mother, exercised an evil spirit from a little girl, and helped an old woman find her kitten in her sock drawer.”

“…What was a kitten doing in a sock draw?” Skara asked. 

“That’s where the old woman left it.” Her father explained. They both blinked at one another. “Admittedly that one was a bit of an… Odd job. But, I’m not allowed to discuss the private matters of clients, Skara, you know that.” 

“Yeah, I know.” Skara took another bite of the Fungu, made from some poisonous aquatic moss fish, and tried to come up with something, anything, to add to the conversation. Her parents' tales always were far more fascinating than her own, given how little happened on a day-to-day basis. 

Mainly, since the Knee trip, it had simply been school, Grudgby, and music practice, so while her parents could talk about all the wonderful and utterly bizarre things they’d done, Skara always ended up with finding some stupid little thing that happened to say something about. I bumped into Eileen today or My Woodwind teacher says I’m improving , just little moments that really didn’t mean much to Skara but she could pretend did.

Not that she didn’t think what her parents did was awesome - It was just… Easy to feel a bit overshadowed sometimes.

“Oh, my beautiful ghostie boy,” Skara’s mother chuckled, her silvery hair floating around her head as it always did when she was enjoying herself. “Always so kind and noble and handsome.”

“Well,” he continued in a playful tone, smiling while taking her face in his hand, “I learn from the single kindest and most beautiful angel on the Isles.”

She squealed with delight at the compliment Skara had heard her receive a dozen thousand times over. “Oh, Boras. How do I end up a Bard when you’re the one with such a way with words?”

I crave the endless nothingness of the Eternal Void.  

It wasn’t that Skara hated her parents’ relationship by any means. It was more that her parent’s overly mushy, incredibly cute romance and sappy doting was the sort of thing one wanted for themselves as opposed to watching someone else have. The way they talked to one another would have been considered cheesy back in the savage ages, never mind the modern day. 

There was also the fact they were her parents, too. That made it doubly embarrassing to watch.

“Well, today I auditioned for a fairly big production of Baphamlet . Not to jinx myself, but I think I have the role of Ghoultrude down pat.” She took a dramatic swing of her goblet, filled of course with nothing less than the finest apple blood snails could buy, and smirked. “Fingers crossed.”

Skara knew she didn’t have to cross hers. Her mother, the Lulea, was one of the most prolific stage actresses on the Isles. Any production with her involved was almost guaranteed to be an absolute hit. Plus, Skara had watched her mother play Ghoultrude six times in as many years, and each time, it was nothing short of magnificent, and only got better with each subsequent performance she gave. Skara was fairly sure that lucky number seven was just around the corner.

“Will do, mom.” Skara raised her hand up, one finger crossed over the other. “I’m sure you’ll get it!”

“Oh, thank you, my little Skar.” Her mother grinned. “I bet you had an equally wonderful day though, Come, regale your parents with your wonderful stories.” She leaned onto the table, her chin in her hand. Her father took a similar position, placing his chin into both hands as he waited eagerly for Skara’s tales.

Way to put me on the spot, mom, thanks. 

Her eyes darted between her parents as she gulped. Oh, Titan, I didn’t do, what, anything interesting today? 

Of course, it wasn’t like her parents would look down on her for not having something truly exciting to tell, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want to be sound lame. Compared to her parent’s lives though, practically nothing happened at Hexside. 

“Hmmm…” Practically the only thing she could think of was Grudgby and the whole incident with Boscha and Bria, but aside from not even liking Grudgby, that hadn’t even really happened to her - More in front of her.  Plus Skara had a feeling if she said that Glandus players had been ‘spying’ on her for whatever insane reason, her parents kick up an absolute storm demanding Glandus explain directly to them what in the Titans name was going on, and the last thing Skara wanted was to be at the centre of some…. Weird mess there. Frankly, she just wanted the game to be over and done with. “Not er, a lot happened to me today, to be honest… Oh!” 

Suddenly, a jolt ran through her brain, and she snapped her fingers.

“ I did learn a bit about Plant magic today!”

“Oh, fascinating.” Her parent’s looked at her, intrigued at her statement. 

“Yeah, kinda. Ever hear of a Chamele-Wort plant?”

Her father shook his head. “Not really, I’m afraid.”

“Well, apparently, they’re really cool! They can camouflage themselves, and they’re pretty neat.”

Her mother smiled. “Oh, that does sound interesting.”

“I’m glad Amelia taught you something new.” Her father nodded. “Oh, is she feeling better then?”

“Not really.” Skara shrugged. “She’s, uh… still calling Cat some weird names. Cactus lady, Thousand-Fanged Ratqueen, Cutie. Weird stuff. She’s still in the Healers.”

“Oh?” Her father raised an eyebrow. “Who taught you then? Another Plant student, I presume?”

“Well, yeah, actually.” Skara nodded. “Willow.”

Both her parents glanced at each other, and Skara suddenly felt the atmosphere become… Different.

Her father cleared his throat before finally speaking up. “Uhm, Willow? The same one you got stuck with on the Knee?”

Taking another piece of Fungu onto her fork, Skara nodded. “Well, yeah. I don’t… Actually know any other Willows, so-“

“The same one who would lie about you?” 

For a short moment, Skara’s body stopped.

Oh Titan…

“I feel bad for the poor girl.” Her mother said, jabbing another piece of food with her fork. The lightheartedness in her voice was replaced with a heavy, well, lamenting tone. “I really do. She didn’t ask to be born into such a poor family, she must not have received a proper moral education.”

Skara started to feel her stomach drop.

“But that’s still not an excuse to lie about someone for attention.” Her father shook his head. “I mean, all the crazy stories she’d make up, calling you a bully, and making your entire friend group out to be against her. Disgusting.”

“Well-“

“Remember how she said you and your friends would all call her half-a-witch?” 

“Uhm-“

“Or when she said Boscha threw her into a barrel of abomination goo and you laughed ?”

I forgot that one actually. Thank you for that reminder.

“Or how she put your life in danger at the Knee?”

“Dad, I told you, that was my fault, not Willow’s.” Skara took a deep, shaky breath as she tried to figure out what exactly to tell him. “Look… Willow…”

She looked up at her parents, her mind racing as she tried to figure out what to tell them. I could just tell them the truth. Their little angel is actually a huge liar. That will totally go over well, not utterly devastate them in any way.

And perhaps even more than that, they probably wouldn’t even believe her - They always assumed the best of her, even in the most absurd circumstances when she was obviously the one who was in the wrong. She still had to remind them that it was her fault that she and Willow had gotten stuck on the Knee, and a part of her honestly wondered if they even believed her about that . 

Like they thought she could do no wrong. And maybe just a few weeks ago, Skara would have just played along. but after the Knee, and after everything that had happened between her and Willow over the last few weeks, she…. Found that she couldn’t just listen to them talk about Willow like they were. Willow had saved her life. She’d been one of the few people to continue to check in with her during this whole Ves situation. It just… Willow deserved better than what was being said about her here. 

Even if all her parents were doing was repeating what Skara had told them back at her. 

. “L… Look.” Skara finally said, with a small sigh. “Willow and I are kinda…. I know we don’t have the best relationship, but… We’re not like that anymore. We’re not... Friends, but… Well, she’s changed, and I have too, and after the Knee…” She shook her head. “It’s… Different now. So just… Please don’t…. Think about those things anymore, okay?”

Once again, her parents sideyed each other, before getting up from their seats. Skara wanted to shrink into nothingness as her mother knelt before her while her father stood beside them. 

“Skara, babygirl.” Her mother raised a hand, cupping her daughter’s cheek. “You’re so sweet and forgiving. I wish I could have been half as mature as you are now at your age.”

Please mom, stop talking.

“But still,” her father continued. “This young woman has tried to slander you. That shouldn’t be allowed to stand.”

“But-“

“My little songbird,” her mother interrupted, rolling her thumb across her cheek. “We believe in you, and if you think this… Young lady is capable of change, then we’ll understand.”

Skara nodded, biting her lip as she tried to hold back the fact that, no, actually, Willow didn’t change at all…

It was probably the best that she was going to get out of either of them, though. 

“But,” her father growled, “ If she slanders you again, we assure you that we’ll make sure she never steps within a hundred feet of Hexside again.”

“That’s, uh…” Skara’s blood ran cold. “That’s a pretty big threat…”

“Maybe.” Her father smiled, a caring, soft smile. “But for my little girl, anything to keep her safe.”

What was she even supposed to say to that?

“...Thank you, dad. That… Means a lot.”

“Don’t mention it.” He leaned down and kissed Skara on the top of her head, while her mother kissed her forehead. “Now, wait here and we can bring out tonight’s dessert!”

“Actually, dad… I’m kinda full and tired. Mind if I just go to bed?”

He paused. “Well, we did make your favourite…”

“Belialgnets…”

Her mother nodded. “With an entire hives worth of fairy dust sugar.” She pressed a finger up to her daughter’s nose, lightly booping her. “Just for you.”

Were she being honest, Skara could go for the sweet, pillowy feeling of one of the single tastiest things she’s ever had right now.

But… Somehow she didn’t feel like she deserved it. 

“Thanks. But I’ll… Grab some later, if that’s okay?” 

“Well… okay, sweetie.” Her mother patted her head gently. “If you really aren’t feeling up to it, I’ll leave some in the storage unit for you for whenever you’re ready.”

“Okay.” The younger Bard nodded. “Thanks, mom.”Skara stood up from her seat and walked out from the dining hall, refusing to look back at her parents as she headed back up to her room.

When she finally entered her room, Skara threw herself onto the bed, letting out a deep, exacerbated sigh. 

Titan… 

Skara knew her parents loved her. That was the worst part about it all. Her parents weren’t jerks like she knew Amity’s were. Skara’s parents did actually care about the Bards emotional well-being, how she was doing in school beyond a grade, and wanted her to be happy. They treated her with love, showered her with praise, and both of them trusted Skara’s every word.

Including when she had been lying to their face.

And worse, of course, was the fact that it was Willow who was the victim of her lies.

Willow never… Did anything to deserve that, and never deserved what we put her through.

That had been one of the most concrete conclusions that she had come to over the last week since coming back from the Knee. She tried to make sense of it, make it seem like somehow it hadn’t been all that bad. But it was. And Skara wasn’t sure what to do with that. She couldn’t just look at someone who had risked their life to save hers, in spite of everything, and pretend it was okay. 

...And it wasn’t even as if it were the fact that Willow had saved her life that had changed her perspective on this. It might have been the catalyst, but when she thought about everything she knew about Willow, it was… Honestly, the last thing she thought about. 

Try as she might, Skara couldn’t even think of even the smallest thing to warrant how Boscha, Amity, and she had treated Willow. 

The only difference between them all was, Amity had made amends.

Maybe… Maybe I can talk to Boscha tomorrow about it. 

She grimaced at the idea of asking Boscha about this. She knew the Potions Witch hated Willow, resented her almost losing Grudgby. Still… It would be something, right? Maybe she could get Boscha to just… Back off a little bit? 

A sigh escaped her as she closed her eyes. She hadn’t changed into pajamas, and she knew the sun had barely gone down, but after Grudgby and her parents, she could feel herself being completely drained.

Again, she yawned and closed her eyes, trying to focus on the idea of that astral void she’d craved: Just the blank nothingness that came with it. 

Her last thought before she finally fell asleep was that hopefully, tomorrow would be a better day.

Chapter Text

Willow had seen many strange and unusual things in her Herbology classes. She’d witnessed monstrous flowers unleash spores of madness at people, who got whipped up into a frenzy. She’d witnessed a plant give a student visions of the universe's inevitable end, and apparent inevitable rebirth. She’d even seen some flowers that... Didn’t actually do anything special, but just looked nice. 

And sometimes, she wasn’t a hundred-percent sure she could trust the ones that just looked nice, on the off-chance they had some sort of cosmic horror lurking underneath the petals. 

It wouldn’t be the first time she’d been tricked by nice-looking things. Or by plants, either.

When she was little, she remembered that it had taken her a while to get used to the idea of an Osteo-Rose not trying to bite her, or eat flies, or have teeth or do much of anything, really. When she did get used to it though, she had assumed that a Plaque-Moonflower also didn’t do anything because it also looked pretty, until it bore it’s alarmingly person-looking teeth and tried to bite her when she got too close. After that, she made it a point to just be that little bit more careful when it came to plants that weren’t obviously magical or self-aware to some degree. At least until she knew what sort of plant it was. 

Botany on the Isles was… An experience, to say the least. 

Still, even in spite of all the weirdness that came with Plant Magic, and the dangers and surprises that followed, Willow still found herself being at least briefly surprised by the sight of Bo, a Healing Track student, enthusiastically speaking with Mr. Barkhide, one of her Plant-Track teachers, when she first stepped into her morning class. 

“...so, things should be back to normal soon! Can’t give an exact date yet, buuuuut…!” 

“Oh, that is delightful news!” Mr. Barkhide all but cheered, clapping his impish and green hands together and ever so slightly bouncing on the spot atop his desk - Were they basically any other teacher, standing atop a desk would have looked rather odd, but it was basically the only way that someone as short as Mr. Barkside was could meet Bo in the eye. “What a relief! To be quite honest, I was growing somewhat worried about her! Still, I am happy to hear she’ll be okay.” 

As far as teachers at Hexside went, Mr. Barkside was one of the better ones, in that he had a kind and nurturing nature rather than a strictly ‘throw them into the fire, wish them luck, and hope they learn something’ nature that a number of other teachers had. Willow was quite fond of him. 

Still, she attempted to make her way past them and into her seat as quickly as she could. It was the first thing in the morning, and Willow had barely slept, thanks to her plants waking her at every hour of the night with their needs to feed. The sooner she was off her feet, the happier she would be. 

“Thank you for informing me of this, young lady. Please, do tell her everything that happened will be taken into consideration when it comes to her final grade. I wouldn’t want her to fret over that while she’s recovering.” 

“I think she’ll be relieved to hear that, sir.” 

“I must also - Oh, Miss Park!” Barkhide raised a tiny hand and waved to Willow just before she had managed to take her seat. “Perfect timing - I’ve just received some excellent news!”

Willow felt herself blush slightly at being so blatantly called out while she was half-in and half-out of her chair. Quickly, she decided to stand upright, and act as though she wasn’t feeling particularly socially awkward all of the sudden. “O-Oh? Yes, Mr. Barkside?”

The teacher tilted his head towards the Healing Track student. “Miss Bo? Would you like to tell her?”

Bo nodded, and turned to Willow. “So, Amelia went through some surgery yesterday. It took a while, but we got the rest of the plant gunk out of her system - She’s still resting up, but she’s doing a whole lot better.”

Willow’s ears perked up at Amelia’s name. 

Amelia’s Okay! Awesome!

“Oh! That’s great! I was worried about her.”

“Yeah, well, never underestimate a good set of Healers. Just give us twelve hours of her in... Excruciating agony as we ripped all of the infected bile from her system , and she was great! Took it like a champ!”

As Bo spoke, Willow raised an eyebrow, and made a mental note to be absolutely sure not to upset the Vehemence Witch Plant again.

“Indeed,” Barkhide nodded. “I am very pleased to hear of her recovery. When she’s feeling better, hopefully she and Willow will finally be able to finish their project together!”

Unlike so many others, Mr. Barkhide was always understanding, flexible with deadlines, and never seemed to have his failing students vanish without a trace or during a strange ‘accident’. Willow couldn’t help but smile. He was a strangely delightful teacher for Hexside. 

At that moment, the school bell screamed. Mr. Barkhide’s ears twitched, as he turned back to Bo. “Oh dear. One moment, I’ll write you up a tardy slip for your next class.”

As Mr. Barkhide pulled out his top drawer and literally jumped inside to find the slips, Willow finally took her seat, letting out an exhale as she did so. Mr Barkhide pulled himself back out of his drawer, scribbled a note, and passed it to Bo. As soon as the Healing student was gone, Mr. Barkhide began his lesson in earnest. 

Today’s topic seemed to be about Spine Trees. And though she did her best to pay attention, Willow simply struggled to absorb any of the subject material. She could see the diagrams, and heard the words being said, but her brain refused to take any of it in. Her mind was wandering, and she began to think to herself, and about Amelia.

Honestly, Willow felt a little guilty, even if she knew it was kind of irrational too. If she really wanted to boil it down to the pure facts of the matter, Amelia hadn’t been following proper safety protocols, and had been too busy geeking out about the Vehemence Witch Trap to notice it trying to eat her. Plus, it hadn’t been Willow’s emotions running wild. It had been Skara’s. 

Not that Skara had known any better to be fair, but still. The point was, Willow knew, logically, that she didn’t have anything to feel guilty over. She’d done absolutely everything in her power to prevent, and then rectify that entire incident. 

And yet…

Something about how it all went down just didn’t quite sit right with her.

As her mind strayed further from Mr. Barkhide's lecture, a new sound caught her ears: loud, lumbering footsteps slowly approaching sounded from outside. She blinked, believing herself to be imagining it. But when she looked up at Mr. Barkhide, he too seemed to notice it, looking out one of the Greenhouse classrooms windows along with most other students.

“That’s odd.” He mused, tapping his chin. “Just who would be stampeding towards Hexside now ? We aren’t scheduled to be invaded by St. Epiderm for another month or so.”

Ignoring the reminder of the upcoming invasion attempt, Willow turned to look out the windows. Most of what she saw seemed to be a pile of dust, being kicked up by whatever it was that was stampeding in the first place. It was too far away for her to make out anything more than that, at least for a short while.

Eventually, though it’s path was erratic and haphazard, it got closer, and the dust became less of an issue. Willow squinted. It was still faint, but as her eyes focused, she could make out… Something. 

A titanic beast, a draconic entity with each and every one of its limbs made up of fingers.

And in front of them, a tuft of silver hair in a Grudgby uniform, running for their life.

“...Skara?”

When Boscha had agreed to stop having practices at three in the morning, a part of Skara had hoped that it meant she’d only have to withstand one of her overly complicated and ridiculous practices a day. 

Of course, she’d had no such luck. 

What she had not expected was for her to instead be subjected to them during classes.

“C’MON, SKARA!” Boscha shouted, running backwards next to the disturbed Bard with ease. “IT’S JUST A HOP, SKIP, AND A CARTWHEEL TO VICTORY!”

The hop had been an attempted jump over a giant gorge in the ground. The skip had been leaping into said gorge and trying to hit a ‘soft’ rock. And the cartwheel was trying to leave the gorge after accidentally landing on a literal Handragoon that lived in said gorge, while Boscha still had her under the effect of some sort of forced cartwheel spell. 

At this point, Skara didn’t know which had almost killed her more this year: Boscha or Hexside.

“BOSCHA GET RID OF THIS SPELL!”  

“YOU’RE NOT SKIMPING OUT ON TRAINING-”

“FOR THE LOVE OF THE TITAN BOSCHA , WE’RE LEADING THIS THING TO THE SCHOOL ! HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO STOP IT!?!

“JUST HOLD ON! I’M SURE HEXSIDE HAS SOMETHING!”

Skara may have been able to help a little if Boscha hadn’t insisted on the cartwheeling spell - To test her dexterity, of course, she’d assured her. She was legitimately starting to question Boscha’s sanity at this point.

“BOSCHA! SERIOUSLY, TAKE OF THE CARTWHEELING SPELL AND WE CAN-”

“PUDDLES! CHARGE!” 

Trying to maintain looking at a single object while her head was literally spinning was not an easy task, but Skara tried as she looked up towards the sky. An older student sat atop a gryphon, pointing down towards the Handragoon. Her sleeves were Beast-Keeping brown, but her leggings were Healer dark blue, at least if Skara could trust her dizzy eyes. Whatever track they were in, the gryphon obeyed, landing atop the finger infused freakshow. The beast stopped, giving a cry of defiance, as the woman jumped from ‘Puddles’’ back, and threw herself at the closest thing to the Handragon’s neck. 

It was then that Skara noticed that someone else was on the gryphon, trying to reign it away from the Handragon’s thrashing.

BO?!

The only thing that Skara could do was to keep rolling away, staring in horror as the unknown student tried to subdue the beast, while Bo managed to wrangle the gryphon away from the flailing creature.  

 Said beast began to struggle, and it’s movements became less and less wide and sporadic -  When Bo had gotten the gryphon away from the Handragon, it, and the other woman had actually been using the motion to wrap a magical rope around the monster. It covered the closest things to a face the Handragon had, binding two pieces together as they jumped from it’s neck, and, with the strength of the gryphon, pulling its ‘face’ into the ground. The monster struggled against its ropes, but the magic seal kept it from freeing itself.

“Shhh, shhhh.” The other  girl cooed, patting the beast's hand… face… thing. “It’s okay, Shirley, it’s okay. Just calm down a little, and before you know it you’ll be back to napping in your favourite little rock in no time.”

Skara wasn’t sure which surprised her more; the Handragoon’s name, the fact that this total stranger was capable of calming it down, or the tree she smacked into seconds after witnessing both.

Well… OWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

“...Ow.” 

“Skara! Are you okay?” Bo fled the now-sleeping beast’s side, rushing to the Bard with concern etched everywhere on her face. “Where does it hurt?”

“Does ‘everywhere’ count?” Skara mumbled, stumbling around the tree, completely out of it, arms and legs still outstretched as though she were about to burst into another cartwheel.

Understandably, bo looked at her like she was insane. “Er… What’s-” 

“I have no idea, only that it’s some sort of stupid cartwheel spell Boscha insisted on.” 

“What on- “

“Trust me, I have no idea why.”

Bo sighed. “Okay, then. Just, uh… This is gonna hurt, ok?” 

Before Skara could respond, the Healer spun her fingers, activating a spell circle. For a moment, every part of Skara’s body felt like it was on fire, burning her skin to a crisp. Thankfully, the sensation stopped as quickly as it had begun, and the majority of Skara’s body felt as if it hadn’t just cartwheeled over a mile to the school under threat of death by Handragoon before smacking head-first into a tree.

“...Ow. Well, that was… Weird.”

“How’re you feeling?” 

“...Better.” Skara said, after contemplating it for a few seconds.. “Thanks, Bo.”

The freckled girl shrugged. “None needed. What are friends for?”

“HEY!” 

Bo and Skara turned to face Boscha and the girl who’d just helped save their life. They must have started arguing while Skara was recovering, because they looked as if they were in the middle of a verbal war.

“Don't you accuse me of anything like that ever again, little miss Vinny-” 

“Viney!”

“Whatever your stupid name is! I didn’t ‘break into’ anything! You can check with Bump if you want - I’ve got clearance to access any facilities I need to train my Grudgby players!” 

“And you took out a HANDRAGON?!” The other student - Viney, apparently - yelled right back at Boscha. “Are you completely insane? Do you have even the slightest idea how difficult those are for even a Beast-Keeper to handle?!”  

“Well I would have loved to try something else, but I’m down one good player, the other is a no-show,” Boscha then pointed towards Skara, but kept her eyes firmly on the student she was arguing with, “and I have to train this one up to handle Glandus players trying to bury her alive! Or would you prefer I let that happen to her?” 

“Are you serious?! It’s a Grudgby game - There are rules and Healers on standby! You don’t think throwing them into a gorge with a Handragon is a bit much for training?! Are you trying to train your friend or kill them?!””

I’ll let you know the answer when I figure it out myself.

Boscha snarled. “You pretty clearly don’t know anything about training for Grudgby matches. Skara’s gonna need all the help she can get with Amelia gone.”

Bo’s eyes widened. “Well, actually-”

“I do know that someone isn’t much good on a Grudgby team if their captain gets them killed!”  

“Guys, Amelia-”

“Oh, like the school even cares!”

“ That's not the point here!” 

“WOULD YOU ALL PLEASE BE QUIET FOR A MOMENT?!”

With that, the argument ceased, and all attention was suddenly on Bo. It was… Actually impressive how easily the tiny girl could command attention when she wanted to.

With a quick throat clearing, Bo smiled. “Thank you - Yesterday, Amelia had surgery to remove all the remaining flower gunk from her system. She’s still at the Healers with Cat, but she’s doing a lot better. I was gonna tell you during lunch break but, well, since we’re all here, I thought you’d want to know.” 

For a moment, the Bard, the Potions student, and the dual track girl stared plainly at Bo. Then, Skara blinked.

The wave of emotions crashed directly into Skara. First, happiness at knowing Amelia was okay-

That’s my girl!

-then, pure, unadulterated joy at the revelation that Amelia being better would mean the benchwarmer would get to stay a benchwarmer- 

No more absurd practices!  

-and then, guilt over that thought immediately coming to mind. 

Welp, what a fantastic friend you are, Skara. 

Surprisingly, it was Boscha who spoke up first. “So, Amelia’s good now?” She sounded more questioning than anything. More like she was asking a teacher about the recipe for a potion to make sure it didn’t blow up in her face, rather than making sure one of the people she was supposed to care about was actually okay.

“Huh,” Skara said, somehow injecting her own complicated emotions into the single word. “That’s... Awesome.” She was a little overwhelmed with everything that had just happened, and the wave of emotions that had hit her, that that was about all she could think to say. 

“Yeah.” Viney nodded. “Saw the kid a couple of times. Seemed really chewed up. Glad to hear she’s doing better.”  

“Yeah. Chewed up, heh…”

The tips of Boscha’s lips curled into a smirk. “So, if Amelia’s feeling better, maybe she could, say, play a game of Grudgby?”

Both Skara and Bo looked at Boscha somewhat dumbfounded - Although to be fair, Skara had just been thinking the exact same thing herself. 

Bo and Boscha had an… Interesting relationship. Bo was never Boscha’s friend, not really. They were sort of friends by proxy if you counted their mutual friendship with Skara, but they rarely hung out together by any metric. Even when they went to Grom, it was mostly just because Skara and Cat had dates, and Amelia wasn’t interested. Bo seemed to have some fun but…

“Yeah, I don’t know.” Bo said, wearily. “Maybe? I haven’t seen her since the surgery.”

“I mean,” Viney started, glaring at Boscha from the corner of her eyes, “people who’ve just gotten out of surgery aren’t particularly well known for doing well at sportsball, so-”

“Amelia was always a solid player.” Boscha interrupted. “I’m sure that if she’s got the energy for it, she’ll do just fine.”

Viney very clearly did not like that, but she wasn’t exactly in much of a position to do anything about it. “ If you say so.” She raised her hands defensively, taking a step away from the Grudgby captain and back towards the Handragon, rolling her eyes in disapproval.

“Uh... Anyway,” Bo started, “Me and Viney can take care of Shirley here. We were sent to get them for one of our joint classes anyway.” 

Well, that explains why they showed up together, I guess, Skara thought to herself. Beast-Keepers and Healers had to work together fairly closely anyway, in case a Witch’s Beast ended up injured. Ves had mentioned that to her a couple of times. 

“You two can get to class, if you want.” Bo waved, walking towards Viney as the older student began reassuring the beast to walk back towards the gorge. “Later Skara!” She waved, smiling her big dimpled smile.

Skara waved back. “Later girl! See ya in Advanced Basics!”

As Bo turned to help Viney - and also to scratch Puddles -  a small smile formed on Skara’s  lips. Well, at least Amelia’s okay .

Then, another thought occurred to her. “Hey, Boscha. You think we could, I dunno, go see Amelia? After school I mean?”

Boscha turned, eyebrow raised. “Skara, we have practice then. We gotta work on your dexterity, get you to better dodge Abominations.”

“I... Thought that was the point of this whole mess?”

“And we got interrupted. Don’t think I didn’t notice you lagging behind.” 

“...I almost died, Boscha.” 

“Tell that to Glandus.” 

“Y’know what, I might .” Skara muttered sarcastically, before returning to look at Boscha again. “I’m just saying, Cat won’t be here anyway, and Amelia might be well enough to play soon - I dunno, maybe it’ll raise her spirits and she’ll get better sooner and definitely be able to play!” 

“...Through what?” Boscha raised her eyebrows. “The power of friendship?” 

“I mean… I’ve heard that people in the Healers get better if they get visits sometimes.” Skara defended. “It’s supposed to be good for their mental health, and if they have good mental health they heal faster, so…?”

For a couple of seconds, Boscha’s three eyes narrowed at Skara, and the Bard questioned if she could shrink herself down into a little ball to avoid the look. Finally, Boscha sighed. “Alright, fine. We’ll go.”

Skara smiled.

“ But I’m getting us out of second period to do your Abomination avoidance training.”

Skara… Smiled less.

Boscha spun a circle in the air, summoning a Grudgby ball to toss at Skara. “Now, move it! We got a game to prepare for!”

And I have one I really hope I won’t have to play ever again.

While the chaos unrolled outside, Mr. Barkhide and his class simply watched on. Willow had to admit, she hadn’t expected to see a near-Handragoon attack today. Yet here it was, almost brought on by Skara as she ran away from it as fast as she could, and rescued by Viney and Bo of all people.

“Hmm.” Mr. Barkhide mused, slowly and just as confused as the rest of his students. “Well, that was certainly… Exciting.”  

“Should we be like… Worried about that thing?” One of the other students asked. 

“I don’t imagine so… It looks as though that Beast-Keeping student has things under control. That beast might be one of theirs… Still, I suppose I should make certain everyone is okay. Wait here, everyone.” 

With that, Mr. Barkhide turned and left the room. Muttering and talking began amongst the students almost immediately as soon as the door was shut, with people speculating that it probably wasn’t anything to worry about, or that it was a wild Handragon, to some of the more absurd claims that it was some sort of pre-emptive sneak attack by St. Epiderm. Willow found herself not paying much attention to any of it though, instead keeping her eyes on the group of Witches around said Handragon. 

They were far enough away that Willow wasn’t able to be certain about basically anything that was happening, but from what she could see, it looked like the Grudgby team. Boscha was yelling at, well, just about everyone for a while. After the yelling died down, there seemed to be a brief conversation. The Handragoon was taken back to it’s holding by Viney and Bo, and the Grudgby players left, headed back to the field for more practice. By the time Mr. Barkside had arrived, there wasn’t anyone there anymore, so he had to just turn right back around and head back.  

Before her teacher returned though, Willow just watched the Grudgby training session for a short while. And as she did so, she felt herself shiver - She remembered the training that she had done back when Luz had dragged her into a match against Boscha, and she remembered it being… Nothing like this. 

Nothing that looked even remotely this utterly brutal.

Cat was with Amelia in the Healers, and Amelia was still out of commission - Which meant Skara was the only person on the team that Boscha had to train with, and it didn’t seem like she was going to adjust her training methods to compensate for that fact. 

Willow watched as Skara attempted to leap through a burning ring of fire, land on a spring-mounted platform, and take a pot-shot at the goal, even though she wasn’t even past the halfway line on the field. Naturally, she missed, and Boscha looked like she yelled something at her. 

Skara didn’t even like Grudgby, Willow remembered. She couldn’t help but feel bad for the Bard. She was so clearly out of her element that it practically hurt to watch her, even though she was just as clearly trying her best. 

Being chased down the length of the field with spells being thrown at players who could only use one leg, and had to defend the ball as she did so. Drills that forbade the use of magic, while Boscha was under no such restrictions. Situations that frankly, looked dangerous, even if Magic were permitted. If this was how Boscha always trained her team, then Willow legitimately had no idea how any of them were even still alive.

Somehow, it almost made her feel better about Amelia being in the Healers - At least she was being spared this torment. 

A sigh escaped Willow. Why Skara put up with this was beyond her. There wasn’t a lot that Willow wouldn’t do for Luz, or for Gus, but she would put her foot down if the situation got too much for her. She certainly wouldn’t let either of them treat her like Boscha seemed to be treating Skara, that was for sure. But Skara just kept putting up with it. At least when Amity and Willow had their falling out, Amity hadn’t said that they were friends, but acted like… Whatever the heck Boscha and Skara were acting like. At least that had been straightforward. 

She’d mentioned all this to Skara though. And still, Skara chose to hang out with Boscha. It wasn’t like Willow could make her do anything. This was Skara’s choice. 

But the Titan be damned if Willow could figure out why she chose to put up with it. 

Mr. Barkhide eventually returned to his class, and resumed his lesson. Once again, Willow found that she couldn’t focus on it. Her mind shifted from Skara, to Amelia. It occurred to her that she hadn’t seen her project partner since the incident. A lot had been happening, but still. Now that she realized that, it kind of bothered her that she hadn’t gone to see her. She had been there when Amelia had gotten injured, after all. 

Drumming her fingers against her desk, and glancing back outside, Willow mulled it over for a short while. 

Maybe I should go see how she’s doing. Maybe give her an update on how the plant and the project are doing… And warn her not to get too close to an angry Witch Trap again. 

Glancing back at the board, Willow read over a few of the notes that had been written again. This time, they were a little easier to absorb.

Honestly, at this point, Skara was starting to wonder which she hated more - Grudgby training sessions at stupid’o’clock in the morning, for hours after school ended, or being dragged out of classes for them. 

Each one seemed to be its own unique form of torment - It being the first thing in a morning left her with less sleep and utterly exhausted for the rest of the day. It being after school ate into her own time. And them taking part during classes, she might have actually been okay with, but now that she knew that that meant Boscha apparently had access to all the other horrors at Hexside, including the monsters used for training the Beast-Keeping Track, she had a feeling she was in the most danger during those. 

And every day that passed, Boscha’s training had only gotten more absurd, ridiculous, absurdly ridiculous, and dangerous. Thankfully though, the rest of the day’s session hadn’t been… Quite as bad as the Handragon. It had mostly been more situational conditioning, avoiding wave upon wave of Magic attacks, and ducking out of the way of the swinging weapons. Things that were far more at Skara’s level. Something she could actually handle. 

It was only as Skara was spacing out in the middle of her final class for the day that she realized that she could now say the sentence ‘Avoiding swinging blades and Magic volleys is something I can handle’ without any irony whatsoever. Maybe she had improved at Grudgby a little.

Of course, it was either that, or end up in the Healers Office with three missing limbs and broken dreams. 

Though speaking of the Healers, - 

Finally, the bell for the end of the school day began to scream, and all the students began to pack up their things and talk amongst one another, while their teacher tried in vain to remind them to brush up on whatever it was the Bard had spent the last thirty minutes paying absolutely no attention to. 

Quickly, she tossed everything back into her bag, threw it onto her shoulders, made her way to the lockers, put whatever books she didn’t need inside, grabbed a jacket from inside, put it on, closed said locker, and made her way towards the exit.

Speaking of the Healers, she was looking forward to seeing how well Amelia was doing. Skara hadn’t heard anything about it, or seen her since her check-up after returning from the Knee. Amelia had been under the effects of that giant monster plant for weeks now. Part of her had started to wonder if the situation had been worse than she had been told, but she was glad that that didn’t seem to be the case. 

Reaching the giant doors of Hexside, Skara scanned to see if she could find Boscha, and it didn’t take long to spot her. The Grudgby uniform stood out against a sea of uniforms, and the wall that she was leaning on, her arms folded as she waited. She seemed to spot Skara at the same time that Skara spotted her, and pushed herself off the wall as she did so, ready to go immediately. 

“Hey.” Skara greeted her as she approached the other Witch. 

“Hey.” Boscha nodded in response, and began to walk away from Hexside, and towards Bonesborough the moment Skara was within earshot. “I’ve messaged Cat. Told them to expect us.” 

“Oh, great.” Skara nodded as well, picking up the pace ever-so-slightly so she could walk alongside Boscha. “You get a reply?” 

“Just a thumbs up.” 

“Makes sense.” Skara shrugged. She was probably way more focused on making sure that Amelia was doing okay rather than answering scroll messages. 

There was a… Skara wasn’t entirely sure how to describe it - A sense of awkwardness of some description, maybe? 

It came from what happened during the Grudgby training sessions earlier that day, and it was the same sense of awkwardness that had been there since Skara began to train in earnest with the team, looking back on it, but she hadn’t really let herself feel it all that much, what with everything that had happened throughout that time period, and in part due to her own hesitation to focus on it. Now it felt a little harder to ignore. 

It was… Extremely difficult to ignore it after Boscha had pulled that stunt with the Handragon. 

Boscha always took Grudgby seriously - Skara reminded herself of that again and again and again. That was just how she was, how she’d always been, for as long as she’d known her. She pushed herself and those around her as hard as was physically possible. This game was no different. 

Except it was. Because it was against Glandus, and because Bria was involved. And whatever the heck their deal was, because of it, Boscha was pushing people harder than she’d ever pushed anyone before. And maybe if Skara liked Grudgby, that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. But she was only doing any of this because Boscha needed a substitute for Amelia. Otherwise she’d be on the bench, like always. Trying to support her friends, and play the role of peacemaker if anyone else came to blows. 

What made it awkward was that Boscha knew all of this, and kept pushing Skara like this anyway. That, and it was hard to maintain much of a conversation with someone after they had set a frenzied beast on you, and had tried to insist you cartwheel your way to safety. 

For the first time in a while, Skara didn’t know what to say to Boscha. About anything. 

That… And there were other things on Skara’s mind when it came to Boscha. Considerations. Suspicions. Things she wouldn’t have thought twice about a month ago, before all the stuff with Willow happened, but now came to mind nearly every time she was around the Potions Witch. 

She glanced at Boscha as the two of them walked. Boscha’s eyes were firmly focused on the path in front of them, and she didn't seem all that interested in speaking to Skara either. The only change in her posture was so she could reach for her scroll, to message Cat to tell them they were on their way. Maybe she felt the awkwardness of the situation too, or maybe she just didn’t care to talk. 

So they both just walked, in near silence, down a series of paths until they wound up in Bonesborough, and once there, they followed a series of busy streets, until finally, they wound up at the Healers Offices. 

“...Well, here we are.” Skara said, slightly awkwardly as they approached the building. 

“Yep.” Boscha simply nodded, and looked up at the building before them. 

“Has er, Cat said anything?” 

Flipping her scroll open, Boscha glanced at it for a few seconds, before closing it just as quickly. “Nope, nothing.”

For some reason, a slight twinge of anxiety made its way through Skara. Just cold feet, probably. She shook her head and ignored it. “C’mon.” 

They both entered the building and found themselves in the reception. Absently, Skara scanned the room, and noted that it was just as packed as the last time she had been here, if not maybe a little bit more so. Injuries on the Isles were still as common as ever. 

No wonder Healing needed to become its own Coven. 

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” 

Skara glanced towards Boscha. Her face had warped into the same expression of irritation she made when her players complained about her training schedules. Skara followed the direction of her gaze, towards the reception front desk, and then blinked. 

One of the receptionists stood up, papers in hand. “Alrighty, wait here, and I’ll see if I can find the room of this Amelia person.” 

Of all people, they were talking to Willow.

“Thank you, ma’am.” Willow nodded, as the receptionist wandered off into a back room. She turned around, a smile on her face, that shrunk at the sight of Boscha in the entryway. 

Boscha simply looked away, pretending not to notice the Witch who almost beat her at Grudgby. She took a single step back, focused on a wall on the other side of the room. “Unbelievable.”

Glancing back and forth between Willow and Boscha, Skara needed a moment to both register the fact that Willow and Boscha were here at the same time - Practically a nightmare scenario for the Bard - and that Willow was here in the first place.  

The receptionist had said ‘Amelia’, right? Was Willow here to see Amelia too?

“Uh, hey Skara.” Willow raised her hand, waving slightly at the Bard. It was a little awkward, and she was clearly nervous at the surprise sight of the two Grudgby players - Probably one of them more than the other - but it did seem genuine. “How’s it going?”

Quickly, Skara tried to figure out just what to say. Her relationship with Willow was in such a strange place that Skara didn’t know quite what to call her, or how to respond to a situation like this. This was the first time since things had changed between them that they had run into one another outside of school, and in school there had always been a sort of unspoken certainty; neither of them exactly had much of a choice other than to be there at Hexside, so talking never felt too much like they were going out of their way, and if they needed to, there was always a readily available and believable excuse for removing oneself from the conversation.  

None of that was present here and Skara began to realize all of that very quickly. Was there supposed to be some sort of different way they were supposed to speak to one another in this situation, or was it the same as in Hexside? The inner workings of Skara’s mind chugged on overtime to come up with some form of response.

Finally, it came to her.

“Hey.”

Incredible. Skara, future Bard of the Boiling Isles, who has no idea how to respond to someone starting a conversation in a slightly unconventional situation.

“What, erm... Whatcha doing here?” Willow asked. “You coming to see Amelia too?”

Skara nodded. “Pretty much.” 

A two whole words, Skara. Very impressive.

They both just stood there for some more time, both shuffling their feet and trying hard to consider just what they should be doing. It was weird - After a few seconds, Skara actually began to find herself feeling a bit more comfortable; evidently, Willow was contemplating the same questions in her own head. It made Skara feel less awkward about the whole thing. 

“I guess you heard that they’re supposed to be doing better.” 

Willow nodded. “I heard about it in Herbology this morning.” 

“We heard about it during Grudgby practice.” Skara gestured towards Boscha, who didn’t even glance towards either of them. “Bo came and told us.” 

That made Willow raise an eyebrow. “Was that you two that I saw this morning?” 

“Probably.”

“You looked like you were being chased by a giant… Hand… Thing?” 

“That was… Boscha’s idea.” 

Glancing over Skara’s shoulder, Willow looked at Boscha. Boscha didn’t look towards her. 

“...I see.” 

“Okay then.” Both girls looked back towards the receptionist desk, where the receptionist who Willow had been speaking to just a few moments ago had returned, noteboard in hand, and her voice in a slight drone, “according to this, your friend is in room two-twenty-three. Just knock on the door first so the Healer knows you’re there, and wait for them to answer. If they don’t answer right away, do not keep knocking. I promise you, they will have heard you, and they’ll get to you as soon as they can.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Willow nodded at the receptionist again, before both she and Skara walked away from the desk, and let the people behind them in the line speak to the staff member. In doing so, they had gotten closer to Boscha, who gave Skara a look, and made an effort not to look at Willow. Once away from the reception desk, Willow glanced around the room, looking for signs. “Two-twenty-three, two-twenty-three…” 

“Hey! Me and Boscha already know where Amelia’s room is.” Skara said. “Maybe we can all go there together?”

About a month ago, Skara probably wouldn’t have thought to make that offer. At best, she would have made up an excuse to leave and come back later. But she had to admit, after everything, the idea of going to see Amelia with Willow didn’t actually sound too bad now. 

Though Boscha clearly didn’t look like she found it that appealing. 

“ What. ” 

Boscha couldn’t help but glare at Skara, all three eyes essentially shooting daggers at her. Skara looked back at her, trying to plead her case with her big ol’ silver eyes. 

We’re gonna be going to see Am at the same time anyway. Might as well go together, right?

The other Witch’s three eyes darted from Skara to Willow, then back to Skara. They narrowed, but Skara kept hers wide and pleading. The two simply stared at each other, a silent battle of gazes. Until, finally, Boscha rolled her eyes, groaning.

“Sure. Cool, whatever.” The Grudgby captain crossed her eyes, glaring. “I don’t particularly care.”  

Letting herself enjoy her tiny victory over Boscha with a small smirk, Skara turned back to Willow. “What’cha think? We’re all headed up there anyway, right?” 

Willow bit her lip, thinking it over. Skara felt her heart sink, as she realized - Why, exactly, would Willow want to come with her and Boscha? There was still… A lot of baggage here. If Boscha weren’t here, then maybe? But even then... And Skara had just sort of thrown this at Willow without thinking. 

Maybe Willow would just tell them she’ll come by later, or wouldn’t come back again, or-

Then, Willow surprised her. She smiled. 

“Sure. It sounds like fun.”

“...Huh.” Skara couldn’t help but smile herself. “Sweet.”

“Hooray.” Boscha said, flatly. “Let’s just go.”

After what felt like an awkward, almost unsettling eternity of climbing up two flights of stairs, Boscha, Skara, and Willow reached Amelia’s floor. Like she had said, Skara remembered the way to the room Cat and Bo had helped take care of her in after getting back from the Knee. If Amelia had been moved, Skara assumed that Cat would have mentioned it

So she led the others there accordingly. In still near total silence. 

Not that Skara had expected Willow and Boscha to get into a deep conversation about the nature of existence or anything, but she had at least hoped it wouldn’t be the most awkwardly quiet walk of her life. Then again, she understood well enough why it was this quiet. 

Still, she felt compelled to try and break the ice.

“So, Boscha.” As the three walked, Skara turned to look at her oldest friend quizzically. “Any updates from Cat?”

One of Boscha’s eyes glanced down at her Scroll. “Nothing.”

Skara sighed. “Yeah, I figured.” She shook her head. “I really hope Amelia’s okay.”

“Bo said she was doing better.” 

“Doing better and being okay aren’t necessarily the same thing.” 

“I’m sure she is.” Willow said. “If I’ve learned anything about her from our project, it’s that she’s too strong and stubborn not to let this keep her down.”

“Maybe. But what about Grudgby?” Boscha grumbled. 

Though Skara tried to hold back on saying anything, she agreed in her own head that, hopefully, Amelia would be able to play.

I can go the rest of my life never touching another Grudgby ball, thank you very much. Weird, slimy, skin-covered… thing…

But looking beside her, Skara noticed Willow’s face scrunched in a look of pretty evident disapproval. To Willow, it must seem like Boscha just didn’t care about her friend. That all that mattered was Grudgby. And Skara… had to admit, it certainly would look that way from an outsider’s perspective. But she also knew Boscha cared about Amelia. They were friends, after all. Sure, Boscha was putting her Grudgby feelings a little ahead of Amelia’s personal safety, but…

Well, wasn’t that… Just what friends did sometimes?

Maybe?

A few moments of continuous walking through corridors and navigating crossroads later, the gaggle finally navigated their way to Amelia’s room. Skara felt a small wave of relief as she spotted it, a smile forming on her face. 

“Okay, here we-”  

“Hey, Cat!” Boscha shouted as she banged on against the door, sounding somewhat agitated, as if the suspense of seeing Amelia again was getting under her skin. “You in there? Is Amelia?” 

Skara placed her head in her hands in a mixture of embarrassment and frustration. Her last sight before the thankful blackness of the void became apparent was Willow doing much the same. Boscha meanwhile just kept pounding against the door another five seconds, almost as if just to spite the instructions the receptionist gave. As she took her hands from her face, though, Skara noticed a slight blue shimmer from behind, a strange, Healer blue sparkle that slowly manifested into-

“What in the Titan’s forsaken name are you doing?!” Cat’s apparition hissed. “ Do you want to give Amelia a Sac Attack?!”

Boscha spun around, her face briefly contorted in surprise, before falling into a look of frustration. “Well, I’m sorry, I thought I could see my friend after surgery! Maybe help her out a little.”

Cat shook her head, clearly not buying what the Grudgby Captain was selling. “Boscha, Amelia’s sleeping in there like a green haired angel! She’s tired, and the last thing she needs is you banging against her door like a lunatic and screaming her awake.”

“I messaged you and you didn’t tell me she was asleep!” Boscha scowled. “You don’t think that telling me that might have been a good idea before we arrived?”

“She only just got to sleep! It surprised me as well!”

“What the heck do you mean it ‘surprised’ you? What, has she been wide awake since the surgery?” 

“Not continuously, but a lot more than I’d like.” 

“So then what exactly would be the harm in waking her up for five minutes so we didn’t waste our time coming here? I haven’t exactly got all day!”

The look on Cat’s face was… well, Skara had never seen it, honestly. It looked like a weird cross between shock, revulsion, disillusionment, and embarrassment. “You… I’m sorry that Amelia can’t take your orders when she’s in recovery, but can you for once in your life just… Not?” 

Wide eyed, Willow leaned to Skara and whispered, “Uh… Do those two always fight like that?”

Skara blinked. “Actually, if I’m being real... I don’t think I’ve seen Cat this ticked off since… well, ever.”

Boscha practically recoiled in disgust. “And just what is that supposed to”

“Hey, Cat!” Skara waved to the ethereal vision of her friend, hoping to distract the two girls from kicking down the door and starting a literal fist fight in the hall. “Friend, buddy! How ya doing girl?”

Both Boscha and Cat turned to Skara. Cat seemed surprised to actually see the Bard at all, like she’d forgotten that she was supposed to be visiting with Boscha in the first place.“Oh! Skara! Sorry, didn’t see you there.” Most of Cat’s frustration... subsided, and she waved, before spotting Willow. “Oh, and, uh, Willow? What, uh, what brings you here?”

Willow waved back, almost as awkwardly as she had to Skara at the front desk. “Oh, uh, just here for Amelia. I wanted to just check up, see if she’s okay too.”

“Uhm, yea.” Skara sighed. “Look, we just… we were wondering if Amelia was alright, and wanted to talk to her, so, maybe if we could just see her,, or…”

The Healer sighed. “I’m… Really sorry, but she only just got to sleep. I know you went out of your way to see her, but I don’t want to risk-” 

“Cat?” A muffled voice could be heard from the other side of the door. “ Cat?”  

Cat’s expression… Twisted, and an eye twitched. She paused, closed her eyes, took a deep inhale, turned to glare at Boscha, and then exhaled. “...Just… Wait here a moment.” 

The ethereal light vanished. Skara, Willow, and Boscha now stood alone in the hallway.

For a minute, none of the girls said anything. Skara and Willow stood in the hall awkwardly, both feeling kind of bad for having come and interrupted Amelia now, while Boscha leaned next to the door, arms crossed, awaiting Cat’s return, impatiently drilling her fingers against the opposing arm. None of them moved. None of them said anything.

Well, Skara thought to herself, this is… Thrilling.

And awkward. Very awkward. 

“...Hmmm, hm hm hm, hm hm hmmmmm, hm hmm hmm hmm, hm hmmmm…” 

Skara hummed to herself, a short little tune she’d randomly caught someone else humming in one of her Bard classes that wormed its way into her ear like how Earworms slither inside a Witch’s skull and vibrates their brain at such an intense frequency as to melt it - Okay so not exactly like it but the analogy still made sense.  She didn’t even know the song, honestly. It was just something she liked to hum sometimes when in situations like this. It did sound somewhat familiar though, like it was something she’d heard long ago, but she couldn’t remember where from.

To her surprise, though, Willow’s ears perked up. “Hm? Skara, what’s that you’re humming?”

The Bard stopped, paused for a moment, and then just shrugged. “I ... Have no idea, honestly.”

Willow blinked. 

“I er, I just heard it during a Bard class once, and it sounded vaguely familiar.” She explained. “I dunno, it just stuck with me. I can stop.” 

“No, I didn’t mean that.” Willow said. “It sounds nice - I just thought I recognized it, that’s -” Suddenly, the Plant Witch snapped her fingers, and said aloud. “Treks of the Boiling Seas!”  

It took her a second to process, but once she had, it hit Skara like a bolt of lightning, and she was almost annoyed at herself for having forgotten in the first place, “That’s it!” She laughed slightly. “It’s their theme song! Hah! I haven’t thought about that in years!”  

“Wait, you saw them too?” 

“You kidding? I saw them every time they were in town!” 

“You saw what , exactly?” Boscha asked, glancing over in their direction. Whether she was actually interested, or asked out of the sheer boredom of having nothing else to do, was unclear. 

“Okay, like,” Skara took a moment to try to figure out the best way to describe them, “they were basically these plays that a bunch of travelling Illusionists who told stories about the adventures of a bunch of Emperor’s Coven members trying to traverse the Boiling Oceans, and running into all sorts of really weird and cool stuff and helping people!” 

Boscha processed it for a moment, and then tilted her head backwards slightly. “Ooh, that thing.” 

“You know about it, too?” Willow asked, an eyebrow raised. 

“Yeah.” Boscha looked back at the two of them. “That thing for Witchlings, right?” 

Skara… Immediately felt very small. 

“We were Witchlings.” Willow deadpanned. “And so what if they were anyway?” 

All three of Boscha’s eyes just looked at Willow, all with different expressions to convey that the Grudgby Captain found the question so self-evidentially stupid, that she didn’t need to bother replying to it. Skara felt… Even smaller, somehow.

“I… I thought they were fun, that’s all…”  

“Whatever you say.” Boscha shrugged, and looked away from the two of them. Bored or not, apparently whatever this conversation was, it was beneath her. 

“Oh, ignore her.” Willow said with a whisper. “Hey, which song was your favourite?” 

The Bard didn’t reply. The light-hearted expression that had been on Willow’s face fell. She sighed, and went quiet herself. 

Another eternal moment later, the door swung open, and out stepped Cat, wiping away grime from her thick rimmed glasses and looking overall like much more of a mess than the illusion had made her look like just a minute ago. Taking in a deep breath, she looked towards Amelia’s other three associates before letting out a deep sigh. 

“So, er, ‘good’ news…”

Without any further warning, a rapid green blur threw itself onto Cat, arms wrapping tightly around the Healer and squeezing her off her feet. Skara could barely even blink before the same blur let go of the now sputtering Cat and spun itself around on the spot in a rapid pirouette next to her. Said blur then went on to perform a series of exceedingly and unnecessarily dramatic somersaults before landing a fancy pose, one leg stretched out as she held up what Skara could only assume were an imaginary cane and top hat.

“Hey guys! What’d I miss?”

“ Amelia! ” Skara laughed, running over to embrace the Plant Witch. “You’re okay!”

“Hey girl!” Amelia returned the hug and laughed. “Good to see you!”

Cat raised her hand slightly, trying to get her patient’s attention. “Uhm, Amelia-” 

“Well, ‘bout time you got better.” Boscha ran up to Amelia, smirking, and putting a hand on her shoulder. “Need ya for the big Glandus game. Think you’re up for it, Ame?”

“You kidding? I feel like I could take on the Titan himself, baby!” She struck a heroic pose, flexing her arms and cockily smirking to the group. “Glandus won’t know what hit ‘em!”

Oh awesome! I won’t have to play after all!

I mean… awwww, such a shame...

“Actually-”

“That’s amazing,” Willow said, smiling. “I’m glad you’re okay, Amelia. And hey, if it helps, I got an extension on the project! We won’t have to finish it ‘till you get back to school.”

“Well consider that starting yesterday, Willow!” Amelia raised her fists in victory. “Absolutely nothing's gonna stop me now!”

Skara, Willow, and Boscha cheered on Amelia, but Cat was having none of it.

“UH, GUYS?!”

“Now, if you’ll all excuse me-”

Amelia promptly collapsed to the floor.

All four girls stared at the body.

“Uh, Ame?…” Skara blinked, not… Entirely sure how to react. “You okay?”

No response.

“A - Amelia?” 

“So…” Boscha looked between Amelia, and the other three, “...should we poke her with a stick, or…”

“Out of the way!” Cat called out, pushing the others aside. She scooped Amelia into her arms, carrying the groaning Witch back to bed. “Come on, Am, back you go.” 

“Nuuu, kitten...” Amelia muttered, lazily slumped over, her arms flailing slightly as she was put back onto the bed. “I don’t need ya to carry me. I’m…. totally…” She never finished her statement, instead rolling her head back and nodding off. “...Zzz…” 

“Cat, what the heck is going on?” Boscha growled as she watched this all happen. “I don’t like when my players play games with me.”

“Is she alright?” Willow bit her lip, her prior elation now replaced with worry.

“Well, that’s what I was trying to tell you all.” Cat shook her head and sighed. She walked out of the room,  closed the door behind her, and looked between the three onlookers. “Amelia’s doing… better . All the junk from the Witch Trap got drained, so she’s not delusional anymore. But getting it all out took a toll on her. She has these moments of sudden energy, but otherwise she’s weak as a cute little Slitherbeast pup…”

Willow let out an exhale. “Oh…”

Skara gulped. 

Boscha, on the other hand, being Boscha, was the one to ask the question on her mind.

“So, will she or will she not be able to play?”

Cat looked at Boscha, a gleam of frustration in her eyes. “Well, Captain ,” She said, not bothering to conceal the irritation at all, “I’m sorry to tell you this, but Amelia won’t be able to do much of anything for the next few days. Even by our Oracle’s best estimates, it won’t be until a week after the game that she’ll even be able to go back to school, never mind play a Grudgby match. I don’t even know how long that's going to take.”

A knot formed in Skara’s stomach. Compared to Amelia’s wellbeing, she knew her own personal wants weren’t important, but…

If that’s the case then... I guess I’m confirmed for the match, then.

A small, purple flower was summoned by Willow. Very gently, she opened the door to the room, and placed it next to Amelia’s head. Meanwhile, Boscha simply stood there, staring at Amelia’s sleeping body. Then, she took in a deep breath through her nose. 

“Well. I suppose it’s a good thing we started training Skara then.” She muttered through her teeth, a serpentine sound which just barely hid her frustration. “And hey, Ame wouldn’t know any of the new plays or anything, so-”

“Is that all you care about?” 

Skara blinked and felt her eyes widen as Willow spoke to Boscha. Cat, and Boscha herself seemed just as surprised as Skara. 

For as long as Skara had known Willow, for all the crap she had put up with from Boscha, from nearly everyone at Hexside, for all the mockery and humiliation she had endured, the Bard had only once seen Willow snap before - And that had been back on the Knee.

Her tone of voice now was alarmingly close to what it had been back then, before Willow had abandoned Skara when she insisted on laying in the snow. 

“Seriously?” Willow turned around and looked at Boscha, glaring at her. She didn’t look away even slightly as she left the room, shut the door, and then, let herself raise her voice. “Your friend is in the Healers and the only thing I’ve heard you talk about since you showed up is Grudgby . Is that the only thing you care about?!” 

“‘Course not! ” Boscha snapped, her own face distorting into one that reminded Skara of her encounter with Bria. “But I still need to think about what's best for the Banshees - You try having Bump come to you every day wanting updates on training, and being reminded the pride of Hexside is on your shoulders every two hours and see where your mind is at, Half-a-Witch!” 

“Do not call me that again.” 

“You show up here uninvited, act all high and mighty, accuse me of not giving a damn about my friend being in the Healers, and now you’re gonna have the gaul to get offended at me calling you names? What’re you gonna do, hit me?” Boscha took a step closer to Willow. “Try it, Half-a-Witch, please . See what happens.” 

For a split second, Willow’s expression fouled as well, and Skara could have sworn that there was a slight green glow in her eyes. Her hands balled up into fists, and for that split second, Skara genuinely thought Willow really was about to punch Boscha.

“You-”  

Then, she threw her hands into the air, and sighed. 

“Alright. Fine . You win.” She turned to Cat. “Let Amelia know I hope she feels better soon when she wakes up, okay?” 

“Er… S-sure, Willow.” The Healer nodded, slightly confused. 

Another sigh escaped Willow, and she turned around, and just walked away, turning a corner at the nearest crossroad, leaving the three other girls in… Various emotional states due to what had just happened. 

“Yeah.” Boscha growled, angrily. “That’s what I thought .” 

Pretty evidently, Boscha was infuriated. Cat on the other hand didn’t say anything. She just looked surprised and confused by what had just happened. While Skara… 

As Skara watched Willow leave, she felt what she could only describe as a black hole forming in her stomach. Something about watching her leave, so frustrated, looking so defeated… 

“Hey, uhm… I’ll be right back.” Skara didn’t say anything else, didn’t even look at Boscha. She simply made her way to the crossroad, following the path Willow took. 

She could feel Boscha’s eyes burning into her back. She ignored them.

Willow grimaced as she stepped away from Amelia's room, quickly walking down the corridors to get away from Boscha as she could. There was a burning anger in her chest that she did her best to ignore, to very little success. 

Everything about that situation had frustrated - No, infuriated her. It was so painfully clear that the only thing that Boscha gave a damn about was knowing if she had a Grudgby player she could replace Skara with. It was the only thing she spoke about, like she was obsessed with it, like it was more important than Amelia being okay. 

Would she have even bothered to visit if Amelia wasn’t on her team? Somehow, Willow doubted it. And there was only so much of that she was able to listen to. 

Yet when it came down to it, she had been the first one to back down. Not Boscha. That upset her just as much. Maybe more if she were being honest. 

Titan.

As she continued to walk down the corridor, she soon spotted a nearby waiting bench, next to a stain-glass window that overlooked Bonesborough. Taking a seat, she took a deep, sharp breath, trying to calm her frustrations.

Why did I think coming here was a good idea? If Boscha was gonna come, there was no way it was gonna end well. What the heck was I even thinking? 

She had been thinking that Skara had been there. And that Skara wasn’t Boscha. And that maybe it wouldn’t have been too bad if she went along, so long as Skara was there. That maybe that would deter Boscha from acting like... well Boscha. Why she had thought that, she had no idea. She couldn’t be anywhere near Boscha. This was always going to be what happened. And she’d known that. That was why she had always kept her distance from Boscha. 

“Titan’s mercy…” Willow shook her head, and sighed. “This was so stupid…”

“Um… Hey, Willow.”

Willow looked up to spot Skara, awkwardly rubbing her arm. It was… Weird. She hadn’t expected Skara to follow her. If anything, after that display, she had expected Skara to… She didn’t know. Willow honestly didn’t know what to say. Her relationship with Skara was already confusing and complicated. Whatever they were now was so strange; not friends, not enemies, not just random people who just wave across the hallway at each other. They were simultaneously all of those things, and neither of them. 

Whatever they were, Willow didn’t mind it. It was actually kind of nice talking to Skara when she wasn’t depressed or sad or…

Being Boscha’s friend.

She stayed silent for a few seconds, before Skara sighed, and spoke first. “Look. I’m… sorry about Boscha. She’s just, well… under a lot of stress from the big game, and there’s this whole weird... thing with their team captain, and-”

“It’s alright.” Willow let out the closest thing to a smile she could muster. “It’s fine, really. You aren’t Boscha, you don’t have to apologize for her.”

“I know. But I… I know Boscha can be abrasive and kinda cold, but...” Her voice trailed off. Whatever she had been going to say, she had decided against it. Willow was thankful for that. 

But… She was curious. 

“Hey… Skara?”

“Yeah?” 

“Why are you and Boscha friends?”

The more that Willow got to know Skara, and the more that she saw how the Bard acted when Boscha wasn’t in the equation, the more confused she found herself with their friendship. They seemed really different, in a number of ways. And there was a power dynamic that was so obvious, she was pretty sure it would be visible from space, and yet Skara continued to put up with it, no matter how harsh Boscha was to her.

There had to be some reason.

For her part, Skara just blinked, like a vampire caught in the sunlight. “...What?”

“Why? Just…” Willow shook her head, trying to think of how best to phrase all this. “I know you aren’t a fan of Grudgby, I’ve seen how Boscha treats you guys on the field, and I just… I don’t get it. And with how she just cared about Grudgby when her friend’s hurt… just, why do you hang out with her?”

Skara pursed her lips, eyes darting to and fro, as if Boscha were about to jump out any minute. “It’s uh… well....” Her voice trailed off again, and she scratched at the side of her cheek. She averted her eyes away from Willow, and her stance shifted uncomfortably. Quickly, Willow decided that this was a boundary that she probably shouldn’t have crossed. 

“Nevermind.” She said with a small sigh. She stood up, rising from the bench. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.” 

“Wait, wait.” Skara interrupted. “I just… I didn’t expect that question. It caught me a bit off guard, that’s all.” 

“Forget it.” Willow quickly repeated, now just feeling awkward about the whole situation. “It - It’s personal, I shouldn’t have pried.” 

“It’s okay, really, I…” Skara sighed. “...I know how it looks to a lot of people.” 

A few seconds of silence followed, where neither of them moved or looked directly at one another. Skara eventually let out another, much heavier sigh, and took a seat on the bench. 

“Alright... So, Boscha’s… Well, she can be a jerk. I get that.”

Willow could use... Other terms to describe Boscha, but her dad’s would have to perform an exorcism on her if she said even a quarter of them, so she didn’t interrupt. Instead, she just took the seat next to Skara, and let her talk at her own pace. 

“But when we were kids, she and I… we were close.” Skara continued. “Before Amity came along, it was mostly Boscha and me. We were cool, y’know? We’d go to fairgrounds without our parents, play razor tag, and just hang out. You know, like kids.” A small smile crossed Skara’s face, as if she was filled with a deep sense of nostalgia. “It was a good time. And even in the baby class, we were on top. Always the rad-est kids.” Skara’s smile grew, as if she’d forgotten she was even talking to Willow, instead just telling herself about the good old days. 

I can’t blame her I guess. I know what it’s like to reminisce about nostalgic times with a friend.

Even if this is Boscha we’re talking about.

Skara suddenly snapped out of her head when she turned to spot Willow looking at her. Willow, now realizing she was grimacing, tried to straighten her face out, but Skara simply coughed.

“Then… middle school happened. Like, she was cool, still, for a while. But she started getting angrier, more bitter.”

“Well... I mean, to be fair, Witch puberty and all...”

“Nah, it wasn’t that. “Skara shook her head. “It was more like…” She paused, trying to come up with the right description. “Like... She lost something. Something important, I guess. Something she never thought she would lose. Not that she actually did. I don’t think. I don’t know, that’s just the only way I can think to explain it. It was just like something was… Gone.”

“That's… Not exactly much to go on.”

“Trust me, I know.”

“And, since then, she’s gotten… worse?”

“...Kinda, yeah.” Skara admitted. “Since then, mostly everything she does is about Grudgby or proving she’s better than everyone else.”

“So that’s why you joined her team then?”

“Not… Really....” Skara shook her head. “I didn’t really want to. I like watching sports, sure, that’s cool sometimes I guess, but actually playing them…” Again, Skara shook her head. “When she told me I could join and just be the backup, the benchwarmer, I finally decided to try it out. And it… wasn’t fun, but it... Kept me on Boscha’s good side, so…”

“...Kept you on her good side?”

“I… Wouldn’t exactly be the first person she kicked out of her group if I got onto her bad side.” 

Willow stared at Skara for a moment. Granted, this was not the first time she’d seen Skara upset, particularly recently. But now, she seemed less sad or hurt over a breakup, and now just more… Hollow. Like she was resigned to this being as good as it got.

“But - She’s not always like that!” Skara jumped to defend her friend, like she was expecting Willow to say something else. “It’s… That’s just sometimes how things are. I mean, c’mon, you have rough patches with your friends, right? It’s like that.” 

Rough patches or not, none of Willow’s friends, nor Willow herself, felt the need to ‘Stay on one another’s good side’. That wasn’t how friendships were supposed to work. 

“When it’s not like that it’s… Fun.” Skara said. “I mean… We do like, Moonlight Conjurings, and hang out. We have, like, a hangout in one of the hills where we just chill. I… Know it looks bad sometimes but… I’ve known her for years. You just…” 

A pause. 

“...You just get used to it.” 

In that moment, Willow wanted to tell Skara to leave Boscha. To just wave goodbye and walk away, and put as many doors, walls, and ideally dimensions between the two of them as possible. Boscha didn’t really seem to care about Skara’s feelings or well-being all that much, or anyone else’s for that matter. Being around her was like tip-toeing around Landmine Weeds. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good for Skara. It certainly didn’t seem to be making her happy at any rate. 

But Willow knew that wasn’t her choice.

I can’t force Skara to do anything she doesn’t want to do. Even if that’s being friends with Boscha. I already said everything I could up at the cabin. Skara’s the one who has to figure it out now. .

“...Alright,” Willow sighed. “I... Gotcha. Thanks for telling me about you and Boscha.” 

“Y… Y’Welcome.” Skara nodded, slowly, and slightly uncomfortably. She looked up Cat’s doorway. “Cat and Boscha are probably talking about… Stuff or whatever. Probably why they haven't walked out yet.”

“Wouldn’t we be... Hearing them right now, then?” 

“Cat says the Healers' rooms are soundproofed to keep out the screams of agonizing despair.”

Willow… believed that.

“Well then,” She said, standing from the bench to stretch. “That’s enough... Unsettling information for one day. I’ll see you at school tomorrow, okay?”

“You’re leaving?”

“I… Don’t think me sticking around here will do any good.” 

And after what just happened, I… Do not want to be anywhere around Boscha.

Skara looked at Willow for a moment, a look of confusion on her face. Confusion and… concern?

“Hey, uhm… Willow, are you… okay?”

It took a second for the words to process in Willow’s brain. She was so used to asking Skara that question, but hearing Skara say the same thing to her… it almost felt alien.

“...Totally.” She smiled. “It’s all good. Don’t sweat it.”

The silver haired witch didn’t look entirely trusting of that statement. But she nodded. “...Okay. If you say so.”

Willow nodded, waving goodbye as she walked down the halls. “See ya Skara!”

“Yeah,” Skara called back. “See ya.”

As Willow walked out of Skara’s sight, she let out a long, low sigh.

So…. I guess this is how Skara felt whenever she lied to me…

...I don’t like it.

Skara’s hand’s shovelled into the pockets of her jacket as she wandered through the Healers’ corridors, following the signs and hoping that they would lead her to the exit soon. She glanced out one of the windows she walked by, where she caught a glimpse of people going about their everyday lives in the city. She let out a long exhale through her nose. 

Talk about a mixed bag of a day.

Amelia being conscious and well on the road to recovery with no permanent side-effects was probably the best news that the Bard had heard in weeks , and to say that she was glad was an understatement. After the role she had had in Amelia ending up in the Healers to begin with, Skara wasn’t sure what she would have done had there been any permanent damage, or if she was going to have to remain here for months, or… Well, anything worse than what she had already been through. 

She was just glad that Amelia was okay. No real if, ands, or buts about it. Just glad to see that she was doing alright. 

Even if the actual meeting had been… Less than ideal. 

The Bard sighed, this time through her mouth. She certainly couldn’t blame Willow for reacting the way that she had to Boscha. 

Frankly, the way Boscha had acted was... For lack of a better term, rude, and cold, even to Skara, and she was beyond certain that Cat hadn’t appreciated it much more than she had. And Amelia...Well, in all fairness, if she had been coherent enough to hear Boscha when she started asking if she was good to play, she probably wouldn’t have cared all that much, knowing her - She actually liked playing Grudgby, but still. 

It had just been, well… Noteworthily callous, Skara supposed. Boscha was taking this Grudgby match against Glandus way, way too seriously. Skara could tell that the stress was starting to get to her.

Not that it was exactly unusual, mind. Boscha usually got at least a little like this when it came to Grudgby matches against rival teams - Dedicated to victory at all costs, driving herself and her team to the absolute limits. And when the match was done, everything would go back to how it was before the game had ever been announced. That was the cycle. This particular match just seemed to be stirring her up more than usual. 

Probably because of the incident yesterday…

The corridor she was walking down split into a crossroads. Skara checked the signs on the wall, and took down the left corridor as instructed. 

When she had returned to the room, Cat told her that Boscha had already left, presumably to go off to practice. Boscha was… Not a patient person, to put it lightly. Honestly, Skara should have expected it. 

And speaking of practice, Skara’s thoughts wandered towards the fact that she was going to be playing in the upcoming match for certain, now Amelia was confirmed to be out of commission. 

A part of her really had been hoping that when Amelia recovered, she was going to be able to take her normal place on the team so the Bard could do what she did best - Hold down the bench. Maybe that was selfish, but Skara knew what she was good at, and Grudgby wasn’t it. Plus, again, Amelia actually seemed to like playing Grudgby. It would have been a win-win for everyone involved. 

But that wasn’t the way things had fallen. And now, Skara would be playing a game she didn’t like, against people who seemed to have it out for Hexside in particular for whatever reason, in front of Titan-knew how many people, in the middle of some sort of personal fight that Boscha seemed to have with the Glandus team captain. 

Great.

Reaching another crossroads, and time following the signs instructions to take a right, Skara found herself back in the reception area, and made a beeline straight through it. Once she had gotten through and out the front doors, she let out another small sigh. She’d just have to do the same with Grudgby; get through it as best and as quick as she could. That was all there was to it.

“ There you are.” 

To her side, Boscha was waiting, leaning against the wall, arms crossed, and her bottom two eyes shut, and her top eye focused directly on Skara. 

For a moment, Skara blinked in surprise. “What the - Boscha? I thought you’d left already?” 

In response, Boscha just stared at her plainly. “Well, clearly I didn’t.” 

Immediately, Skara felt stupid for having said anything. Then, she paused again, her eyebrow raising. “Have… You just been waiting here for me to show up?” 

“Mhm.” Boscha just nodded. She then pushed herself off against the wall, and turned to face Skara, all her eyes now open. For all the attitude that she had displayed back in Amelia’s room, it now seemed to have tripled in severity. Whatever small scraps of restraint she had been obeying up until this point, Skara could tell just from the tone of her voice, had been cast aside. 

Skara felt herself involuntarily gulp. 

“Now that you’re officially on the team for the match, I figured that I should remind you exactly who we’re up against.” 

“Er…” Skara blinked. “We’re up against Glandus, right? I didn’t forget-” 

“We’re up against monsters, Skara.” Boscha said, firmly and heavily putting emphasis on the word. Her voice dropped into what Skara had begun to call the ‘Glandus - are - the - source - of - all - evil - in - the - world’ voice. “I don’t think you really understand just what to expect from these bunch of lunatics. You didn’t exactly seem to take them all that seriously when they showed up on our field after we caught them spying on us .” 

Aside from the fact they had less caught them, and more one of them had ran out of cover and exposed the lot of them, that was because she didn’t take them all that seriously- Because Skara didn’t comprehend for the life of her what the big deal was about Grudgby. It was just a sport for Titan’s sake, and a sport she didn’t even like , had been roped into playing by Boscha, and the idea of spying on someone else for it was just insane to the Bard. 

Not that she ever said as much to Boscha, of course. She just let her keep talking without a peep.

Boscha then raised her hands to make quotation gestures with her fingers. “I know you think Bria is ‘Kinda cute, I guess’-” 

A little weird that you remember that part specifically, but okay.

“-But I’m warning you, I’ve played against her plenty of times, and If you’re not careful, she will pummel you into the dirt so badly, you'll need to have your entire skeleton replaced!” 

“…Thanks for the warning?” Skara… Wasn’t exactly sure how to react to any of what she was being told. The way Boscha spoke, what exactly she was saying, the fact she had waited for the Bard to say this in person…

It felt more like a threat of some sort, somehow.

“You’ll thank me more for the training tomorrow.” Boscha carried on. “Now that I know for a fact Amelia is out of the game, we’re gonna have to work you twice as hard to make sure you’re ready for the match.” 

Ooof course we do.

“Last thing I need is another one of my team getting knocked out during the match. Especially since now we don’t have a replacement player.” Boscha’s arms folded and she glared into the nearby street. “Bria‘ll probably try to knock either you or Cat out early on so there’ll be less players for her to have to worry about, but we’re gonna make you tough enough that you can handle anything she throws at you.” 

More of that ‘Situational Conditioning’, then.

“She thinks she’s clever?” 

Boscha’s hands rose up in front of her, and her right fist slammed itself into her open left palm, and a tooth-baring grin spread across her face. Some nearby Witchlings on the street, at the foot of the steps, seemed to think Boscha was threatening them, and quickly scurried away. 

“Big mistake on her part. I’m gonna bury her.”

In the build up for the upcoming match, Boscha had pushed her team harder than they’d ever been pushed before. Heck, she had even been pushing Skara before she’d even known that the Bard would be on the field, just on the off-chance that she would be needed, which was probably a good idea from her perspective now, in all fairness.

Since the incident with Bria yesterday though, Boscha’s entire attitude had shifted. Before, Boscha had just been taking things extremely seriously - Now, she was on the warpath . Her drills became even more demanding, her exercises moving away from absurd and now bordering onto outright insane, just to prepare them for whatever incomprehensible strategies Glandus could conceivably come up with. And unlike most of the previous sessions, now she was getting involved herself, pushing the absolute limits of her own endurance and skill, and seeming to relish any opportunity to blast something into smithereens. 

It was like she was on a quest of vengeance against Bria for the whole incident, as opposed to wanting to win the match because it was Grudgby. 

And still, Skara knew it was best to keep her mouth shut about it. Whatever the heck the deal was between Bria and Boscha, Skara knew that she didn’t want to deal with Boscha yelling about it any more than she had to. 

“…I’m just glad Amelia’s okay.” She muttered, glancing back towards the hospital. 

 Looking over her shoulder and back towards Skara, Boscha let out a small sigh, finally letting herself relax, if only a little bit. “…Yeah. Same.” 

“It was good to see her again.” Skara nodded, slightly. “At least, while she’s not all… Loopy, I guess. And glad she doesn’t have any permanent damage.” 

“Yeah.”

For a moment, Skara felt like she was talking with a ghost version of Boscha. Not the spiritual kind her dad dealt with, but more like a Boscha that seemed to have disappeared a long time ago. The Boscha that wasn’t just Grudgby this or Glandus that. The Boscha she could just… Talk to. The same one who seemed like she could enjoy herself. Maybe not always the nicest person, but someone who didn’t go out of their way to make fun of people like she did now. 

For just that moment, it reminded Skara why she still spent time with Boscha.

Then, Boscha groaned.

“…Could have done without dealing with Half-a-Witch, though.” Boscha’s voice returned to a low, irritated grumble just as quickly as she had dropped it, and the ghost was gone with it. Her arms folded, and the scowl returned. “Acting all high mighty.” 

Skara bit her lower lip.

“...I don’t think she was trying to act ‘High and mighty’, Boscha.” Skara told her, trying to be very careful with the tone of her voice. “I think she was just... Worried about Amelia.” 

“And acted like I didn’t care about her.” 

“I… I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean to come across like that.” 

Boscha’s eyes turned towards Skara, her right  and top eyebrows both raised. Her expression was… A weird, uneven combination of irritation, bewilderment, uncertainty and inquisitiveness that Skara hadn’t seen on her face before. 

“Am I missing something here?” Boscha asked, letting all three of her eyes narrow. “You know something about what happened in that room that I don’t?” 

“No, just…” Skara paused for a moment, considering her words carefully. “ I just think she was just glad Amelia was okay-” 

“When did they become friends, exactly?” 

“I... Don’t think they really are? They’re just lab partners, I think.” 

“Then why does she care? Not like she had a reason to come here to check on Amelia.”

“I… She’s just… Like that.” 

When she really got down to it, that was really the only answer that Skara could think to offer. She had thought just as much on the Knee - That Willow had had every reason to leave her to the Spider-Yeti’s, and had every reason to not be anywhere near as decent to her as she had been in the cabin. She hadn’t had any reason to act the way that she had done with the Vehemence Witch Plant. She hadn’t had a reason to keep checking on her after finding her crying weeks ago. 

The only consistent answer was that that was just the way that she was. 

“She was like that with me on the Knee, for Titan’s sake! She - ” 

“You know how all this works, Skara!” 

Skara froze. She’d known that Boscha would be upset with the Bard defending Willow, but Boscha wasn’t just upset now. She seemed… angry. Legitimately, red faced angry. And sure, they’d been upset with Skara before, but genuine anger... it wasn’t something Skara had ever been on the opposite side of.

It was… Scary. 

A moment passed. Neither girl moved. Then, Boscha’s expression loosened up. She looked back up at the hospital, and let out a small exhale. 

“The strong are on the top and the weak are on the bottom. And when someone isn’t on the top, they’ll do anything to claw their way to the top. That’s how it works.” 

Boscha turned back to Skara. She seemed to have calmed down very quickly, But Skara couldn’t tell if the expression came from her genuinely being less upset or just hiding it better. The expression instead had changed into… The closest thing Skara could call it was… 

…Pity. 

“Don’t tell me you actually think she doesn’t have some sort of motive for acting the way she does around you?” Her eyes seemed to focus onto one point on Skara’s face. “I thought you knew better than that.”

“It wasn’t like that on the Knee-” 

“O n the Knee .” Boscha grumbled, rolling her eyes. “That was a life or death situation - You aren’t there anymore. You’re back at Hexside! And… Okay, granted, Hexside can probably still kill you as well, but…” She shook her head, and pinched at her forehead. “It’s different. You know how the rules work. And I guarantee you Willow knows that as well.” 

“...I don’t think Willow even knows what rules you’re talking about.” 

Another moment passed. Skara looked away from Boscha, and back out across the city, while she could feel that Boscha’s eyes were still firmly on her. 

Again, she felt herself bite the inside of her lower lip. 

Finally, Boscha sighed, and shoved her hands into her jacket’s pockets. “Alright then, Skara. If you want to pretend that Half-a-Witch is some sort of anomaly, then be my guest. But make sure you remember my track record, yeah?” 

She took a step closer to Skara. 

“I said you were too good for Bat-Boy. And look how that worked out.” 

The slight taste of blood escaped Skara’s lip. 

Sensing that her point had been made, Boscha stepped away from Skara, made her way down the steps onto the main road, and began to walk home. Skara watched as she walked down the road, moving through groups of people, and refusing to side-step to get out of anyone’s way. The Bard watched until the Grudgby Captain took a turn around a building, and was finally out of sight. Only then, did Skara allow herself to exhale. 

Well, that could have gone… A thousand times better.

There had been no point in asking her to lay off Willow, Skara knew. Not when she was like this. When she was angry, Boscha was stubborn to the point of absurdity. And somehow, she had a feeling this wasn’t going to go away until the Glandus match was over and done with. Maybe after that was over, maybe then she’d have better luck. 

Glancing back at the Healers Office, Skara thought for just a moment. She’d known Boscha for nearly eleven years. And she had to admit, in all that time… Boscha wasn’t wrong. At least, it didn’t seem like it. The way she described Hexside, the way she operated, the way she led… the results were hard to argue with. That was how everyone in their group had ended up at the top of the social hierarchy. Because they followed the rules Boscha talked about. Because Boscha seemed to know what she was talking about. 

That was what made the fact that there wasn’t a single doubt in Skara’s mind that she was wrong about Willow all the more surprising. 

Not one single doubt. 

Chapter Text

As Willow stepped into Hexside on Monday and scanned the halls, all she could think was that the upcoming Glandus Grudgby match might well be the most hyped-up event that she’d seen at Hexside. Not that it was at all unusual to see people getting into the spirit of competition between the two rival schools - there had been plenty of matches between the two in the past, and a similar atmosphere had enveloped Hexside before. 

What was unusual about this particular event was just how all-encompassing it seemed to be this time around. 

In every corridor, on nearly every wall, door, and series of lockers, everything was given a yellow-and-blue accented shine. Banners and posters of a banshee, beating up a phoenix, covered in slogans like ‘Hexside Rules ,’ and ‘Glandus? More like Glan-Dust! ’ adorned the walls and lockers. People wore shirts with the Banshee’s colours, or with the name and logo on them. Willow had seen about two dozen different people with face-paint on before her first class had even begun. An immense, overwhelmingly energetic atmosphere had enveloped the school, as the anticipation for the match had finally reached a fever pitch. 

And it was clear to Willow, Gus, and Amity that Luz was loving it.

The human smiled her way through the halls, her eyes darting around the halls as she watched all the school spirit unfold.. “This is so cool!” Luz’s finger directed towards a sign of the banshee sucking out a phoenix’s soul. “Oh, that signs so cool!!” She pointed towards another, this time the banshee screeching the phoenix's flame out. “So’s that one! She turned around, smiling as her eyes caught another poster. “And that one is…-” Luz  stopped, her face contorting into disgust as she realised her finger was NOW directed to a poster that overtook an entire wall… with Boscha, in full Grudgby uniform, smirking down at the Hexside students and staff as she held a ball up with one hand. “...Okay, that one, I can do without.” 

Equally uncomfortable with the display, Willow did her best to ignore it, instead focusing on her friend’s boundless energy. “I see you’re getting into the Hexside spirit.” She chuckled. 

“Of course I am! You kidding, Willow?” Luz answered, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. She clenched her hands into fists and held them in front of her. “My school back on Earth never got into competition this much! Hexside versus Glandus - The two most bitter of rivals, fighting it out on the battlefield of Grudgby, in a winner-takes-all battle to the… well, not death , but humiliation , at least.”

“Not death yet , anyway.” Gus said, matter-of-factly. 

An extremely brief pause followed as Luz just sort of… looked at him, like she was trying to figure out if he was joking or not. From the expression on her face, she seemed to conclude that no, he wasn’t joking.

Apparently, competition in the Human world wasn’t quite as severe as it was here, Willow thought to herself. 

“...Oh, look!” Luz, rapidly attempting to ignore… that , pointed towards a bulletin board, filled with crudely drawn art pieces, clearly created by very young children. “Even the Baby Class is getting into it!” She put her face up to one picture in particular, trying to figure out what exactly it was depicting. “So cute! Look at Boscha, holding up that… person’s… detached head…” She chuckled nervously as she realized what exactly it was a drawing of. “Heh. Wow, uh, look at - look at all that red jam the student spilled on this one, heh…”

Amity cleared her throat, awkwardly. “Uh, Luz? I don’t think - That’s not-”

“Please let me keep some shred of innocence.”

Willow, attempting to steer the conversation in a less macabre direction, smiled, and clapped her hands together. “ So! Your first real Glandus game, huh, Luz? Are you excited?”

“You bet I am! And this time, I’ll bring my own cheer uniform!”

“Sounds… uh, lovely...” Amity mumbled, turning to face away from Luz. “I can’t wait to see.” A full second of heavy silence followed. “Wait I don’t mean-”

“Fantastic!” Willow, ever the captain of this conversation, tried to once again steer it back in a less embarrassing and awkward-for-everyone-involved direction instead. “And I’ll bring my lucky cap. I’ve worn it to every Glandus game since the baby class, and nobody’s ever been…  critically injured while I’ve had it on!”

“Wait what d’you mean not critically-”

“But be warned! ” Gus hissed his words, throwing his uniform hood up, and pulling out a flashlight as the world suddenly grew darker around them all. He flicked it on, revealing a face contorted to  mimic the look of a wise, creepy old storyteller. “For Glandus games are filled with dangers! Even for the poor, unsuspecting audience! You just go to watch a simple, friendly little game, and then suddenly, when you least expect it, an Abomination Bomb explodes next to you, and coats you in a living goo that knows not who’s friend or foe! Or you get set on fire by a careless spell in the heat of battle! Or-”

‘Students of Hexside.’ Out of nowhere, Principal Bumps’ voice came through the loudspeakers, loud and clear. ‘Due to energy requirements necessary for our upcoming Grudgby match, we will be unable to reserve Magic for today’s light source. Please summon your own light orbs and go about your day. And try to watch where you’re going. We don’t need any more students in the Healer’s Offices this month.’ 

Gus remained still for a few seconds, glancing around the corridor for the first time since going on his exaggerated diatribe, and realising that the lights had in fact, gone out. Around them, several surrounding students grumbled, a few summoning a small orb of light to help guide their walks. Suddenly, the atmosphere felt around the school dampened, as now, all the decorations were hidden behind a veil of darkness. “...Huh.” Willow blinked, looking around. “I thought that that was you using some sort of Illusion spell to make everything go dark.” 

“Yeah, me too.” Gus also blinked, revealing that his free hand had been casting a spell behind his back. When he stopped casting it, the corridor did brighten up, but only ever-so-slightly. “Talk about timing.” He muttered, standing back upright and letting his arms flop to his sides.

Luz, ever prepared, pulled out her glyph notebook and summoned a glowing orb, crinkling the paper inward as it appeared. She glanced around herself, eyebrows raised quizzically. “I thought Hexside powered all the lights and things using Magic?” 

“It does.” Willow confirmed. 

“...Okay I have like, five questions.” The Human said, flatly. “ The first being - How the heck do you run out of Magic to power a school?”  

“They’ll want any and all available Magical energy to go towards the Grudgby team’s training equipment.” Amity answered.. “They’ve put so much training into this match, and bragged about the Banshee’s so much, that if Hexside doesn’t win, it’d completely humiliate the school. I mean,” she gestured to their surroundings, to all the banners and posters and everything else, “just look at this place. Imagine the upset it’d cause.” 

Taking another glance around, Luz shrugged. “Okay, granted, people’d probably be pretty disappointed, but-”

“And it would probably cost this place a ton of money in funding.” Amity added.

“...Huh. And I thought that kind of thing only happened in terrible sports movies.” Luz muttered to herself. “Well, that makes a… kind of sense, I guess? Actually that kind of answers the rest of my questions now that I think about it.” She then turned to the rest of her friends again. “Okay - The immeasurable failures of two entire dimensions’ education systems aside, we’ve got places to be and spells to learn!”

“Isn’t our first class history?” Gus questioned.

“... The point is, I’m hyped on school spirit and ready for a full week of Hexside fun, day-time in-darkness style!”

Willow chuckled again at Luz’s unending enthusiasm. She turned around to pull out a couple of history textbooks that she would need, before closing it up again. She was just about to turn and join her friends, when she heard the clanging sound of metal being hit. 

“Ow!” She heard a familiar voice hiss. “Titan damn it…!”  

Almost immediately, the school bell began to scream, and students began to move towards their various classes. Rather than pay any attention to the bell or the students though, Willow turned to look back to the sound of the voice.

In the dark, she couldn’t immediately see anything, and with the noise other people were making, no one else seemed to have noticed the sounds, or at the very least, had heard it, but had already forgotten all about it and moved on. Willow squinted towards the source of the sound, trying to see if she could spot anyone. 

Her night vision wasn’t always the best, but in the dark, Willow was able to spot the faint outline of someone leaning against the wall. She observed them for just a few seconds, and they seemed to be using their hands to navigate, feeling for what was in front of them, as opposed to using a light spell of some description. In the brief snippets of light that she got, Willow was able to make out the familiar outlines of big, poofy, and silver-toned hair.  “Skara?” Willow muttered to herself. She had recognized the voice long before she recognized the outline. That answered who it was that had made the noise, at least.  

…Okay…So, why in the heck was she just wandering around, in the pitch black darkness, without a Light Spell activated? 

“Yo, Willow?” The Plant Witch spun away from Skara to look back at Luz, who seemed to be waiting for her, while Gus and Amity were nowhere to be seen. “Everything okay?”

“Oh - Oh, yeah, sorry, I uh…” Willow thought for a moment, before making her decision. “Hey, uh, Luz? Mind handing me a glyph? I er… don’t feel super great.” She then fake-coughed a couple of times, and, as if to prove how not super-great she felt, cast an intentionally pathetic light spell that barely lit up her face, that petered out in just a few seconds. “D’you want me to take you to the Healers?” 

“Yes - I mean no - I mean - I’ll head there… Myself. On my own. And catch up with you in like… Five minutes?” 

“It’s… On the way to class. I really don’t -” 

“I’d… Really rather go on my own.” 

Unfortunately for her, even under the cover of darkness, Willow was an utterly terrible liar. Her fake cough was terrible, she tripped on her own words, she hadn’t mentioned or acted remotely ill beforehand, any trip to the Healers, no matter how good said Healers were, was going to take longer than five minutes, if only to figure out exactly what was wrong with a person, and she was about eighty-percent sure that Luz knew she was just making stuff up on the spot. That had been the best that she could come up with in the five seconds she had had before she’d made up her mind.  She couldn’t see her for the near pitch-blackness that they were in, but Willow practically felt her best friend raise an eyebrow at all of that. 

But luckily for Willow, Luz didn’t say anything, instead tearing out a piece of notebook paper and handing it to Willow without any further questions. “...Sure thing, Willow. See you in class soon?”

“Yeah.” 

Willow made out the faint outline of Luz’s wave as she walked away, Amity and Gus returning briefly into sight before following suit. But as they left, Willow didn’t activate her light glyph. Instead, she turned back around, walking towards the Bard, who still stood in place, looking up at that big, wall-covering Boscha poster.

“Silver linings, Skara. Always remember the silver linings…” 

Although she had to fumble with her hands against the wall as her only real guide in this windowless corridor - As if today wasn’t already off to an infuriating start - Skara could, at least, think of one silver lining. 

And that was that she was glad that the sudden power outage made it near impossible to keep looking up at the hundreds of posters and leaflets and banners and pictures that all showed Boscha’s trademark expression of inconceivably smug superiority. It was now cast in darkness, all but invisible to the layman observer, even to those standing right in front of it like Skara. 

So, why could she still see it in her mind's eye?

See the outline of Boscha’s fangs. Her fiery eyes telling those who looked at her that they were toast. Her incredible, vicelike grip around that stupid slimey skinlike ball.

It was probably because, unlike the rest of Hexside, Skara had actually been made to witness Boscha’s sense of superiority when it came to Grudgby first-hand. The way she pushed her teammates, the way she would ridicule them when they didn’t live up to her standards, and the way she would both rant about how Glandus was this unstoppable force of undefeatable monsters, while also saying at the same time that she - not the team, mind. She, specifically - was going to crush them and put them in their place once and for all. It was difficult to rid one's mind of those images.

Normally, Skara tried to be patient with Boscha and her Grudgby. It was, after all, what she wanted to do with her life, and she was a friend. The Bard wanted to support her. 

But she was starting to get just the least bit sick of this entire affair, and the last thing she wanted to see more of was that smug look. 

Another deep breath, and another silver lining - After this week, none of this would matter anymore.

A cold shiver ran up the Bard’s spine as she reminded herself of that, and her anger and irritation was replaced with a cold anxiety. That this was it. That this was really going to happen. By the end of this week, all her endless training would have finally paid off, and she will have helped the Banshee’s defeat Glandus in Grudgby. Or, if Boscha had any say in it, die trying.

Frankly, the end of the week couldn’t come fast enough. Skara wasn’t sure how much more of this she could take.

Heck, now on top of pre-school practises - today’s special addition was Skara having to juggle fire-balls on a unicycle, because this was apparently going to help her to handle multiple tasks under pressure - she was now going to be replacing it with her lunch period, every day throughout the week. And still have to work on them after school was over on top of that. All this because of some stupid game Skara didn’t even like, and Boscha’s own personal rivalry or contest or whatever the heck else was going on with the Grudgby captain. 

“Skara?”

A gentle voice rammed its way through Skara’s own thoughts like a battering ram. She glanced over her shoulder, and in the void, saw the only person she really should have expected at this point.

“Oh. Hey, Willow.” She smiled fakely, then felt stupid for smiling given their current darkness, then dropped it. She then turned around fully to face the Plant Witch. “What’s up? Didn’t the bell-”

“Uh. yeah.” Willow nodded, something Skara slightly made out in the shadows. “It did. But, I noticed you uh…” She held something out. “Didn’t have a light.”

“...Thanks? I think?”

“...Is er, is there any… Particular reason?” 

“Does it matter?” 

“W-Well, I… Guess not..” 

It took her a few seconds to fully register what she’d done, but when she had, Skara could have slapped herself. Instead, she just let out a long sigh. “...Sorry. I didn’t mean to be… Like that. Just… Grudgby practice has been… Not fun so far today.” 

“You’ve been practicing this morning?” 

“I’m practicing every morning, every lunch-break, and every afternoon after school for the rest of the week, and Boscha has been driving us all up the wall. Literally and figuratively.”

“...Ah. Is that why you don’t have a light?” 

“Yep.” Skara nodded, exasperated by that fact. “I literally don’t have the Magical Energy to cast a light spell. I didn’t even know it was possible to be that low on energy, but, well, here we are.” 

“Oh! Well, remember the cabin? The light I made?” As she spoke, Willow held up the paper in her hands, so Skara could get a better look.

Her mind wandered back to… a few other things about that night. But she did remember the light. “Oh, er, yeah. Is that the… The, uh… rune?”

“Glyph, actually.”

That was Skara’s third guess.

“Well, I know you’ll be able to do a light spell on your own soon enough, but I thought, maybe you could use this in the meantime?”

Looking at Willow’s eyes showed a slight sparkle. A tiny glimmer that said ‘It’s okay. I wanna help.’ 

‘You don’t need to do it alone.’

A small light that should have given Skara a reason to smile.

Instead, she only felt like a failure.

“Uh, cool. But I… don’t really need it. I got some pretty good night vision. I can take this darkness head on, without a silly glyph!” 

To demonstrate this fact, Skara turned ninety degrees and walked forward.

She proceeded to ram face-first into a wall.

“Ow!” 

Even through the spinning stars, darkness, and her own hands clutching at her face, Skara could make out Willow wincing at the sight of Skara, stumbling around. Had it been anyone else, Skara would have expected laughter, but Willow offered none. Somehow, it didn’t surprise the Bard anymore.

“...Okay. I… Think I believe that. Maybe.” Willow said, taking a step forward. “Still, maybe, if it’ll help, you could use it.” She held the paper out again, careful to not tap the central circle. “Just in case you need to put the ‘pretty good night vision’ a rest, huh?”

There was a second where Skara just looked at the paper, and then back at Willow, before looking back at the paper again. She then tentatively, and carefully, reached out, and took it into her hands. It felt strangely… heavy, in her hands. Like she was carrying a thin brick as opposed to a flimsy white notebook paper. Her thumbs rubbed against the edges, careful not to touch the centre, as her mind wandered.

Don’t tell me you actually think she doesn’t have some sort of motive for acting the way she does around you?

I thought you knew better than that.

Boscha’s words played in Skara’s mind on loop, running circles in her head over and over, reminding her of the harsh realities of Hexside life. Willow just… couldn’t be giving her this out of some sense of kindness, could she? They weren’t friends, after all. The Knee was… well, the Knee was a thing. That was it. A strange, weird, kind of nice thing to happen, but, as Boscha had said, it was…. Different. Life and death.

Still, when Boscha had said all of that, there hadn’t been a doubt in Skara’s mind that she had been wrong. Why should she doubt it now?

“…Thanks.” Skara mumbled, folding the paper into a small square before sliding it into her breast pocket. “I think I’ll just…. keep this with me for a bit though. I don’t think it’ll be necessary. Just gotta adjust a little, you know?”

Skara could make out Willow’s emerald eyes. And though it was dark, she’d almost swear she made out a faint twinkle of concern. As if Willow really did honestly just… cared.

“Okay.” Willow’s lips curled up into a faint smile. “Still, hope it helps.” The Plant Witch turned, facing the direction Skara could only assume, of her class. “See you around, Skara.” And with the outline of a farewell wave, Willow walked on, leaving Skara standing alone.

Alone with Boscha’s poster.

Alone with three larger-than-life eye’s watching, witnessing Skara as she was just given help by someone who, by all accounts, was supposed to be worse than her. 

Alone-

The bell’s screamed out again.

Realising that she was about to be late, Skara ran as fast as her legs would carry her, stumbling to find her classroom in the darkness. She tried to ignore the thought of just using the rune -Glyph? Whatever! - to just see clearly through the unlit halls. And she tried to ignore the paper as she finally entered her classroom, taking a seat with the hope she wouldn’t be noticed by the teacher. And she tried to ignore it even more when her teacher DID, in fact, notice, and lectured her on the importance of timeliness.

She tried to ignore the paper the rest of the day.

But like a small fire, it burned a figurative hole in her pocket. At the end of the day, it found itself stuffed into Skara’s locker, where she hoped she would be able to forget about it. 

Hexside’s competitive school spirit wasn’t something that just dissipated after a single day, or by poorly-run infrastructure; as Tuesday rolled around, and a more permanent solution to the no-lights-in-the-hallways situation was found, more and more of the student body embraced the hype of the upcoming match. Even more students wore yellow and blue sweaters, more students cheered at the mention of their future sought victory, and more students jeered at the very mention of Glandus. Even those who didn’t care all that much for Grudgby found themselves swept into the all-encompassing excitement. 

“WOO-HOO!” Gus pumped his fists in the air, tiny blue flags raised, as he ran through Hexside. Showman, illusionist, and as fond of Grudgby as he was, he thrived in this atmosphere. When he reached Willow, he practically had to skid to a halt, and very nearly slammed into the lockers before he slowed down. “WILLOW, YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE WHAT I JUST SAW!”

“A lot of gold and blue?” 

“No,” Gus stated. Then, correcting himself, “Well, yes, that, but not just that!” He held up his left hand, three fingers raised. “Three whole other students waving flags like mine! It’s amazing! I feel like I started a trend!” The illusion prodigy twirled his flags between his fingers in glee and proudly puffed out his chest, and Willow couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Maybe.” Willow reached her locker, tickling its underside in just the correct way to make it open. “I mean, it’s also possible they just do it cause that’s usually a thing with Grudgby fans.”

“Noooope!” Gus shook his head. “Probably alllll me.” He pointed towards himself, a wide grin. Willow knew her longest-running friend wasn’t so self absorbed as to genuinely believe that, that he was just engaging in his illusionist theatrical tendencies, but it was still funny to see him act so over-the-top with his enjoyment at seeing others enjoying themselves. 

“Oh, well, if that’s the case,” Willow said, bemusedly rolling her eyes as she skimmed her locker for her History of Fairy’s textbook, “congrats to you.”

Gus continued his excited twirling, shortly evolving into dancing, before suddenly pausing, mid dance-move. “Oh. Hey Willow, you doing okay?”

“Uh huh. A little tired, but otherwise. You?”

“Fine, but I mean, are you… Doing okay?” 

Now pulling herself out of the maw of her locker, Willow looked at Gus with an eyebrow raised in confusion.  “Uhm… Yes? I think? I’m… Not sure what you mean, exactly?” 

Gesturing over his shoulder with his thumb, Gus pointed at the lockers on the opposite side of the corridor to them. Willow followed it to the series of posters that was plastered onto the lockers. All of them bearing the same picture of a smug as Titan Boscha, full Grudgby gear, holding up a ball in victory. It reminded her of the Emperors Coven posters she’d see in town, just more jerkish. 

 “...Oh.” 

A small knot twisted itself in Willow’s stomach for a moment, before she let out a sigh. So that was what he meant. 

She pondered for a moment, before letting out another, smaller sigh. This time, it helped her to calm her nerves. “I’ve been okay. Sure, seeing Boscha’s condescending smirk everywhere isn’t exactly… comforting, but I haven’t really thought about it too much to be honest. I’m excited for Hexside to win, not Boscha.”Gus wasn’t entirely convinced. Having been with Willow for longer than any of her other friends, he knew her, better than maybe anyone else did. He had a thorough understanding of what made Willow upset. And given that the most obvious of those was Boscha….

“Oof!” 

Before he could think it over any further, though, he felt someone smack themselves into him. Gus flailed his hands, attempting to catch his balance before Willow caught him. 

“Whoa there! You okay, Gus?” Willow asked. Gus didn’t answer though. 

Instead, he looked up at the perpetrator of his sudden imbalance, and spotted Skara. She had paused practically mid-stroll, and turned to look at who she had collided with, and the expression she had on looked… Irritated. The expression only lasted a split-second though before returning to a neutral one, but Gus couldn’t tell if it shifted because she realized who it was she had run into, or if she had decided that she didn’t care enough to actually get irritated. 

A beat followed, and Skara blinked. 

“Sorry.” 

In another split second, her eyes darted to look towards Willow, if only to acknowledge her presence there. She then broke away, rapidly turned a corner, and vanished out of sight, leaving both Willow and Gus standing by the Plant Witch’s locker, confused and dazed.

Finally, after a moment to catch his bearings, Gus picked himself off of Willow, grumbling. “Well, that was rude.”

“Yeah. That’s not like…” Willow paused, shook her head, and ran her fingers through her hair. “Well, maybe. I don’t know.” Her eyes stayed where Skara had just disappeared, her expression strangely unreadable to Gus.

Meanwhile, Gus’s expression was much more obvious; anger. Or, at the very least, irritation. Irritation that had been building up for a while now, and he had finally decided that this random incident was the straw that broke the Snaggleback’s back. 

He straightened himself out, patted down his uniform, and declared, “I’m gonna go talk to her.” 

“No, wait.” Willow started “I can just do it. You don’t have to-”

“Nah. I’ve been meaning to talk to her for a while, actually.” He said, firmly. “No time like the present.” 

“I’ll go with you then. Maybe I can-” 

“I’d rather you didn’t.” Gus stated, rather… firmly. He’d already turned around too, and begun to make his way dorn the corridor. “Just…I’d prefer to handle this one on my own.”

Now that… was weirdly not like Gus.

Before Willow could say anything though, he was already down the hall, turning the corner to follow the Bard. For a moment, Willow wanted to rush over to stop him, and convince him that it wasn’t worth it. She already knew that he had made up his mind though, and she wasn’t sure her presence there would make things better, or much, much worse. 

If she sided with Skara, then she had a feeling Gus would, to put it gently, not take it well. And if she sided with Gus, then she might only alienate Skara, and after their relationship had… like it had. She could try to placate them, but, somehow she had a feeling that wouldn’t work. Gus already said he didn’t want her there, and Skara had made it clear that she struggled to accept help in situations like this. 

That really only left her with one option - To respect Gus’s request, and stay out of it. 

All she could really do was hope that was the right call.

Skara being upset wasn’t anything new at this point: Her breakup, being overworked, school in general. All of it got to the Bard in one way or another. It wasn’t all consuming, but it would often be there in the back of her mind, waiting for her weakest moments to slide into her thoughts and make her upset again.

But today, ‘upset’ had some friends following close behind. Namely, ‘frustration’ and ‘bitterness.’ 

She wasn’t sure the exact reason behind these emotions, and that was probably the worst part of it. Aside from attempting to avoid stones being launched at her stomach, nothing as over the top as fleeing a giant school-threatening monster had occurred at practice today. She’d gotten there around too-early-o’clock, prepared herself as best she could, and endured it as best she could. It had been that way for a few weeks so why was today so much more disheartening?

Maybe it was because she’d endured it for a ‘few’ weeks.

Whatever the reason, Skara was upset. And when she was upset, she wasn’t great at hiding it even at the best of times. To deal with it, she just tried to tunnel-vision her way through the day, picking whatever tasks needed doing, and focusing on them as hard and narrow-mindedly as possible, so that her attention was focused on that, and not how upset she was. Right now, that was getting to her locker, so she could throw her stupid Grudgby gear inside it, and get to whatever class she was supposed to be in. 

In doing so, she had decided it would be a magnificent idea to go in the exact opposite direction as the rest of the student body in this particular corridor. As she did so, she ended up accidentally colliding with a number of them, and quickly barked out an apology to whoever it was she had run into. It was only when she walked into Willow’s friend that she paused for a moment, but carried on regardless. 

Still, Skara couldn’t help but feel a little upset at herself for just bumping into people with barely an apology. Which only added to her ongoing frustration, which only led to her mentally being worse, which only made her more frustrated, which-

Before Skara could continue her downward cycle, she was able to thankfully spot her locker before her. The tunnel-vision returned, and she stopped herself, thanking the Titan that there didn’t seem to be too many people in the hallway, allowing her to simply grumble to herself in frustration without anyone noticing.

“Come on, come on…” She grumbled, tickling her locker’s mouth’s underside. Despite knowing the proper location to tickle, the right amount of pressure, just about everything, her locker refused to budge, only adding to her current, unhappy mood. “Oh come on!” She groaned at the locker. It didn’t seem to recognize her frustration. “Just… Come on, can you just not today?!” Skara kept attempting to open the thing, but for whatever reason, it refused to budge, and she felt herself get really close to just hitting the damned thing. “For the Mother of the Ti-”

“Hey.”

She blinked, and glanced towards whoever it was that was addressing her. When she realized it was Gus, she just sort of looked at him for a second. A small sigh escaped the Bard. 

“Oh. Hey, Gus. Sorry about bumping into you back there, won’t happen again.” Her half-hearted apology finished, she returned her attention to her locker, continuing her ticklish assault on it, to no avail.

“Actually, I’m not here about that.” 

This time, after Skara blinked, she turned back to really look at him. His face was surprisingly serious, almost comically so for him, someone Skara had only ever really known for being timid when push came to shove. But still, it was clear he really was here on more important business than a simple bump-and-run.

“Oh?”

“I’ve seen how you’ve been acting with Willow.”

“Uh… What?” Skara blinked again, now officially confused. There were a lot of things that people could give Skara a hard time for, but if there was one thing that she felt she had been doing a decent job at, it had been in how she had acted around Willow recently. 

“You heard me.” He almost sounded as if he was snapping at her. “You’ve been acting almost… friendly with her ever since the Knee.”

“...Is… I don’t… I-Is that a bad thing?”

Gus glowered. “You may be acting dumb, but I’m not. I know you’re still Boscha’s friend.”

Ahhh.

Skara shook her head, and sighed. “W... Well, look. I… know I’ve not always been… great with Willow. But almost dying together and stuff, it makes you a… little closer...”

She wasn’t entirely sure how to continue her statement though. For a moment, she’d thought to say ‘ We’re a lot friendlier now’. But were they? They’d talk between classes sometimes, and Willow was surprisingly nice to her, but Skara still wasn’t quite sure exactly what her relationship with the Plant Witch was. Friends? Acquaintances? People who knew each other somewhat? She had no idea. 

Frankly, she wondered if Willow did. 

Still, Gus didn’t seem to be buying whatever he thought Skara was selling. “Okay, Skara.” He stood on the tips of his shoes, getting closer to her face then Skara thought possible. “I got my eye on you.” He squinted, an effort that was both surprisingly adorable and surprisingly intimidating. “I don’t know what you’re planning. If this is some scouting mission for a prank or some weird attempt to hurt Willow, but whatever it is, it won’t get past me.”

The sheer absurdity of the situation very nearly made Skara laugh. She literally could not win in this situation, could she? 

And the way he clearly believed that whatever was going on between Skara and Willow was some sort of deliberate attempt to hurt her…

Jokes on him. I don’t even know myself what we are.

Still…

Gus stepped back, his eyes not leaving Skara’s face. “I’m watching you, Skara. Like a hawk.” He began to step away, walking backwards, not taking his eyes off her at all as he did so. He pointed to his own eyes, and then pointed back to her.  “Like. A. Hawk…”

 Eventually, he passed  around the corner, and out of sight. Even then, Skara could almost feel his sharp eyes glaring at her through the walls.

It was so bizarre, so strange, that Skara barely noticed as her locker opened its mouth, opening its maw finally.

If only to try and eat her arm again.

“OH FOR TITAN’S SAKE!”

Normally, Wednesdays were one of Skara’s favourite school days. Wednesday's were usually the days where her timetable was jam-packed with nothing but Bard classes, and she’d happily take those over a lecture on how to do Demonic Calculus, or hear about the horrors of Valeween yet again.

By now though, Wednesdays had sort of blurred together with every other day of the week, where stress and exhaustion, alongside every other intrusive thought that had been creeping into Skara’s mind for the last couple of weeks, overrode pretty much everything else. It made it hard to enjoy pretty much anything. 

Today as well, Skara had dealt with yet another training session, now hitting twenty-one days straight. Her legs and arms felt like particularly wobbly marrow-jelly. Whoever had said that exercise got easier the more you did it clearly hadn’t had Boscha as a coven drill - as a team Captain. It was legitimately impressive how Boscha seemed to constantly find new ways to make muscles that no one else seemed to know existed ache with each training session. Cat’s Healing Magic had become a more and more frequent part of their training. 

But the physical activity wouldn’t have been so bad on it’s own, if it wasn’t for the sheer stress and exhaustion that Skara had to deal with on top of that. It felt like every day, Boscha just got harsher and harsher in the face of the tiniest imperfections. 

It got harder to keep the intrusive voices at bay. 

All but limping to her locker on sore muscles, Skara opened it up and shoved all her sports gear inside. Today’s session, like almost all of them since this game was announced, had been in the morning, and any eagerness that might have been present for her Bard classes had been systematically drilled out of Skara on the field. In fact, she struggled to even keep her eyes open. 

Maybe the Healers will give me a Rejuvenation Spell or something, Skara pondered as she rummaged inside her locker for her needed books and equipment. Maybe that’ll help.

“You heard anything else about it?” 

“Nothing. Ves still hasn’t said a word about any of it.” 

Skara froze at the mention of her ex, and turned around to face the voices. But there wasn’t anyone there. She blinked, and for a second, wondered if she was so tired that her mind was playing tricks on her. 

Naturally though, she had no such luck. 

“That’s only making me more curious.” 

“Tell me about it. Like, what’s so bad about it he wants it kept so hush-hush?” 

Two voices, both feminine, and they were both around the corridor, getting closer and closer. Gossipers. 

There were times that Skara truly hated the fact that Bards had better hearing than most other Witches.

Both of them came into view just a few seconds later, turning into the same corridor Skara was standing in, too engaged with their conversation to see her right away. She realized she’d been holding her breath subconsciously, and had to put physical effort into just trying to release a little bit of air.

 “D’you think Skara cried when he dumped her, and that’s what’s going on?” 

“I-“ 

Before anything else could be said, both of the gossipers finally paid attention to their surroundings, and saw Skara standing right in front of them. There was a moment where neither side made an expression, and looked at one another neutrally as they registered the other's presence. Skara’s face didn’t change in the slightest, too physically and emotionally exhausted to even move a single one of her facial features.

Still, the expression conveyed enough. 

When it finally registered in the minds of both gossipers that the subject of their embarrassing discussion was right in front of them, however, a variety of expressions in just a handful of seconds - Shock and surprise, dread, and finally, when Skara didn’t react to the two, just continuing to unblinkingly stare at them, apprehensiveness took over, and both of them backed away and carried on down the corridor they had come from, as quickly and as clumsily as possible.

As soon as they were out of sight, Skara let out a heavy sigh. The rumour mill was still running as wild as ever, evidentially. Not that it surprised her. This was what she had known would happen if the whole break-up fiasco got out. Still, it had been a while since she’d heard people muttering about her and Ves behind her back. 

It had been weeks since their break-up, and while it was still a sore spot for her, Skara didn’t find herself as torn up about it as she had been initially. So much had happened, so much was still going on, and enough time had passed that she had at least come to some level of peace with it. It still hurt to think about, which was why she tried not to, but she would survive. That didn’t mean that she liked hearing people talk about it, or her behind her back any more than she had before, of course, but right now, she was too tired to care. 

For the first time in a while though, the sequence of events played out in her mind’s eye again. How Ves had approached her down the crowded Hexside halls, how he said they needed to talk privately. How Skara had insisted that whatever Ves had to say to her, he could say in the hall, then and there. How Ves had insisted that they be alone, before he gave up, and broke the news to her, quietly but no less heartbreaking. How she had felt like such an idiot, how Boscha had later attempted to reassure her, but had left her on her own when the bell began to scream. How alone she’d felt. How she’d hidden under some steps, and how she’d cried to herself before Willow found her. 

Now, the only thing of all of that mess that was left was Boscha, Willow, and a rumour mill that had started the very next day, somehow.

How do you think-

“Stop it.” Skara muttered to herself, quietly. Her hands balled up into fists, and she felt them shake. “Not now, brain.”

Her brain, of course, didn’t reply. It just continued to think things while Skara did her best not to listen. She was already hanging on by a thread. If something else tugged at her - She refused to listen to her own thoughts and suspicions. 

She needed them to not be true. 

Her hand tapped against her forehead a few times, as if that could literally knock the thoughts out, and tried to gather the things that she needed for the day. 

Hopefully, her classes would take her mind off of things. Physical exhaustion sounded a whole lot more appealing than dealing with whatever thoughts were going on in her head right about now. 

As she tried to take her books out of the locker though, she felt her muscles tense up all along her arm, sending a sharp pain up along it. It was sudden and piercing, and seemed to have come out of nowhere. 

“Ffff!” Skara hissed, and on pure reflex, pulled her arm back, and grabbed hold of the affected area with her other hand. “Ow! What the-“

She had no idea what had happened - She hadn’t felt any pain earlier today, and she couldn’t think of anything that she had done that could have caused such a sharp pain. An injury from the mornings Grudgby training, maybe? 

That was all she could think of in the couple of seconds before Skara realized that in pulling her arm back as quickly as she had, she had essentially dragged out the entire contents of her locker out -books, pencils, bags, and all. She only realized that she had done this in the split second before everything finally hit the floor, too late to do anything about it. It all hit the ground with a loud clutter. 

Still gripping her now aching arm, Skara just looked at the mess at her feet for a couple of seconds, not even having the energy to be angry or annoyed at herself. Just… Exasperated. She took in a deep inhale through her nose, pinched her forehead, closed her eyes, and then sighed. 

“ …Wonderful .” 

“I gotcha!”

Skara had absolutely no idea where in the heck she had come from, but as soon as she opened her eyes again, she was looking down at Luz the Human, who was already on the ground and picking up all of the things that had fallen out of Skara’s locker. 

It actually took Skara a second to recognise what was happening. “What the-“ 

“Here y’go!” Luz cheerfully said, holding out a stack of Skara’s books out for the Bard to take. Skara hesitated, still surprised by the Human’s sudden appearance. Luz pushed the books closer to her. “C’mon, we’ll get this mess cleared up a lot sooner if we both do it.” 

“I - You don’t-” Skara was going to protest, but then decided not to. She didn’t have energy or patience to, and honestly, now that her mind had processed what was happening, it was… nice of her, Skara supposed. She let out a small exhale, took the books into her hands, and returned them to her locker.

The process continued a couple of times. As they went, Skara put things that she would actually need for her next class to one side, so she wouldn’t need to go rooting around inside the locker again. The whole thing only took a couple of minutes to sort out. 

“Okay, that’s just about everything.” Skara said, checking over the inside of her locker for anything that might be missing, and carefully avoiding touching or triggering anything that might make the thing slam its mouth shut on her. She’d had enough experience with that recently. 

“Just a couple of things he-“ Luz started, and then she cut herself off, staying silent for a few seconds. “…Oooooh . So that’s what Willow wanted this for.” 

Blinking, and with a horrible feeling that she knew exactly what Luz was referring to, Skara turned around to see that yes, Luz was referring to exactly what Skara thought she was. 

The Light Glyph from Monday. 

For a moment, Luz just looked at it, and Skara braced herself for… Well, she wasn’t exactly sure what she was bracing herself for, but she was bracing for it either way. 

Whatever it was that she was expecting, though, it never came. Luz put it atop the last of Skara’s books she held in her hand, picked up the final few leftover things, and handed them over to the Bard. 

“Here y’are! That’s the last of it!” Luz offered a smile to Skara.

“…Thanks.” Skara said, quietly. Quickly, she put them in her locker, tucking the Glyph away between two books, just as it had been before, and closed it up. The Bard let out an exhale. “For helping out, too.” 

“No problem! Goodness knows how many times that’s happened to me, both here and back on Earth! Never hurts to help out!” 

Skara bit her lip. “Yeah. Never hurts…”

The cheerful display Luz showed toned itself down slightly as she glanced behind Skara, and towards her locker. “Hey, um… D’you mind me asking why you have one of my Glyphs?” 

“If you want it back-“ 

“No, no!” Luz quickly shook her head and held her hands up in front of her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just - Willow asked me for one of those a couple days ago during the blackout before she ran off somewhere, and I didn’t know why. I thought she used it up, but, well, now you’ve got one and… I guess I know why she wanted one now.” 

Skara glanced back towards her locker. Somehow, it felt like she could feel the Glyph’s presence from behind it’s flesh and teeth. 

“...If it helps, I’m as confused as you are about why she gave it to me.” Skara admitted. “It does feel kind of… Pointless?” 

“I think she was just being nice.” 

“She doesn’t exactly have a million reasons to be nice to me.”

“Well, she’s nice to everyone.” Luz shrugged. She just then paused for a movement. “But, well, you two got trapped on the Knee together. She talks about it with us sometimes.” 

“She does?” Skara looked back at Luz, concerned for a moment. “What does she talk to you about?” 

“Not much.” Luz shrugged again, nonchalantly. “She keeps a lot of it a secret. She says it’s personal, so, I’m guessing some heavy stuff happened between the two of you.” 

Another sigh, this time of relief, escaped Skara. That’s putting it lightly , she thought to herself. “...You could say that.” 

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna pry.” Luz said, trying to be reassuring, but having mixed results at best. “She pretty much just says that you saved her, and she saved you, and you talked and… So you’re in a…” Her hands made rolling gestures as she tried to find the right way of saying what she was trying to say. “…Weird spot right now, I guess?”

Not exactly friends, not exactly enemies, not exactly neutral on each other either - It meant absolutely nothing, but calling it a ‘weird spot’ was probably the most accurate phrasing of it possible, now that Skara thought about it. Outwardly, she just nodded in response. 

“Right, well, I guess I’m wondering why you didn’t use the Glyph, that’s all.” 

For a moment, Skara considered her answer, wanting it to be simple, to the point, and spell-proof. “…Didn’t feel like I needed it.” She answered. “It’s a Light Spell. It’s not hard. And I can see in the dark pretty well.” 

Well enough to slam straight into a wall five times in three minutes but no one needs to know about that.

All Luz did was raise her eyebrow, like the answer confused her. “Why do you still have it then? Why didn’t you throw it away?”

That…was a good question. 

One Skara really should have had a more concrete answer to. 

“I… I guess it would have felt rude to?”

“…As opposed to just using it?” 

Finally, Skara just stopped talking, and glanced away. Clearly her mouth was getting her into far more trouble than she needed to be in. 

In truth, she didn’t know why she was keeping hold of it. She’d put it into her locker to try to forget about it, but had failed to. There was just something about it that made it impossible to just discard. 

Or someone. 

But at the same time, she couldn’t bring herself to use it. It would have been a sign of weakness to use it. It was a children’s spell! Why would Skara want some second-rate method of performing it?

She should have gotten rid of it, but she couldn’t bring herself to. And hiding it away in her locker hadn’t helped. In fact, all it did was lead to this situation. 

“Y’know… Just ‘cause you didn’t need it, it doesn’t mean you don’t have to accept it.” 

Skara… looked at Luz, confused. 

“I mean… You didn’t need my help to clear all your stuff up.” The Human carried on. “It didn’t hurt you to accept it though. And it got everything cleared up faster.” Luz’s expression shifted towards a smile. “Maybe this is like that.” 

“Luz! There you are!” 

Before Skara could respond or even think about what Luz had just said, someone had turned into the corridor, rushing towards both girls. Unsurprisingly at this point, it was none other than Willow. 

“Oh, Willow!” Luz turned around to face the approaching Witch, and began to scratch the back of her head, and awkwardly laughed. "Sorry, I kind of wandered off. I heard Skara having a locker mishap and stopped to help.”

There was a moment where Willow and Skara both looked at one another. Willow offered her a small small smile, and Skara nodded in response. Were it not for the fact Willow was clearly in a hurry, they probably would have exchanged words with one another. 

“Come on, we’ve got to go - We’re going to be late to Plant’s and Pain 101! We’re going to end up with Eye-Root duty if we don’t hurry up!” 

Nearly all the colour drained out of Luz’s face. “Oh sweet Titan no I’m not doing Eye-Root duty again.” 

“I still hear the screams… All the bloo-”

“The red jam.”

“I am legitimately afraid of asking.” Skara bluntly commented, actually concerned with what fate was going to await the two others if they didn’t get a move on. 

“Gotta go!” Luz yelled, dashing down the corridor and around the corner Willow had emerged from as fast as she was physically capable of. “See ya Skara!” 

“Bye!” Willow also yelled, running after Luz. 

And then, Skara found herself alone, in an empty corridor, blinking and trying to process what had just happened. She raised her hand and waved down the corridor, not sure what else she was supposed to do. “...Bye.” 

Her arm flared up with the sharp pain again.

After a quick trip to the Healers office, she was given both a Healing and Rejuvenation Spell, and made her way to her Bard class. 

While she was with them though, the Healers managed to confirm what Skara had been thinking. 

The pain was Grudgby related.

By Thursday, for a short while, Skara honestly forgot what it was that she did in her free time before it had been taken over by endless hours of Grudgby practice. 

As Skara was getting changed from her afternoon practice, she pondered for a short while what exactly she was going to do when she got home. The only thing that she could even think to do was to try and put a dent in the mountain of homework that had piled up since being dragged into the Grudgby team as an actual frontline player. It took her a couple of minutes to even remember that there were other options - Like playing her instruments, or going on a walk, or doing… Any of the other dozens of things she used to fill her days with. 

She yawned, sighed, and rubbed her eyes. Every day that got closer, Boscha pushed her team harder and harder and, somehow, harder still. Whenever she got home, Skara felt too exhausted to even bother doing anything. Her homework was the only thing she could even consider doing, and that was because the last thing she wanted was to fail Boscha and her classes.

Another yawn. It’s almost over, Skara reminded herself. Just another couple of days, and this can all be behind me. Everything can go back to how it was before this all started. 

Stuffing her Grudgby uniform into her sports bag, she exited the changing rooms. The corridor she entered was empty, and the lack of people made it seem much, much larger than it actually was. The Bard’s legs felt like lead, so she paid her surroundings little mind, and just walked through the corridors, towards the nearest exit on muscle memory alone, not thinking at all about where she was going. Her mind was focused on other things. 

It’s almost over.

It should have been a reassuring thought. 

Well, no, it was reassuring to know that she wouldn’t have to play Grudgby anymore, and that the training sessions would be over soon. That she wouldn’t have to deal with any of this anymore once the match was done with, That fact brought her a feeling of relief to think about. 

But ‘everything can go back to how it was’? 

That thought didn’t make Skara feel better anymore. It made her feel… 

...Empty was the only way that she could describe it. Empty. 

Because she was tired. That had to be it. She was tired. Right. 

Things would be better once this was all over. 

Right. 

Righ-

“Oof!” 

“Ow!” 

Any other thoughts were cut off as she felt herself collide with someone. She felt a brief feeling of floating until her muscles caught up with what had happened. She rushed to prevent herself from collapsing to the ground. 

At this point in the week, she was getting just the slightest bit tired of walking into people.

“Sorry, sorry!” Skara quickly apologised, hoping that whoever it was she had walked into, they weren’t the kind of person who wanted to start a fight over this. “I didn’t-“ 

Then she actually saw who it was she had collided with.

Good news; it wasn’t someone who’d pick a fight with her.

Bad news; it was Amity. 

For her part, Amity’s face looked… Neutral was the best word Skara could think of. She looked a bit peeved at having been walked into, and slightly surprised at who exactly had walked into her, but aside from that, her expression was practically impenetrable. 

“…Oh.” Skara said, without really thinking about it. “Hey.” 

“…Hi.” 

“What er… What’re you doing here so late?” 

“...What’re you doing here so late?” 

“Grudgby.” Skara answered plainly, holding up her sports bag. 

“Oh.” Amity acknowledged. 

“Your turn.” 

“Just had to check some things for my Abomination class project. My siblings messed with my last one so.” She glowered, as if the very thought of the pranksters made her mad.

“Ah.” 

From what Skara remembered of them, she totally got that.

The conversation felt… Tense. Also awkward. Very awkward. Like two strangers who had been forced to make small talk. Which was weird, given that the two had been friends for years.

Well, maybe friends? Skara… wasn’t exactly sure. 

Neither of them had said a word to one another since Amity had basically left the group earlier in the year to hang out with a less… select few. She had played in the Grudgby match against Boscha’s team, and Skara had found that match kinda fun - Well, as fun as she was able to find sitting on the sidelines doing nothing much, anyway - but that was the last time either of them seriously interacted with one another. It had left where they stood with one another… Ambiguous. 

Not as ambiguous as her relationship with Willow, that much was for sure, ‘cause that was just always its own can of worms but, for her part, Skara didn’t have anything in particular against Amity. The split that had formed between them had had nothing to do with any personal issues that they had, and had everything to do with Amity’s problems with Boscha . Skara didn’t have even the slightest idea what Amity thought of her anymore, though.

Huh. Did I… ever actually know what Amity thought of me to begin with?

If the split had taught her anything, it was that they hadn’t been as close as Skara had once thought they were. 

“Yeah.” 

Still, Amity didn’t make any rapid effort to get away from Skara, so that had to mean something . What it was though, Skara didn’t know. 

A few awkward seconds passed in silence, during which Skara tried to think of what exactly to say to her old sort-of-but-not-really friend. 

As it turned out though, she couldn’t think of anything.

Clearing her throat awkwardly, Skara kept walking, taking care to step around Amity. “ Weeeell , I should be going. Nice seeing you.” 

“I’m leaving too.” Amity turned towards her former friend, and gestured down the corridor. “And, well, this is the closest way to get out of Hexside. That doesn’t, you know, involve blowing a hole in the wall.”

“Ah.” Somehow, this situation had managed to become even more awkward. 

With that, the two walked down Hexsides hallowed halls. For several moments, little noise was made, save for the light snores of the lockers. It would be almost peaceful if it wasn’t so… immensely awkward. Skara couldn’t tell if she was supposed to say something, or if they were supposed to just grin and bear it until they split apart, whenever the heck that would be. And if she was supposed to say something, say what , exactly?

This sort of anxiety about just talking to people wasn’t something that normally affected Skara. In her most default state of being, she was able to talk to just about anyone, but everything that had happened over the last few weeks had had an impact on her that kept that tendency at bay. Coupled with the uncertainty and awkwardness of their relationship currently, Skara felt that Amity in particular was a difficult person to find things to say to. In comparison,  Luz, Gus, and especially Willow were easy to talk to. 

“...So.” It was Amity who finally broke the awkward silence. “You’re on the Grudgby team? Like, as a field player.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Skara shrugged. Not exactly a topic of conversation she would have chosen, but anything beat silence at this point. “With Amelia out, they needed someone to take her place. And, well… that’s what I was meant to do, as a bench-warmer anyway, so…”

Amity simply nodded. “Cool.” 

Another brief silence.

“I’ve heard Boscha’s… pretty intense with training.”

“It’s all how pro players train.” Skara repeated what Boscha had said a dozen times during as many training sessions. She then felt the slightest taste of bitterness in her throat. “Apparently.” 

“That’s… not what I hear,” Amity mused. “Or, at least, not how the best ones do.”

“How’s the Banshee training any different from, I dunno…”Skara paused, realizing she had literally no knowledge of any professional Grudgby team. Not even their names. “The… uh… Bonesborough Bone…Breakers?”

Amity raised an eyebrow .“Well, for one, the Bonesborough Fluffy Hufflebacks don’t have their players cartwheel across the field getting chased by a monster only the most insane of Beastkeepers would try to control.”

That… was probably true.

Neither girl really said anything more the rest of the brief walk to the entryway. What really was for them to say?

As they finally walked out the entryway, Amity sighed.

“Right. I’ve… Got to go. I’m already later than my parents wanted me here.” 

“Oh. Right.” Skara nodded. “I’ll… See you around, I guess?” 

Amity just nodded noncommittally, and walked down the path to her manor. 

For a moment, Skara just watched her walk off, feeling… Uncertain about the whole interaction. Amity seemed… The best word for it was ‘lighter’ than she remembered. She seemed less restricted, or burdened, or… Something. Something about her had changed, and Skara couldn’t identify it. For just a moment. 

When it hit her, Skara felt the rapid build up in her chest, until it finally burst. 

“Wait - Amity?” 

The Abomination Witch turned back to look at Skara. 

“...What… What’s it like to not play Grudgby anymore?” 

As one would rationally expect, Amity raised an eyebrow at such an… odd question. It didn’t take long for Amity to register the hidden meaning though. 

If she had to pick one word to describe Amity, at any point in their lives, Skara would always choose ‘smart’. Amity was smart. She had always been smart. She was the one that everyone in their group went to when they didn’t understand something, from schoolwork, to Magic, to anything in between and outside of that. She was able to pick up on things before anyone else could, and she noticed things that other people missed.

Amity hadn’t played Grudgby for a long time. Long before the split between her and Boscha happened. If this was really about Grudgby, then Skara would have asked when it was relevant. 

But this question had nothing to do with Grudgby. And Amity knew that as well as Skara did. 

Looking away for a moment, Amity pondered her answer. It only took her a couple of seconds to come up with one. She looked back at Skara. 

“...Liberating.” 

Skara just… Blinked. There wasn’t much else that she could think to do as Amity turned back around, heading towards the forest pathway. 

The sports bag across Skara’s shoulder suddenly felt heavier than ever. 

Things would be better once this was all over. 

Yeah. Right. 

To Skara, being crushed under a gigantic tower would be an almost brilliant metaphor for her own current personal issues. She felt trapped under an absurd amount of weight, her body being forced down beneath tons of immovable pieces she couldn’t move. It would make for good poetry - Poetry fit for a Bard.

When it was literally almost happening directly to her, on the other hand, it felt very, very bad.

Because apparently none of Boscha’s training had been quite ridiculous enough up until this point, her final Friday plan before the game, it seemed, was to attempt dropping a dozen or so makeshift towers onto Skara, having some Construction kids building them and then knocking them over onto her. And they were really, really trying to hit her. It wouldn’t have been so bad were it not for just how unnaturally quickly the towers fell, and how sore Skara was from doing just as rigorous training all week.

Tomorrow was the big day, and Boscha, having not held back in the slightest for weeks, had apparently been finding new ways to batter her players into shape, and decided that now was the ultimate ‘Do-or-Die’ trial by fire that would determine if they were ready to take on Glandus. 

So far, she wasn’t impressed. 

“Boscha!” Skara ran between the buildings, narrowly avoiding the debris of a fallen tower. “By the Emperor’s Mercy, is this really necessary?!”

Boscha sat in the stands, an exhausted and nervous Cat to her right, and a half dozen random Construction students to her left. She jotted down a few sparse notes on her clipboard, “Actually, yes. Bria’s a Construction student. If she’ll try to break you, this will probably be how she does it.”

“ Do you need to have to use SO MANY OF THESE THINGS?!” Skara tumbled past another collapsing tower, before looking up and noting that, yup, another tower was about to collapse right on top of her. She jumped to her left, barely missing a spare brick flying too close to her. 

“Again, yes.” 

Skara didn’t have time to retort before, the last of the towers fell, leaning over on its side towards her. With one final roll, she escaped - barely - from being hit. Didn’t stop her from feeling like her lungs would collapse at any moment, but at least they hadn’t actually done so.

Skara heard Boscha telling Cat to get ready to do another run, while scribbling something into her notepad. Taking advantage of the brief respite, Skara stared up to the sky, panting her lungs out, and trying to catch her breath. It looked almost perfectly clear, nary a cloud in sight. The perfect day to be outside, thankfully. Though, Skara had to admit, preferably not like this.

As the sounds of pencil scratches faded, Skara looked up to spot something… something she hadn’t been expecting to see at all in the sky. She had to blink a couple of times, because after the amount of things that had been thrown at her today, she was genuinely half convinced that she might be hallucinating.

Willow?

“Okay, okay… So far, so good…” 

As Willow flew over the trees that surrounded Bonesborough, she made a very deliberate effort not to do anything that would upset or anger the training staff she was on, lest she ended up being thrown off of it, and getting a faceful of leaves. Ever so slightly, she veered to the left, allowing the staff more than enough space to veer with her as it saw fit. The turn wasn’t quite as tight as Willow would have liked, but she had turned nevertheless. 

When a Witch got a Palisman, said Palisman could be used to fly, but actually being able to fly required practice, or you would end up flying straight into a brick wall. Or forest. Or anything in between, really. Willow had seen examples of that dozens of times - Including just under an hour ago, when Luz had been all but shot straight into the stratosphere before she regained control of it, nervously laughing when she returned like she had caught a glimpse of the great beyond. Willow had even been involved in a couple of crashes herself, most of which also admittedly involved Luz, but there had been a few she had managed herself… Mostly in these specific classes, actually. 

Pretty much everyone on the Isles had at least a few crashes when it came to flying, after all. Better to make those mistakes while still in school. 

Of course, Hexside was a school where a mistake could get you semi-digested by a giant lizard on a particularly unlucky day, so-

But the point was , Willow was keen to avoid making said mistakes this time around. One of the things that she had been constantly told by her teachers was that if she wanted to fly, then she needed to work with the staff, not against it. If she couldn’t figure out how to work with this, then flying with a Palisman was a one-way trip to falling flat on her face. Today, she tried to put that advice into practice, and gave the staffa bit more freedom of its own.

The end result was that she seemed to have gotten better control of the broom. It went against every instinct that she had, so high up off the ground, but it seemed to be working for her, so she forced herself to stay calm, and keep on carrying on. 

After Luz had been bolted up into the sky, Amity had taken it upon herself to try to help her get a better handle of flying, so they hung a bit behind. Gus, meanwhile, had raced ahead, showing off like usual. The four of them were following a route that their instructors had laid out for them, along the outskirts of the city, to see how they could handle it. 

“Just gotta be…” She muttered to herself as she tugged on the staff to halt where she needed it to. With a gentle, but still firm hand, she found that the staff responded to her far better. “Okay, there we go… Good staffy.” 

So far, today’s flight lesson had gone well. Willow felt remarkably calm, given the circumstances. Being up in the air like this, on her own, able to determine where it was she wanted to go without too many restrictions… It felt freeing. Liberating. 

Eventually though, the route she was meant to follow looped back around and took her towards Hexside. And with that in mind, after coming to a stop, she looked around, found the direction Hexside was in, and flew overhead once again. 

It’ll be nice to have some solid ground under my feet again, she thought to herself, even if this did go a thousand times better than I expected.

Flying was significantly quicker than walking, so it didn’t take all that long for her to return to the outskirts of Hexside. This was her final class for the day, so she found herself pondering what she was going to do afterwards. 

Tend to the plants at home at some point, obviously. The last time I forgot to feed Bitey he practically tore himself out of his flowerpot to come find me. Papa asked me to pick up some Spineapple on the way back, so I guess we’re having pizza tonight. I don’t think I have any homework though, so maybe I can-

“Skara, for the Titan’s sake, run faster!”

“I am running as fast as I can! Holy - AHK!” 

The sound of crashing and yelling pulled Willow’s attention to below her - As she approached Hexside, she found herself above the Grudgby field. As one might have expected, the team was hard at work with another training session, the last one they had before the game tomorrow.

Judging by all the abominations, traps, and half a dozen other pieces of training equipment, half of which Willow didn’t have any idea what they were supposed to be, that were set up all over the field, the Plant Witch had a hunch that Boscha wasn’t holding anything back anymore. That she was pulling out all the stops, and doing absolutely everything in her power to prepare her team for the match. 

And it looked like Skara was caught in the crossfire again

“...Ow.” 

When Willow finally spotted her, Skara was having abomination goo lifting up off of her. Thankfully, before anything too body-horror oriented went down,Boscha clapped her hands twice to call it off.

Boscha groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “You need to be able to move faster than that, Skara!” The triclops’s shouting was so loud, Willow could hear it clearly, even from the sky.

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to move that fast - I was going as fast as I could!” Her voice wasn’t nearly as loud as Boscha’s, but Willow’s keen ears were sharp enough to make Skara’s words out.

“Trust me, that’s nothing compared to what Glandus is gonna throw at you.” 

“Yeah, I know…” 

“Urgh - Cat! How’s it going on your end?!” 

“I can’t… feel my arms…” 

“Good! Work through it! Skara, run that again!” 

“Okay, okay…” 

Picking herself up, Skara dusted herself down, before running to the other end of the field, and beginning the entire set-up Boscha had arranged from the beginning. Willow watched, for the lack of a better term, mesmerized, as Skara ran through nearly every obstacle with borderline perfect precision, running, jumping, vaulting over equipment that Willow didn’t even know the word for, and doing so fast that a few times, Willow literally struggled to keep track of her. 

When she got towards the end of the course though, two vats, filled to the brim with abomination goo, sprung to life, lunging themselves towards Skara at such speeds that it seemed to happen in under a second - And yet, Skara managed to dodge their initial attacks, rolling between the two of them and lunging for a cone that Willow assumed marked the end of the obstacle course. But before she could, the abominations wrung back around and shot for her, grabbing her, and pushing her into the ground before she got the chance. 

“Again, Skara?!” Boscha snapped with a loud growl, burying her head in her hands. “What’s so tough about this?!” 

“The… the abominations…” Skara wheezed, heavy breathing all the while. “I - I can’t-” 

“Glandus isn’t going to be just letting you score points! Urgh!” Boscha threw her hands into the air. “Go hit the towers - We’re going to be playing tomorrow and neither of you are ready!” 

Glancing over at Cat, she seemed to be doing some sort of push-ups, but the entire length of her arms were glowing. Willow had no idea what the heck was going on there, but the Healer looked like she was struggling just as much. 

And neither of them said a word - They just kept on doing what they were told to do.

For a while, Willow just watched it all happen. And the cycle just kept repeating itself over and over again. Skara and Cat would try their best, only for it not to be good enough for Boscha. 

“Again! Faster!” Boscha would yell. They would try, exhausted and aching, but doing the best they could, and it wouldn’t be enough, and Boscha would yell at them both. “Again! We’re never going to win at this rate!” 

Willow came very, very close to landing in the middle of the field, and demanding to know just what the heck Boscha expected out of both of them. She had just seen how quickly, now flawlessly Skara had run through the course, but one slip up, one failure against goo that moved so fast it was almost impossible to dodge, and Boscha sounded like she considered the entire run to be utterly worthless. And whatever insane training she’d put Cat under clearly was just as ludicrous.

There was, however, one difference between Skara and Cat in this situation - A crucial one. 

Cat actually wanted to be there. She was actually enjoying the training, at least in a certain way, because she actually enjoyed Grudgby. Skara, Willow knew, did not. 

Willow didn’t know what Cat and Boscha’s relationship was - She’d only seen it briefly back at the Healers, and it had been tense. But even if, hypothetically, Cat and Boscha hated one another, at least Cat was there doing something she liked. At least she was there because she chose to be there. She chose to put herself through this, knowing full-well what she was getting herself into. 

Skara though? Willow had been there when Skara had been, for lack of a better term, drafted onto the team. She knew Skara didn’t want to be there. 

Yet, here she was, still - Taking everything Boscha threw at her with barely a word of protest at this point. 

It all made Willow both upset and… Uncomfortable. 

Uncomfortable with how much she saw herself in this whole affair. It reminded her of when she was in the Abomination Track - Trying her hardest but not being able to live up to what was expected of her in an environment she didn’t even want to be in. The ridicule that she got for it. She remembered how much she hated that, how badly it messed with her head, how worthless she had felt, and how it had sucked the joy out of everything else. 

She noted how Skara wasn’t acting like herself anymore, either. How her normally outgoing, bubbly personality had been… Just gone, for a long while now. Even shortly after her breakup with Ves, she had at least occasionally pretended that it was still there, but barely did anymore. Of course, she’d been having a rough time lately, but it was like any and all joy and energy in her had been seeped out. 

And now, Willow felt like she knew exactly what had been happening. And for the first time since the cabin on the Knee, Willow felt like she actually understood Skara. Because they were both on the same receiving end of Boscha. It had just manifested in different ways. 

That, and Willow had had her friends to help her. Skara… didn’t. And even if she did, her view of friendship was so… warped, Willow wondered if it would make a difference. She had Bo, but Bo couldn’t be there like Luz, Gus, and Amity could. Bo didn’t play Grudgby. Heck, Willow wasn’t even sure if Bo knew what was happening, if Skara had told her or not. And Willow… 

Willow wished that she could help. 

At one point, Skara stopped, and let her eyes wander. And eventually, they found Willow. 

Both of them just stared at one another for a moment, surprised by the other seeing them. From this distance, they weren’t close enough to make out any distinct expressions, but Willow already knew what was going through Skara’s mind: Self-consciousness, discomfort, a degree of paranoia, and embarrassment. 

All of it lasted about ten seconds - Boscha snapped to get Skara’s attention again, and once she did, Willow veered away from the field, as quick as her broom would let her. Briefly, she looked back, and saw Skara begin another drill. Willow’s shoulders slumped, and she sighed. 

Tomorrow was the big match. After that, Skara’s torment would be over. At least, in terms of Grudgby practice. But Boscha… Skara would have to deal with Boscha after that, still. 

And for her sake, Willow hoped Hexside won. 

When Skara looked back, Willow was gone, and the sky seemed empty in comparison. Skara didn’t know where she had gone, but she couldn’t see a sign of her anywhere. Presumably, she was far away from here now. 

And Skara felt herself being tugged in two directions - away from the Grudge field, and back towards it. 

“Skara! Come on!” 

The field won. 

“...Right.”

Chapter Text

When Skara woke up, she wasn’t groggy in the least. Her eyes didn’t sting or flinch at light, and she didn’t try to roll over to get back to sleep. Her eyes just shot open, looking up at the ceiling. She laid on her back, rigid, almost like she was standing to attention, just, well, laying down. Her alarm screamed a few seconds later, and she reached her arm out and switched it off instantly, without even looking at it. She blinked a couple of times. 

Then, it all hit her at once.

And she felt like she had ingested a ball of lead. 

Today was the day - The Grudgby match between Hexside and Glandus. 

The day that the last couple of weeks had been building towards. A day Skara was both dreading, and thankful for, because once it was over, and she was laying in this bed tonight, she wouldn’t have to worry about waking up at the crack of dawn to do drills that defied all common sense and logic. A weight would be lifted from her shoulders, one way or the other. 

It was what was supposed to come next that had Skara worried. And that depended on how well they played today. How well she played. Win or lose, Skara honestly couldn’t care less. It was Boscha she was concerned with. How she would take it if they lost. If she would blame Skara for it, and how… Fun that would be. 

But after today, it’ll be done, she reminded herself. After today, this is all done with. 

With a sigh, Skara sat herself up in bed, leaning back against the headboard. She glanced around her room, noting how messy and unkempt it had gotten. These last few weeks, she’d had no time to focus on anything else other than Grudgby training and doing whatever homework she could do to keep her teachers off her back. She had kept telling herself she would clean it up, but just never did. She never had the time to. Granted, she was never the tidiest person on the Isles, but normally there was at least an attempt to make it look organized. Now there was no rhyme or reason whatsoever. Everything was just strewn about all over the place. Books, shirts and skirts thrown about the floor, instruments disorganized - She was pretty confident that some of her percussion instruments were buried under a pile of clothes in the archway of the door. 

In all that clutter though, there was a space at her desk that was relatively clear, so she had a workspace to actually do all that homework. Just some books and papers laying around, nothing too major. In the center of it, left there from the night before, was something that recaptured Skara’s eyes, and pulled her away from everything else, just as it had done the night before. 

The glyph. 

Once again, it had all her attention. She looked at it, and somehow, Skara felt like it was looking back at her. Like it had questions of its own - Like what it was doing here. 

That at least, in a physical sense, Skara could answer: It had been a rough few weeks, but the last five days in particular had been, in a single word, brutal. Every new training drill was more intense and insane than the last, and nothing that anyone did seemed to be good enough for Boscha. Each drill, they ran until it was as close to absolutely flawless as possible. Then, they’d run it another hundred times. And every time they bested their previous times, Boscha wouldn’t be happy until they bested it again. 

This match means a lot to Boscha, Skara reminded herself. Things will return to normal once it’s done.  

So when Skara was taking care of all her Grudgby equipment the day before, she took pause for just a fraction of a second. Made her run her eyes across the books lined up in her locker, and land on a piece of paper between Magical Musical Theory, and Petrimo’s Greatest Compositions. The glyph Willow had given her on Monday. And like the Magic it was supposed to invoke, it seemed to glow in front of Skara. 

Ever since Willow had given it to her, Skara had felt conflicted. Actually using it would be a weakness, and not to mention completely unnecessary. But at the same time, something about it was… She didn’t know. 

Compelling? Comforting?  

But all that did was circle back to it being a weakness. And the whole cycle began again. And she had enough on her mind as it was. So she had just thrown it in her locker, and tried her best to forget about it. 

But she hadn’t been able to. That was why her eyes had been pulled towards it. She couldn’t forget that it was there.

She had shut the locker, and had been about halfway down the corridor before she stopped, cursed, went back, opened the locker, and took the glyph out. Whatever was going on, it had gone on long enough. 

When she got home, she had gone straight into her room, and done nothing but put the glyph on her desk, sat there, and just stared at it, trying to figure out what the heck it was about this thing that she couldn’t get out of her head. To find some rhyme or reason, some logic to explain why she couldn’t just crumple the thing up and toss it in the trash. To find some reason why every time she tried, her hands turned to jelly. To explain why… Why any of this was a thing she had to deal with. She sat there for hours, searching her head for some explanation as to why any of this was. 

It had all been in vain, though. 

There was just… Nothing. Nothing that had occurred to the Bard. Nothing she could think of. And come morning, still nothing had come to her. She didn’t know what it was about this glyph specifically that was messing with her. 

Getting up out of bed, Skara walked over to the desk, and looked down at the glyph. It looked the exact same as it had the night before. Not that Skara had expected it to change, she supposed, just that maybe… she didn’t know, something would be different.

She picked the paper up. It felt heavier than it should have been, but just as much as it did the night before. She stared at it for a solid minute, before she sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose. 

“Why did I bring this thing here?” She wondered aloud, and to no one in particular. It hadn’t accomplished a thing. If anything, she felt like she had more questions than answers now. 

Before she could contemplate anything any further, her scroll beeped. Summoning it with the flick of her wrist, she opened it up, and to absolutely no surprise at this point, read a message from Boscha. 

’Meet up at the gate in an hour.’ 

Skara sighed. “Morning to you, too.” . She was about to type up a message in response, but paused. Instead, she just replied with a thumbs-up emote. There wasn’t really much point in responding with anything else. Once sent, her arms flopped at her sides, and she sighed again. “It’ll all be over and done with after today…” 

An hour to get ready. Right. That was enough time to get something light for breakfast, at least. 

Sending her Scroll away, dropping the glyph back on her desk, she lazily pushed some clutter on the floor to the side with her foot so she could actually open the door, before making her way out of her room, towards the kitchen and the pantry. 

The pantry was more like a walk-in closet. Hundreds of ingredients and spices for all the greatest meals on the Isles; the finest cloven hooves were neatly stacked next to the freshest of fairies, still trying to claw their way out of their jars, and a thousand other ingredients Skara couldn’t name, all adorned the shelves. If Skara was looking to cook, she’d probably be grateful for the endless ingredients. But right now, she was just a hungry fifteen year old on a time crunch - All she needed was a snack. 

Not that it would be easy to find one in here.

“Alright, let’s see here.” She scanned the pantry’s contents as quickly as she could, hoping to spot any breakfast bars or readily available snacks. “Hmm… C’mon, there’s gotta be something here…”

“Skara, dear?”

Turning around, Skara spotted her mother at the entryway to the pantry. She must have just woken up recently, since she was still wearing a pale nightgown, and her hair was floating, uncoordinated and haphazardly.. 

“Oh. Hey, mom. I didn’t wake you, did I? Sorry, I just-”

Her mother shook her head, chuckling lightly. She stepped forward, and placed her hands onto her shoulders. “Oh, my sweet little Skara. I promise, you did not wake me. I was simply coming down to cook us a wonderful breakfast before heading to theater practice.” She let Skara go. “Would you like to help me whip up something?” She turned her attention to the pantry shelves. “I was thinking Screamberry Creapes, those sound delicious.”

That… Did sound good, but… Skara shook her head. “I’d love to help mom, really, but… well, I actually gotta get ready for the game.”

Her mother turned to her daughter, confused for a moment, before understanding crossed her face. “Ah, right. Your Grudgby match. That’s today.”

Skara nodded, trying to hide her wince at the reminder. “Yeah. And I gotta leave soon, so I was gonna just grab a breakfast bar or something.”

“Bleh.” Her mother’s face contorted into pure disgust. “Nothing so plain and abhorrent. Only the finest meals will do for my child.”

“I’ve only got five minutes to-”

“Then I’ll cook you a masterpiece in five minutes. I promise you, your stomach will thank me.”  

“...Well…” She had to admit, her mothers cooking would be the risk of being a little late to the meeting. “… I guess a quick omelette wouldn’t hu-”

“Oh, delightful!” The luminous mother seemed to become more alive at the mention of cooking. “Then pull out the pots and pans, I shall collect the ingredients, and we’ll make you something to rival even the finest of feasts!” She took a nimble finger and booped her daughter’s nose lovingly. 

A minute later, Skara was leaning on the countertop, handing her mother a pinch of salt while the older woman began to turn the gooey innards of two griffin eggs into a piece of flavourful art. 

“And don’t forget a smidge of Runa Peprika,” her mother declared, “to add a bit of pep to your step.”

“But not a dash,” Skara remembered, “Or you’ll be dead in a flash.”

“Exactly!” Her mother ruffled Skara’s hair, a smile piercing her lips. “Such a smart girl!”

Skara chuckled, a little dryly. “Heh. Well, I try to be.”

“Speaking of trying…”

Skara looked up at her mother, quizzically. The woman was speaking in the sort of tone a parent gives when they try to be coy, but they can’t really hide their feelings from their kids. “Oh?”

“I heard that Hexside was planning to put on a big play later this year.”

“Oh. Really?”

She nodded, flipping the now softened egg’s in their pan. “That’s right.” 

“Do you know what the show is?” 

“Not sure. Only that it’s one of the classics. I was curious if you considered, perhaps, auditioning?”

Skara blinked. Honestly, in all the rush of Grudgby, she’d forgotten theatre. Which was terrible because theatre was something she lived for..

She enjoyed theatre. She really did. Growing up, she’d seen at least one performance of her mothers shows, awe inspired at witnessing a woman she thought she knew everything about showcase a brand new side each night. She’d learned to read by helping her mother learn lines. She’d even insisted on auditioning for commercials as a child! And despite horrific trauma brought on by failed exploding toothpaste, Skara still wanted to at least attempt stage acting. It was wild she’d forgotten theatre season was coming up!

“I’d love to! I just, I’ve been busy with school and everything, and this big match, so I just… well, I just haven’t thought about it.”

Her mother nodded. “Oh, you’ve been under a lot of stress these last few weeks, I know. But if you’d like, perhaps I could help give you some classes on acting. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but your mother just so happens to be-“

“The biggest diva on the Isles?”

Her mother drew back, hand over her mouth in mock horror. “Oh, well I never!” 

Skara just chuckled. “But, yeah… some acting classes wouldn’t kill me. I’d need to work them in between Grudgby practices, those wouldn’t be over, but… it be…”

Skara couldn’t help but imagine being on stage, performing in real theatre, getting into character, being someone entirely new.

“It’d be nice.”

“Splendid!” Her mother clapped her hands before flipping the omelette. “I’m sure you’ll get the lead role in a heartbeat!”

Skara shook her head. “Oh, well, I’m just a freshman. Probably couldn’t get the lead if I tried.”

Her mothers face lightly fell. “Oh. Ah, the cruelties of youth…”

”Maybe I could be the understudy. I know I’d  just be a replacement but-”

“Nope!” Her mother raised a hand to force her daughter to stop. “Never think of yourself like that. Or anyone else. An understudy is just as important as the lead actor.” She smiled.

The timer screamed out, and the biggest diva on the Isles smiled. “There. A five minute omelette, just as promised.” And, not only was it on time, but as always, it looked and smelled beautiful: fluffy and bright, filled with delicious peppers and spices, with a hint of something Skara could only ever sense in her parents cooking, a sniff of something she could only ever describe as pure magic. She had to admit, this sure was gonna beat a breakfast bar.

“Now, I may not understand the appeal of your sportsball.” Her mother took her spatula, sliding the omelette off of her pan and onto a plate with a fork and knife, handing it to Skara. “But, I assure you, as long as you’re happy, then so am I.”

“Really?”

Her mother nodded. “Of course!” Leaning down, she kissed her daughter's forehead gently. “All that matters is that my favourite little bard is happy.”

Skara blushed in embarrassment, despite the distinct lack of anyone else to witness the act of affection. “Moooooom-”

She simply smiled. “Now, you head out for your game.”

“Thanks. I… I appreciate this.”

“Don’t worry, sweetie.” She gave a sparkling smile. “You have a great match! Your father may have a few child exorcisms to do but I promise, we will be with you in spirit.”

“Think dad can send a few my way for more support?” It was meant as a real joke, but it came out a little hollow, like it was rehearsed, staged. 

Her mother rolled her eyes, as if not noticing the awkward delivery of her daughter's words. “Oh, you.”

Skara simply smiled as she waved back, taking the omelette with her. She had to admit, even when she was shoving it into her mouth to try and finish it fast… her mom's cooking was really dang good.

Returning to her room, Skara threw on a faded old t-shirt and some plain, baggy sweatpants. Not her usual style, but she wouldn’t be wearing it for long anyway. 

She was good to go. But before she could set off, her eyes fell back onto her desk, and back onto the glyph. 

For a solid five seconds, she just stared at it.

Then, she shook her head, grabbed it, stuffed the cursed thing into her pocket, and headed out the door. If she couldn’t figure out what it was about it that was bugging her, and couldn’t bring herself to throw it away, she could at least put the stupid thing back in her locker whenever she got the chance. 

After all, the game would be over. She’d finally be free.

She’d finally be happy.

Hexside had pumped a frankly disturbing amount of resources and hype into the Glandus match over the last few weeks. Though, to be fair, that wasn’t anything especially new. The two schools had always been rivals, and Hexside always made a big show whenever it hosted a match. And though it meant that the weeks leading up to such an event were choppier than usual, it always worked. 

Even on a weekend, a huge amount of the student body had turned out for the match. There were banners, stalls, ribbons, and what Willow assumed - and would choose to believe even if told otherwise - were decorative bones that petrified from the ground, like miniature versions of the Titan’s Ribcage, to form an archway along the path to the entrance towards Hexside. Said archway was decorated in blue and gold streams, so people would have to walk underneath Banshee-themed decorations before they arrived at the entryway steps, and underneath the giant, levitating blue banner with huge, golden writing that read, ‘Go Get ‘em, Banshees!’ that had become a traditional decoration for the team. 

“You’ve gotta admit,” Gus said, hands on his hips, and a smirk on his face, “the Illusion Track has outdone itself this time.” 

After everything that the school had done to pump it’s students up for the match, and all the resources they’d thrown the Banshee’s way, anything less would have been a disappointment. That might have been why they had recruited the Illusion Track to help them get everything prepared and in place for today. 

“You guys got all of this set up since yesterday?” Willow mused, impressed. Just yesterday, the area was as barren as ever. Now, it looked like a fantastical birthday party for a baby Titan. It would have taken days to set all of this up normally. 

“We’re Illusionists.” Gus said, proudly. “If there’s anyone who knows how to get a show set up quickly, it’s us.” Then he paused and shrugged. “Also we got first dibs on seats for the game if we got it done on time.” 

“There’s something to be said for incentive.” 

Illusion Track assisted or not though, the sheer spectacle and feeling like she was part of the moment was something that Willow had always enjoyed. 

She scanned the courtyard, seeing that even the trees and sides of the building had been covered in decorations. Motivating posters of Banshee’s blasting Phoenixes and extinguishing their fires adorned the walls, and the trees were coated in just as many, if not more, gold and blue ribbons as the bones. Willow had to admit, the space looked like it was decorated for a major league game.

And it didn’t stop with the decorations. Plenty of the student body had shown up, and there wasn’t a shortage of people from Glandus already here either. Groups of students, wearing jerseys and hats of their respective teams. Some students had set up miniature stalls, selling team merchandise to those who didn’t have any, while a few smart scammers sold refreshments at twenty snails a cup. Everyone was acting so carefree, so jovial, that outside the team-based rivalries that flared up occasionally, it almost looked like a carnival. 

Willow had to smile at it all. The revelry was infectious; all the excitement and joy, everyone enjoying themselves. It was the sort of thing Willow lived for. Nothing made her happier than everyone else being happy.

For just the briefest of moments, Willow almost forgot that underneath all of that, this match wasn’t just about the game. Then she remembered. 

Her smile faltered. 

“Nope. Nope nope nope nope nope.” 

Turning her head, Willow saw Luz and Amity returning to her and Gus. Luz had her arms crossed shaking her head and looking like she’d just seen a Spirit-Demon. Amity had one of her hands on Luz’s shoulder, and the other arm around her neck so the respective hand could hold Luz’s other shoulder in a sort of half-hug. 

“Hey, are you okay, Luz?” Gus asked. 

“Luz got Cotton candy.” Amity explained, glancing at the Human with concern. “It had spiders in it.”

“Who puts spiders in cotton candy?” Luz asked, shuddering. “Who, I ask you, who?!” 

Willow felt a cold shiver run up her spine. She’d had one too many experiences with Spider-Yeti’s recently to be especially fond of spiders generally. 

Meanwhile, Gus raised an eyebrow at Amity. She just gave a small shrug. “I… Think it’s a Human thing?”

“Look, I like spiders as much as the next spider-breathing griffon,” Luz grumbled, “but I’d prefer to not eat them.”

“Why didn’t you just ask for it without spiders, then?” Gus asked. 

“It’s cotton candy - I didn’t think that I’d need to!”  

“Come on.” Amity gently nudged Luz back towards the stalls. “We’ll see if any stalls have any water or something that we can get you.” 

“Just as long as it’s not… Boiling Isles-y water?” 

“We’ll do our best.” 

Luz and Amity walked back to see if the Boiling Isles had anything to eat that didn’t taste like it was from the Boiling Isles, Willow and Gus following close behind. Normally, Luz’s various antics and Amity’s responses to them would have made Willow smirk an all-knowing smirk, but today, she didn’t have the heart to. Too much on her mind. 

It wandered to Skara. The last few weeks had been… Revealing was the only real word that Willow could think to use. That was the only word she could think of that felt truly descriptive. 

She’d been there when Skara had been all but dragged into playing for the Banshees. She’d seen Boscha’s training methods dozens of times, as they grew more and more extreme and absurd. She’d heard the way Skara spoke about her relationship with Boscha and her friends. Seen her paranoia and loneliness manifest. Saw the way that Boscha treated Skara during all of this. Saw how Skara had just taken it with barely a word of protest. 

Thinking about it all, there was… A lot. And none of it was okay. 

Yesterday, when she had been on her staff, and saw the team training in the field, it all finally… clicked for Willow. What was really happening there, and why it was happening. 

What it reminded her of. 

“Thank you.” To her side, Willow heard the vendor of the stall that they had ended up at, speaking to Amity and Luz as they purchased the Human something to drink. “Enjoy the game!” 

To everyone here, this was just a big Grudgby match. That was what it was on the surface.  

To Skara, It had to feel like everything was on the line. 

To Willow, it felt far too much like her time back in the Abomination Track, where her day-to-day was going to be defined by how well or by how poorly she performed. 

And the worst part was that, if Skara was anything like Willow, she was good at things she felt a passion for. But the most high stake things they were forced into… she didn’t have any passion for them. At all.  

It was hard to be enthusiastic about the event when all that was running around inside her head. 

Before her mind could continue to wander, she felt a jolt up her side. “Hey.”

She looked down to spot Gus, elbowing her in the ribs lightly, looking up at her. “You okay, Willow?”

“Oh. Yeah. I’m okay. Why?”

“Well, you’ve been sort of just walking forward.”

“And?”

“...And Luz and Amity went… This way.”

He pointed away from Willow’s walking path, closer to the arena, where Luz and Amity were standing. Willow had been about ten seconds away from walking into a stall. 

“Whoops.” Willow blushed, embarrassed. “Sorry. Got… distracted.”

Before Gus could ask her ‘by what,’ Willow jogged her way past him and over to the others, hoping to see what had stopped them in their tracks. 

“Ooooh, what’s going on over there?” 

Luz was pointing towards a crowd, and Willow tilted her head to look at that. 

The crowd was made up of students, overwhelmingly from Glandus, while the few Hexside students that were there kept their distance, just watching on. They had clamoured around something that was in the middle of one of the footpaths, just a little bit away from any of the nearby stalls, but whatever it was, it was obscured by the people in the crowd. Some of them were shouting and cheering, though from this distance, it was hard for any of the four friends to make out anything that was being said.

“Any idea what that huge pile-on’s about?” Luz tilted her head, curious about the site. Ever the curious soul drawn to the crowd, Luz wandered towards the rabble. “I’m gonna see if it's anything cool.”

“Er, Luz-”

“Relax Willow, It’s just a bunch of Glandus fans - How bad can it be? C’mon, follow me!” Luz gestured for the others to follow as she wiggled her way between a pair of Glandus kids.

“Hey, Luz, wait up!” Amity called out, following the Human into the crowd. 

Willow sighed. Well, might as well get trampled on with friends, right?

She followed the two of them through the same space the others had entered through, and heard Gus close behind. After a moment of struggling through the tight knit gaggle of crazed students, she came to the front of the group, Luz and Amity already there, and all of them seeing what was going on.

At the centre of the crowd, there were three people, all of them dressed in Grudgby uniforms, though they weren’t Hexside uniforms: the centre gem was a triangle as opposed to an oval, their uniforms were purple with white highlights instead of blue and gold, and their ‘warpaint’ as it was traditionally called was a simple rectangular block, not Banshee tears. They were the Glandus team, Willow realized. She felt like she had a rough memory of one or two of them from other games she had seen, but they were incredibly foggy and non-descript. 

The Glandus students were all handing them pieces of paper, articles of clothing, or just holding up a limb - most of which were still attached to their bodies - while the players themselves were signing autographs on everything that was put in front of them. 

One member of the team, a girl that Willow vaguely recognized, seemed to be relishing the spotlight in particular. “No need to rush, everyone! We still have some time before the match starts! We’ll get to as many of you as we can! And if we miss you, don’t worry, we’ll get back to you…” 

As if to punctuate the point, the girl tapped her marker pen against the forehead of a student she was writing on, dotting the letter ‘I’ in her name, with force that the student in question actually stumbled back. 

“…Once we’ve crushed Hexside’s team into the dirt!”

Another chorus of cheers followed from all the Glandus Students. Cheers of “Crush them!”, “Show no mercy!” And “Glandus! Glandus!”, filled Willow’s ears, and the team at the centre of it all had only the smuggest and widest of grins, complete with an air of sheer confidence and determination that was hard to ignore. 

“Man, and I thought Hexside made a big deal about Grudgby.” Luz stated. “Glandus is really pumped for this!” 

“It’s a rival match.” Amity said, simply. “Both teams are fired up.” 

“Everyone’s fired up!” Gus added, gesturing around him at all the students, staff, and townsfolk that were there. “It’s gonna be the match of the year!”

Without meaning to, Willow’s mind wandered back to Skara. 

“No pressure or anything, then.” She muttered to herself. 

“You’re as delusional as ever, aren’t you, Bria?” 

The crowd began to part as they turned to face the source of the insult. Willow already knew who it was, not that it made her excited. The Glandus girl, though - Bria, apparently - her face morphed into another smug grin, but one that made her seem more amused than anything. 

“Boschy! ” Bria’s voice turned almost sickeningly sweet as she twirled around to face Boscha. “You came to see us before the match! How sweet of you! I’d’ve thought you’d be teaching your team how to gracefully accept defeat!” 

Willow blinked, and raised an eyebrow. If the situation wasn’t so quickly becoming tense, and all context were sandblasted away, she might have found the name ‘Boschy’ funny. 

In this context though, she was more just confused. 

“Like I said - You’re delusional.” Unlike Bria, Boscha’s tone was far darker, like she was talking through gritted teeth. “You should probably see someone about that.”

“Confident, aren’t we?” Bria grinned. “I’m guessing you’ve trained those lackeys or yours to actually play then?” 

To Boscha’s sides, Cat and Skara stood, completely overshadowed by the back-and-forth between Bria and Boscha. All Willow could do was blink again - She had been enraptured by it too. She hadn’t even noticed Skara standing there. 

She looked… Uncomfortable was the only word for it. Clearly, she didn’t want to be there. If Willow didn’t know any better, she’d almost say that Skara had stage-fright. It wasn’t like that was unheard of in Bards, but it was rare, so it surprised Willow. But then again, Skara was entirely out of her element - How wouldn’t she have stage-fright? 

“My team is just fine.” Boscha bit back. 

“You’re sure? You do still have the Bard, you know.” Bria smirked. She then briefly glanced at Skara. “Nothing against you personally, sweetie, just, you know. Bard’s aren’t exactly well known for being great at sports.” 

Skara shifted, and just looked away, towards the floor. Willow felt her hands ball up into fists. 

“You should worry about your own teammates.” Boscha warned. She jabbed a finger towards one of the players, the shortest one there. “You don’t want that one chasing after butterflies again instead of actually playing the match, now do you?” 

“Don’t you worry about him, Boschy.” 

She took a couple of steps forward, so she was face-to-face, nearly nose-to-nose with Boscha. Each step forward, Boscha’s face grew redder and redder, and morphed angrier and angrier. Bria just grinned. 

“Worry about me.”

Before another word could be gotten out between them though, the sky above grew darker. As everyone turned to look up above, they saw a large banner, large enough to cast a large shadow, floating overhead. After a few seconds, giant, glowing letters began to appear on the banner. 

‘The match will begin in thirty minutes. Players, make your way to your dug-outs. Attendees, make sure you find your seats soon.’

“Aw, well.’ Bria sighed, and put her hands on her hips. “And I was having so much fun here, too.” She glared at Boscha, eyes like daggers, and smirking. “Guess we’ll solve this in the match.” 

“That’s been my intention this entire time.” Boscha replied. 

“Always so serious.” Bria chuckled. “I always did like that about you. Looking forward to it.” 

Without missing a beat, she turned around to the crowd, and adopted that much lighter tone of voice once again. 

“I hope everyone here is, too!” 

Another round of cheers followed. Boscha’s face just got redder, she’d been caught out - Like she’d forgotten that there were other people around her in the first place. She looked for all the world like she wanted to scream at Bria, but was now holding herself back because she remembered there were people around. Willow couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen Boscha like that. 

Turning around, and gesturing towards Cat and Skara, Boscha stormed off towards the dugouts. Skara and Cat stood still for a couple of seconds, before following her. 

For a moment, Willow considered running after them, mostly just to speak to Skara - To offer her luck, or reassure her that Bria had no idea what she was talking about, or something. But by the time she had thought to do so, Skara was already out of sight. 

“What was that all about?” Luz questioned, eyebrows raised. 

Amity just sighed. “Those two haven’t changed in the least… Come on, we should find our seats. I’ll tell you all about it.” 

“I know where we’re at!” Gus cheerfully told everyone. “C’mon, follow me!” 

Willow kept looking in the direction she had last seen Skara, kicking herself for not running after her. Then, she sighed. 

“…Alright, let’s go.” 

Everyone began to make their way towards the stadium. Willow double checked the direction she had seen Skara go off in though, as if by doing so, somehow she was going to be there again. 

It felt weird, being worried about Skara like this. But Willow couldn’t help it. 

“You ever seen the Bard before?” 

“Never.” 

A couple of Glandus students were standing still, speaking with one another, as Willow walked next to them. ‘The Bard’ could only refer to Skara. Willow’s ears perked up. 

“I dunno what Hexside’s thinking, having a Bard of all things on their team.” From their uniform, they had to be from the Construction Track. 

“Apparently their usual player was in the Healers until recently. They had to bring in a benchwarmer.” The other seemed to be another Plant Track student. “I guess it’ll be an easy win for Glandus.” 

“You’d think they’d get someone other than a Bard, though.” The Construction Track one said again. “Bard’s aren’t suited to Grudgby at all. Pretty much anyone other than a Bard would be a better choice. They might as well have dragged me out there.”

“Or a Yuxa-Serpent.” 

“Hah!” 

“If that’s true, then why is Skara the one on the team, and you’re the one watching her play?” Willow questioned. 

Both of them turned around to look at Willow, utter confusion on both of their faces. If she were being honest, Willow felt just as surprised as they looked that she had actually said anything. 

She didn’t back down though. She stared both of them down, like she was daring either of them to make an actual response to what she had said. 

“Willow?” To the side, Gus called over to his friend. He looked as confused as the Glandus students. “What’s going on? “

A single moment passed, and Willow sighed. 

“…Nothing.” She answered, and broke her glare from the two Glandus students, and made her way back to Gus. “Come on, let’s go.”

Skara stood just outside the player’s changing room inside the players’ tunnel, looking out into the stadium. She could see the stadium lights shining bright as flames, and hear the cheers of both schools' respective supporters were excited, energetic, and loud. Skara’s keen Bard ears twitched at the noises, trying but failing to make out individual, passionate chants, aggressive jeers, and everything in between.

And there was… A lot of all of it. Skara didn’t get stage-fright. She adored an audience. She was a Bard, for goodness sake! She wouldn’t be a very good one if she got stage-fright! 

She was a performer, a musciscian. She was amazing at music and rhythm and playing with instruments she had spent months, if not years learning the ins-and-outs of, figuring out exactly what made them tick. She was good at bouncing off of the crowd, who were there for the same reason she was - A love of music, a love of stories, and a love of performance. That, she was good at. That, she could do.  

Grudgby though? 

For a short while, Skara had let herself feel like she would be able to handle this. Practice was horrendous, but she could at least get herself through each session without breaking down. She had at least gotten better at the game - If Boscha’s insane drills were good for one thing, it was making sure people got good at Grudgby fast. She had thought if she could do that, then just playing the game wouldn’t be so different. Playing in front of a crowd wasn’t a big deal, she had thought. Between her Bard Track classes, recitals, and performances, she was used to having an audience. She handled them all the time. 

But this crowd was different. Unlike anything she’d dealt with before. They weren’t here for a performer - They were here for a fighter. Someone who reveled in the chaos of a contact sport like this. They were here for a brawl, because that was what Grudgby was once you got right down to it. 

They were here for everything that Skara wasn’t. And it all hit her at once. 

She couldn’t help it… she was scared.

We’re going to lose. We’re going to lose and lose hard and I’m going to be entirely responsible for it.

“Hey.”

A soft, reassuring voice cut through Skara’s fears for a moment, and she turned to see Cat, smiling, a hand on her shoulder. 

“You ready?”

‘Not really’ was the answer Skara honestly wanted to give. But because she didn’t want to worry Cat, instead, she glanced to the floor, took in a deep breath, exhaled, and nodded . “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Cat raised the corner of her lips up, offering a reassuring smile, like she could see through Skara’s façade, but understood. “We got this Skara. Don’t sweat it.”

“Alright you two - Listen up!”  

Both of them turned and saw Boscha, coming out from the locker room, clad in her full Grudgby uniform, standing tall, proud, and angrily, with an air of authority and drive surrounding her every movement and word. Boscha was clearly in her element. The same chaotic energy of the stadium that caused Skara to shrink was the same power that drove and invigorated the Grudgby star. Like just being here had fuelled the spark that made her… well, her. 

“This is it. We’ve been training for this day in, day out, and now it’s here.” The Captain walked over to the two girls, wrapping her arms around their necks with a teeth-bearing grin, her fangs sharpened almost to a point, like she had filled them just for today. It made Skara ponder if Boscha intended to bite her opponents if she felt the need. “All my coaching, all the training, finally, for this ! Our fight with Glandus.”

“Yeah. Our Fight. With Glandus.” Skara mumbled, remembering the ‘confrontation’ with the Glandus team. 

Boscha’s enthusiasm was not infectious, not that she seemed to realize that. “Today we show that loser school and their loser captain who’s boss, and neither will ever wanna show their face around here again!” 

Skara was just glad for it all to be over soon.

“Good evening, Hexside School of Magic and Demonics!”

The stadium crowd began to roar like lions at the loud, aggressively excited voice of the loudspeakers.

“I’m BBN-HXN’s very own number one Banshee fan, Perry Porter, and with me for the most exciting game of our lives is my co-host, Wendil! Wendil, are you ready for what will undoubtedly be one of the most exciting games of Grudgby you’ve ever seen?!?”

“I have already seen the outcome of this game, along with all their tragic ends.”

“Well, that is positively terrifying!” Perry noted without skipping a beat. “ANYWAY - Today is the big game! Hexside versus Glandus! Banshee against Phoenix! Rival versus Rival!” 

Wow. People… Really take this game too seriously.

“Now.” Boscha unsnaked her arm from around Skara’s throat, and held it out before them all. “Counting down from three. Ready?”

“Ready.” Cat nodded. She put her hand on top of Boscha’s. 

“R…Right.” Skara did the same. 

“Alright, girls. Three, two, one!” Boscha threw her hand into the air. “Let’s get out there and win this thing!”  

Or just finish it. That would be nice too.

Skara watched as Boscha and Cat stepped out from the darkened hall and into the stadium, waving hands to the Hexside side of the aisles. She stayed back, though, for a second. The feeling in her gut, the fear of embarrassment she’d felt, stuck in her. She would cost them all the game. She knew it.

But she sighed. Let’s get this over with.

“Ah. So dad’s gonna be the commentator today.” Gus muttered. “Great. ”

He sighed as he looked up from one of the hand-out pamphlets he had been given when they had entered the stadium. He grumbled as he also lead the rest of the group to their seats. 

“You didn’t know?” Willow asked. 

“No, he didn’t mention it. Would have been nice if he had. Knowing him, he probably thought it’d be a cool surprise.” 

“I mean, I like your dad's commentary.” Willow shrugged. “It’s very lively. Makes the game more interesting to watch.”

“Yeah…. but it’s still embarrassing .”

Willow chuckled. Gus wasn’t easily embarrassed, so she had to admit, it was funny whenever he did.

“Alright!” Gus suddenly said, coming to a stop. “These are our seats.” 

They were closer to the Glandus side of the field then Banshee’s, but it was only one row above the one closest to the field. It was a good stop to be able to see the game from. 

Luz took the furthest spot, quickly followed by Amity, then Gus, with Willow taking the last available spot. She nestled herself into the seat, and had to admit, even with her earlier reservations and worries about Skara, she couldn’t help but be excited for a game of Grudgby this big.

“This is gonna be awesome.” Her statement wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular, but more a general statement to help calm her nerves and help her get into the Grudgby spirit.

“I know, right? I am pumped! ”

“So am -” Willow blinked, and turned to the voice. “Wait, what the - Amelia?”

In the row below her, and one seat to Willow’s left, sat Amelia, waving up at her.  “Heyo!”

“Hey,” Willow greeted the other Plant Track student, but felt her eyebrows raise. “Aren’t you… Supposed to be in the Healers, still?” 

“If you wanna be technical about it, sure.” Amelia shrugged, and pointed to the seat next to her, and Willow noted a pair of crutches, being held by Bo. The Healing student just nodded at Willow in greeting as Amelia carried on, “I’m not ‘Play Grudgby’ better, but I am ‘Watch Grudgby in person’ better.” 

“That and you insisted.” Bo added. 

“That and I insisted, yes.”

Bo rolled her eyes and smiled lightly. “And I'm here if something happens to her.”

“That’s great to hear.” Willow smiled as well. “Glad you’re feeling better.” 

“Yeah, thanks,” Amelia grinned. “Even had the time to make this awesome sign for Cat!” A pause. “Er, I mean, the team. And, well, also Cat.”

“What d’you mean?”

“Well, I mean, it sorta has Cat on it. And, well, it’s mostly about her. But it’s just, well, a thank you thing. Like, you know, she was there with me a lot during the surgeries, and she was super funny and sweet the whole time, and maybe I thought her laugh was really cute and-” 

Another pause. Amelia’s face had been getting more and more scarlet with each flustered word. Now she just remained silent. 

“...I’m just gonna stop talking now, okay? Okay.” 

With that, Amelia turned back around to firmly look out to the Grudgby field, and hid her face from Willow. Bo gave Willow a knowing look, and Willow returned the look, before leaving Bo to speak to Amelia on their own. Willow hid her smirk behind her fist, trying not to laugh, not wanting to upset Amelia in case she heard. 

She was distracted from that by feeling an elbow lightly prod at her in the ribs. She turned, and saw Gus. He had his ‘I’m being serious’ face on. 

“Hey, what’s going on?” He asked, quietly as he could so as to still be heard, clearly not wanting Luz, Amity, or anyone else to hear him.

“What?” Willow blinked, confused. “Nothing? Why-”

“Willow, you’ve been acting… Odd for a while now.” His voice was gentle and concerned, but it also conveyed a curiosity and firmness to it as well. Like he already knew Willow wasn’t going to tell him unless he pushed her. “After… Heck, even before that whole mess on the Knee, you’ve been… Off. I mean…” 

For a moment, Gus didn’t move, or say anything. His eyes rolled back for a second as he thought, and his hands made vague, non-specific, non-committed gestures. He then sighed, and looked back to his friend. 

“Okay, I get that you were stuck on the Knee with Skara, and that stuff happened there.” He elaborated. “And I didn’t pry about that cause you didn’t seem like you wanted to talk about it, and that’s all fine. But you seem… I don’t know, distracted, I guess? I thought you’d been looking forward to this match for a while? But you barely even seem like you’re all here, and I just…” 

He paused again, not sure how to further proceed. Willow didn’t say anything, not wanting to push him. He sighed lightly. 

“…Are you alright?” He eventually asked. “Is there something wrong?” 

Willow… found herself unsure how to answer that question. 

“Is it something to do with Skara?” It was the only real question he could think to ask. “If you’re not comfortable because of her, we can leave if you want. I’m not too bothered about missing this -“ 

“No, no.” Willow shook her head. “No it’s… Not that. It…” She sighed. “Look, it… I want to be here, but… I learned some stuff that makes this all feel… Different, I guess.” 

“What stuff?” 

“…The kind of stuff I’m not comfortable telling you.” She sighed again, and quickly added, “I’m sorry, it’s not ‘cause I don’t trust you, it’s ‘cause… I don’t think it’s for me to say. Any of it. If any of this was happening to me, I wouldn’t want you to tell someone. Not without me telling you it’s okay to first.” 

“…That’s not always the best idea, you know.” Gus said. He wasn’t accusatory with his words at all. Just observant, and gentle. “If it was something serious happening to you, I don’t know if I could live with myself if I didn’t say something to someone.” 

Another exhale escaped Willow. “I know, and I might even feel the same, but… I don’t think that applies here.” 

There was another moment of silence, made all the more deafening by the sounds of those in the arena around them, cheering and wooing and chanting for their team.

“…Okay.” Gus finally said, nodding. “I trust you. Just… If things get too much, we can go.” 

“…Thanks.” Willow offered a small smile. “I’m sorry I can’t say. If something changes, I’ll-“  

 But before Willow could finish, the loudspeaker literally sputtered and coughed as it began to speak.

Officially signalling the players were about to enter the field. And that the game would begin.

Stepping forward, Skara entered the roaring cheers of the crowd. She decided to at least attempt waving to the crowd, if for no other reason then to try and calm her own nerves.

Thankfully, looking at the crowd did actually help cheer Skara up, at least a little. Dozens upon dozens upon dozens of Hexside students were standing tall, draped in the school's gold and blue outfits and chanting or singing the team’s praises. Signs proclaiming such colorful statements as “BASH’ EM, BANSHEE’S” were held high and proud. To Skara, it was a little bit like a standing ovation, albeit before the performance rather than after one. Once again, she tried to reassure herself.

It’s just like a performance, Skara. Nothing wrong with that. Just perform like you practiced and you’ll be fine.

As her eyes scanned the stands, one sign caught her attention: A large sign, adorned with large shining stars and… Skara blinked. Was that a heart? It was hard to tell, since some of it was covered by the people in front, but she swore that she could make out “GO CAT, MY #1!” alongside a cutsified drawing of Cat.

Somehow, Skara had a feeling she knew the owner of that sign.

But before she could craft up a witty way to ask Cat about one Plant Witch, her eyes stopped on another. Sat not at all far from Cat, and unobscured by other attendees, there was Willow, sat with the rest of her friends, cheering, like everyone else in the crowd was.

Skara blinked, her wave faltering. What in the world was Willow doing here? Skara had always just sort of assumed that Willow didn’t like this game. Especially after that match that she had had with Boscha earlier in the year. And besides that - She didn’t exactly have much reason to want to cheer for the Banshees of all teams.  

Why are you here? You know that literally everyone on this team has…

It’s nothing. She’s just here for the sport. For school spirit, probably.

As she scanned the stands, her neck turned, eventually landing on the Glandus side. Sure enough, as opposed to Hexside, the visiting team was jeering and shouting, booing the Banshee’s with wild abandon. Signs reading “BURN THE BANSHEE’S” and “HEXSIDE THE SUXSIDE” were looming over the stands, held aloft by students from the opposing school..

Even if the Bard could probably think of better insults and threats given the same amount of time and effort, Skara had to admit, the sight of so many signs made solely to bash her and her team was… a bit unnerving.

And as her eyes drifted to the top of the stands, she even spotted a camera, along with a reporter, seemingly speaking to an audience of… probably at least a… couple of people .

“Introducing the Home Team, Hexside’s very own Banshee’s!” Perry’s voice filled the arena again. “Team Captain ‘Iron-Hands’ Boscha, ‘Healing-Touch’ Cat, and, filling in for ‘Flower-Master’ Amelia, we have… uh…” The sound of papers ruffling atop a desk filled the stadium for a couple of seconds, and then, “The… Uh… Skara!”

Wow that’s… Somehow even more underwhelming than I expected it to be.

Skara reached the centre of the arena, left of Boscha, who stood in the centre, chest puffed out, and eyes glaring ahead. She looked like she was ready for war.

“ And coming up, the Away Team, the Glandus Phoenixes! ”

From the opposing hall, Bria and her friends stepped forward, looking as if each one of them was ready for a fist-fight. They all smirked like hydra-snakes hunting for prey, and their strides conveyed a sense of pride and strength that made Skara step back, if only just a tiny bit.

But for a second, she caught Bria’s eyes dart towards her, and somehow Skara knew the sign of weakness had been caught.

The announcer began to introduce the Glandus students, but Skara’s mind tuned them out as she watched them take up their positions. She was too focused on trying to not let any more weakness show. 

Bria stood in front of Skara, which surprised her. She had thought that a team captain would always want the middle section, right? There wasn’t any rule against it, but still. Meanwhile, Gavin took the center stage, leaving Angmar to take the left side, in front of Cat.

Bria just grinned at Skara. 

“Okay - Due to an… Incident during the Livershore and Molars Peak match, I’ve been asked to remind everyone of the Official League Rules that this match will be following.” Perry announced. “This match will be an hour and a half long, with a break halfway through. The winner will be whichever team has the most points by the end of the time limit! And, in following with the official rules of competitive play, the Rusty Smidge will not be released onto the field. This will be a match based on the pure skill of it’s players!” 

“So you’re basically screwed, huh, Boschy?” Bria taunted, only glancing towards Boscha in the corner of her eyes.

The look of contempt on Boscha’s face would make the sun itself shrink back. “What are you-” 

Before she could finish her sentence though, the shadow of a Witch fell onto the field, as they stepped up to the side of the field. He was dressed in a black and white striped short-sleeved shirt and Grudgby hat. The referee, Skara realized. He seemed fairly normal, aside from the dozens of eyes that coated his body. He cracked his neck, grunting.

“Alright, kids,” the ref growled out in a gruff voice. “Listen. I want a good, clean game out here.”

That made Skara feel better at least. 

“But, this is Grudgby, so I’m expecting a vicious, barbaric slaughter.” He shrugged. “Either way, Go nuts. Have fun.”

That… Made Skara feel much worse. 

Bria smiled, shifting her form as if readying herself to strike. “Oh, don’t worry. We will.”

And now Skara was terrified.

“In that case, LET THE GAME BEGIN!”

Wait - what?

“In three!”

What did Boscha tell me to do the other day? The Orange Maneuver or-

“Two!”

Uh, no, it was the Huffleback? Maybe?

“ONE!”

Whatever Skara was meant to do didn’t really matter.

Because what Skara actually did was immediately get hit in the stomach by a sudden, swift column that lunged from the ground.

She was launched backwards, the wind itself leaving her body. Her mind went blank at the pain, feeling somehow both lifelessly light and horrendously heavy all at once. But since Skara herself was so skinny, she ended up going pretty far.

Directly into the stadium back wall, in fact.

A jolt of pain surged through her before she collapsed to the ground. She was amazed none of her ribs were broken, though that could very much be the fact her body was in so much shock she couldn’t feel it yet.

For a few seconds, she found herself unable to breathe, winded as she was by the immediate attack. And that left her unable to move. All she could really do was tilt her head, look around, and see all the people in the stands. It felt like all of them were looking at her, surprised by the sheer speed of the attack.

Her eyes darted to Willow. She looked just as shocked as everyone; her already wide eyes were wider still, her hands raised to her mouth. 

Why did that surprise Skara?

A new face entered her sight , though much closer. It took Skara a a second to register that it was Cat. Quickly, she spun a magic circle in the air. 

A stinging sensation ran throughout Skara’s body for a couple of seconds, before it, along with the initial pain, all but disappeared. It was so quick that without it, Skara almost felt unnatural. It took her a second to properly adjust.  

“....Ow.” Was all Skara could think to say. “Th…Thanks, Cat, I-”

“And that’s a point for Glandus!”

Skara looked up. In her suffering, she’d almost forgotten the game that caused it.

Sure enough, Angmar and Gavin were laughing, slapping their knees as an angry Boscha tore at her hair. Bria, meanwhile, simply stood there, cracking her knuckles and feigning a yawn.

Then, her amber eyes met Skara. And her smirk made Skara think only four little words.

I hate this game.

Chapter Text

The Phoenix’s strategy was simple, brutal, and effective. So efficient, so clear-cut, and so ruthlessly carried out that it was almost respectable in a brutal, no-ground-given, no-prisoners-taken kind of way. 

Of course, if Skara wasn’t the cornerstone of their strategy, she might have been able to appreciate it in a more… Pragmatic sense. 

As it stood, she was just trying to avoid getting hit by it. And failing. 

“Skara, watch ou-” 

Cat’s yell was cut off as Skara found herself being slammed by a huge glob of Abomination goop, hurled at her with enough force to throw her off her feet, and large enough to completely submerge her in it, so that she couldn’t move, shout, or even breathe. 

That was step one of the Phoenix's plan - The second the ball was on the field, hit Skara in creative and brutal ways, ranging from knocking the wind out of her with stone to getting thrown around the stadium by swinging vines. Anything that incapacitated her, or required someone to either heal or free her was essential. 

For maybe the third time in this match, Skara found herself holding her breath, and trying not to swallow or inhale anything that would have made her violently ill. Each time, she found herself, for a split second, wondering if anyone was actually going to come help her. But Cat always did.  

And that was part of the plan too. 

“Bleh!” Skara heard Cat gag in revulsion as she clawed away the Abomination goop. As soon as she saw Skara, she reached in, grabbed her by the shoulders, and pulled her out of the goo pile. She fell onto her back as she did so, and Skara fell unceremoniously flat on her face. 

Step two -  They waited for Cat to rush to Skara’s aid. That meant that two of the three Banshee’s were either distracted or completely indisposed. If they made it so that Skara had to be attended to, that left three Glandus players up against one Hexside player. And that was always Boscha. And as good as Boscha was at Grudgby, she wasn’t three-on-one good. 

Which led into step three: Gavin and Angmar running with the ball as fast as they could,  whilst Bria would be the one to break off from the team, and fight Boscha one-on-one, while her teammates kept sprinting right past the final Banshee.  

Picking herself up off the ground, Skara glanced towards Boscha and Bria as they fought one another, yet again. As always, Boscha tried to break-off, to go and grab the ball from the other two, but each time, Bria cut off her avenues of escape, and forced her to fight. Skara could just tell that this was the outcome Bria had wanted from the start. She seemed to enjoy duelling against Boscha just as much as she did winning. 

And that inevitably led to step four - One of the two of them, this time Angmar, launching the Grudgby Ball through the ring, and scoring yet another point.

“ AND THE PHOENIX'S SCORE ONCE AGAIN FOLKS !” 

“I’m not quite sure I needed to be an Oracle to see that coming.”

Around them, the Glandus crowd began to cheer and holler and chant their players’ names. The Hexside crowd did… None of those things. 

It was now sixteen-nil in favor of Glandus. Hexside had nothing to celebrate. 

“Skara!” Cat reached out a hand, pulling the Bardup off the ground. “Are you okay, girl?”

“Physically? Mostly.”

Psychologically? Never again.

Because after that, came step five in Glandus’ strategy - Wash, rinse, and repeat. And that was what made it all particularly brutal. They never gave Skara an inch. Never gave her a chance to recover. Never gave her a chance to do anything. 

Skara had trained constantly. She had made herself learn all manner of strategies to the point she could list them off of the top of her head. She could recite complex maneuvers from memory, and perform half of them with her eyes closed. 

But that didn’t matter one bit if Glandus never gave her the chance to actually do anything with that knowledge. All the theory and training in the world didn’t matter when she didn’t have any real experience in the match, and that was a weakness Glandus was exploiting to no end. 

Angmar pumped his tiny fists in the air in celebration, while Gavin high fived Bria. “Great save, captain!” 

“Oh, not as good as your little abomination trick! Sure kept your cheerleader busy, right Boschy?”

Boscha simply stood there, her hands balled into shaking fists that hung by her sides. Skara couldn’t see her captain's face, but it was clear that she was just getting angrier and angrier with each score, and every word Bria said to her. 

Preparing herself for another round of pain, Skara got herself onto her feet, and trudged towards her starting position. Thankfully though, the screeches of the claxons filled the air, and everyone stopped still. 

“ALRIGHT EVERYONE! IT APPEARS WE’VE REACHED HALF TIME, SO GET READY FOR THE BEAUTIFUL MELODIES OF THE HEXSIDE MARCHING BAND AND GRAB YOURSELF SOME ROTTEN CANDY, WE’LL BE RIGHT BACK WITH MORE OF THIS GRIPPING ACTION!”

“All of which is utterly irrelevant in the grand endless scheme of the eternal void.”

“Wow, you must be a… a blast at parties, huh Wendil?”

“I forsee myself never being invited to parties.” 

Thank the Titan, Skara thought to herself with a sigh. Half time had arrived. Thirty minutes of not having the living tar beaten out of her. 

As she looked to the stands, though, her heart sank. Sure enough, most of the Hexside students and parents were already out of their seats, grumbling to themselves. All the noises combined, and Skara couldn’t make out individual sentences, but with keen hearing and a little imagination, she could make a pretty good guess what was being said.

Total failures.

Sixteen-nothing. Sixteen- Nothing !

So much for Hexside pride.

Skara sucks.

That last one, she had to bite her lip at. Though right now, what could she say against it? Another exhale came out, this one more a groan than a sigh. 

She was brought out of her self pitying  though by the angry stomping of cleats heading in her direction. And who else could it be, but Boscha herself, looking like she was about ready to murder something. 

Preferably not Skara, but at this point… 

“Boscha, I-”

“We are gonna spend half time planning out the best strategy this stupid schools ever seen.” Boscha’s voice interrupted Skara, an angry hiss mixed with a HeckHounds growl. It was… genuinely unnerving. “And then, we are going to use it to put Bria and her entire stupid team in the ground!”

“Um, s-sure.” Skara nodded, anxious to not infuriate her captain any further. “Right, yeah, we uh - We can try that.”

Cat raised a hand. “But, well, first… can we go grab something from the concessions? I uh… didn’t have much to eat before, and some Rotcho’s REALLY sound good right about now.”

Skara noticed her own stomach rumbling as well. Apparently, even with as great a meal as her mother could make, an omelet was only so filling when eaten in under five minutes. “Uhm, actually, can I uh… second… that?”

Boscha glared at them both girls with all three eyes before rolling them in angry exasperation. “ Urgh, fine. Can’t play on an empty stomach. Even if it’s just carnival food. But you got five minutes to get it, or else I’m finding you both.”

Skara let out a small sigh of relief. Well… it won't be mom’s, but at least I’ll get some food.

Now if only I could actually play this stupid game…

“Well that… Wasn’t great.” 

When not even Luz, enthusiastic, optimistic, and positive about basically everything found herself with only that to say, it really did speak volumes to the absolute thrashing the Banshee’s had just taken. Whatever pride or enthusiasm there had been by the Hexsidians was just utterly deflated now. They all just sort of… watched the Banshee’s limp off back to their players’ room, while the Glandus team and all their supporters were celebrating their landslide lead loudly and clearly. 

“That’s… putting it lightly.” Amity agreed, leaning back in her seat, as if to process everything so far. “That was brutal, even by Grudgby standards. And Grudgby doesn’t even have any standards.”

As the players left the field, they were replaced by a marching band, reading themselves to be the mid-game entertainment. For a moment, no one said anything as the band set up their instruments and began to play.

“You, er… you guys think they’re okay?” Bo eventually asked. “They all took… Quite a beating.”    

“They’ll be okay.” Amity assured her. “Relatively speaking, anyway. Grudgby matches can get pretty violent. They should be okay.” 

“Y-yeah!” Luz said, more chipper than a few moments before. Ever the optimistic sort, it seemed her brief doubt had been overshadowed by her bright-side nature. “Sure, it’s going badly now. But Hexside probably has a few tricks up its sleeve to help pull the win!”

“I hope so anyway.” 

That, Willow noted, was Amelia. She turned to her, noting her somewhat bleak tone. As if she didn’t quite believe that.

Gus, apparently not hearing this, rubbed his temples, frustrated. “Well, I hope they’re having fun losing. ‘Cause we’re gonna be the laughing stock of the whole district with plays like this.” 

A moment of awkward silence fell amongst the group. Everyone, including Amelia, just sat in silence among the noises of everyone leaving. Giving Willow the chance to hear what some of them had to say.

Freaking losers.

I can’t believe they’re considered good!

Is it too late to leave for Glandus?

Skara sucks.

“Uh… Anyway,” Amity asked, breaking the silence. “You guys wanna… get anything from the carnival? We can grab some not dogs? Maybe some popcorn?”

“Ooooh, wait! ” Luz shot out of her seat, eager as always. “ You guys have popcorn here!?”

Gus nodded. “Sure do. So good, it’ll pop your corn right off!”

“...Er… wh… I - I don’t… What’s a…” Luz seemed… slightly less enthused, and more confused. “...Ah, whatever, I mean, it’s gotta be better than rotton candy with spiders in it.”  

“Hey, Willow, you coming with?” Gus asked.  

“I’ll um, catch up with you all in a bit.” Willow replied. “I just gotta…” She gestured towards Amelia. “I’ll get us some rotchos.” 

 “Alright  then!” Gus nodded, waving farewell. “Meetcha back here in a bit once we all got the grub?” 

“Got it!” Willow waved her friends off, all of them waving back as they left the stands.

Her rocky smile fading, Willow let out a short sigh, and turned back around. She tapped Amelia on the shoulder. “Hey, A-”

“Wha?!” Amelia jolted upright, surprised.

“Gah!” Willow recoiled, also surprised. 

“Aiee!” Bo yelped, caught off guard by both of their yelps. 

“What the - !” Amelia turned around to look at what had touched her, onto to see Willow, whereupon, she calmed herself down. “Ah. Oh. Willow, it’s just you. Er, hey. How’s it going?”

After a quick moment to calm down her own heart rate, Willow took a breath, and said, “I er, I was just wondering if you were alright. You seem… like you… aren’t.” 

“Ah.” Amelia fidgeted in her seat. “ I’m fine. Just, well, see, these Glandus games, Boscha… she gets super intense with them.”

“That’s putting it lightly.” Bo nodded. “She had Skara racing away from this big Handragoon while doing cartwheels for some stupid reason! It was ridiculous!”   

“I saw that too.” Willow scowled. She remembered seeing the cartwheel fiasco during class, and whatever that crazy… whatever it was Boscha forced Skara and Cat to do as ‘practice’ yesterday. 

“But this… I don’t know how she’s gonna react to this.” Amelia sighed. “We lost last time too, but it was at least closer than this .”

 “I feel bad for Skara.” Bo shook her head in annoyance. “She’s been put through the wringer, tried her best,  but now she’s actually playing, and she’s getting thrown around like a ragdoll. And in such a big game too…”   

“I’ve seen how Boscha is when I tried my best and we lost. She’s gonna chew Skara out hard .” Amelia continued. “Cat too. But I mean, Cat knows how to handle it, but Skara…” 

Willow took in a deep breath through her nose. Ah. Well that… is not surprising. 

Though it is depressing.

“...Thanks guys.” Willow stood from her bench. “I’m gonna go find Skara. I wanna see if she’s okay.”

Amelia blinked. “Oh? Really?”

“Yeah.” She turned and got up out of her seat, waving to a blushing Cat who was walking down the lower row as Willow herself walked past her, and off into the carnival.

Sixteen- nothing . 

The moment her teeth hit her not-dog, Skara discovered that she had lost her appetite. 

She sat down on a knee-high wall, put her food to the side, and let out a sigh, looking up and glancing around the carnival stalls, and the people who went to and from them. 

And as she glanced around, Skara both felt, and saw, Hexside fans around her that were glaring towards her. But they kept their distance, and none of them said anything. They just… Looked at her. 

They were blaming her for Hexside being down by so many points. Skara could just tell they were from how they looked at her. 

Worst part of it was, they were right to. 

For the weeks that had been leading up to this match, Skara had been put through Titan knows what in the training sessions, and she had thought that maybe, just maybe, she would be prepared for the match when it came. Maybe she’d be able to do something. At the very least, she wouldn’t be blamed for the loss if they didn’t win. 

But actually on the field - She was the least experienced player. She was the worst at the game. She did everything that she was told to, everything that she had practiced, everything Boscha had spent weeks drilling into her, and she had learned it all. But it all amounted to nothing. Bria and Glandus homed in on her, because she was the weak link in the chain. And because of her, Hexside was getting slaughtered. 

They were going to lose. Everyone around her seemed to know it was a foregone conclusion.

And Skara did too. 

“Just… One more half, and then it’s done.” She reminded herself, resting her head in her hand as she stared off into space. “I can be done with this after this game is over…”

She had to wonder what things would be like once the game was over though. How would the school react to her leading to their loss? Would the Grudgby obsessed teachers assign her additional homework out of spite?

Would Boscha-

“There you are!” 

Blinking herself back into reality, Skara turned to look over her shoulder and towards the familiar voice. Willow stood there, slightly red in the face and out of breath, like she had been rushing around the carnival. 

“Willow?” Skara blinked again, much harder this time. “What are you - Why are you here?” 

“Looking for you.” 

“That… Okay, that’s another question I guess - I meant why are you here at all? I thought you didn’t like Grudgby?” 

“I’m not much of a player,” Willow said, stepping over the knee-high wall, and plopping herself down next to Skara. “Watching it is fun, though.” 

“I didn’t think you’d want to watch a game with Boscha involved.” 

Willow exhaled. “I’m… rooting for Hexside more than anything.” . She took a couple of moments to catch her breath. “Sorry, I just… I thought you’d be near the stadium.”  

“I er…” Skara blinked again. “Why were you looking for me?” 

“I wanted to see if you were alright.” Willow answered. Her expression took on a more sincere one. “The match looks… Brutal, so far.” 

Skara almost laughed. That’s putting it mildly.

“And you took… Pretty much the worst of it.” Willow continued. “Or, well, nearly all of it. I guess I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” 

“I’m… fine.” Skara said, somewhat shakily. “Cat’s been keeping me healed up, and I haven’t had anything that Healing Magic can’t fix in a few seconds.” 

“Are you feeling alright, though?”

“I just said-“ 

“That’s… not what I meant.” Willow clarified. “Are you feeling okay ?” 

Again, Skara felt herself becoming more… shaky was the only word for it. She exhaled, and said, “Just two more quarters and I’m done - That’s how I’m feeling.” 

The Plant Witch’s expression fell. She didn’t say anything though. For a moment, both girls just sat there, an awkward silence between them.

For a moment, everything felt… Different. Skara felt like she was back in the cabin, on the Knee. Where there was this atmosphere of uncertainty and awkwardness and not knowing how to talk to Willow, and Willow not knowing how to talk to her. How eventually, under it, Skara had found that not talking was more difficult than talking. That was when she finally told Willow what was bothering her. And that feeling came back. 

“I just… I don’t get it.” The Bard rubbed her temples in annoyance. “I’m doing everything Boscha told me to do. I’m doing everything right. I know I’m doing everything right. Boscha tells me to follow a formation, and I follow it. I go where she tells me to, I do what she says, I follow the plans and strategies she taught me and just - Every time I get hammered by Glandus’s stupid… Everything . And now we’re losing and it’s on me and I just…Urgh.” 

“It’s frustrating. I get it.“ 

Skara’s first instinct was to snap at Willow. To ask h er what she knew about feeling like this.   Her body turned to do so-

But she stopped herself. She didn’t know why, but, frustrated as she was, Skara couldn’t bring herself to put any of it on the girl who did literally everything in her power to help her.

Willow, unaware of what had just gone on in Skara’s mind, continued. “I was in the Abomination Track. That’s where I started getting called ‘Half-A-Witch’, because I couldn’t do anything right there, even when I followed the rules.” She sighed. 

Half-a-Witch. Skara felt herself bit her lower lip when she remembered that particular nickname. The one s he had heard Boscha call Willow that at least a hundred times over the years. 

Now, hearing Willow repeat it, hearing the clearly deep pain it caused, remembering it, and Skara had come this close to lashing out at her -

Skara felt the sudden urge to crawl into a hole and never come out. 

“I mixed the goop clockwise, it all spewed on my face.” Willow carried on. “Mixed it counter-clockwise, the Abomination blew up. It’s frustrating. When you try to be good at something, even though you just… can’t…” 

Blinking, Skara looked down to the ground. Her frustrations were gone, and replaced by shame. “…Sorry. I…I’m just throwing my own little pity party right now.”

Willow shrugged. “Well, I mean, if you need any guests…”

Surprisingly, a chuckle escaped Skara. More surprisingly, it was genuine. 

“Why not?” She drew a small spell circle, and a small glowing party whistle landed in her palm. She blew into it, the end rolling out with the word ‘PITY’ written on it, before it vanished. “Misery is best when shared, right?” Then, she stopped after seeing Willow’s expression bordering between concerned and confused, the joke having not landed as expected. “...Sorry, this… this is one of my… less proud moments.”

You’ve seen me in a lot of ‘less than proud moments,’ lately, come to think of it.

“It’s alright.” Willow said, offering another gentle reassurance that both made Skara feel better and worse at the same time. “Like I said, I get it. I’ve had moments I’m not proud of too.” She chuckled slightly. “That’s how I met Luz, actually. I was letting off some steam, throwing some vines around, and like an idiot I grabbed her with a vine thinking she was a threat.” Willow chuckled. 

“So… You met Luz while you were acting like an idiot?” Skara raised an eyebrow, and looked back towards Willow from the corner of her eyes.

“Pretty much, yeah.” Willow shrugged. 

 “…I guess that would explain why she’s friends with you.”

About one second of silence followed. And then, Willow started to laugh - Not a gentle, reserved chuckle, but outright, uncontrollable laughter. And after a couple of seconds, Skara felt herself smirk, and start to laugh as well. And all of a sudden, for just a moment, it felt like nothing was wrong anymore. 

“I - I have to ask,” Willow said, once she was able to speak again without laughing getting in the way. “Do you know what the deal is between Boscha and the Glandus Captain? It kind of seemed like they knew each other.” 

“Oh, you saw that?” Talking didn’t feel like this cumbersome, heavy affair anymore. 

“Yeah - Amity said that they had a rivalry with one another that Boscha took extremely seriously and that’s… It. And the way they fight on the field, it’s clear they have an… interesting rivalry.”

“That’s about as much as I know, to be honest.” Skara shrugged. “Bria and her crew actually came to the field once just to trash-talk with Boscha. They said they were there to scout me, but spent most of their time arguing with her. I don’t know what that's about.” 

Willow raised an eyebrow. She seemed… confused? Intrigued? Worried?

Then, her eyes lit up.

“Oh. Oh.” It was like a lightbulb had gone off in Willows head, like she realized what was going on. Her lips curled into a smirk. “Oh. Oh I get it.”

“Huh?” Skara blinked. “What? What d’you get?” 

“Yeah. What do you get, exactly?”  

Both girls turned around to see the new voice - Quite possibly the single worst person in the entire Boiling Isles to be standing right behind them, was standing right behind them - Boscha. She stood with her arms folded, and a look on her face that conveyed naught but sheer irritation. 

“Boscha!” Skara felt her blood freeze. “How… Long have you been-“ 

“I’ve been here long enough.” Boscha said through gritted teeth. She turned her focus back to Willow. “So, go on, tell me - What exactly do you get?” 

To that, Willow didn’t say a word. 

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Boscha sneered. She turned back to Skara. “Anyway, come on. We’ve got a strategy to plan.” 

Willow blinked, and quickly summoned her Scroll to check for the time. “The next round doesn’t start for another twenty-or-so minutes. You’ve got plenty of time.”

“And if you’ve been paying any attention, you’d know I’ve got my work cut out for me.” 

“She hasn’t even eaten yet.” 

“I told her and Cat they had five minutes to get food. Skara’s had ten. If she hasn’t eaten then that’s on her, we’ve got a game to win” 

“It’s fine.” Skara said. “I’ll-“ 

“Pushing them the way you have been isn’t helping, Boscha.” Willow said, a bit more firmly this time. “Overworking them and stressing them out doesn’t make them better players.” 

Boscha glared Willow down. “And how would you know how I train my players?” 

“Willow, it’s-“ 

“I saw you on the fields yesterday.” Willow snapped. “I saw you put them through drill after drill, yelling at them if they couldn’t keep up with your time limits, putting them through the most ridiculous trials, and not giving them the chance to breathe.” 

“And when did you become an expert on Grudgby? How I train my players is my business, and no one else’s.” Boscha growled. “Back off, Half-a-Witch. This has nothing to do with you.”

Half-a-Witch.

There was that name again, uglier than ever… 

Willow stood up, and turned to look Boscha right in her bottom eyes. “I think that it does.” 

Neither Witchspoke for a moment. They just stared one another down. Skara hadn’t seen Willow stand up to Boscha like this before. Take her on in a Grudgby match, sure, but not squaring up to her like this. She didn’t look even remotely intimidated, and if she was, she was hiding it incredibly well. Boscha though… Boscha didn’t bother to hide her anger and frustration and irritation and fury, and all the other adjectives for mad Skara’s brain could think of. 

And in that one brief moment, Skara genuinely thought one of them was about to punch the other. 

But somehow, against all odds, both girls restrained themselves. And against even greater odds, Boscha was the first one to back down. Probably because getting into a fight with one of the spectators during match hours wouldn’t go down too well, but still. She turned to Skara. “Five more minutes. I can drill you on the plan in the fifteen minutes we have left after that. If you’re not back in five, I’ll drag you back there myself if I have to, whether or not she’s still here.” 

With that, Boscha turned around, and stormed back towards the players’ rooms. Willow let out an extremely long exhale, and all but collapsed back onto her seat. 

“I… I’m sorry, but I think I just made things worse for you.” 

“I… Don’t worry about it.” Skara… Didn’t know how to respond to what she had just witnessed. 

Adrenaline starting to fill her system, Willow chuckled. “Well that… actually felt kinda… nice.”

“What? Tempting fate to clock you in the face?”

That got even more laughter from Willow. “To get Boscha to back down. To tell her off like that.”

Skara slowly raised an eyebrow. “You have a… weird definition of ‘nice.’”

“No,” Willow waved. “It’s just, it felt nice, to stand up to a bull-”

Willow froze. But Skara knew what she was about to say. 

The heavy atmosphere returned. But this time, it was… different. It was lighter than before, but still heavy, in a way that didn’t make a lot of sense. 

With it, there was… Skara couldn’t quite put a word to it. Unless that word was ‘weird.’. 

That atmosphere was broken by a loud notification. Willow blinked, and summoned her Scroll. Looking at the screen, she chuckled.

“What's so funny?” Skara asked. 

“Hmm? Oh, Gus just sent a pic of him waving his flags. He asked when I’m getting back with some rotchos.”

“Ah.” 

“Yeah… I should, uh… probably grab some and head back to the stands.” Willow kicked herself off of the wall, starting to strut away.

And Skara could have just let her keep walking.

“...Willow?” She called out, loud enough for Willow to stop, and turn around. 

“Yeah?” 

“…Can I ask you something?” 

“Hm? Sure.” 

“...Why do you care so much about what happens to me?” 

To that, Willow’s eyes opened up slightly, and she stood still for a moment. When she next moved, it was to blink. An answer didn’t follow, though. She stayed silent for a moment. And Skara had a feeling that Willow herself didn’t even know what to say herself. 

That had been the answer Skara had expected, of course. But still - 

“I’ve already told you before, haven’t I?” 

Skara stared at Willow. She had that same, gentle smile on again that she had seen back when this had all started. With the Witch Trap, at the cabin, in the weeks that followed, and now. 

“‘Cause I know what it’s like not having anyone to stand up for you, and how it feels to be somewhere you don’t want to be but feel like you need to be.” 

She had said that before, Skara noted. When all of this had started. But… 

“No, I mean… Why do you care about what happens to me?” Skara asked again, this time prodding herself in the chest to accentuate the point. “Me, specifically. I mean…” 

Again, her hands just sort of gestured vaguely in front of her, not really signalling anything. 

“...After everything - Everything that's happened over the last few years, after... You could have just left me to stew in my own little world of misery and no one would have blamed you. But between the Knee and now…”

Willow’s smile fell. She seemed, for a moment, to not know the answer herself. Or at least, it just wasn’t something she thought about. She stood there, eventually looking away from Skara, and towards the nearby trees. 

“...Because I… I feel like I know the real Skara now.” 

That was certainly… a response.

Not the response Skara had expected, to put it very lightly. She didn’t know how to respond to that. How to interpret it, after everything…

Looking back towards Skara, Willow had that same gentle smile again. As soon as she saw it, Skara suddenly felt like she did know how to interpret it. 

Though that didn’t mean she knew what to say to it . 

So she just… Didn’t. 

“…Skara?” 

Skara looked back up at Willow. She had turned around, and she had an expression on her face. Not an unkind one, but her eyebrows were furrowed. She looked resolute. 

“Prove them wrong.” 

Prove them … It took Skara a moment to realize what Willow meant. She felt her eyes open up wider. But before she could say anything in response, Willow had already turned and left. 

Once again, Skara found herself on her own. And for a moment, she didn’t do anything. She had a couple of minutes before Boscha expected her back. 

She looked at the not dog beside her, and picked it up. It had cooled down, and was almost cold. But she took a bite anyway. 

Her appetite had come back.

Prove them wrong.

The words rolled around inside Skara’s brain as she walked back to the players’ room. She kept playing them, over and over again, dwelling on them for reasons she couldn’t fully explain. Something about them… coming from Willow…

Skara wasn’t a Grudgby player. She’d trained for so long under Boscha’s coaching, and sure, she was technically proficient on paper, but in practice she was a colossal failure. Amelia was the one who was supposed to be here, not Skara. She was a literal punching bag. A weight dragging her team down. Why would Willow think she could prove them wrong? How did she expect her to? 

More to the point, what did that even mean, really? Prove them wrong in that she could play this game? Skara didn’t even care for it, Willow knew that! Prove that she wasn’t a failure? A sixteen-nil score against them seemed a pretty strong argument otherwise. Prove them wrong by showing them the ‘real’ Skara? What would that accomplish? 

Besides, she wasn’t even sure if she knew what that meant. 

Arriving at the player’s room, she took a sharp inhale, readied herself for whatever the heck mood Boscha was going to be in, opened the door, and stepped inside. “Hey, I’m… back?” 

Glancing around the room, she found that it was empty. She blinked, and closed the door behind her. Peeking her head around the lockers, and into the other adjoining rooms, she found that she was well and truly alone. 

“Boscha must’ve gone to find Cat.” She muttered aloud, as she let out a heavy exhale of annoyance. “Unreal. After all that flack she gave me, she’s not even here? She made it sound like Cat was waiting on me…” 

Well… Whatever. If Skara knew Cat, then she was out looking for Amelia, or had already met up with her and was getting licecream, or playing a quick carnival game like whack-a-troll or just… well, whatever those two would get up to on their own. While Boscha was hunting for them, maybe she could just relax for a little bit before they both showed up. And give her the chance to mentally prepare herself for the second round of battering that she was about to take on the field. 

She sat herself down on a nearby bench, leaned her head against the wall, and placed her left hand atop her right one. She closed her eyes, and took in a deep breath, before exhaling again, slowly, and fully, like she was trying to rid her lungs of any air whatsoever. Without even meaning to, she pondered Willow’s words, mulling them over.

Prove them wrong.

The voice in Skara’s head started to sound less like Willow’s, and more like a malformed parody, a Grom-like distortion of the encouragement, twisted and shaped into something Skara couldn’t even quite recognize as her own thoughts. 

It’d be great if you actually could do that. But you can’t. You’re no Grudgby player. You’re a Bard. You only ever played as a replacement for Amelia, and now…

Now you can’t even do that.

Skara opened her eyes. Being alone with her thoughts was… A bad idea. Wow, who could have seen that coming.

I gotta do… something. Something to help me focus, to think about anything else, to…

And as always, when all Skara’s problems flooded her mind, Skara had only one answer:

Music.

It was a simple and elegant solution to her troubles, honestly. Whenever Skara’s mind felt trapped in a loop of intrusive thoughts, depression or anger, music was the key to freeing herself from it. Or of at least drowning out the bad thoughts. Even if it wasn’t always a perfect solution, she could let herself escape for just a little while with a simple tune.

And so Skara spun a circle and opened her sub-realm of musical instruments to grab the guitar she… borrowed from the ‘absent’ residents of the cabin. As always, it looked pristine and perfect, something Skara almost envied in her currently frazzled state.

I guess one little tune won’t hurt. 

She fiddled mindlessly with the strings of her guitar, no particular song in mind. When the right song came to her, she would adjust her playing to match it, but for now, she just strummed.  After a few seconds of mindless playing, a tune began to form. Not a concrete song, but at least a musical bit.

“Bum, bada bum bum. Bada bum, badum bum bum.”

Her mind began to clear as she began to play the tune on the guitar. Some notes were more out of tune than others, but it didn’t matter. This wasn’t the time to spend perfecting every twang and minor chord. All that mattered was being lost in the music, the rhythm, and the simplicity of it all. 

“Bum, badum bum bum. Badbum, bad um bum bum.”

The song had a strangely lively quality for something that wasn’t even fully born yet. It reminded Skara of the simple joys of spring, of sitting out in a field on a nice day and letting yourself just feel it. It made her think of the sun and warmth, but strangely not the harsh sun and warmth of the Isles; the sun and warmth of a world Skara felt was both real, and, potentially, long dead.

Her fingers faltered for a moment. Something about the feelings felt… Weird. Not in a bad way, mind. Just… Weird. 

‘BUM BA DUM DUM BA DUM!”

Skara nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden screeching barks. “GAH! WHAT THE-”

But as she turned, she saw one of the lockers, a smile on its face and its one eye gleefully looking at her as if to ask Well? Shall we continue?  

Which… threw Skara for a loop.

Never heard a locker try to sing before. Or seen one… genuinely smile, for that matter.

Huh.

Wait, was it trying to… harmonize with her?

As if to try and satiate it, Skara played the tune the locker sang on her own guitar. But it didn’t feel exactly right on it, and the locker's smile faltered. She tried playing her original tune again, to see if that would work.

“Bum, badum bum bum. Badabum, bad um bum bum.”

“BUM BA DUM DUM BA DUM”

It wasn’t a perfect duet. In fact, Skara’s duet partner could barely hum, let alone sing. And yet, something about the togetherness, the feeling of connection and working in tandem with someone on a song.

It made Skara smile.

She tried again, continuing her guitar pluckings as the locker attempted its best to sing in tune. And soon, Skara noted, more of the lockers were attempting to sing. They weren’t… particularly good at it, but they were attempting it, and Skara thought it was endearing if nothing else. If there was one thing she thought she would never find endearing, it was the same lockers that had tried to eat her three times in the last few weeks, but here she was. She continued to string her guitar, trying to sing the tune and melody as best she could. Lyrics would take her out of the moment to create, but general music could be concocted with some notes.

Skara continued on, a smile forming on her face as the world seemed brighter, the sounds seemed cheerier, the flower petals tickled her nose-

The what now are what now?

Looking around herself again to make sure she hadn’t just gone insane, Skara confirmed that yes, really, there were bright red flower petals floating around the room now, from Titan knew where. She blinked, and wiggled her nose as she felt one lightly dust by her. They flew overhead, seemingly matching with the rhythm of the music. It was such a fascinating sight, all these red petals twisting and twirling and dancing like an oversized crown around her head, their grace a personal sight for Skara’s eyes alone. It felt almost weirdly sacred, the image. Skara couldn’t quite place it, but in this moment, she felt as if this was what it meant to be a bard.

No fears about scores. No terror in losing. Just a lovely song and a guitar and red flower… petals… from… somewhere?

In her momentary confusion, one of Skara’s fingers slipped, and the whole tune ended with a screeching DWWWWWING! and as if on cue, everything shifted; The lockers stopped singing, Skara’s mind started buzzing, and the petals turned to… snow, of all things, and fell to the ground, covering the floor and forming piles around the room. 

Entirely thrown off by the sudden shift of, well, everything, Skara stood up from the bench, and just looked around her.  What… exactly just happened? Everything was now, essentially, as it was before the song; dull, drab, and mostly gray. Except, of course, the snow from the petals.

That was... A new one? At least for her, anyway. 

Kneeling down, she poked the snow cautiously, as if it was about to strike her. Instead, much like most snow, it just sat there, cold to the touch.

How did that happen? How do flower petals magically come into existence and magically shift into snow?

Well, magic, duh, but- 

Hang on…

Skara’s mind started to put pieces together. This magic happened because of Skara. And because of Skara as a Bard. Not a Grudgby player. It had been so long since she’d done something like this that she almost forgot that she was even capable of it. It wasn’t like she hadn’t done similar stuff in class before. Nothing quite this… Varied, granted, but still. 

Even then, she hadn’t even meant to do it. It had been an accident. Maybe because she got too into it, or because that cabin guitar was a lot stronger than she thought it was, or something else but… 

What if she actually put her mind to it on the field? 

Maybe… maybe that's how I prove them wrong! 

She wasn’t a Grudgby player - She’d been forced into that position. That wasn’t what she was good at. That wasn’t what she was comfortable with. That was what she had been made to do to suit this game because that was what Boscha had had in mind. Skara was a Bard. She knew what Bards could do. And so did everyone else. And they all seemed to underestimate Bards in this sport. They didn’t expect her to know how to fight back. 

But she knew how to. 

“...and you’ve got all the time in the world to hang out with Amelia after we win this thing! You don’t think it might be more fun for her if she’s hanging out with a wiiiIIIIIIIIII-”

Her revelations were cut short by Boscha entering the room, and as soon as she took a step inside, unceremoniously tripping over a pile of snow near the door, and fell face first straight into another. Instantly, she got back up onto her feet, and instead of being annoyed, she just looked utterly flabbergasted for a few seconds as she looked around at whatever the heck had happened to the room in the five minutes since she was last here. 

“What in the- What - What the Titan happened here?!” 

Cat poked her head around the doorframe, and made sure to avoid tripping on any of the piles of snow. “A er… blizzard? That lasted less than five minutes? That just happened… Entirely within this room?” 

Boscha just blankly stared at Cat. Cat just shrugged.  

“Hey, I’ve seen weirder.” 

“Er, that er, that might’ve been me, actually.” Skara said, revealing her presence to the two of them. “Sorry, I just… I was playing music, and I didn’t mean to use magic but it just sorta… happened.” 

“That was you?” Cat asked, eyebrows perking up. 

“You - You heard?” 

“Well, I heard a guitar, and then what sounded like a bunch of dying lockers.” 

“Okay, yeah that… Was me.” 

“Well, for what it's worth, the guitar bit was lovely.” Cat said, giving Skara a thumbs up.”

“Oh.” The Bard blushed lightly at the compliment. “Well, thanks.”

Boscha shuddered. “Well, except for the screaming demon noises.” Boscha dusted herself down, wiping away stray strands of snow that coated her face. “Ugh. Look, we got like, ten minutes to get a strategy together!” Boscha began to walk away to the back of the locker room. “You two sit at the bench and I’ll grab a chalkboaaaarrrRRR-”

Boscha’s final word began to echo as she tripped on a small pile of the snow, landing flat onto her face once again.

“And get rid of this snow already!” 

Skara didn’t want to, but had to laugh, and quickly turned around to hide that from Boscha. And thankfully, Cat did the same.

As she laughed though, Skara looked down at her guitar.

I’m not a Grudgby player. I’m a Bard. 

I should act like it.

“-and AFTER Skara throws the ball to me, I’ll smash myself into Bria, who will-”

As Boscha attempted to explain her plan yet to win the game, most of which involving her beating up on Bria, her Scroll popped up, making a bat-like screeching and demanding the attention of all the Banshee’s.

Cat immediately covered her ears in an attempt to drown out the horrifying noise, Skara following closely. “BOSCHA! CAN YOU TURN THAT THING OFF?!”

The captain swiped at the Scroll, turning off the alarm. “That was the bell for the end of half time. We gotta be out on the field in no later than fifty-six seconds.”

Skara removed her hands from her ears. “Wait, seriously? You needed something that loud to-”

“Fifty-four, fifty-three, fifty-” Boscha either pretended not to hear Skara’s interjection, genuinely did not hear, or didn’t care it as she walked out of the room. With little other choice, Skara and Cat turned to each other, grimaced, and left the bench.

This is it, Skara. The second half. All you gotta do is… prove them wrong.

The team jogged to the field, nothing coming from their mouths other than heavy panting and Boscha’s aggressive countdown, giving Skara a brief few moments to think.

I got this. I just need to play to my strengths. I can’t take a punch, but I’m dexterous and quick like a dancer. I can’t throw the ball to save my life but I can feed off the crowd to fight harder for myself. I’m an entertainer, a Bard. I got this.

I can prove them wrong.

“EIGHT, SEVEN, SIX, AND STOP!”

Boscha’s jogging ended suddenly, with Skara and Cat forced to pull back on the balls of their feet to stop. Skara had been so busy giving herself a pep talk she barely noticed they’d arrived at the player entrance.

Right! Back to playing Grudgby.

Let's hope I’m right…

“ANNNNNNNND… NOW!” 

Boscha’s phone beeped again, the same loud shrill, before being thankfully silenced. She turned to her fellow players, gave her best ‘Lets do this’ look (or to just glare at them, Skara couldn’t really tell), and stepped out onto the field, followed by Cat, and finally, Skara.

The crowd, mostly Glandus’s side, exploded into a roar of laughter as she entered the arena. She tried to ignore them, instead focusing her attention onto the Hexside group, who seemed… less than enthused at her arrival. Barely any of them looked happy at it. Even Amelia appeared to be mostly taking a “smile away the pain” approach, her sign barely waving in the slightest anymore as her grin appeared too wide to be genuine.

At this point, one thing was clear; everyone thought, no, knew , Skara was going to fail. And honestly, even Skara had her doubts still.

But three words continued to clatter in her mind, three words that reassured her that, if nothing else, she should at least try to fight back;

Prove them wrong.

“Oh, hey, it’s the Bard!”

Skara turned away from her fellow Hexsidians to see the Glandus trio, taking up their positions. Bria facing down Boscha, Angmar on Skara’s side, and Gavin on Cat’s, all three bearing an equally smug, self satisfied grin, and all looking towards Skara.

“Well look at that,” Gavin chuckled. “I thought you would have decided to just be the team cheerleader after the hammering you took.”   

“Nah.” Skara shrugged. “I’m gonna kick your butt’s.”

All three of Glandus’s finest blinked, seemingly surprised at the sudden intensity of Skara’s words. She seemed determined, almost as if the ragdoll they’d been toying with just came to life to seek revenge. Skara’s determination… surprised them.

Of course it didn’t last long. Angmar was the first to break into a laughing fit, practically bursting a gut at the notion. Gavin followed close behind, with Bria as a close third.

“HA! Really?” Bria exaggeratedly wiped a tear from her eye, doubling over in uproarious glee. “I’m sorry, who got thrown through their own team's goal like, four times already?”

 “Don’t remind me.” Skara’s ears caught Boscha grumbling. She paid it no mind. 

“Call it a change in perspective.” Was all Skara said. 

Bria rolled her eyes as she got herself ready. “Suuuuure. Let’s just get on with it already. The sooner Boschy gets crushed, the sooner I get a good laugh.”

As everyone got themselves ready, Boscha’s eyes glared at Skara, all three of them giving one message: You better not screw this up more.

She didn’t actually know what Skara had in mind - Skara hadn’t said anything, because if she had, she knew that Boscha would have dismissed her immediately. It was going to be hard to screw up worse than she had done in the last half, but still.

Skara simply looked forward, staring Angmar in the eye. The other Witch smirked, grinning ear to ear as it took position, looking ready to pounce the second that the match began.

Every time Skara had been flung around, it was primarily done by the power of the Witch placed in front of her, moving as harshly, quickly, and efficiently as they could so she didn’t have the chance to respond, before the others would join in ganging up on her. So if Skara wanted to avoid getting smacked around, it was going to start here. She narrowed her eyes, trying to focus on anything that might clue her in as to what Angmar was going to do. 

“Alright, Witches!” The referee stood off to the side, his numerous eyes glancing between the two teams. “No one wanna back down? Surrender maybe? No? Alright, guess this slaughter’s gonna keep on going then.” He raised up a small switch, readying to launch the ball. “In five-”

So Angmar’s going to probably try and grab me with vines again, which means I need to dodge them. Easier said than done.

“Four-”

Alright, Skara, just stay calm. Break it down. He’s thrown vines at you from every direction. There’s got to be some way to tell where he’s going to launch them from next. Think!

“Three-”

Spell circles were usually easy enough to spot, and the larger they were, the stronger they were, usually. These ones had to be small, with how quickly they were able to cast them, but it seemed like these three could make even small circles unleash powerful spells. And even if she could see them, that didn’t mean they were easy to know where they would activate. Some spells came directly from the circle, and others could show up from anywhere. From the air, like her own Bard magic, of from - 

The ground! That’s gotta be it! Okay… 

“Two-” 

Underneath her feet, Skara heard something. It was tiny, but it was there; a shift in the ground, and the slight feeling of something coiling under her feet. The dirt was lifting slightly, so slightly that Skara wouldn’t have noticed had she not been paying attention to her surroundings like this.

But she was.

Got it! 

“ONE!”

Skara had less than a second to react. As the field around her contorted and began to erupt, the vines broke the surface, heading directly for her. 

It was a song and dance she was familiar with at this point in the game. She’d be ensnared by a vine, thrown around, get hurt, need Cat’s help, and Glandus would come out one point ahead, and she wouldn’t have a clue what was happening until it was too late

But this time, she was ready.

She launched herself to the side, narrowly dodging the vines as they threw themselves at her. Skara skidded right of where she had been, Angmar’s initial attack just barely missing her. With a flick of her wrist, Skara then formed a spell circle, summoning a black portal in the air. Falling  out of her instrumental pocket dimension, Skara caught the cabin guitar. She yanked the guitar pick from between the tuning chords, and sent it crashing against the strings. They shook, bellowing a loud warcry, loud enough to shake the very air with a crimson glow. And from that crimson glow, circles grew, shockwaves shooting from the guitars center and out to the Pheonixs. 

Both Angmar and Gavin were thrown off their feet, stumbling back down the field like they were rolling down a hill. Angmar had been the closest, and Gavin just hadn’t reacted fast enough. Bria had thrown herself to the side, getting out of the way of the shockwaves before they reached her. 

In response to that, after a brief second of stunned stillness, Boscha threw herself at the ball, which had fallen to the floor in the commotion She bolted, sprinting as fast as her legs could carry her, attempting to reach the other side of the field in record time. Skara looked at the display and smiled. Boscha could make it! Score the team at least one point! She could-

From the corner of her eye, she spotted it; a stalagmite, rising before Boscha, just out of her view, but enough to trip her over. “Boscha!”

But she didn’t seem to notice, too determined on her predestined path. Which, unfortunately, was why she did, in fact, trip, causing the ball to fly from her arms, landing just outside the goals.

 A rough grunt escaped Boscha, but before she could push herself up, a new set of pillars formed, shoving along the ball from behind, and directly into the hands of Bria.

“Sorry about that, Boschy.” She taunted, “But-” 

Before Bria could finish her snide remark and run, Skara tackled her from behind. She didn’t exactly have much of a plan, only focused on making sure Hexside got at least one point out of sheer spite for what Glandus had put her through. The two collapsed to the ground, Skara on top, witnessing the ball rolling away from them. 

“Yo, Cat!”

As if on cue, Cat was there, kicking the ball onto the top of her foot and grabbing it in midair without stopping. Skara picked herself up, avoiding Bria’s attempts to claw and grab her, and ran after her teammate. Gavin was in the way, and still clearly dizzy from the hit he took, and stunned by Skara’s sudden actions, but he attempted to conjure up some Abomination goo to combat the approaching Banshee. 

He couldn't manage to do anything before Skara was up close, and made it a point to trip him up and knock him onto the ground again. A small bit of payback for all the Abomination garbage he put her through. 

Almost in direct response to it though, another shift in the ground shook her, and vines began to erupt from the ground. Though they didn’t aim for Skara - Instead, they aimed for Cat.  

“Cat! Watch out!”

The vine slammed into her stomach before she could react though, sending Cat reeling onto the ground. Glancing behind her, Skara spotted Angmar, hurtling towards them, readying another spell circle. 

“Quick. Skara.” Cat sounded as if the wind had been knocked out of her, but even so, she tossed her the ball without hesitation. Skara caught it, then instinctively ran.

“Gavin! Angmar!” Bria’s cry was loud and very much filled with bitter embarrassment. “Get up and grab her!”

Looking over her shoulder, Skara saw Gavin, head in one of his hands, using the other to try, and mostly failing, to cast a spell-circle on the ground. Still, Skara looked down, worried she’d spot half forming abomination goop. 

But instead, she saw a flower.

A large, growing, wild flower.

Oh Titan.

Angmar’s toothy flower shook its oval petals violently as it opened its bud to scream. It reminded Skara of the Witch Trap, though smaller and more purple-ish. It was the last thing standing between Skara and the goal, but it was a big last thing, blocking it off with its whole body. W

It looked like the Witch Trap - but, there were differences. The colors, the leaves, the bulb - Maybe they were similar enough that it could be beaten in a similar way? What was it Willow did to make that thing spit up Amelia, again? 

Oh, right! 

As the plant shot towards Skara, she side-stepped and dodged it’s lunge, before reaching with her free-hand for the guitar pick again, adjusting the guitar so if fraced the monstrous plant, channeled her Magic, and strummed the strings as hard as she could. 

More shockwaves shot out from the guitar, right behind the bulb.. The effect was immediate - The plant screeched and lurched back, and curled up, like it was trying to clutch the injury even though it didn’t have hands. 

Skara meanwhile, shot past it as fast as she could, towards the goal. 

She took aim.

And fired! 

Through the goal!

Hexside scored.

No, wait! Not just Hexside. Skara!

Skara had just scored a point! 

Surprise reigned for a moment as Skara just exhaled at everything that just happened, the fact she had just scored not quite registering with her quite yet. When it finally did, Skara turned to the loudspeakers, witnessing the shock in the stands as everyone registered what had just occurred. She scanned the stands, witnessing wide eyed looks of shock and awe from both Hexside and Glandus fans, some with their jaws hanging low. To be frank, she felt the exact same way. 

In about thirty seconds, she went from the laughing stock, to the person the Hexside students started to cheer for.

“ AND SKARA SCORES HEXSIDE ITS FIRST POINT OF THE GAME!”

Hearing those words over the loudspeakers, the roar of the crowd… Skara almost just laughed . 

“Skara! You did it!”

Skara turned to Cat, followed closely by a bewildered Boscha. “I… I did!” 

“I…” Boscha shook her head. “You… actually scored?”

“I uh… I guess you can call me Scoring Skara, huh?”

Not the best nickname, but she’d take it. 

“Beginner’s luck.”

To the side of them, Bria spit the words like venom. Angmar and Gavin were picking themselves up, glaring at her. “You got one point on us, Bard. I promise you, that’s not gonna happen again.”

“I mean… It’s one more point than you thought I’d get, isn’t it?” 

Bria growled. “Whatever.” She turned back to the center, motioning for her lackeys to follow. “Come on. Let’s go beat these three up some more.”

“Sore losers.” Cat shrugged. “Well, sore winners, I guess. For now anyway. What happened, Skara? How’d you do that? That was… Impressive, even for Grudgby. Especially for a Bard.” 

“I er… I’m a really good Bard, I guess.” 

Cat chuckled, and patted Skara on the back. “That you are. But I don’t think they’re going to let you get that close again.”

“I’ve got a few ideas to back you guys up. I… I think I can do this!” 

“Get back to your positions.” Boscha ordered. “We’ve got to do that another fifteen times.”  

“Oh, is that all?” Cat muttered. “How hard could that be?” 

Boscha and Cat jogged back to their side of the field, as Skara walked, farthest in the back. She felt that her crazy move earned her at least a little lateness. She wasn’t sure that she was going to be able to do that again - That had been mostly sheer adrenaline and determination. She’d at least proven she wasn’t a total burden. 

What she really wanted to do, though, was to look into the stands. 

Her eyes scanned them, until they glazed past Amelia’s pretty little sign, the perfect marker for her to look to to find Willow.

And by the grin on Willow's face, Skara could tell she was doing what the Plant Witch had said.

Prove them wrong.

Sixteen-Twelve.

Even before the third quarter ended, the Banshee’s had risen from the absolute nadir of nothing at all, and now stood at twelve whole points. 

The Phoenix's original strategy of simply beating up on Skara was proving lackluster results now that she was actually capable of fighting back. She focused on keeping her senses sharp, listening for even the slightest change in the breeze, feeling for the smallest shift in the ground, and when she did, she was able to jump out of the way and dodge her way past whatever traps they laid. And trying to pull their attacks on Cat and Boscha didn’t work, since the more seasoned players knew how to look out for their attacks already, meaning the Phoenix’s were forced on their back foot. The Banshee’s were actually getting somewhere! 

And Skara was in no small part responsible for that. After her initial goal, she moved primarily into a support role, using her music to screw with Glandus’s own abilities with her cabin guitar, from creating beautiful melodies distracting their senses to ear-piercing sound wave attacks to some minor-but-effective spells to mess with the field the same way Glandus would. 

Bards were often considered poor Grudgby players because of how they relied on an instrument to make their magic truly shine - That meant that they couldn’t grab the ball with their hands, had to keep track of their instruments, ran the risk of them breaking in the middle of the match, of other players grabbing hold of them - there were too many things that they had to keep track of that being a Bard on the field was more often than not an actual hindrance rather than an asset. And because most Bards only really practiced a very limited amount of magic outside of their Track, Bards and Grudgby were often seen as polar opposites. 

But Skara was, as she had put it herself, a very good Bard. Maybe she wasn’t a ‘Charge in and beat up the opponents and steal the ball’ kind of player, but she was good at backing her team up - She combined her training with providing cover fire, putting up obstacles that the enemy had to deal with, granting her team energy and power boosts, that sort of thing. Attention had to be divided far more evenly between her and her teammates, and that went against the foundation of Glandus’ strategy of ganging up on one person to weaken the whole chain. It was a role she carved out for herself, and not one she was trying to force herself into. And now that she was focused, using her senses, thinking, and was determined to prove everyone wrong for doubting her, she was a force to be reckoned with.

Even if they were still a bit behind, Skara couldn’t help but feel herself radiate with pride. She was actually doing things. She wasn’t just Glandus’ punching bag! She was able to fight back!

If things kept going this well, they might be able to catch up. They might even be able to win!

As the ball was tossed yet again, Skara dodged an Abomination stomp, throwing herself to the side before again pulling back her guitar, and unleashing a shocking soundwave strike. Too slow to dodge the assault, the Abomination exploded into chunks of goop that coated the surrounding field.

Parts of the creature sprayed onto Skara and the other Banshee’s, but the largest chunks seemed to coat the Glandus team the most. Bria blocked the goo coming at her with a pillar, but Gavin was splashed with a large chunk, and Angmar was sent flat on his face by the headpiece of the Abomination, covering him completely.

Cat grabbed the ball from the air as all this was happening, and was on her feet rushing toward Glandus post, while Boscha and Skara followed close behind, Skara slightly lagging behind with the weight of the guitar.

“Boscha, I got this!”

Skara’s ears perked up as she began to make out the words of her teammates.

“No, I can make it to the other end faster than you!”

What’s going on between them?

“Just guard me a round and we can-”

“CAT! You know I can score faster than you! Just throw me the ball and I swear-”

Boscha’s yells were cut short as she collapsed to the ground. Skara stopped herself on instinct, skidding on her heels as she turned to see that, as she suspected, a stone had risen from the ground, and Bria herself was scrambling to her feet, her finger in the air in the aftermath of a spell circle.

“GAVIN! GET THAT BALL!” Bria’s usually cocky and self assured attitude had been  replaced with an anger that caused her to bark the command with a vengeance. She was now starting to get backed into a corner, and that led her to acting more and more aggressive,

It kinda reminded Skara of another captain she knew….

Gavin dusted off the rest of the goop on him and nodded. He summoned the surrounding puddles of Abomination to him, a small wave forming beneath his feet to carry him towards Cat.

Oh no you DON’T! Skara raised a hand to blast the abomination wave-

Only to feel the sensation of a stone slab thrown against her back.

“ TITAN-”

Skara fell on her face, the chunk of stone firmly on top of her. She was lucky the guitar was so surprisingly sturdy, otherwise she didn’t know how she hadn’t just crushed it.

Looking up, she spotted the clock, just ten seconds left, and Cat, continuing to rush the field. She was so close to the goal, almost within throwing distance!

C’mon Cat, you got this…

But Gavins wave stopped, forming a large, intimidating purple wall in front of the goal. He looked battered, but no less willing to fight the Healer for control of the ball. Skara felt her heart sink. Though Cat didn’t stop…

“OK!” He jumped to the ground, raising out a hand. “JUST STOP AND DROP THE BALL AND-”

Whatever Gavin’s ultimatum would have been died on his lips. Or with his ribcage, given that’s where Cat, still not stopping, elbowed him, with enough force to knock back a griffon. 

As Gavin fell to the ground, clutching his sides, the wall collapsed, most of the goo falling into a giant puddle again. Despite getting hit by some of it, Cat simply gave a mighty roar and hurled the ball through the triangular goal with all her might.

And as the buzzer screamed, the Banshee’s scored their thirteenth goal.

Skara was able to scramble to her feet, running towards Cat, who now stood before Gavin, a smug smirk of satisfaction on her lips.

“ That was for calling Amelia useless.” Cat teased as the Abominations boy tried to push himself back onto his feet. “I’d suggest getting to the healers. Best decision you’d ever make.”

“Girl, that was amazing!” Skara threw her arms around the others’ neck, laughing and unperturbed by the globs of goop that had landed on her friend. “You did awesome with that elbow!”

Cat laughed as she hugged Skara back. “Eh, just thought I’d give him a little piece of my mind for insulting my Amelia.”

Skara noted the interesting description, but chose to tease Cat about it later. 

“AND THAT’S THE END OF THE THIRD QUARTER FOLKS!” The loudspeakers blared, Perry Porters sounding even more excited than usual. “WITH SKARA’S CONTRIBUTIONS HELPING TO SUDDENLY TURN THE GAME AROUND, CAN THE BANSHEE’S CLAIM THIS ONCE IMPOSSIBLE VICTORY?!?”’

Hexside’s crowd roared to life, all its members chanting and cheering the team on. Fans that had once felt crestfallen now seemed invigorated as what had once been a one-sided match began to even out. The Glandus side shouted and encouraged their team on as well, trying to motivate them to fight on in a now close game. 

As Skara looked into the stands, she found the familiar landmark of Bo and Amelia, both waving Amelia’s sign ecstatically. And near that, just above, was Willow.

She stood in her seat, laughing, cheering as she looked over to Skara, fists in the air. The Human and Amity seemed to be just cheering in general, and Gus had his flags in the air, waving them like he were directing a parade.  It almost seemed like Willow was genuinely cheering for Skara. As if Willow actually did believe in her. As if Willow actually had believed that Skara could prove them wrong all along. 

Skara waved back, hoping, in some small way, Willow would know it was for her.

Her view was suddenly obscured by a set of three eyes, staring her down in a very in-your-face manner. Skara almost stepped back, as if Boscha had been a horror movie jumpscare. 

“What the Titan were you and half-a-witch doing?”

The question was so out of left field even Skara was taken aback. “Huh?”

“What. Happened. With half-a-witch?”

“...What?” The Bard was dumbfounded. “I…  I’m sorry, what’re you talking about?” 

“I spent Titan knows how long preparing you for this!” Boscha stepped back, now heading to start the next round. Skara jogged close behind, trying to keep up, both with Boscha physically and her bitter anger. “We had meeting after meeting, spent hour after hour, trying to perfect and hone our skills. We should have been as ready for this game as if we had Amity back on the team.”

“So we had a sloppy start. Now we’re catching up! So what? I thought you wanted to win!”

Boscha shook her head. “Why did we start off with the worst first half I’ve ever played, and suddenly we’re almost winning, because you’re completely disregarding everything we practiced?? What did that loser do that suddenly made you so good?”

Now Skara was getting annoyed. So annoyed that she couldn’t help it - She actually laughed, against all common sense that it actually surprised herself. “First, you’re mad because I’m terrible and that we were losing. And now, you’re mad because I’m playing well, and we’re starting to catch up?”

It was all just so… So insane, so utterly absurd, and so… So beyond anything to Skara, she couldn’t even put it into words. All she had been able to do was laugh. 

“I can’t win with you, can I? There’s nothing I can do that’d make you happy with me, is there?” 

“I’m not upset about doing well!” Boscha snarled the words, an almost feral anger coating them. “I’m upset because you spent your first half getting beaten up, and now, suddenly, you talk to her and start getting good? What did four-eyes do?”

“Well, three eyes , we just talked , she gave me some encouragement and-”

 “Oh, so I spend weeks getting you into fighting shape for this game and you suck,” Boscha stopped on her heels so fast it made Skara stumble, before catching her balance and stopping along with her. The captain spun, fury apparent in her face. “But they tell you, ‘ Oh Skary, just believe in the magic of pixie dust and unicorn farts and you can achieve anything ’ and suddenly you’re actually halfway competent?”

Skara took an aggressively deep inhale. “Yeah. Exactly like that.”

Then, after a moment's thought.

“Well, not exactly in those words. But, yeah.”

Boscha’s whole body bristled. “Really.” It was phrased like a question, but the intonation made it sound more like a threat. For the first time in a while, Skara found herself not even remotely intimidated by it.