Cordyceps Fifteen
Cordyceps Fifteen
The class spread out across the woods.
The trees and bushes and such on the edge were far enough apart that there was no getting lost, but Professor Moss eventually called out. “The edges won’t have much of a bounty. Don’t be afraid to head deeper in.”
So I did just that.
With all of my stealth and unnoticeability skills turned on, I slipped behind a large tree so that I couldn’t see anyone, then walked away from the group. By the time they were in my line of sight again, I was a dozen metres away from the nearest.
The Dragons stuck together, more or less. The boys walked around, hanging onto the sacks that the professor had given out to us in one hand and gripping onto their trowels with the other.
I think it might have been the first time a couple of them even handled any sort of tool.
Well, whatever. I’d leave them to it. I slipped deeper into the woods. The terrain was a lot more uneven here than around the academy, and I realised looking at it, that the ground around the school must have been levelled at some point. This was a craggy, rocky area, there was no way there was a place with that much flat land atop one of the biggest cliffs in the area.
The woods were more natural, with deep dips in the terrain after a while where fewer plants grew, and large boulders and rocks left behind.
As I pushed in deeper, I eventually came upon a wall. It was all brick and mortar, and looked like it had been sitting here for a long time. The original school wall, maybe? It looked aged, with some plants digging into the brickwork and dislodging them and a nice covering of moss painted part of the wall green.
It was still a good metre and a half tall. Taller than most people could jump over, and the top had a wrought-iron filigree on it, with plenty of twirls that ended in sharp, rusty, fleur-de-lys.
Someone enterprising could still get over it, of course, but at least the school had a wall all the way around it.
Not that it would keep it safe from someone already inside.
I started to follow the wall, heading more or less in the direction the others were in, but my attention was mostly on the ground. I was looking for green shoots, like I’d seen when Professor Moss had shown off that onion.
I wanted to do well in this class. Not only was it a subject I was genuinely interested in, it was also a fantastic opportunity to level.
A good teacher could help you gain levels at a much greater pace, and Professor Moss’ subject touched on some of my most difficult to improve skills.
I’d first need to earn my place in his class, however, and that wouldn’t happen if I slacked off.
So I was pretty happy when I ran into a small heap of [Enchanter’s Onion]s in a small sunny patch not too far from the wall.
I squatted next to them and used the trowel I’ve been given to cut slices out of the earth in a rough circle around the plants. Then I moved them into the sac, careful not to disturb their roots too much.
These weren’t exactly delicate. I was pretty sure I could yoink them out of the ground with little trouble, but being careful wouldn’t hurt, and it would look more professional when I handed my bounty in.
The Professor had clearly chosen these plants for hardiness, however. They’d survive the rougher treatment I imagined my classmates were giving them.
With a bit of a skip to my step, I started to look for more when I heard a not-so-distant oomph .
It was probably all the time I spent on the streets that was responsible, but I instantly placed the sound. It was the noise someone made when they were shoved hard in the chest. It wasn’t a normal hard exhale, but a more sudden, violent one, just short of a scream.
It was the kind of sound that, if you heard in an alley, you’d slip to the other side of the road when crossing it, and it very much didn’t belong in these woods.
I slipped forwards, keeping some bushes and trees between me and the source of the noise until I was closer.
It was coming from one of the dips in the terrain, a small spot where a tiny stream had clawed its way across the terrain and turned the basin at the bottom into a muddy patch where fallen leaves stuck to the ground.
A decent spot for mushrooms. Maybe I could plant some around here?
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I poked my head over the edge of the hill, keeping a tree close next to me so that I’d only be exposing as much of myself as I needed to in order to see.
The Dragons were below. Well, two of them were. Milo and Andrew. No sign of George except that I noticed a dropped bag on the opposite hillside.
The Trolls were here too. At least three of them, including Harbin.
He was standing over Milo, who was on the muddy ground, glaring daggers up at the bigger boy.
“So what? You going to go crying to your daddy?” Harbin asked.
His friends--goons, I supposed--laughed behind him, and I found myself working hard not to roll my eyes. I tucked my sack of onions under a root and discarded one of my gloves there too. I needed a better grip on my trowel.
“Shut up, Harbin,” Milo said. “You’re such a typical new blood. Pushing your weight around. But you’re nothing. Just a jumped up ass!”
Well, Milo had some bite, at least.
It wouldn’t do him much good, of course. He was still on the ground and Andrew looked positively useless behind him, shaking in his boots while Harbin’s friends watched him.
So while they had their attention elsewhere, I snuck around. I paid half my attention to the ground, avoiding loose leaves and broken twigs, stepping carefully but quickly onto exposed rocks where I could. The other half of my attention was on the boys, who were doing an excellent job of not looking behind them.
“An ass? That the best you can do, daddy’s boy?” Harbin asked. He pointed to Milo, leaning forwards as he did to tower over him. “ You’re nothing. Just like the rest of you ‘Dragons.’”
Oh, I could hear those quotes. Harbin has some stuff to work through.
I really didn’t know much about fighting, but when my targets were two kids that weren’t paying attention...
“You’re not any better than any other Dragon. Just some old money that doesn’t know what’s coming for it,” Harbin continued. “Once I’m done making you eat mud, I’ll come for the rest of you.” He pointed to Andrew, who took a small step back... and noticed me standing behind Harbin’s friends.
Well, the jig was up.
I lashed out with a kick to the back of the nearest kid’s knees. He gasped, arms flailing as he started to fall, so I grabbed him by the scruff and threw him down with as much of my weight as I could manage.
Then I skipped over to the other boy who was starting to turn.
I didn’t know how to fight well. I was too small, too weak, to really ever put much effort into it.
But I was also fast, and I'd learned a thing or two about biology. So I dipped around the second goon and jammed the trowel up as hard as I could right into his lower back, more or less where his kidney was.
His breath cut off, and I reached up, grabbing him by the ear and twisting it back and down. That lowered him enough that I was able to press the trowel up against his neck.
Harbin turned, and his eyes immediately caught onto me.
“Don’t,” I snapped, stealth skills shutting off. No point in keeping them up now. “I don’t appreciate you hurting my friend, Harbin,” I said. My attention flitted to Andrew, just for a second. “Help Milo up,” I ordered, and that got him to jump to it.
Harbin took a step towards me, and I twisted his pal’s ear more. The kid made a squealing noise. So, he’d caught his breath? Good for him.
Harbin stopped, hands balled into fists by his side.
I started to weigh things.
There was a good chance that Harbin would come to his senses and realise that he wanted to punch my nose in more than he cared about his friends.
How would that play out? In the long term, his pals might not want to be pals anymore. But I rather liked my nose where it was.
Could I take him in a fight? He had a dozen kilos on me and a full foot of height. Nah, he’d paste me, unless I used magic. And using offensive magic would probably get me into a lot more trouble than him throwing punches.
I was still doing the maths when Professor Moss and George stomped onto the scene.
I let go of the kid's ear and stepped away, flipping the trowel around into an ice-pick grip as I did so. I reactivated my notice-me-not skills, even if they wouldn’t do much at the moment.
The Professor took in the scene at a glance. “I hope what happened here is that Mister Milo tripped while looking for onions,” he said.
“Yeah,” Milo said. “Yeah, that’s exactly what happened, sir.” He glanced my way and nodded his thanks.
Harbin glared at me for a while longer.
It seemed that I’d made both a friend and an enemy.
But hey, I found those onions too, so all in all, a productive class period!
***