Cordyceps Twenty-Six
Cordyceps Twenty-Six
I was hoping that Harbin would leave me well enough alone. The contact poison, in as small a dose as he’d received, would take some time to act. I was even worried that it wouldn’t do enough to be truly noticeable.
I had never delved too deep into medicine in my previous life, but working with mushrooms and fungi meant researching their interactions with human biology, and that, of course, meant that I had to know something about the biological processes that fungal matter used to harm people.
When it came to poisons, the magic was in the dosage. Too little would do nothing, and too much of anything was lethal.
Harbin had gotten a dusting on his hands. Hands were notoriously bad at transmitting contact poisons, but I saw him scratching himself and picking his nose, so I was certain he’d gotten some of the spore dust to make contact with bare skin.
Now, was it enough ?
I didn’t want to kill him, so I hadn’t picked a mushroom that was too lethal. [Dead Horse Head] which caused a number of digestive issues when inhaled or eaten or touched. Surprisingly, it wasn’t an irritant.
I’d known first-hand what it could do to your gut. I had to grow my poison immunities somehow, and having the runs in a controlled environment was better than some of my other options.
Harbin wouldn’t have the advantage of a well-levelled [Poison Resistance] skill of any sort.
I was quite smug as I finished up in class and started to head out. The Professor nodded to us, and we were dismissed--as promised--a few minutes before the bell rang.
I was expecting to use the time to find some of the kids I was growing used to hanging out with, maybe I’d even rope Milo into coming along, and I could ply him for information about his dad.
Then I felt a hand on my shoulder, and as I turned, I got a rude shove against the chest that sent me scrambling backwards. We were only a few yards from the greenhouse exit, and already, Harbin was there, waiting for me with that stupid grin on his face. I looked from him to the others. He had his two pals with him, but some of the Dragons had stopped too. I met Milo’s eyes for a moment, but the boy seemed pinned in place by hesitation and uncertainty.
“What do you want, Harbin,” I said.
He grinned. “I thought you would have gone back home after the last time,” he said.
“The last time what?” I asked.
He frowned. “The last time me and the boys pounded you in the washroom.”
I had a few options here. The best, of course, would be to back off, deescalate, and run. Hell, I could run back into the greenhouse. The professor was still there, and Harbin wasn’t between me and the door. I couldn’t expect the teacher to do anything, but he probably wouldn’t let two students roughhouse in his greenhouse.
Of course, doing the logical thing was clever and smart, and absolutely not what I did.
“Sorry, Harby, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Can you repeat that? You said you and your boyfriends here spent time pounding each other in the washroom?”
There was something incredibly amusing about how easy these boys were to rile up. One heavy-handed implication and Harbin’s cheeks were red as beets.
“I kicked your ass,” he said.
“I must not have noticed,” I said.
Part of me regretted fanning the flames. A bigger part of me wanted to see how big I could make the fire.
Harbin stomped towards me, and I danced back a step or two, keeping space between us while also moving in towards the Dragons.
My heart sank a little as all of them moved back as well. We could have put up a strong front there, but instead they’d chosen to do what was probably the smart thing and backed away from a fight. Even cowardly little Milo didn’t seem to want to get into a scrap.
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So, thinking fast, I looked around me, then noticed a rock sticking out of the grass. A quick dip, and I had it in hand. It wasn’t much, half the size of my fist, including the bit of dirt that came with it, but it was something.
“What are you gonna do with that?” Harbin asked. “Chuck it at me?”
“I was thinking the greenhouse, actually,” I said. “I wonder what the professor’s gonna say after we all tell him you broke his precious greenhouse windows.”
Harbin paused, looked at me, then back at the greenhouse. It wasn’t so far away, and the glass was enticingly smashable.
“He wouldn’t believe you.”
“Doesn’t matter. There’s more of us than there are of you, and I’ll bet my last halfpenny that you have exactly the kind of reputation that a washroom-pounder deserves.”
“Stop calling me that,” he snapped.
I noticed that he was sweating, and I allowed myself to grin. “How about we call it quits then? You don’t call my bluff, and I don’t get you into a heap of trouble?”
Harbin growled, but he cut himself off as his stomach gurgled loud enough that we all heard it.
“Or,” I said instead. “We get into a nice fight. Instead of you and a few of your washroom-pounders attacking me when my back’s turned, we fight like proper, honourable men. Huh? That’ll be a first for you, I’m sure. You strike me as the sort that likes hitting people from behind. Your friends back there will have to watch out, won’t they?”
I was just talking to talk, to fill the air, because something about people made them really reluctant to swing a fist while in the middle of a chat. Well, normal people, at least.
Harbin took another step towards me, and I stood my ground, shifting my grip on the rock so that its pointy end was pointing down.
Harbin was sweating, hard, and his face had gone a bit pale.
“Yo-you’re not worth it,” he gasped before he started to walk off.
“Hey!” I called. “Wait!”
Harbin stopped, only a few steps away. “What?”
I had nothing to say, but I didn’t want him to just leave. Not when I could keep him here and away from a washroom for just a few more precious seconds. “Do you know what classes we have together?” I asked. “Other than this one?”
“What?” he repeated. There was sweat beading on his brow. “Why do you care?”
“Well, I just want to know which washrooms to avoid. Wouldn’t want to walk in on you, you know? You seem to love spending time there with your pals.”
Harbin’s mouth moved like a fish, and for a moment I thought he might be reconsidering that beating. Then his stomach contracted, his eyes went wide, and the boy spun on a heel and took off.
“Whoa,” Milo said as he jumped away from his path.
Harbin’s Troll buddies didn’t wait for long before running after him.
I wondered if he’d make it in time. I rather hoped he didn’t.
“Well done,” Milo said as he came over and smacked me on the back. “I didn’t think you’d actually stand up to him like that. He’s a scary one. Unhinged, even.”
“Yeah, well, I think he--”
“Mister Killua.”
Milo and I both jumped and turned towards the entrance where the professor was standing. “Come here for a moment,” he said.
I glanced at Milo, then jogged into the greenhouse entrance where the professor stepped aside to let me in. Had he been there for long? Had he seen the altercation with Harbin? If so, was he waiting to step in at all?
“You can leave the rock outside,” he said. I glanced at the rock, then flicked it outside a moment before he shut the door. Professor Moss crossed the room with long strides that I had a hard time keeping up with, then he slid into a seat behind his desk. There was one of the projects we had worked on today on his desk. “From what I gathered, you have issues with Mister Harbin.”
I swallowed. “Yes, sir,” I said. “He landed me in the infirmary a day ago. Had to stay overnight. We’re not exactly friends.”
“I see,” he said. “And what did you choose to do about that?”
“Is there anything I can do about that?” I asked. “It’ll be his word against mine.”
He stared at me, then touched the project with the dissected daffodil on his desk and brought his finger to his mouth. “I don’t recognize the plant this powder comes from,” he said. “But it’s fungal. Some sort of laxative, if I were to guess. And a potent one at that.”
I blinked, then did what seemed smartest to do. Pretended to have no idea what he was talking about.
He, of course, didn’t buy it for a moment.
***