Chapter 7: Picnic
FALL TERM - DAY 16
I'm not entirely sure what is considered important enough to record here. In the week since the coven meeting on the new moon, I got the hang of shadow step. Using it more than twice in a single day might still make me queasy, but Marblebrook was right. I'm adjusting. I read six Chapters of a textbook called Paper Magic: The Basics of Ink-Drawn Sigils and forty pages of The Soul of Steel: The Unabridged History of Keikurian Blacksmithing. I've yet to even touch the book I need to finish for Divination next week, but none of this feels particularly important. And there's one thing I just need to vent about - Aries has been crashing my lunches in the courtyard with Aisling.
The first time it happened — a few days ago —I can believe it was unplanned.
Aisling had been going on and on about how we should make this a proper picnic while the weather was still good for it. She brought a quilt to set out in the shade of a magnolia tree. I told her not to expect this to be a regular thing, but I'd gone into town that morning to the market and picked up a baguette, a few wedges of cheese, and three different types of jam.
"Did you know they keep dogs here? There's a kennel. It's like a whole doggy prison under the Court." Aisling was going to talk and I was going to sit there with my Divination book and not read a word of it and that was exactly how I'd wanted the day to go.
Aisling went on, "I know the dogs go out during the day and run through the woods to scare off pixies who wander too close to the campus, but then they get locked up - every night. Can you imagine? I was talking to the groundskeeper, Brian, who was actually kind of cute in a way-"
"And he's probably twice your age," I muttered.
"Not the point!" Aisling's eyes flared bright green, before quickly fading back to hazel. "But Brian's the one that has the keys to the kennels. So I was thinking-"
There was a yelp from the otherside of the courtyard - high, strained, and distinctly canine. My mind was more on the hounds than anything else, so I hadn't expected it when Aries and Noodle came racing around the fountain.
Noodle jumped up on the fountain lip and started to cast. A flash erupted from his fingertips, hitting Aries in the back. Aries shrieked as it hit and writhed until Noodle withdrew. Aries rolled on the pavement, his screams fading quickly to laughter.
I suddenly didn't want to explain to Aisling that those two idiots were in my coven. But there was no avoiding it. Noodle jumped off the fountain, nudged Aries, who was still on the ground, with his foot.