The Outcast

Sure enough, the right book did help Lily figure out how to get the Luxina spell to work properly. The book in question, Basic Spells: Incantations and Their Tricks. Volume 1 had been incredibly useful, and Lily had checked it out immediately for a long-term loan. She also found the sister series of these books which described the bulk of basic potions in the same way so had taken out the first volume of those in advance of the following day.

Kiki and Oscar kept themselves quiet over the evening as they had done the previous week, and they took to only following Lily into the bathroom to talk when they could get away with it. This had previously been a brief thing, so far neither of them had found anything within the walls of the school. But, Lily was very glad to hear their voices nonetheless.

But that night, Kiki followed her without news but instead to exchange general thoughts next to the sink while Lily washed her face.

“So, you got the magic to work ok?” She asked early one morning while sitting on the side.

“Yeah. Well, working enough for no one to think I’m not just a less-than naturally-talented witch.” Lily assured her quietly, aware of the fact Dia was in the room they shared.

“That’s good,” Kiki sighed in obvious relief. “We had been worried. I mean, we didn’t know if fairies and witches could use each other’s magic, so we were very worried you’d hit a problem when the lessons started.”

Lily reached out to pet the white-footed cat’s head lightly, now and always touched by how much they cared for her. They shared the same concerns and they understood her worries. “I thought the same, but there’s still time for me not to be able to keep up with the spells they give me.” She admitted.

“Well, you do what you can to keep up with everyday stuff here; Oscar and I will do the digging. You might find stuff in the documents or the lessons, so don’t let yourself fall behind” Kiki moved onto her back feet to lean up far enough to nuzzle Lily’s upper arm.

A bright smile graced Lily’s features as she leant closer to press a couple of kisses to the cat’s little black nose.

Lily did as she was told, trusting that Oscar and Kiki would come and let her know whatever they found. The following morning, however, Kiki stayed with her while Lily sat in her bed from sunrise reading through The Basics of Potion Making: Volume 1. Lily suspected that the little cat wanted to keep her company but also thought that if the cats were never around to sleep then Dia would get suspicious. After all, cats were meant to sleep for the best part of the day.

What she learned from the book was exactly what they learned later that day from Warlock Fausia. Elixirs were potions used to change the base metals of materials and often used in building, constructing, blacksmithing and other jobs like this. Maceration potions were in short, potions which soften and break down substances they are left on.

Both during her reading of the book in the morning, and during her note-taking in classes as Warlock Fausia went through the basics, and the details of which potions specifically they would be covering in this year, Lily couldn’t figure out why these would be taught in a school that was soon to be sent to kill Fairies. The only thing she could come up with, was that these were potential jobs for people after the war?

Still, it was incredibly innocent compared to what she had imagined being taught here. But then, most of the spells and potions she had browsed through in her books didn’t seem dangerous. Perhaps that was just the early stage stuff?

She kept rapt attention in the classes just in case she heard something out of the ordinary. But Warlock Fausia didn’t seem to let on any air of threat; in fact, he just seemed to have an underlying passion for the manual trades. He seemed stern and stoic, even kind of terrifying with his tall height and mussed-up brown hair with grey flecks, but there was a glitter in his eyes when he spoke about the uses of Elixirs. Because of that, his lessons were certainly going to be much more interesting than Warlock Mayai’s had been the day before.

The following day, in their first Creature Handling class, Lily found the teacher she definitely liked best so far.

Wild Witch Agrios was waiting for them with her short blonde hair practically glowing in the early morning sun. She was a muscled woman who didn’t seem bothered by the fact her green vest top did nothing to cover the scars and burns that littered her skin.

“I bet you’ve all been bored out of your mind with the introductory lessons so far this week!” She started with a bounce in her knees, bobbing up and down a little as though unable to stand still. “So, I’m just going to jump straight into it; all you need to know as an intro here is that I go by Aggie, and my assistant over there is Ferny…”

“Ferntide!” The male with a strawberry blonde ponytail flushed, turning back to the large potted plants he was stood by.

“Yes, yes. Young mister Ferntide.” Agrios chortled, clearly enjoying the reaction she had gotten. “He’s not a teacher, but he’s very good with the animals. So, if you can’t get hold of me with a question then he’s your best bet! Just don’t sneak up on him from behind, he spooks easy!”

Again, she laughed brightly. Lily caught the male assistant shifting nervously out of the corner of her eye though he didn’t look around or protest.

“So today, I thought we’d dive right in with a creature which won’t scare anyone off and may even delight a few. The creepy crawlies can wait until you’ve built up your stomachs a bit.” Without informing them what creatures they would be seeing, Agrios ushered them to follow her as she moved over to where her assistant stood with the plants.

As potted plants went, these were huge. Small trees that were kept in pots for ease of transport most likely.

“Oh look!” One male at the front whispered as they got closer.

“Where?”

“I don’t see…”

“Pupuacrin!” Agrios exclaimed happily, motioning towards the branches of the small trees.

“Pupu-what-now?” Lily muttered in confusion, causing a laugh to snort out from Dia beside her. Lily glanced at her wondering if she should have known what these things were. Was she showing her ignorance of this world again? Gulping back the fear she was giving herself away, she simply turned back to the trees and squinted at them. Hopefully, Dia wouldn’t think any more of it.

As she continued to investigate the trees, she noticed some of the green and brown colours moving around. Focusing on those she soon came to realise that they were little creatures. Little fluffy creatures with a set of fore- and hind-wings with long apex tails reaching out to almost twice the length of the little creatures’ bodies. They were incredibly well camouflaged, curled into balls on the branches.

“Now, these are very curious little creatures so long as you don’t make too many loud noises around them” Agrios said, happily reaching into the branches and gently picking up the first creature she could reach.

In her hand, the small creature uncurled itself and took hold of her fingers with eight fluffy feet. It stabled itself and looked around at the class. As it did so, Lily could see that it had two large bright blue eyes and long pointed ears that had long tufts of fur poking up from their tips.

The Pupuacrin really was painfully cute.

“Their fur is used in many potions, usually the ones that are involved in Tinctures. Pupuacrin fur is never found in a potion that has a negative effect, and absolutely never used in poisons of any kind.” Agrios was explaining as she walked along the line of students, stopping to allow them to reach out a tentative stroke of the little creature.

Lily found her fingers running over its left ear and a small smile pulling on her lips as it blinked lazily before turning to sniff at her finger. Agrios smiled brightly at her as the Pupuacrin licked Lily’s finger.

“He likes you,” Agrios commented quietly before moving on to show the last of the class. “The general structure of these lessons will be that you’ll examine the creatures and then while you learn to interact with them, handle them or restrain them, I shall talk you through their physiology and care. The following week, you shall work with the same creature and show me how much you have learned about that care.”

A few at a time moved forward for Agrios or Ferntide to help them identify the Pupuacrin in the branches and to urge them into their hands. There was one Pupuacrin per pair or trio of students.

“Mind if I join you two?” Asked a voice from behind Lily and Dia, making them both jump in surprise. Spinning around, Lily found Finnigan Byrne smiling down at them. She hadn’t noticed him back there, but why did he keep coming over to be around them? Oh god! It occurred to her for a moment that maybe he knew what she was. But it made no sense why he would be smiling at her if he knew.

Her silence was broken by Dia who smirked at Lily before nodding almost eagerly. “Sure thing, Finn!” She agreed, motioning for him to come with them as she took Lily’s elbow and pulled her to the trees so they could get a Pupuacrin.

The Pupuacrin turned out to be a glorious distraction from discomfort. Wild Witch Agrios had not been lying when she said these were curious creatures. Once the little creature had sniffed at Lily’s fingers with its little twitching nose, it began to scamper up her arm with a surprising grip in its eight tiny paws. It became interested in tangling itself in her hair while Finn and Dia spoke together; Lily overheard a few snippets including Dia explaining that Lily didn’t speak much and Finn claiming that he didn’t mind.

She didn’t get it. Witches weren’t meant to be nice or accepting, or anything of that nature.

Frowning a little, she attempted to pull the Pupuacrin from her brown locks.

“You’ll have trouble getting all eight of those paws out at once.” Lily snapped around to see Agrios smiling in amusement. “Here, let me help. Unless you want it to nest there?”

Lily blinked before shrugging lightly “It’s not the worst deal.” She mumbled, gaining a hearty laugh from her teacher.

“You’re an animal fan?” Agrios asked.

“Well, I lived in an area surrounded by all sorts. Though most weren’t particularly wild” Lily half explained, trying to keep everyone’s theory that she was a farm girl.

“Ah, good! I’ll always welcome an animal fan rather than a people fan!” Agrios finally pulled the little creature free of Lily’s hair and placed it back in her hands before smiling and wandering off to the next students.

Wild Witch Agrios could be seen a mile away as an animal lover rather than a people lover. She spoke with such passion about the little creatures while they were being handled and while the class wrote about them in easy to hold handbooks while the creatures flitted between person and tree branch. It didn’t feel like they had spent a solid four hours out there, the class was interesting and Agrios made it feel exciting even when she was talking about the maintenance of the Pupuacrin’s tiny claws which supposedly had to be trimmed in captivity every two months unless they had the correct branches to scratch into.

By the end of the week, Lily knew that Mythical Creatures would probably be her favourite of all the lessons. They already knew what the other lessons would be like with Panga and Mayai, but Sorceress Meadowtail was even worse for Enchantments. She could obviously not care less about her lessons. Master Orva for Charms on Friday afternoon was passionate, but he held strict intimidation about him which made the whole class feel nervous.

“You reckon first weeks are always meant to be that boring?” Dia sighed heavily, flopping back onto her bed late on Friday night. Lily shrugged. “I mean, sure there’s room for introductions, but Orva basically just lectured us on common courtesy for two hours straight!”

Lily picked up Oscar who was lounging on their windowsill and pressed a couple of soft kisses to his head.

“I hope they get more interesting though. Could this place have picked a set of any more boring people?! I mean seriously, how are they meant to get so many of us interested enough to even want to learn when we’ve got Mayai who doesn’t seem to have a personality, Meadowtail and Fausia who clearly don’t want to be here, and Panga who looks like one glare from a student would cause a breakdown!” Dia’s rant seemed to be full throttle and filled with disappointment.

Lily, who had expected much worse, was still more confused than disappointed. Not one single class that their teachers had described seemed like it would be even a slight threat to the Fairy Kingdom.

Perhaps they were wrong about the gathering of witches here, maybe this was just a school. Maybe the war stuff was somewhere else in the world of witches? Though, how she was meant to get away from a school long enough to find out was a mystery to her.

“It’s a damn good thing I got you. You seem to have a dab hand in deciphering books to then tell me what I missed dozing off!” Dia was grinning at her now. Lily pulled her mind quickly back to reality and pushed a slight smile onto her face in response.

“I’ll do my best. The theory makes sense, but the practical… well…” Her expression was a little sheepish, she had severely struggled with the initial spells they had been given in Enchantments and Charms.

“We’ll work on them tomorrow! Have them aced by next week so that smug little liche can stop smirking at us.” Dia grumbled the last few words. Lily knew exactly who she spoke about. It was that brown-haired, beautiful female who had knocked her in the corridor that day. Thanks to Master Orva, who actually took a register, they had found out that the girl’s name was Kelsie Fulton.

“She is pretty skilled,” Lily added, dropping herself into her desk chair and settling Oscar on her lap.

“So? Doesn’t give her any right to lord it over us!”

Lily raised an eyebrow. She couldn’t stop herself. From her experience, those who were better at something than she was had always lorded it over her and seemed to be to do so and no one other than her cat companions had ever spoken out about such behaviour.

“How does it not piss you off?”

“Erm, I don’t know. I’m used to it?” Lily offered.

“Well, get unused to it! I swear, Lil, I’ve never met someone as subservient as you!” Dia shook her head with a sigh. Lily blinked in surprise at that but Dia continued “We’ll keep practising and show that Kelsie girl up for good! Right?”

The look she shot Lily was so resolute, so determined, that she could do nothing but nod slowly in agreement. Dia beamed.

“Good! We’ll start tomorrow, can I use the bathroom first?”

Again, Lily nodded.

Once the door to the bathroom was shut, she looked down at Oscar who had a gleam of amusement in his eyes.

“I like her.” He stated simply.