Lesson 2: The early Wurm gets the bird...

Blake woke up at his usual time, at four o’clock. He blinked sleepily, looking around the room to remind him where he was. When his eyes fell upon Raven’s sleeping form, he was shocked. He didn’t expect her to sleep on the same bed.

He father always said that a good man must go out of his way for a girl. He got up and looked at the bed. It was big, but he thought he could Duplicate them. He had only seen the Doppelganger spell once, but he thought he could do it.

He placed his right hand on the bed and held his left arm out to his side. “Darke double summoned for dark trouble. Doppelganger!” Blake said quietly. He only knew a part of the spell, but it should be enough to active the Doppelganger Effect.

A cloud of smoke emerged into existence. It gave off a faint odor of rain and roses. It expanded into the approximate size and shape of the bed and slowly it became thicker, becoming more solid. When it created a perfect copy of the bed, he allowed himself to smile. It copied the blanket and pillow, right down to the magnolia pattern stitched into them. His smile vanished when he saw it also copied Raven.

An exact replica of her lay asleep on the bed, wearing the same dark purple night dress. It looked exactly like her, right down to the faint scar on the hairline. Blake didn’t understand how it happened. He thought he only used enough power to replicate the bed itself; he was amazed it copied the blanket and pillow, let alone Raven. Blake panicked; he didn’t know how to cast reversion spells.

He didn’t want to, but chose to wake up Raven. She shook her shoulder, moving her softly. Raven’s eyes snapped open and she twisted sharply, pinning Blake to the bed. She held her left hand to his neck and had her fist pulled back. When she saw who it was, she blushed and got off him. She read the clock, seeing it to be half an hour before she usually woke up.

“What were you doing? Why did you touch me, Blake?” She said angrily.

“I-uh… um,” Blake stammered. He was surprised by her aggressiveness.

“Come on, spit it out. There had to be a reason you did it. If you don’t tell me, I’ll let Wolff and Viper have you,” Raven threatened her assistant. She didn’t understand why she felt so irritated. Then she felt the presence of magic, sloppily put together but powerful.

She turned around and looked at the Doppelganger bed. She saw the blanket and pillow, perfectly replicated. Her eyes remained focused on the top part of the bed, paying no mind to the footrest end. “Wh-who did this? Blake, tell me now, who did this?”

“Th-that’s what I-I was trying to te-tell you. I made the Doppelganger, but I also Doppel’ed you,” Blake swallowed and continued, “Looked for yourself. It made a copy of you.”

“Blake, I highly doubt you did this. Doppelganger is a third-” Raven’s voice trailed off as she saw the copy of herself, still asleep on the doppelganger bed. It had to of been him, Raven thought, this copy is so crudely put together. There is no way my hair has split ends, she thought. “Fine. I’ll Remove it once you’re out. Why don’t you go get washed up, it’ll be a long day. Go, and take your time, it might take a while for me to Remove the Doppelganger.”

Blake grabbed some clean clothes from his luggage. He hurried off to the bath, a large room complete with hot tub, bath, shower, and restrooms. He closed the door behind him and Raven looked at the Doppelganger.

She didn’t want to actually Remove it, what she had in mind was better. She said a quick Reducing spell, making the copy of herself small enough to fit in a bottle. She took a glass bottle, the kind where miniature boats were made in, and dropped the copy inside. It would lay asleep inside the bottle until she removed it.

She groaned and took off her night dress, feeling the warmth of the room on her bare skin. As she grabbed a shirt off the floor, where her things lay, she heard a door open. Her head looked up to see Blake coming back into the room. She spat out a quick attack spell and it struck him dead in the chest. He crumpled to the floor, knocked out.

Raven hit the wooden frame of the bed with her fist. Why? Why did he have to walk in then, she thought. I would have been dressed in not even a minute. Why couldn’t he have waited at least another minute?

She now had a copy of herself and her assistant was knocked out. Watching him should have been easy, Raven thought angrily. Because she couldn’t do memorial spells, that type of magic being Viper’s specialty, she casted a Torment on Blake. It was powerful enough to keep him depressed all day and give him nightmares.

She put on a black lace dress instead of the shirt.  It was great for that day’s activities, plus it went perfect with her mood. She planned on making Blake pay for seeing her in her underclothes; she would think of different plans all day.

 

Raven’s POV

Because Blake was my assistant, we had the same classes. The first for today was Monsterology. I had taken this class before, but the lessons were different every year, so I asked to repeat it.

Madam Mary Flar was the teacher. She was a tall, thin woman, her blonde hair reaching to the floor. Flar’s blue eyes searched over the crowd. “Turn to page one-thousand two hundred and seventy one.”

The first years, in expectance to Blake, who was so depressed he could barely move, talked amongst themselves as the books were opened. They thought they’d be learning from the beginning, not the middle of the book. I smiled as I opened my book, knowing what this section was.

We’d be learning about some kind of dragon. It would most likely be harmless, but Flar was known for her interest in the more exotic and deadly creatures. Even the oldest students had to be on guard when in her class. I looked at the image in my book when I heard the stunned gasps of the freshmen.

A Wurm stared out from the book. The Arctic Wurm, pure white with a mouth full of hundreds of teeth. It was the most dangerous of all Wurms, due to its ability to breathe a fire that actually freezes the object it touches. I felt a shiver of dread creep down my spine; I knew that Madam Flar liked to bring in a live specimen of the monster we studied.

“Children! We are going to learn about Wurms, the Arctic Wurm in particular. This Wurm is the deadliest of all Wurms, nearly as dangerous as a young Dragon. I did have a young, healthy, fully-trained Artic Wurm for you to see, but I can't find her anywhere. If you see her, please tell me.

"For today, you'll be split into groups of four. There are eight Wurms, all completely harmless, released in the gardens. Your task is to catch one and bring it back, and then tell me how it is similar to the Artic Wurm described in your books. Now, please pick your groups and go forth."

My group was me, Blake, Wolff and Viper. Instead of going to the gardens, I walked up to Madam Flar. "Madam, is it wise to let so many freshmen go off on their own with a Wurm on the loose?"

"I'm pleased to see your concern Raven, but as I said, the Wurms are all harmless. The same goes for the Artic Wurm. Now you and your group had better run along. There are only eight Wurms out there and nine groups."

I turned and headed out into the maze-like gardens. The garden was full of Darke Herbs, like Man-Eating Bloodroot and Blacksaint Roses. They could be harmless enough, but every now and then the school would lose a student to an attack from one of our flowers. Then there were the animals that lived in the gardens. It wasn't uncommon to be stopped by a zombie asking for directions or to see a pack of warwolves, a very primitive kind of werewolf, roaming about.

I had no true reason to worry, as Viper was the one who had planted many of the flowers. The plants wouldn't harm us while in Viper's presence. Wolff alone and without using magic could fight any of the monsters around here. Then I myself was an expert at attack magic.

We walked through the long passages, Viper running his fingertips over the heads of the plants to calm them. I smiled slightly. Viper loved to be in the gardens and had signed up for three advanced Herbology classes.

I walked next to Wolff, who could easily see in the glum light. His eyes scanned endlessly for a Wurm or any other creature. Blake trailed behind us, dragging his feet as he walked. His head was hung and he stared at his feet.

Suddenly, Wolff and Viper both stopped. "What's up?" I whispered.

"It suddenly got very quiet and I haven't been able to feel a breeze for a while," Wolff said, "Something very large is nearby, much larger than any werewolf."

"All the plants here are either dead or trying very hard to look it. They're scared. Something is definitely here. And it's getting closer." Viper reached into his jacket and pulled out an ash-grey, twisted, stick from his pocket. It took me a while to remember that it was his wand. Viper must have been very scared to pull that out. "Let's move."

Viper and Wolff began to walk quickly down the path. I began to follow, but then realized something. "Where's Blake?" I asked out loud. The boys exchanged looks and then headed back the way we came.

The three of us ran as quickly as we could. Wolff stopped us sometime later, pointing to the ground.

A large animal track, the size of a small dog, was imprinted in the dirt. Deep holes were in front of the print, where claws had dug into the ground. It was a fresh tack, just made.

But the print wasn't the important object. Bloody shoes and a torn jacket lay in a heap nearby. The ground around them was frozen solid, covered in a thin layer of ice. Through it I could see a textbook with the initials B.C. in gold. It was Blake Childers’s textbook.

The Artic Wurm had gotten Blake. He was as good as dead. Then, on the other side of the hedge, we heard him scream and saw blue fire jump to the sky.