Lucky Rabbit

Thaniel was very glad to see both his roommate and his rabbit, and clutched Pandy to him, in spite of her damp condition. Isidor went to bed as soon as he changed into his nightclothes and put Tempest into her box. For once, Pandy thought he actually was deeply asleep, not ready to wake at the slightest movement or sound. Thaniel was already in his nightclothes, and when Isidor simply ignored his questions and went to bed, the younger boy also slipped beneath his blankets, though he didn’t fall asleep so easily.

“Is Ellie all right?” he asked, wrapped up around Pandy beneath the blankets. She nodded, because it was the truth, though she suspected that the little princess would be even quieter and more cautious, for a while, at least.

Thaniel huffed a relieved breath, and hugged Pandy even closer. “Did you save her?” he said, voice barely above a whisper. This time, Pandy hesitated. Had she? She’d helped, certainly. But Lord Winston actually protected the girl, and Pandy was confident that the chancellor and the librarian would have figured out how to get through the maze eventually. Besides, she wasn’t certain that Eleanor had ever been in any real danger. Not physical danger at least.

When she didn’t respond, he buried his face in her fur and said, “You did. I know you did.” Then he pulled back, wrinkling his nose. “Why do you smell strange?”

Pandy had no answer, so she pushed her nose against his chin, wiggling her whiskers until he giggled. After that, he talked for a while longer, mostly telling her what he’d been doing while he waited – which wasn’t homework – and how worried he’d been. Eventually, his voice trailed off into a jaw-cracking yawn. Within a minute, he was asleep, but when Pandy tried to wriggle free so she could go practice her skills, he refused to let her go.

In the morning, Pandy was finally freed when Thaniel got up to change, but waited until Isidor went to clean up, then thought,

Casting of Shifting Faces successful. One use remains before next level.

It was only when Pandy tried to pull her outfit from her inventory that she remembered she’d left it behind in the dungeon, and dived for Thaniel’s blanket instead. Fortunately, Thaniel felt no particular need to make his bed as soon as he woke, unlike Isidor, whose blankets were tucked in so tightly that she probably could have bounced a tortoise off of them.

She wrapped the blanket around herself, turning to face a very surprised-looking Thaniel. “I’m going into town today,” she said hurriedly, then added, “because I’m out of clothes?” She hadn’t meant for it to be a question, but it was, and Thaniel blinked before nodding uncertain agreement. She hurried on. “I mean, I’m not out of clothes, because I’ll have to wear some when I go into town to buy more, but I’m almost out of clothes, so I need to go. Buy clothes. This morning.”

“Oh,” Thaniel said. His hand crept up to touch the Heartsplit Charm, which he’d pinned to his nightgown. This made Pandy realize that she was, once again, a complete and utter idiot, because she’d left the other half of the charm in the dungeon, attached to her discarded dress. Which meant that if Thaniel used his charm, the other half would come to him, but not Pandy, because Pandy wasn’t attached to it. Worse, the charm would need to be recharged, which the flavor text for the item said was possible, but which Clara and Edgar never had to do, which in turn meant that Pandy had no idea how to do it, and-

The door opened, revealing an Isidor whose calm expression shattered for a moment when he saw the blanket-wrapped Pandy, standing in the center of his bedroom. With a quick glance back down the hall, he slipped inside and held out a brown paper-wrapped package. The paper was torn, and a scrap of pinkish fabric was sticking out.

“This must be for you,” he said, then went over and crouched beside his bed, pointedly ignoring Pandy as he opened Tempest’s box and took out the tortoise.

Thaniel crowded up next to Pandy, eyes bright with curiosity as she carefully opened the paper. Pandy had never been prone to tearing into packages. Presents were meant to be savored, because until you were quite certain they held socks or a strange-smelling plush pickle from the thrift store, you never knew if this might be the one that contained something you actually wanted.

Thaniel was practically vibrating by the time Pandy shook out the dress, seeing that it was the one she’d worn in the dungeon the day before, but miraculously free of stains and damage. Who had picked it up, and more importantly, when had they done so? Neither Blackwood nor Beeswick had been carrying anything when they left, and poor Eleanor had only been holding Pandy herself. Had Isidor taken it? But she would have noticed if he’d had it later. Wouldn’t she? But who else was there?

Something shone from the bodice as she held it up, and with great relief, she saw that her half of the Heartsplit Charm was there, still pinned rather haphazardly beneath a coral-pink bow. Or rather, pinned again, because a small note was also attached to the brooch. Laying the dress down on Thaniel’s bed, she tugged the note off, opening it.

I believe these belong to you. I thought about leaving them, but at this rate, you’ll be wearing a curtain into town.

Pandy turned it over, but that was it. No signature, not even initials. She slid a glance at Isidor, but not only didn’t the note sound like something he’d say, he had no idea she planned to go out today. Only Mr. Blackwood knew that. Unless he’d mentioned it to Professor Beeswick? It was obvious that they were more than just the school’s chancellor and a member of staff. Did they have meetings where they talked about the crazy things Pandy had been up to? That…actually sounded quite plausible.

She glanced around, but there was just no way putting the outfit back on while they were there wasn’t going to be terribly awkward. She needed to get them out of the room. Plus, every moment she spent here was one more she wouldn’t have to shop. Turning to Thaniel, she said, “Make sure you’re wearing the pin I gave you, and remember that if you’re in danger, you should rip it off. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Will you be here for lunch?” he asked, the excitement brought on by the unknown package quickly clouding over into concern.

Hesitating, Pandy said, “I’ll try. I only have two hours, you know. Less, now.” She gestured to herself. Really, she should have spoken to him yesterday so she didn’t waste her time today. But then she might not have had enough to get through the maze or use the key to escape. How long would a game of bunny-charades have taken if she’d had to try to act out how to put the key in a nonexistent lock?

Thaniel bit his lip, but nodded. “Are you comin’ to breakfast?”

She’d spent some time last night thinking about this, and now she shook her head. “I have a few things to do first, and I need to leave right after breakfast.” Should she mention that she was going with Mr. Blackwood? Before she could decide, however, the bell rang for breakfast, and Thaniel gave her a fierce hug.

“I’ll see you soon,” he said as Isidor opened the door. Pandy nodded, smiling, and waved as Thaniel exited and slowly closed the door behind them.

Pandy immediately grabbed the dress. Using an old trick from the school locker room, she dropped the blanket as she brought the dress down over her head, making sure that if Thaniel popped back in for some reason, he wouldn’t get an eyeful. Besides, she still didn’t know if Mr. Blackwood could see through his elemental, or if it was just reporting back to him.

She skipped half of the undergarments, but everything went on, even if the dress didn’t quite fit correctly. The material of the dress itself was thick enough to keep all of her bits in place, so it should be fine. She did pull the bloomers on underneath, but there were no socks or shoes, which she actually didn’t mind, because all of Ms. Wellington’s shoes had high, pointy heels, and made her feet hurt, even if her high Agility kept her from twisting her ankles.

She pulled her hair back in a tight bun, and stabbed one of Thaniel’s pencils through it. That, too, was a trick she’d learned in school, and even though Ms. Wellington’s hair was finer than her own, she was fairly certain it would stay up, at least as long as no one stole her pencil. Once that was done, she added the new outfit to her inventory and released Shifting Faces, before checking her stats.

She had used just a bit over five minutes of her time. She also had one hundred and seventy-six Corruption Points, so, after firmly informing the System that she still wasn’t ready for her dungeon completion rewards, she hopped under the bed and retrieved the sheet of paper where she’d written down all of the skills and spells from Gacha Love.

If the events of yesterday had shown her one thing, it was that she needed an offensive spell. A defensive spell she wasn’t afraid to use would be good, too, but she couldn’t continue to depend on either someone like Isidor for help, or her own attacks, which were almost entirely physical, and, frankly, pretty gross. Fortunately, she had enough Corruption Points to get a new spell, and she had a few to choose from.

First, she considered Bastian’s spells, which were actually the ones she liked the best. While they were mostly support or crowd control, his end-game spell was pretty powerful. Of course, he used his Nature elemental, Terra, to cast it, while Pandy would have to pay for it herself. She thought her Mana pool could handle it, though if she was stuck somewhere and had to use Corruption Points, she might well be in trouble.

The spell was called Thousand Petals, and caused a single flower to grow, bloom, and wilt, dropping its many petals, which swirled up and surrounded a single foe, inflicting many small cuts. It didn’t sound like much, but each wound was a chance to deal a critical blow, and that was Bastian’s secret power. With the highest crit rate in the game, Bastian’s ability to deal damage depended on the player’s luck – or willingness to invest in gacha spins.

Of course, Pandy’s Bastian was like a storm of death, descending on her enemies in a pretty cloud of pink petals. Somehow, she doubted if that would remain true in real life, however, so she might well invest almost all of her Corruption Points, only to find that she was effectively inflicting paper cuts on anyone she needed to fight. Thousand Petals was the only end-game spell that Pandy could afford, though, so she didn’t dismiss it out of hand.

At one hundred and fifteen Corruption Points, Bastian’s Thorncage was slightly better, cost-wise, but it was really more of a control spell than one meant to deal damage. It made a thorny cage spring up, surrounding an enemy. When the enemy tried to attack or escape, it prevented them from moving, as well as dealing numerous small wounds.

Again, it depended on Bastian’s high crit rate to deal any real damage, but if someone came after Thaniel or Eleanor, Pandy would at least be able to keep the attacker from escaping, or following the children while they escaped. In fact, she suspected Lord Winston had done something very similar the day before, only the dog had used it defensively instead of offensively, and Pandy wasn’t sure there was any point in having more than one team member with the same spell.

Moving on down the list, Pandy paused only briefly on Edgar, Kaden, and Dorian’s end-game attacks. She couldn’t afford any of them, but it didn’t really matter, anyway, because while Edgar and Kaden’s spells were powerful, they also had a large Area of Effect, which could hit their allies if precautions weren’t taken. Dorian’s also required his sword and shield, and Pandy had neither, so that wouldn’t do any good, either. Not that Pandy thought poking enemies with a pointy object was much of an improvement over Bite and Scratch. She’d probably swallow less blood, but that was one of the ways she got Corruption Points, so that wasn’t really a benefit.

That left the mid-game spells, like Edgar’s Scorching Sonata and Kaden’s Air of Superiority. Scorching Sonata was something like a fireball contained within a crash of musical chords. Air of Superiority created a powerful gust of wind that blew the target backwards, dealing very little damage unless the enemy crashed into a solid object behind them. Pandy could afford either one, but not both, and no matter what she chose, she’d end up with fewer than fifty Corruption Points, which wasn’t much when she couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t need them to actually use her skills.

The obvious choice was Scorching Sonata. It dealt the most direct damage, and everyone wanted to be able to shoot fireballs, right? But burns hurt, and Pandy just couldn’t imagine inflicting that much pain on someone, even in self-defense. Or, more likely, Thaniel-defense. Yes, she wanted to keep Thaniel and the other children safe, and she would do what she had to do, but even sunburns hurt terribly, and the idea of causing full-body, third-degree burns to anything was horrifying.

Air of Superiority, on the other hand, could prevent an enemy from getting too close, while also allowing Pandy some control over the amount of damage she did. If she wanted to make sure the enemy stayed down, she could blow them into a wall, but if she just wanted to give everyone a chance to escape, she could simply yeet the bad-guy as far as possible and run. She might even be able to use it for less violent purposes, though Kaden certainly never had.

Decision made, Pandy thought,

Casting of Air of Superiority successful. Air of Superiority is now level 1.

Of course, Pandy had forgotten one small fact: when she first used a new skill or spell, she really used it. The pressure inside the small room rose as a sudden wind whipped into existence. Finding no enemy to turn its fury onto, the churning air picked up Pandy, paper, tables, chairs, and even tried to lift the beds. Pandy twisted, trying to push off against the ceiling, even as it felt like an invisible hand pinned her in place. A chair tumbled through the air, striking Isidor’s wardrobe and causing the door to spring open. His clothes flapped in the failing breeze, a pair of pants cracking like a flag in a strong wind, before falling limply to the ground.

The wind ended as abruptly as it had begun, and Pandy flailed as she found herself falling. She landed hard on the ground, taking six points of damage and once again glad that she didn’t need to breathe, because she had a feeling she wouldn’t have been able to after a fall like that. She couldn’t even use Minor Heal, though that had become almost instinctive at this point. Without Thaniel there, it would have required a Corruption Point, and she now had only forty-nine left, with a long day yet ahead of her. It just wasn’t worth it when her health would recover in fifteen or twenty minutes anyway.

When she rolled over and climbed to her paws, she winced. If she wasn’t already dead, there was no doubt that Isidor would kill her for this. The room was trashed. Both chairs were broken, and the washstand was on Isidor’s bed. Worse, the bowl of water was upside down, and his blankets were absolutely drenched. It would take hours to dry, and might well still be damp when they went to bed tonight.

That wasn’t all, though. While Thaniel’s wardrobe had remained closed, Isidor’s clothing was scattered all over the room. A shirt hung from a bedpost, a shoe was improbably perched atop the wardrobe itself, three pencils were embedded in the wall, and a pair of underwear was draped over the lamp on Thaniel’s bedside table like a very questionable decorative choice. The only good news was that Isidor’s tight tucking had kept his bed in perfect condition, other than its current saturation level.

Pandy hesitated, staring around. Everywhere she looked, she saw something else out of place, and frankly, she didn’t have time to fix any of it. Breakfast should be almost over by now, and she had less than two hours remaining of whatever humanity Ms. Wellington had possessed. There was no way she could repair a chair or rehang clothes with only paws and teeth, and she just couldn’t bring herself to transform in order to do it.

So, hopping to the door, Pandy did the responsible adult thing – and ran.