Lucky Rabbit

Now that there was real light in the room, Pandy could see a blanket draped across the back of the oversized chair. She lunged for the piece of protective fabric, scooping it up and wrapping it around herself even as she thumped against the chair, toppling it over with her on the far side of it. She let out an oof as she landed in a heap of blanket, chair, and a very unhappy Miss Cupcakes, who had relocated to the chair at some point. The cat made her opinion of this process known in no uncertain terms.

-4 LF

Silence hung heavy until a hand extended down into the field of view not obscured by the blanket draped over her head or the unsettlingly unfamiliar light brown hair that surrounded Pandy’s face.

“Are you all right?” asked Chancellor Blackwood’s smooth baritone, and Pandy felt her cheeks turn into blazing pools of lava that threatened to make her melt into the floor.

“Fine,” she said. Well, squeaked, really, and there was no way she was taking his hand when the chair and blanket were all that were protecting her – or rather, Ms. Wellington’s – modesty. “I just-” She reached up to push her hair out of the way and winced as her fingers brushed the large bump on her forehead. That must have happened when she hit her head a while ago. Why hadn’t she noticed?

Seeing that she had no intention of standing, the chancellor crouched down. He gently touched the bump, expression clinical even as she flinched away. Glancing behind him, he said, “Call Mistress Rose. This needs to be looked at.”

Wait, there was someone else in the room? Someone who had seen…seen… “No!” Pandy yelped, clapping her hand to her forehead, an act which, not surprisingly, turned out to be a bad idea. “It’s fine. I’m…fine. I just-” She tried to look around, only to be confronted with the toppled chair and a pair of slitted yellow eyes. Claws flexed in her arm, draining away another point of LF. At this rate, Pandy was going to deflate like a popped balloon.

“I was trying to find, um-,” she gestured down at herself, indicating the bare arm and shoulder visible above the thankfully enveloping blanket. “Clothes?”

Blackwood’s brows rose, then pulled together. He leaned forward, ignoring her retreat as he peered into her eyes. “Hmm. Pupils look even. Do you feel dizzy or light-headed, Ms. Wellington?”

He thought she might have a concussion. This was good. She could work with this! Swaying back into the depths of the chair, she lifted a hand to her forehead in the way ladies always did in period films. This sent another stab of discomfort through her head, but she powered through, saying, “Oh, yes! Um, I’m very… Who are you?” Maybe she could even get away with pretending to have amnesia? That always worked in soap operas.

He gave her a flat look, then stood. The back of the chair was over Pandy’s head, so she was in a sort of fort created by the seat and arms, but as soon as another pair of legs stepped into view, she knew exactly who else had witnessed her embarrassing tumble. Professor Beeswick was here, and Pandy didn’t know anyone else she would rather not have been the second witness to her humiliation. Why couldn’t it have been Mrs. Farrier? Even Mr. Farrier would have been preferable to the beautiful and magical dragon.

After a moment, the Professor’s distinctive bubble-pants departed, leaving Pandy alone with Chancellor Blackwood and an increasingly unhappy Miss Cupcakes. The chancellor crouched down again, and this time his eyes went to the spreading red stain on the fuzzy green blanket. The kitten really was doing her best to dig holes into Pandy’s arm, and the amount of blood being released was excessive.

Reaching past Pandy, Chancellor Blackwood gently plucked Miss Cupcakes from Pandy’s other side. The traitorous kitten immediately began to purr, her claws retracting as she rubbed her cheek against the man’s sleeve, leaving behind a smear of gray fur.

“I heard you were missing,” the chancellor said gently, stroking the purring kitten. He straightened and moved away, and Pandy could hear him opening a door. Cloth rustled, and then the door clicked closed again. When he returned, he held out what was probably a dressing gown, but it was made of a satiny material that Pandy didn’t really see as an improvement over the much thicker blanket.

“Put that on, if you would,” he told Pandy, with a great deal more steel in his voice than he’d had when speaking to Miss Cupcakes. He stood once more, and Pandy obediently pulled on the robe, though she wrapped the blanket over it as well before finally crawling out from under the chair.

There was no doubt she was a disheveled mess, with her hair askew, the dressing gown pulling tight on one side and hanging loose on the other, and the blanket making a valiant attempt to cover everything up. Nothing in the chancellor’s face gave away whatever opinion he might have of it all, however, and he righted the chair before gesturing for her to sit. Awkwardly, Pandy did so, and he turned the chair next to the vanity so he could sit down as well. She appreciated the gesture, since he was almost ridiculously tall compared to Ms. Wellington’s short stature, and Pandy’s head was beginning to throb as she stared up at him.

“I realize that this is not the best time to speak,” the chancellor said, not sounding at all apologetic. “Unfortunately, I have little choice, because of the, ah, delicate nature of your employment.” Wait, what? What was delicate about it? Was Pandy about to get fired from someone else’s job? That was a new low, even for her.

He raised the hand that wasn’t stroking the cat who now rested in his lap. As if Pandy was going to say something or argue. She just wanted out of here. Well, out and clothes. Surely he’d let her pack a bag with Ms. Wellington’s things before he sent her away. That…wouldn’t be bad, actually. Still, the sooner he got this over with, the better, especially since she only had a bit over forty minutes left on her spell timer.

“I’ve spoken to Isidor about the events of yesterday. You do remember yesterday, do you not?” he asked, lifting a brow.

She nodded, not sure where this was going. What had Isidor told this man in their private little conference?

The chancellor huffed, lifting his glasses so he could rub his eyes. Now that she could see him properly, he still looked tired and rather out of sorts. Had he been looking for Ms. Wellington this whole time? Or was he worried about something else?

“I’m willing to…let this slide,” he said, opening his eyes and settling the thin wire frames into place again before giving her a disapproving look. “But I will remind you that your employment here was contingent upon your acting as a real teacher to these children. As a teacher, your job, first and foremost, is to protect our students, even at the cost of your own safety. Running from a threat and abandoning those children was…not acceptable.”

Pandy nodded, eyes wide. What had Isidor told him? It didn’t seem like Chancellor Blackwood was aware that Ms. Wellington had been the threat. Equally obviously, he believed he was in cahoots with both whoever Ms. Wellington was supposed to be and/or Isidor, whoever Isidor actually was. Which meant that either Isidor and/or Alexandra Wells were lying to the chancellor, or else the chancellor was an excellent actor who was well aware that Pandy wasn’t who she seemed to be, and he was lying to her. Which would have made Pandy’s head hurt, if it hadn’t already felt like a full orchestra of hamsters had climbed into her skull and started playing Tchaikovsky’s ‘1812 Overture’, complete with cannons.

Just then, the door to the office banged open with what was clearly unnecessary force, and Mistress Rose bustled in. The woman took one look at Pandy’s bedraggled state and turned on the chancellor. “It’s a good thing you sent for me,” she said firmly. “Now get out. You can grill the woman tomorrow, but for now, it’s obvious that she needs some rest and healing.”

Cutting her eyes to the side, she looked at the dragon who stood in the doorway, looking more than a bit bemused by the humans within. “You, too,” she told him, and ushered both males out, for which Pandy couldn’t have been more thankful, especially since the chancellor took Miss Cupcakes with him.

She was rather less thankful a moment later, when the doctor ordered her to strip with equal firmness. Pandy resisted, but when Mistress Rose pressed her fingers against the lump on Pandy’s forehead, she gave in. The doctor looked her over, hmphing at the deep claw marks on Pandy’s arm, then prodded the bump and the surrounding skull a few more times before stepping back and motioning for Pandy to put on the dressing gown again.

“Given that you’ve been missing for almost a whole day, I’m surprised you’re in such good shape,” Mistress Rose said, face carefully neutral. Pandy was pretty sure that behind that professional facade was a woman who wanted to grip Pandy – or rather, Ms. Wellington – by the shoulders and shake her, all while shouting, “Why? Why?”

None of that slipped, however, so Pandy eventually pointed to her bump and said, “I bumped my head,” as if that might excuse everything.

“Hmm,” Mistress Rose gave only the barest acknowledgement of this admittedly feeble defense. “Well, your skull isn’t cracked, and there’s no sign of injury to the brain.” Insufficient excuse, her tone said. “We’ll get medicine and bandages for the arm and head, and you’ll be right as rain in a few days. I’ll let Mr. Blackwood know you’re excused from your duties until Tuesday. Perhaps Wednesday. You’d probably better eat in your rooms, as well.” Her lips curved. “Gruel and water, I think. Just in case there’s more damage than I can see.”

Pandy barely restrained a grimace. She wasn’t actually certain what gruel was, but it was obviously awful, given the context. Fortunately, it didn’t matter, because she was leaving as soon as possible.

Mistress Rose’s finger tapped absently at the small table on which Pandy had banged her head when she first stumbled into the room. “I’ll have Timon check on you,” the doctor said after several seconds of increasingly awkward silence. “Stay in your room and take the medicine he brings.”

Ohhhh, Ms. Wellington was grounded. And with more reason than any of these people apparently knew. But that was…not bad. At least now they would probably believe that she slipped off in the night, either embarrassed or angry at being punished, and they would stop searching the forest.

Pandy just nodded, not trusting herself to sound properly Wellington-like. Pandy had always enjoyed the kinds of shows where people spoke in teacups and tension, but she wasn’t at all certain she could manage pompous, which was the single word that best described the late Shadow, or at least the character she’d been playing.

Mistress Rose looked perplexed at this lack of response, and for the first time, a hint of concern flickered through her eyes. “Do you have anything to say, Ms. Wellington?”

Pandy cast about for appropriate words, then finally managed to say, “I’m…sorry?”

That obviously wasn’t right, because the troubled look didn’t go away. The doctor didn’t press, however, just picked up the bag she’d brought with her and pulled out a jar, gauze, and some scissors. Five somewhat painful minutes later, Pandy’s wounds were medicated and wrapped, and the doctor hurried out with only a brief excuse that she needed to check on her other patients. As far as Pandy knew, she only had one at the moment, and Eleanor was due to be released at any time, but Pandy was just grateful to be alone.

That lasted less than a minute, however, as the chancellor and the dragon reentered the room. Miss Cupcakes was no longer snoozing on Mr. Blackwood’s arm, but there was a layer of gray fur coating his blue sleeve. Professor Beeswick ignored Pandy, instead crossing the room to a shelf, where he plucked a green book with golden lettering on the spine from among other, similarly-sized and colored books. In fact, the books looked more like decoration than anything meant to be read, since they matched the green and gold decor of the room so well.

Flipping the book open, Professor Beeswick riffled through the pages before closing it again. His unnerving gaze fell on Pandy, where she now lay tucked beneath the blankets on the bed, and he simply said, “Overdue,” before leaving the room. Once again, Pandy and the chancellor were alone.

Chancellor Blackwood stared at Pandy for several beats before sighing and running his hand through his hair, disturbing the neatly slicked-back strands so some fell over his forehead before he brushed them out of his way again. Pandy thought he looked better without the severe hairstyle, but she certainly wasn’t going to give him fashion tips, at least not right now.

“I’ll expect you at lunch on Tuesday,” he said abruptly. “Someone else will cover your duties until then. If you feel well after that, you’ll resume your normal…work.” Whatever it was. Fortunately, Pandy wouldn’t have to worry about that, because Ms. Wellington was about to vanish forever. So she just nodded, and the chancellor nodded back, which led to Pandy nodding again, and the chancellor nodding in return, and then he turned and left without another word, breaking the awkward cycle.

Immediately, Pandy sat up and swung her legs out of bed. Time for a quick heal, and then she could find some clothes and get out of here. She was about to cast Minor Heal when a timid knock came at the door, and Thaniel’s voice said, “Ms. Wellington?”

Pandy froze, reaching for the door she hadn’t found in her circuit of the darkened room, and which must lead to a closet. What now?