Lucky Rabbit

The door to Ms. Wellington’s office swung open beneath Pandy’s hand, and she all but leaped inside, slamming the door shut behind her before pressing her forehead against it. Everything was fine. Fine. She would just-

“Are you all right?” The voice from behind her made Pandy jump and squeak in a very undignified way. Spinning, she forgot about her oozing nose and held her hands out in front of her, allowing the dammed-up flow of blood to drip down her face. Chancellor Blackwood stood up from her desk, eyes widening behind his glasses.

“I’m fine! I just need to-” She pinched her nose shut again, looking around the room desperately. Why were there no facial tissues in this world? Actually, was there even toilet paper? Pandy didn’t use the restroom, so she didn’t know, but if there was toilet paper – and she very much hoped there was – then there should certainly be facial tissue.

Withdrawing a handkerchief from his breast pocket, the chancellor hurried over to Pandy. He pressed the cloth to her nose, dabbing gently, then releasing the square of cloth into her hand as he flicked his fingers, summoning a delicate wisp of air. “Fetch Mistress-”

“No!” Pandy reached out and tried to grab the tiny air elemental. It swirled away between her fingers, leaving her awkwardly holding onto the tip of Mr. Blackwood’s index finger. She released it immediately, smearing his hand with blood. “I’m really…fine.” She could feel her cheeks burning. Even for her, this was awkward.

“There was an accident with,” she waved vaguely at the door behind her, “and I’m barely bruised. In fact, I don’t even think it’s bleeding any more.” she thought, while trying to circle around the chancellor. Too late, she realized that the chancellor himself was a story character and she hadn’t needed to use her points, but it was done.

Casting of Minor Heal successful. One hundred fourteen uses remain before next level.

Pandy edged backward as the chancellor leaned closer, staring at her nose. She touched the handkerchief to her upper lip once more, catching the last few drops of fluid, then held up the cloth in triumph. “See? All better. Now, if you don’t mind, I really should-” She broke off, finally seeing what lay on her desk, and had probably prompted this visit from her putative employer. Her clothes. The ones she’d left in the pasture behind the stables, covered in mud and soaked in pond-water.

Chancellor Blackwood followed her gaze, and his brows rose as he plucked the handkerchief from her fingers and tucked it back into his pocket, blood and all. “I take it you recognize those?”

Pandy backed up a few more feet, getting a bit closer to the relative safety of her apartment. Surely he wouldn’t follow her there. Would he? “Ah, no. Not at all.” She shook her head firmly, fingers searching for the doorknob behind her.

The gray eyes watching Pandy couldn’t seem to decide whether to be amused or suspicious, but when he spoke, the chancellor’s voice was carefully neutral. “That’s odd, because I remember you wearing something exactly like that when you appeared in my office and announced that you would be working at Falconet this year.”

She had? Or rather, Ms. Wellington had? Did that mean Mr. Blackwood didn’t know who she actually worked for, either? Surely not, though. He wouldn’t let just anyone waltz in here and start influencing young and malleable minds, right?

Pandy’s eyes widened. “Oh, those clothes. They…disappeared. I set them out to be washed, and they just-” She made a ‘poof’ gesture with the hand that wasn’t gripping the doorknob like it was the last ibuprofen at a heavy metal concert.

“I see,” he said, his tone making it clear that he did not, in fact, see. He picked up the stack of clothing, which was neatly folded and shockingly clean. “To whom did you report this theft? Because no such report has made its way across my desk.”

Pandy turned the knob, wincing at the click it made when the latch opened. “It wasn’t that important,” she offered, sliding over as she opened the door. “I have…others.”

“Like the one you’re wearing?” he asked, nodding at the heavy, satiny fabric and wide skirts of the dinner gown she had on.

Pandy plucked at the skirt, leaving small, dark bloodstains on the glossy material. “I was just out for a walk. It’s a…lovely day.”

“Is it?” the chancellor asked, lifting one brow as a sharp crack of thunder shook the building. “I would not have taken you for someone who enjoyed walks in the rain, Ms. Wellington. Especially not without an umbrella.”

Looking down at her completely dry clothing, unmarred by anything except her own blood, Pandy managed, “I have a…spell. That keeps me dry. Because I’m a fire elementalist. And fire and water are, um, opposites, and…” She trailed off, completely unable to string any more words onto that failing sentence, and the chancellor’s lips pinched together tightly.

“I…see,” he said again, but by now he had given up all pretense of remaining neutral. Laughter was definitely lurking in his eyes, and Pandy couldn’t even blame him for it. She would have laughed at her, too.

“So,” she tried again, “I’m going to get cleaned up. You can-” A long-ago lesson floated through her mind. ‘Can is whether you are able, may is whether you have permission.’ “May go. Now.” And she closed the door in his face.

Somewhat to her surprise, he actually didn’t try to follow her. Instead, he called out, “If you’re feeling well enough for morning strolls in the rain, Ms. Wellington, I shall expect to see you at lunch tomorrow, after all. Good day, madam.”

Pandy couldn’t even bring herself to say goodbye, instead leaning heavily against the door until she heard footsteps and then the soft sounds of the outer door opening and closing. Only after the final catch of the door did she dare to open the apartment door again, peering out to see that the stack of clothing still sat on the desk. Darting out, she grabbed them, then retreated to relative safety once again.

“I need to change,” Pandy muttered, tugging at the buttons that ran down the front of the dress. Why weren’t there zippers here? Or snaps? Or, as long as she was dreaming, maybe some velcro? As the third button popped open, however, she realized that she had a shortcut, and thought,

In an instant, Bunny-Pandy stood in a puddle of fabric and lace, hopping easily out through the neckhole. After that, it was a simple matter to change back and pull on another of the simpler dresses stuffed into the back of the closet. There were extra pieces of material that she thought were meant to drape over the main dress and attach somehow, but Pandy didn’t even care any more. She just needed clothes, and as soon as she was dressed in something that would probably pass casual inspection, she turned her attention to the rest of the room.

The first thing to deal with was the money stuffed into the chair. She had only put a few coins in the handbag; partially because it was laughably small, but also because she was still stuck in her old world’s way of thinking. There, it was never a good idea to carry all of your worldly wealth on you, because if you got mugged, or – like Pandy – regularly left your purse behind on buses, ride shares, or duck boats, then you lost everything in one fell swoop. Besides, most money was electronic these days, and actual coins were mostly used as makeshift screwdrivers and to rent carts at the grocery store.

Here, though, her inventory should protect her from the former, if not the latter, and she found it less and less likely that she would be returning to this room. There was no way that Chancellor Blackwood hadn’t figured out she wasn’t Ms. Wellington, even if Isidor hadn’t told him, and while the man seemed content to play along for now, coming back up here was obviously risky.

For this reason, she forced every single coin into her tiny bag, ignoring the fact that it looked a bit like a stuffed pink pig, held together by sheer will and a straining pearl clasp. This was placed into her inventory, from which she then removed the single golden brooch that was all that remained of the outfit that had been abandoned by the pond. Or, at least, all that had remained of it until the chancellor left the rest of it on her desk.

With the fancy gown lying in a heap on the floor, Pandy now had two empty slots in her inventory, so she stuffed the dress she was wearing into it, then pulled on another, slightly less dressy dress. She did put back on all of the necklaces, rings, hairpins, bracelets, and a particularly pretty pair of emerald earrings that would have gone nicely with her real eyes, but clashed terribly with the coral-pink dress.

That done, Pandy put the coral-pink ensemble into the last slot in her inventory, and used Hop to launch herself at the still-open window. Twenty-one points of Agility meant that not only didn’t she fall back down onto the bed, she also didn’t roll right through the window and splat on the ground that didn’t look quite as far down as it had the day before. She was also glad to discover that it had stopped raining at some point, though wet leaves and twigs smacked her on her way by.

Another Hop landed her on the branch she’d missed the day before, which is how she came to learn that there was a reason that rabbits were not considered arboreal creatures. While there might be some superficial similarities between bunnies and squirrels, Pandy’s body was not designed to cling to tiny cracks in the bark of the tree, nor could she jump from branch to branch with ease and grace.

No, her descent was a combination of snapping twigs and peeling bark, but eventually she found herself dangling from what she was almost certain was the same branch she’d ended up on yesterday. Only this time there was no convenient child there to catch her, and she landed on the damp stone bench with a small grunt as the air she habitually breathed was knocked from her lungs.

-2 LF

Ignoring the floating number, Pandy headed for the door to the class hallway. The ground was still muddy from the early morning downpour, but the path was paved with stones, and Pandy was only wet when she arrived at the door. Which was closed. Because of course it was closed. It wasn’t even nine yet, and it was pouring rain less than half an hour earlier. Worse, the latch was the sort that needed to be lifted, rather than turned.

With a rather desperate glance around, Pandy shifted to Ms. Wellington, opened the door, then slid through the gap. For once, no one stood on the other side, and the hall was silent, waiting for the children who would soon fill it like salmon during spawning season. Pandy switched back to Bunny, beginning to feel slightly dizzy from the abrupt changes in perspective. Quite aside from the height difference, rabbit-Pandy and human-Pandy had different ranges of vision, though thankfully she could always see in normal color, so clearly there were some magical shenanigans going on.

Now and then, muffled sounds reached her from the dining room – the occasional loud ring of silverware against dishes, or someone’s voice lifted in laughter or excited words, only to be hushed a moment later. Most of the children should be back by now, though a few of the ones who lived nearby might arrive just before class started. The staff, at least, should all be busy elsewhere. That gave Pandy at least a few minutes to look around, and she should hear the bell signaling the end of breakfast before the flood of children arrived.

So Pandy hopped down the hall, taking it all in. Paintings hung on the walls, some of men and women who were presumably famous for something, while others captured scenes she almost recognized from Gacha Love. That wasn’t the garden where Clara walked with the male leads, but it was close, with more brightly-colored flowers and fewer thorny roses. This picture didn’t depict the condor Clara’s school was named after, but rather an adorably fierce falconet.

Her gaze caught on the door of the library as she passed, but Pandy didn’t quite dare to enter, even though it stood invitingly open. The space beyond was well lit, and her nose twitched as she caught the enticing scent of books, but she was a bunny alone, and rabbits and dragons did not mix. Instead, she found a place beneath a small table bravely bearing up beneath the weight of a bust of some mustachioed gentleman with rather judgemental eyebrows. With a sigh, she settled down to wait.