Ravenfire

Morning came and I felt something slithering on top of me. Assuming it was Salamander’s snake, I immediately jumped out of bed and readied myself to slay it once and for all. Instead, I saw purple vines, growing and moving like it was truly alive. It was all over my bed, and pretty much all over the room. I never thought I would look upon plant growth in horror.

I rushed out of my room. The common room was in the same state. I then barged into Salamander’s room to check on him despite his constant death threats about ever entering his room. He was up there dangling from the ceiling, squirming like an insect caught in a spider’s web. I could barely see his face.

“Salamander! You’re covered in vines like an abandoned manor,” I exclaimed in both horror and delight. The sight of him struggling nearly brought a smile to my face.

“Well, congratulations for having eyes and seeing the obvious. So are you going to help me or not?” he said impatiently.

“Of course I will.” I readied a basic fire spell.

His eyes widened in panic and disbelief. “Are you seriously going to use an incendiary spell to free me?”

“The professor did say to practise control of our magic. This seems like the perfect situation to apply that.” It was hard not to smile.

He squirmed like a maggot. “I refuse to become your target practice!”

“You’ll be fine. Hold still!”

“You want me to hold still so you can burn me into a crisp like that herbed chicken we ate?”

I quickly hurled a risky spell, disregarding his safety. Luckily, it only damaged the vines enough to free him. He immediately dropped to the floor like a sad sack of potatoes. “...Ouch!”

I looked down on him as if he were an unruly peasant deserving of this treatment. “See? That wasn’t so bad.”

He said nothing, but instead flashed me an ungrateful glare.

“So, do you know what’s up with these vines?” I asked.

“No idea, but we should probably start burning or cutting them before they take over the whole castle.”

I looked out the window and saw the vines engulfing the castle walls like it was out for vengeance. “I think it’s too late for that. We need to get out of here,” I said in a serious tone.

The window shattered. More vines started entering the room, extending towards where we stood. Burning the vines must have angered it.

Salamander cursed. “Run!”

We dashed through the hallway as vines chased us from behind. Ice and fire spells were hurled haphazardly in a desperate act of survival. Together, we opened the castle doors as fast as we could and escaped, shutting it behind us. We then saw Prof. Ariston calmly walking towards us.

“Professor!” we both exclaimed in relief.

“That, my dear students, was your first encounter with a Purple Puller. Normally lying dormant in underground caves, its high sensitivity to magical energy can cause it to awaken and run amok,” explained the professor at the dinner table. After spending the entire day cleaning up the castle of vines, the kitchen was filled with baskets of chopped up purple vines. As much as Salamander and I wanted to use the vines as fuel to stoke the fire, the professor thought it’d be more useful as a food source.

Salamander looked disgusted with his plate of purple vine salad. He barely touched his meal. “I didn’t think these would be edible.”

The professor smiled. “They are rather nutritious.” He took a bite of this salad, which didn’t really help Salamander’s appetite at all.

“So, what disturbed it?” I asked as I munched on the salad. It didn’t taste too bad, although I’d still prefer lettuce.

“Possibly an awakening. The last student I must find could be nearby.” Prof. Ariston held up a map of the area. “Hmm… yes. There is a hidden village close to where the Purple Puller originated from. That must be it. I must pay them a visit tomorrow.”

That night, I couldn’t sleep. My stomach was rumbling and begging for non-purple food. I was genuinely thankful for the free meals, but the quality could really use a bit of work. I quietly snuck into the kitchen where I encountered a fellow pantry-raider.

“I didn’t see you here. You didn’t see me here,” I declared before he managed to speak.

Salamander agreed to the deal with a nod. We each took a handful of nuts to carry with us to our rooms. It should be enough to quiet our gurgling bellies until morning.

Suddenly, we heard footsteps and quickly hid under the kitchen counter. We then heard two voices. One was obviously the professor. The second one was an unfamiliar female voice.

“Hermia, I wasn’t expecting you,” said Prof. Ariston.

“I have an urgent message that must be discussed in person. My sister saw something disturbing in a vision. It has something to do with the last student,” replied the female visitor.

“What about him?”

“His rather unique upbringing has caused his flow of magic to become unstable. Everything should be fine as long as he keeps this Focus on. It will regulate his magic.”

“What exactly did she see?” The professor sounded worried.

“A disturbance that will come to the academy. Chaos. She found it difficult to explain what she saw.”

“A disturbance?”

“Something is coming. Her vision was unclear, but she warned that if we do nothing about it, lives will be in danger.”

“Does the headmaster know?”

“He’s been informed.”

The two moved away from the kitchen to continue the discussion elsewhere. Once we were sure they were away, we crawled out of our hiding spot.

“What do you think she meant by that?” I asked, somewhat disturbed by the conversation.

Salamander looked serious. “It means we’re going to have an interesting school year.”

After being gone for a few days, the professor eventually returned to the castle with a rather depressed-looking boy with light brown hair. He was a little taller than Salamander, but had none of that cold and dominating aura. It seemed like he didn’t even want to be here. Salamander and I stood in front of Prof. Ariston and the new boy, waiting for someone to break the silence.

“Students, meet your new companion, Elliot Russell. Now that we’re complete, we’ll finally be on our way to the academy. We leave tomorrow afternoon, so I’d like you to spend the day packing your things. There mustn’t be any delays.” The professor led the new student to the door of his room and left him with us to talk and get to know each other. “I hope the three of you get along and look out for each other.”

Finally. Someone my age I could talk to who wasn’t snarky little Salamander.

I approached the new student. “Hi. I’m Remina Ravenfire,” I said while holding out a hand and a bowl of nuts to offer him. “Nuts?”

When Elliot saw my face, he went pale as a ghost and trembled despite him wearing layers of clothing for the winter. He immediately dashed into his room and closed the door behind him. Salamander and I just stood there confused.

“I’ve never met anyone who was this afraid of me,” I said without taking my eyes off the door to Elliot’s room. “I kind of like it.” I threw some nuts into my mouth and munched loudly.

Salamander just looked at me like I was a war criminal. He made no attempt at hiding his appallment and disgust. “What the hell did you do to him?”

I shrugged. “I just introduced myself and offered him some food like any normal person does to build rapport. I definitely didn’t do anything to threaten his safety.”

“Might I remind you that you nearly got me killed with your prototype explosive?” He smiled sarcastically.

“That’s because you picked it up without asking,” I replied with an equal amount of hostility.

“The fact that you had it just lying there in the first place…”

I caught a glimpse of a figure outside the window running through the snow. I blinked. It was then when I realised that it was Elliot. “Salamander, he’s trying to escape!” I shouted.

“We must run after him. Now!” Salamander led the chase.

We both hurried outside to catch up to Elliot. Once he noticed us following him, he sped up as if his life was at stake.

“Is it really necessary to chase him? We’re just adding to his list of traumatising experiences,” I asked as we ran.

“I have so many questions right now,” admitted Salamander.

“Is one of them an introspective one about your terrible personality?”

He rolled his eyes at me.

“Elliot! Wait!” I shouted when we got a little closer to Elliot. “I’m sorry I offered you nuts! Are you allergic?”

“Get away from me!” Elliot shouted at both of us. He looked deathly afraid, like we meant to hurt him.

“Why are you running?” I shouted back.

He continued to run and didn’t give us an answer. I froze his legs using time magic, causing him to trip and hit his head against a branch. He fell unconscious.

“That spell…” Salamander was shocked.

“What?” I asked as I bent down to examine Elliot.

“Does the professor know?”

“Know what exactly?”

“That you can use that spell.” He seemed rather fixated on it.

“He’s never seen me use it.”

Salamander had a serious expression. “Take my advice. Never show it to anyone. Especially not the professors.”

“But why?” I asked, clueless.

“It’s forbidden. Unless you want to be monitored like a lab rat, don’t ever use it in front of anyone.” It wasn’t like him to give advice, but it must be important.

I nodded, then looked back at Elliot. “He’s knocked out. We have to carry him back to the castle.”

Salamander picked up Elliot’s left arm and placed it around his neck. “You take one arm. I’ll take the other.”

Both of us carried Elliot back to his room, explaining to the professor that he hit his head on a branch while running away. We dropped him on the bed like a piece of log. The professor thanked us for looking after Elliot, but gave no explanation regarding his actions.

“Why would he run?” I asked as Salamander and I stood at Elliot’s bedside.

“He’s not like us. He was forced to be here,” concluded Salamander. “He’s going to try to run away again when he wakes up. We’ll have to watch him in shifts. My snake will take the first shift. You take over in three hours.” His necklace transformed back into a snake and curled up on top of Elliot’s belly.

“Won’t that scare him when he wakes up?”

“I’d like to see which one he’s more afraid of: a snake or you holding a bowl of nuts.” He returned to his room and left it a few inches open.

Three hours later, Elliot was still unconscious when my shift started, so I took the opportunity to make certain that there wouldn’t be any more escaping. I used some rope I found in the castle storeroom to tie his limbs to the bedpost. I hoped he didn’t know any spell that could burn or cut through rope.

When Salamander walked in the room, his jaw dropped in disbelief. “What the hell are you doing?”

“He can’t run away if he’s tied up,” I said calmly as I fastened the last knot.

“Well, he’s going to have more reasons to run away if he wakes up like this! If the Professor finds out that you tied him to the bed, I have nothing to do with this! And you’d better not frame me, understand?” he raised his voice.

“Now there’s an idea.”

He glared. “You little…”

Elliot stirred in his sleep. His eyes began to open.

“Oh, he’s waking up,” I pointed out.

Salamander sighed and massaged his temples. “Why am I in this situation?”

When Elliot realised he was tied to the bed, he panicked violently and attempted to yank his hands free, but it was futile. I made sure to tie the knots tightly.

“Let me handle this, Salamander,” I said.

“Please fix your mess so I won’t have to,” Salamander begged.

I bent down and spoke softly, “Let’s make a deal, Elliot. Promise us that there will be no more attempts to run away and we’ll free you. Because if you try to escape again…” I stabbed a dagger into the side table. “I can’t guarantee that you won’t get hurt during the chase.”

Elliot’s eyes widened. He nodded out of fear.

Salamander grabbed my collar and shook me. “For goodness’ sake, Remina! You’re supposed to tell him we won’t hurt him. Not threaten him!”

I picked up the dagger from the side table and slowly approached Elliot. I probably looked very menacing because he desperately tried to free himself.

“Please don’t kill me!” Elliot begged.

I cut the ropes using the dagger, setting the poor boy free.

“No more running, ok?” I tried my best to sound a lot nicer, but the pointy dagger facing him didn’t help.

Salamander folded his arms and leaned against the doorway. “It’s no wonder he’s afraid of you, Remina Ravenfire. He probably sensed your true colours.”

“Shut up, Salamander. Your true colours are no more colourful than mine.”

“I’m not the one with the dagger though.”

I rolled my eyes. “Come on, let’s start packing for our trip.” I left the room first, taking the dagger with me in case I found a good reason to behead Salamander’s snake.