HOME | DD

Description
**yep. It's Monday. I know this thing is overdue by like a few weeks but shh.. I PROMISE to get back on track with these things. But, using your common sense, there won't be a new part this Wednesday because y'know.. I can't type that much in two days......... k (btw idk why this is black n' white besides his eyes, I guess it looked cool? XD all well, the next one will be colored.) (oh, and another note: this might be short like the previous one because I found a good place to end in my classic cliffhanger style. The next one will probably be longer)
I know you love my shitty lighting- I'm sorry its 9:54 pm and its been a rough afternoon :') but listen to this song called I Never Liked Your Friends by The Federal Empire. Why do I feel like this song matches the, ah, tpr characters? or maybe just Dexis because he hates everybody...LOL ANYWAY here is Dexis *cough*withoutashirtonforvariousreasons*cough* ENJOY

     We sat alone in a grey and boring office that wasn't even worth describing.
     I gazed around at everybody, they all looked completely different. Lynx looked like Leo Sumor, also known as his human form. He had the same red-orange hair and green eyes, but his ears weren't pointed (nobody else's ears were pointed either) and he wore casual clothing: a brown t-shirt and blue jeans and sneakers. He also wore a black baseball hat with a crown designed on it. I took a wild guess and said to myself that everybody was forced into their human forms since we were now on the human continent.
     Dexis wore a blue sweatshirt with the hood up, had a patch of gauze over his scarred eye, black jeans, and blue sneakers. He still had his wispy jet-black hair.
     Pic probably had the largest transformation. He still had silver hair and an eyepatch, but his skin was of a normal peach color and the stump of his missing arm was hidden under a black t-shirt. His ears were no longer dog-like and looked like a normal human's ears. He wore blue jeans and red sneakers.
     Line now looked like a stereotypical teenage girl. She had the same length hair, but it was brown and flipped to her left side instead of her right, the right side of her head was shaved. She had large nerdy glasses on too. She wore a blood-red sweatshirt with the word 'KILL' printed on it in white, she also wore blue jean shorts over black tights and had fuzzy black boots, pretty much the same clothes she wore earlier covering her bottom half.
     I knew that I hadn't changed at all because half-humans also lived on the continent we were on. The only change that had occurred to me was that my dress had changed into my casual clothing, a grey t-shirt and white shorts with grey boots.
     The same male who had approached us earlier and dragged us inside of a school walked into the room, his office, and sat down behind a large shiny wooden desk. He had introduced himself as the principal. He had salt and pepper hair that was styled the same way as Lynx's, he wore a white dress shirt and black pants with black shoes. He was professional-looking and that's what scared me, since he yelled at us that students shouldn't be outside during school hours.
     "So," he began as he leaned on the desk, "What were you doing outside?"
     "We were pushed out of a window by force." Line spat out randomly. It could've happened in a bullying scenario, the school had two levels. We were on the bottom, in the main office.
     "Oh really? By who?" The principal- Principal Allen- asked with a raised eyebrow.
     "We don't know." She replied with a shrug, "We were on our way to your office to ask for our schedules since we had just arrived here after a tough move. They made fun of us and then- yeah y'know."
     Principal Allen sighed and leaned back in his chair, "Okay... so you were pushed out of the window by an unidentified being. All of you." He paused, "What are your names?"
     We all said our names at the same time, so it sounded like a jumble of noises.
     "Okay, okay. One at a time." He demanded.
     "I'm Alice." I said as he looked at me.
     He looked at Line expectantly. "Mia. I'm Mia." She said loudly.
     "Leo Sumor." Lynx said before Principal Allen even looked at him.
     "Dallas Leighton." Dexis said through gritted teeth.
     "Patrick Sage." Pic said with no emotion.
     Principal Allen scribbled down the names quickly on a piece of paper with a pen. "Thank you." He looked at Dexis, "Now Dallas, are you okay? You don't seem to be."
     Dexis sighed. I looked over at him and saw that he had his arms wrapped around himself and was hunched over. "No... no, I'm not fine." He mumbled as he rolled his eyes.
     "You may go to the nurse, its right across the hall." The Principal motioned towards the door.
     Dexis stood up and, as he walked past me, looked down at me and whispered, "Refer to us all by our human names." He turned away and hastily left the room.
     "Does anyone else need to go to the nurse?" Principal Allen asked as he looked at us all. After a few moments of silence he said, "So no. Now, I'm going to search up your schedules and print them for you all." He pulled a laptop from... somewhere... and opened it.
     We all looked at each other as the Principal worked. Line- I mean Mia- gazed at me and looked slightly nervous. Her foot was tapping rapidly. Leo was gazing around the room, studying each boring piece of décor. Patrick was staring at his reflection in a mirror in the front of the room, not blinking.
     After many long minutes of awkward silence, the Principal finally spoke. "So there's a slight complication." He grumbled, "There's only one schedule, so you'll all have the same one for maybe a month or so... or at least until we get all of your individual schedules." A printer on his desk started making various noises and printed five pieces of paper. He handed one to each person, besides me, I got two. "Can you, Alice, please give that to Dallas across the hall? And check on him too, he's been gone for a while."
     I nodded, stood up, and quickly walked out of the room. I crossed the hall and opened the door to the nurse's office, stepped inside, and closed it behind me. I gazed around the white, and rather cold, room before spotting two people in the back of the room. One was a young lady dressed in white clothing who was standing at a sink, washing strange objects. I squeaked quietly when I saw Dallas- or Dexis- or whatever his name is- sitting in a chair, ah, without a shirt on. The first thing I noticed were the large grey scars all over his chest. I began walking over to him and counted, ten. Ten scars that looked like they were from whips on his chest.
     The nurse just noticed me, "Problem?"
     "No, I just came to give him his schedule and check up on him." I replied as I handed Dallas the piece of paper. He folded it and put it in his pocket.
     The nurse nodded and left the room to a storage room. As soon as the door closed behind her, I whipped my head toward Dallas, who looked more like Dexis now (pointed ears and all). He slumped over a little bit and sighed without looking at me.
     "Would you mind explaining these?" I gestured towards the scars on his chest.
     He pulled the gauze from his eye and shook his head, looking at me with a look of dejection. "Not now... that's for a different time."
     I felt a little bad for him, even though I didn't know why. "You're miserable. Already, and you've only been here maybe ten minutes."
     His expression didn't change, "It takes a lot out of a Fey to remain in a human form. I don't know how Leo does it so well."
     "Maybe it has something to do with his species." I suggested.
     He stared at the ground thoughtfully, "I suppose so." He drew in a deep breath, "His species does tend to interact with humans more. That explains how you two met." A small grin appeared on his face.
     "He was waiting in the bushes." I chuckled, "Just like I was when I met you."
     "More like encountered." Dallas shrugged.
     The nurse entered the room and Dallas snapped back into his human form, sitting up straight. She gazed at his eye for a few seconds. I looked at his eye too and realized it looked worse than it did earlier, the wound looked like it had been inflicted recently.
     "I'm sorry dear, but I'm going to ask you to leave." The nurse said gently, looking directly at me.
     I nodded and silently, left the room, and headed back to the office.
     I was barely in the office when Principal Allen said, "They're all at lunch. Go catch up with them."
     I instantly turned around and looked down at the schedule in my hands. There was a map printed on it, and I took note of how there were barely any classrooms on the bottom floor. The cafeteria wasn't that far away, it only took me a minute to find the large and loud room. I sighed and pushed the wooden doors open, entering the room and instantly noticing Leo, Mia, and Patrick who were separated from everybody else. I walked over to them and we all stood in an awkward cluster next to the wall.
     "Did any of you notice what Zone we're in?" Mia asked as she leaned against the wall and crossed her arms.
     I had forgotten that the human continent was divided into Zones that acted like states. I was so used to territories. "Well, we're in a boarding school so we're probably in the lower numbers."
     Patrick pointed to a sign behind him that advertised the school's basketball team. It read: "Zone 7 Basketball Game Next Week, Be Prepared!"
     "Zone 7..." I sighed, "This is the Zone where Phenom used to live. The people here must be so confused as to why he hasn't been seen in a long time."
     Leo nodded, "A lot of my subjects and castle staff are confused because I don't have a servant. Usually if a servant dies, you have to find a new one as soon as possible."
     Mia suddenly stood up straight with a grin on her face, she looked strange to me without sharp shark-like teeth. She looked completely normal besides a creepy vibe she gave off. "Haven't any of you thought about the fact that Phenom is obviously immortal? He says it himself, he can't be dead. Just... missing."
     I blinked and understood what she meant. "But, he's still missing. On a different continent, probably being tortured because he can't regenerate and heal fast like the Fey. He's just... an immortal, really smart... coyote."
     Mia tried to hold back a laugh and was barely successful. "True, but he's really smart AND he's a coyote. He is probably in a canyon right now, coyotes live in the desert... right?"
     We all shrugged. I knew Hiorb didn't have coyotes, so Leo and Patrick probably had never seen one besides Phenom.
     A teacher suddenly appeared next to me and gazed at us all. She had long brown hair, green eyes, and wore a short black dress. "Did you guys eat lunch already?" She asked skeptically.
     "No." Mia replied kind of rudely. "We don't have any lunches."
     The teacher sighed, then randomly introduced herself. "I'm Ms. Kala, the algebra teacher. I believe I have you in the morning, but I didn't see any of you."
     "We came in late, in fact we just arrived here about fifteen minutes ago." Patrick stated.
     Ms. Kala nodded. "May I see your schedule?" She was looking at me. I handed it to her and she nodded as she read. "You guys are lucky, you have Mr. Knight next period. He's the history teacher, he usually teaches about the heroes of this continent like-"
     "Phenom?" Leo asked with a raised eyebrow.
     She nodded slowly, "Yes."
     "What a coincidence because we were just talking about him." Mia said quietly as she stared at her hand.
     "Oh, so you all have an interest in him? Mr. Knight has many theories about why he hasn't been seen, he'll probably share them all with you if you just mention Phenom." At that, Ms. Kala handed me my schedule and walked away towards another teacher and they began chatting.
     Leo made a 'hmph' noise and leaned against the wall, "I wonder how wrong those theories are."
     "Can't we tell him what really happened, and even say what we know about the Princes and such?" I asked.
     Leo shook his head, "I wish we could, to knock some sense into the humans, but we can't. They'll probably get suspicious. Its best to keep your mouth shut, princess."
     I could tell Leo wanted to share what he knew too, but it made sense that he couldn't. He didn't want too much information to get out.
     A loud bell rang and silenced everybody in the room then, in huge mobs, everyone left. We all waited until everyone was gone, then we walked out into the hallway. We ran up the stairs to the second floor and Mia led us to the history classroom. It wasn't difficult to find it, there was a stuffed animal owl sitting on the nametag above the door. We stepped inside and, somehow, we were the first ones there. The room had desks aligned in rows of five, and one large desk was in the front of the room next to a large whiteboard. There were posters with animals on them everywhere, some stuffed animals hung from the ceiling and some were on tables and chairs. I noticed a shelf full of books about legends about Phenom.
     Mr. Knight was sitting at his desk. He had black hair that was shaved into a crew cut. He wore a light blue dress shirt with a black tie and dark blue jeans with black sneakers. He seemed relaxed and happy, which made me relax a little.
     We sat down in the middle of the room, sitting in the row. There was one open seat and I made sure to save it by placing my hand on it. The row began with Mia, then Patrick, then Leo, then me. Dallas would sit next to me, I hoped that Leo and Dallas wouldn't bicker while I was sitting in between them. I also hoped that I would be able to silence the fights.
     The minute bell rang and the rest of the students poured into the classroom, taking up the other rows of five around us. I was relieved when nobody took the saved seat.
     The final bell rang and class had started.
     Mr. Knight stood up and gazed at all of us, "Hello class! As you should all know, I am Mr. Knight. Welcome to history, and I promise you will not get bored here. Ever." He quickly went over the rules of the classroom and explained where things are and whatnot. He spoke loudly and his voice was sort of deep.
     The door to the classroom opened and Dallas walked in with no expression.
     "Late?" Mr. Knight asked with a raised eyebrow.
     "Nurse." Dallas replied. Some girls in the class laughed for no reason. He shot them a glare and they instantly shut up, they stared at the gauze patch on his eye.
     Mr. Knight nodded, "Ah, okay. Please, take a seat."
     Dallas swiftly sat down next to me. I looked at him, "Was she helpful?"
     "No, not at all. She made me sit there until I said that I felt better, which I didn't." Dallas replied.
     Mr. Knight looked at the clock then claimed we had about fifteen minutes left. "How about I tell a little story? About a coyote-"
     "Phenom." The class said out loud.
     The teacher grinned, "Nobody has heard this story though, it's only been written in ink once. And it was quite recently." He picked up a book from his desk and opened it. He began to read. "It was the night of the accident, the fire had engulfed the orange fur. Glowing brightly and wildly, the coyote had stood there fighting for his kingdom. For his people, for his good friends. Of course, he knew he couldn't do much now. The collar had broken and the heat was too much."
     I cringed at the story, at how wrong it was. The collar hadn't broke, it had fallen off. Phenom wasn't a ruler, he didn't have a kingdom or subjects. He had been running away from the fire, I couldn't remember if he had been engulfed in flames. I recalled him getting cut though.
     "The girl screamed," Mr. Knight continued, "Calling for him to run. But he couldn't, he didn't like fire and he couldn't stand it. He was weakened too much, though he tried his best. His claws couldn't cut through fire, his fur wasn't fireproof. He couldn't see and he couldn't feel."
     Leo sighed beside me and rolled his eyes. "This is so wrong." He whispered.
     I nodded and looked at my schedule. The day, surprisingly, was almost over. The last period was gym, which I expected we wouldn't do anything in.
     "I feel bad for Phenom, this is how he is remembered. In the wrong way." Mia groaned. "He is the servant to the Summer Prince, he uses fire as a weapon. Of course, now all of a sudden he's afraid of fire and can't stand it. What the hell..."
     The class went by at a painfully slow pace, the five of us had exchanged whispers the whole time and had somehow never gotten caught. We didn't listen to the story at all.
     The bell rang and we fled the classroom and into the hallway. As we walked down the stairs to the gym, we complained about the story.
     "I feel bad for the humans and Phenom." Patrick sighed as he stared at posters along the walls. "The humans have the completely wrong knowledge and Phenom's fall is now a lie."
     Mia shrugged, "Maybe he'll tell the story when or if he returns."
     We came upon the gym and walked inside, a teacher instantly approached us and told us to sit on the bleachers. We obliged and climbed to the highest bench and sat down next to each other. We could barely hear the teachers talking below us, but we didn't care. We chatted for most of the time and I explained how school worked to Dallas and Patrick, who had never been in a school before. Mia admitted to going to a school in the area for a few years before retreating to Hiorb and living in her treehouse that she calls 'The House of Incompletes'. All she said about it was that it was 'a shitty elementary school that deserves to be burnt to the ground'.
     "Most elementary schools are like that." Leo said to her.
     "I know, but mine was the worst out of the five of 'em." She yawned. "And anyway, I like the freedom of the higher grades better. You don't sit in the same classroom all day."
     The gym teacher suddenly shouted at all of us to be quiet. We fell silent and listened.
     "Okay, the bell is going to ring soon and I just want everyone to be aware that tomorrow we will be playing dodgeball, class against class." The teacher shouted as loud as he could.
     Mia leaned against the wall and sighed loudly, "I hate dodgeball. I'll just stand in the back."
     The gym teacher explained how dodgeball worked, it was an ordinary game. You get hit, you're out. You catch the ball, good job you're not out. If you get hit below your shoulders you're out, the only place if you get hit and you're not out is your face and head.
     The bell that was already annoying me rang, and we retreated into the hallway.
     "This school finishes early." I commented as I gazed at a large clock in the hallway.
     "Good." Dallas sighed. "I'm already fed up with this place."
     Mia peered over my shoulder when I took my schedule out of my pocket. "What dorm did ya' get?"
     I blinked, I didn't know this school had dorms. I scanned the schedule and found the dorm number, "217."
     "Same." Mia grinned slightly. "It's funny that Leo and Dallas are in the same dorm, its like the prison all over again."
     Dallas rolled his eyes, "Don't remind me."

     We exited the school and walked the short distance to the separate building containing the dorm rooms. Mia and I walked into ours after waving goodbye to Leo, Dallas, and Patrick.
     The dorm was small, and all it contained was two desks and a bunk bed. It would work, we'd probably only be there for a little while before leaving and investigating as to how and why we got transported to the human continent. Mia instantly called top bunk and climbed up in it and sat down, her head nearly touching the ceiling.
     "Alice?" She called. "I have a question."
     "I'm listening." I responded as I looked through both of the desk's drawers.
     "You've been in a dorm before, what's it like being separated from your family for educational matters?"
     I froze for a second, thinking of an answer, then I got one. "It's not fun, at all. But I suppose I never really had a close family. My uncle is my only caregiver since I was... about four years old. I never really knew my parents and I didn't mind being separated from my uncle."
     "What's your uncle's name again?"
     "Dixon." I replied.
     I could tell she was nodding. There was a short silence before she asked, "Can you explain what happened to your parents?"
     I mustered my strength and spat it out: "They were travelling back home from Zone 97, all the way across the continent by plane, and it... crashed. It was because of a technical error, there were no survivors." I was surprised when there were no tears in my eyes, I guessed I had explained it so many times that it just became words instead of feelings.
     Mia nodded again and flopped down on the bed, "You know what would be cool? If we could just skip time a few hours so it would be a reasonable time to sleep. Is there any sort of thing to draw with in those desks?"
     I nodded and pulled out a few sheets of paper and a pencil from the desk drawers and gave them to Mia. She said 'thanks' and began scribbling away. "I think I'm gonna call it early." I said as I laid down on the bed.
     "Good luck. I don't know how people go to bed this early." Paper crinkled above me and Mia said, "Okay, g'night I guess."
     I chuckled and kicked off my boots, then rolled onto my side and pulled the blanket over myself. I closed my eyes and had a hard time falling asleep, but eventually Mia's "pencil noises" began to sound like a rhythm to me and I drifted off to sleep.

     I had a strange dream, it wasn't scary, just... strange.

     I was standing with nothing around me, just darkness. I gazed around and caught sight of a familiar orange animal. I blinked, was it Phenom? I took a few steps forward and the mass of orange fur turned towards me. I gasped, it was Phenom! He looked the same as he always had, just that his single ear headphone was blue instead of green. He stared at me with his cartoony eyes for a few seconds before he breathed in the air and remained silent.
    "I wish I can connect with you again. I miss those times." He said at last.
     I bit my lip, "Where are you? Where can we find you?"
     "I earnestly do miss everyone. Even Prince Dexis. I'm not supposed to be departed, I am immortal yet I am encountering death."
     Phenom wasn't acting right. One: he was actually understandable, and two: his eyes were blank and he was dazed. I was a little startled about these two things, but I knew it was Phenom and I had to press my questions to get answers.
     "Where are you, Phenom?"
     "Surrounded by... people I can't recognize. There's a plethora of technology... and steel. Aberrant things are ubiquitous, they look befuddled and downtrodden." His words relaxed me a little bit, they showed he was back to his normal and barely understandable speech. But they didn't give away where he was.

     Then I woke up. I almost fell off of the bed, but I saved myself so half of my body was on the floor so I was sitting and leaning against my bed. I was tangled up in my blanket and all I did was stare at the desk in front of me. I didn't have much to think about, plus I was extremely tired, so I crawled back into bed and fixed my blanket, warming myself up again because the dorm was really cold.

     Strangely, I had another dream. It wasn't very eventful, but much like the previous dream, it was strange. It was like I was in the mind of someone else, or actually it was more like I was in the body of somebody, like I was somebody completely different.

     I felt cold, but it wasn't too bad. It was like I knew I was extremely cold but I was used to it, even though others weren't. My sweatshirt wasn't doing shit in keeping me warm, it never really did.
     I sat on the windowsill of my dorm, overlooking the campus. I sighed, I really did hate being around humans, and half humans for that matter. It was strange because they seemed to drain powers from me, I felt much weaker than usual. Or that might just have been natural causes, ever since that surgery performed by the Demon Fey I've always felt a little off. I knew I really couldn't trust those creatures, or at least their skills in the art of healing.
     I rolled up my sleeve and looked at my arm, the scars were still there and the flesh bruised. My whole arm looked grey. I pulled the sleeve down and leaned further out from the windowsill. I knew it was late and that no teachers, or anyone for that matter, would be outside looking for anybody. I dropped down from the window and landed on the roof below us, which was maybe about a ten foot drop. It was a little painful but I made it. I dropped down from that roof, about eleven feet, and onto the soft grass.
     "It's always hot outside on summer nights..." I sighed. I was used to freezing cold nights, so the warmness in the air was disorienting.
     I decided to change into my usual Fey form, I had had enough of the human form, I couldn't stand it. The transformation was significantly less painful than last time, which was a relief. I didn't want to be writhing in pain in the middle of the campus at what? 1:45 AM? I recalled the moment when I switched to my Fey form in the nurse's office. It was, no doubt, the most painful one I had ever endured. I was slightly surprised that I hadn't screamed during that torture. I suppose I was able to control myself because I knew I was, technically, in public and that Alice was there. I didn't want to make her go deaf with her super sensitive cat ears, and I also didn't want to break a chair or something to relieve even the smallest amount of the pain.

     I woke up and immediately stared at the alarm clock on the desk. It read 1:47 AM. I was curious if the dream had been more of a vision, like I could see and feel what Dexis was doing. I stood up and made my way across the room to the window. I gazed outside and saw the silhouette of a familiar "friend". I unlocked the window and began to crawl out when I heard rustling behind me. I turned around and saw Mia resting her head on her hands.
     "Whaccha doin'?" She said quickly but it was slurred, probably because she was tired.
     "Being a classic high school girl sneaking out at night to talk to a high school boy." I said jokingly.
     She rolled her eyes and I slipped out of the room, sitting on the windowsill like Dexis had. "I'll see you tomorrow morning, Mia."
     Before I could even blink she said, "Alice... you're a freakin' idiot-"

     And I jumped.

Description
**yep. It's Monday. I know this thing is overdue by like a few weeks but shh.. I PROMISE to get back on track with these things. But, using your common sense, there won't be a new part this Wednesday because y'know.. I can't type that much in two days......... k (btw idk why this is black n' white besides his eyes, I guess it looked cool? XD all well, the next one will be colored.) (oh, and another note: this might be short like the previous one because I found a good place to end in my classic cliffhanger style. The next one will probably be longer)
I know you love my shitty lighting- I'm sorry its 9:54 pm and its been a rough afternoon :') but listen to this song called I Never Liked Your Friends by The Federal Empire. Why do I feel like this song matches the, ah, tpr characters? or maybe just Dexis because he hates everybody...LOL ANYWAY here is Dexis *cough*withoutashirtonforvariousreasons*cough* ENJOY

     We sat alone in a grey and boring office that wasn't even worth describing.
     I gazed around at everybody, they all looked completely different. Lynx looked like Leo Sumor, also known as his human form. He had the same red-orange hair and green eyes, but his ears weren't pointed (nobody else's ears were pointed either) and he wore casual clothing: a brown t-shirt and blue jeans and sneakers. He also wore a black baseball hat with a crown designed on it. I took a wild guess and said to myself that everybody was forced into their human forms since we were now on the human continent.
     Dexis wore a blue sweatshirt with the hood up, had a patch of gauze over his scarred eye, black jeans, and blue sneakers. He still had his wispy jet-black hair.
     Pic probably had the largest transformation. He still had silver hair and an eyepatch, but his skin was of a normal peach color and the stump of his missing arm was hidden under a black t-shirt. His ears were no longer dog-like and looked like a normal human's ears. He wore blue jeans and red sneakers.
     Line now looked like a stereotypical teenage girl. She had the same length hair, but it was brown and flipped to her left side instead of her right, the right side of her head was shaved. She had large nerdy glasses on too. She wore a blood-red sweatshirt with the word 'KILL' printed on it in white, she also wore blue jean shorts over black tights and had fuzzy black boots, pretty much the same clothes she wore earlier covering her bottom half.
     I knew that I hadn't changed at all because half-humans also lived on the continent we were on. The only change that had occurred to me was that my dress had changed into my casual clothing, a grey t-shirt and white shorts with grey boots.
     The same male who had approached us earlier and dragged us inside of a school walked into the room, his office, and sat down behind a large shiny wooden desk. He had introduced himself as the principal. He had salt and pepper hair that was styled the same way as Lynx's, he wore a white dress shirt and black pants with black shoes. He was professional-looking and that's what scared me, since he yelled at us that students shouldn't be outside during school hours.
     "So," he began as he leaned on the desk, "What were you doing outside?"
     "We were pushed out of a window by force." Line spat out randomly. It could've happened in a bullying scenario, the school had two levels. We were on the bottom, in the main office.
     "Oh really? By who?" The principal- Principal Allen- asked with a raised eyebrow.
     "We don't know." She replied with a shrug, "We were on our way to your office to ask for our schedules since we had just arrived here after a tough move. They made fun of us and then- yeah y'know."
     Principal Allen sighed and leaned back in his chair, "Okay... so you were pushed out of the window by an unidentified being. All of you." He paused, "What are your names?"
     We all said our names at the same time, so it sounded like a jumble of noises.
     "Okay, okay. One at a time." He demanded.
     "I'm Alice." I said as he looked at me.
     He looked at Line expectantly. "Mia. I'm Mia." She said loudly.
     "Leo Sumor." Lynx said before Principal Allen even looked at him.
     "Dallas Leighton." Dexis said through gritted teeth.
     "Patrick Sage." Pic said with no emotion.
     Principal Allen scribbled down the names quickly on a piece of paper with a pen. "Thank you." He looked at Dexis, "Now Dallas, are you okay? You don't seem to be."
     Dexis sighed. I looked over at him and saw that he had his arms wrapped around himself and was hunched over. "No... no, I'm not fine." He mumbled as he rolled his eyes.
     "You may go to the nurse, its right across the hall." The Principal motioned towards the door.
     Dexis stood up and, as he walked past me, looked down at me and whispered, "Refer to us all by our human names." He turned away and hastily left the room.
     "Does anyone else need to go to the nurse?" Principal Allen asked as he looked at us all. After a few moments of silence he said, "So no. Now, I'm going to search up your schedules and print them for you all." He pulled a laptop from... somewhere... and opened it.
     We all looked at each other as the Principal worked. Line- I mean Mia- gazed at me and looked slightly nervous. Her foot was tapping rapidly. Leo was gazing around the room, studying each boring piece of décor. Patrick was staring at his reflection in a mirror in the front of the room, not blinking.
     After many long minutes of awkward silence, the Principal finally spoke. "So there's a slight complication." He grumbled, "There's only one schedule, so you'll all have the same one for maybe a month or so... or at least until we get all of your individual schedules." A printer on his desk started making various noises and printed five pieces of paper. He handed one to each person, besides me, I got two. "Can you, Alice, please give that to Dallas across the hall? And check on him too, he's been gone for a while."
     I nodded, stood up, and quickly walked out of the room. I crossed the hall and opened the door to the nurse's office, stepped inside, and closed it behind me. I gazed around the white, and rather cold, room before spotting two people in the back of the room. One was a young lady dressed in white clothing who was standing at a sink, washing strange objects. I squeaked quietly when I saw Dallas- or Dexis- or whatever his name is- sitting in a chair, ah, without a shirt on. The first thing I noticed were the large grey scars all over his chest. I began walking over to him and counted, ten. Ten scars that looked like they were from whips on his chest.
     The nurse just noticed me, "Problem?"
     "No, I just came to give him his schedule and check up on him." I replied as I handed Dallas the piece of paper. He folded it and put it in his pocket.
     The nurse nodded and left the room to a storage room. As soon as the door closed behind her, I whipped my head toward Dallas, who looked more like Dexis now (pointed ears and all). He slumped over a little bit and sighed without looking at me.
     "Would you mind explaining these?" I gestured towards the scars on his chest.
     He pulled the gauze from his eye and shook his head, looking at me with a look of dejection. "Not now... that's for a different time."
     I felt a little bad for him, even though I didn't know why. "You're miserable. Already, and you've only been here maybe ten minutes."
     His expression didn't change, "It takes a lot out of a Fey to remain in a human form. I don't know how Leo does it so well."
     "Maybe it has something to do with his species." I suggested.
     He stared at the ground thoughtfully, "I suppose so." He drew in a deep breath, "His species does tend to interact with humans more. That explains how you two met." A small grin appeared on his face.
     "He was waiting in the bushes." I chuckled, "Just like I was when I met you."
     "More like encountered." Dallas shrugged.
     The nurse entered the room and Dallas snapped back into his human form, sitting up straight. She gazed at his eye for a few seconds. I looked at his eye too and realized it looked worse than it did earlier, the wound looked like it had been inflicted recently.
     "I'm sorry dear, but I'm going to ask you to leave." The nurse said gently, looking directly at me.
     I nodded and silently, left the room, and headed back to the office.
     I was barely in the office when Principal Allen said, "They're all at lunch. Go catch up with them."
     I instantly turned around and looked down at the schedule in my hands. There was a map printed on it, and I took note of how there were barely any classrooms on the bottom floor. The cafeteria wasn't that far away, it only took me a minute to find the large and loud room. I sighed and pushed the wooden doors open, entering the room and instantly noticing Leo, Mia, and Patrick who were separated from everybody else. I walked over to them and we all stood in an awkward cluster next to the wall.
     "Did any of you notice what Zone we're in?" Mia asked as she leaned against the wall and crossed her arms.
     I had forgotten that the human continent was divided into Zones that acted like states. I was so used to territories. "Well, we're in a boarding school so we're probably in the lower numbers."
     Patrick pointed to a sign behind him that advertised the school's basketball team. It read: "Zone 7 Basketball Game Next Week, Be Prepared!"
     "Zone 7..." I sighed, "This is the Zone where Phenom used to live. The people here must be so confused as to why he hasn't been seen in a long time."
     Leo nodded, "A lot of my subjects and castle staff are confused because I don't have a servant. Usually if a servant dies, you have to find a new one as soon as possible."
     Mia suddenly stood up straight with a grin on her face, she looked strange to me without sharp shark-like teeth. She looked completely normal besides a creepy vibe she gave off. "Haven't any of you thought about the fact that Phenom is obviously immortal? He says it himself, he can't be dead. Just... missing."
     I blinked and understood what she meant. "But, he's still missing. On a different continent, probably being tortured because he can't regenerate and heal fast like the Fey. He's just... an immortal, really smart... coyote."
     Mia tried to hold back a laugh and was barely successful. "True, but he's really smart AND he's a coyote. He is probably in a canyon right now, coyotes live in the desert... right?"
     We all shrugged. I knew Hiorb didn't have coyotes, so Leo and Patrick probably had never seen one besides Phenom.
     A teacher suddenly appeared next to me and gazed at us all. She had long brown hair, green eyes, and wore a short black dress. "Did you guys eat lunch already?" She asked skeptically.
     "No." Mia replied kind of rudely. "We don't have any lunches."
     The teacher sighed, then randomly introduced herself. "I'm Ms. Kala, the algebra teacher. I believe I have you in the morning, but I didn't see any of you."
     "We came in late, in fact we just arrived here about fifteen minutes ago." Patrick stated.
     Ms. Kala nodded. "May I see your schedule?" She was looking at me. I handed it to her and she nodded as she read. "You guys are lucky, you have Mr. Knight next period. He's the history teacher, he usually teaches about the heroes of this continent like-"
     "Phenom?" Leo asked with a raised eyebrow.
     She nodded slowly, "Yes."
     "What a coincidence because we were just talking about him." Mia said quietly as she stared at her hand.
     "Oh, so you all have an interest in him? Mr. Knight has many theories about why he hasn't been seen, he'll probably share them all with you if you just mention Phenom." At that, Ms. Kala handed me my schedule and walked away towards another teacher and they began chatting.
     Leo made a 'hmph' noise and leaned against the wall, "I wonder how wrong those theories are."
     "Can't we tell him what really happened, and even say what we know about the Princes and such?" I asked.
     Leo shook his head, "I wish we could, to knock some sense into the humans, but we can't. They'll probably get suspicious. Its best to keep your mouth shut, princess."
     I could tell Leo wanted to share what he knew too, but it made sense that he couldn't. He didn't want too much information to get out.
     A loud bell rang and silenced everybody in the room then, in huge mobs, everyone left. We all waited until everyone was gone, then we walked out into the hallway. We ran up the stairs to the second floor and Mia led us to the history classroom. It wasn't difficult to find it, there was a stuffed animal owl sitting on the nametag above the door. We stepped inside and, somehow, we were the first ones there. The room had desks aligned in rows of five, and one large desk was in the front of the room next to a large whiteboard. There were posters with animals on them everywhere, some stuffed animals hung from the ceiling and some were on tables and chairs. I noticed a shelf full of books about legends about Phenom.
     Mr. Knight was sitting at his desk. He had black hair that was shaved into a crew cut. He wore a light blue dress shirt with a black tie and dark blue jeans with black sneakers. He seemed relaxed and happy, which made me relax a little.
     We sat down in the middle of the room, sitting in the row. There was one open seat and I made sure to save it by placing my hand on it. The row began with Mia, then Patrick, then Leo, then me. Dallas would sit next to me, I hoped that Leo and Dallas wouldn't bicker while I was sitting in between them. I also hoped that I would be able to silence the fights.
     The minute bell rang and the rest of the students poured into the classroom, taking up the other rows of five around us. I was relieved when nobody took the saved seat.
     The final bell rang and class had started.
     Mr. Knight stood up and gazed at all of us, "Hello class! As you should all know, I am Mr. Knight. Welcome to history, and I promise you will not get bored here. Ever." He quickly went over the rules of the classroom and explained where things are and whatnot. He spoke loudly and his voice was sort of deep.
     The door to the classroom opened and Dallas walked in with no expression.
     "Late?" Mr. Knight asked with a raised eyebrow.
     "Nurse." Dallas replied. Some girls in the class laughed for no reason. He shot them a glare and they instantly shut up, they stared at the gauze patch on his eye.
     Mr. Knight nodded, "Ah, okay. Please, take a seat."
     Dallas swiftly sat down next to me. I looked at him, "Was she helpful?"
     "No, not at all. She made me sit there until I said that I felt better, which I didn't." Dallas replied.
     Mr. Knight looked at the clock then claimed we had about fifteen minutes left. "How about I tell a little story? About a coyote-"
     "Phenom." The class said out loud.
     The teacher grinned, "Nobody has heard this story though, it's only been written in ink once. And it was quite recently." He picked up a book from his desk and opened it. He began to read. "It was the night of the accident, the fire had engulfed the orange fur. Glowing brightly and wildly, the coyote had stood there fighting for his kingdom. For his people, for his good friends. Of course, he knew he couldn't do much now. The collar had broken and the heat was too much."
     I cringed at the story, at how wrong it was. The collar hadn't broke, it had fallen off. Phenom wasn't a ruler, he didn't have a kingdom or subjects. He had been running away from the fire, I couldn't remember if he had been engulfed in flames. I recalled him getting cut though.
     "The girl screamed," Mr. Knight continued, "Calling for him to run. But he couldn't, he didn't like fire and he couldn't stand it. He was weakened too much, though he tried his best. His claws couldn't cut through fire, his fur wasn't fireproof. He couldn't see and he couldn't feel."
     Leo sighed beside me and rolled his eyes. "This is so wrong." He whispered.
     I nodded and looked at my schedule. The day, surprisingly, was almost over. The last period was gym, which I expected we wouldn't do anything in.
     "I feel bad for Phenom, this is how he is remembered. In the wrong way." Mia groaned. "He is the servant to the Summer Prince, he uses fire as a weapon. Of course, now all of a sudden he's afraid of fire and can't stand it. What the hell..."
     The class went by at a painfully slow pace, the five of us had exchanged whispers the whole time and had somehow never gotten caught. We didn't listen to the story at all.
     The bell rang and we fled the classroom and into the hallway. As we walked down the stairs to the gym, we complained about the story.
     "I feel bad for the humans and Phenom." Patrick sighed as he stared at posters along the walls. "The humans have the completely wrong knowledge and Phenom's fall is now a lie."
     Mia shrugged, "Maybe he'll tell the story when or if he returns."
     We came upon the gym and walked inside, a teacher instantly approached us and told us to sit on the bleachers. We obliged and climbed to the highest bench and sat down next to each other. We could barely hear the teachers talking below us, but we didn't care. We chatted for most of the time and I explained how school worked to Dallas and Patrick, who had never been in a school before. Mia admitted to going to a school in the area for a few years before retreating to Hiorb and living in her treehouse that she calls 'The House of Incompletes'. All she said about it was that it was 'a shitty elementary school that deserves to be burnt to the ground'.
     "Most elementary schools are like that." Leo said to her.
     "I know, but mine was the worst out of the five of 'em." She yawned. "And anyway, I like the freedom of the higher grades better. You don't sit in the same classroom all day."
     The gym teacher suddenly shouted at all of us to be quiet. We fell silent and listened.
     "Okay, the bell is going to ring soon and I just want everyone to be aware that tomorrow we will be playing dodgeball, class against class." The teacher shouted as loud as he could.
     Mia leaned against the wall and sighed loudly, "I hate dodgeball. I'll just stand in the back."
     The gym teacher explained how dodgeball worked, it was an ordinary game. You get hit, you're out. You catch the ball, good job you're not out. If you get hit below your shoulders you're out, the only place if you get hit and you're not out is your face and head.
     The bell that was already annoying me rang, and we retreated into the hallway.
     "This school finishes early." I commented as I gazed at a large clock in the hallway.
     "Good." Dallas sighed. "I'm already fed up with this place."
     Mia peered over my shoulder when I took my schedule out of my pocket. "What dorm did ya' get?"
     I blinked, I didn't know this school had dorms. I scanned the schedule and found the dorm number, "217."
     "Same." Mia grinned slightly. "It's funny that Leo and Dallas are in the same dorm, its like the prison all over again."
     Dallas rolled his eyes, "Don't remind me."

     We exited the school and walked the short distance to the separate building containing the dorm rooms. Mia and I walked into ours after waving goodbye to Leo, Dallas, and Patrick.
     The dorm was small, and all it contained was two desks and a bunk bed. It would work, we'd probably only be there for a little while before leaving and investigating as to how and why we got transported to the human continent. Mia instantly called top bunk and climbed up in it and sat down, her head nearly touching the ceiling.
     "Alice?" She called. "I have a question."
     "I'm listening." I responded as I looked through both of the desk's drawers.
     "You've been in a dorm before, what's it like being separated from your family for educational matters?"
     I froze for a second, thinking of an answer, then I got one. "It's not fun, at all. But I suppose I never really had a close family. My uncle is my only caregiver since I was... about four years old. I never really knew my parents and I didn't mind being separated from my uncle."
     "What's your uncle's name again?"
     "Dixon." I replied.
     I could tell she was nodding. There was a short silence before she asked, "Can you explain what happened to your parents?"
     I mustered my strength and spat it out: "They were travelling back home from Zone 97, all the way across the continent by plane, and it... crashed. It was because of a technical error, there were no survivors." I was surprised when there were no tears in my eyes, I guessed I had explained it so many times that it just became words instead of feelings.
     Mia nodded again and flopped down on the bed, "You know what would be cool? If we could just skip time a few hours so it would be a reasonable time to sleep. Is there any sort of thing to draw with in those desks?"
     I nodded and pulled out a few sheets of paper and a pencil from the desk drawers and gave them to Mia. She said 'thanks' and began scribbling away. "I think I'm gonna call it early." I said as I laid down on the bed.
     "Good luck. I don't know how people go to bed this early." Paper crinkled above me and Mia said, "Okay, g'night I guess."
     I chuckled and kicked off my boots, then rolled onto my side and pulled the blanket over myself. I closed my eyes and had a hard time falling asleep, but eventually Mia's "pencil noises" began to sound like a rhythm to me and I drifted off to sleep.

     I had a strange dream, it wasn't scary, just... strange.

     I was standing with nothing around me, just darkness. I gazed around and caught sight of a familiar orange animal. I blinked, was it Phenom? I took a few steps forward and the mass of orange fur turned towards me. I gasped, it was Phenom! He looked the same as he always had, just that his single ear headphone was blue instead of green. He stared at me with his cartoony eyes for a few seconds before he breathed in the air and remained silent.
    "I wish I can connect with you again. I miss those times." He said at last.
     I bit my lip, "Where are you? Where can we find you?"
     "I earnestly do miss everyone. Even Prince Dexis. I'm not supposed to be departed, I am immortal yet I am encountering death."
     Phenom wasn't acting right. One: he was actually understandable, and two: his eyes were blank and he was dazed. I was a little startled about these two things, but I knew it was Phenom and I had to press my questions to get answers.
     "Where are you, Phenom?"
     "Surrounded by... people I can't recognize. There's a plethora of technology... and steel. Aberrant things are ubiquitous, they look befuddled and downtrodden." His words relaxed me a little bit, they showed he was back to his normal and barely understandable speech. But they didn't give away where he was.

     Then I woke up. I almost fell off of the bed, but I saved myself so half of my body was on the floor so I was sitting and leaning against my bed. I was tangled up in my blanket and all I did was stare at the desk in front of me. I didn't have much to think about, plus I was extremely tired, so I crawled back into bed and fixed my blanket, warming myself up again because the dorm was really cold.

     Strangely, I had another dream. It wasn't very eventful, but much like the previous dream, it was strange. It was like I was in the mind of someone else, or actually it was more like I was in the body of somebody, like I was somebody completely different.

     I felt cold, but it wasn't too bad. It was like I knew I was extremely cold but I was used to it, even though others weren't. My sweatshirt wasn't doing shit in keeping me warm, it never really did.
     I sat on the windowsill of my dorm, overlooking the campus. I sighed, I really did hate being around humans, and half humans for that matter. It was strange because they seemed to drain powers from me, I felt much weaker than usual. Or that might just have been natural causes, ever since that surgery performed by the Demon Fey I've always felt a little off. I knew I really couldn't trust those creatures, or at least their skills in the art of healing.
     I rolled up my sleeve and looked at my arm, the scars were still there and the flesh bruised. My whole arm looked grey. I pulled the sleeve down and leaned further out from the windowsill. I knew it was late and that no teachers, or anyone for that matter, would be outside looking for anybody. I dropped down from the window and landed on the roof below us, which was maybe about a ten foot drop. It was a little painful but I made it. I dropped down from that roof, about eleven feet, and onto the soft grass.
     "It's always hot outside on summer nights..." I sighed. I was used to freezing cold nights, so the warmness in the air was disorienting.
     I decided to change into my usual Fey form, I had had enough of the human form, I couldn't stand it. The transformation was significantly less painful than last time, which was a relief. I didn't want to be writhing in pain in the middle of the campus at what? 1:45 AM? I recalled the moment when I switched to my Fey form in the nurse's office. It was, no doubt, the most painful one I had ever endured. I was slightly surprised that I hadn't screamed during that torture. I suppose I was able to control myself because I knew I was, technically, in public and that Alice was there. I didn't want to make her go deaf with her super sensitive cat ears, and I also didn't want to break a chair or something to relieve even the smallest amount of the pain.

     I woke up and immediately stared at the alarm clock on the desk. It read 1:47 AM. I was curious if the dream had been more of a vision, like I could see and feel what Dexis was doing. I stood up and made my way across the room to the window. I gazed outside and saw the silhouette of a familiar "friend". I unlocked the window and began to crawl out when I heard rustling behind me. I turned around and saw Mia resting her head on her hands.
     "Whaccha doin'?" She said quickly but it was slurred, probably because she was tired.
     "Being a classic high school girl sneaking out at night to talk to a high school boy." I said jokingly.
     She rolled her eyes and I slipped out of the room, sitting on the windowsill like Dexis had. "I'll see you tomorrow morning, Mia."
     Before I could even blink she said, "Alice... you're a freakin' idiot-"

     And I jumped.