Number One – Penguins

It was one of those rather long days of nothing happening despite the usual classes. I love being the teacher for research classes, but nothing happens in them except people sleeping, and Cleo and I having rather interesting discussions on Gods and their past choices. Rather dry compared to my teenage years where I would find myself in at least a fight against Julius once.

During my afternoon break, I decided I was going to do a quick check on the other students. So far, I'd only seen a small portion of them for classes, leaving the mansion without adult supervision. With so many kids and being the adult, I had an unnerving feeling that trouble was probably stirring everywhere beyond the library.

I first entered the kitchen and grabbed myself a glass of pineapple juice, then proceeded to the Great Room. To my surprise, only Walt and Felix were there. They noticed me before I even took in that it was just them.

Walt is someone I trust to keep the others in check, so I wasn't about to really take in the environment until I noticed they were both tense. "What's up?" I asked finally after ten seconds of their alarmed eyes set on me.

"Uh," Walt nervously laughed, "we're drawing."

Sure, hence the sudden tension. "Seriously?" I drew interest as I took a step closer. "I think I was five when I stopped drawing for fun. What are you two drawing?"

"Penguins." Felix answered quickly. "Lots of penguins, different colors and everything."

"Can I see?" I asked them now, taking in that their eyes read a definite no.

"Well, we haven't even gotten the paper or pencils out yet." Walt explained.

"Oh, I see." Still silence for a minute. "Mind if I join?"

That's right, the second most powerful magician of the Per Ankh just asked a teenager and a nine-year-old if he could join them in drawing too many penguins. Why can't I? I am technically on my lunch break so I can do whatever I want during this time frame.

That's when Felix suddenly broke down, crying. Alarm towards such a reaction, I turned to Walt for help on figuring out what I did wrong. "Uh," Walt was struggling now. "He just loves penguins so much that it makes him cry when he meets someone who likes them too?"

I was about to question his reply when I spotted a penguin on the coffee table. A penguin with its left foot stuck in a glass container of gorilla glue. Matters worse, I could barely see remnants of an attempted and failed invisibility spell. I sighed and shook my head. "You mind if I fix that?" I pointed to the penguin for Walt to see what I meant.

Both Felix and Walt froze, slowly turning back to the poor penguin. "You mean, you can see that?" Walt wondered out of nervousness.

"Yes, and your attempt to hide it as well." I added.

Once that was clarified, both initiates gave in and let me approach finally. After observing that I couldn't pull the penguin's foot out of the container, I pointed my index and middle right fingers at the glass. Alarmed, Walt and Felix instantly jumped to panic. "What are you doing?" Felix screamed.

"Ha-di." I spoke without second thought, to which the container shattered, releasing the penguin with no harm done other than making a gorilla glue/glass puddle in the middle of the coffee table.

Walt and Felix paused, mouths gapped as they took it in. "Yes?" I finally got annoyed by the looks.

"How did you do that without killing the penguin?" Walt asked now as Felix snatched the bird and went to wipe the residue glue off of it.

I laughed a bit. "Why would I kill a-"

I stopped to their hardened looks. "Wait, have you two seen that spell before?" I wondered.

"Yeah, Sadie makes it turn into almost a nuclear bomb." Walt explained. "And it's her favorite spell."

As you can see, I ended up fuming, pacing the Great Room as Walt watched nervously, Felix returning the bird to where it belongs. "She's not even practiced with Divine Words; I don't care if she hosts Isis. She's going to kill someone if not herself if she keeps this up!"

"Hey Amos?" Felix spoke up after a few minutes. "You still want to draw penguins with us?"

I paused, alarmed to the question. I was already certain that was just an excuse to make me leave; now he was doing it to get me to stop. Even Walt stared at the nine-year-old as he kept an innocent face towards me. "Sure, why not."