The vast wastelands spread out like a dark blanket. The large, black rocks stood jagged and like demonic fingers pointing upwards. Shards of past building materials and ripped fabric danced softly through the wind, past remnants of life. A faint waft of gunpowder and a sickening iron penetrated the air. Stagnant pools of black liquid veined their way through the squalid landscape. The silence was deafening, just waiting for something to interject it.
And then something did.
"Ach, it bleeding stinks here," came an angry whine.
"Would you quieten down? I can barely hear meself think. Besides we don't know if it's empty here yet and I ain't getting shot because of your whittering!" shouted a sterner voice.
Then from behind a large jagged rock, the owners of the voices emerged. The first voice was a small old woman, pale skinned and with wild white hair. Rather than a hairnet, she'd used old fishing net to cage a majority of the mess in, but frizzy curls sprang out above her forehead and through the gaps of the net. Next to her stood a slightly taller and stockier old woman with dark wrinkled skin. Whilst her companion was short and thin, this woman was of a bigger build, almost like a bulldog. She had a stern face with green eyes peering out from under a black hood. Both women wore black cloaks and thick black boots, except the smaller woman seemed to have a small mollusk attached to the toe of her boot. They stood amongst the debris and listened to the silence.
"It's empty. For now," the bigger woman muttered.
"Nae telling how long it'll be til tha scavengers turn up, that's fer sure," replied the smaller woman, "Ani, are ye sure it's here?"
"Positive, I read it in the eggs."
"Aye."
"And the waves pointed you here. The lost Shadran treasure is here and we most find it before anyone else does. At some point, the world will need it."
The two women began to walk further past the debris. What was once just burnt wood and ash began to get bigger and take shape as they entered the heart of the destruction. Scattered bricks became whole walls from broken homes, wooden splinters grew into children's beds, fragments of bone slowly transformed into fragments of people.
"This is nae war. It's a genocide," muttered Marguerite, the smaller woman, darkly, "When we find what we came here for, I'll gather some of the girls, an' we can bury the deid."
"Thank you, Sister Marguerite. I imagine my hands will be too full in the coming years to perform my duties properly," Sister Aniseed sighed.
Suddenly, both women froze on the spot. They sensed something was wrong. They were not alone.
"Show yerself!" Sister Marguerite commanded, "Now."
Sister Aniseed remained silent as her fellow sister's command reached the ears of those who heard it. Slowly, purple eyes started to emerge out of the darkness and the shadows took physical forms as dozens of black wolves stood upon the cliffs, watching the two women intently.
"We are here for the Shadran Treasure," addressed Sister Aniseed to the wolves, "You know why we have come for it. Am I correct in believing you know where it is?"
Simultaneously, every wolf turned towards one slightly larger wolf who sat upon the highest rock. She studied the women for a brief second before leaping down from the rock. Barking it what was a command to both her fellow wolves and the two women, she began to walk through the rubble. Sister Aniseed and Sister Marguerite dutifully followed, with the wolves leaping down from the rocks and following the women closely.
"What de ye think, Sister Ani? They guidin'' us or threatnin'' us?"
Sister Aniseed cast a brief glance over the wolves by their heels, "I imagine both."
The head wolf led the women over to the opening of a large cave, surrounded by more wolves. None of them paid seemingly any attention to the goings-on but the women knew that every single pair of eyes was watching them. Suddenly, the wolf sat down by a small mound covered by a ratty black cloth. After nodding to the wolf, Sister Aniseed carefully opened the cloth to see its contents.
When she didn't say anything, Sister Marguerite asked, "Well, is it what ye thought?"
"I can honestly say," Sister Aniseed muttered, still studying the treasure, "I am going to have a lot more work ahead of me than first thought."
Arsenic Suarez was sat on the roof of her school, painting away. The still night seemed to wrap itself around her like a blanket as she sat on a small wooden stool and quietly painted the moon. Unlike other starsigns who had been told about the side effects of their starsign from the moment they'd been born by doctors and teachers and the like, Arsenic had had the somewhat daunting experience of finding out these things as she grew up. Like how fire signs were prone to various allergies and light signs had a higher rate of eyesight problems, it would appear dark signs have a slight problem with insomnia.
A slight problem that materialised in Arsenic never having slept through an entire night. Maybe about once a month she'd have a four hour nap but when it came to nights, Arsenic would sit up for hours. In situations like this, it is vital one picks up a hobby and, therefore, she had took to painting and various other arts and crafts. It was just unfortunate that the school had a strict 'no students out of dorms' at night policy as you can only paint the same lamp roughly fifty times straight before you can feel the hatred sinking in. Now sneaking out had become something of a routine for Arsenic, finding things to paint round the school grounds to send the nighttime boredom away.
As she sat on the roof painting away, her only worry was the possibility she was going to run out of white paint.
"Arsenic Suarez, what on Earth are you doing up here?"
And that.
Arsenic turned to see her teacher, Miss Madeline poking her head round the door that led to the roof. The wind was whipping her brown ponytail around that much she could have potentially taken off.
"I'm painting the moon," Arsenic replied, calmly, "What do you think of it? I think it's my favourite one yet."
"On the roof?" Miss Madeline exclaimed, still battling the wind that Arsenic hadn't really noticed was there until now, "Can't you just stick your head out of the window?"
"You said that we had to take new steps to achieve our goals and doing unprecedented things. I thought this was what you meant."
"Falling off the roof was not what I meant by that!" Miss Madeline shouted, "Get in here and get in my office now!" And with that, Miss Madeline slammed the window shut.
Arsenic sighed as she began to gather up her equipment. She hadn't been trying to purposefully do something wrong, yet every time she tried to do something right, it always ended up being wrong. She felt like a radio but everyone else was on a different frequency than her. She stared at her unfinished canvas with an unusual joy. Without the starry sky background it seemed like Arsenic had just painted a giant tortilla on a white canvas. It was quite a good painting of a tortilla at that.
"Yes," she whispered to herself, "I'll tell everyone that's what it is then."
"Arsenic, take a seat," Miss Madeline said as soon as she saw the girl appear in the doorway. She'd already known Arsenic was outside by the unusual amount of clattering and noise from behind the doorway. Miss Madeline could never argue the fact that Arsenic had the amazing talent to make the simplest of tasks difficult.
Arsenic walked forwards, still holding the canvas. Despite it being completely unintentional, this was the best painting she had ever done and she was not about to leave it outside in the hallway unguarded. Miss Madeline looked at the canvas in Arsenic's hands silently.
"Anton the Great wouldn't leave his masterpiece outside unguarded and neither will I."
Miss Madeline had no idea who Anton the Great was, nor did she have any intention to ask so she let this slip by, but she gathered from context that he was probably a painter of some sort.
"Arsenic, had any teacher other than myself caught you on the roof, you would have been excluded on sight."
"Probably," Arsenic agreed.
"So why did you do it?"
Arsenic shrugged, "It seemed like a good idea at the time. It's very difficult to paint with your head sticking out of the window, you know. The wind kept slamming the shutter in my face so I ended up with a big lump on my forehead. Also, the painting wasn't that good."
"Yes, I remember that," Miss Madeline sighed, "I recall Jammy telling people it was a wart because you're a witch."
"Yes," Arsenic said nonchalantly, "Jammy is a bit of a cow, Miss."
Miss Madeline eyed her student cautiously. She'd always held the opinion that Arsenic Suarez was a bit odd. A lovely girl, mind, but definitely odd. After her first day at school, Miss Madeline had had a look in her case file and found out she'd been raised in an orphanage from birth, essentially. Not even a good orphanage, Miss Madeline had discovered after some research. She was positive the girl had a troubled background and had, therefore, always tried her best to accommodate Arsenic, whether that being in extra tutoring or taking her somewhat weird behaviour with a pinch of salt. From what she'd gathered, Arsenic didn't just march to the best of her own drum, she marched with an entirely different marching band.
"Jammy is a cow," Miss Madeline agreed, "Although, obviously, I didn't say that."
Arsenic nodded obediently. She liked Miss Madeline. A lot of the teachers at Will-o-Wisp had brushed Arsenic off and left her to do whatever she was doing. She felt like she had been left bobbing in a rubber ring whilst all the other kids were off learning how to swim. She knew full well she wasn't as smart as the other kids and never would be. She was 16 and had nothing near the capabilities of everyone else in her class. Yet Miss Madeline never stopped trying with her, with countless extra classes and help in lessons.
"Sometimes I think I shouldn't be here," Arsenic said suddenly, "I can do magic but not how the teachers want me to. I can do potions but I use different recipes than everyone else. Sometimes I think I should drop out and give my place to someone who deserves it."
Miss Madeline nodded quietly and looked at her student carefully, "And the rest of the time? What do you think then?"
"I think that I deserve to be here just as much as anyone else. People say I don't but," she replied quietly, "I do. Plus, even if I do it different, I do it better."
The teacher chuckled to herself. She'd found Arsenic Suarez to be mostly quiet and pleasant, more interested in what she was doing than what anyone else was saying. However, she'd spotted signs it was getting to Arsenic. Tiny signs, like more conscious efforts to impress the other students and little snaps at the people who were trying to wear her down. Pico Suarez, Arsenic's brother, had a somewhat 'explosive' temper and was quiet fiery - not a pun on his starsign which was also fire. His sister shared this temper but tended to keep it in rather than have outbursts. However, Miss Madeline noticed these frustrations in her student and often felt a great deal of sympathy for her.
"Arsenic, I'm not going to take this roof situation any further. It will stay between you and I, however this doesn't mean it can continue. I know you don't feel like a real student at this school but you still must abide by the rules, just as everyone else. Paint until your heart's content, by all means. Just...try not to die doing it?"
Arsenic smiled at her teacher. She hadn't expected Miss Madeline to tell on her but she was grateful anyway. She was always very considerate, especially towards Arsenic. She often wondered whether Miss Madeline had been in a similar situation when she was younger.
"Thanks, Miss Madeline. Would you like my tortilla painting as a thank you?"
"I thought it was a moon?"
"That's the thing about art, Miss Madeline. It's open to interpretation. Some see a moon, some see a tortilla. It's all my artistic interpretation," Arsenic explained.
"Then I will take it, Arsenic. Thank you very much."
Arsenic left quietly and wandered down the halls to get to the dormitory block. There was something strangely exciting about being in school at night, like anything could happen at any time. She could only hear her own footsteps and the distant ticking of a clock somewhere as she slowly wandered through the corridor towards the exit. She paused and went into her skirt pocket and pulled out a green toad.
"Do you ever just get the urge to gallop?" She asked the toad, "There's no one here so no one would ever know that I did it, which is good because it would be embarrassing. Galloping is just more fun, isn't it?"
The toad looked up at his friend and blinked. Arsenic cupped him lightly in her hands, looked around at the empty school building and galloped all the way back to her room.
"I can't believe you galloped home last night. That's always been my dream since I started," Lassi smiles dreamily as she sat on Arsenic's desk. Sorbet, who was sat next to her, furrowed her eyebrows.
"Really? Not to graduate or become a famous magician? Just to...gallop?" She asked, skeptically.
"You wouldn't know until you tried it, Sorbet. It's so much more fun than walking. Truly liberating," Arsenic replied.
Sorbet occasionally wondered why she was friends with Lassi and Arsenic. The two of them were, to put it kindly, absolutely bonkers. Whilst Sorbet would study and focus on her schoolwork above all else, her two roommates were more focused on how the funnest way to walk was and whether Professor Pistachio was actually the demon who guards the gates of Hell. In their opinion, it was apparently galloping and he was.
"I'll be sure to give it a try when I'm not trying to graduate," Sorbet sighed dismissively.
Arsenic looked at her friends. Lassi was currently doing an impression of Sorbet, who had her head in a book pretending not to notice. Her two friends were definitely polar opposites. Sorbet was serious and calm whilst Lassi was wild and fun loving. They had many disagreements but they would always make up in the end. Sorbet was a pale, small girl with pretty violet eyes and brown curly hair. She was a water sign and, although she had a very weak constitution, was usually very bright and sweet. She was very ill as a child and came from a very poor family but, apart from her occasional grumpy moods, remained cheery. Many of the students at Will-o-Wisp thought Sorbet was the prettiest girl at school but Sorbet always shrugged these ideas off.
Lassi was a rabbit girl who was covered in white fur, with amber eyes. She had thick blonde hair, which she always kept in a ponytail. As a wind starsign, she was known to be flighty and carefree, which she definitely was, almost to a fault. Despite her mellow personality, was was fiercely loyal to her friends and would always react angrily when other students were mean to her friends. As was basically her motto: 'The only person that can make fun of you guys is me!'
"Lassi, if you don't stop doing that impression I am going to blast an entire waterfall at you."
"Blast a waterfall at me and I'll whip you up into a tornado and chuck you somewhere far away!" Lassi retorted laughing. Sorbet chuckled and closed her book.
"Arsenic, why were you in school that late at night anyway?"
She paused. Arsenic had never told her friends about her inability to sleep. Dark signs had always been perceived as weird so she'd always hidden anything to do with her starsign in order to avoid people treating her differently. It was a galaxy wide opinion that all dark signs were evil so Arsenic had always struggled to fit in. Keeping things like her insomnia a secret was a vain attempt to seem more normal.
"I couldn't sleep so I decided to sneak into school to practise my magic," Arsenic lied.
Sorbet frowned, "You know I'll tutor you Arsenic, if you're struggling."
Before she could reply, Pico walked over confidently. His friends Chai, Mokka and Hyde were in his wake. Pico had the same dark skin Arsenic had but rather than her inky black hair and large green eyes, he had a mess of red hair and deep blue eyes, underneath thick red eyebrows. He was very muscular and always looked constantly angry, even though he sometimes wasn't.
"Love having Miss Madeline as my first lesson of the day, means I can treat myself to a lie in," he laughed, referring to Miss Madeline's frequent lateness. Lassi hopped off the desk and went over to the door to await for the teachers arrival.
Sorbet and Arsenic shared a look with raised eyebrows.
"I'm sure you'll be loving this missed lesson time when you're being held back, Pico," Sorbet said with a smirk. Pico felt his cheeks go hot and turned so she wouldn't see him blush.
"Yeah I will because I can sue the school and then I can buy myself a garage and make my own rockets with the money!" Pico retorted, "And I'll buy Arsenic a pig farm or something."
"Chickens," she corrected, "But goody. I'll look forward to that."
"The amount of times she's late, I can't wait til someone gives her a late slip!" Chai exclaimed, "I get enough of them."
Chai was a green salamander who was a wood sign. Magical salamanders were very rare, so much so, it was widely believed Chai was the only one. Because of this, he'd been wildly ostracised from his community as a baby, leading to his adoption by Principal Biscotti. Hyde and Mokka were his brothers as they had also been adopted by Principal Biscotti, despite Mokka being a robot and Hyde being a robot. Chai was often described as a crybaby and bullied by his classmates, much to the fury of Lassi, Arsenic and Pico. Other than that, he was a sweet and caring soul.
Mokka was a robot who wielded earth magic. Principal Biscotti had bought Mokka from a curiosity shop and raised him as his own ever since. Dry and deadpan, Mokka often masked his affection for his brothers and friends with sarcasm and fake resentment. He was made from brown copper and was chunky in his build, with one red optical sensor in the middle of his head.
Hyde was a light starsign who had been adopted by the headteacher of Will-o-Wisp academy after his parents died in a car accident on Puffoon. Despite being a light starsign and being a student at a magic academy, Hyde couldn't conjure up magic, despite his efforts. He was tall and skinny, with near-white blonde hair which was always gelled into a spike at the front of his hairline. Complete with light grey eyes, Hyde was regarded as one of the most popular boys in school, due to his good looks and popular friends. Including Jammy, to Arsenic's chagrin.
"Guys shes coming!" Lassi shouted suddenly, "Miss Madeline's coming! Everyone get back in your seats!"
Everyone scrambled to get back to their assigned seats as the door flew open and their teacher ran in.
"Hello my students!" She exclaimed cheerfully as she ran to her place at the front, behind the podium, "I'm sure you guys were studying whilst waiting for me!"
There was an awkward shuffle amongst the students, who had been doing anything but studying whilst their teacher was absent.
"Miss Madeline, you must be aware you are late for the thirtieth time in a row," Mokka pointed out loudly.
"Yeah!" Pico agreed passionately, "You're late all the time but when my homework's late, who gets detention? Me, that's who! If I get held back this year, you are being held responsible!"
"It isn't exactly the best example to set for young impressionable students like myself," Hyde smirked.
Miss Madeline looked startled as she took this information in but then laughed heartily, "Ah, my students, I will never be late again! I promise!"