Chapter Eleven: Return and a Warning

When Madison and Seth woke up one morning, simultaneously, they both remembered something. Seth smiled and chuckled to himself, while Madison hit himself on the forehead.

"What's wrong?" Dugger asked. Madison rolled over, groaned, and fell back to sleep. Seth looked over at Dugger pointedly, and said, "Today's the return feast." Dugger nodded in comprehension. "Oh…" There was a pause. "I see." Seth nodded, and went to change into his outfit.

Dugger was actually a bit troubled. He had a rare power called aura-sense. It allowed him to see the aura a person emanated, which helped him greatly when dealing with people. Just recently, Seth's aura had changed, subtly at first, but now was almost completely different.

Seth's aura had been a swirling mix of purple and gold, with spots of pink. This meant that he was mischievous, but meant well. Now the purple had darkened considerably, and the gold had faded away, and changed to a dull red color. Flecks of gold still remained. Dugger didn't know exactly what that meant, and the pink had diminished a good bit.

He could guess, though. Red meant reckless, and black was evil. While the gold hadn't completely turned to black, it was getting close.

Just to reassure himself, Dugger turned and checked on Madison's aura. It hadn't changed from its purple-gold combination, except for flecks of pink and gray. Gray usually meant sadness or holding back a secret, and pink meant love. There was a surprisingly small amount of pink, Dugger thought.

While Seth was changing, the vampire in him spoke. 'Seth, that one mage can sense auras. If we don't do something soon, he'll find out that we're a vampire.' Seth nearly panicked. "What do we do?" He asked, then realized he had said it out loud.

His dark tormentor chuckled. 'I'm going to leave you for a while.' Seth nodded. 'When will you be back?' 'Two full moons from now. Then we will start our take over of the school.' Seth was startled. 'Isn't that a bit ambitious?' He asked. No answer came. Seth sighed and went back into the boy's dorm.

He chuckled and pulled out his wand. Madison was still sleeping. He aimed his wand, and said, "Tantellegra!" The spell hit Madison's dragonskin boots, and reflected to hit Dugger. He chuckled again. Maybe things could get back to normal.

Dugger, though annoyed at being hit with the spell, was glad and a bit startled to see that Seth's aura had gone back to normal. He muttered the counter jinx, then glared at Seth, considering what spell to use.

"I DON'T WANNA GO!" Madison yelled. Seth chuckled and yanked on Madison's leg, bringing him a bit more out from under the bed. Madison scrambled back under his bed.

Seth let go of his leg and asked, "Why don't you want to go?" Madison was now fully under the bed, and had turned around to face in Seth's direction. "Why do you think?" Madison asked dryly. Seth chuckled. "What do you think Angelique will do if you don't come?"

Madison yelped and shot out from under the bed. He stood up and casually brushed himself off. "I'm ready to go now," he said. Seth chuckled. "I know you are." Madison eyed him doubtfully. "I don't think ye do." Seth shrugged. "I've got my eye on you!" Madison told him. "Well good.

When they got to the feast room, all of the people coming back from away were already there. Madison hid behind Seth when he saw Angelique scanning the incoming crowd for him. Seth smirked, and let him.

When he got to Angelique, she asked anxiously, "Where is Madison?" Seth smiled and pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. He dodged to the side as Angelique jumped, and crashed with Madison to the floor. Seth turned away, smiling to himself, and went to find Chanteau.

Her reaction to him was quite a bit less subdued than Angelique's had been to Madison. Instead of barreling him to the ground, she settled for a hug. Albeit one that had Seth sputtering for air, but at least he wasn't on the ground as well.

Coko clapped his hands from the front of the room, and everyone found that they couldn't talk. Seth experimented around with this, as Chanteau had let him go. He had fun saying all kinds of things. He even cussed out his least favorite teacher, although no one could hear.

"Seth, no matter how many times you try, you won't be able to talk." Coko told him. Seth explained that he was just having fun, then realized he couldn't be heard, and smirked. "Oh, and Miss Angelique, could you please get off of Madison?" Seth couldn't see Angelique or Madison but could just imagine the expression on each of their faces.

"Now, before we begin, I would like to tell you something." Coko said. Everyone turned to him, and listened. "There have been some dangerous things going on lately, and the world has grown much more dangerous recently." Seth kept his face decidedly attentive, not betraying his dark tormentor.

"While I'm sure none of you will be harmed," Coko continued, "I would like to tell you to be cautious." He snapped his fingers. "Now you can eat." He said dryly. "Thank you," Seth said, the first to realize the silence spell was gone. "You're welcome."

Seth and Chanteau quickly sat down next to each other at their house table. They both smirked when they saw Madison and Angelique. Madison had a faint exasperated smile. Angelique was clinging to his arm, smiling contentedly.

When they got to the table, Angelique left Madison and went to sit with some friends from another house. All of them stared after her in amazement. "Well." Madison and Seth said. "That was unexpected," Chanteau said. "You can say that again…" Madison muttered.

"That was unexpected." Chanteau said again. Madison sighed exasperatedly. "What was unexpected?" Seth asked. Chanteau looked at him. "If you didn't know, why did you stare like we did?" Seth shrugged. "So that I wouldn't look like I was out of place." Madison smirked. "We're all out of place. Especially me."

"So what was unexpected?" Seth asked again. "Angelique leaving Madison after only seeing him for a few minutes." Seth nodded in comprehension, and Madison nodded in agreeance. "Uh huh." He said, still staring off after Angelique.

"What do you think of that warning Coko gave us?" Chanteau asked, trying to draw Madison's attention back to her. "I didn't hear it." Madison said dryly. Seth went into a fit of laughing, and Chanteau couldn't suppress a chuckle. "Oh?" She asked. Madison ignored this.

"So what was the warning?" He asked. Chanteau's brow furrowed. "Something about the world growing more dangerous lately." Madison nodded knowingly. "My sister has been having visions lately, I'll ask her if this has anything to do with it." Chanteau nodded. "And you Seth?"

"Seth?" She asked again, peering around. Seth was gone, and Madison was smirking. What would he be smirking about? Chanteau sighed in resignation. This could only mean one thing. "BOO!" Someone from behind her yelled. Without turning around she slammed her elbow into Seth's stomach. Madison fell off of his chair, laughing.

Seth stood up, hands on his stomach. "That wasn't very nice!" He told her. Chanteau shrugged, with a mock scowl on her face. "But befitting of your crimes. Don't you agree, Madison?" She didn't receive an answer, as Madison was rolling around on the ground in laughter.

Maybe it would get back to normal.