The cat stood up at this point, arching its back and shooting Jasper a glare which clearly stated that, if a man was going to be so impolite as to stare at his guests, he might as well let them inside.
Jasper hated cats, but he was no fool. They were magical creatures, with minds of their own. Ignoring a cat was like asking for trouble, and this cat was obviously asking for his attention. Therefore, he carefully stepped to the side, bemused, and watched as the cat stretched leisurely before padding inside. He peered outside before closing the door- no one was close by.
"Well?" Ted asked after a moment, looking up from whatever he had been fiddling with at the head desk. "You were saying?"
Jasper merely shook his head at the cat as it jumped onto his desk, walking over a few spare slates disdainfully. Ted stepped back as it jumped, blinking at the creature. It blinked back.
"Jasper," Ted pointed out after a few seconds had passed, "there's a cat on your desk."
"So I'd noticed."
Ted offered a hand for the animal to examine, and Jasper shuddered inwardly. The cat gave Ted a measuring look, sniffed the hand delicately, then curled up on top of the desk and, apparently, went to sleep.
"I don't suppose you were expecting him?" Ted asked, once a few more moments had passed.
"Of course I wasn't." Jasper frowned, folding his arms in an attempt to hide the fact that his hands were twitching. "Well, we can't just leave it there- I have work to do. Work which happens to be on that desk."
"He's not laying on anything," Ted offered helpfully.
"That's besides the point." Jasper glared at the boy. "Stop beating about the bush. That- thing- hasn't attacked you yet, so get it off of there." He wasn't sure why the cat would have come into his schoolroom in the first place, if it was just planning on sleeping, but he wasn't about to let a mere animal make the decisions.
Ted heaved a gusty sigh, but stepped back up to the desk and picked the cat up. Or rather, he attempted to pick it up, for when he heaved upwards, the cat didn't move.
"What-" Ted frowned, and then pulled again. The cat, apparently exerting no force at all, stayed in contact with the desk's surface, like it was glued there. At this point, Ted grew very excited.
"You see what he's doing, Jasper?" he asked, starting to talk very quickly. "Instead of accessing the typical passive collection of unusual abilities, it would appear that he's internally changed the nature of the connection between himself, the subject, and the physical medium, perhaps even formed an attachment so that-"
"And this is precisely why I asked you to stop going to those lectures back at the University." Jasper stalked over to the desk, but couldn't quite bring himself to actually touch the cat. "I don't particularly care to find out how it works, at the moment. I just want to make it stop." He examined the cat as carefully as he could without actually touching it, until his eyes started to glaze over.
"How unusual," Ted muttered, peering through a circular glass that had been stored in a compartment which Jasper had thought was locked. "He's supplying the energy for the spell, but on an almost unconscious level."
"What's more interesting is that I recognize it," Jasper replied grimly. "That cat's been in here before."
Morwen, he thought dismally. He wasn't sure why he hadn't realized it at once, but the furball was definitely the same one that followed the girl everywhere. The two never seemed to be far apart- which would mean that the girl was close by.
"Ted," he called drily, "stop studying the cat, and run down to the main street. See if you can find Morwen, and bring her back here. Tell her she… forgot something."
"Morwen?" Ted looked up from the cat, blinking in confusion. Then he snapped his fingers. "Oh, right. I'll get her." He shot a longing look back at the cat, then scurried back out through the door.
Once he was alone, Jasper stared at the cat. It slept on.
Stalemate.
-
Not many interesting things happened out on the edge of nowhere.
Jasper had eventually given up on glaring balefully at the cat, and had decided to sit at one of the front-row desks instead. He was calculating the odds of anything truly unusual happening in such a small village. They were ten thousand to one.
That didn't mean that dangerous things didn't occur; ogres could ransack cottages, bandits could kidnap beautiful maidens, and such things would be classified as perfectly typical. Nothing to be shocked or worried about, only the normal occurrences of life.
But something was giving him a horrid premonition that an exceedingly unusual turn of events was soon going to occur. He was no soothsayer; he didn't want to be afflicted by premonitions. They were dreadfully weighty things.
"What is taking that boy so long?" he muttered, mostly to himself. Ted was a good-natured lad, but not reliable in the least. He got distracted far too easily to be depended on for anything.
"You ought to keep a better eye on young ones."
Jasper whirled around in his seat, trying to see who had spoken. He was still alone in the room, except for the cat, who, he suddenly realized, had woken up. It was staring at him, eyes narrowed into slits.
"Was that you?" Jasper managed to croak out, not believing it even as he spoke. Cats didn't speak to anyone, other than their owners- and then only if their owners were inherently magical. And this cat didn't belong to him, not in the least.
"Of course." The cat yawned, relaxing its ears. Jasper thought to himself that it was a rather deep voice for a cat. "You humans, you always have to ask the most obvious questions."
"Well," Jasper said, fumbling for familiar ground, "it just doesn't seem quite- traditional."
"Of course it's traditional! And really, you ought to look at me while I'm talking."
"I thought I was."
"You thought you- oh, by the King's crown! You think I'm the cat?"
Jasper swallowed. "You aren't?"
"Look further down."
Shaking slightly, Jasper complied. The front of his desk held no terrifying demons. The floor, however, demonstrated a new development in the form of a very small, very bumpy toad.
"Well," the toad said acidly, "you could introduce yourself."
"My apologies, your highness," Jasper replied, finally relaxing. The toad could only be an enchanted prince, and he knew very well how to deal with those. "My name is Jasper Higgins, instructor of basic subjects in this humble village. May I ask which kingdom you come from?"
"Kingdom?" The toad drew himself up proudly, sucking in his belly and bulging out his eyes. "You err again, mortal man. I come from no kingdom."
"Oh?"
"I am the Dragon Newlin," the toad continued grandly, "and you are going to help me regain my rightful place."