Reggie's Perspective
Reggie ran through the woods, the sun setting in the sky. He hadn't run into anyone yet, but he just had to be away from that cave before Wes got back. Without his cards, running through the woods was his best bet. He really hoped there weren't coyotes or lynxes. If only he'd paid attention during the classes on ecology back at school.
"Reginald," he heard on the wind. That had to be his imagination. Reggie kept running, ignoring it. Then he noticed one of the trees near him shift and thought it had turned into Wes's face. The face in the tree tilted its head in that strange, cat-like way and smirked. "Why did you run from me?" Turning, Reggie kept running through the woods. A wolf howled somewhere nearby and he ran faster. "Wolves are out, isn't it dangerous? Animut infloodio."
The howls got closer and closer. Reginald ran faster. But wolves are faster than they look. And they already look fast enough. So they closed in on him. He saw something in the corner of his eye, noticing a wolf lunging at him. To avoid it, he had to slow down to lean away from it. Then he saw another one approach from his left, trying to bite at him. He kept running, then felt one bite his hand. Well, not feel it per se. More like not being able to use it when he tried, as the thing was missing now. Then another wolf lunged at him, knocking him to the ground. Looking around for a stick or a rock to defend himself, Reginald noticed he'd fallen near a bush of berries that he recognized.
Dreamberries, Wes once called them. Round and purple, but they shone with a silver glow like the berries had veins in them. Reggie reached for it with the hand that hadn't been eaten by wolves. The other wolves were definitely descending on him, circling around him and sniffing. When he touched the berries, he could feel their energy. Relaxing and imaginative. Wes had helped him use it to stave off nightmares once, but...
"Before these hounds can take a nip, time for them to have a little kip." Reggie chanted. Red light spread through him and out to the wolves, sending them all off to sleep.
"Cute idea," he heard Wes's voice from all around him. "But you know I can wake them back up, right? Not many berries around, are there?"
Reggie looked around, trying to spot anything he could recognize from the lessons with Wes. This forest appeared to be relatively magical. He noticed a few white mushrooms with blue-green spots all over them. They wriggled around on their own. Hopping Mushrooms, they were called. Able to move on their own and avoid any animal that tried to eat them. Reggie grabbed another berry, casting a spell to put the mushrooms to sleep. He heard growls as the wolves behind him woke up and he hurriedly touched one of the mushrooms.
"Fun little fungi that hop in their place, lend me your high hops and grace," Reginald felt the spell take effect, his posture becoming more immaculate than usual. When he heard the wolves come near, he jumped up into the trees. He landed gracefully on a tree branch, swiftly hopping between the branches. His clay body had one advantage in that it didn't even tire.
"Clever," he heard Wes say all around him. "But this is my forest, you know. It listens to me. Florial motus."
The branches Reggie hopped through began to sway. When he tried to land on one, it bent out of the way and he went falling. Catching himself on a branch, it started shaking. Pulling himself up, he jumped to another branch that bent, pulling him up against a tree. He couldn't technically feel pain, but it wasn't a pleasant sensation.
"Tempus incrime," Wes chanted, sending a strong gust of wind that knocked Reggie out of the treetops. He fell down to the ground. Again...not painful, but not particularly pleasant. When he looked up, Reggie panicked, rising up to his feet quickly with the spell of grace. When he turned to run, Wes chuckled, "As fun as this was..." Reggie had dashed a few meters away by now, "stop." The Prince of Hearts stopped immediately, the collar at his neck growing uncomfortably warm. "Walk back to the cave and be silent."
As much as he hated it, Reggie returned to Wes's side and headed back the way he'd come from.
"Terrar recuvro." The clay from his torso expanded, restoring his throat and his hand. "Back home we go, dear." Wes chuckled. "I feel so bad for not considering this, Vivi never needs to be walked. Did you get restless?"
Jane's Perspective
The Event Planning Committee today was only mildly soul-crushing. Considering Audrey behaved as if she was in charge, that was saying a lot. As much as she could expect. When Jane grabbed the textbook she needed for the next class, she closed her locker. She let out a sound like a squeak in surprise when she saw Carlos had been behind it. He smiled at her.
"Carlos," she exclaimed. "Oh, you scared me."
His smile fell off. "I scare you?" He looked down and she touched his chin, bringing his eyes to hers.
"No, of course not," she said. "I just didn't expect to see you there. But I'm happy to.
He smiled slightly. "So, I'm..." Carlos hesitated, trying to fight the words until he ground them out. "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings the other day."
Jane touched his arm. "I understand, those things that happened to you before were awful. But I hope you know I'd never, ever, ever in life do something like that."
The look in the VKs eyes still held suspicion. But he nodded. Then he smiled. "I..." He started. "Do you still want to go to the coronation with me?"
Jane's heart lifted. She could tell her eyes were sparkling by the way her heart started to beat when her eyes revealed the magic she had in her. "Yes. Yes, totally, Carlos."
"Perfect," Carlos said with a grin. He looked down at the ground. "Um, do you wanna do something before then?"
The fairy nodded happily. "Yes."
Lonnie's Perspective
She found Jay reaching into a pocket that was definitely not his own. Jay reached into Navesh, Naveen's son's, back pocket and pulled out his wallet. When Lonnie cleared her throat, Jay dropped it.
Jay picked it up from the ground when Navesh turned around and Jay lied flawlessly, "you dropped this, man." He passed it over reluctantly, but his grip didn't slacken the first time Navesh tried to pull it away.
"Jay," Lonnie said. He let go so Navesh could take his wallet back. "Hey."
The son of Jafar turned to her, leaning against the wall of lockers with a charming smile. "So...Lonnie." He said. Lonnie even noticed he was flexing with the way he held his arms. She tried not to laugh. "I've seen you around..."
When he didn't continue, Lonnie asked, "and?"
"And..." Jay seemed to be conflicted on what to say. "You're...totally smokin'? So I wanted to go on a date with you..."
"Because..." Lonnie considered it. "Because I'm smokin' you wanna go out with me?"
"Yeah," Jay nodded. "So, do you have a coronation date or do you need time to ditch him? When should I pick you up?"
"I'm sorry, Jay," she said gently. "But if you only like me for the way I look, I don't wanna go out with you. You should like me for who I—" Her arm came up instinctively when Jay lifted a flat palm to strike her. She blocked it effortlessly, shooting him a look. "What was that?"
"That was why I like you," he grinned. "On the Isle, the girls were all super tough. I haven't found many tough girls here in Auradon, but you...wow, you're something."
Lonnie grinned. That wasn't quite conventional, but at least it was interesting. Most of the VKs had something interesting about them. "Not how I'd go about saying that," she said, "but okay. I...sure, let's go to the coronation and hang out."
"Awesome," Jay said with a smile. "See you then."
"Don't try that again," Lonnie said. "I'll do a little more than just block a hit next time."
"I wouldn't have it any other way." Jay was still smiling when he left her alone in the hallway.
Carlos's Perspective
When Carlos arrived at the girls' room, he knocked at the door. He hadn't seen Mal or Evie in days and he needed a little magic help. There was no answer. He knocked again, banging on the door. Still no response. "M, Eve," Carlos called. "Are you—ah!" The door swung open and Carlos was pulled inside before it closed behind him.
"Did anyone follow you?" Carlos looked up and noticed the room was totally dark, curtains shut. He noticed she had bags under her eyes and her hair wasn't as flawless as it usually was. She was even wearing sweatpants. Empty boxes of chocolate and dead flowers were strewn throughout the room on every available surface.
"Who would follow me?" Carlos asked in confusion.
"Princes, obviously." Evie hit his arm. "You didn't lead them here did you?"
"Since when are you avoiding princes?" Carlos sat down on Mal's bed, the only place without empty chocolate wrappers. "That was the entire reason you wanted to come here."
"It was..." Evie said, pacing around through all the dead vases full of flowers. "But I used love spells to get all of them to like me and I was heavy-handed with the swan liver and now they're obsessed with me." She sat down, running her hands through her hair. "Anytime I leave the room, they follow me around, it's so creepy. And they won't stop texting me. I'm..." Her face fell into her hands. "I'm scared, Carlos. I just want them to stop, but I have to go to this coronation."
"For the wand, right?" Carlos asked.
Evie looked up at him suddenly, suspicion in her eyes. "I didn't mention the wand. I covered up the phones, how are you listening in on me?"
Carlos raised his hands placatingly. "No. I'm going for the wand too." Evie glared at him. "That's not even what I'm here about, though."
"What do you even want then?" Evie asked derisively. "I'm not leaving this room, they'll find me. And I still have enough chocolate to live off of until coronation."
"Oooooookay then," Carlos wondered if he should just leave. But he did come here for something. "Where's Mal? I need to see if she has a spell to help me with something."
Evie considered it. "Hmmm," she wondered, "good question, I haven't seen her in days. She went to see about...a thing in the library. If she has a good hiding spot, I might go join her."
"Great," Carlos stood.
"What did you need?"
"A courage spell or something."
"I doubt she'd have that, it'd take a potion or something."
He went to the door. "Well thanks for nothing, I guess."
"Wait!" Evie crossed the room and grabbed his arm. He turned to her and she asked, "can you bring me a nice chicken caesar salad or something from the cafeteria?"
Carlos shook his head no, dashing through the door before she could stop him.
"Carlos!" he heard her call from the other side.
Wes's Perspective
"...so it wasn't too smart to do that. If you read a history book, you'd know Beast's kingdom has a ton of wolves in the woods. Ah, home sweet home," Wes said as he and Reggie returned to the cave. Vivianne was still asleep. "Sit on the altar. You can speak now." Reggie walked like a zombie back to the altar to sit down.
Wes went searching through his spell ingredients to find something—anything—to wake Vivianne up earlier. But no luck so far. "What are you going to do now?"
"I was hoping to wake Viv up, but...not happening at the moment," he turned away from the jars. "You've been very rebellious. Maybe I should swap your soul with hers. Then you'd be the one asleep." He let the fear steep for a moment, before laughing. "Just kidding. Your fake body wouldn't be able to shift between cat and human form if I didn't intend it to when I formed it. But I could just keep your soul in my ring for a bit. Can't run if you have no body, can you?"
"Fine," Reggie said. When he looked up at Reggie...nah, too hopeful.
"Don't get excited, snake," Wes said. "Unlike you, I don't like to lie. So, I'll keep my promise. Decades of watching people suffer." He began to approach and Reggie's eyes widened in fear. Wes sat up on the altar next to him. "Let's just make sure you can't move anymore." He put the hand with his ring on Reggie's forehead. "Hexzar te san dessacata." His ring glowed and Reggie heard the crackling sound as the clay dried. Reggie's entire body changed, appearing to be a very detailed sandstone statue.
Wes rested his head on stone-Reggie's shoulder.
"For what it's worth, Reggie," he said, even though Reggie literally couldn't respond now that he was stone, "I wish it was different. Before you tricked me, I really thought I could change. I wanted to be normal so badly."
He sighed, standing back up. One crisis averted. Now he just needed to make sure the other VKs weren't causing any trouble.
Ben's Perspective
Life had gotten amazing for Ben. He looked down while he walked around the school gardens, noticing blue wildflowers growing under a bench. He sat down, snapping a picture of them. Sending the picture to her, he wrote a text about how they reminded him of Evie.
He wondered if the fact that this was the tenth one he'd sent in the past hour might annoy her. But so many things made him think of Evie recently. This had to be what love felt like. He'd do anything for her, she was perfect. He checked his phone to track her location. She was in her dorm room at the moment. It seemed like she was always in there recently. Until she left, it'd be difficult to run into her.
She'd told him to stop tracking where she was, but...it was so hard not knowing where she was. He couldn't imagine it. If only her room was on a floor that was easy to look into. He'd heard that Chad and Eren were going to try to climb up a tree with a telescope, but that seemed creepy. Maybe he could try it, though.
"BENNYBOO!" Someone clapped in his face. He looked up, noticing Audrey was standing in front of him. She didn't seem to look very happy. When did she get here?
"Hi, Audrey," he said with a kind smile.
"I gave you your time to get this out of your system," Audrey said, "but this is getting ridiculous." She sat next to him with her arms crossed and Ben sighed. "We are meant to be together in the end, can you just stop this little villain phase?"
"Audrey," Ben said gently. "Evie and I are in love. I'm sorry for the way things ended between us, but—"
"Don't you dare try to tell me you haven't missed me, Ben. I know you have." She looked at him pleadingly. "We've been together forever, you barely even know this girl. Haven't you missed me?"
"Audrey, please—"
"Tell me!" She ordered him.
"I...all I think about now is, Evie," Ben admitted. "I'm sorry, but—"
"What did she do to you?" Audrey asked, looking into his eyes. "Has she given you an apple?"
Ben shook his head, chuckling, "no apples, I swear. Just...love."
Audrey screamed. She literally screamed out loud in a high-pitched, melodic note. "This is ridiculous!" Three bluebirds flew down to land on her shoulders. A pair of bunnies even hopped over and nuzzled against her leg. "She had to have done something. Every prince on the tourney team has been talking about her non-stop. She's done something to you! You can't just leave me like this!"
"Audrey, I'm sorry—"
She turned to leave, the birds and bunnies following behind her worriedly.
Carlos's Perspective
Carlos arrived at the library, searching for Mal. She wasn't around. So he went to the help desk. "Hey," he announced himself to the person behind the desk. It was a boy around his age with black hair and green eyes. He wore an emerald green suit and black tie with cat-scratch designs.
"Yes?" He asked, looking up at him.
"Hi, I wanted to see if my friend Mal had been in here recently?"
He looked up, considering it. "Who might that be? Sorry, I've only been volunteering here for a little while."
"Maleficent's daughter, purple hair, scowls a lot," Carlos described.
Recognition dawned on his face. "I do remember seeing her, but not recently," he said helpfully. "she went to see this shady guy, I was worried about her."
"Shady how?" Carlos asked. "What worried you?" The guy beckoned him closer and he leaned in.
"Spells for Cash Guy," he whispered. "He works out of the library in a secret room sometimes. If you haven't seen her recently...I'd worry."
"Where's the secret room?" Carlos asked.
"Behind a rose tapestry..." The boy said with a smile. "You'll wanna write down how you knock..."