Disclaimer, you know.
It would be mid-September when they would stop discussing intent for magic. and objects of power would become the subject of lessons. These lectures were pretty brief and left the class open to discuss amongst themselves, Ellie had her wand, Brianna a little hairpin as they learned, Alison had a wand of her own. Then the discussion of the scepter, the slippers and the wand the scepter could generate.
However as they left the lecture hall this time and started heading back to the dorms as a group. Two things happened. Once more Ellie began to float, this time however she was glowing as well. the outline of wings appearing on her back. and as dorothy and Jude reached out to help, dorothy found herself suddenly feeling strange. something was happening she couldn't explain, it felt familiar yet different all at once.
Cassandra, Angela, Elphaba, Nessarose, Rose, the Jester and Theodora were by the group in an instant. And it seemed to dorothy whatever was about to happen to her wanted an audience. She felt sick to her stomach, paling a little as she did.
"Dorothy, are you alright?" Elphaba asked noticing her and growing concerned.
Soon Glinda was there as well, as a crowd of students started form around them. Glinda reached up and helped her sister to the ground, and they all turned to look at dorothy. Everyone but alex backing up from her. and in an instant. A breathtaking pain shot through her, causing her to fall to her knees. At once alex recognized what was happening as it had happened to him. he started with the slippers, sliding them off her and she began to glow a golden light.
"Oh you're joking." Dorothy managed to scream out through the blinding pain as alex forced her hand open and the ring off her finger, as well as the satchel holding the Grimmerie from over her shoulder.
Her form began to shift rapidly as she began to shrink. She could see the fur replacing her clothes, navy blue and white splotches on her, she was becoming a cat again. once the pain had gone, it began to feel, interesting, like a euphoric sensation mixed with wanting to be ill. She panted as she soon found herself now without the collar in the form of a cat again.
"just know Miss Gale, a transformation relapse does not make you exempt from any essays I might assign to your class." Cassandra said with a chuckle.
Alex slung the satchel over his shoulder and placed the ring into his suit pocket, doing his best to stuff the slippers into the satchel next to the Grimmerie.
"you alright kitten?" he asked crouching down to scoop her into his grasp.
"Okay, that was…unpleasant." She said sighing
"yea, relapses will be do that." Glinda said walking over to her, "and unfortunately, it looks like your stuck like this for a while."
"thanks Glinda, I worked that out on my own funnily enough." Dorothy said twisting in alex's grasp a bit.
Alex chuckled and set her on the ground. She shook out her fur and with one of her hindpaws, scratched behind her ears.
"awe, that's adorable." Nadia said crouching down, her color relaxing from the grey it had assumed, "You're pretty cute as a cat." She said
"thanks Nadia." Dorothy said sighing, looking around
Cassandra banged her stick against the ground again, resulting in a loud cracking sound which caused students to start to scatter.
"well, one good thing came out of this, I think." Dorothy remarked looking up at alex.
"how could any of this be considered a good thing?" Alex asked with a chuckle, sitting on the ground and scratching her behind the ears.
"It drew attention away from what was happening with Ellie." Dorothy said purring and moving her head into the scratching, "oh yea, right there, that's the spot." She said
"Oh sweet Oz that's soo cute." Nadia squeals a little.
"honestly I think it would have happened a lot sooner had you use the collar more recently." Madeline said walking over to her and crouching down, "that said, you do take on the role of a cat quite nicely."
"yes, yes she does." Ellie said giggling at her friend's predicament.
"honestly I came the moment I saw dorothy had gone pale and staggered, come on you bunch, back to the dorms." She said firmly.
They all walked back to the dorms and to the lounge area. Toto, Pockets, and Eve had decided to occupy the lounge area. All three were surprise not only to see Glinda, but to see Glinda now carrying what all three recognized as Dorothy's cat form. She set her down on the floor in front of them
"So…I relapsed." Dorothy said to her pets, and Eve.
"yes…" Toto said making eye contact with her, "which means your stuck again like alex was months ago.
"I realize that, toto." Dorothy said with a sigh, jumping up on to alex's lap as he sat down.
"Always had a hunch it would happen here at the university." Alex said with a chuckle, scratching her under the chin now.
"Oh yea, that feels nice." Dorothy purred loudly
"at least you can still communicate in that form." Theodora pointed out.
"always have been able to." She said sitting down, "I do however, have a bad feeling I'm going to be unsteady on my feet for a while after I finally change back."
"Kitten, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Alex said looking at Glinda, "do you just look in on the lectures or did you just feel like it would be a good time to check in, good witch's intuition?" he asked curiously.
"I was looking in on the lecture, both Locasta and I do." Glinda said joining alex on the couch, Toto jumping onto her lap, "I think Ozma does as well to relieve the monotony when she isn't sneaking out."
"she wouldn't have to sneak if you weren't watching everyone like a hawk basically all hours of the day." Ozma said from the door way, causing everyone to jump.
She said nothing and walked over to the sofa, Glinda moving over to give her some space. Dorothy moved onto her lap as Ozma ran a hand along her back. dorothy purred loudly at this.
"you alright Dorothy?" She asked, her face pale with concern.
"I'm fine Ozma, I promise." She said sitting and looking up at her.
Glinda chose this moment to excuse herself, Taking toto off of her lap, she walked out with Elphaba. Zeb walked over to where the polyamorous group was sat and looked at his cousin.
"so…this kind of thing…I think this is actually the first time I've seen you become a cat without getting spelled into it." Zeb said trying to string together a coherent sentence.
"I think so too Zeb, yea, I have a collar that I can use for more controlled situations, cant transform wearing the ring or the slippers though." She said sighing, her ears dropping, "nor can I force myself out of this form, same as alex I'm stuck riding this out."
"honestly this is funny considering this isn't even the first time you've gotten stuck." The jester said with a dark chuckle "what I find concerning is you seem to have a sixth sense for the fact that this is going to have the same consequence as the first time it happened to you."
"I mean, it would be just my luck wouldn't it?" dorothy said sighing,
The jester looked at her for a moment and blinked.
"you know, that's fair." He said leaning against the wall.
Ozma continued to scratch dorothy behind the ears. She yawned and stretched out. She was glad they were going into a weekend, having to wander around as a cat would definitely be awkward.
"I took a leave from the palace leaving scarecrow and the wizard back in charge the moment I felt something was wrong." Ozma said smiling as dorothy purred, "I'm not leaving you two alone, at least for the weekend."
"you know you don't have to do that, Ozma." Alex said reassuringly.
"says you." Ozma snapped back playfully, "If I want to stick around my two royal companions, I most certainly will."
"And theres not much we can argue against it, that being said your majesty you should get a visitors badge." Cassandra said producing one for her, "I will let morrible know you are here and no one is to be disturbed."
"that sounds like a splendid idea." The jester said before vanishing
Rose and Theodora both shared a glance and ran out. Eveline following Theodora close behind. Zeb went to go sit down in a chair, as Elena went through her pouch.
"Calming tonic?" she offered the bottle to him.
He shook his head and pushed her hand away.
"No thanks Lena, not right now." Zeb said trying to come to grips with this again.
No one would say it, but it was noticed, and a few chuckles and giggles did go around the room. That Zeb had just given Elena a nickname. She realized that quickly and ran out blushing bright red.
"I think I'm going to go get something to drink and have a lie down." Zeb said after a couple of minutes.
"My little lunch box is on the table if you'd like a sandwich to tie you over." Ellie said as he got up and walked out.
"come you guys, I think the royal trio could use some private time." Annabella said with a giggle, herself, Donna, Kelly and Eliza being the next few to file out.
Soon it was just Alex, Dorothy, and Ozma. With Nessarose and Angela as their overseers.
"I pity you, and envy you at the moment dorothy." Nessa said with a giggle.
"why envy?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"you may not be exempt from paperwork, but you're also not the one who has to do the writing for you either." She teased.
"you say that like I mind." Alex said looking at her.
Dorothy stopped purring and sat straight up again looking up at the two of them. she hadn't actually thought about that part. Honestly she wasn't surprised Cassandra wasn't playing favorites on essays but still that did seem a bit unfair on her friends, making them do her work for her.
"Windy are you able to do anything?" Dorothy asked curiously.
She transformed back to her human shape and looked at her for a moment.
"In theory? Yes, probably." She said pointing at a wall, the word Kitten appearing on it in large red letters, she then waved over it and it vanished.
"whether or not cassandra, or any teacher would accept an assignment written with magic would be a different issue entirely." Nessarose added. "while I personally ywould, ink, pen, pencil, magic writing, its of little impact to me because I trust all of you not to cheat."
"Save for Me" Madeline said with a giggle coming back in with a tea tray, two cups and a saucer
"Gee, thanks for thinking of me Maddie." Dorothy said sighing as the saucer was put on the floor for her.
"Not my fault you got stuck like that, you were warned this would happen" She sang playfully
"Well, going with the flow." Dorothy said jumping down and lapping at the tea poured into the saucer, "This feels so patronizing coming from you."
"Oh don't feel bad about it." Maddie said with a giggle, "I certainly don't."
Dorothy would have rolled her eyes if she could have, toto walked over to her, as did pockets. They sat next to her with sad looks on their faces.
"Oh come on you two, perk up, we've gotten through far, far worse." Dorothy said returning to the tea
"So…are we just going to ignore that Zeb called Elena, Lena?" Alex asked curiously.
"For now, yes, hopefully this leads to a more budding relationship considering that she stormed out red as a beet." Nessarose said with a giggle.
Ozma and Alex chuckled at this, both sipping their tea. Dorothy sighed, deliberately whipping her tail to the side to bat toto on the nose.
He scrunched his face and sneezed, causing Ozma to snort into her cup. Putting it aside quickly so she could cough. Alex set his own an slapped her on the back as she went into a coughing fit. She took a deep breath and giggled again.
"Oh I really miss having all of you around." she said moving to the floor and sitting there, scratching dorothy behind the ears again.
Dorothy couldn't help purring at her scratching, she moved into it affectionately. As much as she was loathed to admit it, she knew full well she could play the role of a cat just too nicely. Leaning up against ozma and purring loudly.