The Rage Eater

Chapter 26: New Morning

Through the alchemist's glass of the Dining Hall, Sadie saw the sun creeping above the horizon, giving the campus a hazy yellow-orange glow. Inside, the light was soft and warm, the usual din of chatter muted, as students and beastlies and Masters ate their breakfast in relative quiet. Most seemed content, enjoying the morning's peace.

Sadie was not one of them.

"Okay, we need some sort of code," Sadie said.

"What c-c-c-code?" Tim asked, wiping sleep from his eyes.

"For Dylan," Sadie said. "So I can know what he's thinking."

She had woken up energized and inspired, ready to take on Nicolas and Geoffrey in the Game of Thieves. But she knew that if she was going to win, she'd need to be more attuned to what Dylan was thinking. At times, she could see fear in his eyes or feel him trembling, but that wasn't enough.

"Can he nod?" asked Sim.

"Or shake his head?" asked Emily.

Sadie looked at Dylan, who looked up at her, narrowing his big bug eyes.

"I don't think so," Sadie said.

"Then focus on what he can do," said Aubrey.

"He can blink," said Sim.

"T-t-too confusing," Tim said. "Especially if you g-g-get something in your eye."

"Transform!" Sadie said.

Aubrey smiled. "Exactly."

"Hmmm," Sadie said. "Dylan, if you're happy, or I ask you a question and the answer is yes, how will you let me know?"

In a brilliant swirl of colour, Dylan morphed into a fresh green leaf—wide-bottomed, with zig-zagged edges and a short brown stem—and then back into a blob.

"Yes!" Sadie said, clapping.

"Okay, Dylan," Aubrey said. "What if you're unhappy, or the answer is no?"

Dylan morphed into a big, five-pointed red maple leaf, then back to a blob. He looked up at Sadie, eyes wide, as if smiling.

"What if I say s-s-something really funny," Tim said. "And you want to laugh."

Dylan shifted into a stubby pink-and-green cactus with dozens of pale-yellow spines.

Everyone clapped and laughed.

"Perfect!" Tim shouted. "I l-l-love it."

Sadie smiled. Unlike her friends, she couldn't hear what her beastly was thinking. But now she could see it.

It's a start, she thought.

"Oooh, I've got another idea," Aubrey said. "Dylan, can you shift into a Wintas creeper without using too much energy?"

Dylan morphed into a green leaf.

Yes.

"Can you show us?" Aubrey asked.

Dylan shifted into a thin vine coated with a delicate white fuzz.

Aubrey picked up vine Dylan and draped it around Sadie's neck like a scarf. "It's not as light as a leaf," Aubrey said, "but it frees up your hands."

Sadie looked at the tip of the vine dangling from her shoulder. Within it, she saw Dylan's big eyes staring up at her. "It's the perfect way to carry him. Thanks!"

"F-f-fashionable and elegant too," Tim said.

Everyone laughed.

"D-d-don't laugh now, Dylan," Tim said with mock seriousness. "Or your spines will poke Sadie, and even Aubrey won't be able to save her."

They laughed again.

Soon, people and beastlies were staring. But Sadie didn't care. This was the happiest she'd been in weeks, maybe months.

After breakfast, Sadie marched into the Hall of Heroes with her head held high and vine Dylan wrapped around her neck. Then, she grabbed a pencil hanging from a rope nailed to the old stone wall and signed her name to the Rogues List.