A Queen and Her Kings

The Shadow Man

Cassandra stood in front of the mirror gate she had just come through, taking in the sights. The gate itself had been rather plain, the only decoration on it being the word 'store' on the silver frame. The place it led to, however, was anything but that.

The ground she stood on was wet and soft, the air hot and humid. She could hear the croaking of frogs, the sounds of insects, and the call of birds. Spanish moss hung from the tall, twisting trees that rose over the green, murky water at the base of them. If you really looked, you might see a salamander or a crawfish creeping under the rocks at the bottom of the water, or an alligator peeking its yellow eyes above the water.

She was in a swamp. No, she was in a bayou.

Cassandra wanted to squeal. She had practically grown up in the New Orleans bayou, running around in various animal forms and getting covered in mud. It had been every girl's dream childhood. At least, she felt it was. What little girl didn't enjoy catching cute frogs or catching crawfish for a boil? She could almost smell Marcel and Cami's signature seafood gumbo. It made Cassandra both nostalgic and homesick.

She missed her parents, her aunts, her uncles, her brother, her godmother, and even her alligator. If she was a weaker person, she might have started crying the minute she felt the familiar humid air, but she was better than that. She knew crying wouldn't do anyone any good. With that in mind, Cassandra started walking down the dirt trail the mirror had taken them to before turning around once she realized she was still alone.

"Aren't you all coming?!", she called out loudly. A moment after, Ace, Deuce and Grim, oddly enough, stepped through the mirror. They all looked unpleasantly surprised by their surroundings.

"What is this place? It's so hot and humid...", Deuce trailed off as he wiped some sweat off his already perspiring brow.

"You're telling me, and- OH MY SEVEN SOMETHING JUST MOVED!", started Ace before he screamed loudly, grabbing Deuce and using him as a human shield against what he saw.

What he saw move was soon revealed to be a green frog, who hopped across the road and back into the water on the other side, the trio's eyes following it the entire time. When it returned to the water, Ace sighed in relief before giving an unamused Deuce a sheepish look and laugh to match.

"Ehehehe...", he said as Deuce yanked himself away from him and marched up the road to meet up with Cassandra.

"You're all a bunch of girls! C'mon, we have study hall in an hour with Trien and Ace has potions with Crewel, and trust me; you do not want to be late to that!", Cassandra yelled out at her familiar and fellow redhead.

"Yeah Trampola, get a move on. We've got places to be.", Ash said as he peeked his head through the mirror gate, looking like a mounted trophy on a mantle due to the brick wall the gate was placed on. Ace jumped again when he noticed this before huffing.

"Will you stop calling me that?! I already told you people, only Cass can call me that!", his outrage was ignored as Ash pushed past him to get out of the gate and to Cassandra. The rest of the Court followed suit. Yue turned back at him, whipping is flower filled braid as he did so, and smirked.

"You get to make demands like that when you learn to hold your own in a fight with one of us, Trampola. Until then, your thing one and Spade is thing two.", he said snarkily as he followed the rest of his friends. Ace fummed.

"Stop making references I don't understand! I can't tell if it's supposed to be a compliment or not!"

Yue blinked. You would think he would figure out he was being insulted, but he was either ridiculously dense or lacking brain cells.