VILLAIN

Chapter 3

I woke up with the sun the next morning, feeling more refreshed than I had in all the months I'd been here. I stretched, allowing myself a few more precious minutes of freedom before I climbed begrudgingly back down the tree and brushed the leaves off of my skirt. I had walked almost half the distance to the school when it occurred to me that I had no idea how I was planning to explain myself. A list of ideas ran through my head, but none of them were good. I even briefly considered not saying anything at all, but the odds of me making it through the guarded entrance in broad daylight without being seen seemed about as good as the odds of me being the valedictorian of Spells and Enchantments.

After several minutes of thinking in circles and ultimately getting nowhere closer to having a solid plan, I was forced to admit that I was going to have to explain myself to someone. I just needed to find a someone who wouldn't turn me in or be too suspicious of my no-doubt flimsy excuses.

That's when it hit me.

The obvious answer – so obvious I was embarrassed not to have thought of it before.

Eugene.

I set off to find him in the early morning light, hoping he was still up. A look at the sky told me that only the barest hints of dawn were coming, which meant he should theoretically still be awake. You see, Eugene was a brownie – a mid-size creature in the same class as fairies and sprites. He worked with the other brownies from sundown until sunrise, doing chores and cleaning jobs that the daytime janitors neglected. Very few people even knew of the brownies' existence – considering they were purely nocturnal and experts at sneakiness. However, unlike their closely related cousins, the leprechauns and elves, brownies were rarely malicious, and lived in relative complacency. Well, except for one brownie – but that was a different story.

This contributed to the fact that nearly no one in the school realized that they even existed, too often forgetting the calm, simple brownies for their more exciting relations. I could hardly blame them, as I likely would never have noticed the quiet, nocturnal creatures on my own either. But James, in his explorations, had discovered one once, and in a very James-like way had been fascinated by him. He was naturally very respectful to the creature – one learned not to offend unidentified fairy-folk, as some were quite dangerous. This wasn't the case with the brownies, however, and the one that James met had become quite good friends with him by the time I'd arrived at Evermore. James introduced me to Eugene within my first few weeks at the League, and I couldn't help but be taken with the small man.

Eugene was around the same height as Meriwether, with thin, knobbly arms and legs, and a large flat nose that took up about three-quarters of the space on his face. He had two very small, round eyes, and a thin, crooked mouth. He, like all the other brownies, had poofy hair in a little spike on the top of his head. His skin was a strange texture that resembled tree bark, and his fingers were long and spindly. He wore practical brownie clothing, similar to all the other brownies I'd seen – a brown leather apron, worn brown pants, and a rugged shirt which was, once again, brown. But despite the overwhelming brownness of the brownies' fashion, it was, in fact, their tendency to leave freshly-baked brownies after every job that earned them their name.

The only flaw with the brownies was that, due to their small and sensitive eyes, they only worked when the sun was away, and I prayed I wasn't too late when I rapped on the little door that was almost invisibly carved into the side of the school.

I waited several beats, frantically scanning the area to make sure none of the guards had seen me. Then I waited several more beats, and several more after that. And then, finally, the door creaked open, and a man that was just between three and four feet tall stood in its opening.