Into the World of Twisted Wonderland Pt 2

🐍 Schemer of the Scalding Sands: Chapter 23 🐍

A/N: Quick question for spooky season guys: which would be the best friend to have: zombies, skeletons, or ghosts?

Also! I HAVE OFFICIALLY FINISHED BOOK 5 AND I AM ABOUT DONE WITH THE CONTENT PROVIDED FOR BOOK 6! Let's just say I have some major ideas for those two books but probably will only write about 20 chapters for Book 6, depending on if they update it with other chapters by the time I start on it. Also, book 5 is LONG (with a plan of 76 chapters) so this complete work will probably be done by either (if my math is right) April or May of 2024, and yes that means event stories and side stories as well! I am also thinking about starting another work soon (probably Obey Me!) so just so you know there's more to come from me that's just the idea for NOW! (10/14/23)

The five, or seven including Jamil and the carpet, walk into the lounge, surprising students as they jump at the sight of the trio, with Kalim sitting in the middle, giving them a smile. "Oh, hey, Azul," Kalim greets. "What brings you to our dorm?" He looks behind him, seeing the duo as well. "Hiya Angel and Grim!" He greets, then look down to see the rope around their wrists. "Why are you guys tied up?"

"Hello there. It's nice to see you, Kalim," Azul greets and looks around. "Goodness me! Scarbia never fails to impress me every time I visit," he says as he looks around, admiring the décor. "It's a veritable winter wonderland outside, yet in here, the sun's so hot that it might as well be midsummer. You would have vacationers coming in droves if you opened up a resort here," he says as he fixes his glasses. "It's an ideal location."

"You don't say?" Kalim says with a smile. "I don't really have the savvy for business stuff, but thanks for the kind words!"

"At any rate, I'm here today because I caught your magic carpet," Azul states. "I'd like to return it to you." The carpet flies around, heading towards Kalim, happy at the reunion.

"Really? It ran off again?" Kalim says with a sigh. "I'm sorry you had to deal with that." He talks to the carpet and the carpet nods, heading back to where it came from. "But it looks quite happy! I'm sure the ride perked it up!"

"Oh, it's no bother at all," Azul assures him. "By the way," he starts as he looks at the students in the lounge looking exhausted, "Is Scarabia having holidays in the dorm this year?"

"Yes, that's right," Kalim answers. "Is Octavinelle doing the same?"

"Why, yes! Fancy that!" Azul exclaims with a smile. "In fact, what say we take this opportunity to improve relations between our dorms?" He offers.

The request surprises Jamil. "Wha...?!"

"It seems there are many things to be learned from Scarabia's unique studying style that was apparently adopted this winter," Azul states.

"That's right!" Kalim excitedly exclaims. "I would be positively honored to host Octavinelle's housewarden here in our dorm."

Jamil looks at Azul and heads to Kalim. "...Kalim, I recommend against this," he says.

"Aw, why?" Kalim curiously asks.

"The whole point of our current training regimen is to catch up to the other dorms," Jamil explains. "If we invite the housewarden of one of those other dorms to join us, we're showing the enemy our hand."

"Oh, please," Kalim waves off the statement. "He's hardly an enemy. Besides, didn't you invite the Ramshackle residents?"

Jamil hesitates. "Well, er...Yes..." He looks towards the trio. "Look, Azul. I'm saying this for your own good," he warns.

"You're absolutely right, Jamil," Azul says with a sigh. "Other dorms are always going to be, on some level, our rivals in the grade standings. I'm afraid we'd best take our leave, boys," Azul says to Floyd and Jade and turn around to leave, pushing the two along with them. "Kalim, Jamil, best of luck with your training," he says as they walk towards the door. Azul loudly sighs. "Back to spending yet another holiday stuck indoors in the dead of winter, just the three of us. It's unavoidable, I suppose..." He says dejectedly.

"And after we worked so hard to capture that magic carpet and bring it back..." Jade sadly adds.

"And it made a huge mess outta the Mostro Lounge in the process..." Floyd adds.

The three sigh collectively. "Alas..."

Grim and Angel sweat drops at their tone. "Layin' on the guilt trip a little thick there, don't ya think?!" Grim mumbles to the trio and they smirk.

"Not so fast!" Kalim shouts, getting their attention as they turn around.

Jamil sighs. "Here we go..."

"Azul is one of the top magicians in out whole school," Kalim states to Jamil. "I think Scarabia would benefit greatly from having him over!" He happily says. "Besides, turning away esteemed guests out of hand would bring shame upon the Asim family name."

"Why, Kalim!" Azul exclaims with a smile. "What a kind and generous soul you are! Naturally, I would be more than happy to share any insights I have with you."

"The two of us will be happy to assist with cooking and cleaning," Jade adds.

"Yeah! We do it at the lounge anyway, so we're pretty good at it," Floyd adds.

Kalim brightens at the news. "That would be great! And it would ease Jamil's workload."

"I don't NEED any help..." Jamil says, only to look at Kalim heading towards the trio. "Ugh, forget it," he groans. "You're not listening to a word I say."

"All right, let's get ourselves ready for some special training!" Kalim says. "It's you're dorm versus ours. Put your things away and come to the courtyard," he says as he heads to the courtyard with students after him.

"Certainly," Azul says. "Do go easy on me, Scarabia gentlemen," he says as the students follow after Kalim. "Heh heh heh," he chuckles as the group follow them to the courtyard. Once they arrive at the courtyard, they see that Kalim were giving out orders, or in this case, suggestions about the training with the trio while the others just watch, waiting for the signal to start. After a while, Kalim turned toward the five and waved them over with a smile.

"All right! How about we get three of us versus you three?" Kalim offers. "That way it's a fair fight for both sides."

"I'm down for it," Floyd playfully says looking at the students they flinch at the look. "Though, these minnows can't do much against us one on one. How 'bout we do....3 on one each? Right, Jade?"

"I am quite fine with the suggestion, myself," Jade says.

"That's great then!" Kalim exclaims. "Let's start training!" He announces to the students and the students halfheartedly cheers, still exhausted and confused by the sudden join training session. For Angel and Grim, they watched their training session, seeing that compared to the Octavinelle trio, the students in Scarabia barely stood a chance, seeing that Floyd and Jade were able to attack back, but most of Scarabia attacks barely grazed them. Seeing in Azul in action was a surprising sight since he was able to handle 5 students at the same time with ease, smirking a bit in the process as he goes up against Kalim, but not without Jamil's protests, saying that he would go against him instead but Kalim only smiles at hm and reassures him, heading towards Azul. Jamil frowns at the action, but quickly composes himself, but the action did not go by Angel, a bit confused on the emotion. He's usually so composed so why is he frowning...?