The Princesses of Gavaldon

Chapter 11

A.N

Just know that Rosario is an OC from starlightstories101! Thanks! 

"Who else is in our group?" Agatha asked Sophie tentatively. 
Sophie just huff and rolled her eyes. 
The last class of the gruelling day, Surviving Fairy Tales, was the only class where good and evil was mixed. After Professor Dovey ordered Everboys to the Armory to turn in their weapons- the only way to appease Lady Lesso, furious over losing  gagoyle to Tedros's sword- both schools reported to the Blue Forest gates, where fairies sorted them into Forest Groups, eight Evers and eight Nevers in each. As other children found their leaders (an ogre for Group 2, a centaur for Group 8, a lily nymph for 12) Agatha and Sophie were the first to arrive under the flag stamped with a bloodred 3. 

Agatha had so much to tell Sophie about smiles, and fishes, and fires and most of all about the poor little gargoyle boy, but Sophie wouldn't even look at her. 

"Sophie, why are you ignoring me?" Agatha begged. Sophie turned to her, furious. 
"Isn't that what you wanted? You have anything that you want right now! To be in the good school! We HAVE to switch Agatha!"

"We can't switch!" Agatha hissed. "We... We..." 

Sophie smiled her kindest smile. "Sooner or later, they'll see that I'm right." 

"I'd say never," a voice resounded.
They turned to see a new boy, with blood red hair in sharp contrast with his snow white skin. 

"I know a never when I see one." He hissed, glowing red eyes glaring at Sophie. "Whatever my cousin believe, I know that you are anything but kind."

He turned to Agatha, a smile forming. "By the way, I'm sorry for Tedros killing the gargoyle." 

"Huh?" Agatha was caught off guard. "Oh! I mean, uh yes, thanks." She stuttered. Sophie gaped. "Tedros killed a gargoyle to save you?" She asked. Agatha frowned. "Yes, but it wasn't-" 
"I think a proper thank you would be suffice enough." 

The three turned to see Tedros strolling to them. "I risked my life to save you, Agatha. The gargoyle was just faking." He reasoned, blue eyes gazing into brown. 

Agatha gasped. "What! You think it was faking that!" She threw up her hands. "He was bleeding, and was a boy!" 

"It was dark magic, Agatha!" Tedros shouted. 
"Actually, cousin. I don't think-"
"You stay out of this, Rosario." Tedros gritted his teeth and glared at his cousin. Rosario backed away, hands in the air.
As Agatha and Tedros got ready for a rematch, a voice called out. 

"You've got to be kidding me." 
They all turned to see Beatrix, Reena, Dot, Hort, Hester and more, standing below the bloodred 3. 

 To chart all the dirty looks thrown in that moment, one would end up with something resembling a bowl of spaghetti."Mmmm," said a voice below.They looked down to find a four-foot gnome with wrinkly brown skin, abelted green coat, and a pointy orange hat frowning from a hole in the ground."Bad group," he murmured.Grumbling loudly, Yuba the Gnome crawled out of his burrow, pulled the gate open with his stubby white staff, and led his students into the Blue Forest.For a moment, everyone forgot their rancor and marveled at the blue wonderland around them. Every tree, every flower, every blade of grass sparkled a different hue. Slender beams of sun slipped through cerulean canopies, lighting up turquoise trunks and navy blooms. Deer grazed on azure lilacs, crows and hummingbirds jabbered in sapphire nettles, squirrels and rabbits jaunted through cobalt briars to join storks sipping from an ultramarine pond. No animals seemed skittish or the slightest bit bothered by the crisscrossing student tours. Where Sophie and Agatha had always associated forests with danger and darkness, this one beckoned with beauty and life. At least until they saw a flock of bony stymph birds, sleeping in their blue nest."They let those around students?" Sophie said."Sleep during the day. Perfectly harmless," Dot whispered back. "Unless a villain wakes them up."As his students followed, Yuba rattled off the history of the Blue Forest in his clipped, hoary voice. Once upon a time, there had been no joint classes for School for Good and School for Evil students. Instead, children had graduated straight from their school's training into the Endless Woods. But before they could ever engage in battle, Good and Evil inevitably fell prey to hungry boars, scavenging imps, cranky spiders, and the occasional man- eating tulip."We had forsaken the obvious," said Yuba. "You cannot survive your fairy tale if you cannot survive the Woods."So the school created the Blue Forest as a training ground. The signatureblue foliage arose from protective enchantments that kept intruders out, while reminding students it was just an imitation of more treacherous Woods.As to just how treacherous the real thing was, the students sensed firsthand as Yuba led them past the North Gates. Though there was still sunlight left in the autumn evening, the dark, dense Woods repelled it like a shield. It was a forest of eternal night, with every inch of green blackened by shadow. As their eyes adjusted to the sooty darkness, the students could see a puny dirt path lilting through trees, like the withering lifeline on an old man's palm. To both sides of the path, vines strangled trees intoarmored clumps, so there was barely an undergrowth between them. Whatwas left of the forest floor had been buried beneath mangled thorns,stabbing twigs, and a gauntlet of cobwebs. But none of this scared thestudents as much as the sounds that came from the darkness beyond thepath. Moans and growls echoed from the forest bowels, while low rasps andsnarls added ghoulish harmony.