The Book of Forbidden Spells: Come to Light

SUSPICION

Shifting haunches, long tail flicking from behind, and grounded feet worked to align the pounce. Before Whimsy could, claws shot towards him to strike his cheek. Just in time, he sprung back with flared wings. Whimsy's heart hammered against his chest and blood made its rampant beat in his ears. Everyone was aware of how painful a gash from Seahorse was. Especially Whimsical.

Whimsy grinned, ears perking.

"Gotta be faster than that, Ms. Girl," he squared his shoulders.

Seahorse rumbled a long growl from the chasm of her chest. "You get pretty damn cocky for a hybrid with no abilities from either tribe, huh?"

Whimsical's mouth opened, but he promptly snapped it shut. Though he turned his face away from her, he kept his scowl in plain sight. It couldn't keep getting to him. Seahorse knew it did, clearly. Several of the teachers (and students too) liked to point it out so often. For his entire life, he was taunted for being a "useless hybrid."

Lost in his thoughts, Seahorse instantly took the opportunity to whirl around and smash her Seawing tail directly into Whimsy's side. Immediately, he was slammed into the floor. An agonizing wheeze rushed from his lungs. For a moment he thought she cracked a rib. Nobody would be surprised.

It was only the first day of their last year. God.

Turning to the other students, Seahorse warned, "Rule number one, don't get distracted in battle."

Whimsical noticed she had a lot of rule number one's.

The three other students gaped at Whimsy struggling to breathe. Except for Insight, peculiarly. Normally he'd be cackling. Instead, his unfixed gaze met the floor.

"Class dismissed," their teacher flicked her head towards the exit. "And take note of what mistakes Whimsical made today."

As Whimsy collected himself, he looked up to see Seahorse glowering back down at him.

With a throbbing chest, Whimsy staggered down the hall with the other students.

"God she's such an ass," Whimsy groaned, pretending it didn't hurt to talk.

"It sounded more painful than her average tail blow," Sheephead observed.

"Whatever. It like didn't even hurt anyways," Whimsy scoffed, and Sheephead gave a sideways glance at the limping.

Once they entered the lunchroom, the four headed for the arranged food. Since they were diverse eaters, especially with Spongy, they got an array of different foods. Fruit, fish, meat, candies and other sweets.

Whimsy in particular got his Rainwing side of a diet. So he selected a variety of fruit. Mostly bananas, since those were the best fruit in the entire world. They all got settled into their spots at the table, then dug in.

Spongy took a mouthful of her mango, honey drizzled on top. Whimsical regularly wondered how she could handle the sugar. He guessed it was a Silkwing thing. The first few years of knowing her, everyone asked her every question under the Sun. Every time, they'd get the most vague, brief answers. Interest was lost soon after a few rounds of that.

She swallowed then turned to look at Insight, who had been picking at his food. Whimsy realized she'd been eyeing him for some time, now. All throughout the day, in fact.

"Insight, you're acting weird," Spongy said.

"Is that supposed to be some new, genius observation?" Whimsy asked.

Sponge only gave him an empty glance.

Sheep nodded, turning his attention to Insight as well. Apparently he was more important than Whimsical's broken ribs.

"You didn't even crack a smile when Whimsy got hurt," Sheephead said. Whimsy grumbled and rolled his eyes.

Though Sheep had a flat voice in every situation aside from his info-dumping moments, Whimsical could tell when he was getting uptight. There were these little twitches and fidgets he'd do every time he got anxious.

Insight was still all spacey and pecking his food before he looked at them. Flattened ears indicated he just registered what they were saying.

Spongy leaned her head a bit closer to the Nightwing, eyebrows drawing downwards ever so slightly. "You okay?"

Teeth and black gums were swift to reveal themselves as Insight curled his lips back. With a snap of his jaws, Sponge recoiled.

"I'm fine. Why do you people always interrogate me? For EVERYTHING I do. I'm FINE. Don't you..." he mumbled off into a trail of words that Whimsical couldn't quite decipher. Insight grabbed his steak to gnaw on, spines lifted.

The other three students exchanged glances.