Doom Valley Prep School

Stepping into combat class, I saw that everyone was lined up by the protection medals. Ameth was crouched on the table watching everyone like a hawk. Getting in line behind Naomi, I asked, “What's going on?”

“No idea,” she said. “I just got in line with everyone else.”

We moved quickly and soon enough it was our turn. “Sign your names for a medal,” the cat girl said.

I did as I was told and was given a medal. Going over to the rest of the class Coach Angel Slayer was glaring at all everyone. That wasn't out of the ordinary, she always looked like she wanted to beat us to within an inch of our lives. But this time she seemed a little angrier than usual. Ducking behind Rocky, I hoped she wouldn't see me, I REALLY wanted to avoid becoming a combat dummy again.

“Listen up!” the Orc barked. “We've been losing too much safety equipment recently. You will sign them out and then return them. If you don't, you will get detention. Is that clear?”

We all quickly made it very clear that we understood, not wanting to risk her ire.

“Good. Now today you're going to sweat. Get down and give me a hundred. When you're done that little warm-up, we'll start getting serious.”

My arms and legs were wet noodles as I walked beside Rocky towards detention. I'd never felt so exhausted in my life and now I had to go risk my life. I was a dead cat girl walking. I didn't even have company in my misery, Rocky looked like he was ready for anything as he stretched his arms. Being solid muscle had to to be nice.

“How ya feeling, Rocky?” I asked.

“Good. Really good,” he rumbled.

“No headache?”

Tapping his head, he grinned down at me. “All good up here.”

“Glad to hear it.” I patted his thigh in encouragement, my arm refused to go any higher.

We got to Sir Grieves classroom. His students were still there, they snickered when they saw us, then quickly went back to preparing their weapons. The head of the combat department motioned for us to come over with a finger. Trying not to look scared, we made our way to his mithril and orichalcum throne.

“You two have proven surprisingly resilient, so the school has a new task for you,” the teacher said. He actually sounded amused, which made my fur stand on end.

He handed me a large padded sack with a shoulder strap. “We need a mock hydra's egg. Get one and put it in here.”

“Are you just trying to kill us now?! There are easier ways to do it!” I shouted, shock and terror making me forget who I was talking too.

The classroom became so quiet I could have heard a gnat sneeze. If I dared to look away from Sir Grieve, I was certain that everyone would be staring at me in amazement. His dark blue eyes pinned me to the spot, and I almost wet my panties in fear.

“Rock For Brains,” he said, his voice a low growl, “you don't have detention today. You can go relax. Petra has volunteered to do it all by herself.”

Rocky shuffled his feet. I refused to look up at him. He was going to get to survive, I wasn't about to make him feel guilty about it. I also felt like I'd start crying if I saw my one hope of survival walking away, and I refused to do that.

He patted my shoulder. Then I listened to his heavy footsteps as he made his way to the door, dragging his feet the entire way. With a growing feeling of horror, I heard the heavy soul steel door open and then clang shut. He hadn't even tried to argue. I couldn't blame him, but it still hurt.

My focus was still on Sir Grieve, and I would swear I heard him sigh almost like he was disappointed. “Get the egg in the bag and your detention will be done for the day,” he growled.

He snapped his fingers and I found myself teleported to a rocky desert.

Looking around there wasn't much to see except rocks, boulders and stones that looked like they'd been painted with pastels. They ranged from pebbles to larger than a small building, and erosion had given them odd shapes, nooks and crannies. They'd be good for hiding in, or concealing predators.

At least nothing seemed to be near me, just some spiky plants that didn't seem mobile. Taking off my backpack I took stock of what I had. There was a flash stone which would create a blinding light, a glue potion Calci had made for me in potions class, and I had two smoke bombs that didn't have any catnip related ingredients. Finally, Elsa had managed to get me a dagger which wouldn't break or dull, that went on my hip.

As ready as I could possibly be, I tried to recall what I'd learned about mock hydras in Squire Scouts. They were three headed monsters, rather than nine like a true hydra, and they didn't regrow dead heads. If I could figure out which head was the main one, I could possibly stab or crush it's brain, which would kill the thing. The other two heads were basically extra appendages with mouths and eyes, dangerous to me, but any damage I did to them wouldn't matter too much to it. It would be nice if one head always held the brain, but that would have made things too easy, it could be in any one of them.

They made their nests in sandy, sunny spots, with lots of empty space around them, where they could get lots of sun and watch out for egg eaters. There would be a lot of bones and poop around it's nest, letting animals know that they should stay away. That would at least make it easy to find, their refuse was supposed to be extra smelly. Another thing in my favour was that there would only be one mock hydra in the area. They were very territorial, and needed a lot of food even though they were cold blooded.

Taking out a water bottle, I took a sip. Wherever I was, it was hot , and I dearly needed some water after combat class. Feeling a little refreshed, it was time to start hunting. If I was lucky I could find the nest while the monster was away and just grab the egg without any problem.

Yeah, that wasn't about to happen.

Picking up my feet, I strolled leisurely towards a really tall rock pillar that would give me a good view of the region. I was in no hurry to deal with the monster and needed to conserve what energy I had left. Maybe by the time I found the thing, I'd actually be able to run.

Thanks to my new climbing skills and claws I was perched on top of a wide sandstone pillar a half hour or so after arriving in the rocky area. It wasn't very wide at the top, just a little smaller than my dorm room, and the fifty foot drop on all sides was kind of terrifying. But it provided a wonderful view of the surrounding area.

I was actually surprised that I'd made it up safely. I'd half expected to be chased by a death worm, run into a pack of adjula, or a hungry chupacabra, or just speared by some Girtablilu, the half-man, half-scorpion people loved this type of land. Since I hadn't seen anything except a lot of small biting bugs, I counted myself lucky, the mock hydra must have scared away any competitors.

Looking around, I saw rocks, lots and lots of rocks. There were some small animals running around, mostly staying in the shadows out of the sun. A spring dripped water from a crack in a small cliff, which dribbled down to form a small puddle in the otherwise barren landscape. Looking at the sun, I got an idea of the basic directions. North, back the way I'd come from, the ground got a lot rockier, turning into small hills and eventually mountains. The same was true to the south. The west didn't look very promising, it was flat, but it seemed like it was just hard stone all along. The east looked good, there was sand and fewer rocks that way, perfect for a nesting mock hydra.

So I knew where I had to go. Now I just had to get back down. That was easier said than done. My arms felt dead. In fact my entire body felt like it weighed a ton. With the sun beating down on my back, I started to feel sleepy.

I knew it was a bad idea, but I laid down on the nice warm stone. Just a few minutes and I'd go hunting. A purr rose in my throat, it was really comfortable.

My eyelids got heavy. Soon enough the world and all my cares faded away.

A loud shriek woke me up.

Jumping to my feet, blinking hard to clear the sleep from my eyes, I realized it was getting dark. It was also getting cold, even with my fur the wind made me shiver. Then I noticed the very large gryphon staring at me, it's wings spread, and it's very sharp beak just a few feet away from my face. There was another smaller gryphon circling in the air.

My tired mind realized I'd fallen asleep on the gryphon's resting spot. Fortunately it seemed like they'd recently eaten, or I'd already be dead. Carefully and slowly backing up, I got to the very edge of the pillar.

“OK, nice bird cat, I'm going to kneel down and start climbing down,” I said in a calm, quiet voice. Putting words into action, I gripped the edge of the pillar and desperately searched for a crack or ledge that would hold my toes or claws. The gryphon watched for a moment, then lunged forward, it's beak snapping shut just inches from my nose.

Screaming, I jumped back.

I suddenly found myself fifty feet in the air, several feet away from solid ground. My scream became a shriek as I plummeted towards the ground.

I came to a jolting, painful stop. Something grabbed the waistband of my skirt. I flipped around so instead of going feet first towards the ground, I was now looking straight down at the rocks about twenty feet below me. Looking behind me, I realized my clothes were caught on an old but surprisingly tough tree that was growing out the side of pillar. I had no idea how it had stopped my fall, but I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. I wasn't a pancake, I was happy with that.

Now if I could just free my skirt, I could fall to the ground and land safely thanks to being a cat girl.

I'd just started to twist around so I could grab a hold of the tree when a sound made me freeze.

It was a weird hissing sound, far too loud for most reptiles, and it seemed to be coming from three different mouths at once. Trying not to whimper, I turned to look at the noise. From around the pillar, three heads on long necks appeared. They were sniffing the ground, their snake like tongues tasted the air, searching for food. It had to have heard me scream and thought it would find an easy meal.

Covering my mouth so I wouldn't make a sound, I tried not to breathe too loudly.

Down below, the large lizard came fully into sight. The last rays of the sun made the things scales light up like an iridescent rainbow. If the monster wasn't over thirty feet long from nose to tail, with massive claws and teeth, trying to find and eat me, it would have been quite pretty.

Slowly and patiently it searched the ground for any trace of me. After what felt like an eternity it ended up directly under my nose.

'Go away. There's no food here. Keep going,' I loudly thought.

At that moment, my sensitive cat ears heard the tree start to crack.