Memory Bonds

Rasha did end up taking Fleck up on his offer, the one to hunt with the dragons. She asked on a morning when both Harmoni and Fleck were in the dorm room, where Harmoni could run translations. Then they headed down the cliffside, and to Asplenium.

They didn't go to the cave. That was actually part way up the cliff. Easy enough for a dragon to get to, difficult for species that didn't climb or fly.

It was nice. Rasha rode on Asplenium's back while they searched for prey. Again, not that many animals on the planet, comparatively speaking.

They couldn't understand each other's words out here. (Not most of them, anyway. Fleck was pretty good at recognizing his nickname.) But they didn't need to. Rasha stayed balanced on Asplenium even when he made a sharp turn or sped up. She even pointed to an animal on the landscape at one point. And when they stopped to eat their catches, she scratched them both, either at the back of the head or under the chin. She smiled, and Fleck was pretty sure she was thanking them, when she spoke.

Asplenium offered to cook the meat, for all three of them, but Fleck was good. And to his surprise, so was Rasha. She grabbed some of their food and just started eating it, like it was something you were supposed to eat raw. Which, for a dragon, it was. He liked her attitude, and he grinned.

~~~

Harmoni made her way from the cafeteria, back to the dorm rooms. Fleck had been with Asplenium most of the day. Rasha had been with both of them in the morning, but she'd made it back in time for classes. Those were over for the day, at least Harmoni's were, and she was heading back to the tower.

The other doors along this stretch of the hallway were study rooms. One of them did have a group of students studying, one pushing her disheveled hair out of her eyes and glaring at her book, another tapping the desk at a certain rhythm, and looking for validation from the third student. Since Harmoni didn’t recognize the three, they were probably older students.

Another study room only had one student inside, sleeping. Or maybe he was just meditating in a really weird position.

Fleck could only see him through Harmoni’s eyes, but he chuckled at the idea. Maybe he and Harmoni should try meditating that way next time.

Harmoni gave a smile of her own as she entered the bottom of the tower.

In the common area, Rasha was bragging to two other students. Apparently, she was going to get some special lessons from the potions teacher, make things more advanced than the beginners class.

Well, Harmoni kind of hoped Wesles didn’t find out. He'd become a bit self-taught, using the books at the library to learn more about potions. He mentioned the value of Fleck's scales once, as an ingredient.

All the more reason for Fleck not to go to Potions Class, if you asked him. And he, for one, was happy for Rasha. She seemed to get the short end of the stick at this school. Could use something going right.

Bringing attention to yourself sounded awful to Harmoni, but she supposed, if it really made Rasha happy. . .

The two other students didn’t seem to care anyway. One of them didn’t even look up from her book.

Harmoni had seen them in the three required classes, but barely outside that. They’d eaten lunch with Daphon multiple times. She was fairly certain they didn’t live here. Not that she could blame them for spending time the common area anyway. It was cozy.

Well, no one was paying attention to her, and she preferred it that way.

She headed for the stairs. She had just reached them, putting her hand against the wall, when she felt the wall vibrate. Harmoni frowned.

‘What. . .?’

Whatever had hit the wall hit it again, much harder, causing the tower to shake.

Harmoni stumbled back, Rasha desperately shifted her weight, and the boy counting marbles gripped the table, his marbles rolling away.

“What was that?!” Rasha cried.

“Probably the wildlife trying to kill us again,” the book reader said, glaring at the ceiling in annoyance.

“. . .What?” Rasha managed.

“There’s some pretty weird and powerful wildlife in the forest out there,” the marble student explained. “There’s magic defenses. . .”

The wall shook again, dust falling loose from the floor above.

“But I guess they’re not working right now,” book girl said.

“Let’s go towards the center of the building,” marble student suggested. “A teacher will be here to take care of it soon. Come on.”

He gestured for them to follow, but didn’t wait. Book girl and Rasha were close, falling into step behind him. Harmoni was not, darting across the room to catch up.

None of them made it out before something began to form in the doorway. Little brownish gray clumps formed in the middle, a small pile at first, before rapidly expanding into the shape of a deer. Rough shape, not size. It was larger than any deer Harmoni had ever seen, taking up the entire doorway, and looked like it was made of mushrooms.

“What kind of creature is that?” Rasha exclaimed.

“I’m pretty sure that’s a fungus,” the marble student said.

Well. Harmoni had said it looked like mushrooms.

Then, the mushroom deer grabbed the student. Harmoni could ostensibly say it used its mouth, though it didn’t truly have one of those. The mushroom pieces just parted to create a gaping hole that could grab someone. It flung the student up towards the ceiling.

Book girl screamed. Rasha puffed up her chest and jabbed her pointy horns into the thing's leg. The leg came off, easily from the looks of it. But as soon as Rasha stepped back, the leg just reconnected itself.

“Oh,” Rasha said.

“It’s a fungus!” Book girl exclaimed, flapping her book for emphasis. “You can’t just kill or injure it like an animal!”

Harmoni thought that was a little unfair. At least Rasha had tried to do something.

No time to dell on that now though. The creature swung its “head”, forcing book girl and Rasha to scramble out of the way. From the sound it made, the fungus had hit something, but not enough to send them flying.

Not like marble student. He had pushed himself into a sitting position, but his hand was pressed against the wall for support, and there was a dazed look in his eyes, blood dripping down his forehead.

Book girl took a step back, and wobbled on the ankle the fungus had hit.

The fungus monster, meanwhile, grew even more. Its neck extended and its limbs grew thicker.

Stone from the doorframe started to fall, forcing Harmoni to move.

She tripped on the fungus limbs below. They’d started stretching like roots, and she hadn’t noticed.

Something was wrong with her ankle, around where it had touched the fungus. It was red, like touching a plant you shouldn't, but based on the pain it was going to get worse.

Rasha swiped at it with her horns again, but it seemed even less effective than before. “If it’s a fungus, why is it trying to kill us? That doesn’t sound right.”

“I don’t know!” book girl shouted, screeching from stress, and potentially pain. “Fun!”

The fungus’ “head” appeared over Harmoni. Her heart pounded. There wasn't time to move, and even if there was her swelling ankle made that difficult. It opened its maw again, and grabbed her.

It was awful. She could feel the grip on her waist. It was tight and might leave a mark like it left on her ankle, and probably book girl’s. But her entire upper body was soaked in weird slime as well. And she felt herself launching up, feet first, head dipping a little deeper into the fungus creature's body. It was moist and humid, and getting darker. It was hard to breath in here, not that that would be a problem for much longer.

She remembered it flinging the marble student. It wasn’t hard to guess what it was about to do to her. She panicked and. . .

She did it again. The thing she’d done to Cyep.