31 Days Of Halloween

Story Two:

The Ghoul School Ft.  NCT Dream

-

  "Chan, relax-." Minho went to his knees to peer up into his eyes as he braced himself on his knees. "Just take a deep breath." His black hybrid cat ears twitched in worry.
  Chan took a few shaky breaths and finally pulled in a deep one. His first attempt at speaking came out shaky so he shook his head and breathed a few more times.   "There's so many kids here now and I-I'm- I just want to keep them safe, ya know?"
  "I know. They all love you. You're doing a great job. You have given these strays a safe place and more than that... a home."
  "And they're not as young as you make them out to be." Felix's teeny pixie voice came from above them. He was thumb-sized, riding on a shifted ferret Hyunjin's back. He ruffled his wings and they glimmered a fluid wave of pinks and greens.
  Chan used his vampire strength to leap onto the branch and sit beside them. He huffed at the cute sight they made. "It's easy to say when you're not in charge of everything. And I know you help, but it's not the same.
  "Oh, Channie, I'm not invalidating your feelings," he said flying to him and hugging his head.
  Minho meowed.
  Chan looked at him and laughed. "You can come up here. Now one's stopping you."
  He meowed again and scaled the tree. He sat beside him and pinched him.
  "Ow. What was that for?"
  "For being you." He hugged him too. "You're annoying and whiney and you're going to give me my first gray hair, but I love you anyway."
  "Gee, thanks."
  "You're welcome."
  Hyunjin chittered and climbed to Chan's shoulder, Felix had taken the other one, and he slumped over it.
  Felix laughed. "He felt left out and he loves you too. As do I." He said the last bit like an Emporer on his throne, pretending he had a royal headpiece on.
  Chan laughed and Minho rolled his eyes. He petted all three of them and jumped down, landing on his feet like the powerful feline-human-thing he was. Forget labels. He said, "Now if we're all done could we please go back to camp because the kids are cooking tonight? I'm going to show them how to slow-roast a pic. Changbin will have an apple in his mouth."
  "I can't believe you just said that," Felix said. "Wait... yes I can. Never mind. Let's go." He darted towards camp, leaving pink and green glitter in his wake.
  Hyunjin skidded down the tree, nails breaking bark, and yelled his ferret complaints until Felix came back and picked him up. "We'll be going back. Bye." And he was gone again.
  Minho sighed. "I think they forgot you're a vampire and are faster than them. There was a whoosh sound.
  "Right," Chan said.
  He side-eyed him because A) He was now standing beside him and B) "And you better not leave me here." He gasped as he put him on his back and they were abruptly running. He yelled and laughed and then he held on tighter because it felt like he'd fly off at any second.
  Chan wouldn't let it happen, but the fear of it was fun.

-

  Vocalizing was a particular method that Earth Witches used to help nature. Han had explained it like singing without the words, out of turn, or just yelling... also out of tune. But Changbin didn't think he sounded out of tune. Nor did Melina, the witch who taught apothecary skills to the children. Their voices blended, creating a stream of harmonious notes that levitated a fallen tree. They moved it off a walking path and stopped vocalizing.
  Jaemin and Jisung, two of the kids, clapped and cheered.
  "That was so cool," Jisung said, jumping up and down. He was fourteen, the youngest, and had been found living quite effectively, camping in the woods. He was smart and usually underestimated.
  Jaemin said, "Rah-vah, Brah-vah!" He'd clearly watched one too many celebratory shows, probably cooking ones. He was seventeen and had found "like-minded people", them, with a locator spell. Which was strange because a spell of any sort shouldn't have been able to find them. He had a gift for things falling into place for him.
  "Hyung- Hyung- Hyung, did you see," Jisung said, running towards him.
He pointed the sticks he'd gathered so he didn't impel himself if he tried to hug him.
  "I want to be able to do that."
  He hadn't shown any active magic abilities, but he didn't want to hinder his dreams. "So, are you ready to get up at five in the morning to make the classes to learn wild magic and vocalization?"
  He ground. "Why does it have to be so early? Why can't there be an afternoon class? Or even a mid-morning class? Anything but that?
  "Sorry, that's the way it is," Melina said. She and Han were coming over.
  "But I really want to learn," he mumbled. He looked so dejected that Changbing nearly tried to pat his back. He didn't like being touched when feeling negative emotions.
  Melina tapped the sides of her skirt three, six, and twelve times, quickly. "I could take you on as a winter student, but you'd have to live at the cabin, help with the chores. Be a live-in student. That's like six months away. That's time to really think about it."
  Now there's an idea," Changbin said.
  Jisung chewed on his bottom lips as his eyes pointed unseeing at the ground. "It's an idea," he said. "I'll give it some good thought."
  Changbin loved that as young as he was, he never rushed into decisions.

-

  Han distributed the makings for smores as Chan drank from a blood bag.
  Jeno, Jaemin's best friend, seventeen, and also a vampire, put his blood in a thermos and warmed it by holding it over the fire.
  Renjun, eighteen, and a wizard, waved his wand around.  It looked like a mix between Sailor Moon's wand and something you'd see in a kid's toy section.  Rainbows followed the movement.  "Next time I want pizza," he said.  "I'll use my grandfather's broom to go pick it up.
  It hasn't given out on me in a while.  Maybe it just needed to recharge.  I mean it is... like... a hundred and fifty years old."
  "Renjun," Jeno said.  "Please don't put yourself in danger like that.  Your grandfather's broom needs an overhaul.  Then it'll be as good as new."
  "Yeah," Jaemin yelled.
  Jeno winced.
  "We can just get Channie Hyung to run and get us pizza."
  Chenle slunk out of the shadows carrying a pitchfork.  He liked to feed hay to Melina's horses and used the shadows to travel.  It took him three seconds to realize he'd brought it.  "Crap," he said, and did a you-turn.  He became black and disappeared into the shadows again.
  "He looked like a demon," Jisung said and shivered.
  They laughed.

ENDING NOTES:

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