Chapter Text
Huh. Crows never usually gather around here.
“Ah-”
I nearly snarled when one cawed perfectly on cue, and I barely dodged stepping on my tail. The crowd of those black and noisy squawkers flew overhead and onto the stony skeletons of what once was a bungalow house across my street. It was already past sunset, and their black feathers and beaks stood out against the ember skies.
It was so strange, it’s been making me feel awkward just watching them.
The wind was starting to grow cold, too. Horrible, but at least that part was normal. Means the winter winds are coming and I still have to tough things out… as always. It’s always September that gets me.
I just groan and kept walking, feeling my ears flicker and twitch against the chill as I tried to ignore the crows. It’s been eight years, and I still haven’t left these ghost suburbs to find a better apartment in the town center… but it’s not like I have a choice, now do I? Having a cozier wood-and-drywall spot ain’t ever going to be a worthy appeal when it always means getting spotted faster.
Comes with being a stray.
“I really should still get out of this neighborhood, so far from work…” I couldn’t help but murmur as I just brisked on…
…
…who the heck is that guy?
“Oho, it appears the Mirror must’ve made the first of its errors…”
I freeze in my spot on the curb when that oddball in a top hat and feathered shoulders walks around my front yard, speaking to himself while holding his chin. From here, he looks way too fancy and filthy rich even to be standing in this place.
Then there’s his staff. IS THAT GOLD???
“But my word, surely the Mirror wouldn’t have sent me in this squatter spot out of jest…” his voice grew louder, already sounding confused himself as he started dragging that stafftip across the cracked pavement like it wasn’t a hunk of literal gold. “That lioness has to be here somewhere…”
Lioness.
My body immediately shrank into the bushes behind the curb, and it was too late when I realized the thorns on this thing. I couldn’t feel my hands.
Who is that guy? I haven’t crossed against any mobsters or gang grunts throughout the day, have I? Why is a guy in a fancy upper and a chunk of thaumarks looking for me?
All I did was odd but hidden jobs and live in this dumpster in the outskirts of Dawntooth City, far from where I’m being hunted down! Right?! Nothing was illegal in washing all those plates and stocking up ice cream tubs in walk-in freezers and wheeling fish crates, after all, they didn’t need an ID, nor credentials, nor-
“There you are! I see your tail!”
“GAH-” I jolted and stood upright, hissing at the thorns scraping and scratching into my arms and back. But I couldn’t be bothered to sit still and whine about them now. The guy was looking in my direction and was walking up to me. “GET BACK-”
“Now hold on, lion girl! Stop this instant!”
I ignored him, and I raced past crows trotting about on the road and flapped away with startled caws. The road was growing darker and the streetlights had never turned on in years, and my eyes couldn’t see so far… not in panic.
“There is no need to run! I just want to negotiate some important matters due to you-”
Before I could turn to a different block, he had magically appeared in front of me and was holding out gold-covered claws and gloved fingers. This guy knew magic. A fancy mage. He was even worse of a danger.
And his pitchy high voice was a cue for it.
“Get back- I did nothing illegal!” I snarled and tried to evade, but then I was held still on my feet. Something bound me to where I exactly stood… nothing but air.
“Who said anything about illegal activities, lion girl? Surely you jest just to make a run for your life.”
He tapped the golden end of his staff on the concrete, which suddenly caused me to release and nearly stumble. I looked up at him and realized his eyes were just glowing yellow orbs behind a crow mask. He was so pale beneath that top hat and greenish-black waves of hair, and his ears were pointed. Was he fae? I’ve never met someone of his sort besides those living in the high-end penthouses and apartments in downtown Dawntooth, but they dressed modernly. This guy probably got vomited from a period novel or something.
“I was about to accuse the Mirror of misleading me and pranking me by sending me into a squalid city west of Sunset Savanna, but it appears it was correct,” he laughs. “There really is a lioness beastwoman on the outskirts of Dawntooth City, open for the issue at hand! Ohoh, what goodness…”
I furrowed my brows at him, my voice barely coming out despite his loudness. “Mirror… a Mirror made you come here?”
“But of course… do you not know me? Ah- where is my wisdom, of course you of all people wouldn’t know-”
He coughed once and stood straight, offering a clawed hand as he gave me a wide curtsy.
“The name is Dire Crowley, Headmage of the esteemed Night Raven College in Sage’s Island. You surely hadn’t heard of such a fine and globally-praised academic and arcane institution, but still I grace you with my utmost kindness and gentlemanly nature, dear young lioness.”
Night Raven College.
I’ve vaguely heard of it around the Dawntooth streets and in… conversations long ago. He used to mention it as a minor segue when rambling about extreme last resorts if ever the palace got too suffocating.
…talk about not being haunted by old narratives.
“I’ve heard about it less than a dozen times,” I admit.
“Ah, so we’ve been acknowledged that even those in nobody cities hear our name? Ah, such an honor…I must’ve been that kind of a headmage-”
“Introduction made. Get to the point, Mister ‘Dire Crowley,’ because, not to be rude, but the streets are getting pitch black. I still have to go home because unfortunately? I am not within your circle of wealthy and royal heirs.” My ears flicked once as I crossed my arms and met him in the eyes. “You’re the boss of a fancy boys' academy far outside my reach, and you’re sent by your fancy mirror to me.
What’s your agenda?”
I narrowed my eyes at him, and I watched him consider behind those glowing orbs for eyes. If he’s not here to be a mobster to coerce thaumarks out of my paws, then it has to be something else equally untrustworthy. Nobody in an expensive get-up steps into criminal-hotspot cities and trashed neighborhoods without a gold-worthy reason to.
And I can’t risk trusting a guy with a screechy voice and feathers on his shoulders.
“...you see, the Mirror has answered me with your name and sent me to your whereabouts after I had admitted our current predicament,” he hummed, gripping his own chin. “Night Raven College needs the rare exception of enrolling a lioness this academic year. The Mirror has demanded so.”
…huh.
Are they crazy? Me, in Night Raven College? Nuts. Bonkers. Sand for brains.
Why would they enroll a female in there? Worse, a female who has no capacity to fund herself?? They don’t do scholarships! They might as well follow up with ‘Oh yeah, we also admit non-magical students and pets starting this academic year. Hooray!’
My tail tapped against my ankle from how it was swaying. “...you’re pulling legs.”
“Ah, of course not, lioness. In fact…” he smiled again, slowly bending forward to meet my height. “It exactly declared ‘to find Miah.’
Miah, a stray lioness beastwoman of Sunset Savanna with no lineage nor last name, exiled with power and history exact to cure your whines.’”
…
I lowered my arms, and my tail stopped moving and just limped on the concrete as his eyes stared right down at me like he was condemning me for it all.
For all that had happened in the palace.
…I couldn’t help but gnash down against my own teeth.
“Ohoh, believing me now? I see, I see, even I was intrigued at first by your origins… it nearly made me want to interrogate you… But I suppose it will be for another fair day, once you are in the campus grounds and fulfilling your grand destiny.” Crowley smiled again, chuckling as he stood straight and offered his hand.
That gloved hand, with golden claws and an offer that bites without any teeth or memory of me.
“Come then, Miah of Sunset Savanna… take my hand.
You are exactly who Night Raven College needs.”