A cow stood outside the windows to the Infinite Courtyard. At the very edge of her vision if she pushed it as far as she could.
Eva stood up and walked over to the windows, trying to glean an extra few feet.
Cow was wrong. It was a bull for sure. It stood still, almost staring at the classroom.
“Something wrong?”
Eva jumped a good three feet in the air. Her jump startled Shalise into jumping. A brief smile passed between them as they got control over themselves.
“Nothing wrong,” Eva quickly assured her. “Just an odd animal outside. Some sort of bull.”
Eva turned her attention back outside, but the animal had wandered off.
Shalise leaned forward and began peering out the window. Her heart rate picked up.
Excitement over seeing an animal? Or is she worried about something?
They hadn’t talked about Halloween apart from Shalise referring to it when she asked about Eva’s eyes. Shalise seemed mostly smiles since she got back. Eva wondered if she should talk about it with her or if that would just bring up memories she wanted to bury.
“There are wild animals in the Infinite Courtyard, right?”
“A lot of them,” Eva said, “but this one might have come from the zoo.”
Shalise tilted her head to one side as the two headed back to their table. “What makes you think that?”
Eva shrugged.
“It’s just that most wild cows don’t have wings.”
—
“There, see?”
Eva didn’t bother to comment.
“All five of our lamassu are in their habitat.”
Despite his confidence, Bradley Twillie’s heart rate had been hammering when Eva mentioned seeing a winged bull.
It worried him enough that he even took them out into the zoo enclosure to personally check. Normally, he kept the students far away and only begrudgingly allowed them in during certain lessons.
“I thought lamassu had human heads,” Jordan said from his place half leaning over the railing.
Bradley Twillie took on his lecture pose. One hand pointing out at the students and the other in his jacket pocket. “Myths and nonsense,” he said. “Lamassu are considered good luck and will protect their territory from anything they perceive as enemies, but are not part human nor overly intelligent.”
One of the bulls raised its head and snorted out a breath of air.
“I said overly. You’re still the smartest bovines around.”
The lamassu shook its head in a disturbingly human-like manner. It flopped back down, basking under a pair of heat lamps set up near one wall of their snow-covered pen.
“Could it have been a stray?” Eva asked.
Bradley snorted in his usual nervous manner and rubbed his hand against the lumberjack hat he always wore. “Not unless we’ve been transported to Egypt without noticing. There are other schools and zoos, but I’m sure I would have been notified days before one could fly out here.
“How clearly did you see–” He looked off to one side. His eyes shifted back to Eva in a distinctly uncomfortable manner. The already lacking professorial demeanor he usually had vanished in a second. “I mean… It’s just that–”
Eva just sighed–he already said it once without even noticing. Another reason she needed new eyes, though how she got them might raise worse problems. “What were you going to say?”
“There are other winged creatures about that size you might have mistaken it for. Griffins, anzu, garuda, hippogriffs, roc, plenty more.” He brought a hand up to rub the back of his neck. “Well, maybe not roc. If you saw a roc everyone in town would have noticed too. They’re not exactly small.”
“That’s why we are asking you,” Shalise said. It had been her idea to ask the magizoologist about ‘Eva’s mysterious creature’ in the first place. “Surely you must have some idea.”
“You said winged bovine, I thought of lamassu.” After a sigh, he puffed up and tried to reassemble his professional attitude. “You kids get to Mr. Kines’ class or you’ll be late. I’ll check the pens of all our other winged creatures. If they are all where they’re supposed to be, well, I won’t worry too much.”
“You’re not going to search for the one Eva saw?” Shalise said, aghast.
“The Infinite Courtyard didn’t get that title for being small.”
“It isn’t actually infinite.”
“In the middle of winter? It might as well be. I’ll put out a notice to warn students. If you see it, just back away slowly, don’t threaten and don’t agitate it. Find an instructor.
“Now come on, back to class with you.”
Bradley Twillie all but dragged them by their ears out of the zoo–more or less literally in Jordan’s case–and slammed the door. The rest of their group had been waiting out in the lecture room.
“Well?” Shelby stood up from her desk along with Irene and Juliana. Max leaned back and grabbed his book bag off the floor before joining them.
“It wasn’t the lamassu,” Shalise said.
“They were fascinating creatures,” Jordan said with no small amount of enthusiasm. “And did you see the apep as we walked past? I think there was only one of them but half of its pen was a coiled up snake. And its pen was about the same size as the pen for five lamassu.”
He gave a content sigh with a wide smile on his face.
A brief moment of silence passed while everyone stared at him.
Jordan gave a brief clearing of his throat before Juliana spoke. “Anyway, about the creature?”
“Bradley Twillie didn’t seem to think it was much of an issue, so long as it wasn’t one of his pets missing. Just don’t agitate it and be sure to leave it alone.”
Max gave a long hum. “That seems irresponsible.”
“So?” Juliana asked. “What do we do?”
“It isn’t that big of a deal, is it?” Irene had her arms crossed as she leaned against one of the desks. “If our expert on magical animals isn’t worried about it, why should we?”
The bell chimed just as Irene finished speaking.
“Irene is right,” Eva said. She wasn’t sure that it was such a big deal in the first place. With a sigh, Eva added, “and Bradley Twillie was right as well, we’re late to class.”
Chapter 003
“Come on, it’ll be fun.”
Eva shared a glance with Juliana. Both girls sighed.
Shalise quirked her head to one side as she shoved a spoonful of lasagna and bean pie into her mouth.
Eva couldn’t actually see the meal, but she could smell it. She was very glad she didn’t often get hungry for lunch.
“I’m going,” Jordan said.
“Me too,” Shelby piped up quickly.
Max shook his head. After finishing his food–someone had mentioned his bad habit over the last few months, Eva wasn’t sure who–he said, “I don’t think I’ve got a good enough grasp on magic to even start using it in fighting.”
“No, not for me,” Irene shook her head. “I plan to be an artificer. Not much fighting in my future, I hope.”
“You never know when knowing how to fight will save your life,” Shalise said sagely. “I’m going.”
With a long sigh, Eva said, “I’ll go. If it turns into Zoe Baxter fighting us for two hours, I’m quitting.”
“Same,” Juliana said.
“Good.” Shalise looked over to Irene and Max. “You two sure you don’t want to go?”
“I’ll be using the time to study and practice, I think.”
“If it turns out to be something amazing,” Irene said, “We can start going to it later.”
“If you’re sure.”
The bell rang and everyone stood up.
Everyone except Eva.
Juliana and Shalise both stopped and looked back.
“Go on without me. I don’t think I’m getting much out of alchemy lessons these days.”
“I didn’t mean to take your place,” Shalise said.
“Don’t worry about it. I wasn’t getting much out of them towards the end of last semester either.” Eva gave her a smile. “I’d just feel bad if I left Juliana alone. With you here, I don’t have to feel bad at all.”