Chapter Twenty Three
Plots, Schemes and Puppy Dreams

 

Trewood was… dull. Jonathan had expected the town to be more interesting, given its proximity to Threewees. But no, it was just a small town. It was the kind of town whose main export was young people, so utterly failing to leave its mark, even the people who lived there accidentally drove past it on the way home. It had one (1) church, two (Jonathan counted) restaurants and three pubs. 

There was a small central square. On it was a plinth dedicated to the closest thing the town had to a celebrity, the inventor of that little bell above the door in shops. The problem was that a car crash in the fifties, when a drunk man had backed up into the plinth, had destroyed the plaque, and at the time, nobody had remembered the name. 

It was good to be out of the house, but there really wasn’t anything to do there, and not that much to look at either. Not even the monument dedicated to ‘The Unnamed Bellmaker’ was enough to keep them occupied for more than a few seconds. 

So Jonathan, Simon and Sarah mostly used the time to take a walk around the town, waving back to the grumpy old people in town. He also made a note of the two bus stops in town, as well as the train station. The train only came by on Sundays, so if he wanted to get Dennis home by train, he’d have to do it on that day, and then make sure they were back in the evening, which would mean taking the bus anyway. He took note of the bus schedules, trying not to be too obvious about it while Sarah and Simon took their time trying to find a way to make their adventure at least look interesting by taking pictures of each other with their phones at ridiculous angles. 

He failed, of course. Both of them paid far too much attention to Jonathan for him to be able to ‘casually’ look at a bus schedule like it was a painting in a museum. Before he realized what was going on, their two figures loomed on either side of him. 

“Do you think he’s trying to escape?” Simon said, as if he wasn’t right there. 

“I don’t know,” Sarah said, “I’d think he’d look guiltier if he did. Maybe he’d be blushing and his head would go red… wait, never mind, there he goes.” Jonathan spun around, pretending his cheeks weren’t burning. 

“I’m not trying to escape,” he said to two sets of crossed arms and raised eyebrows. “I… it’s about a promise I made.” The eyebrows went up further. “When he first arrived in the Familiar house,” he explained… “Dennis was really upset. It had all gone really bad for him.”

“Yeah,” Sarah said. “Charlie told us not to bring it up, so I figure it must have been bad. Why? Did someone, like, hurt him or something?” Simon’s eyes went big. 

“Hey, if you’re going to go full revenge quest, you have to clue us in.” He looked at Sarah with all the enthusiasm only teenage boys can muster. “I’ve always wanted to go on a revenge quest.”

“No,” Jonathan said. “No revenge quest. I… promised Dennis I’d help him see his parents.” He grimaced awkwardly. Sarah rubbed her face. 

“That one thing Charlie explicitly told him wouldn’t be a possibility,” Sarah said carefully, “you promised him you’d do.” Jonathan tried to sink through the floor. He figured, if he just tried hard enough, maybe he’d manifest the ability to die of shame. 

“Yes,” he mumbled. “He was… very upset. It was a spur of the moment thing, but I really do want to see it through.” 

“Jonathan…” Sarah said, softly. Jonathan raised his head a bit in defiance. 

If he was going to have to fight Sarah and Simon over this, he realized, he probably would. “It’s not fair for a kid like him to be taken away from his parents, especially when they’re still out there, and for them to believe he’s dead.”

“Listen…” Simon said, but Jonathan wasn’t going to let them try to talk him out of it. He was going to see this through. 

“I don’t care what kind of justification the ‘magical community’ has or whatever, they’ll just have to make an exception for a scared little boy. I’m not e—”

“Jonathan,” Sarah said sharply, and this time he did clamp his mouth shut. “Sorry. It’s just… You don’t have to convince me. I’m on board.”

“Same,” Simon said. “Breakout for the puppy. You were checking to see if you could get him there and back in one day, right? Do you even know where he lives?” He turned away from the stunned Jonathan and looked at the board. 

“Um,” Jonathan said, “I have a vague idea.” 

“Nu-uh,” Sarah said, “that won’t do. Simon, take a picture of the bus times on your phone, I’ll look into connections from there.” She started typing on her phone. “When we get back. Jonathan, you ask Dennis where he lives, but do it subtly. He’s liable to accidentally bring it up in front of someone, or maybe even a teacher. If we’re doing this, we need to keep it just between the people who would be helping.”

“That means I’ve got to tell Benjamin,” Simon said, rubbing the line of his jaw. “He’d be on board, I think.” He got a questioning look from Sarah. “He’s got a 1312 patch and an anarchist symbol tattoo, I don’t think it’s going to take much to get him to help us defy a bit of authority.”

“Fair enough,” Sarah said, “I just want to make sure this doesn’t get out. Obviously I’ll only tell Leah on the day of, because she’s going to forget she’s not supposed to tell people. Jenna is cool, right?”

“Um,” Jonathan said again, and he thought for a moment. Sure, he figured Jenna would probably want to protect Dennis as much as the rest of them, but she didn’t exactly have the same close relationship with her own parents. “Actually,” he said, “I think we might need to talk to Jacob first.”

“Dennis’ wizard? That makes sense,” Simon said. “And Jacob and Jenna seem to get along.” Jonathan nodded. 

“Okay, so that’s seven people in total, not counting Dennis,” Sarah said. “We all check our Warlocks, see how they feel about stuff?” Before Jonathan really knew what was going on, Sarah and Simon were already planning out a whole escape sequence. 

“You two are fantastic,” he mumbled. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank us yet,” Sarah said as she put a hand on his shoulder. “If we don’t do this right, we’re going to be in so much trouble.” She smirked. “You’re so lucky you’re cute.”

“Alright, I’ve got it all taken down,” Simon said, “and I sent it to you. Speaking of which, we should be heading back. Do we message someone?” 

Sarah shrugged. “From what I know, we can just tell a teacher when we get back. I think Miss Falls is picking up some things in town, and unless we plan to stay much later, she’ll be here longer than us.”

The bus back showed up only a few minutes later, and it wasn’t long before they were approaching the Waxing Weather School and Jonathan started to become aware of a growing sense of… something. He sniffled and mentioned it to the others. 

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“You get used to it,” Sarah said. “You can kind of tell if your Warlock is closer or further, but it’s not very noticeable unless you’re paying attention to it. It feels a little bit like I have to sneeze.”

Simon seemed lost in thought as they hopped off the bus and back onto School grounds, but they didn’t have a lot of time to linger. In the distance, Jonathan heard the horrible sound of a howling puppy. They all looked at each other.

“Dennis,” Sarah said, immediately turned into a fox, and sprinted in the direction of the sound. Immediately back in cat-form, Emily immediately rushed after her. Behind him, he heard Simon swear as his two legs struggled to keep up with their four. Ferrets are many things, but natural born sprinters they are not. 

Almost slipping as they rounded a corner, Emily and Sarah saw the fluffy Malamute form of Dennis, with Jacob hunched over next to him, clearly doing his best to comfort the little one. As they approached, they heard him trying to calm Dennis down. 

“Hey, it’s okay,” Jacob said, “it’ll be okay. I kno— I know it hurts, it’ll be okay.” He was stammering, doing his best to get a word in, but Dennis’ cries were as hard to interrupt as they were to understand. 

The boy was yelping something about his foot when Emily, Sarah and Simon skidded to a halt next to him. Jacob looked at them with a pleading look in his eyes. Sarah was the first to inspect Dennis’ foot, which he held up in the air. “What happened?” she asked. 

“He was trying to get his telekinesis to work properly,” Jacob said. “Lifted himself up, got scared, and dropped himself. I think maybe the anxiety made it worse. He hit the ground hard.” That last bit, Jacob said a little bit more quietly, clearly trying not to upset the boy any more than he already was. “I don’t know what to do, he’s really hurting.”

Emily moved up to Dennis and nudged the boy’s forehead with his own. “Hey,” he said. “It’s okay, we’re here. We’re all here, and we’re going to help, okay?” Dennis’ tear-stained eyes opened a bit and looked at him with way more misery than anyone should ever see in the eyes of a dog. Emily swallowed a lump in his throat, and instead tried to think what would help in that situation. “Simon, can you go get someone?” Without another word, Simon nodded and bolted away, running past Jenna. She had clearly seen the commotion and had also rushed over. Dennis gave another sad howl. 

“Accident,” Sarah explained. Jenna just nodded and dropped to her knees next to the puppy, shooting glances at Jacob while she was being brought up to speed by Emma over their mental link. “Shhh,” Sarah said as she put a hand on Dennis’ flank, who seemed startled by the touch more so than any pain he seemed to be feeling. “We’re here, and it’s going to be okay.” She shot Jacob a sideways glance. He seemed to be almost as upset as Dennis, not knowing what to do with his hands. “You too,” she said quietly to him. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Jacob.”

He kept his voice low. “I should have caught him, or got him down, or something. Maybe if I had my focus already or if I just knew how to talk down a scared little boy or—”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Jenna said as she put a hand on his. “If you don’t know what to do, staying with him is the right thing to do. He’s scared. Just be here. You’re his Warlock. Just talk to him. We’ll get the actual stuff sorted.”

“Y—yeah,” Jacob said, clearly bolstered by Jenna’s presence and doing his best to believe her. “Hey, Dennis,” he added, getting the boy’s attention, “someone’s already gone to get someone, and you’re going to be okay, okay?”

“Okay,” Dennis sniffed. Jacob looked at Jenna and Sarah, who both gave him an encouraging nod. 

“Can — can you tell me if it hurts anywhere other than your foot?” Jacob asked. Dennis shook his head. “Okay, you’re going to be okay, buddy. I’m with you. We’re all with you. Your friends are here.”

“Thank you,” Dennis said quietly, just as the *click-clack* sound of heels on stone indicated the presence of An Adult, much to Emily’s relief. 

“All of you,” Lady Lalonde said, “one step back, if you please.” Everyone immediately did as they were told. To say Ellen Lalonde had a commanding presence was like calling the sea ‘a bit wet’ or quantum mechanics ‘unintuitive’. It was true, but it didn’t paint the whole picture. She raised her hand to her collar and touched the small brooch that was attached there. A soft green pulse emanated from it, and Emily felt strange for a moment. Almost sick, in a way, like the floor had dropped out from under him. He also realized he could neither feel nor hear Jenna in his head anymore.

Dennis had clearly felt it too, because he yelped in panic. Lady Lalonde knelt down next to him, clearly not caring that her beautiful dress was getting scuffed in the process. 

“Dennis,” she said, “I need you to listen to me.” The boy looked up at her, still sobbing softly. “I want you to try to turn back into a person, okay?” She saw the questioning look in his eyes. “It’ll work. I… paused the link between you and Jacob for a moment so you can, okay?” The puppy, clearly not understanding, did as he was told, squeezing his eyes shut. 

Before their eyes, Dennis rapidly morphed back into a human, clutching his hand. He inhaled sharply. There was a bruise on his wrist, but it didn’t look all that bad. “I— it feels… It feels… better…” he stammered, clearly not understanding.

“You’ll be explained more in class next week,” Lady Lalonde said. “But if healing spells aren’t an option or you don’t have the time, this’ll do in a pinch.” She stood up. “I didn’t want to risk a fall having caused internal bleeding, and without… my Familiar here, I didn’t have the energy to do much myself.” She nodded at Dennis. “You’ll be fine, but it’ll be an hour or two before you’ll turn back into your Familiar form.” She touched the brooch again, and that sickening feeling of falling in Emily’s gut went away. 

“Wait, what just happened?” Simon asked as he looked between Dennis and Lady Lalonde.

“You know how you can take animal traits with you into human form?” she asked. They nodded. “You essentially switch between the two versions of you that are ‘ideal’. This includes health. If you’re hurt, you can always switch from one to the other,” she explained as Dennis sat up. Jacob was rubbing his back as the boy caught his breath. Crying had clearly taken a lot out of him. “You’re less… powerful and connected in human form, and if you’re hurt, it makes switching back hard for a while.” She nodded at Dennis. “But he’ll be fine. I do recommend you go to the nurse’s office and have her at least bandage it a bit. It looks sprained still.” 

“Okay,” Jacob said as he helped Dennis up. “Are you gonna be okay?” 

“Yeah”, Dennis said, and he did his best to smile. “Thank you, Jacob.”

“Alright,” Lady Lalonde said. “This way.” Without much else she just walked off, the two boys in her wake, leaving Emily, Jenna, Simon and Sarah sitting next to each other in the grass. 

“Well…” Simon said. 

“Yeah,” Sarah added. 

“She’s… wow,” Emily mumbled. He was more than a little impressed by Lady Lalonde. Something about her presence, the way she carried herself. He could only hope to be that composed one day. 

“Ah shoot,” Jenna said. “I just realized we had the chance to meet as humans for just a second, Emily. Some other time, then!”

“Yeah,” Emily said, the dread of that moment being somewhere in his future. “Some other time.”