Chapter 34: Three

Abigail is very silent as you move through the school.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Charlotte asks with the tone of someone that most emphatically does not want to talk about it.

“No, no it’s okay,” Abigail says. “It’s just..” her free hand, the one you’re not holding onto, wiggles in the air. You’re not sure what that’s supposed to mean, or if it even means anything.

“You’re feeling betrayed?” Charlotte guesses.

“A little, yeah. Daphne... I didn’t know she was that way, that she felt that way about, about me.” Now Abigail’s face is all red again. She’s being very silly.

“Daphne loves you lots,” You tell her. “Which is okay, because you’re Abigail and that makes you the best, so she should.”

Now her face is even redder. What is wrong with your summoner?

“Let’s just move on,” Abigail says. “I think we were going to visit the Cannonry Club next?”

Charlotte nods along and checks her map. “We are. Though they might be closed too.” As you move out from one of the rear-most parts of the school, you’re greeted by the distant thud-boom of an explosion going off in the middle distance. “Or maybe they aren’t.”

The Cannonry Club is hosted in a small series of shacks around an open area, all of them facing a large cannon mounted on a platform that allows it to turn. The cannon is aimed way off into the distance, over a small part of the town that’s mostly occupied by docks next to the churning rapids of the river that snakes through Five Peaks.

You imagine that housing prices are a bit lower downhill.

“Hello!” a young man greets you as he steps out of one of the shacks. He has a wide-brimmed hat with a slightly spiky top, so he’s not in his last year but near it. He’s also missing most of his facial hair and all of his eyebrows. “Ah, are you fresh meat?”

“Abigail is not for eating,” you warn him.

The boy smiles sheepishly and laughs. It’s a weird laugh, too high-pitched and a bit off. “Of course, of course, fresh meat is tomorrow! How can I help you ladies?”

“We, ah, we just wanted to see what the Cannonry Club was all about,” Abigail says.

He blinks some more and then giggles. “So you are fresh meat!” Clapping his hands, the boy twirls around and skips over towards the shacks. “Well, come along then! Always willing to give a tour.”

“Ah, sure,” Abigail says. She and Charlotte glance at each other for a long time before following. “Um, my name’s Abigail, this is Dreamer and Charlotte,” she says.

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“Hrm? Oh, yeah, names don’t matter here. I’m Joe though,” the boy says. He gestures to the shacks one after the other. “We have a few... sub-clubs here. More like specialities and fields of interest within the gamut of cannonry. That’s the Traditional Firearms group.” He points to one shack with a musket sign hanging above its door. “That’s the Arcane Artillery group.”

The next building in the circle has a bunch of complicated circles drawn next to its door. “Then we have the Mage Cannon group.” Joe points to another shack, this one with a staff hanging above its front. “And finally the Demolitions group.” The last shack is missing, there’s only a crater and a few beams sticking out of the ground where it should be. “The Demolitions group is looking for new members actually, after their losses last semester.”

“Losses?” Abigail asks as she eyes the burnt hole in the ground.

“Half of them graduated and one of the members that was supposed to take the lead has a new girlfriend that monopolizes all his time.”

“I thought, with the explosion,” Charlotte says.

Joe waves it off. “No no, we get blown up all the time here. It’s a point of pride that you can tell who is or isn’t a member of our club by the number of limbs they have left! It’s great fun!”

“It, uh, sure sounds like it, Mister Joe,” Abigail says. You nod, because it does sound like fun. “But seeing as how you’re not officially open yet, maybe we should come back tomorrow?”

“Oh, yes, of course, that makes perfect sense. Would you like a grenade for the road?” he asks.

“Yes,” you say.

“No,” Charlotte and Abigail echo each other.

“A young fan!” Joe says. He roots around under his robes for a bit, which requires that he pulls them way up to reveal the pocket lined shorts he’s wearing underneath as well as his hair legs, before he finds what he’s looking for. “Here you go sweetie. It’s nitroglycerine mixed with some clay and a few other agents. It makes it mostly stable unless you smack it hard enough, then it goes off like a bomb. Good, safe fun!”

Abigail and Charlotte’s escape is done with a lot more speed than you think is necessary. Joe was really nice after all.

“So,” Abigail says after you’ve retreated a ways and are walking along the outer edge of the campus. “Do you think we should meet up again tomorrow. For lunch, maybe?” she asks.

“To continue our provisional friendship?” Charlotte asks. She smiles and rubs your head. “Sure, it has been fun so far!”

“Brilliant!”

You finish chewing on the last bites of your grenade and grin up at them both. “It’s going to be ever more fun tomorrow!” you say.

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