Fuzzy and Sasha - Monday, July 23rd, 2074 - Noon - Blake Island

Fuzzy wasn't used to this. She was used to being challenged, sure, but those challenges were almost always physical: Nature, ghouls or local gangs. Being challenged by others in a social situation wasn't new but she wasn't exactly used to it either.

The people here were nice so far but niceness was often a trick. These people seemed to have different values than her and she didn’t understand them. The coat would be easy to show, even positive as it would demonstrate her prowess and truthfulness, but maybe she needed to learn what was important to these people if she was going to talk to them. Though after a few seconds of consideration she realized that she wouldn’t be able to keep to herself. She needed allies if she was to survive here.

She stood up abruptly without excusing herself and took Puppy with her to the sound of a few disappointed, "Awww's," and she went back to her cabin, which took her on what was effectively a nature walk over a hilly, well forested trail. Even though she'd walked the island a few times now, the sheer amount of healthy, living plants and abundant wildlife continued to floor her. Though she didn't take her time. Not only were people waiting on her, but it was time to eat.

She walked down a dirt trail away from the school and hung a left where Julian showed her. Down that trail was a row of what Fuzzy thought of as "houses". Fifteen of them on each side of the trail, each facing one another. Julian had used another word for them, cabins, but she'd forgotten it as she wasn't familiar with the word. And though she'd seen the bones of old, abandoned and destroyed houses that were much larger while stalking through the Puyallup barrens, she'd never seen such clean homes before.

Nor had she ever had so much space that was just hers in her entire life. While growing up with Rat Man she'd lived with him, his son and dozens of other children. But here, her single room was clean and spartan with a single bed that folded into the wall to make space, which was a marvel and some basic furniture. Most of her personal effects were practical and lethal and therefor missing. However, she'd been allowed to keep a few things and her coat was one of the few items she had. She had a sneaking suspicion that some of her less clean clothes were gone forever as well. That galled her. She could throw things away. She wasn't a hoarder after all, but she wanted to make that decision for herself. Someone else shouldn't make that decision for her.

Her leather coat came with leather pants as well but she hadn't promised to show those off, just the coat. There was neither a zipper nor buttons to fasten the coat at the front. There were just a number of laces that could be drawn and tied together. Her jacket was not just leather, but armored as well as it was her hunting attire. There was reinforcement at the vital points: Neck, stomach, heart, sides, forearms and elbows. It even came with a hood and that gave her head a little extra protection too, though it was sort of lumpy. She wasn't actually sure if she killed what she wore. She never saw Rat Man make it. That was his business and she hadn’t made clothing for him or the other children she used to live with in years. She’d been better at butchering kills for him when she was little and hunting when she got older. All of her attempts as making clothing were rough at best, even by barrens standards.

Still, the odds were good that the kill was at least in part hers. After all, the pieces came from many pieces. It smelled a little though. She'd never noticed it before, but in this clean place the unclean stood out. But there was nothing for it as she didn't have enough time. She came back wearing her coat and she carried Puppy in one of her bigger pockets. A few heads turned as she stalked back towards the lunch table wearing armored clothing. That made her nervous. She didn't like the attention.

"Here it is," said Fuzzy

As she sat down the other girl moved away a bit.

"Ugh. That coat reeks," she complained, “Wait, is that jacket armored?”

Fuzzy shrugged at her and looked at a more dubious looking Sasha.

"Yeah, Roberta is...It's Roberta, right?" asked Sasha.

Fuzzy finally paid attention to Roberta, the other girl at the table, who seemed to be staying at the table not because she wanted to talk to Fuzzy or Sasha and she'd lost interest in Puppy. Instead it was more because this was the first day at the lunch tables and students were still sorting out who sat where. Roberta was short and like most of the people at school, beautiful. It actually bothered Fuzzy a little because there seemed to be no end to the parade of beautiful people.

Roberta was an elf with tan skin, high cheekbones and a messy blonde ponytail with black streaks that somehow seemed carefully put together despite its messiness. She was also short, though still an inch or two taller than Fuzzy. At the same time, Fuzzy figured that Roberta was at least forty pounds lighter than her. Not only was her frame slight, but she had the thinnest arms and most delicate hands she'd ever seen on a person.

"I'm Roberta Elizabeth Wood," said Roberta, haughtily, "Of Transys Neuronet. My father is the senior chief financial officer."

Sasha gave Roberta a disinterested look.

"Yeah, sure."

Roberta's haughtiness shifted to cool indigence.

"Maybe you didn't hear me," said Roberta, sharply, "I said..."

Sasha sighed hard.

"Look freshman," said Sasha, "I don't know if you got the memo, but almost everyone here is corporate. I know out there in the rest of the world everyone fawns over you and kisses your ass and is very impressed or afraid of you. Now you think you're extra special because you got magic and your dad got a shiny new promotion for it as a courtesy. That's everyone here. Everyone's mom or dad or uncle or grandma or whatever are in the C-Suite. They're all at the tippy top of some sort of corporate hierarchy."

Roberta reeled back as if she'd been slapped.

"The fuck?" she swore, "You don't get to..."

Sasha made a sharp cutting motion with her hand.

"Look, I went through last year what you're going through right now," said Sasha, "I can't bully you and I don't want to. I won't talk shit either. I will be put on the shame pole if I fuck with you or you me. But this is a reality check. Your corporation is some multi-billion nuyen AA corp. Anywhere else you'd rank, but here, almost everyone here is from multi-trillion nuyen AAA megacorp. So unless your dad is literally the CEO, you're at the bottom of the social order here and even if he was, you'd still be nearer the bottom than not. I can't really stress enough how much you don't want to lean on your corporate connections if they're that weak. Your only hope to fit in is if you start acting cool right now."

Roberta's face lightened several shades in indignation and her face twisted with complicated emotions. One of those, for the briefest moment, was fear. Roberta, who'd been important all of her life, felt suddenly small and unimportant. Many of the incoming freshman would feel the same way and most of them would take it far less gracefully than Roberta because for some of them, it would be the first time they felt this way. She finally reverted to a mask of bored indifference. Sasha nodded once at Roberta in approval.

"Cool," said Sasha, "You might just get it. Keep that up and some upperclassman might actually talk to you."

"Sure, whatever," said Roberta, neutrally.

"Morning or afternoon safety class?" asked Sasha.

Roberta was quiet for a moment but decided to answer.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Thirty people to the new freshmen class," said Fuzzy, "You're split into two classes. You get magical safety twice a day. So did you take it in the morning or are you taking it later?"

Roberta let out a long suffering sigh.

"Afternoon," she said, "I guess."

"Shit," said Sasha, and she turned to Fuzzy, "Same question."

Fuzzy, who'd been paying attention to the two and petting Puppy as he squirmed in her coat pocket, realized that she had to talk and not screw up now.

"Morning," said Fuzzy.

"How many people melted down?" asked Sasha.

Fuzzy wasn't sure what that meant but she figured it was the girl who'd screamed at the teacher in class.

"Just one," said Fuzzy, "I think her name was Courtney."

"She just scream and shout?" asked Sasha, "Or did she do something fucked up like throw shit or try an cast some weak-ass magic on the teacher?"

"Just screaming," said Fuzzy.

Sasha grinned and flashed Fuzzy a thumbs up.

"Just one is low," said Sasha, "Last year my safety class had three. Think I'll win that bet. The odds were good on the morning class."

Roberta rolled her eyes.

"Why do you even care?" she asked, impatiently.

Sasha laughed a little and shook her head.

"What?" asked Fuzzy, curious.

"It's a small island," said Sasha.

"Uhhh..." said Roberta, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Not even a square mile large," said Sasha, to no one in particular, "Five miles of beaches, most of it rocks that you can't even walk on without twisting your ankle. You've got two trails that go for a total of eight miles. Not each, total. You can comb the beach when the tide goes out. You can swim if you want to but the Sound is freezing for most of the year. If you're a gym rat you can hit the gym. There's some basketball hoops too or try exercising over at the proving grounds if Coach Bolt isn't using them. You can try the dating scene, but it's a small school so everyone dates everyone and it's super toxic."

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Roberta.

Sasha raised her hands and pointed both thumbs at herself.

"Now me, I've got a kickass collection of retro game systems at my cabin," said Sasha, as she ignored the question for now, "For maximum couch co-op play since that's kind of out of style now. Some of my systems are pre-Crash too. Plus I've got an old cyberdeck I like to pull apart and put back together now and again. Took me weeks to clear it with security but it's all here."

"Wow," said Roberta, sarcastically, "That's so interesting."

Sasha rolled her eyes.

"You don't get it, freshman," said Sasha, "Shit is boring here. You can walk across the island in twenty minutes and that's if you take the long way, so you have to make your own fun. You can't just hit up a club with your entourage or jump on a yacht or fly out somewhere for a vaycay or whatever. This is your worl now. You're stuck here Monday through Friday. You've got school and now and you can't just shrug it off or pay someone else to do it for you. You actually have to learn a basic amount of stuff because if you get behind in classes or piss off the teachers too much, you lose your weekends and you're stuck here being bored."

Roberta's eyes widened in horror and her mouth went slack.

"Even then you don't get to head out on Friday night," said Sasha, emphatically, "You leave Saturday morning and get back Sunday evening because if you're late, you're stuck here again. So you've got thirty-six hours max to have fun each week. Then you're right back here in the suck. We don't even have matrix access and there is exactly one line off the island. It's in a little room in the cafeteria. It's not even a proper comm system. It's just some old pre-Crash terminal. It belongs in a museum."

Then Sasha pointed at Fuzzy and made a sweeping motion with her hand as if to point at all of her instead of just at her.

"Now her? She looks like she knows how to have fun. She shows up with hair she cut with a knife, a puppy in her pocket and a smelly coat that she made from magical rat leather from some urban safari."

"She looks feral," countered Roberta.

Fuzzy narrowed her eyes at her.

"Which would be different and interesting," stressed Sasha, "I ran out of ideas for fun in my second semester. The boredom fucks with you like you wouldn't believe. And don't even think about getting high. They'll know. And then you're stuck here as a punishment. A few people have some liquor that they sneak in and the seniors are allowed to vape, but good luck getting anyone to share."

Roberta took a moment to grapple with this. It would take time for reality to really sink in, but at least a bit of it did. This was signified by the way she titled her head back, mouth open, eyes staring up at the sky.

"Ffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuck," swore Roberta.

Sasha nodded in approval and turned to Fuzzy.

"Your coat does stink though," said Sasha, "No offense."

Fuzzy only shrugged. If it did bother people that much then she'd figure out where she could wash it. She wasn't used to washing something like a coat though. Water clean enough to wash with had been precious.

"Okay," said Fuzzy, simply, "Well, you asked for it. So it's here. You can tell which pieces I killed?"

"It's not all one piece?" asked Sasha.

It wasn't. In fact the coat was made of multiple pieces of leather. So Fuzzy only shrugged.

"Devil rats aren't big enough for a single coat."

Sasha wrinkled her nose a little but tried to stay positive since Fuzzy was new an interesting. Roberta had recovered and while she'd initially been interested in Puppy, she looked ready to leave but also didn't look like she had anywhere better to go.

"I guess that makes sense," said Sasha, "I'll assense your jacket. It might take me a minute."

Sasha's eyes went out of focus and she frowned in concentration. Fuzzy had this odd feeling that Sasha wasn't looking at the jacket, but into it.

"Make it a quick minute," said Roberta, "It reeks."

"It smells bad but it doesn't reek," said Sasha, distantly, "Maybe don't be so precious. Now chill. You're messing with my concentration."

Roberta folded her arms. She looked like she wanted to say something mean. In fact she looked like she wanted to say a lot of things, but unlike Courtney, Roberta kept her cool. Instead she looked around the rest of the outside lunch area and looked for something else to sit with, but she wasn't particularly successful either. So she stayed.

"It's in so many pieces," said Sasha, her tone a little distant, "I'm having a hard time with it."

Time passed slowly before Sasha reached out to touch the coat. Fuzzy backed away just enough not to be touched which sent Puppy barking, though Fuzzy soothed him back to silence. Frowning, Sasha stopped and looked not at Fuzzy and not through her, but into her.

"You don't like to be touched," declared Sasha, who blushed slightly.

"No," confirmed Fuzzy.

"Sorry. Is pointing okay?" asked Sasha.

"Pointing is okay,” responded Fuzzy.

Sasha pointed to pieces of the coat one by one, her eyes unfocused. Roberta, grossed out, decided to look at Fuzzy's coat with a sort of morbid curiosity.

"It's made from six different animals, but all the same kind," she said, distractedly, "I’m guessing that’s devil rat. It's gone through some really heavy chemical processing. That threw me off at first since it interferes with my sight. It's just soaked with energy from the earth, which I'm guessing is the ash from Mount Rainier. You hunt in this coat a lot?"

"Yeah," said Fuzzy.

"Energy?" asked Roberta.

Sasha made a dismissive motion with her hand.

"It's not magical or anything, obviously," said Sasha, "It's kind of like reading history through impressions. The coat knows the earth."

Roberta curled her lip and wiggled her fingers at Fuzzy.

"Oooh, mystical," snarked Roberta.

"Yeah, yeah," said Sasha, " Anyway, the left sleeve and right lower part of the coat are from animals you killed, both different. The rest are from other people."

Fuzzy looked at her coat. She hadn't known that.

"How did you know?" asked Fuzzy.

Sasha only shrugged.

"I mean, I'm not completely positive," said Sasha, "Reading the astral is more art than science, but I'm pretty good at it."

"So you don't actually know," said Roberta, flatly.

Sasha laced her fingers together, turned her hands around and stretched them above her head.

"I know better than you," she said, voice strained by the stretch, "Four spells. How many do you got?"

Roberta didn't answer. She only sneered not only at Sasha, but at Fuzzy too as she redirected her frustration.

"You know, this is really fascinating and all, but could you put it away?" complained Roberta, "I really don't want to have that around while we eat lunch."

"I'll put it back," said Fuzzy.

Then she ventured a small risk. Everyone had clean clothes but she didn't know how they were cleaned.

"Where do we wash our clothes?" asked Fuzzy.

"We have laundry baskets," said Sasha, "There's a building we take it to. I'll show you later. Just remember to put your lid on top. The tree canopy holds a lot of water after a rain and a stiff breeze can soak you if you're not careful. That happened to me my first year. Also some pervy guys might try to catch a look inside."

"Thanks," said Fuzzy, "I'll remember that."

Sasha grinned at Fuzzy, but there was a question in that grin as she tilted her head.

"Wait, you're just going to take your own laundry?" she asked, "Just like that?"

"Sure, if there's enough water," said Fuzzy.

Sasha laughed as if Fuzzy had something funny.

"Oh man," said Sasha, "No bitching about laundry. All I heard my freshman year was people bitching about having to do their own laundry. That's refreshing. You think her coat smells? Wait until some guy walks in with a school uniform that he hasn't washed in a week because he thinks washing clothes is beneath him."

"Because it is beneath us," stressed Roberta.

"Yeah," said Sasha, who ignored Roberta for the moment, "I think you're going to get along great. Keep this up and I'll introduce you to some people."

Something seemed to click in Roberta's head.

"Uhhh...Wait," said Roberta, "We don't have servants to do that for us? Or drones at least?"

Sasha shook her head and leaned back a little at her seat on the long picnic table.

"No, freshman," said Sasha, "You're going to have to pick up your own clothes, put them in a hamper, put the lid on it, pick it up and walk it all the way to the laundry building where you're likely have to interact with a laundry machine for the first time. And then, horror of horrors, you're going to have to take it out of the laundry machine, walk it all the way back and then put your clothes away yourself. No servants. No drones."

Roberta blinked a few times and looked around, as if this was all some sort of sick joke.

"Wait, I'll have to actually touch dirty clothes?" she asked, "Like a servant?"

"Password correct," said Sasha, "Welcome to Blake Island."

Roberta shivered in revulsion.

"Ew," she whispered.

Sasha turned away from Roberta and smiled at Fuzzy.

"Look, your dog is super cute and if you're going back to drop off your coat I really want to hold him," pleaded Sasha. "I know he's yours, but would you mind? You seem cool so you can sit with me."

Fuzzy puffed out her cheeks, looked down at the wiggling Puppy who seemed eager to get out of her coat pocket.

"Be nice to him," said Fuzzy.

“I will,” said Sasha. “I promise.”

Sasha seemed okay to leave Puppy with for a few minutes. Fuzzy’s anxiety was higher than normal as she thought of Puppy being gone. Her hands began to fidget the second she let him go and she hid them by stuffing them in her pockets. She left him behind and he whined a little at the separation, the sound of which hurt Fuzzy's heart for some reason and she almost immediately regretted her decision. She walked back to her cabin quickly, again drawing stares from other students due to her patchwork armored leather clothing.

Once she broke line of sight she ran all the way back to what she thought of as her house, as she didn't know the word "cabin" yet. She put her coat away and sniffed the she had underneath, didn't notice any stains from the armor, nodded and closed the door behind her. Then she ran all the way back until she spotted students and then just briskly walked.

Sasha was still there though Roberta was gone. The older girl held Puppy and Puppy seemed to like her. She even let Puppy lick her face. Fuzzy smiled. Rat Man had told her that dogs were good judges of people so maybe she could like Sasha too. The girls entered the cafeteria building and got into something called a lunch line with Puppy cradled in the crook of Fuzzy's arm.

Lunch was an absolute feast and there was so much to choose from. There were sandwiches with real bread that was soft and not moldy at all. She had her choice of condiments and there were so many. As a child, Fuzzy had subsisted primarily on nutrasoy and yeast on bad days and barrens bush meat on good days. But Rat Man had hundreds of condiments to make each meal taste different since the slightly snotty texture of each meal of nutrasoy had been the same. But here on Blake Island, there were so many wonderful and different textures and flavors. She barely had to put condiments on food at all to experience something new.

She wondered if the meat in her bread was real. She wasn’t sure what kind it was. It wasn't porks, dog, cat, raven or rat. And of course she used too much mustard before she tasted it out of sheer habit. There were soy fries, apple slices and mashed potatoes and gravy, and Fuzzy splurged on the gravy. By chance she picked up the chocolate milk since Sasha got one too even though Fuzzy had no idea what milk, much less chocolate milk, was. They were by the pint in those small cartons that had never changed even over a century later.

The lunch lady didn't know what to make of Fuzzy as no one that she saw else seemed particularly happy to eat the food. In her excitement Fuzzy resolved to ask what everything was upon her second visit to the line when everyone was gone. What was obvious to others wasn't to her. She'd seen the fries before and knew what bread was, but that was it. And when she made her second trip and asked a few questions, she learned that the meat was called chicken, which was a kind of bird.

She even got a little extra of the chicken meat for Puppy. Sasha had fed him bits of mashed potato and gravy off her finger, but Fuzzy figured that a growing dog should have meat. Little Puppy was intensely curious about what was on Fuzzy's tray and snuffed merrily from his place on her lap. She’d expected to have to haggle for her food but apparently it was already paid for. This was another thing that Julian had neglected to tell her, but this time it was in a good way.

"Don't get excited," complained Sasha, as Fuzzy sat down for a second time, "The food isn't as good as last year. The soy fries are definitely a new addition. I mean there are potato fries, but still. Soy. Ugh."

She wrinkled her nose as she uttered the word soy almost a curse.

"Food is food," said Fuzzy, before she dug in again.

Sasha pursed her lips in thought.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she relented, "It's not that bad."

Fuzzy knew enough not to eat everything with her hands, but was somewhat perplexed by the chocolate milk carton. After waiting she managed to open it without looking foolish by watching Sasha when she finally opened hers as she seemed to pay more attention to Fuzzy than to her own. Fuzzy decided she liked the creamy, brown water and so while she tore through her food with a will, she would delicately sip the chocolate milk, and savor its rich texture and flavor. Puppy would have to do without that. The brown water was hers. She drank half and decided she would save some for later.

Sasha had finished her meal and played with Puppy while Fuzzy was busy stuffing her face but she kept talking to Fuzzy in a primarily one sided conversation. The topics mostly seemed to be about people: Who was here, who was missing, boys she liked, which were none, who was dating whom, favorite and least favorite teachers, guesses at how many people would melt down in the afternoon safety class, how much she missed having a stable matrix connection. Fuzzy barely understood any of it but she did pay close attention so she could try to make better sense of this place.

Sasha took Puppy onto the grass to pee which gave Fuzzy a brief reprieve. Fuzzy's attention turned to Julie. She was at the same, long table as them but far enough away to be alone. She stared at the ork girl who noticed and glared back. Done with her food, Fuzzy took Puppy and her milk over with her so no one took it and sat down next to Julie.

"What?" asked Julie.

"You're powerful," said Fuzzy, simply, "So I thought I'd talk to you."

Julie’s expression soured.

"I thought you'd want to stay away from me," said Julie, sullenly, "You know, no control? I could go off like a bomb at any moment?"

Fuzzy shrugged.

"You'll get control," said Fuzzy, "You wouldn't be allowed here if you were that dangerous. I think she's just making sure everyone else knew. And besides, that other girl is way more dangerous than you right now. She has magic but no discipline. And she yelled at an old person. That was really stupid."

Julie furrowed her brow in confusion.

"Why is that stupid?" she asked.

Fuzzy shrugged again.

"Where I'm from, if you last long enough to be old, it means that you're scary," said Fuzzy, "Isn't that the way it is here?"

"No, I don't think so," said Julie.

Fuzzy gave Julie a little quirk of her head.

"So you're telling me that Mother Bear isn't scary?"

Julie didn't answer right away, but then she gave Fuzzy a grudging nod. Fuzzy waited patiently for this so-called dangerous person to speak, fed Puppy a small piece of chicken and scratched him behind the ears as he munched.

"Well you seem to be doing well for yourself." said Julie, "Mother Bear didn't put you on the shame pole like Kenji over there. What, did talk you way out of it?"

Fuzzy nodded and Julie snorted deeply in disgust, suddenly covered her mouth, looked angry and then away and then touched one of her slender, orkish tusks. Fuzzy didn't understand why she seemed so angry at herself but she still felt no particular dangerous from the girl even though she was angry.

"Maybe you shouldn't be seen with me," whispered Julie. "Don't think I don't know, but you, Kenji and I are different than everyone else here. I'm not stupid. You're weird, but you could fit in. You could carve yourself a little niche like you're doing right now. I don't know what Kenji's deal is, but maybe you could fake it till you make it. Me, I can't. I'm different than everyone here. I saw a troll at the school assembly, but I don't think there are any orks on the island. It's just me."

In a fit of sudden empathy for the girl, Fuzzy offered her some of her open, half consumed chocolate milk. She pushed it towards her. Julie didn't understand at first, but frowned more deeply in disgust at Fuzzy's offering.

"I can get my own, thanks," she said, scathingly.

Fuzzy took it back and frowned, unaware of what she'd done wrong. She only knew that she’d offended Julie. In fact, Fuzzy felt just as offended, if not more. That was serious generosity she’d just shown her. Clean water was rare in the barrens, much less something creamy and sweet like the brown water. Fuzzy decided that this place was strange and that Julie was rude. Confused and a little angry, Fuzzy stood back up to sit back with Sasha and the other girl. She thought she might talk to Kenji, but she felt like she didn't want to screw things up even worse. Navigating social interactions was complicated. Instead she kept an ear open during the conversation while Julie ate alone.

Roberta had come back while she wasn't looking. Apparently trying to sit elsewhere hadn't been successful.

"I don't see why you want to talk to her," said Roberta, to Fuzzy.

"Mother Bear said she was the most powerful person in the school," said Fuzzy.

"You mean in your year?" asked Sasha.

"No. In the school," said Fuzzy, "And she has as much magic as a few teachers."

"Holy shit," said Roberta, "She's awakened?"

"Fuuuuuck, I'm soooo jealous," groaned Sasha, "I have to scrape by for magical power. I'm really only good at assensing."

"What's awakened?" asked Fuzzy.

"It's when you max out your magical power," explained Sasha, "I mean, people with magic are called awakened, but back in the day, being awakened used to only mean people who'd maxed out their magical power. It's a big deal. Maybe one in a hundred awakened people...You know, awaken. Max out. And usually people don't awaken until they're old. You know, like in their thirties or something."

"Oh," said Fuzzy,

Then Fuzzy thought about it.

"Wait, Mother Bear said that Julie is as powerful as some teachers," said Fuzzy, "How can you max out your magic but still be weaker?"

Sasha waved her hand dismissively.

"Well, they're more practiced, obviously," said Sasha, "Raw power means a lot, but skill does too. But for increasing your raw power, you can initiate and push up your natural maximum but..."

"Nerrrrrrds," groaned Roberta, "Fucking nerd shit. Ugh."

Sasha glared at her.

"Shut up," said Sasha, "You wish you had that."

Julie and Fuzzy cast another glance at Julie, the most powerful student at school, who was purposefully not looking back.

Lunch ended but Fuzzy had a little free time until the next class. She spent it on the beach on the northeast end of the island, which was one of the few beaches cleared of rocks. There she experienced sand for the first time and touched the ocean and marveled at its vastness. This was just the Puget Sound though, only an inlet, so she could still see the Seattle metroplex across the way and watch ships as they crossed the water. She hadn't actually seen the ocean proper yet and how it seemed to go on forever. That would be for another day. Still, she just stared at it in fascination while Puppy gamboled about on the beach.

Apparently she spent too much time just staring and was met by the earth spirit who pointed back towards the building where Mother Bear taught. So she quickly dropped off Puppy at her "house" which she still couldn't believe was hers and went back to the magical safety class that met after the afternoon class. Apparently there were no other classes for the freshmen until the course on magical safety was complete. And it was scheduled for two weeks twice a day.

There, Fuzzy was lectured extensively on what not to do by Mother Bear. She talked about how to control ones' emotions. That a spell was best stopped in the mind before it was cast and not after it left the body. That if one was feeling unsure about their power to contact a teacher immediately. So many rules and Fuzzy did her best to memorize them all.

Mother Bear’s lecture sort of felt like how Rat Man taught Fuzzy about weapons and traps. Then it clicked. This was like one of Rat Man's lectures about weapons safety, but with emphasis on controlling her emotions as well. This was something she understood well and by the time the class was over she felt like she had a solid grasp on what not to do. Other students complained and some of them did so loudly. Many didn't see the point. But Fuzzy had learned that knowing what not to do was best told and not experienced as pain and death were far harsher teachers than Mother Bear would ever be.

Now that class was done, the sun was beginning to descend in the sky. She could go to the bonfire if she wanted. She didn't want to bring Puppy in case so while she visited him back at her house, she didn't plan on taking him. After playing with him for a while she wasn't sure what to do and she was left to her own devices. She thought about what to do next as she sat on her bed.

---

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