Parker never thought his bed could be so comfortable. The academy provided housing for researchers and professors, but they skimped out on the accommodations. His colleagues all told him to buy his own housewares, and he didn’t listen. But even with its lumpiness, it was much better than the cold hard ground.

He laid there, motionless, for what felt hours, but he couldn’t fall asleep. Defeated, he picked himself up and dragged himself to the bathroom. He hadn’t had a shower since he left on his adventure, and it was showing. Once he finally cleaned all the dirt off his body, he changed into a fresh set of clothes. His old outfit was beyond repair, torn by his fights with Lasair and Alex, so he discarded it.

That adventure had taken him much longer than expected, and he had work to do. Parker picked up his notebook and sifted through the pages. Reading through all his notes and diagrams, memories of Sparky’s odd behavior flared in his mind. He was at most a few months old, yet he knew how to cook and make a fire, a smokeless one at that. He also understood English perfectly, which made absolutely no logical sense. Any time around humans would have been spent hiding or running, giving him no opportunities to learn the language’s intricacies. Not only that, whatever gave him the ability to understand English didn’t seem to spread to orcish. And no, he didn’t believe Lasair when she said Sparky didn’t know what he said, only how he said it.

It wasn’t only his unusual display of knowledge that confused Parker. Somehow, he always knew when Alex was approaching. At first, he thought it was by smell, but that didn’t explain his terror their first encounter. If they’d met before, there was no way Sparky would have made it out with just a few broken bones.

And Alex was his own mystery. Why did he want to get Sparky? How did he even know about him? And why didn’t he bleed? He’d bled before during swordsmanship classes, so what changed?

All the questions were too much for him right now. He was tired, and he had a lot of work to catch up on. Besides, those things didn’t matter anymore. He never needed to talk to Alex, or Lasair, or see Sparky again. With that thought, a twinge of regret surfaced, but he quickly pushed it back into the depths of his mind.

Parker needed to get back to his lab. He was supposed to have isolated the organ that made those huge ants become invisible, but in his excitement, he left before completing his research. All of the labs close to the staff housing were taken by more tenured researchers, so he had to walk across the entire campus to reach his. It was annoying, but it gave him plenty of time to look at the beautiful campus. White limestone spires shot dozens of feet from the ground, acting as a framework for the red brick walls that filled the space between. Ivy grew from every crack and crevice it could root itself to. In the center of the campus stood a fountain that stretched almost two stories high. The academy was built on top of an aquifer, and the underground pressure gave more than enough force to spray the water into the air. Connected to the fountain were small channels that ran along the sidewalks that irrigated the nearby grass, bushes, and flowers. The aquifer also gave them running water, which was Parker’s favorite part.

While walking, he heard someone call for him. It was his lab assistant, Ryan.

“Mr. Phillips! You’re back! Where have you been? I left one of my books in your lab, and it’s been locked in there the whole time!”

Parker grimaced and scratched the back of his head.

“Yeah, sorry about that… My expedition took a bit longer than expected.”

“A bit longer? You were gone for a whole week!”

Parker shrugged and took a deep breath.

“Well, I just got a little… Held up. It didn’t go exactly as I expected. I’m headed to my lab now, so you can come with me to get it if you’d like.”

Ryan sighed. “Alright. So… did you find it?”

“Find what?”

“You know, the thing. The…”

Ryan stopped for a moment and looked around to confirm no one was within earshot.

“The dragon.”

“Oh, yeah! Of course! Hold on, check this out.”

Parker opened up his notebook and showed it to Ryan.

“This is Sparky. Eleven and a half inches tall, eighteen inches long. Twenty-seven if you include his tail.”

Parker motioned his hands around, approximating the size.

“About ye high, and this long.”

He pointed in his notebook to a drawing of an individual scale.

“His scales were just the slightest off black if you caught them at the right angle. They were closer to an iridescent navy or purple, like a raven.”

Parker flipped around a few more pages and settled on one where Sparky was in a more active pose.

“He didn’t breathe fire, he breathed lightning. Right when he shoots it out, you can see here, sparks form between his top set of horns like Jacob’s ladder!”

“Did he shock you? What did it feel like? Did it hurt? I bet it hurt!”

“No, no, he didn’t shock me. He was actually pretty docile. It was pretty shocking. Eh? Get it? Shocking?”

Ryan rolled his eyes.

“Yeah. Shocking. Whatever. What else?”

“What, You didn’t like that? Fine. I saw him do it when he started fires.”

Ryan was taken aback.

“So you’re saying he would start fires? Like, intentionally?”

“Yeah, he was pretty smart! He even taught himself how to fly while I was taking care of him!”

Ryan frowned and raised an eyebrow.

“Well, wouldn’t they all do that? Like, birds too? That doesn’t mean much.”

“Well, I’ll give you that, but he was proud of it. He showed it off to me. He had a social kind of intelligence too. I’m fairly certain he could understand me.”

Ryan snatched Parker’s notebook.

“Yeah, uh-huh. Lemme see more pictures.”

Parker yanked back his notebook.

“Hey! This is valuable research! Treat it more carefully, alright? This is my only copy, and it’s fragile! You’re supposed to be my assistant, you know. Show some respect!”

“Yeah, yeah, fine. May I pleeease see some more pictures?”

Parker frowned. “Alright, but you don’t have to say it like that.”

Parker ruffled through the pages until he reached one with Sparky’s head shown at different angles.

“Here. These are actual size.”

Ryan looked at the page for a moment before flipping wildly through the pages, stopping on the last one. On it was a handmade map, with the location of the guildhall, the forest town, and two other unnamed dots. Only, those dots were moving.

“How did you do that? What’s going on here?”

“Hey! What’d I just tell you?”

Parker took back the notebook and closed it.

“That wasn’t for you to see!”

“Is that a tracking map? Where’d you learn that? I thought the spell for them was a secret!”

Parker grinned.

“Yeah, it is. I figured it out on my own. But I’d rather not let everyone know about this one! If anyone else got it, they’d track him down and kill him. So keep your mouth shut, and listen to me next time!”

Ryan pleaded to get another look, but they had already arrived at Parker’s lab. The academy had an advanced lock system. Rather than having locks, the doors on campus had a spell cast on them that made them unopenable. Only those given “permission” by someone with access could open them, but unless you have the master permission, it only lasted for a few minutes. The only ones with that were the locksmith and the president, hence why Ryan’s book was locked in. Parker opened the door and was slammed by the stench. It smelled like death.

And that’s exactly what was there. Not only did he not complete his research on the ants, but he had also left the body of the one he dissected on his table. After a week, it had severely decomposed.

Ryan took a few steps back and pinched his nose. “Oh, oh man. I am not going in there. I’ll just get a new textbook.”

“You’re supposed to be my assistant, you know. This is kinda your job.”

Parker turned to face Ryan, but he was already almost gone.

“Sorry! I have to… uh… Study. Can’t help you!”

Parker let out a sigh, braced himself, and headed into his lab. Ryan was a good kid, just not the best lab assistant. And to be fair, it was Parker’s negligence that ruined the lab. Ryan was just an innocent victim. But an assistant would be very helpful. Instead, Parker needed to clean up the mess by himself. Disposing of the body was easy enough, but it took him over an hour to scrub the black stain off his table, and the smell, though he’d gotten used to it by then, would take a while to air out of the room. He decided his work could wait until tomorrow and headed out.

Only to be blocked by a familiar face.

Alex stood cross-armed at the door.

“Alex? What are you doing here?!”

Parker stumbled back towards the table. He felt around behind him until he reached the knob to a drawer. He stuck his hand in and pulled out a scalpel, pointing it towards Alex.

“Hey, what’s with the hostility? Put that thing down. I just want to talk.”

“Yeah, right! You already tried to kill me in the forest!”

Alex raised his hands up.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I did was ask what was in your bag, then that orc rushed at me with her axe. You’re the one that tried to tackle me.”

Parker stood up and entered a defensive position.

“Then why did you chase us through the woods for so long?”

“I didn’t! I followed you for a day because I thought that orc was holding you hostage. Once I realized she wasn’t, I came back here to meet you. I’ve been waiting here for a while now.”

Parker thought for a moment and realized he wasn’t lying. At least, not about the sequence of events. Alex’s intentions, however, he was still suspicious of.

“You can’t trick me that easily!” Parker remained in his fighting stance.

“Fine. Be like that.”

In one swift motion, Alex grabbed Parker’s arm and twisted it around, forcing the blade out of his hand.

“That wouldn’t have done you any good, anyway. If I were here to hurt you, it would’ve done it already.”

Alex let go of Parker’s arm, and he yanked it back. It still stung a little from where Alex grabbed him.

“Well, then why are you here?”

“What, you don’t believe I just wanted to give you back your gear?”

“Of course not. Do you think I’m stupid?”

Alex crossed his arms again.

"Alright, you got me there. It’s about the dragon. I took the liberty to keep it our little secret that you tried keeping it as a pet. You know you need to kill those things on sight before they get too dangerous. I don’t think the academy would be pleased if I told them.”

“So, what? You’re trying to blackmail me?”

Alex clasped his hands behind his back and paced around the room.

“Well, I wouldn’t say that. Blackmail is a harsh word. I’m simply just asking for help. I know you have that map thing in your book, and that you need to right your wrong. Just lead me to the dragon, I’ll get rid of it, and we can be on our merry way. Sound good?”

Parker thought to himself for a moment. No matter what choice he made, Alex was going to kill Sparky. If he disagreed, Alex would just take his notebook and do it alone. If he agreed, he could at least try to find a way to help. He decided it would be best to go along with Alex, at least until he came up with a plan.

“Fine. I’ll do it.”

“Great! We’ll leave at noon tomorrow. Meet me at the fountain in the courtyard. I’ll bring your gear.”

With that, Alex headed to the door, stopping just before he passed through.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Parker’s heart was racing. He let out a deep sigh of relief and slid down the wall to the ground. After that talk, he knew one thing. Whatever he just talked to wasn’t Alex. Even with the few interactions they’d had before graduation, Parker could tell this was a different person. Except, that wasn’t true, because whatever he just talked to definitely wasn’t a person. He knew for sure when he caught a glimpse of its hand. At first, he just wanted to check to see if his fingers were back. The academy had a great medical program, but no matter how powerful the healer, a lost limb could never grow back if it went untreated for too long, and even if they did, they would take a while to grow back. Instead of finding three fingers, or two half-grown stubs, they'd all been perfectly restored. He wasn’t dealing with a person, or even a monster. Whatever was taking Alex’s body was a fae. And suddenly, it all clicked—the strange behavior. The fires. The language comprehension. The fear Sparky showed towards the fae. There was no Sparky, because Sparky already had a name.

Sparky was Alex.

That little fact made Parker very concerned when he checked his tracking map the next morning and saw where he was headed.