Walking the school yard, Michael was astounded by the changes in everything. Flowers and trees grew haphazardly, draped in all the hues of the rainbow, across what used to be the barren practice fields. Rubbing his eyes, he stared in bewilderment as a naked young lady chased after what appeared to be a flying bunny, swiping furiously with the large butterfly net in her hands.

“MOVE IT, BOY!”

Spinning to the side where his father’s voice boomed from, Michael barely had time to leap out of the way before some massive thing barreled past where he’d been standing. Hitting the ground, tumbling to the side, Michael pulled in his magic and then released it, blinking in disbelief.

His father… Michael rubbed his eyes several times, blinking furiously to make certain he was seeing right. His father -- it really was his father!! His idiot father was naked, covered in rainbow paint or dye of some sort, and standing on the back of what looked like a massive earthworm! Wiggling, slithering across the field at a pace most horsemen would be envious of, the creature was twisting, spinning, and thrashing, trying to toss off his father, who was hooping, hollering, and appeared to be having the time of his life as he struggled to remain atop it.

“What the what?” Weakness washing over him like a wave, Michael’s knees buckled and he flopped back on his ass. “What the what,” he repeated again quietly, not even certain about what question to ask first with the insanity that seemed all around.

“We had a fairy visit,” his mother’s voice told him gently, as she appeared out of nowhere beside him. “Isn’t it a lovely change from our drab, old, normal method of teaching?” Sitting down beside him, Lady Morningstar gently took his hand and patted it reassuringly with her own. “So where’s the young ladies,” she asked, conversationally?

“Damned if I know,” Michael admitted. Taking a deep breath, he forced his thoughts to calm as much as possible and tried to ignore everything else. He trusted that if there was anything truly dangerous around, his mother wouldn’t just be sitting there beside him. She’d be out there, dealing with it, teaching whatever threat came to her home to regret ever being born.

“I don’t understand women, Mother.” Shaking his head a few times, Michael blinked a few tears from the corner of his eyes. Apparently, he thought to himself, he must be allergic to one of the odd plants growing nearby.

“What’s not to understand?” Laughing, Lady Morningstar reached over and hugged him gently. “Woman – or man – people are all the same no matter where one goes. All they want is what they want. It’s as simple as that.”

“All they want is all they want?” Shaking his head, Michael half laughed. “Have you started reading fortune cookies?”

“Fortune cookies?” Puzzled, his mother slowly shook her head back and forth. “I don’t believe so. What are they?”

“Never mind.” Seeing the puzzled look on her face, Michael smiled, reached over, and hugged her back. “It’s just an idea of mine which I thought could be fun to do sometime. Bake a hard wafer-like cookie, write messages on a small scrap of paper, and put them inside the cookie. People can eat them, read the message, and have fun trying to guess the meaning of whatever cryptic message you left them. ‘Think twice, act once.’ ‘A wise man knows what he doesn’t know. An idiot doesn’t know that he doesn’t know.’ Things like that.”

Smirking slightly, his mother slowly ruffled his hair. “You have some of the strangest ideas sometimes, Mik’Hail. Though the idea seems as if it may be amusing amongst the proper peoples, I doubt it would be viable in all actuality. Very few can read and paper is too expensive to waste for something so trivial. Where do you come up with such odd thoughts, I sometimes wonder.”

“Me? Odd thoughts? POSH!” Laughing, and somehow feeling a little better, Michael leaned up and flipped his mother across her nose. Blinking several times, her mouth opened in a started, “Oh.” The expression of startlement on her face as she rubbed the tip of her nose was enough o make him finally laugh out loud.

“And what was that for?” Puzzled, Lady Morningstar continued to gently rub the tip of her nose.

“Just because I love you,” Michael assured her with a hug. “If I have odd thoughts, it’s simply because I take after you. What the heck do you mean, ‘all they want is all they want’?”

“Well, I love you too.” Releasing the hug between them, Lady Morningstar leaned over and gently flipped Michael on the nose, sending sparks and smoke everywhere, with a loud “BOOMPH” resounding in front of his face. Jerking back, Michael flopped back onto his back and blinked stupidly while his mother laughed freely.

Reaching up and rubbing his face, Michael stared at the black soot that covered the palm of his hand. “Ooohhhh! Now you’ve went and done it!”

“Did what, dear?” His mother asked, all innocently.

“Did this!” With a sudden surge of magic, Michael blasted glue and confetti all over the ground where his mother had been sitting just a moment before.

“Too slow,” Lady Morningstar laughed, hovering cross-legged several feet above him, as a torrent of ice cold water poured over his head.

“MOTHER!!” Yelping, Michael shivered and rolled to the side, returning the blast with his own burst of ice cold spray across empty space again.

“Still too slow,” his mother teased, blasting him with another gust of icy water from behind.

“That’s it!” Pulling in more of the flows of energy which crisscrossed the island, and which he knew like the back of his hand, Michael hopped up and unleashed a torrent of freezing water in all directions. Yelping and laughing, the young ladies gathered around the overgrown courtyard squealed and ran towards the buildings.

“So that’s how we’re going to play?” Cackling wildly, his mother reached for the same flows of energy and began to pull them to herself. “Soak your mother, will you? You’re going to pay for that one!” Clouds suddenly darkening, blocking out the sun, a torrent of cold rain washed down across the whole island.

“Ha!” Shaping and hardening the air above him like an umbrella, Michael stuck out his tongue at his mother. “Nanner, nanner!” Taunting, Michael softened the earth all around and sprayed geysers of liquefied mud, covering his mother.

Wrapped up in his game with his mother, Michael forget his worries for a brief bit, never even realizing that his mother was pushing him, testing his ability and strength, to make certain that he hadn’t lost any of his ability or talent with his new body. Fighting and playing with her son was all well and good; an added bonus which she was happy to indulge in; but her primary goal was simply to make certain he was well and healthy.

And, from the fight he was putting up, and the mess he was making of her already chaos-twisted home, it seemed his body was perfectly fine. Laughing wildly, with relief washing over her, Lady Morningstar let herself indulge in simply playing.

When Le’Nara led a group of students out into the storm to aid Michael, things went from hectic to insane. When Michael’s father lead a second group of students out to aid his wife, the whole island shook with laughter, squeals, and screaming.

“GETS THEM!!” From out of nowhere, a man appeared wearing a rainbow jester’s outfit. Dozens of portals appeared from thin air and hovered all across the island as dozens of naked women flew out in a swarm, wings of rainbow-colored feathers flapping wildly as they swarmed over everything.

“ANGEL ATTACK!!” Lady Morningstar released a burst of fireworks into the sky, signaling her students to form up and work together.

“Not just angels! I’m here too!” Cackling wildly, The Flipping Fool appeared in front of her, spraying Lady Morningstar with a burst of magic which left her naked and painted neon pink.

“Chaos!” Snarling up her nose, Lady Morningstar held out her hand and summoned a giant feather nearly twice her height into her hand. “I’ve warned you in the past! You and your kind aren’t allowed here!”

“FEATHER! FEATHER! FEATHER!” Squealing, The Fool suddenly turned and zoomed away. “No tickle! No tickle!” Screaming like it was the end of the world, he zigged and zagged erratically as Lady Morningstar chased him mercilessly. Seeing her approach, angels squealed and fled just as rapidly, repeating the scream of, “FEATHER! FEATHER!”

What had already been an erratic game of magic and mayhem quickly devolved into pure pandemonium. Humans against angels. Angels against angels. Humans against humans. Feathers against magic. What had started as a game between mother and son have evolved into a competition between the students, and then devolved into complete mayhem where it was every wizard, angel, and god for themselves…