Straight-Up Not Having A Good Time At Night Raven College: Prologue

Prologue Chapter 14: To The Dwarf's Mine

It felt like Kat was falling through a vertical wall of chilly water.
It rippled violently, and she was dragged forward by some inexorable force.

Then, suddenly, the lid of the coffin swung open in front of her.

She blinked.

She was standing in the gate again.
The gate wasn't in the Mirror Chamber anymore, though.

A twilit forest stretched out in front of her, with only glimpses of the rapidly darkening sky visible between the branches.

"...Wow," she announced, looking down at Grim. "Oh, damn-- you okay?"

He was splayed out against her chest with a frazzled expression on his face. The claws on all four of his paws were digging through her clothes.

"Y--Yeah," he managed, starting to relax.

"Okay, good, 'cause you're clawing me."

Extricating his claws from her shirt, she stepped out of the gate, putting him down on the ground.

Ace and Deuce were already out of their gates, and she hurried over to them.

"Hey," she said, slightly breathlessly. "You guys okay?"

Deuce nodded, but Ace rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm totally okay," he said sardonically.
"I'm out in the middle of nowhere with an idiot, a magicless chick and a fire-breathing furball, here to traipse around an abandoned mine and look for a rock that might not even exist! I'm so totally fine, you wouldn't believe it!"

"Great!" She chirped in her perkiest voice, patting him on the shoulder.
"Glad to hear it, buddy!"

"That was--"

"I know it was sarcasm, dunkass," she interrupted. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty good at it myself. Now, are we going to look for this mine or not?"

They were standing in a fairly large clearing.
The gates were remaining where they were, bobbing up and down in midair. Normally, they'd probably look out-of-place here. But with the forest full of dusky shadows, they kinda matched the aesthetic.

There was a dirt path leading out of the clearing... A deer path, maybe?

"There's a-- like, a footpath or something over here," she announced, pointing. "Should we follow it?"

"I guess," Ace replied. " 'S as good a direction as any... I mean, a whole mine's gotta be pretty easy to find, right?"

Brushing past her, he headed down the path. Grim hurried after him.

Deuce was still standing by the gates.
When he caught her gaze, he stiffened. Lowering his head, he scuttled past, eyes on the ground.

...Uh-oh.
Come to think of it...
Had he said a single word after she said she was autistic?

This wasn't the time to have that conversation, though.
She broke into a jog, hurrying down the path after the others.

************************************

They'd been walking for about five minutes.

At least, Kat thought they had.

Somehow she'd ended up in the middle of their little procession.
Ace and Grim were bickering their way along in the front, and Deuce was walking stiffly behind her, about ten feet away.

The forest was really dark now.
Rustling shadows, creaks and cracks, assorted unseen animal noises... It was enough to make anyone jumpy.

However...