Hello again dear readers! I hope that you enjoy the chapter and, as always, feel free to leave a review!

 

 

 

 

 

The Fox's Path (Chapter 9)

by

Elite Shade

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Alrighty everyone! Find a seat and a lab partner pronto! We've got some work to do today! Also, please try to ignore the rampant fishy odor, I will have maintenance take care of it before school starts tomorrow!" Said the Gazelle in the lab coat, Mrs. Savant, as her class began to file in. Taylor's nose immediately wrinkled at the smell, and as she looked to Jeremy, she could tell he was also slightly affected by the stench.

"Uh, w-wanna be lab partners?" the teenage bat boy asked nervously, absentmindedly tugging on his backpack, which began squirming all on its own. After all of the strange things she had seen so far, Taylor decided against asking about it, and instead agreed, provided that she wouldn't instead be given a separate assignment again.

 

"Sure," Taylor said.

"Really? Great!" Jeremy said excited as they each took a seat at the same worktable. Taylor looked around as Mrs. Savant took roll. She noticed a few stainless steel sinks at the back of the classroom, along with a series of cabinets. There was also an eye-washing station, right next to a giant aquarium, inside of which was a single yellowish orb with green splotches floating in the water. It pulsated from time to time, before it slowly spun in its tank, revealing a single large eyeball in the center of its form. It made eye contact with the curious vixen, and blinked once.

"Miss Nicolo?" Taylor's head snapped forward to see the Magi looking right at her expectantly.

"Uh, here!" She said. For some reason, several other members of the class snickered at this statement, Jeremy's backpack, which he was still wearing while still sitting on the stool next to Taylor, was wriggling again while he was looking uncomfortable. Magi Savant smiled at the vixen.

"I'm glad to hear it! But I was asking you if you were in fact the newest addition to our class, Miss Nicolo," she explained. Taylor blushed and nodded.

"Welcome then! I have your introductory textbook right here." She said, retrieving the book from where it lay on top of her desk. She handed it to Taylor, telling her the assignments in it that would help catch her up with the rest of the class.

"Luckily for you, today is just the beginning of our next lab project. The sages informed me that you are indeed knowledgeable of some of the basics of Alchemy, so you can participate in this assignment! Everyone, you should each pair off with one another for this assignment. Miss Nicolo, are you and Mister Myotis here willing to be partners?" She asked, motioning to Jeremy, who was nodding vigorously.

"Uh... sure... uh... Magi," she said, just now realizing that she had no idea of how she was supposed to address her teachers. Magi Savant just smiled and nodded before heading back over to the white board and grabbing a marker.

"Alrighty then, class, today's assignment shall be a relatively easy one. We're going to be learning about the bioluminescent properties of the Mycena Plurial, or as it's commonly known as, Sprite's Parasol," she said, writing out a couple chemical equations on the board, before capping the marker and bending down to pick up something from behind her desk. She came back up holding a fish tank, but which had some small blue mushrooms growing in a layer of dirt. Taylor gasped as she saw several small people flitting about in the tank with gossamer wings. Some were lounging beneath the mushrooms themselves, while others appeared to be dancing. They all looked like miniature cat people, with blue, green, and in one case, yellow fur; all with shimmering light blue clothes.

"Everyone. One at a time, one member of each pair will come up to my desk, grab one of the smaller tanks, and pluck two mushrooms from this one. Upon placing the mushrooms into the smaller tank, two of the sprites that you see here are sure to follow. And for a little extra credit, can anyone tell us why the sprites would follow the mushrooms?" Mrs. Savant asked while looking around. "Yes, Aria?" She nodded to a tigress who wore a pair of glasses similar to the ones Taylor was currently wearing.

"It's because they have each selected a single Sprite's Parasol to cultivate!" She said excitedly.

"Very good, Aria!" Mrs. Savant said, making the tigress herself beam with pride, before setting the tank down on her desk.

"Can anyone tell me why they cultivate these specific mushrooms?" she asked, looking around the room. Several students, Aria included, seemed puzzled by this question. Taylor was still amazed at the sight of the tiny furs in the tank, who seemed completely oblivious to the classroom around them.

"How about you Taylor?" Mrs. Savant asked, an eyebrow quirked in the direction of the now uncomfortable looking vixen.

"I-I-I don't know," Taylor lamely answered, blushing.

"Very good, Taylor!" Mrs. Savant said, surprising Taylor and the rest of the class for that matter.

"While there are many differing theories as to the nature of why the sprites cultivate these mushrooms, there has yet to be any proven reason," she explained, with a slight wink to Taylor, before reaching behind her desk to retrieve several smaller tanks. One at a time, the students walked up to the desk and grabbed a smaller tank. Sure enough, after taking out two mushrooms and placing them into the smaller tanks, two sprites followed suit, not seeming to mind flying into them. Soon enough, Jeremy returned with their own tank. Taylor had thought that it was a little odd that Jeremy had yet to remove his backpack, keeping it one even when he had gone to get their project, but was soon preoccupied with the tiny dancing figures in front of her. One was clearly a male, and the other female. They appeared to be performing a tango, hovering just above the moist dirt of the tank. The vixen couldn't help the giggle that passed her lips. They sprites were tangoing in between the two mushrooms that Jeremy had selected. As Taylor looked on, she now noticed that there was a soft blue light emanating from the mushrooms.

"Okay, class! If you'll look in the drawers in the tables in front of you, you will find some small bowls, a few scalpels, some beakers, and a flame mat. You're going to need all of those," Mrs. Savant said. Taylor looked down and opened the drawer, pulling out everything the Magi had said, except for the flame mat, which Jeremy grabbed, seeing Taylor's confusion. Unrolled, it just looked like a black mouse pad, with a strange symbol on the edges of each side that Taylor's glasses didn't translate, and what looked like a small picture of a flame in the very center of the mat. Taylor just shrugged, assuming that the fire mat was some sort of protective covering that kept the table from getting burned.

That notion was quickly proven to be false when Jeremy leaned over the mat and said Firsh, and a small flame popped into existence right in the dead center of the mat. After what she had seen and been through so far on this world, Taylor wasn't too surprised by this.

"Alrighty then students! Now that every team has their sprites and supplies, it's time we got down to business. The first thing you're going to want to do..."

The class proceeded to follow Mrs. Savant's instructions. They were all walked through, first identifying several different types of spores on the mushrooms themselves. Taylor learned that upon close inspection of the glowing mushrooms, there were a series of different faint patterns going across the top. The spores that they needed were under the caps, directly under the patterns that resembled zebra stripes, and not the ones that were made up of leopard spots. Mrs. Savant warned them that they had to be careful not to get any spores that came from under any of the other patterns. She didn't elaborate why, but her meaning held an ominous note. Taylor saw that Jeremy's paws were shaking, and offered to use the small metal scraping tool herself. In one paw, Taylor maneuvered the scraper, while with the other, she held a long metal instrument with a spoon-like collector on the end. It was a little awkward to handle.

The sprites inside stopped their dancing and watched with great interest as the vixen carefully, and gently, scraped the bottom of the caps. There were three "safe" stripes in all on both of the fungi. When the scraper got a little too far off course, the female sprite flitted up and knocked it back into the safe zone, giving Taylor a thumbs up as she hovered there, apparently supervising. Taylor smiled and nodded, whispering a thanks, before continuing. After Taylor had collected and measured the amount of the spores that were needed and deposited them into the awaiting beaker, it was time for Jeremy to take over. Following the Magi's instructions, he stirred in a solution he added with a dropper. This made the spores flare brightly, before he set a metal stand up, which supported the beaker above the flame. The fine powder that had moistened with the solution quickly liquefied.

The rest of the project involved Taylor gently pouring the liquid into a bottle through a strainer, and corking it; all while listening to the Magi explain about the chemical and mystical properties of the spores themselves. A couple of times, there was an audible pop, and Taylor would turn to see a glowing purple liquid, splattered on the surprised faces of several of her classmates. Apparently, they were all guilty of not being as careful to collect the correct spores as they should have been. The fur and scales of those whose mixtures popped were stained with the glowing solution, and were informed that they would remain visibly stained for the next week and a half, despite their scrambling attempts to get to the eye washer to try and clean it off. Taylor noticed that none of their beakers had exploded, but instead the ooze just shot out the openings. Mrs. Savant seemed amused by this turn of events.

By the end of the class, Taylor now had a better understanding of the chemical reaction that took place within the spores themselves that caused the bioluminescence. What's more, she had learned that the solution she had helped to create with Jeremy, was a common mixture alchemists use all the time, specifically with invisibility potions. That, of course, was something that was a little too advanced for this class, and instead they were going to be doing several other projects that would be involving this solution. Those teams whose concoctions went awry, would be expected to return to this classroom after school, in order to attempt it again, as they would be needing their own bottles filled for the rest of the semester. Soon, after everyone had finished their projects and cleaned up the equipment as the tables, there was the chime again. As she and Jeremy started to leave, the Magi told Taylor what chapters to read tonight.

Jeremy was delighted to see that he and Taylor were once more in the next class, and showed her the way again.

Remedial Energy Manipulation? Taylor wondered to herself as she read the sign above the door before entering. Jeremy quickly found them a pair of desks right next to each other, in the front row. After the class filled up, the Magi soon entered, a tall and lanky otter entered, wearing a white three piece suit and tie. Mr. Bloome was written on the name plate of his desk.

"Good afternoon class," he said cheerfully as he set his briefcase down on his desk, turning towards them.

"Now I know that it's almost the end of the day, but I'm going to need you all to try and concentrate on today's lesson," he said, before instructing the class to pull out their Rune Stones. Taylor just sat there, looking at the curious little marking inscribed rocks that Jeremy poured onto his desk from a small pouch from his backpack, which Taylor noticed he was once more, deciding to continue to wear throughout the class.

"And you must be Miss Nicolo, correct?" The Magi asked her. Taylor said yes, and was quickly handed a small brown pouch of her own.

"Okay, Taylor was it?" She nodded as she opened the pouch. "Well, Taylor, for your assignment, I simply want you to study the shapes of each rune on each stone. I really want you to concentrate solely on them as you do so, understand?"

Taylor looked up in surprise and nodded.

Sounds easy enough, she thought as she started with a small red pebble with a single line scratched in it. She held it up in her paws as she began to look it over. She focused on the marking of the stone, staring at it. She was beginning to wonder if maybe she was supposed to be looking at another 'rune', when suddenly she felt a chill. She exhaled, and could see her breath, which startled her, causing her to drop the stone back onto the desk. She now noticed that there was a layer of frost on the stone as well.

Ice. Something inside her suddenly associated ice with the rune.

"Woah there Taylor," Mr. Bloome said calmly as he strode forward, giving the stunned vixen a once over to determine that she was alright.

"And here I thought that you catching up with the rest of the class was going to be a challenge for me. I'm glad to see that I was wrong. With some tutoring, I'm sure that you can get quite up to speed in no time. But for now, I think that maybe it would be best if you just had a study partner for the rest of the class, and since Jeremy's arm might become dislocated if I choose to ignore him, I would assume that he would like to be your partner for this class." Jeremy had emphatically raised his hand at the mention of Taylor needing a partner. She giggled at this display, making the bat boy blush, which in turned caused several nearby furs to snicker.

"Would that be alright with you Taylor?" The Magi asked. She nodded, and spent the rest of the class with Jeremy gently coaching her on how to focus on each rune. There wasn't a repeat of what happened with the one inscribed Ice, but the one inscribed with Fire did get very warm in Taylor's Paw very quickly, and the one inscribed Sun became warm and started to glow a little. This went on for the rest of the class, until the final bell chimed. Taylor's assignment for this class was to continue to study the stones, using the restraint she had learned in class, preferably with adult supervision.

Jeremy walked with her, excitedly chatting the entire way of the mass shuffle towards the front doors of the school. The halls were now mostly empty, what with the majority of the student body quickly making its way to its collective freedom, with Jeremy and Taylor looking to do the same. That was, until their way was blocked by three female furs. One was a lioness, another a white mouse, and the third, standing in the middle and a little bit forward, a silver fox.

"Well hello there!" The silver fox said. "You must be the new girl that everyone's been going on about! Taylor, right?"

"Uh, yeah," Taylor replied, now feeling uncomfortable, Looking to Jeremy for an explanation as to what's happening, she noticed he appeared to be uncomfortable as well, his backpack squirming again.

"Well, allow me to introduce myself. I am Jenna Silverbright, captain of the Resolof team. And from what I've heard, you may just be what we've been looking for. What do you think? Would you like to join the team?"

Taylor was lost entirely as to what was going on, but she suddenly felt a very threatening air about the three girls in front of her.

"Uhm... I actually don't know what Resolof is... so I don't think that I would make for a very good addition to your team."

The three girls giggled amongst themselves before the mouse stepped forward. "Oh that's not a big problem, our next match isn't for another two weeks, more than enough time to fit you into your role," she said, with an excited glint in her eye.

"Well I think that I should learn a bit more about it first, before I agree to join your team," Taylor said, wanting to just get away from these girls.

"So does that mean that you will be joining us then?" the lioness asked.

"Like I said, I have to learn more about it before I make a decision," Taylor said, emphasizing the word decision, not liking how these three appeared to be trying to lead her into agreeing to join.

"That's perfectly understandable sweetie. So how about we give you a few days to learn more about us, and then you can make the right decision?" Jenna said with a smirk, before she snapped her fingers, and turned on her heel, the other two girls in tow.

"That... was oddly intense," Taylor said after she was sure that the trio were all out of earshot, turning to Jeremy, whom she noticed was trying to readjust his backpack straps.

"Y-y-yeah, are you really gonna join them?" he asked, now looking uncomfortable.

"I know absolutely nothing about whatever sport they want me to play, but absolutely not," she said, now feeling a little angry at how pushy those girls were. Jeremy smiled at her, his face lighting up. They made their way out of the school. Taylor asked Jeremy what kind of sport Resolof was, but with Taylor being practically tackled by Lily almost the very moment she set paw outside, she didn't get an answer.

"TAY-TAY! How was your first day of school? Did you have fun?" Lily asked, hugging her very close.

"UGH! It was okay Lily, but I have been to school before. I'm pretty sure that I've told you that," Taylor said.

"Yes, but this is REAL school Tay-Tay!" Lily said matter-of-factly. Jeremy snickered at the nickname.

"Tay-Tay," he said to himself. Taylor just blushed after Lily finished her near bone-crushing hug.

"Hey now, that's MY name for MY little sister! It's a term of endearment that I gave her because of how much she looks up to me," Lily said, rounding on Jeremy, who looked more than a little surprised.

"Once more Lily, I'm pretty sure that we're the same age, also I never said that I--"

"Not now, Tay-Tay, Big Sister's talking," Lily said. Jeremy broke down laughing hard, clutching his sides. Lily smiled smugly to herself at getting this reaction, until Jeremy's laughter caused his backpack to slip. The backpack itself, while still having compartments, was a special one designed for furs with wings, so that they could snugly store them inside. When Jeremy's backpack slipped, his large wings flopped out and flapped a few times. He stopped laughing instantly as he looked up at Taylor, blushing furiously.

"Uh... I-I-I gotta go! See ya tomorrow Taylor!" He said quickly scurrying towards the parking lot. Taylor simply stared after him, confused at his reaction. Then she felt Lily tug at her paw.

"C'mon Taylor! Shaun's got some after-school work or something to do, so Mom's taking us out for a girls' day... or I guess girls' afternoon!"

"Wait, what!" Taylor asked before being pulled towards the idling minivan.

 

 

 

 

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