Ella stood at the head of our usual table and raised her glass of juice. “Everyone, I know that some of you may have thought this day would never come. But by sticking and working together, we have finished our first month at Doom Valley.”

Everyone cheered. And the couples with us hugged each other, with some kisses. I didn't hug or kiss anyone, Rocky and Garth didn't either. They seemed to be pretty happy anyways, and I was ecstatic.

A month ago, my life had been much happier, healthier, and far less painful, in fact I would give anything to return to my blissful life back home. But I hadn't thought I'd survive a week at Doom Valley. Truth be told, I hadn't expected to survive my first day. Despite that, I wasn't dead yet, I had good friends, and it looked like I might keep on surviving.

Sure every night I had to get a shot from a sadistic nurse that left me writhing on the floor so I kept my current shape. I was still a girl. I'd almost drowned in combat class that day. I was still regularly set on fire, tossed around by invisible forces, and occasionally chased by angry spirits in magic class, but I was still alive, human, and sapient.

Looking around the canteen, not everyone could say the same. It was suppertime, and there were over a dozen empty seats. Some of the seats that were still filled had students who were barely hanging on. There was a boy who had been an Orc, but was now a barely stable slime. A girl had been transformed into a large humanoid rat, sat in a corner shaking like a leaf, nibbling at her piece of cheese, warily watching the hungry looking cat women, who kept licking their lips and sharpening their knives. And there was one chair with a girl and boy who were slowly absorbing each other. They'd started off only attached at the hand, now they were two heads on one extra wide body, and their faces were starting to look like similar to each other.

Yeah, I could be much worse off.

“Now, we have something important to consider,” Ella said. “Petra is still suffering from her Rapid Transformation Syndrome. There is a cure, but we can't get it without outside help that is far too expensive, or by getting Nurse Ratched a bottle of the Elixir of Life.”

“And we can't get that since none of us are part of the Emerald Mountain Dwarf Clan,” Calci said.

“Exactly. But I've been looking into it. The Emerald Mountain Clan doesn't mind visitors. In fact their beaches are a popular tourist attraction in the Green Sea Archipelago.”

Clarice raised her hand. “How does that help us? We're about four thousand miles away from the Green Sea.”

“We can do an independent study project, for extra credit and time off from class,” Ella said, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “Usually only older students do them, but if we write up a request and have a good reason, we can get a free teleport there and back, and a small loan from the school for supplies.”

“We'll have to pay the school back though. It can't be cheap.”

Ella nodded. “That's right. So we can't just go for the Elixir of Life. It's something that the nurse wants for herself. But we could steal something that the school would like.”

“And what would that be?” I asked, not liking this plan.

Unrolling a poster, my friend held it up for all of us to see. The lettering glowed a brilliant green, and spelled out 'The 100^th Emerald Festival'. Below it was a picture of a beautiful, sandy white beach with a gorgeous mountain behind it, and breathtaking emerald sculptures.

“In two weeks they'll be celebrating the Emerald Festival. They're holding a contest for the best emerald sculptures. There's going to be hundreds of art pieces on display, each of them worth a small fortune. We're going to steal one of them, and get the Elixir of Life at the same time.”

“Wait, we can't rob them! That's not right,' I said.

Everyone looked at me, like I'd grown a second head. “Um, Petra,” Clarice said, “I know you didn't want to come here, but remember where we are. This is exactly what most of us knew we'd eventually be doing.”

“But we could get caught. I don't want you guys to suffer because of me.”

Ella gave me one of her beautiful smiles. “Petra, we are going to be helping you. But this also helps us. If we pull this off, we'll all get a huge boost to our grades, and we'll be the first of our year to do it. That means a lot.”

“And if we're caught, we're teenagers. We'll get a slap on the wrist. This isn't like going someplace where they sacrifice thieves to the god of murder or something,” Naomi said. Then she got a nervous look and turned to Ella. “They don't do that right?”

“Oh no. The Emerald Clan is a firm believer in restitution. They'll just make us pay some fines or work it off in the mine. As long as we give it a good try and don't do something epically stupid, Doom Valley will pay at least part of the fines, and their lawyers will defend us in court. So lets not break anything we don't absolutely have to, or hurt anyone, and we should be OK.”

“See, nothing to worry about,” Naomi said.

There wasn't much I could say to that, Ella and the other girls seemed to have their minds made up. And unfortunately they were right. This was Doom Valley Prep School. As long as I was a student, I'd eventually have to do stuff like this. At least we all agreed that this was to be as non-violent and damaging as possible.

“OK. I'm in,” I said.

“This is purely voluntary,” Ella said. “We'll need everyone who wants to help. Even if you think you can't offer anything, you can still be a lookout, help scout out the location, or provide a distraction. And we will have some time to enjoy the beach and festivities. We need to pass ourselves off as tourists, so we'll be packing our bathing suits.”

All the girls, except Ivy, raised their hands. “We're in,” Calci said. “You'll definitely need me. As a Dwarf I can probably get into places you can't. And I'm the best alchemist we have.”

“No fighting?” Ivy asked.

Well,” Ella said, rubbing her chin, “there might be fighting. If something goes wrong we'll need to escape the guards. They could be fun to play with.”

That got a toothy grin from the werewolf. “In.”

The boys glanced at each other, then Gold, Antoine, and Honey Creeper put their arms around their respective partners. “We're in,” Honey Creeper said, giving Calci a kiss on the cheek. “We can't let you girls take all the risks.”

“And seeing us in bikinis didn't cross your mind at all?” Naomi said, giving Antoine a kiss.

“Nope. Never,” her boyfriend said.

Rocky and Garth were the last ones. We all turned to look at them.

“Sorry,” Rocky said. “I no go. Too hot. And I am too big. Would stick out.”

“It sounds fun, but I'm not good enough with magic yet. Maybe next time,” Garth said.

I couldn't blame them for not coming. I'd made it pretty clear that I wasn't going to date either of them. And Calci's attempts at flirting with Rocky, when her Elf boyfriend wasn't nearby, had hit a brick wall. The half-giant was just too dim to recognize what she was doing. So they would be helping purely out of friendship and for extra marks. The risk of getting caught was just too high for them. If the entire thing wasn't for my benefit, I'd have said no as well.

“All right,” Ella said. “You two would have been helpful, but I understand. So no hard feelings. I'll fill out the forms this evening and hand them in tomorrow. We'll know by tomorrow night if they'll support us. As soon as we have that, we can start getting tools, blueprints, tickets to the exhibit, hotel rooms, and other information.”

“We can ask our teachers for some advice on what spells and potions we'll need,” Calci said.

“I can talk to Bob about it, and ask him for advice,” I said, wanting to help out as much as I could.

“Great! Clarice, Antoine and I will ask our teachers about the country, it's laws and government,” Ella said, getting nods from the other two. “This is going to be fun.”

While everyone talked about what we might need, what we could expect, and how exciting it would be, I listened silently. My supper sat like a stone in my stomach. I just knew this was going to end in disaster.