Page 99 of Class Studies

The dog-bear monster jumped excitedly up and raced around the room. Magical teeth destroyed the round domes that usually followed our every move. Vac chased his tail in a big circle before padding back to the door and lying against it.

I giggled uncomfortably and tried not to let guilt twist my stomach. I promised Professor Garnet I wouldn’t leave him out. Yet that seemed to be all I did.

Tanwyn rubbed my back. “Is there something wrong?”

I searched for a reason to wait. “Ah, don’t you need to get your friend?”

Tanwyn grinned at me. “My friends are always with me.”

* * *

Layers of rust and orange blurred the markings covering the Sphérique. I forced myself to relax, lying on Tanwyn’s yoga mats. The summoner finished drawing his rune in the air, and the complicated, angular sketch swirled around him twice before sinking into the tattoo he often traced on his forearm.

For a heartbeat, nothing happened. A whooshing sound made me scream, and I pressed myself to the floor. The tattoo on Tanwyn’s forearm glowed and melted off his skin. He let out a pain-filled grunt as it dripped sideways. With a pop, a mass of blacks, purples, and whites solidified into a complicated.

“Yordle, the Mechanic shall fuck up your world!” a high-pitched voice cried.

A terrifying two-foot-tall, mostly humanoid thrust his four arms into the air. He reminded me of a fantasy goblin, except his skin had more of a purple hue, and hairy spider legs held him off the floor. A pair of black raven wings stuck out of his back and mimicked the long-pointed ears coming off his purple-gray face. He grinned at me with gold pointed teeth matching the slightly reflective sheen of his eight, round dark eyes in a diamond pattern on his face.

My breath come out fast. The thing stood at my side, with nothing between us, leaving me exposed. Fear froze me in place.

“It’s not that kind of a summons, sorry.” Tanwyn smiled at the new arrival.

The terrifying spider creature put down all four of its hairy human arms and slumped. “It’s never that kind of a summons anymore,” it said in a surprisingly mellow tenor. It looked mournfully at Tanwyn with all eight of its eyes. “Is there even a car or something I can take apart? I promise not to eat the spark plugs this time.”

Tanwyn gestured around him.

The creature twirled like a dancer before resting its gaze on me. My heart raced with fear.

“You know I don’t like the living.” Its lip curled up in disgust. “Did you get drunk and summons the wrong demon again?”

I let out a strangled laugh and rubbed my chest, remembering to breathe normally.

Tanwyn sighed. “She’s not a sacrifice. And that was one time.” He flushed. “I was sixteen.”

The thing’s laugh sounded like two metal plates grinding against each other. “It was still funny as hell.”

I squeaked. “Is hell a real place?”

The thing stopped laughing and put two of its hands-on its hips. Or, more accurately, where his spider lower half connected to his goblinish one. “She’s not very funny, is she?”

Tanwyn pinched the bridge of his nose. “Dot, this is Yordle. I found him eating old CD players in a junkyard, and he kind of became my best friend. Don’t judge me.”

“Hey,” Yordle turned away from me to face Tanwyn. “Don’t judge you? Don’t judge me!”

I forced another normal breath through my lungs, my fear continuing to ease. The word friend echoed in my thoughts, and I grasped onto it.

Yordle stabbed one of his fingers at Tanwyn. “I made a contract with a kid who was supposed to take over the world. Who got the short end of the stick there?”

Tanwyn grinned. “We still might. I’m young, and the world still sucks.”

Yordle shook his fist. “Maybe we should start with taking over your prison.”

“Actually,” Tanwyn walked to my side and sat.

He rested his cool hand on my head, and his eyes widened in surprise. Immediately, he shuffled around and rested my head on his lap, stroking my hair. “You’re terrified. Relax, he’s a good friend, and he’s all bark. You’d be pissy too if you spent the last few years trapped in a tattoo.”

Yordle snorted. “Thankfully, I don’t experience time as mortals do.”