To Catch a Crayk (Quill 'n Squish)

Marcus Heilari
Clarence Clearwater

The morning had started out nice enough.

Clarence had been able to enjoy a cup of tea in his office while working through the already sizeable pile of paperwork. Even though they were only in the first week of the new year, there were already quite some forms, club applications and inquiries to be filled out and signed. Truth be told, Clarence was starting to get more and more bored with the minute.

He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose, staring listlessly at the application form in front of him.

'I suppose a little break wouldn't hurt...'

He got up from his chair and moved towards the door, but right as he was about to grab the door handle the door burst open, Clarence could only just manage to jump away to avoid getting the door slammed in his face.

His secretary, Miss Hornwood, stormed in, face flushed and hair in disarray.

"P-professor Clearwater!" She stammered, trying to catch her breath. "There's... there's a-" She took a few deep breaths to calm down. "there's a monster in the school!"

Perhaps he would be able to have a break from paperwork, although he doubted it'd be a very relaxing break.

Clarence stepped out of his office and down the hall with a brisk pace, happy to leave the paperwork behind for now. From what he had understood from his secretary’s panicked explanation, the creature, a Crayk, had injured a students and escaped from the Magical Creatures class, but in the chaos it had caused, no one had seen where the creature had fled to.

He figured he’d first go to the class, check on the students and see that they were escorted back to their dorms. The less people in the building, the smaller the chance anyone would get hurt.

The class was in total chaos when Clarence arrived.

Some students were crying, others were loudly talking and shouting in panicked voices, and others just stared right in front of them with a terrified expression. The teacher was absent, having left his fairy behind, who was trying to shout over the noise, but with little effect. The small fairy was barely audible and none of the students paid much attention to it.

Neither did anyone of them notice Clarence entering the classroom. He sighed, briskly stepped to the front and slammed his hands down hard on the teacher’s desk. There were a few surprised shrieks from the students, and then a sudden silence. The fairy had stopped shouting as well and was now bobbing up and down in the air next to him.

“Alright, now everyone has calmed down, could you please answer some questions?”

In the moments that followed, he quickly gathered the information he needed about the incident. The creature had suddenly started growing and attacked a student that had been studying it, before escaping out of the classroom and scuttling down the hallway, out of sight. The teacher had left the classroom to escort the injured student to the nurse’s office, while his fairy had attempted to control the class.

“Right. I want you all to stay calm, panicking is going to help no one. You’ll be escorted back to your dorms while I get to the bottom of this.”

After making sure the fairy could escort the students back, Clarence headed towards the nurse’s office, knocking on the door two times and stepped in.

((I wasn’t going for creepy It’s gotta be the eyes))

“That’s good to hear. Great job, Marcus.” Clarence said with a relieved smile when he heard the student would live.

He turned to the Kokiri, unfazed by the tone of his voice. From what he had heard from his father, the man made up for his lack of size with his ego, and as such, often came across a little haughty.

“Yes, if our nurse deems her fit enough to leave? I’ve send the rest of the class back to their dorms as well. The less people in here, the smaller the chance someone’ll get hurt by this...” He faltered, at a loss for the creature’s name.

“Crayk, headmaster?” The Kokiri added, watching him with a raised eyebrow.

“Er, yes, Crayk.” Clarence stammered, flushing bright red. “Ahem, anyway, do you have any idea where this Crayk may be hiding? If we set out to catch it quickly, we might be able to catch it before it leaves the building and causes more trouble.”

Clarence was about to ask since when they had an Aquarium wing, but he figured that it probably wouldn’t make a very good impression. So instead he just nodded and pretended he knew exactly what the Kokiri was talking about, he’d figure out the directions later.

“I see. Well then, I’d better go after it and try to capture it. If you would be so kind to bring this young lady back to her dorm?”

The Kokiri nodded curtly, and gestured for the students to follow him, guiding them out of the infirmary. Clarence watched them close the door behind them before sighing lightly.

“Right. I’d better go then, shall I?”

“Please, feel free! It’s nice to have some company.” Clarence said with a smile.

And Marcus had a point. They hadn’t seen the Crayk yet, so there was no telling how big it’d actually be, or how dangerous. Plus, hopefully, Marcus knew his way around the buildings, since he certainly didn’t. He could find his way around his office, the dining hall and his own classroom, but he hadn’t been on this part of the grounds since he had been a student himself. And even then he hadn’t known the way all that well.

“So, the Aquarium, huh? They must’ve build that after I graduated from here.” Clarence said to Marcus as they walked down the halls. “Are you familiar with the buildings here?”

Luckily Marcus seemed to possess a map of the building, so they didn’t have to worry about finding their way.

“Ah, good thinking, that’ll save us a lot of running in circles.” Clarence said.

What they did have to worry about was the creature on the loose. From the map, the Aquarium didn’t seem too far away, so there was a chance they could catch up with it, if they were quick.

“It doesn’t seem that far away, no. We should keep an eye out for traces of the Crayk, if it passed by, we should be able to see it.”

“Oh.”

That was all Clarence could muster to say when he saw the damage the Crayk had caused.

“Those are more… visible traces than I’d expected we’d find.”

As unfortunate it was for the cabinet and the rest of the hallway, the size of the Crayk was most fortunate for Marcus and Clarence, as it meant it would be easy to track down.

Having to face it in battle was going to be another task altogether.

“Combat magic?”

He looked at Marcus questioningly, while going over all the spells he knew in his head.

“Well, I wouldn’t say I’m an expert, you’d have to ask the combat magic instructor for that… But I’m certainly not helpless either. …Seeing as the Crayk’ll probably be hiding in a watery environment, I’m actually pretty sure I have a few tricks up my sleeve that could come in handy.“ Clarence said with an encouraging smile.

“I’m sure we’ll manage, else we wouldn’t be worth our positions here.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

Clarence bit his lip, feeling slightly uneasy as they walked through the doors into the Aquarium wing. When he had left his office in a hurry he had forgotten to bring his staff along. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but seeing as combat was highly likely… Getting his hands dirty should be the least of his problems now, but it still gave him an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach.

The Aquarium wing was a dark, damp building. Most of what had been classrooms had been rebuild as aquariums to hold various species of fish and water-dwelling creatures. Normally, had there been classes in session, the place would have been lighted with candles, but today it was dark, giving everything an eerie blue glow from the water.

“Hmmm, a little light here wouldn’t hurt…” Clarence muttered, lighting up a spark spell with a snap of his fingers.

Clarence was surprised Marcus didn’t seem to be familiar with the spark spell.

For a moment he forgot their spooky surroundings and lapsed into his teacher-mode, which was usually reserved for when he was in front of a class.

“Well, it’s a simple spell really, I think it’s taught somewhere in the first or second year. What basically happens is that the caster focuses power in their fingertips, then snaps them to create a small flame. I guess you could say it’s the magical equivalent of flint and tinder, though all it does is illuminate things. If something touches the flame it’ll go out, like- …Ah.”

Before he had been able to finish his sentence, a drop of water fell from the ceiling onto his fingers, extinguishing the small flame, leaving them in the dark again.

“Like that.” Clarence said, looking up at the ceiling. Another drop fell, this time landing on his nose. It seemed there was some sort of leak in the ceiling…