“It’s relaxing here,” Raine said with a smile. “I know we’re doing all this survey work, but I almost feel like it’s a big vacation. I know this isn’t the most romantic beach in the world, and it’ll slice our feet if we tried to run around barefoot, but it’s still nice. I’m so used to spending all my time in cities during the summer.”
Cameron nodded. “I always like to get back to nature. It’s hard not to when you’re a shifter. It helps give me perspective.
“Is that what I need? Perspective.”
“That’s part of your problem, Raine. Sometimes, you simply need to put the brakes on and think of something other than the FBI. It’s good to have goals, but you have to recharge the batteries every now and again.”
Kelly, Asher, Adrien, and Finn stood in the distance and chatted excitedly about something. Whatever it was involved grand gestures and pointing up and down the beach.
When Raine had last seen Philip, Sara, William, and Evie, they’d claimed they wanted to check a few things in the forest. Both couples conveniently examined separate areas. She didn’t press them on the details because she didn’t want to have to lie to the professors, and if she wasn’t sure where the students were, it made that part easy.
“It’s hard not to be focused when I want it so badly, and it’s so close. What seemed like a distant destination I would never reach is now coming soon. Very soon. I’m worried about screwing it up.” She smiled as a skimmer poked through the surface in the distance. “But taking a while to think about it and reflect on it is nice, too.” She blew out a breath. “And it’s been nice getting to know the students from Orono. I wasn’t sure if I’d like them, but they’re all pleasant in their own way. It’s been interesting to learn how a different magical school works.”
A brief, uncomfortable look passed over Cameron’s face before he replaced it with a blank expression and chased that away with a smile. “It’s funny. I didn’t know if I would feel safe here, but that’s really stupid considering that I go home all the time where we don’t have wards and professors guarding us. The whole mysterious magical island thing made me worry about more deadly creatures, but we’ve barely run into any. I know there are some, but if we never see them, it’s hard to worry.”
“I never feel unsafe away from the school. I only miss it—and my friends.” Raine rested her head on Cameron’s shoulder. “And you, even if Uncle Jerry’s been cool about letting you spend time with us. I wish I could stay with you and your pack for a while, but there’s no way he’ll allow that.”
Adrien, Kelly, Asher, and Finn all vaulted the rock wall and rushed toward the camp in a hurry.
“I wonder what’s going on?” She frowned. “Trouble?”
Cameron shrugged. “If it was something important, they would have done something to draw our attention. You know, it’s not always up to you to be first in and last out.”
“I only want to do my part to help others.”
He ruffled her hair. “I know, and I’m not saying you should change. That dedication to helping others is one of the things I love about you, but I worry about you too.”
Raine sighed. “I know, but I can’t help it. And I feel bad every time I make you worry, but I don’t think I’ll ever change. I’m not the kind of girl who will be satisfied to sit back when someone else is in trouble.”
The couple fell into silence and lingered a while to simply rest and watch the ocean for several minutes. Adrien and the Orono students returned smiling with Professors Hudson, Kaylis, and Powell behind them, all with their wands out.
“Okay, I definitely want to know what’s going on now.” She straightened and searched the horizon for any marine threats, but even the skimmer was gone.
The professors raised their wands. A slight grinding noise issued into the silence as rocks rose from the nearby beach and parts of the rock wall. The stones floated toward the beach and came together to form rough platforms. Other material coalesced into tall rock columns from which other small platforms grew to connect the pillars.
Raine stood and stared as this magical sculptural work continued. The purpose didn’t seem to be to create a building. Or, if it was, it was the bare skeleton of one, but the spacing of the platforms suggested otherwise.
Cameron stood and shook his head. “I have no idea what this is, but it doesn’t look like it’s anything involving danger. Maybe they’re making a monument to our greatness?” He smirked.
“I doubt that.” She stood and jogged toward Adrien when curiosity overwhelmed her.
The elf watched the professors’ work with a slight smile on his face. He nodded every few seconds and his head turned toward Raine as she approached.
“Hello, Raine,” he said.
“What’s going on?”
He gestured to the airborne rocks. “I was discussing Louper with Finn and we shared a little about strategies and experiences. We obviously don’t have the gear or facilities to play it here or even the teams, but we were bored, so we decided to come up with our own game—or a prototype of one, at least. It’s not exactly Louper, but it should provide some entertainment.”
The shifter frowned as he stopped beside them. “A prototype game?”
Adrien nodded. “We’re calling it mazeball. Professor Hudson will transmute plant material into a nice ball for us after they finish putting our course together. They have to reinforce it so it can take the tremors. I’m surprised it didn’t take more convincing.”
“So am I.” Raine couldn’t help wondering if the professors weren’t bored as well.
“We’ll start the game as a three-on-three match.” The elf pointed at the top of the structure. “There will be four baskets, two at the top and two at the bottom of four multi-level courts. It’s simple. For now, we’ll simply say that whichever team gets to ten points first wins. You score by getting the ball into the basket, but no floating the ball with direct magic is allowed. That would make things too easy.”
He pointed at Finn. “You can’t directly restrain or attack another player, but you can put up obstacles on the platforms.” He shrugged. “It’s not simulated, so we need to be more careful. We can’t have everyone hurling fireballs.” He looked at Cameron with a wide grin. “The professors still insist that everyone play with shields on. We’ll provide you with one if you want to play. All we need is to break falls.”
The shifter studied the court speculatively. “I might give it a shot.”
Kelp flowed from the ocean into the air and danced to Professor Hudson’s moving wand like she was the conductor of a silent orchestra. The seaweed separated and wove itself to form a net at the bottom of the stone columns and platforms that made up the mazeball court. Additional nets began to form around the sides.
Adrien pointed at the Orono students he’d spoken to earlier. “We have three there with Asher, Finn, and Kelly. Would you two join me for our test run after the professors finish setting up the course? We’re not saying all the games have to be Charlottesville versus Orono, but we still have some aspects to work out so might as well start our first test match.”
She smiled. “Sure. Why not?”
The finished course might have lacked the aesthetic elegance of something prepared with more time and attention to detail, but it would serve its practical purpose of prototyping their new sport. Without relying on floating magic, the court had a four-by-four-by-four grid of platforms connected to columns. Baskets hung on the center top and bottom platforms on both sides. Dense netting surrounded the outside and the bottom to catch players and rogue balls.
There was more than sufficient space for the teams to move between the platforms, but it was difficult to move up without a running jump. Burst spells or magic that created some sort of line were practically a necessity.
That reality inconvenienced Cameron, but he didn’t mind as he focused on mostly patrolling the bottom level in the first minutes of their match. An occasion shift into wolf form and a run with a mid-air shift into his human for
m allowed him a quick transition above when necessary.
Adrien clutched the white ball beneath his arm. It was smaller than a soccer ball but still much larger than a softball. Two small handles projected from either side. The unfavorable aerodynamics meant it wouldn’t go far if thrown, but that suited the tight quarters of the enclosed mazeball court perfectly.
Taking an object to a target instead of the target being the final destination required a little more adjustment than Adrien had anticipated. He passed the ball with a quick throw to Cameron, who caught it with ease and rushed toward the lower goal.
Kelly raised her wand with a grin and uttered a spell. A thin layer of oil appeared on the platform seconds before the shifter landed on it. He took wolf form and closed his jaws on one of the handles before he bounded to the next platform, his paws slick with oil. The idea was good, but he skidded and fell off the edge into the net with a growl of frustration.
Cameron shifted and shook out his oily hands. “Uh, do we count that as out of bounds?”
“I think so,” Finn called from above. “It’s one thing if the ball falls, but if your entire body falls, it should count.”
He hopped onto the platform and lobbed the ball to Kelly. “I won’t fall for that again.”
“We’ll see.” She waggled her eyebrows.
Raine tucked the small ball under her arm as she leapt to the lower platform. Adrien remained high, but Cameron was near the lower goal. She tossed the ball to the side.
Kelly laughed. “Come on, Raine, don’t give up.”
She grinned at the other witch’s taunt, pointed her wand, and rattled off her spell. While she might not be able to put together a complicated court with ease like the professors, that didn’t mean she couldn’t manipulate the environment with her magic. She’d learned more than only shields and invisibility in her three years at the School of Necessary Magic.
A thin stone slab projected from one of the platforms. The ball struck it squarely and bounced off at an angle to rocket toward Cameron.
Asher grinned, dropped off the side, and grasped one of the lower platforms without the aid of magic. “Good play, Raine. We didn’t even think of doing that sort of thing.”
The shifter caught the ball, spun, and bounded over a muddy pool near the bottom hoop. He thunked it into the basket and pumped his fist. “Now we’re tied again at five to five.”
Finn clapped. “Nice. Very nice.”
Kelly threw her wand in the air and let it spin a few times before she caught it. “Will we allow that? Altering the course in such a big way? I know we decided on one trap per platform unless you clear it, but this new strategy makes it an entirely different game.”
Adrien shrugged. “I can see the practical issues in cleaning the course up, but I like it, even if I hadn’t anticipated that play style. For a game we made up, it still feels very engaging. More so, in some ways.”
Finn nodded. “I do too. It makes it more strategic. It feels like the play would flow better with four or five players, but this is still great fun.”
Raine stared at her creation for a few seconds. “We should establish the rule that it has to extend from the court rather than hanging in the air. That makes it safer and means people can plan better. And also, no matter what, there has to be at least one path to the goal. Otherwise, people will simply throw walls up all around it.”
Asher nodded. “That sounds sensible.”
The other players nodded their agreement.
Cameron picked the ball up and tossed it to the Wood Elf, who moved to a center back platform. They’d collectively decided that these areas would be the starting position for each round.
Asher elevated with a quick burst spell and threw the ball to a waiting Kelly. Adrien lingered near the goal. The witch took the ball and pitched it to her side. A spell created a new wall to bounce off, but her grin faded when Adrien summoned an ice wall in her path. The ball bounced off the ice and fell over the edge where a waiting Raine caught it and threw it immediately to Cameron.
The off-balanced Orono team didn’t even have time to release a spell before the boy careened to the other goal and dunked the ball.
“Six to five.” The shifter bowed. “Maybe I should have taken up Louper, too.”
“Yes, you should have,” Adrien called from above. “It’s fun.”
Cameron threw the ball to Finn. “But don’t get me wrong. I know you and Adrien would destroy me in Louper.”
Finn grinned. “Probably, but this game isn’t over yet.”
Raine took several deep breaths and wiped the sweat off her brow. Her innovations in gameplay had been exciting, but they’d also created a far more defensively-minded game, which relied as much on eliminating obstacles as generating them. The game now truly lived up to the name mazeball.
The teams had fought to a nine-nine tie, and both sides decided, for the premiere game, that ten would be sufficient. Once they had established the rules more firmly, they would consider adding a requirement that a team needed to be ahead by two points to win at the end.
Several walls now covered the court at different angles. The teams had a brief discussion as to whether they should reset the course after every point, but they decided that part of the fun of their new game was reacting to the ever-changing court.
Raine lowered her wand, burst up, and managed to avoid a trip snare Finn had cast on the platform directly in front of her. She spun and threw the ball toward Adrien. He elevated quickly with a burst at the same time that Asher summoned a wall.
The Wood Elf winced as his opponent slammed into the new wall, but the player only emitted a quiet grunt and his shield took the brunt of the punishment. He seized the top and flipped over the barrier, a slight trail of blood trickling down his face, and snatched the falling ball. Another burst careened him toward the almost completely blocked goal basket.
Asher raised his hands to cast another spell. Two of the walls collapsed around the goal, and a new one rose in front of Adrien, but the Light Elf vaulted off the top of the new obstacle for his final delivery of the ball into the basket.
He landed with a grin and wiped the blood off the side of his face. “We have a few things to work out, but so far, I like it. It’s not quite Louper, but it’s still fun.”
Asher clapped and Finn and Kelly soon joined him.
“Good job, guys,” the Wood Elf said. “Now, we need everyone else to play.”
Chapter Thirteen
Mazeball was far from Raine’s mind as she trudged through the western forest with Cameron, Sara, Philip, and Dnai. The professors had decided that the students had all demonstrated enough awareness of the dangers of the island and control of their boats that they could now venture into the woods without an adult.
It wasn’t that the adults left all the work to the students. Some groups performed their daily surveys with a professor. Some didn’t, but the change in requirements allowed them to cover more ground.
The loud flapping of Dnai’s wings sounded from above as she flew to a new branch. “I never thought I’d spend a summer flying around cataloging magical animals. It’s actually more interesting than I thought it might be.”
Raine laughed. “I never even thought I would end up in a magic school.”
Philip squatted near some colorful toadstools that were a foot in diameter. He recorded their features on his scroll before he shook his head. “Do you know what this whole experience has taught me?”
Sara shook her head. “What?”
“I’m a city boy through and through.” He stood with a grin. “Sure, it’s relaxing and all, but I’d kill for a good movie night about now.”
Raine walked forward to inspect a nest in some low-hanging branches. It was a simple sparrow’s nest—interesting but a little disappointing. “What movie will you have us watch next?”
“Did you ever see the Breakfast Club?” he asked.
His companions shook their head.
“What’s a breakfast club?
” Cameron asked. “Is it some sort of drama about a group of people who sit around discussing politics over breakfast? It sounds seriously boring.”
“It’s a teen drama. High-school stuff, and it’s way old. The made it all the way back in the eighties.” The wizard shrugged. “It’s about these high-school kids who get in trouble, so they all have to serve detention, and they’re all different personalities. One guy’s a jock and one girl is basically the princess of the school. There’s also a bad boy, a smart kid, and a weird girl. It’s really dated and stuff in many ways. It’s pre-gate, and they don’t do much with computers, let alone magic, and no one has a smartphone. At one point, it’s supposed to be weird that a girl’s eating sushi.”
Cameron craned his neck to watch a colorful bird with three wings flying overhead. They’d cataloged the species a week before. “If it’s so dated, why do you want to watch it?”
“Because it’s still relatable, dude. They learn how much they have in common as they spend time together talking about stuff. Well, that and a few other things, but the main point is the talking and learning that they might be different, but they can still understand each other.” Philip licked his lips. “They’re not magicals, but they reminded me of the Trouble Squad when we first started. We were all from different backgrounds and cared about different things. We each had problems, regardless of our backgrounds, but we came together and made a difference. It’s strange how a sixty-year-old pre-gate movie can still feel relevant.”
Untouchable Witch: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (School of Necessary Magic Raine Campbell Book 7) Page 8