elizabeth_oswald

Chapter Ninety - A Totally Fair Division of Loot

Pandy was pointing at a small table not far past the tranquil lake of her blood. On it rested a statue of Ismara, marble hands outstretched, palms up. On those hands sat a small wooden box. A very flammable small wooden box, thank you very much, Edgar, you slightly morbid pyromaniac.

“That’s it?” Isidor asked, grimacing slightly. “It’s not very big.”

She glared at him. “Haven’t you ever heard that size doesn’t matter? I mean, sometimes it does, but in th...

Chapter Eighty-nine – Specter Smackdown

Isidor hurried after her. “Hey! Bu- Um, Pandy? Where is this place? Why are we here? How do we get back?” He was casting worried glances behind him, as if realizing for the first time that he’d left Eleanor behind, though Pandy was certain that the princess was being watched.

Pandy paused long enough for him to catch up, then laid a finger over her lips before continuing forward. “This is the third floor,” she said as quietly as possible, though really, wasn’t that obvious? ...

Chapter Eighty-eight – Third Floor’s the Charm

Pandy grinned, glad to be able to turn the tables on the secretive boy. “Come on, and I’ll show you.” His eyes narrowed, but when Pandy led the way back toward the classroom wing, he followed.

Small Groups were everywhere today. Usually, teachers spent most of their time talking, or giving the students small, practical lessons. On Friday, it seemed that those teachers brought out the metaphorical Big Guns. A few seemed to have teamed up, and ten children ran around the training gr...

Vacations and maps

Just letting everyone know that I'll be on vacation next Friday through the following Tuesday (May 30-June 3). My family is heading to Texas for Chupacabracon, which I honestly think my husband only picked because he liked the name. That means no chapters for those days. My next vacation won't be until mid-July, when we'll head for Colorado and LitRPG-con. Tickets are $$, but since I intend to talk to publishers, it's a business trip, right? Is anyone else planning on going? If you are, I wou...

Chapter Eighty-seven – Seven Mysteries

“Today, we’re going to play a game,” Pandy told the five children. As usual, Thaniel was seated beside her on one of the benches, while Eleanor and Geraldine sat on the other nearby bench. Isidor and Abbington stood further away, and, as had become usual, Brook wandered around near Abbington, trying to determine what, if any,  of the neighboring plant-life was edible. It was Friday, Abbington was finally beginning to relax around her, and Pandy wished she dared to give the little b...

Chapter Eighty-six – The Best-Laid Pansies

Wednesday passed much as Tuesday had, except that Pandy remembered that she was supposed to attend dinner as Ms. Wellington. Fortunately, when Shifting Faces reached level three, its duration also increased to two hours, so she just barely managed to do everything she needed to do before poofing back to Bunny.

Apparently, it was the chancellor’s evening off, because he wasn’t there to see her glaring at the students, and appreciate the improvement in her acting skills. One little gi...

Chapter Eighty-five – Elemental Education

“What’s the best kind of Fire elemental?” Geraldine demanded, eyes intent.

“Best or most powerful?” Pandy asked absently, eyes caught by another patch of shadow. Had something moved there?

“What’s the difference?” Geraldine said, twisting so she could stare up into the tree Pandy was watching. “What’s up there? Another squirrel?”

Pandy focused on the little girl, trying to smile. After seeing the creepy face, Pandy’s reaction had been a little too obv...

Chapter Eighty-four – Put On A Show

After Governance and Leadership came Small Group, which meant it was time for Pandy to play the part of Ms. Wellington again. So, while Thaniel happily chatted with his classmates, taking full advantage of the free time Mrs. Lovett gave them, Pandy found herself focusing more and more on the upcoming class period. What was she going to do? As far as she could tell, the children just expected her to let them run wild, but if she was really going to convince anyone that she was a teacher, she n...

Chapter Eighty-three – Let Them Eat Cake

Kaden was a terrible tutor. He hovered around his sister like a particularly obsessive mosquito, paying no attention to anyone else. Lian, on the other hand, knew everything, and was perfectly willing to share his knowledge, though he had no patience with foolishness. By the time the hour was up, Geraldine and Thaniel looked bored, but Abbington was doing remarkably well. Lian didn’t seem to have any trouble understanding his speech, and the younger boy’s earnest questions prompted Lian t...

Chapter Eighty-two – Practical Magic

Dragon food was spicy. Not spicy as in hot – though it was that, too – but spicy like Indian food, with a complex combination of flavors that wasn’t always to Pandy’s taste. Still, she ate, and lapped up the golden liquid, which was sweet and probably not alcoholic, because she didn’t feel woozy after drinking it. Pandy had never much cared for alcohol, because when your luck was as bad as hers, you didn’t really need to encourage bad things to happen.

Dragons also didn’t ...

Chapter Eighty-one – Dinner With A Dragon

The dragon took Pandy with him to the library. This worked out, since she had nothing else to do, but she was a bit miffed that no one bothered to ask. The dragon just scooped her up – his skin felt like completely normal human skin, not scaly at all – and carried her off to his lair, where he completely ignored her while reading and answering random questions posed by small children.

When the dinner bell rang, Pandy – who had been sitting under the circulation desk, possibly pout...

Chapter Eighty – Pink Porpoise Parade

Pandy sat bolt upright in the chair, then came to her feet, already stammering out something that might have been a greeting, or an apology, or possibly an order for takeout. None of the three responded, though Professor Beeswick crossed to the desk and picked up the copy of The Courteous Mage’s Guide to Elemental Balance that lay there. Tucking it under his arm, he nodded with surprising affability and returned to stand beside the chancellor.

Mr. Blackwood, for his part, pul...

Chapter Seventy-nine – Not About the Magic

Pandy burst into the classroom, and only then remembered that she was supposed to be the calm, cool, and collected Ms. Wellington. Dropping her skirts into place, she cleared her throat, attempting to level a disapproving glare at the students. This proved difficult, since they were just sitting in their chairs, not hanging out of windows or throwing paper at each other, the way the children in Pandy’s world would have been. At least she wasn’t panting after her short run, since she didn�...

Chapter Seventy-eight – Sudden Substitution

“King Elliott was how old when he took the throne?” Mr. Rowe asked, looking around expectantly.

<Eighteen,> Pandy thought lazily, rolling over to expose her belly to the narrow beam of sunlight edging its way in through the classroom window.

“Eighteen,” Ellie said, after a protracted silence made it obvious that no one else knew.

“Very good, Ellie,” Mr. Rowe said, nodding. “Everyone else, stand and do twenty-one jumping jacks.”

With resigned groan...

Chapter Seventy-seven – Who Invented Zippers, Anyway?

The door to Ms. Wellington’s office swung open beneath Pandy’s hand, and she all but leaped inside, slamming the door shut behind her before pressing her forehead against it. Everything was fine. Fine. She would just-

“Are you all right?” The voice from behind her made Pandy jump and squeak in a very undignified way. Spinning, she forgot about her oozing nose and held her hands out in front of her, allowing the dammed-up flow of blood to drip down her face. Chancellor B...

Chapter Seventy-six – Boredom and Bedlam

Charm was one of many stats that Pandy had considered and discarded as being essentially worthless. Clara ‘needed’ at least ten levels of it early in the game, but it was replaced by more specific stats like Style and Talent later on. Like Innate Magic, it was meant to teach you how the game worked rather than really being useful in and of itself. Once Clara had impressed all of the boys with her simple Charm, the stat was never really used again.

But Pandy reminded herself once aga...

Chapter Seventy-five - Please Don’t Squeeze the Charm(in)

When Keros had appeared beside Pandy, she wasn’t really afraid. In spite of his rippling muscles and casual use of power, she could tell that he was harmless. Or at least mostly harmless. Now, the space filled with billowing fabric, oodles of hair, and warm, fleshy bits that Pandy didn’t want to think  about too much, she waited for the fear she’d felt only a moment before to become utterly overwhelming.

It didn’t. In fact, she felt her body relax into the honeysuckle smell...

Chapter Seventy-four – Oatmeal and Wild Asphodel

Keros was chained to a rock. That was an odd thing to happen to anyone, especially a god, but Keros was an odd god, at least in Pandy’s admittedly very limited experience. He didn’t seem to be in danger – there were no eagles slurping down his liver, for instance – so Pandy would have noped out of there, if she had any idea where ‘there’ was, and how to get back home.

It was that thought, that realization that at some point her brain had come to see this world – or at leas...

Chapter Seventy-three – Why Is There Always Math?

<Stats,> Pandy thought, staring down at the piece of paper pinned beneath her ink-stained paw. It was only faintly illuminated by the tiny Spark she’d cast more than an hour ago, but Pandy didn’t need light to see the words that formed before her eyes.

Name: Pandy

Race: Rabbit? (Deceased)

Age: 24

LF: 1/1

Mana: 82/82

Stats▾

• Stre...