Topic: Chapter 1


Rosetta sat in the lap of a glowering young man, rain water streaming down her hair and face. With a flick of a switch, Rosetta realized she stumbled into the room of the super-intendent of all males' dormitories, Miles Bernard.

Numerous strands of chocolate hair framed his face and his hazel eyes. She was probably 2/3 his height. Lively leopard ears wiggled on the sides of his face, located just above where a normal human cochlear would be. His baggy shirt-clad chest failed to expose his true figure and pajama pants seemed out of his character but nonetheless on his body.

"What a surprise. Is that you, Miss Stone? You're soaking wet."

Rosetta admitted to herself that the man's voice was both intoxicating and charming. She was no ordinary girl to be swooned by a man so easily, however. She remembered her true purpose for wandering so far.

He did the "smile." The "smile" occurred when a person closed his or her eyes and grinned or softly laughed. It freaked Rosetta out and she punched him square in the gut.

"Uhf!" The super-intendent gasped, his eyes small and quivering, "That was uncalled for, young lady!"

Miles clenched under her knees and back and propped her down on the floor without warning.

"Where's Nike!" Rosetta bickered, remaining with fighting words.

"Nike?" The super-intendent uttered absentmindedly.

"You know! She's a pink snowpuff, about so tall." The girl measured air according to the estimated guess of size she remembered of Nike.

"I'm afraid I don't know of such a creature." Miles smirked, "It sounds like a nice latenight snack for my glass fox, though--Ow!"

Rosetta stomped on his foot with her own, mid-sentence.

"Don't even joke like that!" She quarreled; glass foxes don't consume food of any nature. They're simply souls of foxes and magic assuming the form of glass.

"Girls today..." He shook his head in disregard.

"Just tell me where she is and I'll be on my way."

His pet lingered towards them, lacking a trace of Nike.

"Eclaire has no such thing."

"But I saw..."

"Or does she?" He simpered. She boiled upon that utterance and pummeled him on the head.

"Ouch-cha-cha-ech." Mr. Bernard writhed in pain.

"Where is she, casonova?" Rosetta barked, subliminally revealing her resentment towards his charisma.

"I'll only give her back on one condition."

"Name it." Rosetta replied.

"This!" The older man ripped a poster off the wall neighboring them.

"Huh?" The tan girl stared in disbelief as she read the details for event on the poster.

Topic: Chapter 1
Rosetta placidly fell asleep and a montage of memories stirred on their own accord in her mind.

Before she met Phillis, the hedgehog chimera fell victim to many of Rodwell's thuggings. Everyone in need of money or desired it worked in different districts of the school. Phillis worked a night-shift in the cafeteria cooking food and she was very much appreciated by everyone at dinner. Little did they know her wages had been robbed until recent date.

Phillis would step right into it through, always skulking about the places she expected the ruffian to be. She found a thrill in being robbed by the young man and when she started offering it to the boy, he stopped leaving bruises on her arms.

Rosetta had caught Phillis in the act of offering Rodwell her income for that week one day and was outraged. It was then Rodwell found a par for his strength in Rosetta, which he never assumed before. It had been the docile girl that split the fight.

The next day, Rosetta "convinced" Rodwell to never do such a thing again. He brought Phillis a bouquet of flowers and a sense of humor flooded his personality.

Rosetta aroused from her sleep instantly at the frigid burn of an uninvited guest in her dorm. Darkness had engulfed her room at the stroke of 8 and only the moon left battling shadows of dim light through her windows. Rain stormed outside and trickled down the panes but there was no sign of thunder heard.

A pure entity of light chilled her cheek. It was a snowpuff; a bulbous creature made of animate snow with tiny beaded eyes and a pair of thin antennae. The creatures were popular pets and glowed in a variety of colors. This one's glow had a pink hue.

"A snowpuff? I wonder who it belongs to."

"Nike, Nike. Where are you?" A whisper called.

Rosetta's door had been unlocked during the time she had slept and opened slightly. Phillis stepped in, wearing silky, minty-colored negligee and a matching Santa hat. Her feet squeaked, safely guarded by the synthetic fleece of sheep slippers.

"Nike!" Phillis cried, "Rosetta, catch her!"

Before Rosetta reacted, the tiny creature bounced like a cricket and evaded her owner.

"Hurry, Rosetta! Get her!" Phillis yelled as high as a 6-inch voice would allow her and scrambled out the door, the squeaking of her slippers drowning away with her distance.

Rosetta groggily plopped off her bed, put on a pair of her own fluffy hedgehog slippers and ran in pursuit of both of them.

The halls of the girl's dormitory were a maze of elegance. Portraits on the walls, tables offering mints in punch bowls and potted plants decked most of the walls.

Rosetta caught up with a panting Phillis by a stairwell.

"I need to find her, Rosy... Where could she be? He started acting strange all of a sudden..."

"I'll find her for you, Philly." Rosetta assured her friend, "You search downstairs and I'll look around up here."

Phillis nodded and they parted ways. The only reason the snowpuff made it into her room was because the door had been open a bit on it's own. A snowpuff couldn't squeeze into cracks that well.

Her neighbors slept and it didn't surprise her. It was about 11 o'clock PM, after all. She couldn't just barge into every room.

There were walkways between the male and female dorms. Without a key, however, people couldn't sneak into the dormitory building of the opposite sex's domain at the other ends of the walkways. They could, however, unlock the door of their own doors that lead to these walkways.

There was a unwritten system of transfer of keys between lovers and friends. Rosetta had no boyfriend however and Rodwell would never cough up his key to her.

In front of this walkway, Rosetta encountered a glass fox, baring the snowpuff in its teeth. They brilliant illuminated together amidst the darkness and Rosetta couldn't miss them.

Simply, it was a fox made of out glass. The only object within its body was a small glass heart in the shape of a Valentine. The glass fox could recover from any attack to its body but once the heart is scathed, it suffers from pain. If something is lodged in the glass fox's heart, the fox shatters to shambles the size of brittle.

The glass fox was another popular pet and a very helpful one. Just by rubbing along the shards of broken glass in a hole, the glass fox repairs windows. They are very rare to find and very loyal to their owners so if one was stolen it would never respect the thief or obey it.

"Hold it right there, buster." Rosetta threatened. The fox transfigured Nike and it's collar into glass temporarily as it jumped through the glass door leading to the upstairs walkway between the dormitory buildings.

Once on the otherside of the door, Nike regained her normal physical features and the fox dashed away to the other side of the walkway. Rosetta noticed a leather collar strapped around the fox's neck. It belonged to somebody.

Rosetta reached in her pocket for her key and inserted in the door handle briskfully. She hurried and continued her pursuit of the fox.

Rain made her chase more difficult and doused her uniform beyond "repair" to use tomorrow. Luckily she had dozens of the same ensamble swinging on hangers in her closet.

"Stop right there!" Rosetta yelled, slamming the glass door open.

She met a dead end once she ran into the entrance to the boy's dorms and the glass fox hopped across the glass window. Rosetta had no idea what to do. Of course she could punch the glass door and go from there but it would cause an uproar the next morning. The rain overwhelmed her ears in unison as millions of droplets pittered and pattered incessantly.

The glass fox prodded it's head couple stories above her out of a window and withdrew. Vines branched all over the stone walls leading to where the fox had been. In silent agreement, she planted herself on the vines and climbed for her dear life, hoping not to fall. The vines were drenched and she clawed onto the stubs of leafs and the cracks between stone blocks desperately.

"The things I do for love." She shook her head in despair and pressed on.

Steadily she perched on a window sill near the last trace of the glass fox. The window slid due to other forces and the girl was snagged inside abruptly.

Topic: Chapter 1
The fourth period bell from the clock tower between the male and female dormitories alerted the silent halls that a stampede of tired yet excited feet would emerge.

Rosetta returned to her dormitory abode from out of a dusty busy hustle in the hall and kicked off her shoes. Lazily, she dragged her feet, still baring cotton socks, against her carpet until they popped off themselves.

The crimson shag carpet did wonders for her naked soles and toes. She almost crawled into bed without taking the measures to take a bath or cleanse her face.

Many porcelain and plush dolls, novelties, and silk-woven throw pillows idly sat in the many nooks and crannies of the opulent room. They belonged to nobody that lived there yet no one felt the need to steal them. The touch of everything and anything in these dorms guaranteed a reciprocating tactile massage.

She knocked the wind out of her stomach by mounting swiftly between the gossamer curtains of her poster bed. The desert possessed no luxury richer than a bed.

With this many clouds teaming the sky, the sun resembled an kernel of butter popcorn during its edible stage. The possibility of rain showers and thunder that evening was high.

The windows framed around a panorama of the forest from the balcony outside. Made of thick glass, they never let a sound enter or escape the room.

Her eyes fluttered shut. She tried to protest but the today's classes tired the lass out.

Topic: Chapter 1
She looked like a native of a foreign land and appeared anachronistic in a white nurse uniform from the humans outside the Forest. She had been her village’s expert herbal doctor but wanted to make it her profession to help those that dwelled in the village. Gala was one of the lucky few who had the privilege to access towns outside the outer limits of the forest. Of course, it was only for medical purposes and she had to dress her horns with hat or hood when engaging with ordinary humans. She was not one to flinch at the sight of blood and had no sentiment hesitating her to kill what dared to strike her, but she felt strife for members of her fellow kind who lost their loved ones or their own life. She shared a bond with Rosetta that sisters have and considered her as one.

"We should probably nurse her back to consciousness. It shouldn't take too long." Rosetta clutched the torso of the other girl and handed her over to Gala.

Usually it took 20 minutes tops for the wishy washy girl to return to the realm of consciousness. She laid across a burlap sofa, not moving a twitch.

"You should probably leave, Roddy." Rosetta pivoted around to stare at him solemnly.

"I probably should." He planted his hands behind his vermillion head and wandered towards the door.

Rosetta sighed and returned to staring at her strange friend.

Topic: Chapter 1
"Should we take her to Gala again?" Rosetta murmured.

"Let's. You grab under her arms and I'll take her feet." Rodwell suggested.

"That won't be necessary." Rosetta hoisted the girl a little into the air and snatched her with both hands under her back and knees.

"Man I guess I don't know your own strength." The squirrel chimera itched his scalp, a bit perplexed.

The doctor's office incased you in an invisible block of ice the instant the door turned ajar. Fortunate for all three students, their uniforms provided enough warmth for interior coldness as well.

Roddy became addicted to pressing the clerk-bell on the stainless steel counter.

"Well, well, don't you all look smashing?" A voluptuously figured nurse swayed her hips innocently as she entered the room.

The nurse was also a member of Rosetta's old tribe but that was also a confidential relationship no one else should know.

Soon, the character relative to Rosetta who manifested before them in impatient struts but soon her face softened. The woman looked far more mature compared to Rosetta?s cute chastity.

Her name was Gala, obviously. The lady's scrawny burgundy hair ran no longer than shoulder length. Lime green markings stained each cheek. A nurse's cap crowned her bushel of hair. Her nurse apparel reached only to the invisible equator of her thighs. She had slender horns curled backwards with broad horizontal stripes running along.

No one ever profiled Rosetta as being related to Canon or Gala because her barren cheeks lacked marks. The marks on Canon's face were blunt-edged and fuschia, as opposed to the lime green sharp-points on Gala's face. How dull or sharp the markings were represented the personality of individual.

Rodwell felt no romantic relationships with this figure. She was a bigger sister or even a secondary mother however.

"Phillis, again?" The woman gawked.

"Yes." The two sophomores collectively answered.

"She really has the hots for you, doesn't she?" The nurse elbowed Rodwell, jesting.

Rodwell had no desire for this meek girl. A boy with a reputation such as his was no ideal lover for the hopeless virgin. Or perhaps, that's made him appeal to her in the first place. Another girl had a place in his heart, however.

"Well!" Rodwell retorted, furiously blushing, "I have no desire to date her or whatever. If I wanted a girlfriend who's unconscious most of the time I'm with her, I'd rather become a necrophiliac."

"Nasty!" Rosetta writhed.

Topic: Chapter 1
Rosetta wasn't abrasive or conscious of any lurking feelings she felt for the mechanical brute. What she meant by calling him a "bully" was that he was a pushy person who enjoyed getting things his way. It's been a while since she's seen his ruthless side. He wouldn't harm a fly now... or at least one that kept its distance.

She was attracted to his flaws. Rosetta often found aspects about herself she wish weren't her nature. Befriending a "bully" lifted any guilt she had and she felt comfortable the way she was now. Whether that was good or not, she hadn't a clue.

He was pretty easy on the eyes. He had rich vermillion hair parted like a swift curtain. A side of his bangs always covered one eye, on most occasions it was the left eye. His eyes burned an amber yellow. Unless it was winter, he refused to wear uniform and because of his infamous street fighting history, no professor dared to mention it.



His baggy shirt consisted of two layers. One was a sleeveless, coarse-like sweater with a deep V neck and the second layer consisted of a smothering black fabric that included sleeves that ran in length to the elbows. Both layers suffered from bleach, since laundry never was the boy's forte.

Today, however, was a day of autumn and a cold swirling one. The boy jostled through cakes of people to their location. The features of his face seemed to illuminate at the discovery of the two ladies.

"What's the deal with crowd?" Rodwell fastened his tie better, a traditional red tie that men wore, "Damnit, this collar is chafing."

While struggling with his uniform, Rosetta couldn't help quiver with some giggles. Meanwhile, Rosetta noticed the porcupine chimera dying due to glowing boy's proximity.

He only wore this uniform two seasons or less a year, so she took the time to appreciate it. It was a clean, sturdy royal blue jacket that matched Rosetta's and their peers'. A white dress shirt beneath this coat drove him insane.

"Just leave it alone. I'm sure you'll forget about it sooner or later." Rosetta beamed at him with pep he shrugged off.

"Easy for you to say." Rodwell pouted sourly. The image was so irresistable that Phillis fainted.

"Philly!" Rosetta firmly grasped her shoulders.

"Do you have to do cute things like that?! You know that Philly has a crush on you!"

"Hey now! I didn't think doing that was cute at all." A wily smile spread across his face, "Information I must remember for the future."

"Oh, shut up!" Rosetta resentfully barked at him.

Topic: Chapter 1
Today the entire student body was an hour early before any school function thinkable to get their fortunes told.

This pitched-tent event occurred last year and mischievous class-skipping boys and romance-obsessed girls encountered an enigmatic yet charming prophet.

This prophet was a lady, a chimera of human and rabbit. However, blindness plagued her and how she "chanced" upon their dwelling here was a mystery. Silver coins nipped at the trim of the teal veal her eyes adorned.

Her outrageous torrents of blonde hair cascaded an inch below her neck and her sleek, erect rabbit ears gave her profile the glow of Cherry Blossom petals delicately meeting the surface of a summer's pond. Her skin was tan from experience and life. Two fuchsia markings presented themselves on each of her facial cheeks. A matronly lavender shawl modestly covered her body and a dull pearly skirt graced her legs.

Rosetta found no surprise at her arrival. After all, the woman was her former leader. She couldn't let her peers or prefects know that connection... or anybody else for that matter. She simply smiled at this woman and the prophet acknowledged the familiar soul she detected with a grin back. Between helping her eager fortune-anticipating customers, that is.

"Canon, do my fortune next!" Waved a spirited platinum blonde elitist by the name of Latiana that Rosetta had become familiar with before, not in a pleasant way might I add. She bore the crest of this school on her right breast, a complex of gold and navy blue.

The girl was a beautiful yet demanding leopard chimera. Rosetta snubbed the girl from afar. Of course Latiana would want another fortune told after last year.

She ordered a love fortune last year and Canon always presented the goods. Canon is the name of the prophet, you see. Latiana discovered the perfect man for herself in the form of a prefect at their academy.

"It's so easy for her to match make like that but when it comes to knowing the future, she's like a fortune cookie." Thought Rosetta with a scowl.

"Rosetta." A softspoken voice tore the sheep girl away from her thoughts, "C-can we go too?"

The meek girl always seemed to tug on the sheep chimera's broad sleeves. Sometimes it felt like the girl couldn't even go to the bathroom without getting permission. Rosetta befriended this shy one out of pity and the fact that she was overwhelmingly cute, no matter how taxing her mannerisms were.

The said girl was a pushover chimera between a human and a porcupine, dominantly human of course. Her green quilled hair made for a spikey pair of ponytails. She exuded attitude whenever she wore her large, fat capped hats as well. They were a pain to take off, however, so she wore them on rare occasions. Luckily, the limbs of her body projected no quills at all and instead spurted with thin green strands of human hair.

The name of this one was Philly. Phillis was her real name but even that sounds pretty dorky. If you're going to have a lame name, you might as well have one with style.

Rosetta looked up with piqued interest but her interest was spent in vain for the crowds around the tent grew massive and they were short on time.

"Why are you so interested in getting a fortune, Philly?"

"Well... I w-want a... L... a fortune... You see..." The girl stammered but Rosetta understood the language of "blundering" very well by now.

"So who's the lucky guy?"

Phillis blushed in reaction to the question, holding her cheeks hopelessly.

"H-he's not lucky. I... could be..." She peered at Rosetta with daring eyes, "Rodwell."

Rosetta's face twisted with emotions abruptly but she fixed it to have a supportive pepper, despite the inner demons protesting inside of her.

"Good luck with that, my friend." The magenta-haired contradiction said, patting Phillis's back, "Though I wouldn't count on getting Canon's fortune today."

"You're right. Absolutely right!" The smaller one nodded vigorously, "What was I thinking!"

Rosetta felt horrible for the thoughts processing through her mind and feelings crossing her heart. To everyone else, she donned the mask of a helpful, caring young lady. Her thoughts were selfish and she wish she could genuinely care about everyone else as much as she should.

Now, onto the young man floating around the conversation.

Rodwell was anything but a gentleman. He was a slacker, a bully, yet a great test-taker and the ease of his above average academic achievements drove Rosetta wild with passionate anger.

And yet... The man was her best friend. Few people would believe it. Phillis knew of it already but never got the chance to spend as much time as Rosetta had with the lad.

Rodwell was an inventor, a hobby no one but Rosetta was aware about. He's an awkward chimera, a combination of a squirrel and man. The inventor possessed a lab lobbied within the earth about a mile away from campus.

Topic: Chapter 1
(Disclaimer: This story, these characters, and any monsters are my property, unless stated otherwise. Don't steal it.)

The turrets filled with a sea of diverse pupils attending "The Academy," a scholarly summit of academic prowess and perhaps the only one around for miles. The architects who built the very foundation of this school had a vision indeed.

Rosetta fit in among the desert immigrants who sought refuge in the boundaries of the forest. Her crispy terra cotta complexion blended right in with a number of her peers. The plum tresses of her hair savagely lapped across her shoulders.

She wore what everyone at school uniformly did; a royal blue coat bonded together by two prodigious buttons. The color seemed to clash with her skin but the white collar clinging to the crook of her neck contradicted this problem. A platinum sash ribbon was suspended by her collar. Men's apparel included ties in the stead of such accessories. The lines of her plaited skirt ran with the colors of autumn leaves and maple syrup.

It was not strange to come across chimeras at this prestigious school, dominantly human and sharing snips and snaps of anatomy from an another animal here or there. In fact, no one could spot a single ordinary human amidst the phenomenal crowd.