#james bark

A young Marleybonian girl and her brother were playing in the Commons under the supervision of Malorn Ashthorn, the thirteen year old only ‘supervising’ by summoning small skeletons for them to chase so he could go back to his reading.

Jamie Bark, young apprentice to her grandfather, the best watchmaker in Marleybone, had convinced her parents to let her and her younger brother, James, go to Wizard City and apply for some primary magic lessons. 

She knew James had a knack for storm magic that he made her swear to not tell anyone about, so in a way it was just helping him. But she’d like to see if she could learn anything useful, too. After all, her grandfather once told her that their ancestors excelled in the lost art of balance magic. Maybe that could be fun.

With the application process only taking ten minutes at most, they were set loose on the world to play for a few hours, under watch of the young death teacher (not professor, Malorn insisted. that was Professor Drake’s title.)

Jamie was grinning, her golden fur ruffling in the breeze as she chased after another skeletal cat. At ten years old, she was still as clumsy as her puppy brother, who was only seven and tripping over himself to catch up on his stubbier legs. 

James was panting, his pointed ears pressed back as he stumbled again. He stopped, plopping himself down on the ground and beginning to play with the flowers and bugs in the grass instead. He was always quicker to give up, even though her mom said it was just because he was littler. 

Jamie laughed at him, turning around and starting a slow trot to make sure he was okay. The autumn breeze made her loose blouse shift, and she stubbornly re-tucked it into her trousers, growling faintly at the annoying fabric. 

Malorn glanced up at the siblings, not noticing anything out of place. He went back to his reading, glad that they weren’t getting into any trouble.

“Jay, mom will yell when she sees grass stains on your trousers.” Jamie called out, her thick Marleybone accent making a few students passing by turn and look.

James looked up, snorting under his breath. “You’ve got more stains than me.” 

Jamie glanced down at her trousers, which seemed more green than patchwork grey now. She brushed her paw at them absentmindedly. “I’ll count ‘em, we can see who’s really got more.” 

When she looked back up, a handful of grass was thrown in her face. With a yelp, she began batting at the small blades of grass with her paws, stumbling backwards. James began laughing loudly, high pitched, yip-like squeaks making their way into his laughter as Jamie fell onto her butt with a thump. 

“Aw bones.” She cursed, pouting as her brother continued to laugh at her. She would have to steal all his biscuits for sure when they got home, and that always took so much effort, especially having to eat all of them before he noticed.

A young Marleybonian girl was sat on the grass surrounding the peaceful commons pond. The murmurs and faint laughter of students in class carried on the breeze, along with the changing leaves. 

One of those leaves, orange with tinges of red along its veins, fell into the pond. The disturbance rippled out in clean circles, the concentric rings disturbed by something else.

It was quick, when it happened. For just a moment, some of the witnesses swore they saw a dark tendril, bright flashes, a skeletal hand. They all claimed to see something different. 

What the thing did was horrible and strange and unforgettable. The only thing that foretold its arrival was a small snap and the leaf that had fallen into the pond disappearing. 

With an even louder snap the two children were whipped high into the air, almost flying for a moment. All Jamie could see was ruffled fur and the bright blue and green and grey of the sky and the ground flipping over itself, and her brother. 

She reached out, as if to catch her brother, who was screaming and howling and afraid. She almost had him in her grasp, her paws still outstretched, when they both hit the water.

And they were gone.

Quiet, confused murmurs filled the Commons for a moment, rumbling up into hysteria before dying as quick as it came.

Malorn looked up from his book, noticing the Commons seemed a bit emptier than before.