Chapter Text
Today would mark the end of her second month in Twisted Wonderland. Laras didn’t know how to feel.
Truth be told, she didn’t know how to feel about everything in general, from her newfound relationship with the Heartslabyul students, the new job she picked up at Octavinelle, the fact that her male persona, Laras Primasari, was actually working. Generally, everything was going great for her, she certainly felt like she and Ayame were finding their way in this strange new world…
Yet why did she feel so unsettled?
She went through the motions of the morning – slipping on her jogging gear and sports shoes (she had no idea how those ended up in the world with her) before silently unlocking the front door with her key and slipping out, entrusting her friend’s safety to their neighboring spectral residents.
The moment she stepped onto the field, she felt as if something had changed. It didn’t take her long to realize that the field, for once, had been set up. Cones were scattered about the turf, a basket of metallic, gleaming disks located near the center, a tall, muscular, white-haired boy with animalistic ears trotted about, spontaneously increasing and decreasing speed as he swung his wand, discs flying into the rugby-esque goal in the blink of an eye.
Suddenly, the student’s ears perked up and he whirled around to face Laras, who had initially considered sidestepping any conversation. However, such thoughts were dashed the moment he jogged toward her. Laras, more than willing to maximize the amount of workout time at her disposal, opted to meet him in the middle, picking up her pace – a makeshift warm-up.
“Good morning,” he greeted politely, bowing his head.
“Good morning,” Laras responded, replicating his movement. “What are you up to?”
“Practicing for magishift,” he answered simply. “What about you?”
“I was planning to go for a jog.”
“I see. Well, enjoy your workout…”
“Laras,” the girl finished for him, holding out her hand. “And you are?”
“Jack,” he replied, grasping it firmly. Laras nodded. “Happy working, Jack.”
“Huh, that guy was pretty sweet and respectful. How precious,” she thought as he ran back to his business, moving the basket of disks off to the side before settling himself at the deadball line and shuttle sprinting between that and the goal line, the 22-meter line, then the halfway line. “Seems pretty hardworking too. Very respectable.”
She settled upon the starting line of the field, taking off the moment she heard the 4:30 AM birds chirp. Laras kept her pace steady, her breathing relaxed, as she took large strides around the field, utilizing her state of concentration to ease into her unique magic, the world around her settling into a soft glitter of gold, not quite suspending, but slowing, everything. Laras stole occasional glances at her brother-in-discipline, noting his remarkable speed, how he managed to easily match Ayame’s top sprinting speed even in significantly slowed time. Laras could’ve genuinely sworn that he moved faster than gravity, and that was after all his earlier drills.
Laras completed half of her daily ten kilometers in five minutes outside time, probably seventeen in time. She ran one final cooldown lap, wiping her face with the base of her garment.
“Laras!”
The girl craned her neck in the direction of the voice. The white-haired boy was rushing toward her, eyes narrowed, expression serious.
“What was that?” He demanded, prompting the girl to blink in confusion.
“What… do you mean?”
“You ran twelve and-a-half laps around the field, right?”
“Yes?”
“In five minutes?”
“… yes?” She answered again, resisting the urge to fidget and shift about in place. “I did use my Unique Magic-”
“Why aren’t you in the track and field club? Why aren’t you in any athletic club?”
“Well,” Laras shrugged. “I didn’t know how to sign up. The principal was hardly accommodating of two students from a completely different world.”
Jack’s ears drooped slightly. Laras suppressed the urge to pet him and assure him that she was alright. “Hmph,” he ultimately managed, seemingly accepting that fact for the time being. “You’re that… guy from the entrance ceremony?”
“Yes.”
“Which dorm are you a part of?”
“Ramshackle, that building by the edge of campus.”
“That’s… far,” Jack murmured, mostly to himself. “Come to my dorm to wash up.”
“… huh?”
Laras tilted her head, blinking at the abruptness of the offer. She briefly mulled over the possibility that she had misheard him, but it’s truly very hard to get such a specific sentence wrong. The widening of eyes and slight flush on his face further confirmed her thoughts and she allowed herself a slight smile.
“Oh- uh- forget ab-”
“That is very kind of you,” she interrupted, nodding at him assuredly. “However, my clothes are still at Ramshackle.”
“… next time, then,” Jack mumbled, in a slightly lower voice, scratching the back of his head as he averted his gaze. Laras didn’t have the heart to refuse.
“Next time,” she echoed.
~
Laras’ footsteps echoed along the cold stone floors of the school. As she visualized her day – working at the lounge, going to classes, attending the afternoon shift, back to classes, second run and or gym, late-night shift – her legs suddenly grew a brain of their own and took her in the direction of the dorms. She had expected her subconscience to pull her back to Heartslabyul, back to her sweet “little brother” Riddle Rosehearts (who was a year older than her), Upin and Ipin (Ace and Deuce), Trey ‘Malewife’ Clover, and Cater-astrophe.
However she found herself before the Savanaclaw dorm instead.
Perhaps it was Jack’s presence that subtly pushed her mind into making that decision, but Laras knew it wasn’t just that. Her magic called to her, begging her for freedom.
The warnings it had bestowed upon her, prior to Riddle’s eventual overblot, had all come to pass. Of course, she never had a chance to witness the resolution in the echoes, but a “look out” for the future was certainly good to have.
In other words, her magic had brought her to Savanaclaw, and she needed to know why.
Despite the words of that mysterious visitor, bearing assurance that she would suffer no grave consequences, she still found herself shuddering at the thought of stopping time.
Steeling her nerves, she sucked in a breath, bracing herself as she did the deed. She stepped through the Savanaclaw portal, dirt and erosion crumbling beneath her feet as she walked around, attempting to locate the whispers.
They came the moment she stepped onto a wide field, complete with distance lines and goals on opposite ends, reminiscent of those used for rugby.
Something was bound to happen within Savanaclaw’s magishift field; She needed to find out what.
Laras sat herself at its center where the cries were near-deafening, reluctantly allowing them to slip her into a different world. She did not know if it was the past or future she was bound to see, she did not have the luxury of choice, but it didn’t matter. She knew that her magic would tell her all she needed.
~
“We have come here today to witness the arrival of our future king!”
The voice belonged to that of a mandrill baboon, one brandished a staff which bore ruby-red rattling fruit at its tip. He shook it, once, twice, from atop his cliffside pedestal, to rouse the attention of the crowd of animals – giraffes, leopards, elephants, gazelles – all coexisting. It was quite odd, truly, how they had managed to bypass their natural instincts, how they managed to avoid rippling the peace of the occasion.
“Heheh, animals don’t do that, Agatha,” Goody giggled, resting a cheek upon her palm as the two women stared into the mirror.
“They are merely representations of the past,” Agatha responded curtly, albeit with a hint of a smile upon her stone-cold features. “Watch, Goody; carefully.”
The silver-haired woman obeyed, sitting forward in her seat, brows furrowed in determination as the glass panned back to the monkey, particularly his occupied arm. Curled against his chest was a small creature, with golden fur and tiny eyes which slowly blinked awake the moment he was brought into the sun. The monkey tenderly gazed into the little one’s eyes, cradling the child, rocking it to a lullaby as a terracotta-maned lion and a lioness, clearly bearing no ill intent, approached them, smiles glowing upon their features as the monkey lifted their cub into the air with both hands.
“All hail Prince Simba!”
The sea of beasts, hollered, cheered, cried out, stomped in triumph the moment they caught a glimpse of the future. All were caught in the whirlwind of the momentous occasion…
All but a coal-maned lion that stood far near the base of the cliff, features obscured by shadow, but it didn’t take much analysis to know that he was watching the scene before him unfold.
“Is that what I’m supposed to be looking at?” Goody whispered, prompting the golden-haired woman to nod.
“The traitor,” Agatha affirmed. The mirror drew closer; the lion bore a sneer, narrowed emerald eyes burning as noises rang indiscernably through his ears. In a moment, the edges of his lips curved upwards in a smirk, eyes relaxing as he stuck his head high and turned on his heel, retreating into the darkness.
“Don’t you see how he plots? How his pride has roused him into detachment? Into cruelty?”
“He looks lonely,” Goody only murmured softly. “Were those lions his family? Why didn’t they look for him?”
Agatha waved her hand. The mirror rippled outward, the rhythmic excitement delving into erratic slams of hooves upon the rough, fluctuating terrain – wildebeest flooding into a narrow canyon by the hundreds, a gushing river of auburn.
Dangling off the canyon opening was the terracotta-maned lion from the entrance ceremony, features twisted in agony as the traitor dug his claws into flesh, a victorious, fanged grin spreading across the sides of his eyes as he looked straight into the bronze irises of his victim.
“Long live the King!”
The lion plummeted down, down, down, claimed by gravity, then the trampling hooves of the beasts.
“FATHER!” His cub screamed by the edge of the crevice, tears in his eyes as auburn snuffed out the flicker of terracotta.
Agatha turned back to her friend, whose eyes were already welling with tears that burst the moment her friend met her gaze.
“Agatha, why didn’t they talk to each other?” She sobbed. “They could’ve been a happy family. Why did they leave him behind? Why didn’t he tell them anything?”
The moment her friend placed a hand upon her shoulder, Goody leaned into the touch, cherishing the faint flicker of warmth it provided.
“Stubbornness and pride,” Agatha answered, averting her gaze. “The bane of even the strongest bonds.”
~
“L…as… Laras!”
The girl’s eyelashes fluttered gently as she woke, rising from where she lay upon the ground to address the broad-shouldered, pale-haired, fuzzy-eared beastman before her, a concerned frown evident on his features.
“What are you doing here? You good?”
Laras shot him a small smile, brushing the dirt off her clothes as she stood.
“Perfectly fine. I must’ve sleep-walked in.”
Jack frowned. Laras screamed internally as the sheer stupidity of her spontaneous explanation – her position upon the field was far too deliberate, too perfect. Additionally, if she had truly, unexpectedly succumbed to sleep, she wouldn’t be in such a graceful position.
“Happens to the best of us,” the boy grunted, prompting Laras to blink. “Do you need help getting back?”
“No, no, I’m alright, truly,” Laras assured him. She then proceeded to stumble over her own feet, her legs having tensed a bit as her muscles had long cooled down from the nap. Jack promptly snapped into action, grabbing the back of her collar, fingers brushing over a very specific undergarment as he quickly yanked her from her fall, a hand on her back to stabilize her as he processed a new set of information.
“You’re… a girl?” He frowned, a slight frantic blush immediately gracing his features the longer the revelation simmered. This prompted Laras to sigh, resigned.
“Yeah,” she responded — her pitch raising slightly, her voice becoming more breathy, crisp, as she lowered the act.
“You didn’t correct me earlier.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Too much of a hassle. I don’t want to be treated differently.”
“I see.” He retracted his hand. “I won’t tell.”
“Thank you,” Laras smiled genuinely. “Sorry, I’d really like to stay and get to know you, but I have work.”
“Alright. See you at school?” He offered – a hint of hope lacing his voice. “Sure.”
The girl had made her first equally-awkward friend.