Marching Band Magic

*** Note that the individual characters also have information and story leading up to this point! Right now, we find them starting at their 'block 3 rest' - they've been trick or treating for about 45 minutes, and wanted to take a little break! ***

Fletcher was the only one of the group that wasn’t in some way a mage or witch, but he could easily figure out ways to utilize his friends’ magic to their best effect. Want a little privacy? One of them could cast a darkness spell and wrap it around the park bench they sat at. Avoid the crappy houses? There was probably a spell to do that, but they could easily spot which ones kids came away from with shaking heads and the occasional threat of toilet-paper and eggs. Plotting the best route? They actually left that to Fletcher straight up - he knew maps as well as math, so when he presented ‘part two’ of their journey they didn’t bat an eye.

It was a little trek up hill, but by that time they’d eaten enough sugar that it didn’t put a dent in their enthusiasm nor their energy level. They’d gotten partway up to where Fletcher asserted they should make a sharp right, but something caught Kala’s eye. She nudged Mica, who tugged on Ken’s sleeve, who bumped into May, and finally Fletcher glanced back toward the group and asked them why they’d stopped.

“Well, that?” May pointed with her green-leafy fingers, up toward the end of the street. It was a dead-end street, they’d have been turning before reaching that point, and it looked like there was only one house at the end of it. And, its lights weren’t really on like all the rest in the neighborhood.

“That’s... not... on my map?” Fletcher said, their big yellow eyes blinking while looking at their phone. “I mean, the street is, but there’s no house on it.”

“There is pretty obviously a house,” Mica muttered, “it’s literally right there, dude.”

“I want to check it out,” Kala said. “It’s Halloween. Maybe it’s one of those pop-up cafe things, only... y’know. Spooky.”

“It’s a house where none should beeee,” May gave a spooky warble, “maybe it’s haaaunteddd!”

Given that they were mainly from magically-oriented families, the fact that ghosts existed was obvious. But whether they’d  be in a house that wasn’t there? Maybe it was, as Kala then asserted, an entire ghost house?

“Ghost towns exist, right?” She said, putting her mask up and pushing her hat forward, “let’s see if this is really a house or just a specter of one.”

Ken shrugged and went right along with her, the sooner they got this over with the quicker they could get back to going house-to-house. It wasn’t even 7 at night, so they had plenty of time. So the group picked their way past the somewhat overgrown privet hedges and half-crumbled brick yard walls to reach the end of this short street.

The house was much bigger than it seemed like it should have been, really. Particularly not for one which shouldn’t exist at all. Three stories with what was probably quaint Victorian-era architecture, but they couldn’t tell what colors it might have been painted, or if it was just all dark? The sun still glinted off of its western-facing front windows, but it cast a bit of an eerie purple glow to them too.

If it had been any other group, they might have turned away when a night bird sprang from one of the mostly-dead trees nearby, calling out sharply. But they were used to pigeons and blackbirds and seagulls on campus, whose raucous calls, snapping wings, or incessant chirping had dulled their ears.

If it had been any other night, they wouldn’t have even been here at all. But it was Halloween, well it was two days until Halloween but still they were here! A haunted house had so much more allure than anything they could possibly have imagined. They did not imagine the strange subtle flicker of lights behind the front door’s portal windows. This only served to encourage them to step up onto the creaky wooden porch.

“It doesn’t look like anyone’s handing candy out,” Mica pointed out. “But are we gonna knock anyway?”

In response, Kala went up and rapped her gloved knuckles on the thick door.

It creaked open.

That flickering light beyond was coming from around a corner, but they could clearly see that it was growing brighter. Not toward them, not around the hall and into the entry port, but just... Brighter.

Not one of them would admit it out loud, but they were absolutely petrified. Well, all but Kala, who thought this was just perfect. She stepped through the door, though she did have to raise her hat a little, because it was blocking her view. The other four followed quickly, Mica held her breath, Fletcher waved his phone around trying to get it to light anything up, to no avail - nothing showed up in his camera screen and nothing visibly caught any of its light. It wasn’t empty, there were the faint outlines of sheet-covered couches and chairs, a dining table on the right hand side of the hall. But nothing seemed to pick up the light.

They kept walking, step by step. May had to reduce her foliage with a bit of concentration: she didn’t want to drag half the yard in with her feet, if this was someone’s home it would be super rude to bring all that mud and dry leaves in. So she was more ‘sapling’ than ‘root-bound tree’ when they got to the corner that turned left, where the light was coming from.

“What.”

“Is...”

“That?”

They took turns breathing those words, but all five of them uttered them at some point. Because what they saw was a glowing, somewhat softly pulsating swirl of pale colors. Floating in the middle of a library-looking room (they didn’t even look at the shelves, all so absolutely focused on this thing there). An equally soft kind of hum pervaded the room too, it wasn’t electric, it wasn’t vocal, it was unlike anything they’d ever heard.

Until Fletcher whispered, “it’s a dimension portal,” eyes wide, mouth wider. “Can’t you feel that?” He looked over to Kala. Neither of them was particularly great at controlling their newfound ability to move between dimensions, but now that he came to say it, Kala nodded quickly.

“It’s definitely something from somewhere else,” she said.

Mica had a tiny bit of a frown on, when she drew out her wand and spoke some arcane words. She then said, “a protective spell, it’ll keep us from harm, I hope.”

“I don’t think it’s there to harm us,” Ken said, “but... I mean. Now what?”

They all looked toward Kala, because obviously she was the one who wanted to see it the most. In response, she stepped up to it and held her hand out to whoever would take it. They daisy-chained before entering, each of their hands having their treat bags draped or wrapped around. They weren’t going to lose their hard earned treats, after all.

They stepped through this glowing, swirling tie-dye portal and had to adjust for a moment or two on the other side. Fletcher looked around, the others one by one after them, “well this sure is ... not... where we were!” He said.

“But where is it?” May asked. “This is... oh, this is nice grass,” she’d noticed it below her root-like hooves. “It isn’t Twoarth.”

It was night time, with dim moonlight behind slowly moving clouds above. The fact that they were outdoors now was not lost on Mica. She turned around and nudged the others beside her.

“House is gone,” she said simply. What else could possibly be said?

“So is that portal,” Kala sighed, “that... might complicate things.”

“I thought you could move across dimensions or something?” May commented.

“Well yeah, but... only myself, and only like. Practically randomly? I have never done it consciously...” She looked a little more sheepish than the girl she was addressing.

Fletcher nodded slowly, adding, “I can only move myself too, I mean if we needed to, I think we could probably get back and find help.”

“Might want to do-” Ken started to say, but cut himself off, “holy crap, that’s a dragon.”

Now, Carramba had dragons at their campus for at least twenty five years, an entire generation. But that didn’t mean that sighting them anywhere else was common or safe. These might be dangerous, they might be man eaters. Large, dark shapes breezed overhead in a wide arc, passing through or in front of the clouds.

“They are friendly,” May said, softly reassuring them. “Look, they have riders.”

“Just because there’s riders doesn’t make them friendly,” Mica muttered.

Those riders finally dropped to the ground, and introduced themselves to the group. They were indeed ‘friendly’ and even a bit concerned for the welfare of these kids. They seemed to understand that the group were wearing costumes, too, somehow. On a distant world, maybe in another dimension, they had Halloween?

They didn’t go as far as judging the costumes as the same personalities as the kids themselves at least.

The group of kids gawked a bit. The closest they’d ever come to the Carramba campus dragons was watching halftime shows and the Dragon Quidditch matches from the stands... Obviously the riders noticed their wide eyes and open mouths. There were three dragons, two of them large and one smaller, and... that smaller one shapeshifted into a human (?) woman!

After a few minutes of gawking and talking, they indicated to ride those dragons and... be taken to a place called Lantessama, their bay had... something? For them?

They did have to explain that this wasn’t what they’d been intending to do with their evening, but the riders wouldn’t have any of it. The dragons apparently told them they should go - therefore, off they went.

To a bay that was dark and spooky, far spookier than that house had been! The sand there was weirdly wet, sticking to their feet or their costumes. Only Fletcher felt like he could get away easily, but where would that leave his friends? They would have to stick together, besides they didn’t want to have to figure out their stories when they got home.

Ken drew in a long breath and looked to the skies, well what could be seen of them. “I am gonna be soooo grounded...”