Ding dong, bing bong

"It is now morning! Rise and shine, everyone, it's another beautiful day on Jabberwock Island! And you want to know what the best part is? The second island is now open! Go, have a fun day of exploring!"

I groan as I sit up in bed. Out of all the ways I could've woken up, with the best being getting kissed awake and the worst being getting murdered, Monokumace's announcement is near the bottom.

As I'm running a hand through my wild bed-head of cyan-and-brown hair, a part of the announcement then occurs to me. Second island? Right- there's a lot of islands that make up Jabberwock Island- I recall my mind exploding over that on the first day. Damn, was the first day really already three days ago? Time really does fly when you're on vacation, even if it's a murder vacation.

I slowly make my way out of my cottage and towards the hotel to get something to eat before I go explore the new island. It seems like I'm the last one awake, because basically everyone is hanging out in the lobby or kitchen as far as I can see. I walk by where Caim, Furfur, and Azrael seem to be invested in whatever En is doing with a deck of cards.

"How's your luck that good, though? That's crazy!" Furfur insists.

"You didn't think that the Ultimate Dealer's luck would be bad, did you?" En remarks. "But my trick is simply to remember one simple rule."

They look up at me, their yellow eyes piercing my soul as they speak. "The house always wins."

Well isn't that a great thing to wake up to. I just keep moving to the kitchen, where Zeben and Dana appear to be hard at work.

"Why'd you turn the oven up so high?" Dana shrieks as she spins the knob on the oven panickedly.

"I thought 450 is the normal temperature for cooking or baking??" Zeben yelps as he catches an egg before it can roll off the counter.

"It's 350, moron!"

"Ah, the sweet melody of chaos," Flauros muses, and I jump when I see him leaning against the wall, half-masked by the shadows.

"You're not gonna help?" I ask.

Flauros smiles. "Not at all. It is not my place in the universe to be 'helpful' or 'do the right thing'. After all, I am-"

"A demon from Hell, yeah, yeah, I get it," I interrupt, rolling my eyes as I decide to be the bigger person and actually do something.

I grab one of the three bowls Dana's holding and set it down on the counter. "What can I do to help?"

"Oh, Sophie," Dana sighs, relieved. "Great, now I can fire Zeben."

"Hey!" Zeben exclaims. I notice that despite what seems to be his normal mood, his eyes are sad. Really sad.

"You know what? Don't fire him, I'm sure he's doing this best," I remind Dana. She seems to understand the deeper meaning behind my words and nods.

"Right." She turns to Zeben and tells him, "Get the eggs in a pan and start scrambling. And please, try not to get any eggshell bits in it this time, okay?"

"I'll do my best," he agrees with a smile.

"Alright, what can I do, then?" I ask.

Dana nods to the bowl I'd set down. "Finish mixing and get the muffins into a pan. Remember to spray the pan down or the muffins might stick."

I do exactly as she tells me to do, and set the pan in the oven as she slides in a second pan.

"So now we've got blueberry and chocolate chip muffins, Zeben's doing the scrambled eggs..." She thinks for a minute. "...and I already did the bacon. Well, seems like our job is done. Thanks for helping me out, Soph."

I give her a smile. "No problem! Let me know if you ever need help with anything."

She winks in return, and my face heats up. Damnit.

About half an hour later, I'm scarfing down a blueberry muffin when I realize that someone isn't here.

"Hey, how about I go take a muffin to Ryn?" I say to Dana. She responds by handing me a plate.

I place two muffins, one of each flavor, on the plate and make my way down the row of cottages when I stumble into Will.

"Where you going?" he asks.

I hold up the plate of muffins. "Ryn. I wanted to bring her something to eat, seeing how she's so busy down at the corral."

His amber eyes light up. "Neat! Mind if I come with? The barn's a perfect place for a locked room horror film, might as well check it out again."

I'll be honest, I haven't really hung out with Will like this. Sure, we talked at the dinner party, but that was basically it.

He seems to read the look on my face, because he adds, "Don't worry, I'm gay. I'm not into you like that."

Well that clears some stuff up.

"Sure," I agree, and we begin walking together.

"Oh, you do know that, like, all the women here are either bisexual or lesbian?" he says. I stop dead in my tracks and look at him with wide eyes.

"They are?" I basically shout. Oh my god, it's my lucky day. I might just be the Ultimate Lucky Student.

"Yeah, I had a conversation with most of 'em at the dinner party last night. The topic of a romance film came up briefly, but let me tell you that not a single woman was interested in any of the 'cliche sh*t'. Obviously that was a misunderstanding, because I was hoping for a gay romance in the first place. Honestly, Sophie, I'm surprised that you of all people haven't picked up on it sooner."

I nearly choke on air. Am I really that obvious?

Will must understand my expression, because he says, "Yes, you're not slick. Also, I'm trying to help you out here. You're welcome."

I can't even begin to figure out how to respond to that. So we just walk in extremely awkward silence until we finally reach the corral. I push open the barn door to see Ryn nursing the little calf with a bottle. She looks up at the sound and smiles.

"Oh, is that for me?" she asks when I gesture to the plate. "Thank you so much, you can just put it on the stool." She motions to a stool sitting nearby.

"Do you want us to stay?" I offer.

"No, it's fine. I don't mind being alone," Ryn answers. There's something in her words that seems strange.

"Are you alone often?" Will, having also picked up on it, guesses.

Ryn sighs. "Unfortunately, yes. I mean, I don't really consider it being 'alone' because I have the animals to keep me company. I... I got into veterinary practices once my older brother stopped hanging out with me. He was always busy with his own projects, so I never really got to hang out with him. I decided to start down the veterinary path because I knew that I'd always have someone there, whether human or animal."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I say.

"No, don't apologize. It's not your fault," she laughs, her storm blue eyes glimmering with sadness. "But I won't keep you here. The second island is open, right? Go explore. Don't let me keep you here."

"...Are you sure?" Will's brow furrows with concern.

"I'm sure," Ryn insists. "Go have fun."

Will and I exchange glances before turning and leaving. Our walk towards the bridge to the central island is long and silent. Neither of us really knows how to bounce back from that conversation. Man, we're both really bad at conversing in general, too. I've spent more time with him in dead silence more than I've spent with him actually talking. Thankfully, Zeben and Evangeline are already at the central island when we get there, and Will immediately goes over to chat with the hydroponics specialist while I approach the herbologist.

"Shall we?" Evangeline inquires before the two of us make our way over to a newly-unblocked bridge.

"I believe Stolas and Marzy have already gone ahead to scout out the island," she informs me as we cross the wooden bridge. I can't tell whether holding onto the rope and trying not to shake the swaying bridge is fun or terrifying.

"Any ideas on what's over there?" I question.

Evangeline thinks. "Hopefully a garden. Or a greenhouse. I love both equally."

"Yeah, the great thing about digital art is that I can kinda do it wherever," I say. "I'm thinking about going down to the beach and spending a few hours sketching or something relaxing."

"That most certainly sounds relaxing to me," she responds. "It would be nice if I could draw, though- that would certainly make the scenario much more pleasant."

"Hey, you know a ton about plants. That's a pretty awesome life skill. Plus, you really helped us with that trial."

I pause. Right, the trial.

Evangeline sees my frown and says, "Perhaps it's best if we focus on exploring instead."

After setting foot onto the new island, I quickly notice two things.  The first is the massive, overgrown ruins towering over me from the left.  The second is a f*cking parking lot.  I know exactly where I'm going first.

"How odd," Evangeline murmurs, nodding to the whole-*ss diner on the other side of the parking lot. "And I believed the airport to be peculiar."

I'm just thrilled when I see the sign for free parking.  Not that it matters, as we don't have vehicles, but it's nice to know that the world isn't entirely  $40/hour for sh*tty parking nowadays.

We continue traversing the island and duck through a really pretty alcove to find ourselves on the shoreline.  There's a small beach house off to the left as well.

"So, how did you get into something as cool as herbology?" I find myself asking as we walk down the shoreline to the beach house.

Evangeline smiles thoughtfully. "I've always found something about plants magical.  The vibrant hues they can take on, the fascinating properties and traits some of them have... what isn't there to take interest in?"

"Yeah, that's fair." I open the door to the beach house and step inside to the wonderful feeling of cool air conditioning.  

It's a nice little place, with coral-colored marble walls and cyan-and-white accents everywhere.  A fancy chandelier dangles from the ceiling.  There's a desk in front of a window next to the door, and there are potted plants in various spots around the room.  It looks like there are a few more rooms behind three sets of cyan doors, but I'll check that out later.

"It's rather lovely in here," Evangeline says, as if reading my thoughts.

"Yeah," I agree.  We stand there for a long moment before I add, "I'm kind of getting certain Lily Pulitzer vibes."

She laughs a very British laugh.  Like, a gentle ha-ha, and not like American eagle-screeching.  You get what I mean?

We don't spend a whole lot of time in the beach house, and continue back up the beach after probably thirty seconds of taking the place in.  We're about to continue down towards the next building as we explore the island in a counterclockwise path when we hear raised voices coming from those weird ruins.  Evangeline and I share worried looks before deciding to go investigate.  

Massive, twisting tree roots snake up the crumbling walls of the weathered building, emerging hundreds of feet up into a canopy of thick rainforest trees.  I push through the vines covering the entrance to the ruins and find Furfur, Caim, and En standing with Monokumace.

"The hell you mean??" Furfur snarls at the dragon-creature. "Say that one more goddamn time!"

"Maybe I will!" Ace challenges. "I said that there's not enough business for you to stick your big nose in!"

"They're trying to rile you up," Caim tells the geologist.

"I'm trying to resist the urge to punt them," Furfur grumbles.

Only then do I notice the massive iron safe door behind them.  For something in the heart of these ruins, it looks rather new and modern, untouched by the vines and overgrowth.

"Impressive, huh?" Ace asks suddenly.  I look back at them to realize that they're talking to me.

"Where does it lead?" They ignore my question.

"What's behind it?" They ignore Caim's question, too.

"Who built it?" And somehow, En's question ends up being the one answered.

Ace giggles. "Why, the organization that brought you here!  They've got a lotta secrets, y'know.  Wanna know one of them?"

They lower their voice, and Evangeline and I have to step closer to hear their next words.

"They've got a spy for 'em.  And y'know what?  That spy... is a student in this class!"

***

(2084 words)

Uh oh... Who do you guys think it is?  Obviously none of that'll be revealed just yet but if you guys wanna take your first guesses, you can :)

Sorry it took so long to get out lol, I've been busy with other digital art and whatever so that's been most of my free time.

Ok the grind ain't stoppin', onto the next chapter-