34 Ch. 34 Friendly Talks

"… Hannah Statson, 17 years old, has been reported and confirmed missing this afternoon, Monday, September 5th 2011. She has reportedly been missing since, Thursday, September 1st 2011. Hannah is Caucasian, has light brown hair, hazel eyes, is 5 foot 6 inches tall, and she was last seen near the shopping plaza off of XXXXXX road. If you have seen this girl or no anything about her whereabouts please contact…."

Myrddin turns off his radio as he drives home from work. The late night shift is new to say the least. But he gets to clean the cages and do some other things he wouldn't be able to do during normal hours because he would be working the reception. But it's looking like he will need to quit his job. He's got too much to do just with his magic. Add school on top of that and it's not looking good. Luckily Deaton is understanding and had already predicted this and offered for Myrddin to stop by every now and then to visit the animals and assist with some procedures if he wanted to.

(Assist with procedures as in hand Deaton medical instruments. He can't legally work on an animals beyond basic treatment)

Now the missing girl sticks in Myrddin's mind. She can't be the dead body, mostly because she was reported missing a few days ago and not a month or a week ago. The police haven't found the other half of the body so who knows who that half a body belongs to.

Could this be the work of the alpha? Did this beast take the girl? Did she get turned or did she get killed and her body dragged off to some random corner of the Preserve?

He sets these thoughts aside. It could be other things. Like a kidnapping, regular murder, or she ran from home.

It doesn't change his plans though. He connected a few dots now that he's learned Chris Argent is a Hunter. He likely stayed home until Allison was inside and then left to hunt the alpha. This would explain why he wasn't in the living room with his wife and why he normally goes out 'drinking' or goes out for 'poker nights' with some friends around town.

Unfortunately, he can't just walk up to Chris and ask to join their little Hunter group. That would be way too easy. It would cause way more trouble than it's actually worth. They'd be so suspicious of him, and they might even try to silence him via threatening his family. And that will just spiral in the complete wrong direction. So he's gotta do it carefully.

Suddenly he sees a white blur running towards the street from the corner of his eye.

*Skkkkrrrrrrrrr*

Fortunately, he was driving slow since he was mostly thinking. He sees the blur run in front of his car and then hears something like nails tapping against his door. Peeking through the window he sees a certain familiar fluff ball.

"Arff!" Prada barks and jumps on the door. But the jump was only an inch or two due to it being so small and only on its hind legs.

Myrddin opens the door and Prada jumps inside and onto his lap.

The dog stands in his lap and presses its front paws against his chest as it tries to lick his face but barely gets his chin.

"Ok! Please stop!" Myrddin holds the dog with his left hand and parks along the curb.

*tap-tap-tap*

Myrddin can see Lydia tapping on the passenger side window. He gets out and holds the small dog in his left arm. "Mom left the gate open again?"

Lydia doesn't look like her usual persona. She has a small smile that, to Myrddin, has many meaning behind it. "Yeah… and thanks for not hitting my dog"

"Uhhh…." Myrddin finds it hard to respond to that. "…yeah, that would have been traumatic for the both of us"

"Look…" Lydia puts her left hand on her hip that is slightly sticking out under her nightgown that barely hides her figure underneath. "… I've been wanting to talk to you since I found out what happened on Friday night"

Myrddin walks around to the other side of his car and leans back against the side of his hood facing Lydia and her house. "What about it"

"I…" She looks in his eyes. "I didn't know your sister was there, here… whatever. Basically I'm trying to say I'm sorry. We will be doing more of a closed door party to make sure things like that don't happen again. Is she alright? I haven't been able to ask my mom since she is a counselor and talks with your mom"

"She… is relatively fine. I don't think she realized what happened… or what could have happened. And it's not like she remembers much after her first drink. But I'm not sure if that's her actually not remembering or her trying to block certain parts of that night out. I don't fully blame you Lydia, it was your party but it's not like you control what people do at them" Myrddin pets the dog who ascends to heaven under his pats and scratches.

"Good to know you don't fully blame me" Lydia semi-sarcastically says. "So I have to ask, what do you plan to do to the idiots who made a move on your sister"

"What do you mean?" He plays dumb.

"Oh Cmon Myrddin~. You and I both know you've got a plan cooking. It's not like I'm gonna snitch on you. Whatever you do to those guys is well deserved" Lydia weakest attempts to find out what he's gonna do.

Myrddin half-shrugs. "They aren't going to die. But I'll be making sure they can't do anything to a girl ever again"

Lydia pauses. "Like-"

"EXACTLY, like that" Myrddin says back seriously.

"Anyway~" Lydia changes the topic. That was more of an answer than she was expecting. "Thanks for helping Jackson on the field today. Your quick handiwork might have helped him recover faster. But even if he doesn't play Saturday at least we have you, and Scott is a good consolation prize"

"Our game is Saturday?" Myrddin asks.

Lydia blankly looks at him unamused. "Do you…. not know that lacrosse games are on the weekends?"

"But the scrimmage and the homecoming game-"

"Those were special cases. Every other game is on the weekend since we have to travel so far due to the other schools we face being so far away. We, and they, need time to travel. And if they play after school the games would last until late into the night…. Later than they usually go to" Lydia explains.

"At least my mom will be free for all the games now" Myrddin looks at the bright side. The down side is that he really won't have any time for his part time job.

"Honestly Myrddin…" Lydia shakes her head as her right hand presses against her forehead. "… didn't the coach or any players tell you about this? I know you didn't care about the sport at ALL last year, but surely you should have picked up on the fact the games are on the weekend"

"Didn't know. Didn't care. Barely care now. Thanks for letting me know though. Better tonight than Friday night" Myrddin smiles a little.

"So are you going for team captain?"

"You mean Jackson's spot?" He realizes that it's a bit chilly out when he looks at Lydia. Not that she is shaking. But he sees something that tells him it's cold or it could be because of something else…

"Yes, Jackson's spot. I need to prepare a few things myself if you do take it. So I'd rather know beforehand" Lydia drops her right hand to her side.

"I don't plan on it. If anything, you should be expecting Scott to do that" Myrddin doesn't particularly want to be a leader of anyone but himself.

"I was going to have a talk with him at a later date. He's the one that injured my boyfriend so he gets a bit of a different talk" Lydia looks to the side, clearly not looking forward to that one. For what reason, Myrddin doesn't know.

"Different talk because he doesn't know the other half of your coin?" Myrddin decides to poke that button again.

Lydia forcibly smiles brightly. "Exactly~!" The smile disappears just as quickly.

"Well, I guess I'll return your dog and be on my way. Early morning tomorrow" Myrddin takes Prada away from his chest and the dog whispers a little and bends its head back to look at him like a demonic being.

"Make sure to get some sleep, don't need you passing out during practice or the game SATURDAY" Lydia stresses the date. "By the way…"

Myrddin stands up and goes over to his drivers side. He shakes his head asking what she means or wants.

Lydia suggestively grins. "Congratulations for Friday night. A 4some with 3 girls as your first time is VERY impressive. Especially when you destroyed each of them without tiring out. I knew you had some inhuman stamina but… damn~"

Myrddin doesn't want to hear about any sexual activities related to himself or Lydia. He's pretty sure she's sitting on the edge of telling him about her own different type of 3v1 and he'd rather not hear or have that picture painted. "Bye Lydia"

"By Merlin~" Lydia waves and grabs Prada's paw to wave goodbye as well. She then walks back to her house, swaying her hips side to side with emphasis.

Myrddin feels his face heat up. Not into a blush. More of just his body getting into a certain mood. "Damn enhanced stamina" He knows he will be having a longer night.

——————

"At this point do I even care?" Murddin asks himself as he drives to school the next morning.

Running a little late, he's already missed his first class and most of his second. It's not because he stayed up late. It's because of a stupid vision. And at this point he doesn't care about being late to school.

This morning he woke up to a vision that brought him to a familiar yet unfamiliar place.

It was the Beacon Hills Preserve. But an area he hasn't yet been to. Which isn't hard to know because while he has explored a decent chunk with Caval, he still hasn't seen the entire forest.

He saw Hannah, or a girl that roughly matched the description, being dragged through the woods. He was able to keep up with the thing dragging her, but he was never able to see who or what it was. He doesn't think it's the alpha at this point. Because the alpha would have been able to outrun his 'vision speed' even dragging the girl. He can't move as fast as he can in real life, but it's still a decent pace.

But maybe the alpha was just toying with the girl. Trying to get her as scared as possible.

Eventually Myrddin lost her in the darkness. And he wasn't able to find anything else out before the vision ended. All he knew was the general area due to the terrain and the rough time. And that it was dark, so night time.

Arriving at the school he parks his car and heads inside. He looks down the hall and it seems like third hour already started or is starting soon.

Myrddin walks down the halls towards his class and he catches a glance of a person at their locker. He backs up after passing the hall and looks down it again.

Allison is standing at, presumably, her locker and is holding her jacket. The one that she lost, or 'misplaced' as she called it. The jacket wasn't at his house or in his car so they figured it was at Lydia's or it was taken.

Myrddin walks up to her while she looks down the opposite hall. "Found your jacket?"

*rrrriiiinnnngggg!*

"Ahhh!" Allison screams and covers her mouth as she whips around to face him. "Myrddin!"

"What?" Myrddin doesn't understand what he did wrong.

"Don't sneak up on people like that" Allison can feel her heart start back up. She puts her jacket back in her locker and grabs her French binder.

"But I…" Myrddin decides not to argue. "Where did you find your jacket?"

Alison closes her locker. "I don't know. It was just in there when I opened it. And it wasn't in there this morning. I think Lydia put it in there for me"

"She has your locker combination?" Myrddin wouldn't tell anyone his combination. He doesn't need things to randomly appear or disappear.

"Yep. And I know hers. Our lockers are on different sides of the school, so we both put our things in the locker that is closest to our class" Allison waves. "See you around Myrddin"

Myrddin just gives her a wave before heading off to his own class.

——————

"Why does everyone not like the big green guy? Isn't he their friend and one of the strongest?" Erica asks as she bumps a volleyball back into the air towards Myrddin.

"Him? It's because the angrier he gets the stronger he gets, and when he gets too angry he fights friends and foes alike. So it's not that his friends dislike him, it's that they are always cautious around him and can't fully trust him" Myrddin brings his hands together and bumps the ball high into the air.

Erica brings her hands over her head. "Well that's… sad…" She pushes the ball back over towards Myrddin.

"Yeah, but different comic iterations tell his story differently and treat him differently. Some nicer, and some harsher" Myrddin adds on.

They continues hitting the ball back and forth as they pass the time. And they continue talking about comics that Erica has read recently.

"D-did you hear… that Scott won't be playing in the game Saturday?" Erica barely hits the ball back.

"He isn't?" Myrddin catches the ball, it was time for Erica to take a break anyway. "How did you hear about that?"

Erica holds her right elbow close to her side. "I overheard some people… talking about it during my classes this morning…"

"Hmmm. Maybe that's for the best…" Myrddin spins the ball on his right index finger.

"Woah…" Erica is impressed that he can spin it and hold it in place. It's the first time she's seen someone do it in person, and it's Myrddin doing it. She comes to her senses and questions what Myrddin just said. "Wait, why would that be for the best?"

Myrddin scratches his left cheek. "Because Scott… he's not been well. I don't know how to describe it"

"Aggression issues?"

Myrddin gives Erica a puzzled look. "Exactly…. How? More rumors?"

Erica nods. "And there's also a rumor going around that he's…."

"Well rumors are exactly that. Rumors. Best not to listen to them. But for my curiosity…" Myrddin can't help himself. Maybe this can help him come up with a few more ideas.

Erica takes a step closer to him and whispers. "Some people are saying he's gay. But they don't have any proof, and they're probably just trying to be mean"

Myrddin rolls his eyes. "Rumors are rumors. Anyway…" This info doesn't help him. "… give me your finger for a second"

"My what?" Erica is caught off guard when Myrddin grabs her right hand.

He takes her index finger and points it straight up. "Hold it just like that"

"L-like this?" Erica tries to keep her blush and embarrassment to a minimum. But his hand is so warm and strong it's hard to stop her mind from wandering.

"Mhmm" Myrddin nods and moves the spinning volleyball onto her finger. "And voilà"

Erica feels Myrddin let her hand go and the volleyball stays spinning on her finger. It's not touching her barely long fingernail. She doesn't understand how other girls can keep their fingernails super long. "I'm doing it?"

"All on your own" Myrddin isn't doing any magic, any real magic at least. This one is just him using physics.

Even if he had to use magic, seeing Erica's mood improve is worth it. She wasn't having a very good day so far. Myrddin wonders if her medication is working. She hasn't had a seizure as far as he is aware, but she doesn't look very well. Her skin is pale and she's slightly cold to the touch. Her stamina also went down a little bit since Friday.

Healing magic is a bit tricky. What he did with Jackson was use his Mana to see what was wrong. It was like seeing an in depth X-ray or a detailed map of Jackson's shoulder. He probably could have done his entire body but that would have taken a while. And it's not like he instantly knew what was wrong or how to fix it. That was all his own knowledge that he's gained by studying the human body. And he didn't try to use his magic to heal Jackson.

That was for a few reasons. One, he didn't want Jackson to get off easy. He was stupid and deserved what came to him. Second, Jackson would have gone from badly hurt to perfectly fine. That would have been very weird and drawn a little too much attention. Third, he wasn't sure how exactly to heal someone. If he had to narrow the ways down it would either be using his own Mana to heal them or use his Mana to guide the person's Mana to the injury and help the injury heal. He also didn't know if it would be as fast as his own healing or not. Fourth, what would the adverse affects of healing someone be? Shortened lifespan? Fatigue? It was too risky to use unless he had more answers or absolutely needed to try and heal someone. And a few other reasons.

So basically, him trying to heal Erica's epilepsy is still looking difficult. But he's gotten a step closer.

Erica smiles brightly while trying not to drop the volleyball. But all good things must come to an end, the ball loses speed and falls. But Myrddin catches it before it can bounce off the ground. "Let's go rest over there"