Rufus

Both me and this guy are screaming in fear of each other. Then we both bolt for Heather. My hope is to seek protection from her. Then we side to side glance around Heather. The man's dark timid eyes look oddly familiar. Then the wallop of Heather's fist comes down on us.

"Would you two stop goofing off and tell me what is going on?" Heather hisses.

"I have no idea! I woke up to you yelling and that perv on me!" I cry rubbing my sore head.

Heather turns to look at the man. Now I see he is dressed in thin dark leather pants, a matching vest and a cotton white long sleeve shirt.

"Rufus. Explain yourself." Heather's voice is stern as she gazes upon the scared man.

"Weeeeeellllll we went on an adventure today. Hazel kept feeding me yummy fruit but I was getting reeeeaaaal tired of being wrapped up you see. Soooo I might have asked to be free but she didn't so I fought her to get free. Then we ran around town. It was a lot of fun." The man (who apparently is Rufus the fruit bat) explains with a sly smile.

"Care to explain the pollen on your face?" Heather folds her arms over her larger chest.

Rufus starts smacking his face with his hands to wipe it clean. "What pollen?"

Heather lets out an irritated sigh. She turns to me. "Do you know what flowers he got into?"

"I-i don't know. I m-might be able to show you the houses though." I stammer. 

I haven't seen Heather mad like this before. I've seen her get angry at a wild boar and cleave its head clean off but this is different. Like a hint of disappointment in her voice and it's cutting like a knife on my heart.

"Well it doesn't matter now. What's done is done." She turns back to Rufus who is now missing. "That damn bat! When I catch him! Come on, we have to get him before he makes a fool of himself."

We run outside to see Rufus skipping down the road with his arms out singing without a care in the world. As we run after him the cooler I never took off bounces on my hip. He sees us and starts sprinting away.

"Come back you mangy bat!" Heather yells after him.

"But its fun out here!" He protests.

"Fun for you but not others when you start stripping from eating a fermented piece of fruit!" Heather yells back. 

She looks at me while we run. "What do you have in there?"

"Um." I reply while pulling out a bruised mango.

"Clothes are restricting! Everyone needs to be free from cloth-" Rufus is cut off when a mango collides with his head. 

"MANGO!" Rufus yells. He dives onto the ground picking up the mushy fruit and shoves it in his mouth.

"Got yea." Heather pants as she gets a death grip on the back of his vest.

"Ahhhh maaaaan." Rufus pouts a little but keeps eating the mango as Heather drags him back home.

Once home she places him in a chair in the dinning room. She walks over to the closest wall slapping a paper onto it.

"Rufus lock down." Heather says firmly. The paper burns with a star and I feel mana pulse all the way around the house.

"You're no fun!" Rufus protests covered in mango juice.

"You know what's not fun?" Heather slams her hands down on either side of Rufus trapping him in the wooden chair. She slowly leans in more and more. "Writing an apology letter to the WHOLE city because my familiar ran naked through the streets. Hazel would fall over if she knew the bill I was charged when the elite hunters were called in to catch you." 

Rufus is slouching back in his chair. He looks up innocently with a small smile on his face. Heather sighs and rests her head on his shoulder.

"What am I going to do with you?" Heather says quietly.

"I know!" Rufus perks up as if a lightbulb goes off in his head.

"Oh. I know too." I say giving him a death glare while holding my talisman up.

"Heather shave me!" Rufus cries clinging to the woman.

"Get off! And it's save not shave." Heather says pulling the mango juice covered man off of her. "How about you be a good familiar and help my student with her project? She really needs the extra credit since her test scores suck."

"Hey! He doesn't need to know that!" I protest.

"Oh but I do know." Rufus shrugs. "First I shower."

Getting up he grabs Heather's wrist and twirls her around catching her in one of those romance movie dips. He whispers something that makes Heather flush before standing her right back up. Rufus waltzes off to the bathroom without a care in the world.

"You look confused." Heather says gaining her composure again. She looks me up and down.

"I'm trying to wrap my head around Rufus right now. Bat but a man. Man-bat? Bat-man? He is a familiar? Do all familiars do this?" I ask pointing to the bathroom.

"Not all. Some can't leave their animal forms, some can change back and forth at will but Rufus, there has to be a new moon and he has to eat heart bell flower nectar." Heather informs me.

Where have I heard that name. Wait that plant is in Heather's bed room!

I gasp a little too loud.

"You okay?" She asks.

"Yup! Here's my talisman. I'm going to go study!" I say slapping the stone onto the counter and scurry off to my room.

I need to read up on familiars. 

"Be sure to start your paper on how talismans are used." Heather says from the kitchen.

Talisman after familiar research. Lets go!

○●○●  –(^▪︎^)–  ●○●○

[A few days later]

Thanks to Rufus staying up all night and being a good bat in his towel for the last few hours of me holding that stone to his head, I was able to get the extra credit. Matilda came over and we wrote up the paper together after both of our stones turned black. She had more knowledge on talismans but I had the energy to write. We both passed with a high score. Heather docked us on our grammar and spelling on a few words though. 

Cellia came in last because her hamster kept eating the talisman and no one wanted to search the droppings.

"You all did well with this project. Some better than others. Now I will be giving out extra credit opportunities to a handful of you since you are still pretty much failing." Heather says. "Alright message sent. See you extra credit kids all bright and early tomorrow at the paddocks."

When I got home I realize I am one of the extra credit opportunity kids.

●○●○   –(>-<)–   ○●○●

The next day at the paddocks I see James, Matilda, Cellia, the guy that was Cellia's partner, Chelsea and Heather gathering up shovels and the likes.

"Looks like we all struggle with something at school." I mumble to myself before joining them.

[Until the next adventure.]