Thread: Runaway Toad! WHO: Xavier and Trevor the Giant Toad and OPEN WHEN: Early Friday morning, before classes WHERE: School grounds
A giant toad. Xavier couldn’t leave it be. Though Mr. Cavanaugh hadn’t at all meant his mention of the creature to be a challenge, Xavier couldn’t help taking it that way. He also saw and heard many of the other Ladon residents complaining of the smell of the thing. He was on the far end of the building from it, so it didn’t impact him, but the complaints of his peers were almost enough motivation for him to leave it be. He didn’t feel inclined to do any of them a favor. In the end, his own curiosity about whether or not he could control and move the toad, and the resulting chaos that could ensue, won out. Challenge accepted.
He didn’t try it right away. There had been a full moon and morbid curiosity had won out for a time. He’d more than half-expected a curious werewolf to slaughter it, and had watched through a bat’s eyes, waiting for it to happen. It didn’t happen. From what he’d seen, the wolves gave it a wide berth. He’d focused his attention on them for a while, learning a lot about what werewolves did during a full moon, which was much less exciting than he’d hoped for. His opinion of the weres much deflated afterward, he soon turned his attention back to the toad.
Not needing sleep, his attention turned back to Trevor in the early hours, Friday morning. He’d idly been wondering if he could get Trevor to settle down right in front of the main building’s doors. Maybe they’d all even get a three day weekend out of it. Finally deciding to act on it, Xavier sat on his bed in his room, reaching out with his mind. He found the toad, and psychically entered the creature’s headspace. Xavier regularly did this with other creatures, bats and rats and sparrows primarily. He hadn’t thought the toad would be much different. It was much larger, of course, but from his understanding it was just a regular toad that someone had magically enlarged. Perhaps it was because the creature was an amphibian rather than a mammal or a bird, but it was different, unfamiliar. There was a mental slipperiness to it, a quality about it’s mind that was making it difficult for Xavier to mentally latch on the way he usually could. He tried for a while before resorting to what was basically him mentally poking it with a stick. He had enough of a connection to it that he felt it leap up from it’s resting place. Upon landing, it was on the move again. Xavier couldn’t remain in it’s head the way he could with other creatures, and found himself thrown right out of it’s mind.
Xavier jumped up from his bed, wanting to see where it was going, what it was doing. He dashed out the door and down the hall, not concerning himself with being presentable, it was just early enough that he doubted anyone would be up and out yet, though they might been soon. He wasn’t indecent, but a white tee and a dark pair of tennis shorts was far from the usual look he sported. He pushed the door open and bolted out. He looked toward the side of the building, thinking of the garden and pond on the far side of the building where it had been. It was obviously not there now, though Xavier couldn’t see the spot where it had been. What he could see was a path of destruction, disheveled landscaping, an upended bench and some trash cans knocked over.
The vampire followed the trail of debris through campus, cringing when he saw part of the wooden front of the Kitsune building looking chipped up and one of the front windows badly cracked. A moment later, beyond the dorm, he saw it. The beast had squeezed itself into one of the soccer goals. He felt a relief upon seeing it, though a moment later he had a feeling he was no longer alone.