Necromaster

“And then the Headmaster -- wait…wasn’t it Headmistress? No no, that stinky old man was definitely the Headmaster! He had that huge beard…yeah! -- where was I? Oh yeah, then the Headmaster showed up and my beloved Jean Claude--”

Eleri pricked her finger with her needle as she jumped in surprise (she did not let out a surprised “Nya!” and no one would be able to prove it!). A skeleton with a permanent skewed grin had dropped a random assortment of old, mostly ruined clothing next to her. It clattered away and Eleri let out a sigh of relief, absently smoothing her poofed up tail while absently sucking on the finger she’d accidentally stabbed. With her focus striped from her frantic sewing, she took the time to take stock of the others. 

Yuzuki was off to one side going through choreography with a skeleton dressed in a tattered wizard’s robe complete with glued on white beard and a huge, wide brimmed conical hat. Her katana was still sheathed at her side as she made exaggerated practice swings at the skeleton with a vaguely sword shaped stick. Her puffy tanuki tail was stiff with her concentration and worry and her cute little round ears were focused forward.

Celyn was nervously looking around as she scribbled in her journal. As she watched, Celyn scribbled out whatever it was she was writing and started again. The lyrics to the song that was demanded didn’t seem to be going well. Eleri wanted to get up and comfort the poor girl…and not just because Celyn had the softest, fluffiest hugs that Eleri absolutely did not fake twisted ankles to get bed time cuddles with.

Katsuro was currently the focus of their host’s ire. Kathelyne the Necromancer, stomping her feet like the child she looked like, was berating him about…a tree? 

“It’s supposed to be a cherry tree! With the pink flowers! Not a sad willow! PAY ATTENTION NEXT TIME!”

The kitsune was apologizing about the mistake before he darted away, looking for anything that might let him make pink cherry blossoms. That wasn’t the first time Kathelyne had gotten on them about details. Details she hadn’t included in her story at all! Eleri hadn’t deserved to have that freaky giant skeleton monster looming over her while the necromancer berated her about getting the Riannon Institute uniforms wrong! How was she supposed to know what some Mothergreen school uniform looked like?!

Her gaze finally drifted over to Laurent and she couldn’t help but let her eyes linger. He’d taken off his shirt and armor sometime while she had been sewing and the dappled sunlight coming through the canopy above was making him practically glisten. He was using Katsuro’s axes and hatchets to roughly build out the stage and he’d been doing a lot of heavy lifting. Technically, he was supposed to be in the big fight at the end of the play too, but their paladin was the only one strong enough to lift those heavy logs and boards.

Another pile of discarded clothes (she didn’t want to think too hard about it, but they were probably from adventurers who had died to this maniac!) landed next to her as another skeleton clattered up to her. This one…gave her the shivers as the thing turned around, as the tail of what once was a lamia moved in a slithering motion…but the rib bones acted like little millipede legs. With one last shiver, Eleri got back to work. She had to finish the uniforms so they could get out of here. And the only way out was to perform Kathlyne’s very creatively titled: “The Stupid Riannon Institute Expelled Me For Making Cute Friends And I Hate Them!”