Chapter 1

1

KOVI

Opening the door, I’m met with the one person I didn’t expect to see at the beginning of the school year―the dean, smiling at me in the hallway.

“Dean Yaga?” I gulp and the nerves kick in. I’ve known who she was since I enrolled in Creelin University two years ago, but I’ve spoken maybe four words to her directly.

“Mr. Sampath!” she says, cheerfully . She knows my name? I know I’m the only dryad and one of the few dark-skinned dudes on campus, but I try to lay low. Did my suitemates mess up already? Classes don’t even start for days! “May I?”

I nod my head and let her in. “Yes, of course.”

Dean Yaga floats, literally, into my living space, on her black mortar. Her transportation acts like a little black stone boat, hovering a foot into the air, and I have no idea how it works. Her silver hair is tied back in a braid, and her crimson leather trench coat makes her appear as regal as ever.

“How was move-in?”

“Move-in was…good?” I shove my hands in my jean pockets and try not to shrug. “My third time doing it.”

“Yes, that’s great. It’s always good that our upperclassmen dorms here at Creelin are appropriate for monsters of all kinds.” She waves her hand at our common room. It’s cozy, sleek, and modern, with two maroon, fabric couches facing a small flatscreen TV.

“Yes, I’d say so,” I reply. “No complaints from us.” My two best-friends-slash-suitemates are different monsters, and we each have our own private rooms.

“Anyway...” She puts her hands together and smiles again. “I came to ask a favor of you, Mr. Sampath.”

“Please, call me, Kovi.”

“Yes, well Kovi, I came here to personally ask you―”

She’s interrupted by the door swinging open and my roommate’s voice nearly cheering. “What’s up, party monsters?! Let’s get this year fuc― oh.”

Seth’s face nearly blanches at the sight of the dean, and I slap my palm into my face. “Dean Yaga…” He gulps and shifts the milkcrate in his hands. We can clearly see the contents: ancient scrolls and canopic jars, the essentials for a mummy. Behind those are bottles of lube and chains of condoms―of course, safety first for a party monster like him.

I grimace, but Dean Yaga doesn’t drop her smile. “You must be Sethem, the former pharaoh.”

He nods and jostles the box, trying to hide the contents from the administrator of our school. He better not have any booze in there . “Yes. I’m Seth. Pharaoh brought back to life, post-mummification. Your resident mummy shifter, that’s me.” He chuckles, and I match his nervous smile. “So, listen…um, I’m sure you have a lot of questions, but I had nothing to do with that incident. In fact, I had never seen a scarab before in my life. And you can ask anyone―”

“Seth!” I bark through gritted teeth. “Dean Yaga came here only to speak to me.”

After a tense moment, he slowly nods. “Right.”

“Yes, I’m here to ask Kovi for a favor on a private matter.”

“Oh, of course.” His eyes dart between us and I’m two seconds away from shifting out of nervousness. Keep your cool, Kovi, stay human. “I’ll just, um…” He scratches his eyebrow while the box continues to shift on his hip.

“Maybe we can talk elsewhere?” I suggest.

“Splendid idea. Can we take a walk to the west lawn, Kovi?”

I nod at the dean, and we head out the door past Seth, but not before I throw my best friend a “don’t do anything stupid, Seth” look.

Five minutes later, we’re walking―she’s hovering―out the entrance to Karloff Hall. This dorm, my home-away-from-trees, is a gray-stone structure with gothic castle vibes. The outside screams spooky, but the inside is fully modern American architecture. I wanted the full human experience dorming, and I definitely got it, complete with roommate hijinks.

“Now, I hate to ask you this favor,” the dean says. We pass the quad where other students are moving their belongings into their respective buildings. “You know the origins of our school, correct?”

“Yes, of course. You told us during orientation; during the Halloween Wave that turned one third of the population into shifters, the school was rebuilt by supernatural forces.”

She nods, pleased at my answer. We make it to the west gate, and some of the gargoyles perched atop the concrete walls greet us. “And you know who runs the facilities, the grounds, etc.?” she asks.

I nod again and break out into a small jog. She’s a tiny woman, where I’m over six feet, but my long legs can barely keep up with her basically flying away on her mortar. “It’s the zombie and ghosts, right? Their only directive is to work on the school.”

“Yes, but, they can only do so much.” She comes to an abrupt stop in front of several rows of shrubs and trees. “I’m going to be blunt so you can get back to moving in, Mr. Sampath.” She puts her hands together and looks up. “As a tree spirit shifter, I need your help with this one patch of shrubbery.”

My eyebrows furrow and I turn to where she’s looking. Each massive oak tree and matching evergreen shrub is pristine in front of the concrete Creelin U fa?ade―all but one. We move forward to the singular tree that doesn’t match the others. It’s so little, the poor thing, and it’s as if it hasn’t been watered. But something tells me that’s not the case.

“This tree…”

“It refuses to sprout. We took them all from the West Forest at the same time. The zombies have been meticulously watering them all. As you can see, we know how to make trees grow properly.”

I bite back the retort that no one “makes” trees do anything. Flora is sentient, but only a being linked to all plant life would understand that.

She continues, “I want this school to look its best since move-in for underclassmen starts tomorrow.”

“That makes sense.” My eyes never leave the tiny, leafless tree. I can sense it’s young. My heart aches; I remember being a sapling of a boy and how difficult it was. I hear puberty for humans is no joke, but it particularly sucked for me. All that involuntary shifting…

“Is there anything at all you can do?” She turns to me, gentle desperation written on her mildly wrinkled face. “I understand if I have to get a whole new tree, but…”

I nod. “I’ll have to shift in order to properly commune with it.” I already begin morphing under my skin before the dean nods. She floats back, giving me plenty of space.

I close my eyes as every inch of my skin turns to tree bark. Leaves sprout on my head in place of my trimmed black hair as I grow taller. My back, now a flexible trunk, reaches upward. I sense my clothes merging with me―thank monster god I mastered that as a kid―as I complete the transformation. While the entire process takes five seconds, I’m always overwhelmed by the sudden commune with all plant life.

When I’m human, the plants are a nearly silent thrum; when I’m a dryad, it’s like a symphony playing a tune that never gets old. I hear each blade of grass, each tree, each flower, and each sprout. They call out to me, and, because I’m a tree spirit, we are one.

Opening my eyes, I gaze down my ten-foot stature to see Dean Yaga not at all shocked. As the dean of a monster college, she needs to be well-versed in every monster species. From alicorns to zhulong-shifters, if you were affected by the Halloween Wave almost twenty years ago, you can enroll. I’m fortunate to live a life where I can shift in peace, a community far from frightened humans.

I turn back to the little sapling. While the other trees and shrubs are vibrating with contentment, this one is nearly silent. It’s not dead, but I don’t get any answers immediately. So, I do what only a dryad can do. I grow my arm branches into vines and reach into the soil. It’s easy to weave my way around other plants and find the roots I need.

Gotcha . Touching the roots, I’m able to commune properly. This tiny tree is…scared? Sad? A combination of the two. Plant life doesn’t experience emotions the way monsters or humans do. I sense where the little guy longs to be, and I try to compel it to bloom. Go ahead, be like your neighbors…

But no. I know what the tiny tree yearns for, so I take a mental note, and then shift back down. It’s easier to verbally speak when I’m in human form.

“Well?”

I shake my head dolefully. “It…misses its forest. The trees it used to be with. While the others don’t mind the relocations as long as they get water, this one is different.” I frown and we both turn to it. “It would be best to move it back to the West Forest and replace it.”

“But we don’t know where it came from.”

“I do. I know where it belongs.” My heart continues to ache for the little thing. I, too, was hauled from home to home until Creelin U.

“Very well.” Dean Yaga leans her cheek in one hand and sighs in defeat. “I’ll ask the zombies to find another tree.”

“No need. When I take this little buddy back to its patch in the West Forest, I can find a better tree for you.”

“Oh, splendid!” The dean looks delighted―it’s always good to get brownie points from the woman who runs the school. “And for your efforts, I’d like to give you this.” She waves her hand, and, in the blink of an eye, a small gold paper manifests in her palm. “It’s a gift certificate for Mummy Mocha.”

I smile. “You don’t have to, Dean Yaga. My best friend is the manager there, so he’s always giving me his latest concoctions.”

“Oh, I must insist.” She puts the certificate in my palm and grins. “With your help, the school will look absolutely perfect, which is particularly vital since tomorrow is the biggest day in CU history.”

My eyebrows furrow and I pocket the gold paper. “Why is that?”

“Because tomorrow humans are being enrolled! Transfers and freshmen abound! It’s the next step for human-monster relations!” She claps her hands in delight. Meanwhile, my mouth goes dry.

“Uh…”

“Thank you for your help, Kovi. Ta ta for now!” She floats away on her mortar and cheers. “Tomorrow’s the big day, humans are coming our way…” she sings in a jingle as she disappears.

I try to tamp down nervousness as I shift again. My vines reach down and gently pull up the barren tree along with a patch of dirt. It’s an easy task once I grow more than five vines from my arm branches―ten human fingers is so limiting.

As I take giant steps with my tree trunk legs, I try to quell my anxiety. I had heard rumors that humans would be admitted to the U, but I thought it was fake news. As a shifter, I’ve had my run-ins with humans here in Creelin, Pennsylvania. The population at large tolerates monsters on a good day and shuns us on a bad day. Why would they even want to study here? They call us “Creepin U” for crying out loud.

Holding the tiny tree, I stride through the forest, feeling rejuvenated. Squirrels and birds steer clear of me, and humans never venture this deep into the woods. It’s an overcast day, but enough sunlight passes through the silver layer of clouds to energize me. Any time spent in the forest makes me a happy monster.

If I lived with only humans, I could never be like this. As a dryad, half of my form is a giant treant behemoth, and my other half, is a dark-skinned Sri Lankan dude. I know that the majority of students are monsters, but still―what will the humans think of us?

When I locate the patch that the sapling’s essence originated from, I make quick work of replanting it. I push soil around, and gently place it down, and cover it in earth. I give it a little growth blessing, one of my many powers, and I watch as it inches upward for a few seconds. Smiling with my wooden mouth, I turn around to gauge the status of the other trees around me.

I locate the perfect plant, a half-mature oak, and get to work uprooting it. I sense it will flourish just fine near the CU campus. Making my way out of the forest, I pray I thrive in my junior year as a student as well.