“Josephine, why the hell did you bring binoculars?” Jasper said. “And get out of the bushes, other students go to the library on Sundays, too.”

Josephine and Maria, crouched over mulch, turned around with grimaces on their faces.

“Oh, it’s you guys.” Maria said.

“Don’t blow our cover.” Josephine said.

Jasper rolled his eyes. “Did Aren decide to come?”

“Yeah, they’re killing bugs around the building.” Maria said.

“Maybe this is one of their spawning points.” Cody said, looking out at the clouds.

Maria eyed them down, retinas blaring in Jasper’s mind You two walked here together/ Am I not supposed to assume anything?/ Tell me what’s going on—

Jasper looked to the side and wished he knew how to whistle, because the pretending-with-pursed-lips wasn’t very inconspicuous. But then a swift observation hit him, and he whipped his head back around.

“You’re wearing CAMO?!” Jasper dramatized.

“They’re just jackets.” Josephine said. “Don’t get your tubes tied.”

Cody appeared to choke on nothing for a moment, then he smiled at Jasper. “Shall we go, uh, find that…”

“Yeah.” Jasper started off and waved at Cody to follow, then looked back at the pair of lesbian bushes. “You two keep watch I guess.”

“Oh, we’ll be watching very closely.” Maria said as a pair of binoculars was shoved through the short hedge.

“Our eyes are fujoshi-trained.” Josephine added.

“What does that mean?” Cody asked as they walked around a small tree and down the sidewalk.

“Nothing you need to worry about.” Jasper said. “Ever.”

“Why is your face getting red?”

“Why is yours always red?” Jasper snapped back.

Jasper, daring to catch a glance over caught Cody’s teeth through a small smile. Ohhhhhhh god. Jasper got defensive for a moment, and now Cody was giving a cute reaction?

They walked toward the side of the square four-story building. There were walkways and grass patches along the sides, but the backside of the building had more vegetation.

“What are we looking for again?” Cody asked.

“I dunno, probably some mushrooms.” Jasper said. The messages he remembered weren’t exactly clear.

“Zut.” Cody said as soon as they turned the back corner. There was a row of bushes, a few flower beds and trees, and a small fountain. A few dragonflies darted around as the water trickled in a soft drizzle. It was a nice spot to look out to while studying. Whoever might be inside the library today would definitely see Jasper and Cody snooping.

Hopefully the minimum-wage weekend student staff wouldn’t care enough to say anything. “Keep off grass” was an important sentiment, but Jasper had permission from the mother of all nature. So.

They had only taken a few steps into the area when Jasper spotted a big red mushroom.

“Yeah, it’s wafting miasma, but in a more glowy way like sprites do.” Cody said, having followed Jasper’s stares.

“Zut.” Jasper wanted to recognize the difference. Sure enough, the playful red color glowed around the mushroom, rather than wafting or leaking outward like negative entities did.

The mushroom twisted as they approached, black dash marks over it rotating with little white speckles. Jasper almost had the scare reflex to grab onto Cody.

Not today.

They watched as two small arms sprung forth from the ground, and the sprite hoisted itself out. The thick stalk was longer than first glance, but it was also the sprite’s entire face and body. It had playful brown eyes and a lighter pinkish-tan body with black and white speckles, as well as a tiny mouth. It stood about a foot tall on multiple stub-legs, as if it were part starfish.

Jasper wouldn’t call it cute. But it wasn’t not-cute either. This was a dilemma.

“Thine young knight be’est here!” It said, doing a fun little hop. Ok, the score table was leaning more towards cute. Its mushroom cap/hat did a little boing too. “Sire Jasper, please taketh me to’m wherest mother guides thee, for mine spores shall searcheth and findeth thine book!”

Cody and Jasper looketh at each other. Looked. They LOOKED at each other. This sprite definitely had its own take on a certain historical lingo. Jasper had to make sure the weird diction didn’t sneak into his mind as well.

“The name is Sir Jiro, at your due acquaintance.” Jiro continued and gave a little bow. The cute meter in Jasper’s head was really swinging back and forth here.

“You know my name.” Jasper said. “At least I know this is real now.”

“Mushroom.”

“JESUS!” Jasper jumped, and even Cody startled a little as they looked up and to the left to see Aren hanging in a tree.

Hanging in a tree. Staring at Jiro. Face upside down. Legs folded over a branch. Quite a few feet above them. Aren was hanging with them, and they hadn’t noticed. Jasper respected the internal pun as he re-calmed his heart.

“Aren is the best at running up trees.” Cody said as if trying to explain the situation to himself. Jasper finally let go of his own heart, having clutched it harder than he’d like to admit.

“Sires, we must steel our livers and ready ourselves.” Jiro grabbed their attention again. Livers? “Great perils await in the plantless industrialized lands.”

“You mean the secret basement of the library?” Jasper asked. “What’s down there?” Maybe a dialect that made sense.

“Troves of treasure hoarded by agents of chaos!” Jiro shouted. “We must bend the lights of thine heavens to help us!”

“You mean go invisible?” Cody rhetorically asked. “Already in the plan. I can block our energy signatures too.”

Jiro moved his stubby little hand over his mouth. “Er-hem. Yes. Most helpful.” He fixated onto Jasper. “Now, chosen knight, carry me if you kindly.”

“What?” Jasper said.

“Yes, sire, I will surely wilt in separation from nature dearest, as mine breaths shall expire in such mechanized lands.” Jiro said. “A sprite-awakened energy must keep me aliveth.”

Aliveth? Jasper wanted to shake his head in his palms. “Ok, whatever.”

Grass shuffled as Jiro sprung into Jasper’s arms without much warning, and Jasper stumbled back. Cody chuckled (rude), as Jasper recovered from slight panic into a not-so-bad realization. Jiro weighed less than a pound. He probably stumbled back more from his own subconscious dramatics than he did from actual impact.

Aren hopped down from the tree and landed next to them— from a height that would’ve broken untrained legs if it weren’t for enchantments. Though, Aren had very trained legs, too. Jasper could feel their landing thud through the ground.

Jiro practically laid in Jasper’s arms like a baby. Cody had a huge smile looking at them.

Jasper sighed. “Let’s go get the lesbians and head in, I guess.”

When they began walking back around, Jasper had to mentally go through a quick replay of everything that happened. He muttered to Cody, “Since we stepped foot on campus, I’ve felt like we’re in a fever dream.”

“And it hasn’t even been ten minutes.” Cody whispered back.