Kryptos Academy- Chapter Two

Instructions

Chapter Two Sully “How dreary - to be - Somebody! How public - like a Frog - To tell one's name - the livelong June - To an admiring Bog!” -Emily Dickinson I look back to the orphanage with the biggest grin POSSIBLE on my face. I mean, I was leaving this place. What else would I do except scream and happily cry like I was at a Madilyn Mei concert? Not like I was actually at a Madilyn Mei concert. That comes later. So anyway, there I was, standing there, dancing to some variation of “I hate your guts, glad you’re gone, yadda yadda yadda.” That’s when someone tapped me on the shoulder. “Oh? Yeeeeeeesssss?” I asked, turning around, trying to hide my excitement, act like I had better things to do. I was failing. “Is my butler and chauffeur ready for transporting the beautiful Ace Sully?” (By the way, Ace is the gender-neutral word for King or Queen.) The tall, pale man had a look on his face that meant he was either perpetually grumpy or he just lost an extremely high-stakes game of Uno. “I’m not your butler,” he said in the most butler-like British accent I had ever heard, “But I have been tasked with taking you to Kryptos Academy. Step into the bus.” “The… MAGIC SCHOOL BUS?” I asked. “You’re going to be a handful, aren’t you?” He groaned, but for some reason he had a smile on his face. He pointed to the bus, which really looked more like a broken-down cargo plane. I squealed and ran up the stairs, my sneakers bouncing every step. When I walked inside, I couldn’t tell if it had been abandoned for ten years inside an incredibly biodiverse jungle, or if it was designed to look that way. Either way, it was really aesthetic. Definitely a place where cryptids like me would love. I glanced around the busplane. There were already a few kids sitting there, most of them on their phones. I adjusted my green striped knit hat and trotted to a seat. The person I had sat next to was leaning against the window, antennae and brown hair poking out of their hood slightly, earbuds tangled around their phone barely held together with tape. They were wearing all black, a clear sign they didn’t want to talk to anybody. So obviously, I tapped on their shoulder and said hello. They jumped. And I don’t mean they just got slightly startled, I mean they almost leaped out of their skin. As they swung around, I almost swore I could see their eyes gleam red. “Hi! I’m Sully, what’s your name?” “Ugh… I’m tired.” “Nice to meet you, Tired.” I snickered. They almost didn’t notice my joke. I frowned. The new person rubbed their red eyes and stared at the screen on the back of the seats in front of us, trying to make sense of it. “…I think I fell asleep. Where even are we? Are we there yet?” “Oh!” I smiled, “Welcome to Loveland, Ohio, my homeland! Home of the frogmen. That’s what I am, the only Loveland Frogman in alllll of Loveland. I’m really special, aren’t I?” “Ohio? Really?” They scanned the plane with their eyes. “Oh, right, there’s no brainrot kids here. And anyway, what cheesy Hallmark Movie’s idea was it to name a place Loveland??” I stared at my shoes. “Well, it wasn’t me. Take it up with Colonel Thomas Paxton.” They chuckled. “You know more about your town’s history than I know about myself.” That was a good sign. “I’m Nyx, he/they.” “That’s such a nice name! What kind of cryptid are you?” A shy expression flashed across their bright eyes. “Um, Mothman.” “I’m going to keep listening to my music now, if that’s okay.” He began to put their headphones back in. “Wait, what are you listening to?” I asked. “Vibrant Eyes by CG5. Wanna hear?” “Ooo! Okay!” I took his earbud and placed it in my ear. “I’m sure from the title it’s a nice, sweet, so..” “…what is this traumaborne monster.” Nyx laughed at that. Really laughed, like a guffaw. It made my heart feel a bit warmer since it was the first time I’ve ever heard him laugh like that. “Yeah, I guess you could say that about a lot of my music.” That’s when I felt the plane rumble beneath my feet and lift up, up, up off the ground. I had been so focused on Nyx, I almost didn’t notice that the plane was about to take off. “You ready for this adventure?” I grinned. “Can’t wait.”