Jeez, she was just trying to help.
Asher appeared at her side, and the rainbow waddled hurriedly away.
“I have that effect on people,” Hailey said, and Asher glared after him.
“He won’t bother you again,” he said darkly.
“Oh, he wasn’t bothering me.” She looked down to brush herself off, and when she looked up, Asher was gone.
“I’ve never seen Asher actually talk to a student before,” a soaking wet and filthy Fin said, stumbling over to her. He had a clean spot in the shape of goggles around his eyes, and looking dead serious, he added, “You know he’s not human.”
Raising her eyebrows, she mouthed the word, “Oh.” Of course she knew. But she didn’t know Fin knew. She thought for a second, and then she baited him. “Well, what is he?”
“Don’t care,” was his answer. He quickened his pace.
“You don’t care?”
“No...” he sang, sounding highly irked.
Hailey tripped over an alder bush, struggling to keep up with him.
“Oof! How can you not care what Asher is?”
“There are a lot of ‘not humans’ here, Hailey.”
Hailey stopped and gawked after him. Then she ran to catch up. “Wait! What other ‘not humans’ are there?”
Ignoring that question, he fired one back at her. “Why didn’t you land with the rest of us?”
As if she’d planned to fall out of the Luftzeug!
“The floor opened under me,” she said, her voice rising, “and you didn’t grab me!”
“Oh,” he said in a slightly more casual, yet still heated tone. “Well, where’d you land?”
“On my bum.”
“Did you get hurt?”
“No,” she told him, “but it was scary, and I really have to pee now.”
Fin went from irate to highly amused, instantly. “You’re a goofball,” he said chuckling. “We’re less than a minute out. When we get to Chinook Hall, throw your shoes and socks in the mud room, grab a pair of house-shoes off the rack and head straight to the back of the hall for the toilets.”
“Thank you,” she breathed.
“I’ll be heading that way too,” he told her with raised eyebrows. “Leech-check.”
“Leeches?” She tried not to think of slimly little worms crawling all over her. “How was your landing?” she asked quickly to get her mind off Alaska’s creepy-crawlies.
“Rough. But that’s normal. The pilots are a lot gentler with the women,” he said. “Most of the men ended up in the lake this time—hence the leeches. Thankfully everyone splashed down near shore, so no drownings this year.”
Hailey’s mouth fell open. “Students have died?”
“Yeah,” he said indifferently, “but only temporarily.”
Hailey opened her mouth to ask what the heck ‘only temporarily’ meant, but Fin cut her off.
“Chinook Hall.” He pointed to a giant log building in a clearing up ahead, and Hailey’s bladder coaxed a sprint.
