Mal hadn’t even realized that there were that many children on the island yet, but the little community had been slowly expanding as the infrastructure was finished and the resort was already nearly up to full capacity.
“The school will be opening up this fall,” Scarlet said, with a nod to the long, low building that flanked one edge of playground. “Travis’ sister has experience running an isolated, rural K-12 and I think the staff of teachers that she helped select will be a good fit here.”
“I imagine this will at least be a nice change from the wilds of Alaska,” Mal observed.
“It’s certainly warmer,” Scarlet chuckled.
One of the children on the monkey bars gave a sudden shriek and fell... only to shift midair into a black-winged panther and glide easily down onto the sand below amid the shreds of his clothing.
“Lydia’s going to have words about the clothes. I think that’s the third outfit this week,” Scarlet said with a tolerant smile.
The children he’d been playing with scrambled down to help collect the pieces of his shirt and shorts.
“Your mom is going to be mad,” a little dark-skinned girl said firmly, holding up the shorts, split along the seams.
The winged panther turned back into a little dark-haired boy. He took the shorts gravely, and attempted to put them back on. The older boy who had been pushing the swings supplied a series of safely pins from a pocket and helped him reassemble them into something that would keep him covered.
From around the corner of the community hall, there was a sudden clatter of hooves and a tiny gazelle came bolting out into the playground, pursued by a white-haired woman who was nearly as fleet on two bare feet as the foal was on four.
“You have to eat lunch before we play!” Gizelle chided, her voice full of laughter.
The little antelope darted through the metal columns of the playground dragon and drew up short against a broad, shovel-shaped pair of antlers as a giant stag suddenly appeared through the brush beyond.
The sharp stop proved too much for the gazelle in the loose sand and it tumbled over itself to bounce up as a toddler girl with a head full of dark curls. “Papa!” she burbled in glee. She grasped the antlers in two tiny hands and was lifted high into the air at the crown of the huge Irish elk that had blocked her path.
Gizelle came to a chortling stop at Conall’s feet. “Clothes, Jana! We’re supposed to be people right now. In clothes!”
“No clothes,” Jana protested. “No clothes!”
But she let Gizelle scoop her up from Conall’s rack and wrapped chubby arms around her neck.
“Miss Scarlet!” The dark-skinned girl had spotted Scarlet standing with Mal at the edge of the playground. “Miss Scarlet! Did you see the dragon? Mr. Neal made us a dragon!”
“I saw it, Amy!” Scarlet said warmly. “He made a wonderful dragon.”
The other children gathered around them eagerly. “Will you do it, Miss Scarlet? Will you?”
“I wanna flower!” one of the youngest demanded.
Scarlet grinned and the hedge they were standing next to burst into bloom. She and Mal walked away to the sound of squeals and delight as the children began to gather them.
“It’s almost finished,” Mal observed. “Have you thought about what you want to do with Beehag’s compound while we’ve still got all the construction equipment and workmen? Knock what’s left to the ground? Build a monument?”
Scarlet’s eyes crinkled into her smile. “I wanted to see what you thought about building a school there.”
Mal’s eyes flickered to the school in the center of the village but he immediately realized that she had something very different in mind. “What kind of school?” he asked.
“A boarding high school for shifters,” Scarlet said, watching his face. “Perhaps with an emphasis on biology and pre-law; the arboretum is an amazing resource, and both you and Amber have mentioned being interested in teaching. Being a shifter in public school isn’t always easy, and it would be nice if we could give kids a safe place to be themselves and learn with others who are like them while they are navigating all the problems of growing up.”
An unexpected surge of interest swelled in Mal. He’d never considered teaching seriously, but now that it was on the table, he couldn’t get the idea out of his head. “I know some professors,” he said thoughtfully. “Would we do just secondary? Or post-secondary? I’d need to find some good education advisors, research the standards, find out what the legalities are in Costa Rica.”
“Would you teach magic?”
Mal drew to a stop. “I... I don’t know.” Once, he’d thought he would have to, to train a new fighter to battle the wyrm hundreds of years in the future. But he didn’t need to do that now.
“We’d probably have to level what’s there now and build something completely new,” Scarlet said, squeezing his arm. “There’s a lot of time to think about it.”
“It wouldn’t have to be limited to shifters,” Mal observed. “We could welcome other magical creatures, like mermaids... and dryads.”