A human has appeared on campus! To figure out how she got here, Melody interro…I mean, politely questions the girl. It’s not very effective.

Melody

Hello Manticores! My name is Melody Martin and I’m here today with some special news: there is a human on campus. That’s right – someone who is FULLY human managed to get here. Even the school administration doesn’t know how. There are enchantments all around the campus designed to lead humans astray if they try to enter. From what I’ve been told, she still can’t see full-blooded magical creatures like Instructor Perry, but she can see and hear all of the people and structures that exist in the human realm and magic realm concurrently.

As part of this occasion, I’ve been granted a special privilege: I’ll be interviewing the human right here in the radio studio. The school administration want to determine how she got into the school, but they think the interrogation room isn’t suitable for humans, so they’ve asked me to try to extract the information via an interview. I am truly honored to have this role and I hope to be of great use to the school.

My guest doesn’t yet seem ready, however, so I’ll answer some chatroom questions first.

The first comment comes from…Petra. Great. Petra advises me not to f this up. Thanks for the word of encouragement, Petra.

Alan Sudworth is wondering what the human looks like. Alan, I know you’ve seen a human before. She looks like other humans, I’m sure. It’s not like she’ going to have a tail or wings.

I can see her through the study door, though, so I suppose I can give you some more information. She has curly black hair and dark skin. And she’s wearing jeans and a t-shirt. That’s all, really. What else do you want me to say? After you’ve seen a bunch of magical creatures, humans’ appearances aren’t very remarkable.

Next question comes from Cordelia Paul, who asks whether the human will be harmed for trespassing. That’s a wonderful question, Cordelia. The school administration has assured me no harm will come to the girl. I will ask her questions to try to figure out how she got here, then the school will wipe her memory of this place and send her back into the world. She’ll be fine; it will just be like she’d never come here.

It’s important for us to find out how she passed our defenses so we can reinforce them in the future. If humans start finding this place, we won’t be able to practice our magic freely. In all places where humans and magical creatures coexist, the people with magic must hide their powers for fear of exposing themselves. Some of our gifts can be excused by humans as coincidence or illusion, but others are impossible to disguise. Most of the places we used to practice magic have already become overrun by humans, so it’s vital we keep a place for ourselves.

Ah, our guest is ready. Ina, bring her in.

JASMINE

Um, where am I? No one will tell me.

MELODY

You’re at a radio station, of course. Haven’t you ever been to one?

JASMINE

Well, no. But what station is this?

MELODY

Your favorite.

JASMINE

KIIS?

MELODY

Yeah, that one.

JASMINE

I thought you guys were in Burbank.

MELODY

Oh, that’s just our decoy station.

JASMINE

You have a decoy station?

MELODY

Of course! There are so many fans that try to meet their favorite celebrities by visiting the station. It makes it difficult to conduct our shows there, so we do them elsewhere.

JASMINE

But…why am I here?

MELODY

That’s what I’m wondering too. We try to keep our location secret to avoid trespassers. Do you remember how you got here?

JASMINE

I promise I wasn’t trying to trespass! I was just…let’s see. I was on vacation with my family, and we were having a picnic at the park, but I got bored. So I wandered into the woods and I got lost and somehow ended up here.

MELODY

Interesting. Would you say you were trying to get lost?

JASMINE

What do you mean?

MELODY

Some people say that if you’re trying to get lost, you can find places that can never be found.

JASMINE

I’m confused.

MELODY

Don’t worry about. Oh, would you mind telling me your name? It’s always strange to talk with someone I don’t know. My name is Melody.

JASMINE

Um, my name is Jasmine.

MELODY

Nice to meet you, Jasmine. I just want to ask you a few more questions, if that’s okay.

JASMINE

I guess so, but will you help me get back to my family after? They’re probably getting worried.

MELODY

Of course. You’ll be back with them before you know it. As for my next question…Jasmine, have you ever witnessed something you couldn’t explain?

JASMINE

Like what? I mean, there’s a lot of things in life I can’t explain. Like how the internet works. You can post an image to your website in California and it can be immediately seen by someone in Serbia. Isn’t that crazy?

MELODY

Quite. But I mean things more like…supernatural occurrences. Things no one else can explain either.

JASMINE

Do you have any examples?

MELODY

Someone with wings, perhaps, or someone who can summon fire out of thin air.

JASMINE

*laughs* Is this one of those prank shows? Are you trying to convince me to say something stupid so you can use the video to get lots of hits on Youtube?

MELODY

I’m going to take that as a “no.”

JASMINE

But I will, for the right price. You’re supposed to compensate people, right? For a few Disneyland tickets, I’d be happy to make a fool of myself.

MELODY

Unfortunately, we don’t have any Disneyland tickets here.

JASMINE

Seriously? You’ve been giving them away every hour for the past week. Just call my name as one of the winners and we’ve got a deal.

MELODY

Sorry, Jasmine, but I think our time here is done. I doubt there’s any other information you can give us.

JASMINE

Wait, what? What do you mean?

MELODY

Ina, please take Jasmine to get her memory wiped.

JASMINE

My memory? What are you talking about? No, don’t touch me- *sound gets distant*

MELODY

Poor Jasmine is clearly in distress, but she’ll be fine soon enough. The administration will make sure she gets returned to her family safely. After all, if anything here hurt her, we might accidentally expose ourselves. Plus, it’s not like we’re monsters. She seemed innocent enough to be let go unharmed.

I wish I could have gotten more information out of her, but she was even more baffled than I was. At this point, all we can do is try to strengthen the enchantments around the school and hope that’s enough to keep off future intruders. That means anyone who has found a way to get items delivered to campus from the outside might need to rethink their strategy. Also, don’t be surprised if you’re questioned, because it’s possible your actions are what led to the enchantment weakening. Enchantments aren’t my strong suit, so I’m not really sure. Regardless, that was an exciting moment, and I hope all of you enjoyed it too. Until next time, good night Manticores.