# HNTBL 93: Watch Out for Your Friends

By: TheDragonBoy

## Content

How Not To Become Lunch: 93 - Watch Out for Your Friends

“Alright, now before class gets out for the day, I have a new assignment for all of you.”

A hushed chorus of worried breaths and “uh-oh”s flowed through Ms. Caster’s class, but she just waved her hand dismissively and smirked in response.

“Oh, don’t worry, this shouldn’t be that bad- for most of you at least.” Her tone made it hard to tell exactly how sarcastic she was being. “We’ve gone over the basics of potion-craft fairly well in these last two weeks. I’ve given you a few easy ones to try. But the real learning comes when you have to think for yourselves.”

She took a pause.

“I want each one of you to choose a potion, one you haven’t made before, and try to brew it outside of class. You’re free to consult me for some advice, including recipes, but I’ll be awarding credit for research ability, and I’ll remind you that the library has plenty of good tomes on the subject. Your first task will simply be to choose which potion you will attempt. Take a night or two to research and consider it. I’ll get an idea from the questions you start asking me how long I should allow for the actual brewing attempts.

“You’ll need to avoid brews you can’t reasonably attain at your skill level, but I also don’t want to see any potions so simple that you obviously didn’t have to put in any sweat. And to be clear, I am speaking metaphorically here; you don’t need to pick a potion that literally uses sweat as an ingredient.”

*RIIIIING*

“Alright, good luck in the halls, children.” And with that, the witch finally released her attention from her students and returned to her desk.

Jack let out his breath. Another magic class under his belt without ending up under his teacher’s belt. As usual, other kids began to rise around him, but he kept to his seat, beginning his vigilant wait for his predatory protector/best friend. It was an after-class routine he’d quickly gotten used to, one only occasionally broken up by-

“Oh, hey Arin,” Jack called with a wave the moment he spotted the other mage walking over. Judging by his face, the kid looked like he had an extra worry on his mind today, but then again he always seemed worried, and Jack was fairly certain he’d gotten that same impression at least once before. Still he tried to be considerate in his ice breaking. “You do alright in class?”

“Yes, I think so. Listen, Jack, I have something I want to tell you. I really want to give you some advice, okay?”

“O-Okay,” the marked boy muttered, though he felt like his odd classmate might have gone on regardless.

“You’ve got to be careful with predators.”

Well, duh? the marked boy thought to himself.

“What I mean is they can pull a lot of dirty tricks to try and scarf us down. Not all of them just try to surprise us when we’re not looking, or rush us down before we can cast a spell. They’ll lie and manipulate people too if it gets them an ‘easy free lunch’, and it’s really easy to be taken advantage of if you’re not careful enough.”

Jack’s friendly smile shrunk just a little. It wasn’t that his classmate’s words were necessarily wrong, even if he was generalizing a bit, but something about the blunt intensity of his tone and the hard, warning look in his eyes…

“Sometimes they’ll even take one human kid around and use ‘em as bait to try and grab more. I just want to make sure you’re staying safe out there, Jack. We’ve got to keep as many good mages around here as we can, not disappearing down the drains. You agree, right?”

“Um, y-yeah, of course,” Jack replied with mild discomfort. More skilled magic users benefited the entire society, and on top of that he obviously wouldn’t hope for any given guy to end up as pred pudge.

“Good. I hope I see you tomorrow, then,” Arin said with a characteristically quick, nervous nod. Then, with the only other words being a short incantation, he pointed his wand toward himself and disappeared into thin air.

Jack followed the sound of retreating footsteps with his eyes until they disappeared into the crowd, all the while with just one question on his mind:

What in the world was that about!?

He pondered the thought as he returned to waiting. That kid had always seemed pretty high strung, but that had still felt kind of unexpected. Maybe he just hadn’t known Arin long enough to see it coming? Or maybe the other mage had seen something recently to set him off? Thinking back to a not-so-distant period when he himself had been particularly stressed at school, he found himself hoping that his classmate could keep his cool and his focus well enough to get by. After all, it was nice of him to go out of his way to give advice, even if the delivery was a little intense.

Jack suddenly realized he was looking at Fiona, the werewolf having quietly appeared in the empty doorway. He blinked. He quickly understood retroactively that she could only have been standing there for a moment, still he couldn’t help but consider in passing how her predatory grace had naturally obscured that first instant of approach from his notice.

Or, maybe he’d just been a bit more lost in thought than he realized.

Either way, he took in her friendly, mildly-relieved smile, swishing tail, and greeting wave, and he raised a hand himself to wave back.

“Hey, Fi.”

“Hey, Jack. You alright?” There was a subtle note in her voice that said something had caught her attention.

“Yeah, why?”

“I don’t know, thought you looked kinda worried or something. I tried not to make you sit here too long, but I figured better to stop at the bathroom before I came by instead of making you wait in the hall.”

“Yeah, good call,” Jack agreed.

He got up with his things and started toward her. From this distance he didn’t really need to shift his eyes to see the small bulge in her belly. It had been noticeably bigger when they’d met up that morning, but evidently her body had been hard at work taking care of whoever she’d had for dinner the other day; breaking them down and sending them ‘disappearing down the drain’ as Arin had put it.

“So class was alright?” Fiona asked casually.

“Not bad. No one tried to eat me this time, but Caster’s got a new assignment for us.” He considered for a passing moment commenting on his classmate’s rave warning. Maybe it was Arin’s concern that had him looking worried? But that concern was already dissolved away now that they were together; it wasn’t really worth mentioning.

“Uh-oh, what is it this time?” Fiona asked as the pair left the room.

“Just another potion I have to brew, but this time it looks like it’s up to me to…”

The odd pair continued to chat as they made their way through the halls toward the cafeteria. As per their usual routine, they’d missed the heavy post-class rush, but there were still a good few schoolmates around, stopping at lockers or restrooms, chatting with friends.

Enough people that neither a mage nor a werewolf would notice an extra pair of footsteps around.

Guts! I can’t believe it! It’s worse than I thought!

Naturally, the invisible mage could have covered up the sound of his shoes with an extra spell if he tried, but he’d opted instead to focus twice as hard on withholding his scent, knowing that the wolf’s nose was far more likely to tip her off to an extra tail, especially in the typically noisy hallway.

He’s not listening to my warning at all! He’s not even holding his wand! She must really have him good!

Arin was equal parts terrified and disbelieving. It was a feeling that had been growing steadily over the last twenty-four hours. And to think, it had all started with just a few casual words.

…The Previous Day…

‘Fiona said he seemed calmer.’

Arin ran Jack’s words through his head again, even as he carefully eyed a passing naga. Despite his better judgment, he’d nestled into one of the few quiet corners of the cafeteria where he could keep up his concealment spells and wait without too much risk. He was usually the kind of kid to grab his food as quickly as possible and ditch that digestive deathtrap ASAP. But right now he just couldn’t shake the idea…

‘Fiona said he seemed calmer.’ We were talking about a friend of his in the advanced magic class having to survive the hunting grounds. The only other people there would be the rest of his class… and the advanced predators. …Maybe I just misheard him? Or maybe advanced magic has a Fiona too?

Arin tried to convince himself with those arguments once again, but just like the last few attempts, he couldn’t extinguish the nagging doubt, like claws in his brain.

But the advanced predator class did just get a new wolf girl by that name…

He was the kind of careful mage who paid attention to news like that. A human couldn’t afford to let his guard down around the wrong bellies.

Jack, the Cafeteria Hero… Stormed over and blasted an advanced pred across the room in the middle of lunch. The bravest marked human anyone had ever heard of. And tough enough to live to see dinner time too. He’s a good guy, skilled with spellcasting, plus he knows a thing or two about potions.

These were the details Arin kept trying to remind himself of, but…

But there were those rumors the other week… about a marked boy named Jack who was always hanging out with a predator. A wolf girl. …Jack is a pretty common name…

Around and around in circles his mind went. He didn’t want to believe it, but he also couldn’t dismiss it. That’s why he was still standing in that deadly cafeteria. He had to see for himself…

And what did Arin see? After his long, pulse-pounding minutes of waiting?

He saw Jack, walking into the lunchroom, right next to a werewolf.

The hidden mage came far too close to losing his focus and revealing himself. With his invisible jaw practically on the floor, he watched in stunned horror as the human-pred pair walked almost casually into the lunch line together. Smiling. Chatting. And then off they went to the predator side of the room! And sat down- NO- with the advanced preds!!

By that point, Arin was more or less frozen in shock, unable to look away, hardly believing his own eyes. He almost started to wonder if his own spells were backfiring and affecting his vision or his senses. He watched fixedly all the way up until the point where that red dragon and that toad had led Jack out into the halls. That triggered a whole new level of shock which pulled the boy back to his senses.

Jack, no!! What are you doing!!? The hidden mage wished he could help, knowing what incredible danger his marked classmate was in. But it was just too dangerous. Those were advanced predators he was with; gurgling death with attitude and legs. In no world would he be getting anywhere close to them if he could help it. Instead, he just kept staring at those doors, waiting…

…He’s not coming back, is he? Poor Jack… I guess they got their revenge. But how in the world did they manage to lure him over like that? What could they have possibly said to convince him? Arin couldn’t imagine any combination of words capable of getting a sensible human to sit at that table, let alone follow a pair of hungry gullets out into the halls, and yet evidently those words existed, because that’s exactly what had happened. Predators… He thought the word with a healthy helping of fear and contempt.

He’d almost convinced himself that it was time to give up and leave. He shot one last invisible glare at that werewolf who had led Jack to his doom, and then-

Then Jack walked back in through those doors.

Arin once again questioned his vision and his sanity, but he had no choice but to trust his eyes.

There was Jack, walking back through pred-filled tables, covered in a fresh coat of drool. And there along with him, was that toad boy, and that dragon, who was now sporting the unmistakable, wriggling bulge that signaled the fall of another classmate from person to pudge.

They… used him. It was the obvious take, given what he was seeing. They used him to catch someone else. Jack was the bait? A marked human? Were they hunting another predator? No, I doubt it. Most preds wouldn’t dare risk the reputation, especially in the advanced class. No… they probably turned on him. Started swallowing Jack, made him scream out for help, then jumped the poor kid who came to the rescue. I would have thought they’d go for the marked meal, but maybe… maybe Jack just makes such good bait that he’s worth it?

Arin stared deeply into Jack’s eyes every chance he got, trying to understand what was going through the other boy’s mind. The kid seemed a lot less comfortable now than when he’d first arrived. Good, maybe their hold on him wasn’t that strong after all?

Is he really just that oblivious? He must be, right? To even be over there? Maybe he just needs someone to spell it out for him. To give him some advice?

…Present Day…

But no! I try to warn him and he still just walks off with a werewolf! Right back into the pred side of the cafeteria!

The invisible mage was watching it all unfold again with unsettling ease. Jack happily accompanying Fiona over to that table, smiling and chatting, like they were friends or something.

How can he seem so… happy!? He’s surrounded by predators! And he’s marked! He should be terrified! I- I have to do something. But he knew he couldn’t do anything now. He wasn’t anywhere near as crazy as Jack. He couldn’t just walk through the cafeteria and up to the advanced pred tables to confront him. No.

The end of their shared magic class had proved a relatively safe moment for them to speak. He would have to wait until then. But it wouldn’t be an easy wait.

For now, I better hurry and leave with my lunch…

He cast one more intense, invisible look toward the marked boy, smiling and talking with the pack of predators, before finally tearing his eyes away.

Originally Published: 24-Feb-2026