She looked around impatiently, then swore like a barbarian, which is almost as good as swearing like a janitor, but not quite. She sat down, annoyed, and kept looking around like she was waiting for somebody. This was, of course, my cue, so I stood up, dangled from a branch, then dropped down in front of her. "Took you long enough."

She jumped up, reached for the side of her belt, and drew her...broom. I looked at her. "Going to tackle some giant dust bunnies?"

Julia glared at me under her dirty wig. "Fors, THIS was the best you could do for a disguise? Do you have ANY idea what people wanted me to clean up on the way here?"

A muffled voice from her back added it's two bits, "Yes, I agree, this is most humiliating, and beneath how a hero should act..." We both ignored the sword.

"Nobody recognized you, though, did they? I mean, who's going to associate a hunched janitor with a six foot scantily clad barbarian?"

"I am not wearing this any more."

I shrugged. "Up to you."

Julia ducked into the grove, then came out looking like her new self again, carrying a wadded up roll of clothing with a broom stuck into it, which she proceeded to hurl into the trees. "Feel better?" I asked.

"Slightly."

"Well, let's go find this great wizard who can't be bothered to do his own work, shall we?"

The grounds of IOU were generally open grass, although in unusual colors such as purple, plaid, or polka dots in some places, with scattered groves of trees, buildings, and statues that always seemed to be slightly different when you looked at them. Of course, it seemed to cover a lot more space than the walled area it's nominally in should, which would be unusual if it weren't a mage college. So the first thing we did was find a map.

For the convenience and sanity of visitors, they had set up large, extremely solid columns around campus, with maps on them. On the way to one, we passed a bunch of gardeners who were working to repair some extremely large, clawed footprints in the grass. "I wonder what made those." I said.

Julia grabbed my cape before I could go look, and said, "I don't know, but I don't think we want to meet it. Those footprints are bigger than you."

"Yeah, and? Most things are."

She just shook her head and kept walking. It was probably just an escapee from one of the summoning classes, anyway. The map, now that was interesting. Four feet across, and at least five feet high, on a big flat pillar thing, carved out of grey stone. It showed all the buildings, not to scale, otherwise the towers would have stuck way out and been a danger to anyone walking by, but accurate enough to find your way around, with a big red arrow labeled "YOU ARE HERE" by a map on the map. "So, which building did you say he was in?" I asked, looking at the key, which was at eye level.

"I don't remember the name. It was over here somewhere..." Julia muttered, tracing a finger around the map. Something caught my eye on the map, it seemed to have ants crawling over it or something. I leaned in closer, and there were little dots moving around, mostly on the paths. Before I could look more, there was a loud, but distant explosion. We both ducked around the pillar and looked overwhere it had come from, to see a large pillar of smoke, with some flame and what looked like a building on the end of it. The building arced up and over, then started coming down. Toward us.

No, it didn't hit us. The smoking building crashed into the lawn a bit away, gouging out a big crater and sending dirt and grass flying every which way, including splattering all over the pillar we'd ducked behind. People started wandering out of the building, coughing, hair on fire, that sort of thing. Gardeners appeared at the crater, shaking their heads and starting to try picking up the pieces. Nobody else seemed to pay much attention. I twisted my head, trying to read the upside down words on the sign, and finally made it out, behind the smoke and burns and damage, "Alchemy Building." Of course.

I turned back to the map, and noticed it had changed. The alchemy building was now shown a lot closer to where we were, instead of on the other end of the campus, where it had been. It even looked like there was some carved smoke coming off it. Well, of course a mage school had a magic map. And a sturdy one.

"How about this one, Administration?" I asked Julia, who was still staring at the smoking building.

"Uh, shouldn't we like go help them, or something?" she asked.

I glanced over again. Slightly charred people were standing around the building, some scowling, others high-fiving each other. Oddly colored smoke and some ominous sparks were coming from various windows, but nobody took any notice, other than to avoid them. "Nah, looks like they're used to it, they can take care of themselves I bet. But some of those special effects are neat looking..."

Behind me, Julia called something. "Huh?" I asked.

"I said, it looks like it's in the right area, and as good a place as any to start. Now get back here, before one of those potions turns you into a giant lizard."

"That'd be cool, I've never been a giant lizard before. How good do you think they are at climbing walls? I've seen these little lizards that can climb up glass like nothing, that'd be cool to do..."

"We have work to do, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Spoilsport. You're just afraid I'd look better as a giant lizard than you would." But I followed her, neat stuff that way too, I was sure.