Kyle the Apprentice Warlock

7:13 AM September 15^th 2026

Museum of Unnatural Science and History Employee Housing

“Nnnnooooo!”  Kyle groaned as someone tapped his face insistently.  “It’s not time to get up Anna, my alarm didn’t go off.”  Shaking his head, he frowned at the surprisingly sharp feeling of the tap-tap-tapping on his surrounded by a chilling cold.  “Please let me sleep in.  And maybe trim your nails.” 

At that he painfully rolled over with another groan, still sore and not feeling great from his magical exertions.  The tapping sped up and slid along his face from his chin to his cheeky beside his ear.  On the one hand, as a big brother, he could admire the annoying tenacity of his sister.  On the other hand, as an adult who’d had an exhausting couple of days and not nearly enough sleep.  He wanted to pull his blankets over his head and snuggle down in a comforter nest. 

Which was exactly what he did.

Only…

What he’d originally thought was his sister’s sharp little nails were still sitting on his cheek near his ear, pressing harder into his skin from the weight of the blanket.  It gave him a little jolt of adrenaline that pulled him from his groggy state and kicked his heart into a higher gear.  Now more wakeful, he could hear a slight electric buzzing.  

“That’s not my sister being obnoxious, is it?” the warlock sighed wearily.  Then he sighed again when his words were greeted with a tinkling chiming response from one of the prisms.  No.  Not one of the prisms.  The prism.  The one he’d rescued with a static zap spell. 

Anna’s new pet and the leader of the pack… herd… whatever. 

“Why are you waking me up?”  Though Kyle hadn’t been expecting a response, but he got one.  Yes, it was just more tinkling and chiming but it definitely had a cadence and attitude.  “Riiight.”  Slowly, and with infinite reluctance, the grouchy warlock dragged his comforter down.  Opening his eyelids, he looked out the corners without moving his head.

Sure enough, there was a certain little crystalline body there sitting on his cheek.  Yes.  Sitting.  And Kyle wasn’t exactly sure how that was working because it was positioned kind of like a cat or a dog would be, but without changing the shape of its rear legs, and also without them sticking out in front of it.  Were the rear legs always so short?  No.  Because they were mostly horizontal when he watched them walking previously.

Yet, there was no doubt that the prism was absolutely sitting with its apparent rear end on his cheek.  Its crystalline abdomen was both semi-opaque and highly reflective so Kyle could see his sleepy hazel eyes staring back at him.  Despite not having a face, the little prism gave the impression of gazing at him with sweet puppy-eyes and bent down to nuzzle his cheek.

That made Kyle smile.  How was a walking chunk of crystal the size of a large mouse so freaking cute?  Clearly the little prism understood what smiles meant because it then gave a happy little hop followed by a series of tumbling ecstatic chiming meeps.

“Okay.  I’ll get up.  But you’ll need to get off me so I don’t knock you down or squish you in the processes.”  Kyle didn’t even have time to fear the creature wouldn’t understand him as him as it immediately jumped to his pillow then onto the nightstand beside his bed. 

“About time.”  Anna groused from the door to his room where she leaned against the frame with her arms crossed petulantly.  “Little traitor insisted on waking your up instead of spending time hanging out with me.”

“Aww.”  Kyle stretched as he sat up then held a hand out for the prism.  It quickly ran up his arm, across his shoulder, then down his chest into the breast pocket of his pajama shirt.  He giggled a little as the swiftly moving and small profile feet of the lightweight prism tickled as they ran.  “Don’t be jealous, sis.  He’s just saying ‘hi’ to me.”  After a moment of watching the cloth of his pocket puff and move as the prism got settled, it poked it’s upper half over the edge of the pocket and pointed towards Kyle’s bedroom door with a chime of purpose.  As if it was saying ‘charge’.  So Kyle obliged with amusement, running a hand through his light brown hair as he stood.

“Well, he woke me up too.  It’s time for you to get ready for work.  You’re going to e late.”  That… caused Kyle to pause in his first step toward accepting morning.

“How do you know? All the power is still out and none of the clocks are working.  What?”  He asked defensively when Anna gave him a flat look before rolling her eyes and padding off toward the kitchen.

“Well, for one, you have a magical timepiece in your personal lab.  So, there’s that.”  She groused as he followed her toward the smell of hot food.  “Also, do you really not think I am capable of casting a basic time of day spell to tell what time of day it is based on…” She trailed off her angry retort and gestured around her. 

For a second, Kyle was a little impressed as he accepted a bowl of hot – was that bacon?  Where did his sister get bacon?  And I’m absolutely certain that I didn’t have hashbrowns anywhere in this apartment.  Then he got distracted and narrowed his eyes at his sister as the way her words trailed off triggered a thought.

“Wait a minute.  You don’t actually know how the time of day spell works do you?” He snatched the plate from Anna’s hands before she could take it back.  Instead, she folded her arms defensively, gave a sniff of distain, and lifted her chin haughtily.  It was a classic Camina Wattkins move.  Kyle had seen it in movies, television interviews, state functions, and even in conversations between his parents.  Anna even finished it off with tossing her hair over her shoulder which their mom often did when she was wearing her hair down.  Then she folded her arms again.

“I don’t have to know how it works to perform it properly.”  She was cool, calm, collected – super adorable.  To avoid being a jerk of a big brother, he resisted patting her on the head condescendingly like Sam would do.  Instead, he smiled and took a bite of the breakfast she’d made before her pet came to wake him up.

“You’re absolutely correct.”  He gobbled up the meal as Anna reached over the kitchen counter they stood beside and grabbed a steaming mug of something.  “That better not be coffee, young Miss.” He scolded only half seriously while she was taking a sip.  Anna swallowed, made a face, and stuck a slightly browned tongue at her brother.  “Cocoa, if you have to know. Not sure it’s much better than coffee since it’s only got one-third the caffeine.  But, parents.”

“Right.  Parents.”  Kyle agreed with a before looking wistfully over to the other mug that had been sitting beside Anna’s.  “I… don’t suppose that would be…”  Anna gave a less snarky eye-roll and gestured towards the cup.

“Yeah.  That’s coffee for you.  Figured you’d need it.”