Chapter 6 - Academy

As soon as Zee was through the doors, she immediately dropped her bags and gawked. The room was a lounge area, with several doors leading off into the actual bedrooms. It had several bookcases with books casually sorting themselves. There were couches to lounge on and a clock in the corner. Jade wandered off to inspect her surroundings. Several girls were sitting scattered in the room and came slowly up to Zee.
“Are you new here?” One girl asked. She seemed to be several years younger than Zee, with silvery hair that reached nearly to the floor. Her pale complexion made her seem sickly, and her small mouth and wide eyes sort of creeped Zee out. Another girl stepped beside her.
“Of course she’s new Via, you’ve never seen her before have you?” She snapped, “You’re supposed to be a psychic” She seemed a little harsh, even by Zee’s terms. This girl seemed about Zee’s age, with long arching brows, and a piercing gaze coming from steel colored eyes. Her medium length dull colored hair of no particular color seemed to be getting redder by the second. A third girl stepped up beside her, placing her hand on her shoulders.
“Chill Autim – keep it cool girl.” This girl seemed older than Zee, maybe only by a year or two, with dark skin and thick braided black hair. Her face was free of any emotional lines, her face smooth and unflawed, her wide nose gave her an air of calm. But this girl was different also - she appeared to have cat ears on the top of her head. Along with feline eyes, a slender brown and black stripped tail, and sharp claws that were digging into Autim’s shirt.
“Fine, fine, just lemme go.” She shrugged off the girls hand. Autim looked Zee up and down, who was staring in turn. “Whadda you lookin’ at?” Her hair began turning red again.
“Nothing – do you know where my room is?” She wanted to know a little bit more about the girls, but her back was starting to tire. The older girl pointed to a room on the end.
“Autim has an open bed in her room, most can’t put up with her temper, so if she gives ya any hassle now, you can jus’ come on down to my room.” She pointed to a door several down. She smiled at Zee. “But firs’ your name girl, you know Olivia, we call her Via, and Autim; I’m Alma, so wha’s yours?”
“Zee; and I probably can put up with Autim if she’s really that bad, I’ve most likely seen worse.”
“Really now? You come from one o’ those places where they gots a whole lotta people smashed into one room?” Alma, asked. Zee already liked her.
“Sort of, it’s called an orphanage, there were thirteen of us in one room – and there were a lot of fights and bickering, until the Mothers got there and broke it up – literally”
“Mothers? Who are they? Nannies?” This time it was Via speaking up.
“They’re like the leaders, if you did something bad they would punish you for it, and they gave you lots of chores you had to do, and only gave you porridge to eat.” Zee frowned. “I hated it there”
“No wonder, porridge is the most vile thing that I can’t believe someone thought it was palatable” Autim made a face of total disgust “I can’t stomach that stuff for the life of me.”
“I agree” Zee hoisted her things and beckoned for Jade to follow. Autim stepped in her way.
“Hold up girly, there’ll be no dragon in my room no matter how house trained it is.” Jade’s scales stood on end, ruffling her appearance like a cat. “You come with me and we’ll put her in the stables with everyone else’s dragons.”

The hallways were dark, the stone tiles moving silently up and down, moving through holes in the ceiling to multiple levels in the building. The corridors loomed empty and forboding, giving it a haunted feel, like something might jump at them any moment –
“What’re you girls doing?” A voice sounded from down the hallway. From the shadows, a boy materialized, curly black locks hung about a feminine face, his tall frame was eye catching and appealing. Zee felt her heart sway. So handsome…
Jade sniffed. He doesn’t smell right, if you ask me. Like he’s up to no good. Zee rolled her eyes, used to the mind-to-mind thing by now.
You’re too overprotective – besides, what do you know about guys?
Look who’s talking – you’ve only been ‘friends’ with one your whole life. Zee saw Jade’s point
Whatever…
The boy smiled at her and she still felt mushy inside.
“I could ask you the same thing, Daemon. Stalking in the shadows again on innocent girls? Naughty naughty” Autim waved a scolding finger at him. Daemon only closed his eyes and shrugged.
“What can I say – I have a weakness…” He looked at Zee. “…for females…”
“Such a pervert, go on now and let us through, we have to go and put this little dragon to bed.” Autim sidestepped around him. “Come on Zee.” Zee hastily followed because she could see her hair begin to redden again, and didn’t want to know why. Jade scuttled after them.

“He can be a jerk, I would avoid him at all costs.” Autim pushed the door to the stables open, disturbing several animals inside.
“He doesn’t seem all that bad, sure he is creepy but, a jerk? I don’t know…” Zee’s mind wandered.
“Don’t let his charming side fool you, he’s one of those guys who’ll use you until his satisfactions are over and done with, then leave you on the sidelines. I’ve seen him do it to girls before. He breaks their hearts” She shook her head.
“Did he do it to you, too?” Zee asked softly.
“Hell no! I knew exactly what he was from the beginning, and I make his life miserable!” For a moment her hair turned a deep shade of red, but as soon as she realized it, she calmed again. “Come on, this way.”
They made their way down the hall of stalls, mostly occupied of small dragons and small grey horse like creatures.
“Where are all the big dragons?” Zee was peering into all of the stalls, surprised at all the different variations of dragons.
“They’re in a massive cave that was blown into the ground years ago, all the big dragons go there because it’s nice and warm, and they can all sleep together. The little guys stay in here until they’re fully grown – like yours” She glanced at Jade, “Like yours. What breed is she anyway? Not like any of the dragons you see here.” She bent down into Jades reptilian face, who licked Autims’ nose with a forked tongue. I like her “She’s puny” Autim sneered into Jade’s face. I take that back Zee laughed out loud. Autim gave her a quizzical look.
They walked a little more ways until they came to an empty stall, which had dirt on the ground and a little enchanted puddle in the corner that never ran out.
“This can be her stall. Every kid is required to empty it of its…um…waste every day. The dragons are usually let out at noon to go to their own lessons on communication and battling.” She looked at Jade once more, who was inspecting a small pile of fresh meat that had appeared. “Judging by her current size, she should be ready to fly in a week or so. She seems like she’s a decent size already. “ Zee looked surprised. “You’d be astounded by how fast dragons can grow. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that she’ll be almost twice her size in a day or so.”

They returned to their rooms without another encounter with Daemon, to Zee’s disappointment. Autim went directly to sleep, while Zee stayed up for a while, fingering her new uniform.
I sure hope this place is better that that place. And very distantly, Zee could have sworn she heard Jade’s little voice, comforting her and saying goodnight.

The next morning, bright and early, a voice pounded on the door, summoning the girls.
“Time to get up! Breakfast time! Get ready for school!” Sleepily Zee rubbed her eyes, and sat up, wondering what the day would be like. She rose and gently shook Autim, who continued to snore.
She picked up her uniform, and attempted to figure out what goes where. Its been so long, the last I had new clothes was when… She remembered the beating both herself and Abel received for a single shirt. While putting on a long sleeve shirt, her arms became tangled at the end.
“Here, it goes like this, around your finger” Autim assisted Zee with her shirt by slipping her middle finger through a ring situated at the end of the sleeve. “To keep it from sliding up and down your arm”
“Hey, weren’t you just – “
“You making too much noise just trying to get dressed, no one could sleep through that.” Zee was amazed as the shirt slowly shrank to fit Zee’s size. The same went for her pants and boots. “All pieces of clothing are enchanted so they fit you properly, the same will go for your battle equipment which you’ll get today” The last piece was a brown cloak with a huge hood, with sleeves that only came to her elbow, and ended at just below knee length.
“Pretty strange clothes if you ask me.” She inspected her movement ability. “How can you tell it’s a school uniform?”
“Because everyone else is wearing it.”
“That makes some what of sense.” They both finished dressing, and brushing out their hair.
As they left their room, both noticed other sleepy eyed girls just emerging from the separate chambers. They met up with Via and Alma in the lounge.
“Mornin’ slow-pokes, breakfast’ll be cold now ‘cause of you” Alma said. Autim merely rolled her eyes, then glanced at Zee.
“You still have that paper?” Zee tilted her head in a confused manner. “Y’ know, the small one without any writing on it?”
“Oh yeah!” Zee rummead through pouch stitched inside her cloak. She pulled out the small piece of parchment Jocab had given her, and passed it o Autim.
“Keep that with you, it’ll tell you where you need to be and when. You get one every year, so after school’ sout for the holiday breaks, don’t be afraid to trash it.”
“Autim’ll trash hers whether it’s holiday or not.” Alma joked, slightly smiling as Autim’s hair flared red again. “Don’t worry about Autim, you won’t have to see what she really looks like until it’s time for combat class.”
“That’s Alma’s favorite class because she doesn’t have to sit.” Autim sneered. Alma only rolled her eyes.
“We’d better hurry, Krell won’t be pleased at our punctuality” Zee jumped, having forgotten all about Via.
“I suppose we’d better hurry then, Via can’t even get through half a day without food”
The group of girl headed down the hallway, occasionally being jolted off the ground on one of the many floating stone tiles. Zee noticed that some only carried one student, a few carried what appeared to be huge groups of ten or more. She was still astounded by all the variations in human form as a boy passed her that had a normal upper half, but the lower half was composed of the same body as the small horse like creatures she had seen in the barn. Jade!
“When do I get my dragon back?” Zee asked, to no one in particular. Surprisingly it was Via who turned to her call.
“All the dragons are brought in during breakfast, so you’ll meet up then. But you’ll be separated again for morning lessons in the classroom. After that, you get all of after luncheon together.” She turned away again, finishing her reponse. Strange…what’s with the white hair anyways?
The group entered into a vast hall, with many huge – hovering – table tops, clustered all around with the different cliques of the students body. Zee surveryed the area, analyzing all the different behaviors that each clique was unique to. She could see a group that had all human girls, powdering on make-up and making themselves pretty. There was a group of thick armed guys, who were picking on several pretty wimpy looking guys – knocking their heads together and generally causing them pain and misery. It appeared that the different races hung out with their own kind: elves with elves, dwarves with dwarves, those weird people with markings all over their body…Zee recognized those markings, she remembered that some of the people in Kuorega’s tribe had them – probably marking magic users.
After checking out everyone, Zee noticed next that everyone appeared to have food and all the tables were set, but she didn’t see anywhere to get the food. Alma, Autim and Via all led Zee to a table that was next to a clique of mixmatched humanoids. They sat down, closed their eyes for a moment and Zee watched as food began to materialize onto their plates. Alma looked up at Zee when her plate was full.
“The plates are enchanted, so when you concentrate steadily on a certain type of food, that’s what you get. It’s idiot proof so no matter how bad you are at magic they’ll still work” Surprised, Zee thought of food - real food for once - but couldn’t focus on only a couple different kinds. She took a deep breath, and concentrated on a stack of hotcakes, drenched in sweet sticky syrup. As Zee began forking down her meal, she heard a disturbance at one of the tables.
“Ha ha! Little sissy’s scared of demons!” Zee turned around in her seat, and rage boiled up inside her. Several of the tougher looking guys were carrying around a small cage, it’s occupant concealed from view. But the victim was Abel, who was being chased around by whom Zee assumed to be the leader, the cage being shoved in his face. Without a word, Zee rose and stormed over to the bullies.
“Hey big guy, leave him alone!” seeing his savior, Abel scampered over to Zee. The bully still was holding the cage, which Zee could now see that it held what she guessed to be a sort of demon. It had a slightly canine black body, most of it’s flesh appeared to be either heavily soiled or rotting completely. Her nose scrunched up in disgust.
“Who wouldn’t be scared of that thing, it’s hideous!” Zee waved her hand in front of her face, “Smells bad, too” The bully only sneered again, several of his buddies jeering him on about a girl.
“So the little sissy’s using a girl to save him! How pathetic!”
Zee only laughed, out loud to their faces.
“The only thing that’s pathetic around here is you guy’s picking on him when his physique is obviously smaller than your hulking weight! Can’t even stand up to someone your own size?” The boy seemed surprised, his jaw dropped momentarily. By now there was a large ring of spectators, thankfully no staff in sight – for now. His buddies – who called him Ked – urged him on, seeing how he was only a hair taller than Zee.
“Hey! I don’t hit girls, especially not a scrawny one like her.” Ked said, turning back to his gang. When he looked back at Zee, the last thing he remembered was her angry fist swinging up, making a painfully direct hit to his lower jaw. They gasped and swarmed around him as he lay sputtering on the ground. Zee dragged Abel back to the table, where Autim was laughing, clapping Zee on the back.
“I can’t tell you how long I’ve been wanting to do that!” She said, wiping a tear from her eye. Her happiness disappeared as a figure emerged from the shadows.
“Well done Zee, now pray that none of the adults on grounds saw your little performance, and I think very quickly you’ll become quite popular.” Zee blushed lightly when she saw the voice was Daemon, who had been watching secretly from the sidelines.
“It was nothing, just a warning to all those jerks out there.” She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Abel had wide eyes, he had never seen Zee act so…meek before! He glanced up at Daemon, what’s so special about him? He added, besides his charm, his handsome looks and great body…He crossed his arms.
“Zee, have you had a tour of the building yet? I don’t think Jade would mind if we skipped seeing her this morning, and we still have some time before classes begin.” Daemon smiled at her.
“That sounds--!” Before she could finish Daemon had taken her hand and ran off with her, leaving Abel, Autim, Alma and Via in her wake. Autim’s hair started simmering, smoke rising from her head. Zee never told him Jade’s name… Moments later the doors to the stables were thrown open, the residents streaming out, forming beelines for their masters. Jade trod nervously in place, head swinging back and forth, unable to pinpoint Zee’s location. Abel walked up instead, stroking the spines on her back and neck.
“Sorry girl, Zee just ran off with pretty boy Daemon, you’ll see her later.” Jade hung her head. Thanks a lot Zee…

As Zee and Daemon ran into the building, Zee felt a pang of guilt as she sensed some of Jade’s emotion waves.
“You’ll love it here! There’s plenty of adventure and surprises, so if decided to skip classes-” he winked, “you wouldn’t be bored.” Zee blushed. They hopped onto a rising tile, Zee swaying as she adjusted to the altitude, Daemon supporting her much to her embarrassment. He looked down at her with his deep, dark eyes. As their ride shuddered to a halt, Daemon held out his hand as Zee stepped lightly onto the solid ground. Still holding her hand, Daemon led her down various hallways, pointing out the charm lab, the broom storage room, and the various places where students go to hide when they skip. Most were enchanted areas where they can simply walk into the wall and be hidden. (He warned that it wasn’t a good place to hide if you were claustrophobic)
Daemon led Zee through a door, into the center courtyard, hidden inside the outer walls of the Academy. The area itself was huge, a missive area in the center had a formation of rocks surrounding what Zee assumed to be the battle court.
“This is where combat class is held. For the first day here, you’re not allowed into the actual battle zone, the teacher – Mr. Vick – has to show you a couple of moves first.” He stops to look at Zee, “At the end of every week though, Mr. Vick puts on a tournament. He choses the best of his students, usually the older kids, to compete. The winner automatically gets an extra ticket deposited into the box for the amcesant drawing.”
“The amawhat?” Zee turns to him in confusion. This place has too many weird names!
“The amcesant is a highly revered ceremony that was developed during the first demonic wars. The Academy recently pulled out their old spell books again because of the war.” He said. “The ceremony gifts the chosen one with their full potential, and complete control over their magical ability. Because it uses techniques to raise ones ability, it also brings out the more dominant blood. So if someone appeared human, but actually had an elven parent, the person would become, an elf”

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