19 Air magic

"In your dorms there's a schedule. It'll be the same everyday. You're dismissed."' Midol laid down in the middle of the air and slowly floated into a wall.

Arne slightly regretted not becoming a ghost, he imagined himself floating around. Then again, not being able to directly interact with objects seemed like hindering his archery.. The other students shuffled and dispersed, everyone walked their own way. Arne had realized that there was a lot more hallways which had been left unexplored. Arne scratched his skull.

Not having anywhere else to go, Arne decided to go to his dorm. He spotted Marga on his way there, she snickered and scowled at him, he trotted by trying to avoid her gaze. She looked disturbed about something, and looking at her made Arne disturbed.

Arne walked into the dark tunnel. He noticed other students walking beside him. The tunnel had a ragged floor, wall and ceiling, as if it had just been made. Suddenly, the students he was walking with disappeared, looking back he saw only darkness.

In front of him there was a room. There was three beds, three slabs of stone. Arne figured that since skeletons couldn't feel discomfort they didn't bother providing comfort. On the wall there was a giant scheduele pasted. There was a simple light, and the rest was an open space. Arne had the feeling that they could fill it in with whatever, he wanted to get a comfortable couch. That was one of his dreams, sitting on a comfortable couch. He greeted the other skeletons in the room.

"Hey roommate, My names Oslo" Oslo said

"Hello, my name's Loko" Loko said.

"Hello. I'm Arne" Arne said.

"I am a lich. I only do air magic." Oslo said

"How com?" Arne said.

"Cause it's superior magic. Like, have you ever seen a tornado." It sounded like Oslo could go on and on about the topic.

"I'm a warrior." Loko chimed in.

"Booooring." Oslo added.

"I'm a archer." Arne said.

They were silent. Their heads turned to look at eachother. Arne felt that he said something wrong. Oslo began rattling as if he was laughing.

"Archer?" Oslo asked, "i've never heard of a skeleton archer. That's pretty cool though." He put out his hand. Arne shook it. Oslo froze. His hollow eyes staring at Arne. Arne realized quickly that it would be difficult to tell Oslo's feelings.

"What did you just do?" Oslo said in a confused tone.

"I shook your hand." Arne said, wondering if he'd done anything wrong. He scratched the back of his head.

"Are you human?" Oslo asked jokingly, "Slap my hand like a proper skeleton."

Arne slapped his hand, as if he'd reject a handshake.

"No, not like that. Wrong side of the hand, and harder."

Arne slapped it again. He felt a few splinters create.

"Harder!"

Arne slapped with everything he had. His hand shattered but then quickly regenerated.

"Weak bones huh? I guess that's why you're an archer."

Loko also reached out with his hand, Arne slapped that hand as well. Arne felt it rude to slap hands, and he'd have to get used to the skeleton stare. Skeletons didn't make great actors.

"Where's your bow?" Loko asked.

Arne used Shadow bow, and it appeared in his hand. Oslo jumped back, if he had eyebrows they'd be extended. His teeth clacked. "Wait, that's magic. You're a lich too!"

Oslo jumped into Arne and gave him a hug. He looked Arne straight in the eyes. Arne didn't know what to do and stood silent. Oslo was crying, without the tears, and without the face, but certainly with the moaning.

"It was so long since I saw another lich!" Oslo said. Loko sat down annoyed, to him he'd be stuck with two magic loving liches, a real skeleton liked blood and swords. Loko almost fell away fantasizing about giant swords.

"I wonder what type of magic that is? Ehh, doesn't matter you can't do this." He made an air arrow, it spun around.

"That's pretty sick." Arne said.

"Yeah right?" Oslo jumped up into the air, his hands stretched out. His teeth rattled.

Loko said, "I take the right bed."

Arne went and sat down on the left bed. Laying down, he thought about everything that had happened up until now. He couldn't believe it.

"Stop lying in your beds." Oslo said, "let's go out and explore the school. Maybe we'll find more air magic.

Arne rose out of the bed, Loko also got out of the bed. Arne noticed that Loko's chest was different from his own. Loko's bones were a lot thicker, almost like a set off armour.

They walked out. The tunnel continued for a while. Soon the room became dark and they could see Marga's ugly face. They strolled by, whilst she gave them the eye.

"Bare fuckíng skeletons." She whispered. "Fat, fucking, slug." Oslo whispered back. Arne and Loko chuckled. Marga began crawling forward but Oslo had already begun running. Arne and Loko followed after.

They reached the giant corridor. It was filled with first years, Arne thought, where are the rest of the students? The students were all walking with other people similar to them. Until they got to know each other's personalities, they'd stick to the people who looked similar.

Midol led them down one of the tunnels. He knew that it reached the library. He was almost running. The idea of reading about air magic made him go nuts. Loko and Arne followed behind.

The tunnel was crooked in every way possible. Arne had to pay attention to the walls not to walk into them. Luckily the floor had been smoothed, if it had barely resembled the walls, they'd trip countless times

They eventually saw books, and were greeted by a familiar face. A skeleton book keeper. They stared at them, and then returned to wiping the books. Oslo didn't bother asking the Book keeper and instead marched towards the air section.

Arne looked at the language. It looked like strange hieroglyphics to him, a complete alien language. He could barely make out the own separate words. It was like a completely new system. He glanced at Loko, who looked to be having a headache simply being here. Arne settled with looking at the unique colours.

Arne wondered why he could understand the other monsters whilst not understanding the written language. Perhaps the system had some play in that.

Arne saw other students leaning over and checking out books. Not many though, the giant library seemed very isolated. A lot of the students were skinny and frail. Arne assumed them all to be mages or to the similar.

About that. Did this mean that Arne was now a part of the demon lord's army. He didn't know much about that yet.

Arne wondered if he was technically a part of the demon lord's army now. He didn't want to slaughter humans, he thought that he probably couldn't. What other options did he have?

Oslo grabbed multiple books out of the shelf. He had practically taken every book about Air magic. The books stacked taller then himself. He wobbled around, making sure to balance the books.

They checked out the books. There was a limit of five books at a time. Oslo's head was lowered the entire way back to their dorm. He was dejected at only having five books about air magic.

On their way back to the dorm, a monster knocked into them. It was half a size taller than them. Had the face of a fly and had small wings on its back. It's skin was scaly and black. There was a bow resting on his back.

"Look at that. A bunch of lowly skeletons. I still don't understand why the demon lord allowed you to become one of the higher beings."

Oslo quickly responded, "Comes from the monsters known to eat shit."

"What did you say to me you little shit."

"No, don't eat me!" Oslo added.

Oslo started running. His hands carrying the books, Arne and Loko ran behind. The fly men chased flew behind them. They were gaining on them. Oslo jerked his neck back causing a gust of wind towards them, the flymen flew through it unaffected.

Suddenly, Midol popped his head through the roof. "It took less than a couple of minutes for the first fight to break out. Cut it off you. Who started it?"

"They did." Arne said.

"He's lying" One of the flymen whined.

Midol said, "Well. Since there is no proof, and nobody got hurt. We'll simply let things slide."

When Midol had floated away, one of the flymen leaned forward, and whispered, "It's not over." Oslo's face was still like always, his jaw began cackling as he turned around and walked towards the dorm. Arne and Loko followed behind.