The Students

Time is something that is hard to tell when knocked unconscious for who knows how long. Yet the sun beating down hard and bright woke me up easily enough. The sights around are like nothing I have ever seen, even in comparison to my new surroundings. No, this is beyond that. There was a flat surface that shown as large marble tiles as far as the eye could see.

A few hundred yards away stood a lone building. One of those old castles mixed with the Notre Dame and then some. The sight was beautiful. It was similar coloring to the marble, so it was hard to look at too close with the sun shining off.

The only parts that darkened the view were small shadows lifting here and there, the windows to show some decorative glass panes, and a large intricate door.

I shook my head and looked around me, directly to my right almost right up against me was Garthe. Nonetheless I did not swing that way, so I flinched and moved a little bit away before nudging his arm.

"Garthe? Garthe wake up?" Even though it felt like I was whispering, my voice echoed greatly before settling.

Off to our left was Halla curled in a ball. Shook my head, how can she look so peaceful after that?

Garth began to move around, sitting up slowly, "Oh.. My head.."

"Yeah, we sure went through a tumbler."

"A what?" His confused expression resembled mine after a moment.

"A rock tumbler? Helps to polish stones… Never mind, let's wake up Halla and get a game plan going."

He seemed curious at the prospect of the device mentioned but understood that now was not a good time to go over that. He helped me get Halla up into a sitting position. Her eyes rolling around still all dizzy.

"Are we there yet momma." Her voice came in a cheery tune.

I gave a chuckle before helping her up to her feet. I must have gotten up too fast for a large headache hit just below my temples. Moments passed before we were all coherent with our surroundings.

Halla speaks up again after shaking her head, "that was not nice."

She has that right. "I have no idea why they did that, but I hope we are here."

"We should be. They did state we were meeting the school. If so, where are we?" Garthe's tone was full of curiosity.

Shaking my head, I point towards the building. "We should at least make our way towards there. It is the only place around." Shrugs and nods towards the direction before I start moving off.

The closer we got, the larger the building seemed to get. The double doors were antique with dual knockers. The one on the right having the head of a jackal while the other side had the head of a large bird of some kind. Both were larger than my half my body. How we were going to open it, I had no idea.

Almost as though my thoughts were read a new voice speaks up, "Hey, yeah you."

We all look around us to see no one around.

"Yes, yes, the left handle." Looking up I flinch taking a step back. "That's right, me. Choose my side, you won't be disappointed." The jackal head on the knocker began speaking lolling its head side to side as it spoke.

Garthe's eyes are full of astonishment. He walks up examining the device. "How do you work?"

To our right the other one began, "Oh please it does not take a genius to figure out that we were created to welcome and count how many students come in and leave the grounds." The avian spoke with a lighter and comforting tone as apart from the happy deeper voice of the jackal.

"You are supposed to count us and see how many have gone into the school?"

The Avian just nods its large head.

"How many has come in so far?"

The jackal moved its knocker to bang on the door getting our attention. "If you come in through my door you will be number 1000, a winner!"

"Winner by tail feathers, you have only had 167 enter your doors this year."

The glare sent both ways was able to be felt.  "Oh yes, but even if you have two more than I for this year, I have the total at least I am beating you. I do have 4,239 while you have only had 4,201."

The two seemed to bicker quite a bit. The Avian withdrew her statement. "At least I do not lie about the new year. The next ones are also going to be the 1000th winners, aren't they?"

"Oh, you know me so well?" The flattery shown on his face even as the avian rolled her eyes.

"Look, you three have a choice, but it does not matter which door you choose."

As she says that her knocker bangs against the door having both open slowly. I decided to go towards the avian's door with Halla while Garth went through the jackals. Walking inside we still hear the two voices behind bickering how one of us went into their door over the other.

We walked into a long hallway with two doors on each side. A long window shows that on the left is a large Swimming pool. The length of a football field and I could not even guess at the depth. There were a few others in there already swimming around. I could barely see some hints of scales as a tail streak up into the air to propel them further down after a jump. On the right we saw nothing until the open walkway. It had a a plague that read. "Communal Hot Spring and Separate Baths." I was curious about checking that out, but now may not be the right time. Everything was just very large.

At the end of the hallway is a small archway leading into a large open space. The floor lowered down into a garden with trees and flowers. On either side were columns leading up to higher floors. Two platforms lay on either side of the garden, between two columns. Lit up there is a low hum that fills around them. There are few humanoids around reading or doing some writing in the garden. One person would float down on that platform before walking off towards the back of the room. Looking up past the floors is a large painting of woods and other terrain. Some wolves or other beasts were standing watch and I swear I saw some of them move.

This is so cool. I looked all around and directly to our right next to the wall took on a form of a dark stairwell heading downwards. A sign standing before read: New Students must head down to the Training Hall. Down the Stairs.

Shrugging my shoulders, I point it out to the other two. "Guess we are heading that way, but man this is awesome. The architecture is amazing." Left speechless Garthe just laughs out.

"My gods, that is an understatement unlike any other… Just think how the training hall will look?"

Halla places her hands on our shoulders turning us towards the stairwell. "If we were past numbers 336 in getting here, then they we want to go."

I had not even thought about that, nor think about how she even remembered those numbers. "You're right, let's go."

Garthe was the first to pull away and start down the stairs. We both follow with smiles of anticipation. The stairs spiraled down and were quite long. I felt out of breath after a bit before voices started to be heard. The opening at the bottom grew out into this large open area. The walls and floor were black with tile like design to it like the marble outside. Light was showing between each black tile to view the room full of people. There were all sorts of creatures there. I saw a Minotaur, an arachnid type with a humanoid upper body, centaurs, and just all sorts of different races gathered.

Halla smiled and pushed us along towards the large crowd. The others seemed be in a similar boat, talking amongst teammates and other groups of three. Quite a few were speaking other languages and I just tilted my head able to understand for the most part.

That was something I was gifted with before I even came here. I could hear a language at gather the meaning of the words, even if I cannot speak the language itself.

The feeling was so surreal I just swayed back and forth catching myself holding my breath. Looks to Garthe and Halla. "This is going to be great, I am really excited about all of this, and it is great that I got to meet the two of you, even if we met maybe an hour and a half ago." Shrugs with the hint of a smile.

"You both are interesting." Halla says with a large smile while tilting her head.

Garthe looked up and around. "They did say we would be on a team and that ours would be the three of us. Getting to know each other better comes first. When we get the chance we will talk, but right now I am feeling just as excited."

Even though Halla did not say much she was still comfortable to be around. A warm smile radiated from her. Garthe was a logical thinker and someone who liked to analyze anything that he found to be exciting or new. I was still new, I must show what I am capable of, but first I must find that out.

Not too many others would look around, but one person did walk over near us. She had copper skin, horns jutting from her head like a ram, and her eyes shone a nice metallic blue. "My name is Zaya, and I am over there with a couple of other newbies. It is good to see some more people just taking it as easy going as we are." She had confidence to boost and where she pointed out stood two figures. "That over there is Dha'wae, a dwarf, and on her right, you can see Eldria, the dark-skinned elf. She's harmless." She says smirking as he motions those two over to the growing circle.

"So how did you gets get your acceptance? I happened to be sailing and found it inside a chest we got." Zaya stated while shrugging. "It was definitely interesting how they are able to get it to us in any means."

Garthe smiles and nods, "I found my letter between a few sheets of cured leather. The family was thrilled. That is after I finished my project."

Halla giggles before chiming in. "I found mine in some of my mamma's cooking."

Dha'wae looked a little embarrassed and did not speak up,

"I don't know about you all, but I knew this was going to happen, it is the will of the goddess for me to learn higher forms of magic. It will be used for the better of all." Eldria's look was of pure determination.

Feeling as if I was lacking, I just shook my head. "Mine is not that special. I found it sitting in my mail slot and after reading it, I went to a spot to see a professor I assume. That did not work out as planned. I was, 'attacked' and when I woke up, I found the letter in my pocket with one of the professors behind me." I tried to make it sound as close to the truth, yet far from my normal as I could.

I wonder, with all this magic in the world, how would people feel about cars. Maybe some were more advanced?

We spoke off and on for the better part of half an hour with other students still coming in every so often. Zaya worked on a ship, she would not tell us what their cargo was. Dha'wae was part of of a clan of crafters. I swear I could see Garthe just almost fall over forward when he heard that. Halla sat back and did not talk too much. It was soon my turn.

I shrugged, "honestly I am not all that much, I come from a family who worked for the church, I worked as a collector, but in reality, I was an entertainer."

"Collector? What did you collect?" Halla tilted her head and some of the others leaned in a bit closer.

"I collected people's resources, money, currency, if you will. So that we could get them the proper 'gear' to help them hear better."

Zaya whistled out, "Boy, if you could get me that gear, I know quite a few who need to badly. Old Dalia, she can hardly hear anything except a cannon." Her laughter filled the area.  It was a little contagious.

Just as we were getting to get comfortable, the lights on the floor dimmed and towards the far end of the room a few tiles were raised into the air. All sorts of people stood atop it. Large mirror like structures were coming out of the tiles on each side. Showing the face of the creature in the front of the others. Savras, Ceres, and Voltas were all in the background standing nonchalantly.

The one in front was like something I have seen before, but his voice, deep and loud, echoed throughout the room. He looked like a humanoid jackal.

"Hello and welcome, I wish to congratulate you all." He took a low bow. "Welcome to my school. Welcome to Tolga."