Chapter One: A New Realm

(Unknown Narrator)

The Kudu spirit looked at him blankly. The greying bones leave no room for emotion. It has vines draped over its long horns. They were lush and bore small tsamma fruit. In its hand was a wooden staff. It resembled that of a knobkerrie, but the wood looks more strained and as if it's about to shatter. The Kudu gripped the staff. Its long hoove-like nails scratched against the orangish-colored wood.

Olufemi gripped his hands together. His breath escaped his lungs in a slow fashion. His lungs condensed. As he goes to breathe in, he found that there was no oxygen in the air. He wanted to panic, to clutch his chest, but he didn't. Instead, he stared at the spirit. His eyes locked in on the Kudu's empty eye sockets.

As much as Femi wanted to keep staring at the creature, he could feel his mind slip. His chest wavered as he pushed to not breathe for longer. He could feel his legs begin to waver, but he still attempted to stand strong.

Femi could hear a burst of faint laughter, which he could only assume was from the spirit. As his vision began to fail him, he saw the Kudu turn its back to Femi. Its long horns stuck far above the woven indigo cloth that was draped over its body.

As Femi's body fell to the ground, He shot up from the pool of water. He expected to find himself wet but he wasn't. Instead, the water flowed off him as if he were coated in a film of oil.

A gloved hand wrapped around his arm. "Welcome to the realm of spirits," a cheerful voice says.

He looked around only to see hundreds of shallow pools surrounding him. There were a handful of workers in each section. Some guided people into the pools while others were helping them out. Femi looked at the woman who spoke to him.

"What time is it?" He asks.

She smiled at him as she pulled him up into a standing position. "Unfortunately, I don't have the time to give you answers. Please walk toward the man at the edge of the travel reservoir," she responded. Her hand reached outward to guide Femi to the man.

The moment Femi exited the water, the sound of swirling water came from behind him. He turned his head back and gazed at the water he just stepped out of. Near the center, a small ball of light emitted from the pool. The water surrounding twisted and shifted, splashing bits of water up toward Femi.

Before Femi could gaze at it for longer the man in front of him gently grabbed his bicep.

"Apologizes, but we have a system here," he paused. The man says nothing as he scans Femi. "Name?"

"Olufemi Jackson."

"Reason for travel?"

"Student at Arcania Academy."

The man hesitated. His brows furrow in confusion for a split second. Then, as if nothing happened, he goes back to questioning Femi.

"Type of Magic?"

Femi says nothing. He doesn't know the answer.

"Type of Magic?" The man repeats more annoyed than the first time.

"I'm not sure."

"Not sure? You go to the most prestigious schools and you're not sure?" The man mumbled under his breath.

"Are you affiliated with any spirits?"

"No," Femi responds. Although he has no idea what the question meant, he assumes the answer is no.

"Do you have a Magical ID with you?"

Femi pursed his lips into a fine line. "No, but I do have my driver's license."

The man groaned. "Okay, you're cleared to go forward, but without an ID for this realm, we have no way of tracking your luggage. At least not here." He reached over to the podium not far from him. There he grabbed a map and hands it to Femi. "Go here." The man pointed at a part of the map called 'Human Relations'. "Ring the bell at the desk and someone should help you."

Femi gripped the map and followed the thin line that separated the pools of water from each other. He glanced at the occasional reservoir. It's mostly humans that take form and rise from the waters. Some gasp for air as the water trickles off their skin. For others, they simply get up from the shallow pool and walk over to the people at the podiums.

Femi catches small glances at humanoid creatures. He noticed the way some of them had scaly skin or feathers poking out the sides of their face. When he was younger he remembered the way his father would tell him stories about all the types of people that roamed this realm, but he never expected him to be telling the truth.

One thing that he noticed on all of them, however, was the wand or staff that they carried with them. Some had metal rods that clung to their skin while others had long wooden staffs that stood taller than the person.

His eyes shifted to what was in front of him. If he kept staring he was bound to trip into one of the pools and get yelled at by the staff. He recalled the old lady from the human realm that yelled at him when he stepped into his reservoir too quickly. Her words were jumbled, but he remembered her telling him that he was going to be ripped apart by space if he weren't careful.

Femi kept his eyes where his feet were. Although, he was careful to make sure he was still looking in front of him. So as to make sure that he didn't run into anyone. His fingers tapped against the map. He didn't understand why he needed it in the first place. When he was standing next to the man's podium he could see the brightly colored sign called 'Human Relations'. Then again he also knew how oblivious people could be when it came to the smallest of things. His various minimum wage jobs taught him that best.

As he reached the front of the desk, he noticed how empty it seemed to be. There was a radio playing "Toxic" by Britney Spears. It was a song that he hadn't heard in a long time. As the song played he mumbled the lyrics, surprised by how much he remembered.

Near the left corner of the desk was a service bell. Femi hovered his hand over it. He wanted to make sure that there wasn't someone coming before he rang it. However, the was no one to be seen. He gave it a soft tap and listened to the ringing that came out. Within what felt like a second an older woman appeared from the back room. She had long brunette hair and skin that simmered in certain ways in the light. Her nails were long and sharp. In her right hand was a large bottle of water that had condensation running down the side of it.

"Whatda need hon?" Her voice reminded Femi of his aunt from the south.

"The man from one of the travel reservoirs told me to come over here for help."

She mumbled what seemed to be swears under her breath. "Alright, lemme see whatcha got."

Femi handed the woman his driver's license. "He told me that I needed a Magical ID for him to see where my luggage was in his system."

She rolled her eyes. "They don teach 'em anythin no more."

She lightly grabbed the driver's license from Femi. As she set it down, her hands began to type away on the keyboard. The nails she sported made pleasing sounds as they connect with the keys. Her eyes were fixated on the screen as she typed. Every so often her right hand would shift over to the mouse and click, but it didn't take long for her to start typing again.

"Detroit, huh," She said as she looked over to Femi.

"Yeah, lived there my whole life."

She nods her head. "I had sum friends that lived over by Lake Michigan. They're freshwater sirens."

The statement took him by surprise. "Are you a siren?"

She let out a chuckle. "I'm shocked ya didn notice by the nails n' skin." She handed him back his license. "I'm frum the Everglades but usually travel down around different swampish lands n' the south." She took a large sip from her water.

"I never knew there were creatures hiding in the human realm."

She let out a deep breath. "Most people don. Can't see what you don know yur lookin' fur," She paused and looked at her screen. "Any who, the dean of the academy marked ya as uh special case. Just do what yur doing and yu'll be fine."

"Thank you," Femi nodded his head and gave a quick hand raise as his wave goodbye.

As he walked away, he looked at the map he was given. Now that he had no idea where the exit was, he was thankful that he had the flimsy paper to guide him out. There were shapes and lines drawn all over the place. It made his head throb just looking at it. What made it worse was the way that the shapes and lines moved. Each time Femi twisted his body to face a different direction, the map would shift to face where he was going.

He let out a sigh before he tried walking forward to give him an idea of where he was. While he didn't understand how, the map had a small waypoint that was tracking where he moved. Eventually, after moving in random directions, he had a vague knowledge of where he was. The exit didn't seem far from where he was, but then again the map reminded him of how airports were built.

Everywhere that he walked was crowded with hundreds of people. Each of them felt like they had an understanding of where they were meant to be. As if their brain had been hotwired to move a certain way. They dodge and ducked people as they clutched their wands and staffs, along with their drinks and bags. Although this was a completely new place to him, Femi found comfort in the way that even non-human people acted. It felt very much like home.

As he walked, he noticed a man his age walking about twenty feet in front of him. He was surrounded by five people in black suits. The way they were walking was reminiscent of a president and his secret service. Although, as he stared at the boy, he looked annoyed by the people that surround him.

He also seemed very unfitting for someone that had five bodyguards surrounding him. He wore baggy dress pants and dawned a green blouse. Hanging from his arms was a crimson cloak. His hair was cut to a medium length but had a messy frayed look to it. His ears had a sharp point, and his skin was a beautiful dark tan. His face looked hardened looking from the back. However, there was still a softness in the way that he looked at his surroundings.

Femi shook his head and looked away. If he looked at him for too long, he was bound to run into someone. He tried to fix his hair, but with the thick curls, it wasn't easy to do without a mirror. He shook the thought out of his head and continued on his path.

It didn't take long for him to reach the front doors of the building. The doors were massive. The tallest part of it seeming to reach at least three hundred and fifty feet. (about 107 meters). Femi stared at it in amazement. Each of the doors sported smaller sets of doors. Femi assumed that because of the multiple sets, there had to be a creature that used the larger size of the door.

It hurt his brain thinking about something so big walking through the building. He could only imagine the way the ground shook. As he pushed through the small rotating door, he was met with cool air. It was hot, but the way the wind had a gentle breeze made the feeling bearable. Outside the massive building was a lush green landscape. However, it didn't last for long. The greenery that the plants gave was stumped by the large city that surrounded the building.

Besides the look of the city, there was also the noise. Thankfully, the inside of the building was quiet enough to be bearable. Out here was a much different story. People shouted for big cats that they could ride, things that looked like cars but hovered from the ground, and massive birds that had saddles on their backs. Animals yelped and growled, while the hover cars let out a rumble as they sped off down the road.

"Olufemi Jackson!" a voice shouted.

Femi looked around to find where it was coming from. There were too many people to get a good gauge.

"Olufemi Jackson!" the voice shouted again.

He desperately looked around to find anyone that seemed to be yelling his name. However, a crow landing on his shoulder scared him.

"Olufemi Jackson!" The crow chirped.

Femi looked at it. The crow seemed to know that he was who he was looking for, but it was much more interesting in the silver locket necklace than anything else.

"Headmistress calls for your presence," it let out before pecking at Femi's neck.

"That's great but I have no way of getting there," Femi said to the bird.

The crow let out a large squawk before taking flight into the air. The bird swooped and dove in the air, losing some of its feathers before it plummeted to the ground. However, as it got close to Femi the bird grew in size. It had gone from a small shoulder-sized bird to the size of a small school bus. It landed where all the other vehicle-like animals were.

"Olufemi Jackson!" it let out.

Femi quickly rushed to the bird. As he plowed through the crowds of people he notice the boy from earlier. He was getting into one of the hovercars, but before he did, he strangely looked at Femi. The two held prolonged eye contact before the young man get into the car. Femi held eye contact with the door that he entered. He wanted to watch it leave, but the crow cawed into his ear. With the bird's new size, Femi felt as though it had ruptured his ear drum. Clearly, the bird had no perception of its size.

The crow bent as low to the ground as it was able. Then, to help guide Femi onto its body, the bird stretched its wing outward. This allowed Femi to haphazardly climb onto its slick feathers. He could tell people we looking at him. He had never had to climb on a bird before, but by the way people were boring into his back, he felt as though it was a crime that he didn't.

The crow's body shook as it preened itself. Femi tightly grasped the bird's back feathers, terrified of slipping off and making himself look more like an embarrassment. He wanted to give the bird a hearty punch, but he knew that the thick coat that it had would protect it from the scrawny punches that he threw.

Instead, he waited for the bird to stop moving. When it did, Femi rapidly climbed the bird until he sat at the base of its neck. Before he could react, the bird took flight. Femi's hands gripped the bird's neck feathers. His face went barreling into the soft confines of the bird.

He felt a soft breeze and strangely a feeling as if he was being misted with water. The crow was silent, with the only noise filling the air being the thick flapping of its wings. Although he still had his head buried in the bird, he could tell they were gaining height. It was similar to riding on a plane. The way your body felt as if the Earth was desperately pulling you back to its grounds.

This was much scarier than a plane. If he let go at any moment he would be pulled down to the ground watching the sky as the Earth pulled him back like a loving mother. Only for him to land too quickly and hit the ground with a thump.

Femi hated heights. He never realized it till now. In the Human realm, everything was much more secure. It had to be for laws and safety. Riding on a roller coaster, he could hand upside down and feel the rush of adrenaline combined with the safety of it. It wasn't like the roller coaster would fail on him. Well it could, but the odds of that were much less than the odds of him falling here.

Sitting on the back of a dinosaur crow was another thing he was trying to grasp, but that was understated by the feeling of failing. He questioned all the scenarios. If he did slip off the bird, would it even notice? And if it did would it save him? He assumed it would, but at the same time, it didn't seem to care about his health. At least it sure didn't when it almost made him deaf earlier.

He began to think harder, only making himself more anxious about the idea. Then the forceful pull of gravity stopped. The sound of flapping slowed. Femi nervously pulled his head away from the crow's neck. They were just above the clouds. It was gorgeous. It was just like being on a plane, but something was different.

The cold air brushing against him felt refreshing. He could see a handful of other mystical animals flying in the air. Some flew much higher than them. Most of them were bulky-looking dragons. Their scales reflected their beauty as the sun shone on them. As much as he didn't want to Femi couldn't help but look down.

Below was a much larger group of animals. They were too far away to tell what type of animal they were, but he could tell that most of them were smaller than the crow he was on now. A lot of them looked like they were mammal types. He even thought that one of them looked strangely similar to that of a pegasus.

He wanted to look more, being captivated by how many things were under his nose, but he caught the crow staring at him. Its head was turned slightly to the side, but its black eyes were looking straight at him, or maybe they weren't. He felt like the bird was staring at him, but there was this harmful pierce that it had. Before when the bird looked at him it looked like it wasn't even all there. He assumed that it was only doing his because the Headmistress was forcing it to. Now it looked as though it was going to throw him off its back and watch it fall to the ground.

The crow let out a loud squawk. Then, another one. It continued, with each squawk making it more vicious in its flying.

"What's wrong?" Femi shouted so that the bird could hear him over its own voice.

The crow said nothing. At least no words. Instead, its flight became more rigid. It began to swoop and dive. Terrified that the bird's feathers would fall out, Femi clutched the skin of the crow.

Femi looked behind him, trying to see if there was anyone following them that would cause the bird to act so sporadically. He felt his muscles freeze. For the split second that he looked behind him, he swore he saw the Kudu spirit from his dreams. However, as his eyes adjusted to the wind and bright sky, the spirit was gone.

The crow squawked one more and then stopped. It took back to flying more gently. Femi stared at the crow's back. He watched the way that the wind ruffled the black, but rainbow iridescent feathers. There was nothing there more than its body. The humanoid kudu that he saw was gone. He wondered if he even saw it at all. Maybe his mind was filling in gaps from all the new and otherworldly things he had seen today.

~~~

Femi watched as the sun slowly moved across the sky. He assumed that they had been flying for at least an hour. He had his phone on him but was too scared that if he were to pull it out, he would accidentally drop it.

Instead, he took to resting against the crow's body with his head. Its feathers we're warm and well-insulated. It reminded him of his bed.

Before he could find himself comfortable, the crow nose-dived. The wind went spiraling into his thick hair. It's as if it knew that Femi had gotten comfortable and wanted to make sure that he never felt safe. Femi dug his hands past the crow's feather and into his skin. There he gripped the leathery skin as forcefully as he could.

His eyes stung as he clenched them closed. The air was cold. It was hard to breathe with how fast the air hit his face. He could vaguely hear the bird squawk, but the way that the air blew into his ears made it hard to hear anything.

It felt like he had been falling for ages when this bird scooped against the ground. It came to a rather soft landing, which surprised Femi, given how chaotic its flying was before.

Femi opened his eyes when he no longer felt the sensation of falling. The crow let out a small caw before it went to preening its feathers on the stone road.

"Welcome to Arcania," a soothing voice said.

Femi shot his head over, trying to find where the sound came from. To the right of him was an extremely tall woman. She had to be over seven feet, maybe even eight. She was decorated in gold. The most notable was her thick gold headpiece that resembled that of the rising sun. His eyes quickly glanced over the flowy white dress that she wore. It complimented her deep ebony skin beautifully. Her hair was twisted into large goddess braids. Besides the hair, Femi wondered if she actually was a goddess. Maybe he had fallen off of the crow and this was heaven.

Although he wanted to look at her longer, she held out a hand. He took it. Her soft, but large hands gently guided him off the bird.

"Apologizes for making you ride Absaroka. She can be a bit, frenzied when she has a new person flying on her."

"Oh, no worries. Other than the few moments of panic that we had, I would say she's a great flyer."

Once he got off the bird, he fixed how his clothes lay. They were jumbled up from the ride here and it made Femi embarrassed to look like a truck had hit him in front of someone that looked like a goddess.

"I should also apologize for how much of a struggle the realm pool workers gave you. I had told the director there that you would be arriving and should be flagged as a special case under me. However, I don't think he got the memo," she sighed.

For a moment Femi questioned how she even knew what happened there, but she was walking too fast for him to worry. He picked up his pace to match hers.

Behind him, he felt a gust of wind along with a large poofing sound. He looked back at the crow. She had gone from her larger more scraggly-looking form to her original clean-cut-looking form. As he twisted his head back, he could see her fly towards them. She took to landing on the goddess women's shoulder.

"Gayane. Headmistress Gayane. I just recalled that I never mentioned my name," she laughed. "My mind seems to be all over the place these days."

Gayane. It was a beautiful name. It suited her.

The two followed the stone path. Then it hit him. The large building stood right in front of them. It was larger than most buildings he had ever seen. He even wondered if it was as tall as some of the skyscrapers in New York. It had bricks of stone that ranged from a light white color to a deep brown. There were towers and steep roofs. It was magnificent.

The Headmistress stopped in front of Femi. Her face dawned a bright smile. "It's going to be a wonder to have you here, Olufemi. I can already feel the future radiating off of you."

As he stood in front of her and the massive building, he could feel, for the first time, magic dancing throughout his body.