Kalmia had to hurry and get ready before she could get into the horse drawn wagon. She had to brush her hair, wash her face and put on the school uniform. It was a knee-length skirt, which was coloured with black dye. For the top she got a white blouse, and there were some knee-high socks in black and brown, and formal shoes with a slight heel.

  Kalmia was not happy about how she looked in those clothes, but she accepted it under these circumstances.

  Quickly, she went downstairs to the kitchen to eat something. Dedrik had already prepared some travel food. He planned to join her in the travel as far as the harbour, but after that he wouldn't be able to join on the rest of the journey towards the school.

  "We have to hurry up. No time to eat."

  "But if I don't eat anything, I will go hungry for the entire journey!"

  "No need. I have packed enough food."

  Dedrik held two very large bags which, presumably, were completely filled with clothing and food that would last for multiple weeks.

  The driver of the wagon was already annoyed about the time he had to wait for Kalmia and Dedrik to prepare themselves. He had already been there for half an hour when they came out of the house and climbed into the wagon.

  "Good day, my sir and young lady, to "Ner Inn" in Schwarzhafen?"

  "Good day, indeed, that is our destination."

  "Okay. It will be a journey of a week. I hope you are prepared."

  "Yes, we are. Don't worry about us."

  "Fine then."

  The driver of the wagon turned around and whipped the horses with the ropes attached to the bridle, and they started walking. This time around, the travel direction wasn't towards the east, but rather north. It was a far nicer journey until one reached the marshlands in the north of the country. One could instantly recognize when one reached the salty marshes close to the ocean. Not only did the country get less and less inhabited the further north they got, but also there was a weird, salty, stench in the air while the lands around the road were flooded with disgusting brown water. The spots of dirt that were above the water were all covered by a dark, green, layer of grass. Every few meters there were some taller clumps of grass that, to Kalmia, appeared as large as herself. No matter where and how far she looked, however, she didn’t see a single tree since entering the marshlands.

  Every few minutes, they passed a wooden sign.

  "You see that sign over there, about how leaving the road would be dangerous?"

  Kalmia paid a bit more attention to the sign and nodded.

  "Yeah? What's up with that?"

  "Do you know why people put those signs there?"

  "Not really, no."

  "Well. Those lands around look pretty harmless, don't they?"

  "Uhm... yeah? What about it?"

  "Well, the appearance is deceiving. If you get off the path it might very well happen that the ground eats you up. You would sink in and, in the end, you would quickly suffocate underneath the earth, as if buried alive."

  Kalmia shuddered a bit at the thought of her getting swallowed whole by the ground underneath her. That was a danger she was never expecting to encounter.

  "Well. As long as you stay on the road here, it should be fine. The paths should be trampled and compressed enough to not have anyone sink in."

  "..."

  "Well. We should be safe here."

  "If you say so, I will just trust you in that judgement."

  After they passed beyond the marshlands, it still took two whole days for them to arrive in Schwarzhafen.

  Schwarzhafen was not as rich and luxurious as Luminor was. The city walls were about a fourth as high, and the City itself was covered in a layer of fog.

  "Welcome to Schwarzhafen. I hope you enjoy your short stay here."

  "Thank you."

  Dedrik wanted to hand some money over to the driver of the wagon, but he refused.

  "No need. I am getting paid plenty by the Silver Island Academy, and I am obligated to refuse tips."

  "Okay then. Have a nice day."

  "The same to you."

  Dedrik and Kalmia left the wagon that was parked right in front of a decently large inn house. Above the inn there was a sign saying "Ner Inn". In comparison to the outer parts of the city, the inner boroughs seemed even richer. While the outer areas contained buildings that were quite fitting to the area Kalmia grew up in, the inner city, where the inn was located, seemed a bit more like Luminor. Kalmia could only imagine the tension between the classes in this city, as the living standards between the different parts of it seemed so drastically opposite, that upper class people must constantly bully the lower class. Kalmia thought that this would be Filian’s perfect surroundings. He would probably enjoy the disparity here.

  They entered the inn and were greeted by a woman.

  "Welcome to Ner Inn. Do you have a room booked here?"

  "Yes. It was booked for us by the SIA."

  "Excuse me, could I see the invitation?"

  "Sure... Just give me a second, I have to find it in the bag first."

  "No problem, sir."

  Dedrik stood there for a few minutes, searching through the bag with the clothing until he found the correct piece of paper.

  "Here we go."

  "Just let me check it at the counter real fast. You can follow me if you want."

  The woman walked towards a counter that was located a few meters further into the building.

  "Your name?"

  "Kalmia."

  "How old are you?"

  "I am now 15 years old"

  "Where were you born?"

  "In Hena."

  "Current place of residence?"

  "Grona, in the parsonage."

  "Which race are you?"

  "Dragon."

  "A dragon from that poor area? What does one of your kind look for in that place?"

  "..."

  "Well, if you don't want to talk about it, that’s your business. Everything looks fine. Follow me, I will show you to your rooms. You must be tired from the long trip."

  At this point, Dedrik took the lead of the talking again.

  "That would be nice, thanks."

  The two of them followed the woman to a door, behind which there were stairs to an upper floor.

  She looked at Dedrik and handed him a key.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "Your room is room 208. Right here on the right side of the hallway."

  Then she turned around to Kalmia.

  "And yours is room 215. Follow me, I will show it to you."

  The woman walked ahead of Kalmia and around a corner in the hallway.

  "This hallway is where the students reside until the ship leaves."

  On the left side of the hall the room numbers were increasing from 210, and on the right side they were decreasing from the number 230.

  "This is your room."

  The woman opened the door and held it open for Kalmia.

  "And here are your room keys."

  She handed Kalmia the keys to the room and left right after.

  It was a large room, bigger than the one she had in Dedrik’s home. The metal on the furniture in this room was all covered with golden details. There were carpets made of red cloth, the windows could be covered with some black curtains, and the bed was larger than any that Kalmia had seen in her entire life.

  She even had her own bathroom with a toilet and a water supply of warm water into a bathtub. Kalmia closed the door to the room and locked it up. She quickly took her clothes off, climbed into the bathtub and let it fill up with hot water.

  Since she had transformed into her current form, everything warm felt a lot nicer to her, and she didn't feel like she would be scalded any more no matter how hot it was around her or how hot the things were she touched.

  She enjoyed the bath so much that she laid in there for hours. It took loud knocking on the door before she realised how long she had been in the bath.

  "Just a minute!"

  Kalmia got out of the bathtub and dried herself off with a towel that was hung up next to her. She hadn’t gotten around to washing her hair yet, but she could do that later.

  When she was putting on her clothes, the knocking started again.

  "One more minute!"

  She finished putting on the socks, which was kinda hard since her legs were still slightly moist.

  She walked up towards the door, unlocked and opened it.

  "Good day, young lady. Would you like something to eat, and your clothes washed?"

  "Uhm... sure, go ahead."

  "Well... you would have to give us the clothes that are to be washed and tell us what you would like to eat."

  "Wait, give me a second."

  Kalmia took her bag full of dirty clothes and emptied it. Then she took all the clothes from her room as well as those still laying in the bathroom and gave them to the man.

  "Here. And what do you offer as a meal?"

  The man had a piece of paper in his hands.

  "Here. Take the menu. I will be back in about ten minutes."

  The man handed her the menu and walked away.

  The menu had food such as entire roasted pig, cow ribs or chicken breasts, each with vegetables as a side dish usually. On the dessert menu was some stuff they called "gelato" or "Sugar preserved fruits".

  A roasted pig and this gelato thing sounded interesting to Kalmia.

  A few minutes later, the man returned.

  "I am back, young lady. Have you decided what to eat?"

  "Uhm... yes. The roasted pig as a main dish and this gelato thing as a dessert."

  "As you wish. The meal will be served in half an hour down in the dining room."

  The man took off down the hallway again.

  Some twenty or so minutes later, Kalmia went down to the dining room. When she entered, she found Dedrik already waiting there. Not only Dedrik was there, but also Maria.

  Kalmia went a few steps further into the room before Maria realised that Kalmia was also there.

  "Kalmia! Haven't seen you in a while!"

  "Yeah, it's been a few months."

  "How are you doing?"

  "Well... could be better, but I am doing okay. How about you?"

  "Let's hope you get better soon. I myself am doing pretty good."

  "I didn't expect to meet you here."

  "Well, this is the main port in the north of the continent when it comes to travelling to SIA."

  "Ah. I actually didn't know that."

  "Well, the most obvious answer for you would probably have been the port of Luminor, but they localised it to the home region and the westernmost harbour was that of Schwarzhafen."

  "So you also come from the west?"

  "Well, from the country that borders Menia to the east, Hoga."

  "Is that a beastman country?"

  "Exactly."

  "And they didn't give you the option to use a harbour there?"

  "Well, beastmen are rare to attend to SIA. Most of us only care about strength, so they usually don't see a need for education, even though SIA also teaches combat abilities."

  "Interesting. That seems kind of weird, but you do you, I guess."

  "I mean, that is more normal than a dragon living in human lands"

  "You are probably right about that."

  Behind Kalmia, the food she had ordered was brought into the room. It was a small pig, laying on a silver plate, stuffed with something and had an apple in its mouth.

  "Well, I guess my food is done."

  "Yeah. Hope you enjoy it."

  "Thanks."

  The people around Kalmia looked a bit weird, when they realised this petite girl would eat that entire plate by herself.

  Piece after piece was separated from the pig until only bones were left. Kalmia was finished relatively quickly, considering the size of her food.

  After she was done with the pig, she waited for this gelato thing.

  A few minutes later, a small cup with some colourful stuff was put in front of her.

  "And this is gelato?"

  "Correct, young lady."

  Kalmia touched it with her fingers.

  "Should it be that cold?"

  "Yes, else it would melt. I recommend not waiting too long to eat it."

  "... Thanks."

  Kalmia wouldn't let anyone tell her twice about not waiting too long to eat, so she also ate it quite quickly.

  However, because she ate it so quickly, her head started hurting suddenly.

  It was a very strong pain, but it subsided soon after.

  After eating, Kalmia felt so stuffed that she just wanted to sleep. She went up into her room and locked the door behind her. Then she laid down on the bed and fell asleep pretty quickly.

  **CHAPTER 13: END**