The first class of my day, Geography, went rather quickly. Or, moreso it went as quickly as someone could expect from a class that was so mind-numbingly boring!

  After only the first class everything had become so dull. Amelia just droned on and on about how mountains formed, how tides worked, where cities were and why they were there. Frankly, in the entire class there had only been a single statement that stood out to me, one which I actually kept in mind even now.

  “Everything we understand about landmass, magical or otherwise, dictates that there should be more land masses than what we are familiar with on Enadelle. However, we know undeniably that within the phenomena we call ‘The Edge of the World’ there are only two landmasses. Enadelle, and the minute Oceanid island.”

  “Sadly, I doubt this is something I’ll ever know the answer to. But it is a curious thing to know and keep in your heads.” Amelia finished speaking nearly on cue with the toll of the bell. She gave a kind smile to the four gathered students as we all stood up.

  “Have a nice day you four.” Amelia said with a gentle wave.

  I stood up rather quickly once Amelia called the class to a close. With no books to collect I simply made sure Akemi was securely on my shoulders before jogging out of class, calling out to the red-head before me as I did so.

  “Hey! Silva, wait up!” I spoke quickly as I ran to catch up to the timid girl. She visibly flinched when I called her name, relaxing only a moment later once I slowed down beside her.

  “Y-Yes?…” Silva asked shakily.

  “Just seeing if you wanted to talk on our way to history.” I answered with a soft smile.

  “Oh,” Silva blinked, visibly relaxing soon after. “What do you want to talk about?” She quickly asked.

  “How were you so fast?” I asked, pausing for only a heartbeat before elaborating further. “Against the Golem I mean—How were you so fast?”

  “It’s just my magic…” Silva replied uncertainly. Her gaze turned towards her feet as she walked near unconsciously. “I use my fire to move faster—Why ask?”

  “I was just curious, I guess I haven’t seen people use their magic that much before,” I raised my arms into a shrug as we walked side-by-side. “And when I have, it's been people using it to overpower with raw strength. So… seeing someone fast was pretty cool.”

  “I mean, how long have you even had your magic?” Silva asked, pausing for only a moment before answering her own question. “Like six months? The fact that you can even fight a Golem is incredible! Honestly, I’m jealous of you…”

  “Jealous of me?!” I asked in shock.

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” She retorted, pausing for only a moment before elaborating. “You’re here from nothing but luck and your own skill, you’ve shown up over a hundred students who have trained their magic most of their lives—And you’ve done all of this with no experience.” Silva sighed after she finished speaking, barely flicking her gaze towards me for a moment.

  “I’m jealous because I wish I could even compare to that.” She huffed out, falling silent soon after.

  “Huh.” I answered, falling into a similar silence to Silva.

  It didn’t take long after the short conversation came to an end for us to arrive at our next class—History.

  The class was rapidly filling as I walked in. Silva was quick to move to her seat near the back of the room, leaving me with just a quick wave of her hand. I however was pushed towards the front of the room, taking a seat nearly directly in front of the teacher.

  Henry Fellinde, the teacher of the class, walked in only a few moments later than the last of the students. His presence brought the room to quiet down gradually, by the time he took his seat behind a desk at the forefront of the room the class had fallen silent.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  “Good Morning everyone,” Henry began, a gentle smile on his face as he leant back in his seat. “Today’s class will be rather simple: How do you verify the veracity of history?” He asked the question, leaving it to hang in the air for a handful of seconds before he continued.

  Only once he made eye contact with nearly every student in the room did he explain.

  “History is incredibly difficult to verify,” He stated simply as he stood up. “We often are left with a handful of issues. Too much or too little information. Sometimes, it can even be a mixture of both.”

  “For example; what happens when we have two stories which explain the same event but have woefully different facts? How do we pick and choose which facts are the correct ones?” This time when he paused he purposefully waited for an answer. However, yet again there were no offers to try and answer his question.

  “You must compare the facts against one another, and ideally, compare those facts against another…”

  It didn’t take long for my brain to shut off while listening to Henry’s words. His droning lecture went on and on—It frankly left only a single thought in my head.

  “This is awful…” I groaned internally as I fought with every fibre of my being in order to just stay awake through the lecture. I only caught myself from dozing off near the end of the class, snapping back awake when the bell tolled overhead.

  Genuine relief rushed its way into my body as I stood up. I wasted absolutely no time to try and escape the boredom of the class—No one was wasting time as the flood of students out of the hall grew into a tidal wave.

  “Just one more class…” I thought to myself, withholding a sigh as I made my way out of the main building of the school.

  With Akemi still resting on my shoulder I made my way into the open fields out front of the school. I quickly recognized the students who were already gathered there. The trio of friends, Hendrick, Flanders and Justin were all gathered around each other. Their trio of familiars, each being a rather similar in shape and size wolf pup lay next to one another, their tails wagging happily.

  Next I saw the purple haired Anestesia. She was sitting cross legged on the ground with her centipede-like creature, a Mind Reaper resting on her lap. The beast frankly left me feeling unsettled to even look at it still.

  Lastly I saw Tulip, Lucia and Erick.

  Lucia and Erick stood several paces away from each other. Lucia had her arms crossed, her face clearly contorted in annoyance even from a distance. Erick hardly looked to be in a better mood, proven even more so as he stomped away—Being closely tailed by the fiery lizard that had become his familiar.

  Then there was Tulip. She stood away from the rest of the group entirely, Topaz, her curious looking black owl was resting on a tree only a few steps away from her. With no sign of Sanders here yet, I made my way over to Tulip.

  “How were your classes?” Tulip asked with an exhausted voice as I approached.

  “Mind numbing…” I groaned out, throwing myself to the ground where I sprawled my arms out. The warmth of the sun bore down on me, it was a pleasant heat that had gradually grown warmer each day over the last few weeks.

  “So about the same as mine,” Tulip mused, a smile crossing her lips. “See Sander’s on your way out here?” She asked pointlessly.

  “Nope.” I answered immediately.

  “Think he’s gonna show up today?” Tulip asked, her voice filled with the same exhaustion I felt over the situation.

  “Doubt it…” I groaned once again. Instead of bothering to care about the waste of time, I let my eyes flutter shut.

  It had been like this since the short expedition that ended in a desperate defence against the Ghouls—Sanders hadn’t shown up to a single class since then, leaving all of us to pointlessly wait out here day-after-day. All in the vain hope that he would actually show up and teach us something again.

  In essence, to say we were surprised when a middle-aged man adorned with mossy green hair approached us. His very presence left us awe-struck into silence—Only a single thought even made it into my head, almost making it out into words as I sat up.

  “He’s alive!” I exclaimed in my mind, suddenly feeling much more awake.

  “Hello, hello everyone.” Sander’s spoke in a gentle, almost timid voice as he welcomed all of us. His face was darkened, holding a sense of dread that was palpable in the air. Exhaustion and anxiety turned into an aura.

  “Where’ve you been?!” Half of us asked in near unison.

  “That is a very good question,” Sanders verified, nodding his head as he flicked has hand upwards. He didn’t speak for a few moments, letting the ground speak for him as vines crawled their way out of the barren earth in order to make a table that sat only a pace away from where he stood. “And I’ll show you what I’ve been up to right here.”

  A small flash accentuated his words, chased away by a series of soft thumps as leathery objects—Books—Landed against the vines. They all looked rather new, held together by freshly tanned leather while the pages edges looked to be nearly shimmering white.

  “I’ve been working on a Bestiary.”

  Patreon

  Discord

  Keira Wulfe