Getting Acquainted with the Sky - Chapter 6

A light knocking that gradually grows louder, a rapping upon the door, is what wakes me up. I'm surprised to find myself in my own bed, wondering who had put me here. Grams voice rings through the room as she opens the door, letting the light from the hallway stream in, "Time for school, Parker!"

    I grunt and get up, running fingers through my hair. Without even standing up, I mutter, "Prim and proper, dressed neat, from head to toe, and face to feet."

    I'm transformed and dressed for school in a flash. Today's outfit was a pair of jeans and a lacy tank top, covered by a silky robe that was maroon. I smile with satisfaction and jog downstairs, grabbing breakfast to go and then meeting up with Griffin outside, who thankfully hadn't left yet. He pulls down his flight goggles just as I stroll up.

    "Need a ride?" He asks and I smile jovially.

    I tell him, "As always," while climbing on the back of the broomstick. He takes off and I leave my eyes closed, opening them as we descend which I regret immediately. The churning sensation in my guts told me I wasn't yet ready to fly with my eyes open.

    We head into the dining hall, which I now notice is called "Evergreen Hall", and take our seats. I look over to Fawn who's laughing with Richard, sharing a plate of pancakes.

    "You've never told me your full name is Fawntasia!" He cries out and I raise an eyebrow. She laughs some more, her face growing red and her laugh like a light snort. It was an adorable and uncontainable kind of snort.

    She claims, "It's never come up!"

    He stops laughing for a moment and looks her in the eyes, telling her, "You're beautiful."

    She smiles and cups his face, telling him, "You are too."

    I'm distracted by the beauty of their relationship as Astryd comes up beside me, tapping me on the shoulder to get my attention.

    I turn and face her, she gives me a weird look. "Can you come to the bathroom with me?"

    Nodding, I tell her, "Sure, but why?"

    She raises an eyebrow. Back in our old school, such a thing was never questioned. It was just odd for me to revert to my old ways after everything we'd been through already in the week we'd been here. And even still, Astryd had technically been here a bit longer than I had considering how long I slept for upon arrival.

    We speed walk to the nearest lavatory and duck in, immediately I know something is off as she checks underneath the stalls.

    Looking me dead in the eyes, Astryd grows pale as she says, "You can't speak of this to anyone."

    "I won't," I promise and she nods before nervously opening her palm to reveal a growing flame.

    She explains, "Ever since I got here, I've been able to do things I couldn't before."

    I gasp as I stare, she was doing what Griffin had done before! A tiny flame was growing in the palm of her hand just as the look of fear in her eyes grew with it.

    Her voice quivers as she tells me, "This place has changed me. I've been up every night with chest pains and yesterday I almost set my room on fire!"

    My eyes widen as I try to think of what to say, how could I comfort her?

    "We shouldn't be discussing this here, someone could come in and s-" I stop dead in my sentence as the door opens and Mafalda Winters steps in. Astryd extinguishes the flame immediately and we both go silent. Mafalda's face is stoic as she steps up beside me before turning to the sinks I was leaning against. She calmly washes her hands and then looks over to me, her facial expression giving nothing away.

    Her eyes are vacant along with the rest of her face as she makes direct eye contact. I look away as she tells me, "Parker, I'll need to see you in my office after you're done eating."

    I nod in response as she turns over to Astryd, "Ashlynn," She says and I raise an eyebrow, they were on full name basis? "I'll need to see you right away, come with me."

    Astryd looks to me and says, "Bye, Parker. We'll chat later, okay girly?""

    I nod, "Catch ya later, Ash."

    They leave as quickly as Mafalda had come in and a chill runs down my spine. Something about that exchange felt off, I wondered if she'd seen.

    I meander back to the lunch table and sit beside Ethan, feeling a need to check in on him. As far as I knew, Astryd and Ethan were the first few Magicless to be in this world for so long. And Astryd had complained of heart pain, I assumed it had something to do with the Alec muscle that Griffin had told me about.

    "Hey Ethan," I sit down beside him and he turns to look at me, "Have you been feeling alright?"

    He nods with a goofy smile plastered on his face, "I've been great! Magic school is awesome."

    His enthusiasm was appreciated, it lightened my mood as I worried about Astryd.

    After breakfast was dismissed, I headed up the grand marble staircase to Mafalda's office and knock on the door, alarmed as it swings open by itself and Astryd is nowhere to be seen.

    "Have a seat, Parker." She instructs and I follow her directions, careful not to upset her.

    I stare straight ahead at Mafalda as she opens her hand, a long, slender box appearing in her hand. My eyes open wide as she places it before me.

    "What's this?" I ask, inspecting it.

    "Open it." She demands and I nod, gripping the top and pulling it open. Inside it's lined with burgundy velvet that compliments the dark stained wood. Within is a wand that looks to be made of mahogany. I gasp as I touch it and electricity rumbles through my veins. I remove it from the box and hold it up, feeling a power surge through me.

    Her eyes widen from across the desk as she mutters to herself, "Interesting."

    Voice like a low pur, she tells me, "Do you know what you're holding?"

    I shake my head no as she reaches out yearningly to touch it. I recoil slightly, feeling it in my bones that she didn't deserve to hold it.

    "Your mothers' wand." She gets teary as she tells me this and I huff, internally.

    I frown for a moment and look at her, "Why're you giving me this?"

    "Eredith has your fathers' wand," She explains, "It's only fair you get a piece of their greatness."

    I nod along as she says this before she hands me a scroll.

    "Let me walk you to class." She offers and I agree, partially because I was lost but mostly because I wanted to warm up to Mafalda. I didn't want to hate her, not as much as Eredith does.

    She smiles at me and leads me to her office door, taking me out of the classroom.

    "Your first class is Transfiguration, then Divination, Beast Care, History of Magic, and you finish off the day with a mandatory Self-Defense class and flight class." She tells me as we start towards a long and winding staircase that descended into a darker hole of the castle. My stomach aches and something feels off, immediately.

    I brush it off and ask, "When will I start flight class?" She chuckles in response.

    "I've got you pencilled in for the end of the day with Professor Finnegan," She tells me and as I grow tense with fear she places a hand on my shoulder, "Relax, flight class isn't too bad."

    We descend deeper and the staircase eventually leads off into a cobblestone archway. My breath is taken away as I look on either sides of me to see that there's water surrounding us, yet no glass sits in the windows of the archway.

    "Magic is a powerful thing," She explains, "This schools magic is tied to me. I keep this the way it is."

    She beams with pride as a MerFolk swims over to the side, poking a hand out of the water and reaching out towards us, it's skin growing scaly and beginning to burn the second her arm hits the air.

    Recoiling, it hisses and I can hear it despite the waters crashing all around being nearly deafening. Mafalda says something to the Mer in sign language and she swims away, having obviously learned her lesson.

    "She must be young, freshly hatched. They usually know by now not to expose themselves to the air in here." Mafalda shrugs and we continue on, the archway closing off eventually and leading into an underwater part of the castle that was filled with classrooms and further down the hall, more dorms.

    We come to a classroom where I see Dante sitting inside alongside Griffin. They wave to me and I give a shy wave in return. I clutch my hand from it's holster in my robes, finding comfort in it's twinges of lightning that course through my veins.

    On the desk sits a bearded dragon lizard, I'd had one as a kid at one point until the Jane's had to get rid of her. I'm surprised to not see a teacher, only until the lizard morphes to full size into a greying and short man who sits on the desk now instead.

    "Your reason for being late?" He asks in an aggravated manner until Mafalda steps into the light before me. Her eyes glisten in the dim classroom lights and she smiles.

    "Hello Professor Drango, my apologies. Parker is new and we had to chit-chat a bit." She smiles, "Better late than never."

    His eyes widen and I step into the class, taking my seat at a desk by Griffin and Dante.

    "It's alright, Miss. Have a lovely day." He brown noses to Mafalda, who shortly after stalks away.

    Professor Drango returns his attention to the class and his lesson begins again, Dante and Griffin catching me up.

    A half an hour later and the bell rings, we're released into the now busy, bustling hallway.

    Griffin and Dante gang up on either side of me, holding me tight like a sandwich holds its fillings. "What class do you have next?" Dante asks and I try to remember.

    "Divination." I tell him after pulling out and glancing at my schedule.

    It's Griffin who nods and says, "You'll have that with me and Wila."

    I smile at the mention of her name, wondering how she's doing.

    As I walk into Divination, I take my seat beside her and she smiles, laying her head down on the shared table. I look at her with worry as the professor starts their lesson, not even taking notice to their new arrival. I was pleasantly surprised that I wouldn't have to introduce myself to the class.

    The lesson droned on as the teacher discussed the use of crystal balls in magicless movies, something that set her off on a tangent. It was about halfway through class that water started to creep across the desk and on the floor, soaking my shoes and my socks. The water was freezing cold, I knew it had to be coming from Wila. I nudge her lighty, trying to stop the damage as suddenly a fire started and spread across the table towards me.

    I screamed and jumped back, pulling Wila away from the table. As I rolled her head back towards me I saw that her eyes were wide open and covered with lavender cataracts. She breathes raspily and a thick black smoke comes out of her nostrils.

    "Don't wake her!" Our professor shouts as Griffin beside me tries to whack the fire out. How had a fire started on top of water?

    "How do I stop it?" I shout back and the professor speeds towards us, tapping Wila on the forehead with her wand.

    "Cease!" She shouts and the cataracts slowly deteriorate as tears begin to fall from her now free eyes.

    She mutters to me, smoke billowing from her mouth as she does so, "Did it happen again?"

    I nod in response, going silent.

    Professor Chelius waggles a finger at Wila, leading her out into the hallway.

    My ears perk up as I hear someone laughing on the other side of the classroom. The laugh sounds familiar and as I turn to find the source, my heart sinks. None other than Argos laughs with his friends on the other side of the room and a rage bubbles to the surface.

    "What a weirdo." He remarks and I storm over to his desk.

    "Weirdo, huh?" I ask accusingly, my words seething with a poison like quality, "That's my friend you're talking about."

    "Jane-" He remarks as I storm back over to Griffin. Argos follows and I sigh. Why'd he have to follow?

    "I'm so sorry," He tells me, "I didn't know you were friends with any of them."

    "It seems they're my only friends." I remark as Professor Chelius pokes her head back in.

    She says sorrowfully, "Class, you're dismissed early, have a nice day."

    My stomach feels rancid and wishes to empty all of its contents. I needed to know if Wila was alright, she meant so much to me especially after these past few days and nights of us bonding.

    "We'd better just head to lunch," Griffin says solemnly, "It won't help if we draw a crowd."

    Everyone in the class watches what's going on between Griffin, Argos, and I. We're the main event as we leave the class, heading to the dining hall. Griffin stands close to me, protectively, as Argos storms past with his shoulders hunched and his hands dug into his pockets. It seemed as though he was trying to pin me as the bad guy.

    We walk into the dining hall and take our seats, waiting for the others to enter just under a half hour later when the rest of the classes were dismissed. Alarms go off in my head as Astryd walks in with some guy. They're chatting and laughing and I can't help but feel like I recognize him. He looked a bit like Astryd's brother who'd gone missing a few years prior, Dylan, but he had a five o' clock shadow and a head full of much longer hair than when I'd last seen him.

    My suspicions are confirmed, however, when Astryd walks up and gets teary trying to introduce him.

    "Dylan?" I ask, "Man it's been forever."

    I stand and pull him into a tight embrace and he smiles, rubbing the small of my back as we share a very long hug. When he pulls away he gives me a smirk.

    "My heart led me here, the second one that is." He jokes and I smile.

    I remark, "My heart literally almost failed before I got here, Enchanters really don't belong in a Magicless world."

    Astryd smiles, "That's the thing, Ms. Winters told me I'm at least half Enchanter which is why I was able to live in the Magicless world for so long."

    Ethan struts over, barging in on the conversation. He'd been chatting with Daisy when he overheard the conversation and he tells us, "So I guess this makes me special since I'm the only Magicless here?"

    "I guess so." I say with a chuckle. The air is light and bright and I'm almost able to forget the Wila incident, only until she comes in about ten minutes later in dry clothes that were about two sizes too big on her. She frowns when she sees me and immediately rushes over to apologize.

    Tension settles into the air as she throws her arms around me and pulls me into a hug. She still smells heavily of smoke.

    "I don't know what happened." She wails, "It's only getting worse."

    I lead her over to our table and sit beside her, lowering my head slightly.

    I tell her, "Show me," I add, "I'll put my head down so no one sees what's going on."

    She nods and taps me with her wand and again my mind is overtaken.

    I begin to float to the surface, away from the red hair and up to the surface; someone with small, soft hands is dragging me. We emerge from the water and I gasp, screaming out in pain and anguish as I look over to the crumbling stone structure before me and the burning remains of what must've been the island.

    Smoke is thick in the air and waves desecrate whatever remains after the cleansing flames that drown it. The smoke invades my nostrils and my lungs burn.

    I gasp and lift my head from the table, my pupils burning from the image of the flames lapping at where we sat. I had to ponder if what I was seeing was a premonition or just a series of bad, never-ending dreams.

    "They're getting worse." She tells me, her voice shaky.

    I gulp loudly and look towards the food in the center of the table, I decided I was no longer hungry.

    The rest of lunch flew by uneventfully, Wila silent and Astryd taking center stage and talking about her Alec muscle growing in. It was pretty interesting but I was relieved to head to beast care.

    Truthfully, I don't remember a thing from Beast care or History of Magic, but the memory of my first self defense class at FernWood wasn't something I'd forget anytime soon.

    I would be the last to enter what they called "The Ring" as though this was a boxing match, truthfully it was a magically caged in pit that was hexagonally shaped and clearly smeared with dried blood, left there to intimidate all who would be forced to enter its premises.

    Richard grinned at me before he chose to fight Argos and I have to say, the match was riveting. I can't say who won but in my opinion neither of them lost. They left the match covered in bruises and wounds, high fiving each other afterwards.

    I remember the resounding gasp as Richard chose Argos, because this meant I'd be left to enter the ring with Matilda. Matilda was a half orc and I'd seen the inside of her room only once, littered with gym equipment. I'd watched her eat raw eggs as breakfast before. Matilda was at least six foot two and pure hard muscle, did Richard hate me or something?

    Entering the ring was what I thought would be the most difficult, she'd take it easy on me, right?

    As soon as Professor Caldwell told her, "Don't put this one in the infirmary." I realized she wasn't going to take it easy on me.

    Caldwell shouts for the match to begin and she lunges on me.

    "Time!" I shout nervously, "I need to prepare."

    Several students chuckle as I remove my robes to reveal a cardigan. Matilda removes her gown to reveal a put together battle ensemble, grey and silver workout clothes that tightly adhered to her body. I slowly peeled off my cardigan and threw it on top of my robes, fighting now only in a bra- sadly a bright pink one at that- and jeans. I felt mortified, my classmates staring at my mostly exposed chest. Even worse, my impressively flat chest; I'm hardly an A cup. I still was not prepared but maybe partial nudity will startle Matilda and mildly catch her off guard?

"Alright, stripper, can we continue?" Matilda said, suppressing a snort of laughter. I nodded, humiliated. Fighting in a bra was embarrassing enough, I just prayed they'd have the decency to cover me up when Matilda knocked me out cold.

    The match is restarted and my blood courses like a racehorse through my veins as my heart pumps so loudly that I hear it. It pounds in my ears rhythmically.

    Matilda and I circle each other, her taking a less aggressive approach as the match is restarted. Outside of the ring, people slap their thighs to make almost a drum beat.

    As soon as I believe I'm ready, I lunge at Matilda. She shoots up a knee as I do so, knocking me straight in the nose. I feel my cartilage bounce and throb on my face as my head is jerked backwards. Everything hurts as my head grows woozy and I fall backwards, my head slamming the ground.

    "One hit KO!" Murmurs through the crowd repeatedly. I'm still conscious as Matilda stands over me, straddling me and staring down at me.

    "Pathetic," She mumbles, not expecting it as I ram my head upwards, my forehead connecting with what I believe was her groin but I was hoping was just her stomach.

    The class screams, some outraged that I had the nerve to keep fighting.

    I pull myself up as quickly as I can, Matilda only derailed for a second as she grabs my ponytail with her meaty hands and slams my head against her thigh. The clap that my skin makes connecting with hers is like thunder.

    My body goes limp once more.

    "And stay down!" She shouts, placing a foot on top of my abdomen. I was defeated and my spirit was certainly broken.

    I lost consciousness then, I believe, and Richard kindly carried me to the infirmary as I was later told by my peers who would never shut up about it all.

    When I awoke in the infirmary, the bad news kept coming. My last class of the day would be flight class and I unfortunately would still have to attend.

    "Where would I buy a broomstick?" I asked, fully prepared to drop quite a lot of money. I immediately got myself ready and out of the infirmary bed, leaving quickly after the nurses checked me one more time.

            "I'd say out at the harbor, most likely." Richard told me as we walked in the direction of the harbor as it was, "But broomsticks cost an awful lot."

            "Thank you." I said, deciding to run down the hallway to my dorm. I ducked in and grabbed one of my most important possessions, Magicless money. They may have been pennies in the Magicless world, but everyone knew that at FernWood- in the Enchanted world in general actually- an average penny was worth five golden coins. And I had a whole jar saved up!

            I strolled quickly out to the harbor as fast as I could and hoped I wouldn't be late for my first flying class. When I saw a large stand with hovering sticks above it, I could tell right away that was where they made broomsticks and then I noticed the display in front of the stand. It was amazing! All different brooms of all different lengths and made from all different kinds of wood. There was even a broomstick made from bamboo. I doubt it would be sturdy, but it was very beautiful especially with the added touch of eucalyptus leaves on the end rather than twigs or hay.

            When I began to touch some of the brooms a clerk came out from the back, looking very excited when he saw my jar of coins despite having them hidden by my robes.

            "I see you have quite the collection of coins..." The clerk said, trailing off and raising his eyebrows.

            I decided then to pull out the collection of pennies which caused the clerk to stumble backwards.

            "Now I've heard that it's five golden coins per penny, correct?" I asked. The shady clerk immediately attempted to bargain and make it seem as though it was only worth one gold coin every five pennies!

            "Well little miss, I'm not sure who gave you such information, but they were sadly mistaken." The clerk clicks his tongue before I return with a zinger.

            "The person who gave me such information was Headmistress Mafalda Winters herself, and I expect five gold coins for every penny I own, otherwise I'll take my business elsewhere." I said and looked over to see a lovely broom, and fairly cheap too, that I had decided I would buy if the clerk gave me the correct amount of gold coins.

    The broom was made of cherrywood with a coconut besom head, wrapped with a leather cord. At the end of the leather cord were beads and gizmos of all sorts, adding to the aesthetic of it. Some would find it tacky or just plain ugly, I thought it was unique and I wanted it right away.

The clerks face, unlike that broom, was priceless.

The clerk seemed to grow very pale.

With a smirk that day, I walked off towards the field that was next to the forest where flight training was held and I held my breath when I saw something I thought I'd never see; people flying everywhere.

It was absolutely astonishing. With my new broom in hand, I looked for the teacher of the class. I immediately found out that I deeply disliked this teacher.

"Finally decided to show up, eh Mrs. Jan?" The professor said, scrutinizing me deeply. I wasn't even going to address that he somehow messed up my last name.

While he may have been quite the rude man, he was quite good looking. It was all that typical Enchanter charm. For his age, possibly mid thirties, he was surprisingly good looking. He had glowing skin and perfectly white teeth. His hair was a dark brown, long and wavy while his eyes complimented that with a lovely blue.

One thing I did like about this guy was his tattoos. From his Capri pants- Capri pants in this weather, he must've been crazy- I saw he had one that was a broomstick buzzing around his calf and on his right forearm he had a tattoo of his wand. However, I later realized that since it was Enchanted Ink, that tattoo was not of his wand but rather it was his wand. I saw this when he pulled it from his forearm and used it to keep my peers from blowing off their broomsticks.

"Yes, so sorry Professor." I said, deeply apologizing, "I had to go buy this in order to-"

"So you skipped my class to buy a fancy broomstick, is that what you're saying?" He asked.

"Sorry Professor..." I said, trailing off, realizing I never got his name.

"Finnegan. Professor Finnegan and I advise you not to be late to my class again." He strongly said. He had quite the booming voice. A cliche, yes, but it seems that all physical education teachers tend to have booming voices.

I was deeply agitated by him cutting me off earlier and thankfully at that moment Griffin came gliding down from the sky, making a swift dismount to the point where he was flying one moment and walking with the broom in his right hand the next.

            "I'll teach her what she missed, Professor." Griffin offered and the Professor walked off. Griffin glared at his turned back then returned his attention to me, first noticing the broom, "Wow, what a nice one." He pointed at it, his eyes never leaving the broom. I was glad Griffin shared my tastes, not everyone would find the broom to be appealing to the eye.

            Griffin was a racer here at FernWood, kind of like track but it's in the sky and there are obstacles. And obviously everyone uses the same broomstick so that the competition is fair and based on skills.

            "Yea, quite a nice broom." I said and Griffin glared at me intensely.

            "It's a broomstick; we do not fly on cleaning equipment." Griffin said.

            "Witches also fly on brooms." I pointed out and Griffins glare deepened.

            "Well we are Enchanters not witches and we fly on broomsticks not brooms." Griffin said, clearly upset over my small comment. It was so fun to see him riled up over terminology.

            "Everyone here is so politically correct." I said, mounting my broomstick, prepared for my first time flying, somewhat.

        "So," I began with a slight smile, "How do I fly this thing?"

       Griffin gave a smirk and then lightly kicked my broom, sending it into action as I was flung forward into the sky, still on the broomstick of course. The speed was so intense my cheeks were wiggling and my hair felt like it was being ripped off my head.

I screamed his name the entire way up, kind of angry about him not warning me but mostly terrified. I noticed right away that the broom I had bought was quite the speed demon.

       From down below, Griffin was staring at how high I was rocketing in quite a short amount of time. Clearly feeling bad about sending me off without any knowledge, Griffin hopped onto his broom and used his feet to powerfully push off the ground, racing towards me.

Without any idea of what I was doing and no way to control the broom, I was startled when I started falling back to the ground at a blindingly fast speed. I zoomed past Griffin who was watching as I struggled to get the hang of flying.

     "Oh dear!" I heard Griffin shout as I fell past.

     "You have to kick the broom to get it to go!" He shouted and, in a split second before hitting the ground, I did as he said and gave the broom a light kick which sent it sputtering back to life. I shot off towards the direction I had been leaning in when I fell, which went towards the water.

       As I did this, I grabbed the broom firmly with both hands, and somehow from there on everything was so much better. Maybe it was because I finally got a grip. I soared above everyone else, looking at the castle from the view that a bird sees.

       "Whoa." I said to no one in particular besides probably myself.

       High up above the school with a wonderful view, I started thinking about how I'd be leaving. I would be going back to where I had left. It seemed like it had only been days, but two weeks had passed for me at FernWood. It was almost winter. Of course, Halloween still hadn't passed, but the brisk weather made it feel as though it was going to snow any day now.

      I was so wrapped up in staring at the grounds around me that I hadn't realized everyone already went inside. And, just as predicted with the freezing temperature, it began to snow lightly.

       The snow that fell was light and fluffy. It was like tiny tufts of clouds were falling from the sky. I shivered and pulled my robes closer around me before racing back to the ground, finally having most control of my broom. It was funny how I thought flying would be hard, but I was just fine up there in the clouds. It was as though I belonged there. Being sky high made the events of self-defense class feel like days ago, weeks even.

      When I made it back down, I gathered my things from the ground and shook them off, holding my broom firmly in my right hand and my books and other class materials were divided equally among my left hand and my satchel.

Later that night as we sat around the dinner table, tensions were high and I was exhausted. I'd only had classes for a day and already I wished I was back in the Magicless world where my problems were mundane.

    I'd take boy problems and acne back in a heartbeat if I didn't have to deal with Matilda's penetrating glare. She was clutching a bag of frozen peas to her abdomen as an attempt to subdue the pain that my headbutt had caused.

    "Can you pass the mashed potatoes?" She grunts as I grab them from beside me and pour the remaining starchy goodness onto my plate. My flight class experience hadn't completely erased all the ill feelings from the events of earlier.

    "There's no more." I gruffly remark, "Pass the salt."

    Matilda hands me the salt and moments later as I begin to shake some out, she undoes the cap of the salt shaker with magic under her breath. I groan as all the salt pours onto my plate.

    "That's almost as salty as you two are acting," Daisy remarks, "Get over it. Fight class sucks, let's be real."

    Richard grins and dabs a little blood away from his nose, "I find fight class to be exhilarating. Skin to skin contact is a wonderful thing."

    I sigh and excuse myself, retreating to my room and immediately falling into a deep sleep. FernWood would be the death of me, I could feel it.