The early autumn sky was turning into a deep orange glow, a soft breeze rustle through the coloring leaves. Aless took a deep breath, she was finally here. It had taken her a whole day to get away from her overbearing grandmother, granted the woman was finally better after a pretty bad health scare. She sighed again, and pulled her suitcase over the brick road that lead towards the school. She dreamed for the last six years, her parents met and fall in love at this school. A pit of sadness grabbed her heart, which always happened when she thought about her parents. Her familiar owl sat on the suitcase, turning its head from side to side. The school building was lurking in the end of the road, she was almost there. The street lanterns jumped on, the small warm flames flickered in the evening air. Aless felt her mouth twitching, the small flame playing in the small container.
"Ahh, we have another dreamer. Not bothered by the fact that she is late," a heavy grumbling voice. Aless head snapped towards the owner of the voice. An old man stood in the middle of the road, she hasn't seen him there before. A black cat walked around him and planted its fluffy butt on the ground. It looked at her with his golden, yellow eyes, started at her. She smiled at the man, his lifeless gray eyes gazed towards her. The man had a wrinkly lathered face and his muddy gray hair hung in strings around his face. "Like I said, not bothered at all." Aless blinked with her eyes, was he talking about her? She has informed the school about her late arrival, she also explained why this was the case. The man sighed. "Why do even I bother?"
"Uhm, you are mister Incedis I assume," she said, she already knows the answer. "Never mind, I know that I am late. My grandmother was sick, and I needed to take care of her." Mister Incedis sighed deeply, he already knew that. "But I will go to my small cabin behind the large building." She took a piece of paper out of her pocket. "Building four, I believe?" She grabbed the handle of her suitcase and wanted to walk on.
"You have being moved to building fourteen," mister Incedis said, clearly annoyed. "Someone, not me, should have told you this. But here I am, doing someone else's job, as usual." Aless smiled softly.
"Then I am going towards cabin fourteen, thank you for telling me this." Aless said, the man frowned as she walked away. The sky darkened with every step she took, she thanked the elements that there were street lanterns that light the way. She was not yet able to create fire, she hasn't unlocked that element yet. The only element she was able to wield was air, it was the element she was born with. But that was the whole reason why she was at this school, she needed to find her other familiars to unlock the other five elements. Her owl started to hoot, and she turned her head slightly. The nocturnal animals started to appear, bats started their hunt. So were the owls that hunt by night, badgers were shoveling around. Fireflies, and another insects, are trying to escape. The cabins, who were behind the school, were placed in odd places. They were not even number in a logical order, the cabin that would be her home for the upcoming years was all the way in the back. A large willow tree was growing in the backyard, a soft light was burning behind the glass. Heated voices were coming from the building, there was a horse laying in grass at the side of the building. It didn't raise it's head when she came closer. So this meant that there was a fire elemental inside the cabin. She now wondered what the other elementals were inside. She raised her hand up towards the door, and knocked softly. The heated voices stopped, and the door swung open. A young woman stood in the opening, her piercing blue eyes were a bit puzzled. The blazing red hair was hold back with a green hair tie. The woman wore a cute green pajama's with matching slippers.
"And who are you?" she asked. Two other heads popped up behind her, those were men. It was not a secret that the academy didn't only mix the elementals, but also genders.
"Aless, mister Incedis said that I was moved to this cabin." Aless said, she stepped aside so that they were able to see her suitcase.
"Ah, I already wondered why you weren't here. I even blamed it on Initor's sour mood." the woman said, while her thumb pointed towards one of the men behind her. "Come in, I am Ixis Stowne Earth. And you are Aless?"
"Aless Cerulea, air." Aless replied, she picked up her suitcase and her owl flew inside the house. "That is Silver, don't mind her, she is a bit shy." Ixis nodded.
"Boys introduce yourself, this is Aless, our new roommate." Ixis said. The first man waved at her, he had soft green eyes and very long black hair. The other man had amber eyes and very short black hair.
"Hey, welcome. I am Raldor earth, this sour face here is Initor. Fire elemental." Raldor said, with a wide smile. Initor, who indeed had a sour face, turned around, walked into his room and slammed the door. The whole cabin shook from it, and Aless was shocked by such an outburst of anger. "Don't worry about it, it is his way of saying hello." That didn't comfort her at all. She quickly looked away from the closed door and let her gaze wonder, the area they were in was not that big. There was a large couch, a simple coffee table, a small kitchenette in the corner of the room. Which contained one cabinet and a small fridge, they could eat in the cafeteria inside the school. This was only to store personal snacks and drinks. There were four doors, the one that Initor used to 'say hello'. The others probably led to their individual rooms. "The door next to Initor's is yours. Have a good night sleep, the elements know you are going to need it." Raldor walked towards another door. "And here I am, following my own advice."
"He is crazy, but he is right. You do not have the luxury of settling in, like the other first years, at the beginning of the school year. You have Air class first thing in the morning, and mister Kizor is not going to make it easy for you." Ixis said. "Just keep in mind of who your grandmother is." Aless didn't need to hear that she was going to get drilled into being the perfect air elemental, her grandmother has being doing that for the last six years. But she was going to tell Ixis, or anybody else, that. She simply smiled and went towards her room. Her room was simple, small and totally bare. Which was not strange, there was a double bed, a desk with bookcase attached to it and a wardrobe. There was another door that led towards a small bathroom, complete with a toilet, shower and sink. Aless quickly opened her suitcase and started to unpack, placing the books in the bookcase. Lay her notebooks, and other stationary on the desk. She would save changing the bed linen for the next day, her toiletries found their way into the bathroom. She placed a picture of her family onto the nightstand, together with a small stand for Silver, and crawled into the bed. It was strange, this was a new room in a totally new place. But she felt at home, she now understood what her mother said about this place being home away from home. She turned on to her side, closed her eyes and listened to all the noises of the forest that was just on the other side of the window. A tear rolled down her cheek, and a smile appread on her lips. She was finally here.
*******
The morning came, after a good night sleep. Aless jumped out of her bed and quickly took a shower. The warm water on her skin was enough to wake her up, she put on the black pants, white shirt and the light blue trans coat that was part of her uniform. She brushed her hair and put on her glasses. She didn't look in the mirror before she left the room, she never looked into the mirror. Knowing what she would see, she would see her father's brown hair and her mother's violet eyes. She would never see herself, she always saw her parents in the reflection. Something she didn't want to, so she simply trusted her ability to dress herself. She never wore make-up either, she would need a mirror for that. Ixis was already inside the small living room, her backpack was standing next to the couch.
"That looks like someone who is ready to get started," Ixis said. "Good, you are going to need it. But first it is time to get breakfast." Aless couldn't agree with her more, her backpack hung over her shoulder.
"Sounds like a plan," Aless replied. Both of them left the cabin, into the crisp morning air. Birds were singing their songs in the trees, that they pass as the joined the other students on their way to the school building. It wouldn't be long before the rain will dominate the season, but so for now she would enjoy the fact that there was a soft sun.
"Brrr, it is a bit colder than I thought." Ixis said as they walked over the path that lead towards the main building. The cafeteria was on the main floor and was a very large space, tables with multiple seats were littered throughout the room. Besides the plates and cutlery, there were large plates with bread, various meat, cheese and sweet spread. Glass jars with various fruit juice, and two large bowls with eggs and various fruit. Aless sat down next to Ixis, she didn't know anybody else, and the cafeteria was already packed with people. Ixis said nothing about it, so she believed that it was not a big deal. "Ohh, this looks good, I am getting some coffee, do you want some too?" Aless nodded and followed her roommate with her glance. Ixis went towards a counter in the middle of the room, on that counter there were three large metal dispensers were placed. One for coffee, one for hot cocoa and one for hot water. Well now she knew where to find those, she grabbed a slice of bread and started to place some bacon and cheese on it. Ixis placed the coffee in front of her.
"Thank you so much," Aless said with a smile. Ixis said down next to her, and started to grab pieces for her breakfast.
"It was not a problem," Ixis replied. "By the way just in case we didn't say it before, Raldor and I are both second years. We both unlocked the metal element last year. Initor is a first year, but was hold back a year." Aless nodded softly. So he has not connected with another familiar and was not able to connect to another element yet. Which was something that happened more often lately. And she had a theory about why that was.
"Again thank you, now I know that it is a touchy subject." she said softly, the others who were sitting at the table looked up. All of them were wearing the same green coat as Ixis, the color of an earth elemental. Ixis nodded and took a sip of her coffee. The others kept looking at her, probably wondering why she as a air elemental was sitting at their table. She made a mental note to herself that she needed to find another table in the future, she didn't want to upset that states qou. At least for now. She quickly eat her slice of bread, and drank her coffee, and took a glance on her watch. That she was not wearing. "Ohh, I forgot my watch. I need to get it before class starts." she said. She picked up her back and grabbed an apple from the bowl of fruit. Before she rushed off to the elementals knows where.
*******
