Ms Yones was an old and dumpy woman. Her grey hair was so thin that Hain could literally see her scalp, which was dry and had clusters of dandruff here and there.

She smacked her thin lips twice as if pondering something, before breaking the silence.

“You’re a new apprentice, you say?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Just call me Ms Yones. That’s what everyone does here. I’m no ma’am, am I?”

“Yes, ma’am—Ms Yones, I will.”

She adjusted her round glasses. “Now that I think about it. How come the headmaster hasn’t told me about you? You’re not pulling my leg, are you?”

Hain was about to answer when he looked over Ms Yones’s shoulder. A girl locked eyes with him and beamed wide.

Her dark hair was tied up in a ponytail and she wore a similar cloak to the headmaster, but in a brighter shade of black. Her broad smile exposed her white upper teeth. She looked like a rabbit, Hain thought.

Ms Yones followed his gaze with a frown on her wrinkly face, before placing her dumpy hands on her thick hips and tapping her feet impatiently.

“So? You’re not gonna answer?”

Embarrassed, Hain dropped his head with flushed cheeks. Why was she smiling so wide, that girl?

“The headmaster didn’t know I was coming until a few minutes ago, ma’am—Ms Yones. I just arrived from Aderbaal.”

The elderly woman raised her invisible brows for a mere second, then loosened up and heaved a deep sigh.

She gestured for him to step in without saying anything more, although she looked like she didn’t quite believe him. Not entirely, that is. It seemed as though she just wanted to get rid of him and continue her class.

All eyes fell on him as he trudged towards the rows of seats before him. Unsure of where to rest his eyes, they soon drifted to the girl with the black ponytail, who beckoned him to hurry.

Most of the pupils wore cloaks and the rest mantels, he noticed belatedly, as he sat down beside what looked like an elf.

Not because the boy was pale or anything like that, but because he was astoundingly beautiful with his golden hair and pointy ears.

Strangely, he also had a tanned complexion, which differed from the rest of the apprentices – and even the Elven race.

The elf wrinkled his nose and budged up with a grunt, seemingly displeased to have someone sit beside him out of all the empty seats.

But Hain didn’t take notice of the elf’s sour expression. He was too immersed in studying his handsome features to notice anything else.

The elf differed from what he imagined elves looked like. He heard many rumours and legends about their fair skin and waist-long hair, yet this elf had tanned skin and short-cut hair.

For a split second, he even thought he was wrong about the elf’s race when the pointy ears as sharp as knives arrested him for a second time. A hybrid of some kind, perhaps?

Ms Yones cleared her throat before carrying on the lecture. She started by informing how Lárhus came to be with elaborate details for all to hear – details that weren’t the least entertaining.

Half of the pupils dozed off and the rest chatted away without any care to listen, most likely tired of hearing the same story for the umpteenth time.

Hain looked past the grumpy elf and locked eyes with the girl beside him with the ponytail instead, when the former averted his gaze and didn’t want to be bothered.

The girl leaned forwards and stretched out a hand over the elf with a friendly smile.

The elf frowned with disgust, not because of her friendly attitude, but because she almost touched him. Fortunately, she did not notice the scowl on his face.

“I’m Elise. And you?”

The hacked-off elf pushed her hand away with his index finger before Hain could shake it. His manly voice was as deep as the sea of Gam’atron and filled with resentment, or perhaps jealousy.

“Stop acting friendly and keep your damn hands to yourself!”

The girl rolled her mesmerising eyes and focused on him as if the elf did not exist.

“Don’t mind, Jhaan. He’s shy around strangers—”

“Who’s shy? Me?”

“Stop it, already! What’s wrong with you?”

The elf flew his green eyes open in surprise when the girl snapped back at him through gritted teeth.

The elf, perhaps speechless, crossed his arms and pouted like a child. His green eyes wandered from Elise to Hain in a never-ending glare, as if he wanted to take him off right then and there.

Elise, fed up to the back teeth from the look of it, nudged the elf on the side so hard that a groan escaped his mouth.

Ms Yones turned around in a jiffy and hushed the elf with her silent glare. Jhaan mumbled a faint ‘sorry’. He was no longer pouting but wore a sad look on his face.

Were these two friends? His first thought was ‘no, there was no way’, at the same time, they bickered like they had known each other from the mists of time.

Elise pulled the elf down by his pointy ears as soon as Ms Yones turned her back to them.

It must have hurt quite badly for the elf twisted and turned in place, turning as red as a tomato, and placed a hand over his mouth to keep the groan in. Wrinkles appeared on his handsome, tanned face when the girl finally let go.

Definitely friends, Hain concluded. It seemed like the girl had the upper hand in their friendship, though.

Now that he studied her closely, she looked like the female version of the headmaster with her sleek black hair, pearl-like eyes, and pale skin.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

She wasn’t an elf, but she was as beautiful as one. He frowned as a thought crossed his mind. A deity? That must be it. No other race other than the elves possessed such breathtaking beauty and elegance.

Their conversation, on the other hand, was anything but friendly. Those two bickered like a couple that had been married for thousands of years. Hain couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Just wait till I tell your dad about this, Elise!”

“What, you’re threatening me? Well, maybe I should snitch on you too and tell your dad how many times you’ve failed class!”

“You—”

Ms Yones, “What’s the bloody racket over there!”

The two friends fell silent, crossed their arms over their chests in sync and looked in two different directions, despite sitting right next to one another.

Feeling stuck in the awkward atmosphere, Hain tried to wriggle away from the elf when the girl suddenly addressed him.

“Hey, what was your name again?”

He leaned in. “Oh, I never told you. It’s Hain.”

She was about to say something else when the elf broke her off.

“Listen, Hain or whatever your name is. I understand you’re new and don’t know what the heck you’re doing, but… you can’t just do this, you know?”

“Do what, exactly?”

“That…”

Jhaan made a face, nodding repeatedly and raising his brow. What was the elf trying to tell him?

Perhaps frustrated that he didn’t get the point, the elf grunted and his expression kept getting weirder and more aggressive.

When Hain sought the girl’s eyes for help, she sniggered before pointing at the seat. He looked down.

What was wrong with the seat? Scratching the back of his head, he studied the seat intently but saw nothing out of the ordinary. In the end, he gave up.

“I don’t think I—”

Like a fireball fit to be tied, the elf stood up, fuming. His cheeks turned red like searing hot flames as he pointed right between them and finally exposed the cause of his irritation.

“YOU ARE SITTING TOO CLOSE!”

A sudden silence fell over room 245. Everyone stared at the elf, whose chest kept rising and falling in an irregular beat as if he were being chased by a pack of wolves.

Seeing the elf in this worked-up state, Hain immediately sat as far away from him as he possibly could. What was this guy’s deal? It wasn’t like he did that on purpose!

Ms Yones, clearly vexed, gestured for Jhaan to sit with her laser-sharp eyes. She then continued her lecture, spitting out each word on purpose.

“Tell me, what do you know about the teachings every wise man and wise woman should study before dwelling into the art of magic?”

A few hands raised high in the air, and the embarrassing moment soon faded away. Ms Yones pointed at an apprentice, who didn’t raise his hand.

She clapped to encourage him. The other pupils followed suit, some even cheered him on. But the pupil lowered his head even further and avoided the stares around him like the pest. Ms Yones motioned for the others to halt.

“Speak up, Mr McMillan. What do you think?”

“I- I don’t know…”

“Try again. Come on! Go ahead, now. There’s no right or wrong answer.”

“I…” The apprentice lifted his head and locked eyes with Ms Yones, who patted his shoulder and hushed the others as they were about to clap again. Adjusting her glasses, she gestured for the boy to keep going.

The shy guy eyed the others and gulped down hard. His cheeks were as red as roses and probably hotter than the searing sun.

As if the shyness was just a disguise the apprentice hid behind to conceal the knowledge he possessed, Hain’s mouth fell open as he finally answered with confidence.

That’s when he realised that he wasn’t the only one whose dream was as big as the stars in the night sky.

A rival who was a thousand steps ahead of him to become the wisest man to ever live was right there, hiding in plain sight, before him.

“I… the teachings every druid must learn is the purpose of magic and its various uses. Throughout our history, the latest being the Alfen Wars, magic has been used for various reasons.

“One of these was to destroy while others sought to bring peace. Magic itself never changed, only its purpose did. Unless we, as druids and wise men and women, don’t learn the teachings of our past, we will never be able to judge our own magic and the purpose of our choices.

“Without Lárhus, we might even become slaves to our desires. Like the dethroned king of Fayr.”

Everyone fell silent. Not even a soul uttered a word. Ms Yones clapped eagerly on her own and shook her head in awe. She even brushed off a tear.

Her voice shook as she addressed the genius apprentice.

“We study the teachings to become better druids, wise men and women, who use magic for the right reasons and not the other way around.

“Many druids before us have used magic for their own gain. Like the late king of Fayr himself, and we all know how that ended—”

The clock struck twelve in the middle of the lecture. Ms Yones couldn’t finish her sentence.

The bells rang throughout the classroom like a buzzing bee, but ten times louder of course, and it rang from seemingly every nook and cranny. It was as though the bells were everywhere and nowhere at the same time!

Hain followed the pupils with his eyes as they all stormed out with a loud chatter. The elf squeezed out without looking at him even once.

He wanted to tell the elf that he was sorry about earlier, but the boy shoved him aside and hurried out of the door as if nothing had happened. Hain hit his elbow and groaned.

“Don’t mind him,” the girl said with a smile. “It’s lunchtime, that’s why they’re all in a rush. You’d better hurry too if you don’t want to starve.”

Hain blinked. Not quite sure why the girl was telling him these things when she wrapped her pale hands around his wrist and dragged him out.

They squeezed right between two fat apprentices, who called them names and threatened to kill them. Their cloaks were at least two sizes smaller than they should be.

Hain almost tripped when one of them kicked him. Still, the girl did not release her grip and dragged him down the slinging stairs.

Soon, they passed the staircase and ran towards the other side of the striped hallway lined with torches across the main entrance and caught up with the horde of apprentices in front of them.

Everyone ran like it was about life and death, like they had all lost their damn mind at the same time! Too tired to keep up, Hain pulled away from the girl and slowed down.

Elise opened her mouth in protest and was probably about to insist they hurry when Hain firmly shook his head.

She pointed at the double doors at the end of the hallway, which were as big as the ones outside the castle.

The doors were teemed with figures and symbols, symbols that no one seemed to take notice of. Everyone was busy trying to get in line to notice them.

What was these people’s deal? Why were they all in such a rush?

He couldn’t even hear what the girl was telling him through the deafening chatter that arose from nothing and everything at the same time.

It was as if the pupils waited for the bells to ring just to chat their lives away. When the chatter died down a tad, he asked what lingered on his mind.

“Is it always this noisy?”

“You think this is noisy?”

“You don’t think so?”

Elise shook her head and smiled. “Trust me, this is the quietest it has ever been!”

Hain smirked without meaning to. For all he knew, she either lied straight up to his face or tried to fool him. There was no way she could be telling the truth.

This was the loudest chatter he ever witnessed in his whole life. There was no way this could be called quiet by any means.

The chatter soon turned into a roar.

Hain shifted his focus to the double doors with the symbols at the end of the hallway. His mouth gaped wide at the sight before him, taken aback and slightly shocked.

The pupils stormed in through the opening double doors. It opened from the inside. He glanced at Elise as a thousand questions ran through his mind, but she wasn’t looking at him.

Honestly, the apprentices acted more like wolves hunting in the dark for a sweet treat than druids-to-be. They trampled on one another without batting an eye just to get a foot in through the doors – like they had all lost it!

Before he knew it, he found himself on four legs. Someone pushed him out of their way without uttering a word of warning. But he wasn’t the only one who was pushed aside like garbage.

He turned his head around to see whoever it was that caused such terror among the pupils, only to gulp down and blink repeatedly.

A fat pupil pushed his way through the crammed crowd in a perfectly straight line. Everyone fell like dominos on either side of the fat youngster. Elise helped him up.

“That was close!” she said.

“Why’s everyone acting mad?”

“Ah, I can’t believe we missed it!”

Hain’s eyes narrowed. “Missed what?”

Elise put on a smile and patted his shoulder like she wanted to comfort him.

“Don’t worry, I’m a special friend, so you won’t starve.”

“Starve…?”

Elise took the lead through the dark hallway in shades of flickering amber. It was left empty and the commotion just a few moments earlier subsided.

Hain caught up to the girl and asked yet again what she meant, but she wouldn’t answer him this time, either. But that didn’t discourage him from asking a third time.

“Hey, what do you mean with ‘a special friend’? What do you mean? Hey! Elise!”

Elise placed a hand on his lips to hush him before turning her back to him and entering through the double doors at the end of the dim hallway.

Swearing under his breath, Hain picked up the pace and followed suit.