Sparrow’s first breakfast at The Swan Academy was a lonely one.

He’d said goodbye to his grandma the evening before and then was taken up to his room with all the other first-timers and left there.

Now morning. He sat, pushing an almost-cold root vegetable paste around his plate. He missed home. His family wasn’t rich, and they could never afford to buy the luxuries that the students around him enjoyed. But that didn’t mean they didn’t eat well, his cousins and uncles were very good at trapping everything from rats to rabbits to snakes. There was always a broth boiling somewhere in the kitchen, and his grandma could work wonders with turnips.

But it wasn’t just the food that Sparrow missed. He missed the company. At the academy, he sat alone. Everyone else had gathered in their own little bunches. Some students knew each other, some knew of each other. But Sparrow knew nobody, and nobody wanted to know Sparrow. A few of the other students, both young and old, would look up from their groups occasionally to stare or glare at him.

Eventually, Sparrow pushed his half-eaten food away. He went back to his dormitory, splashed some water on his face, then set off for his first-class with Master Lee.

Despite missing home, and his family and his friends. Sparrow was excited because Master Lee was a gold-rank magician with the battle scars to prove it. In his prime Master Lee had been among the most feared in the land.

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Sparrow walked under the shade of 100 cherry trees and daydreamed about the great storied magicians his uncles had told him about. There was a swooshing noise and Sparrow felt something cold, wet and soft splatter on his head. He looked up.

There were no birds in the trees above them. As he touched his head he smelt it – ox manure. He wiped it from his head and tried to stop himself from gagging. Another load of oxen manure landed on his shirt. He spun around as a third patty of oxen manure hit him square in the chest and rolled down his only pair of clothes. The brown and green began to stain the white fabric and his fingers sunk into the squishy muck as he brushed it off.

That was when he saw them. It was Rhino-xi. The big kid who Sparrow had fought the day before, and two of his scowling, laughing friends. They each carried sticks with the oxen patties on them and were aiming them at Sparrow.

Sparrow began to run and the boys chased him until they had him surrounded.

‘Don’t worry. I’m not going to beat you,’ Rhino-xi said, ‘I don’t like to get my hands dirty.’

His two friends laughed at this. ‘You’re a genius. Rhino-xi.’ one of them said.

‘Of course, I’m a goddamn genius,’ Rhino-xi nodded, ‘I got into the best school in this entire area and then they let in some peasant, just to shut up his whining peasant grandma.’

Sparrow’s face began to turn red. ‘Leave my grandma alone.’

Rhino-xi used his stick to wipe a smudge of ox poo across Sparrow’s forehead, ‘You shut it. We don’t want peasants here, peasants belong in the filth. You’re nothing more than a piece of crap.’

Sparrow lowered his eyes. He didn’t want the boys to see him cry. But even as the tears slid out he knew he was going to get revenge on them. One day, he’d show them who was crap.

Seeing they’d hurt him, the three boys gave a yell of delight and ran off towards class.

‘Don’t be late.’ they called back to him, ‘Master Lee hates it when you’re late.’