The bicycle ride was surprisingly smooth and easy, Joey seemed to have a certain expertise in bike-riding that went beyond simple hobby, and she seemed to enjoy it as much as I did, which was a lot. The ride itself was entirely silent, neither of us even attempting to strike up conversation in fear of ruining the atmosphere. But the silence fit the environment well. For about an hour or so, we rode through forests and plains and simple roads that were actually a joy to experience.
After this we entered a little city, unassuming and quaint. The buildings all looked old and somewhat European in design, with marble statues to commemorate various old men I had never seen in my life and a population made up nearly entirely of youths such as the three who had saved me.
The most prominent buildings were large brown or white structures with fancy pillars and a seemingly infinite flow of youths pouring out of them, a few actual adults speckled into the crowd as if to fill some invisible quota. Most of the roads were made of cobblestone and incredibly friendly to bikes, which was the majority of vessels, not including busses and trams.
Clearly, this was a student-city, if it could even be called a city. As soon as we had entered the city itself, Joey had thrown her jacket over me, which I greatly appreciated. If there was one this I had learned from my previous life, it was the fact that attention was never a good thing when you had things to hide. Which I did. But that isn’t important, the past is the past, after all!
The sun was already down, so the fact that we could see any students at all somewhat stunned me. Didn’t they have anything better to do than educate themselves?
Joey soon stopped entirely in front of a very typical-looking university, labeled the Howard-Björn university of Geology and Zoology, which was a pretty weird name if you ask me, but hey, I never did attend university, so who am I to judge? However, this wasn’t the only peculiar feature of the university. In fact, altough I did say that it looked quite ordinary, that was only if you looked at either half of it. You see, half of the university had a typical greek-looking marbled white style that radiated respect and history, while the other part was more fantasy-castle like, with brown bricks and winding towers, like something from a popular children’s novel.
These two halves were unceremoniously smushed together in the middle with little to no forethought, meaning that neither side actually melded with the other. It looked like a giant had ripped two different universities together and just kinda… stuck them together. It looked, well, interesting, but hardly respectable.
The courtyard of the university was filled with various plants in all shapes and sizes, and right in front of the large structure there was a commemorative bronze statue of some sort, depicting two well-dressed men shouting and bickering. A bizarre thing to commemorate if you ask me, but what the hell do I know?
Joey hopped off her bike and confidently led it in the direction of the more fantasy-looking part, which was to the right. The parts beyond the actual university had been obscured by the various foliage, so now that I got a good look at the other structures, I could recognize what we were heading towards as what must have been the dormitory. It matched the right half of the university extremely well, looking almost like a slightly scaled down copy.
Beside this dormitory was a little square house which Joey went to first. Apparently, it was a shack for putting your bicycle in, which Joey did, thankfully not forgetting me or her jacket. She didn’t seem too happy about it, but my curiosity was simply insatiable, and so, I decided to sit on her shoulder. She could definitely have stopped me if she had tried, but she didn’t and therefore it was open game. Right? Right.
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Sighing deeply, she walked towards the dormitory with heavy, tired steps, most definitely only wanting to get in bed.
“Hey!” I squeaked at her, which immediately caught her attention since I had been silent so long. The night had fallen like a blanket on the world, and I was tired as well, but there we a few questions that needed answering. “What is it?” she asked in a deadbeat tired kind of way, trying desperately not to sound irritated but being unsuccessful.
I pointed over to the statue. “Huh? You wanna go in the university? Hey, let’s wait with that until tomorrow, okay? I’m beat,” she sighed, only stopping briefly to take a closer look at me. I shook my head fervently. “What? Not that? What do you want then?...” she asked, confused. Sure, it was late, but I thought strong people had good defences against getting tired?... Corporal Nebula(stupid name, I know, but he insisted) never got tired, no matter how long he was on the prowl. Well, everybody’s different, I suppose.
I pointed once more at the statue. “Okay, I’ll just follow your directions, okay?” she suggested. I nodded with a smile. She smiled back softly before stumbling in the direction of the entrance to the university like one of those zombies you see on the telly. Eventually, we reached the statue, and holy moly…
It smelled good.
No, don’t worry, I won’t eat it! Not in a million years! I’m not that disrespectful!
It’s just…
You know when you brown butter and it smells so damn good like concentrated caramel?
It was like that.
This whole statue was just…
Like a big piece of caramel.
I couldn’t help but drool. “...Are you drooling at the Howard-Björn statue?...” Joey questioned in disbelief. N-, no! Of course not! I quickly wiped my drool and pointed at a placard at the bottom of the large 3-meter tall statue. “Oh, you’re wondering about the statue?” Joey finally realized. I nodded happily.
“Well, uhh, it’s a pretty funny story actually, heh, see, two hundred years ago, way back when, the Björn Sundin university of Zoology took roots here, that’s the more Hogwarts-looking part of it, not knowing that they were building their school on top of a greatly valued cavern. The Howard Collins school of Geology and cave exploration caught wind of this quite quickly since they actually owned the cave for private explorings and the such, and suffice it to say they were in an outrage. A buncha legal stuff happened, and eventually they decided that the Howard Collins school would relocate on top of their cave, and the Björn Sundin university would cut their building short to only make half the school. They would become one school, focused on life and structures in the underground, sharing professors and the like. The two owners were known to be great enemies though, fighting about full ownership of both schools from their meeting to their deaths. And to commemorate this 200-year old squabble, they made this statue. You happy now?” Joey explained before turning back to me. I nodded happily.
I heard her briefly say something about how she couldn’t believe she just explain the whole history of the school to some supernatural amphibian, but it was too late to do anything about, so she simply headed back towards the dormitory, almost limping out of exertion.
Her room was number 636, and it was rather small. It was part of what she explained to be a corridor, where she would share the restroom, kitchen etc. with several other people on her corridor. She actually shared her room with one other girl, some bloke named Linda who was already in bed by the time we entered the little apartment.
It was made out of three rooms, one for Linda, one for Joey and a living/dining-room to share. It was all a mess. Sure, I hadn’t been the most cleanly of men, but I have some expectations, damn it! Clothes and various books about various things were flung all over the place haphazardly, without any apparent rhyme or reason. We only remained in this room for a moment though before Joey quickly ushered me into her own private quarters.
It was actually quite neat, altough far from perfect. There was a desk filled to the brim with papers and books, a fully equipped bookcase, a bed covered in a pile of clothes, and a bunch of posters of people I had never seen in my life, most of them looking rather buff. There was also a cliche-looking poster of a kitten dangling from a tree, with the iconic “Hang in there!” written beneath in bold letters.
All and all, a pretty neat room. Very student-y.
Joey quickly sat me down on her bed. “God I’m tired,” I heard her exhale as she started removing her shirt.
Hmm.
Hmmmmm.
Hmmmmmmmm??!
In a flash too quick for any normal lizard, I had removed myself from her room by fitting myself through the little opening in her door. “What’s wrong?” I heard her ask as she opened her bedroom door to retrieve me. However, I was a slippery sucker, and before she knew what hit her, I had burrowed myself into the fluffy fabric of a blanket that happened to be laying around. And without even sparing a glance, I already knew Joey didn’t have the heart to remove me.
I didn’t exactly have any plans beyond that, so once Joey went into her room and closed the door, I promptly fell asleep on the spot. Damn, that felt good.