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Sophie walked with Vix, Rok, Trom and Fiff to the classroom. As they walked, Sophie kept thinking about what Drim had said. He had been trying to capture someone. It hadn't been Fiff, and Vix had already been trapped when Drim said it. So the only other person it could be was Sophie herself. But why would he want to capture her? Was it just because he was mad at her for guessing the answer to his riddle? Why would that mean he needed to capture her, though? And what was up with the way his eyes kept glowing red every now and then?
They arrived at the classroom, so Sophie filed away her thoughts for later. She didn't have time to work it all out now.
The classroom looked much like any other, with a desk for the teacher and a blackboard behind it. The students' seats were behind rectangular tables, with the one furthest back raised a bit over the one in the front. The room had three windows: two behind the table at the back and one big one with dark green curtains on the outer wall. The big window took up half the wall and had a great view of the schoolyard that they'd just been in.
The rest of the class was there already, including Varis who she'd last seen covered in hundreds of thorns. Sophie stopped for a second, impressed. Less than half an hour ago, Varis had looked like a walking pin cushion, and now she couldn't see a single thorn left in his fur.
She snapped out of it and headed towards the table. She had to remind herself of the bus driver's advice: "Try not to be so darn surprised about every little new thing you see."
"Sophie! Over here!" Fiff called out. She was flying in circles above the chair that was right next to her own.
Sophie happily walked over and sat down next to her. She noticed that Elva was sitting off in a corner on her own.
A burst of light suddenly flashed in through the large window and soon after, they heard sound of thunder. The entire class looked up in confusion. It was the middle of the day and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. They saw another flash of light and heard another thunderclap. Looking through the window, Sophie could see lightning shooting across the sky. It wasn't coming from any clouds though. They seemed to be coming from some other source in the sky, but it was too far away for her to make out.
"W-what do you t-t-think it is?" Vix asked.
"It's most likely a lightning bird that's encountered some kind of intruder. That seems like the most probable answer," Beto explained. He didn't seem worried.
A massive flash lit up the entire sky followed by a gigantic boom, and then... nothing. No more bolts of lightning appeared, and everything turned quiet.
"What makes you think it was a lightning bird?" Sophie asked Beto.
Beto excitedly started to explain. "Well, see, first of all..."
"Oh no! Don't get Beto started," Varis interrupted. "Does it even matter? The exciting bit is over now anyway, so why ruin it with boring facts?"
At that same moment, the door burst open. A dark hooded figure in a black robe stepped into the room. Sophie could just make out the legs of the figure's pants sticking out from under the robe. And within the hood itself, where the face should have been, she saw a white mask with a happy grin.
"Oh, what a glorious day, dear students. I hope your morning has been truly magical. And that your minds are ready for an amazing story lesson!" The masked figure was holding their arms out wide, as if they were trying to hug the entire class in spirit.
Sophie noticed that Fiff was giggling. In fact, all her classmates seemed to be laughing at the sight of the masked person. Mek put up her hand.
"A question already! What joy! How may I help you, Mek?" the masked teacher asked.
"Mr. Ignortus..." Mek hesitated, like she was trying to figure out how to phrase something. "I know that it's hard to peer within the darkness of your robe, but, um... we can all kinda see that your fly is open."
"What's that?!" the masked teacher, who seemed to be called Ignortus, exclaimed. He quickly took off his happy-faced mask and pulled a different one out of his sleeve, this one with a surprised expression. He then looked down himself and, seeing his fly, switched that mask for one that looked embarrassed. He quickly spun around, turning his back to the class.
"I believe that's just the darkness making you see things. You don't want to peer too deeply into the darkness, it'll just confuse you," Ignortus said nervously, scuttling over towards the window while doing his best to pretend that nothing had happened.
"Now, please all take out your story books, so that we can start the lesson."
As Ignortus kept talking, the entire class could hear the unmistakable sound of a zipper being zipped back up.
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Sophie looked around at the others, who were all pulling out their copies of a book simply titled "Stories" from their backpacks. Did she have a book like that, she wondered?
She looked down into her backpack. The books were all neatly sorted, but there were a lot of them, so it was hard to pick out the right one. Finally, she spotted it. She took it out of her backpack and put it down on the table. The book was no bigger than a matchstick box. No way she could read from that.
"Apertus," said Fiff next to her. Fiff's book immediately grew to the size of a normal book. Sophie leaned in closer to her own book.
"Apertus," she said in a low voice.
The book immediately jumped up into the air and with a poof returned to its regular size, landing on the table right in front of her.
"Has everybody gotten their books out?" Ignortus asked from over by the window, still with his back towards them. A resounding "Yes!" came from the entire class.
"Wonderful!" Ignortus said with great satisfaction, turning around to face the class.
But when Ignortus turned around, the window curtain came with him. It had gotten stuck in his zipper, and the entire class broke into laughter. Again, Ignortus changed his mask.
"HOW DARE THAT CURTAIN DO THIS TO ME!" Ignortus yelled angrily [https://img.wattpad.com/f52deb1a15e6f06cb81fc56bb6829b60c16d265d/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f726d486232533565574f7a3957413d3d2d313235363530303331372e3137303962636166333639316138653538383930383437383836372e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
"HOW DARE THAT CURTAIN DO THIS TO ME!" Ignortus yelled angrily. "Wait no, that's not the right mask for this!" He quickly removed the angry mask and replaced it with a laughing one. At least he was able to laugh at himself.
"Well, you can't win them all, I suppose," Ignortus said with a laugh and a sigh. "But that's enough fun had at my expense. Now we need to have fun learning! So, open your books and open your minds!"
The students all opened up their books, so Sophie did the same.
Blank. Every single page in her book was completely blank. There wasn't a single word to be read. She kept leafing through the pages looking for some kind of text, but there was nothing but white page after white page.
She'd have to ask Ignortus for help. But before she could even raise her hand, he was already right in front of her. Ignortus threw open his arms and embraced her in a lavish hug.
"Welcome! Such a magnificent new student! I'm guessing you're Sophie?"
She nodded nervously. "Um... I'm afraid my book doesn't have any words."
"Ah, but that's just as it should be!" Ignortus said without a care in the world. "These books aren't like the ones you have in the human world. And this one just needs a moment to find the text that's exactly right for you. Isn't it grand?"
Sophie looked at the mysterious teacher with puzzlement. She didn't quite know how to respond. Ignortus sat down in front of her on seemingly nothing – it kind of looked like he was sitting on an invisible chair.
"Let me explain. With you being from the human world, the book first needs to find out what reading level you're at. You see, some beings are very good at reading, and others aren't quite so good at it. That's why it's important that you've each got your own personal book, which will suss out the texts that fit you the best... There! It looks like the first page is ready for you."
Sophie looked down at her book and, just as the teacher had said, the first page was now filled with words, ready for the reading.
"We always start our lesson by brushing up on the readings from last time. So now I'll leave you to your book. Enjoy!"
Ignortus stood up and walked back to his desk. Sophie started reading. At first, it seemed just like any other book, but as soon as Sophie got to a word that she didn't know or that she wasn't sure how to pronounce, some text explaining the word would appear at the bottom of the page. Reading went much faster than usual that way. The text itself was an old fairy tale that Sophie had read years ago.
A question that had been floating around at the back of her mind for a while suddenly jumped out at her. If the students were all this different, and if they came from all kinds of places, how come they all seemed to speak the same language? She raised her hand, and Ignortus again approached her.
"A question! How delightful! How can I help you, Sophie?"
"Does everyone at this school speak the same language?" she asked.
"Oh my! Did nobody tell you yet?" Ignortus exclaimed with surprise, then instantly leapt into an explanation: "This school exists on the edge between the human world and the magical world. We call this place Unum, and it is where we maintain the balance between the two worlds. We create this balance by connecting a wealth of different energies from each world. And one of these energies is language. So, if you ever met one of your classmates outside of Unum, you'd be speaking completely different languages, but here it's not a problem! I think that's the easiest way to explain it," Ignortus said thoughtfully.
So, if you ever met one of your classmates outside of Unum, you'd be speaking completely different languages, but here it's not a problem! I think that's the easiest way to explain it," Ignortus said thoughtfully [https://img.wattpad.com/407242dbafc46094718768a60c4a71430a397136/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f4234374f46524b725032464d31413d3d2d313235363530303331372e313730396263633337383132333161343538343937303735383534342e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
He returned to his desk. "But now it's time for all of you to raise your beautiful faces from your books and get ready for today's lesson!"
All the students closed their books and sat ready for what came next.
"Tremendous! I trust that you've all read your stories very thoroughly so that you'll be able to find all the errors?"
The students all nodded confidently.
What errors is he talking about? Sophie thought. She was just about to raise her hand and ask.
"Fabulous! Then let's begin!" Ignortus stretched out his arms and a strange darkness suddenly started growing from behind him.
What!? Begin what? was all Sophie had time to think before the darkness moved alongside the walls and enveloped the entire classroom in an impenetrable blackness.
She couldn't see any of her classmates. She couldn't even see her own hand despite holding it up right in front of her face.
It was pitch black.
Slowly the darkness started to disappear, and Sophie was able to make out her new surroundings.
Sophie was lying in her bed with the duvet pulled up over her head [https://img.wattpad.com/8c8906bfb2eff326a3f9cd52b86ce8ec6d8acc52/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f767862706948304a73664a7570673d3d2d313235333934313835302e313733663230616534623765333861363936343636313337343032322e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
- Next chapter Monday the 30th of January