“Astrid hurry up!” My mother yells as I am trying to get dressed my hands quickly tying the rope around my plain brown pants. “You are going to be late for your first day of adventure school!”

The door to my room swings open revealing my mother, a beautiful elf woman with long golden hair, her ears perking up from between the golden strands revealing that she is excited. Her long green dress in a flutter as she comes into my room.

My eyes widen as she barges in. “Mom! I don’t have a shirt on!”

Her eyes narrow. “Astrid I have seen you a lot worse than this.”

I blush as she throws my shirt at me and I quickly put it on before she tosses me my backpack of clothing and supplies.

“Hurry up your father is about to go to town without you and you can’t be late for your first day of school.”

I rush out of my room past the central living area of our small cabin to see father on a large black horse, a huge grin on his face. “Is my little girl ready to leave us?”

“Dad, I am going to be not even a day away on horseback, it’s not like I can’t come see you every month.”

“NOOOOOO you must come by and see us much more than that! Now hop on we, got to get going or we will be late for the entrance tests.”

I gracefully hop on the back of the family horse, Bastion. He neighs as I wrap my arms around father.

“Bastion says you have gained weight.”

My cheeks blush a crimson red. “No he did not!”

Father chuckles as he kicks Bastion, causing him to jolt forward. 

Today will be my first day of adventure school since I have finally turned 16. I am nervous, even though I have been to a human city a few times, I have never got used to it. I guess it was all the stares, I guess it’s not their fault, there are not many elves in this area. But it could also be due to where I live. My family and I live at the foot of the cursed mountain, not many people go there due to all the poisonous miasma pools that are on the mountain. That and the monsters, outside of the cities and towns there are monsters everywhere, from kobolds to Wyverns, but thankfully father and mother are both strong, so all the monsters stay away.

“Astrid I want to talk to you about a few things. A few little nuggets of wisdom I have to part with you before we get to the town.”

“Yes daddy?”

“Well there aren’t many of us elves in this area so that makes us a little different, and other races sometimes don’t like things that are different. But I want you to not let that get to you, if anyone causes you any issues because you are an elf just show your skills and it will shut them up.”

My ears twitch slightly when he says this. “Don’t worry I will just beat them all up.”

Father chuckles at this. “Also make sure you go get your magic checked, since we couldn’t afford a crystal to test it out. It would be amazing if you had magic abilities like your mother, but if you don’t daddy is still proud, you can be a grade A archer just like me.”

After what seems like days of us riding Bastion and chatting we finally start to see the city walls. My eyes grow wide as I realize that this is a real city wall, not like all the other towns in the area. The large bricks intricately layered on each other to make what must be a thirty-foot tall wall. That and it seems to go on for miles.

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“Halt!” Several guards rush towards us as we approach a large metal gate with the word Flemmington over the top, the large plates of metal that make up their armor clanking with each step.

“I need to see your identification.”

The guard who barked out the order lifted an eyebrow as he notices our ears. “It’s not often you elves come down from your mountain, coming into town to trade again? Kind of early in the month for that though.”

My father’s chest puffs out proudly as he hands over our id plates. “My daughter is finally old enough to go to school!”

The guard looks at my father, then at the plates then towards me as I try to hide behind my father, filled with a mixture of fear and nervousness.

“Ahhh, I hope she makes a fine adventurer in a few years.” The guard says with a smile before he hands the ids back to father.

After that we take Bastion to the stables and walk our way through the town towards the school. My eyes widen as I see all the various shops full of wonderful stuff, from foods I have never had before, to strange and exotic pets.

“Dad, where do they get all these things from?”

“From around the world.” He then points out a large red bird in a cage on one of the stalls. “Like that one, that is a red flame falcon, it’s a distant cousin to a phoenix and its found in the desert to the north.”

I continue to run about looking at the different shops in childish glee.

“Let’s get going, we are going to be late if we slack off anymore.”

I follow closely behind father as we go through the large throng of people. I start to get nervous due to the various races all stopping and staring when they notice us.

We finally stop when we get to a large iron gate with a large line of people in front of us. My mouth drops as I see groups of humans, beast men, orcs, and various other races all in this line. At the front of the iron gate is several people with what looks like books and writing utensils.

“You will get your turn so wait patiently in line, and no cutting, we are watching.”

An orange and black furred beast man in front of me lets out a loud “GAH” as he rolls his eyes and stomps, clearly agitated.

He then turns around and sees me, jumping back about a foot like he was afraid.

“Oh shit! I am so sorry I didn’t realize anyone was behind me so you scared me.” His eyes widen when he sees my ears. “Are you an elf?”

I smile and tilt my head. “I’m sorry to scare you and yes I am an elf, an elf named Astrid to be exact.”

The beast man starts to blush. “My… my name is Shortclaw, and sorry I haven’t seen an elf before, I thought they all lived in the forests way out west.”

I giggle. “Nope I live with my parents in the mountains near here.”

Shortclaw chuckles nervously.

“So… Astrid…. Are you trying to get into Flemmington academy too?”

“The school? Yep! It’s supposed to be my first day! Daddy and I came here to enroll.” I turn to point out my dad but he is no were to be seen. “Well daddy was here a second ago.” I look down to see dad’s bag at my feet. Opening it reveals a letter and a few silver coins.

Sorry honey for running away like I did, but I didn’t want to say goodbye. In the bag is this letter, and some silver coins for your tuition and some extra money till you find a job. Sorry to spring all this on you like this but this is how my father did it when I first got into school so I think this would be the best for you too. P.s. Love you! Come by and visit every occasionally!

I put the silver coins in my pocket. Shortclaw reads the letter as I hold it out confusion on his face.

“Are all elves this way?” Shortclaw asks inquisitively.

“I don’t think so….” I say, my mouth still slightly open trying to understand it all. “I guess from here on I am on my own.”

“It’s not so bad, I can be your friend if you want!”

“I think I would love that!”

Shortclaw and I talk about our lives as the line slowly gets shorter and shorter till it finally becomes our turn.

“Next!” The bald man yells, I quickly walk up to him.

“Name?”

“Astrid Thorn”

“Race?”

“Elf”

He raises an eyebrow. “By Gaia it is an elf, not many of you around these parts. And by the name Thorn I guess you must be related to Stratus Thorn.”

I smile. “Yep, he is my father!”

“Oh really? He was an amazing adventurer before he retired, I can’t wait to see what you accomplish. Now that we are so off track, let me guess you are going to be an archer just like Stratus?”

“Dad said I should try out for magic, at least test on a crystal to see if I have some sort of magic, if no then yes I will be an archer.”

The man nods. “Once you go into the iron gate go to the right and down the hall you should see the other mage hopefuls lined up to test to see if they have magic.”

As I leave the man turns around. “Oh also before I forget, my name is Joseph Reinhart.”

I wave to him. “Thank you mister Joseph.” I then turn around and quickly make my way down the hallway to my new future.