“Here we are—Now, come on over! I have an experiment, and you’ve all signed up to be my very first helpers in conducting it.” I heard Sanders’ words repeat in my head multiple times as the dozen or so cages were set onto the ground around him.

“Experiments?! This was supposed to be a class!” Erick shouted out, his detestment very clear in his tone of voice. But Sanders just raised a finger in response, clearing his throat to silence Erick.

“It is a class, Erick. It is just a rather unique class.” As Sanders spoke the many vines finished setting down the twelve individual cages on the ground.

Each of them were more than large enough to hold a person comfortably, they were clearly metallic from the way the multitude of pieces groaned in anger at being shifted around so easily by the impressively strong vines. Heavy cloth tarps sat over the top of them, blocking any view of what lay inside of the cages—However, I could hear the faint purring and chirping of animals from within the cage.

“And… what exactly is this class then?—The paperwork said it would be researching beasts…” Anestesia was the next one to speak. Her curious voice was far removed from the hostility that filled Erick’s.

“I was under the impression we’d be leaving the island on expeditions…” Tulip muttered in agreement with Anestesia, batting an eye towards the violet haired girl.

“Ah yes—That would indeed be my fault for not clarifying. We will be going on expeditions out from the island to study beasts in the wild, but first I must acclimate you all to handling beasts in controlled scenarios,” Sanders answered their questions with his arms shifting around in gestures through the air. Out of the ground vines began to form once again, lifting the cloth covers away from all of the cages. “The first lesson is acclimating to these beasts. And in of itself, is an experiment—For the rest of the year, while you are in my class, you are to take care of these beasts.”

I turned my gaze away from Sanders' eyes, instead looking at the revealed cages and the near dozen beasts that lay within them. Every cage held a different beast, different colors, shapes, sizes, some were adorned with scales while others were covered in thick fur. Some looked like normal animals like foxes and dogs, while some looked like the beasts I could ever so vaguely remember hearing about in fairytales that I didn’t quite remember.

“All of these little critters are Burst-Class beasts, the weakest a magical beast can be. However,” Sanders paused, turning his gaze between each of us—I could see, and even hear the awe in the expressions of the others around me. “They are all capable of evolving to at least Storm-Class beasts.”

“Now, let’s see, who wants to pick their beasty first? Remember you’ll be taking care of this little critter for at least the next eight months!” Sanders asked as he looked between all of the gathered students—Lucia was the first to raise her hand, and step forwards to the caged animals. While she picked I turned my gaze towards Tulip

“What’s a Storm-Class beast?...” I asked in a low tone.

“Beasts are classed similarly to mages, Burst, Storm, Quake, Surge and Cataclysm. Anything above a Storm-Class is a once in a generation sort of thing to see though.” Tulip answered in an equally lowered tone

“Hm…” I took in that information, turning my gaze back towards the caged critters. Lucia seemingly made her choice—She was crouched in front of a bird cage, inside of it was a small white-feathered hawk. It had a crown of icy blue feathers, and similar to Lucia it reflected hetero-chromatic eyes. One was a bright blue, while the other was a deep purple. It continually turned its head side to side, chirping kindly at Lucia as it met her gaze with both eyes.

“I believe that Glacial Hawk appears to like you,” Sanders said confidently as he approached. The bird gave a threatening squawk at him as he reached for a key at his side, handing it to Lucia. “Let it out, see how it reacts to you. Beasts are fickle things, it would be best to not underestimate their intellect.”

“What do you mean by that?” Lucia asked worriedly as she took the key from him. Her gaze turned from the bird, back to Sanders, and then back to the bird again.

“Beasts are far more intelligent than we give them credit for. While most cannot speak, many can understand language, concepts and ideas—This bird here knows that I held the key to let it out for example,” Sanders replied casually. “Now let it out, it will be very clear if it wishes to ‘pair’ with you, or if it wishes to run away rather quickly.”

Sanders took a step back from Lucia, giving her a comfortable amount of space while she gulped nervously. It was the first time I really saw emotion on her face, she looked torn up in thought for a few moments before her own miss-matched eyes met the birds.

“I’ll let you out, alright? But I want you to promise me that we can be friends. You’re cute, and… I don’t want to fail this class… please?...” Lucia added the last part after several moments of silence. The bird looked rather confused, but it also had a certain gleaming of intelligence behind its eyes. Maybe it couldn’t understand language exactly, but it certainly was capable of understanding Lucia’s intent.

The bird spread its wings out just a little, sending its white feathers shaking as snow shifted off of its skin underneath. Its beak opened, letting out a quick and almost reassuring “squawk!” to leave its maw as Lucia reached to put the key into its socket.

Once the key turned and the lock shifted with a resounding pop the bird let out another, far happier call. But it didn’t immediately take off once the door opened, even as Lucia stepped back cautiously. It kept its wings folded to its sides, tilting its head side to side as it observed the anxious girl.

“Alright… wanna get out of there?...” She asked, offering a hesitant hand forwards. Her right arm was clenched into a fist, a thin layer of ice growing around it as protection from the bird should it attack—But instead of attacking, it just effortlessly stepped across from the small stand inside of the cage onto Lucia’s arm. It met her gaze from much closer, both of their eyes were shining.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

I saw another first from Lucia as well, a proper smile on her face. Her free arm came up, gently caressing the top of the bird's head.

“What will you call her?” Sanders asked, a satisfied smile on his own face.

“Glacia,” Lucia said without missing a beat. “I-If she likes that—You do like that right?” She asked as her gaze met the birds.

The bird—Glacia, chirped happily in response. Her wings flapped with joy as her feet began little tippy-taps on Lucia’s ice covered forearm.

“Glacia it is then. Who's next?” Sanders asked—This time almost everyone had their hands raised. Everyone other than me, I was rather settled with going last in the group if I had to. After a moment of looking around Sanders settled on Erick, gesturing for him to move forwards as Lucia and Glacia moved back to the group.

“So cool!” Anestesia beamed as Lucia stopped next to her. “And she’s so cute!”

“I know—I’m awesome aren’t I?” Lucia said with a prideful smile. Glacia, already mimicking that same pride, puffed her chest out as she shuffled to the side once again. Finally, she settled on Lucia’s shoulder, lowering herself gently. “You can feel free to keep praising me—” Lucia added with a flick of her hair.

“Truly, your modesty knows no bounds…” I grumbled out, shaking my head at her self importance. A small grin spread across my face when I heard Tulip snickering as Lucia’s face grew red in indignation.

“You!—” Lucia sputtered out, hostility boiling through her icy words. Glacia puffed her wings out, squawking as she smacked Lucia on the top of the head with a single wing. “Ow—Hey! You’re supposed to be on my side…”

Glacia narrowed her eyes, giving an indignant snort as Lucia finally backed down.

“Fine…” Lucia sighedout. She raised her hands, surrendering to Glacia.

I turned my gaze away from Lucia, focusing on Erick as he walked between the remaining cages. His orange eyes moved between the cages, examining the different chittering creatures without much of any intrigue.

“Are these all the beasts you have?” Erick asked in disappointment. His lips narrowed into a thin line, his arms crossing as he faced Sanders.

“Indeed this is—Finding beasts capable of being tamed by a mage is not an easy task. Simply put, you get what you get here.” Sanders answered callously. He seemed rather annoyed from Erick’s disappointed tone.

“Hmph…” Erick harrumphed. His orange eyes moved around the cages nearest to him—He focused on a pair of similar looking beasts. Both were covered in scales, however one took a more serpentine shape while the other looked more akin to a gecko or a newt.

The smaller of the two, the orange-colored newt let out a snort of ash. Its own pride filled gaze locked onto Erick’s, its forked tongue flicked out into the air, tasting it before it retracted back into its jaw.

“Well, you’re a curious little thing aren’t you?” Erick commented. A small smirk formed on his face as he extended a hand out. “Like what you see?” He asked as the newt sniffed at his hand.

The lizard was rather large, near the size of some of the small dogs I had seen around Arcadia—Small enough to be carried, but large enough that it certainly had a bit of weight to it.

The lizard narrowed its eyes, raising its snout to the air as it took in a deep breath. Before long it let out a shuttering wiggle and… nodded its head in agreement?

“Well then, I guess I’ve made my choice. Plant guy!” Erick shouted, turning his gaze back to Sanders. The older man narrowed his eyes—But obliged and approached.

“You’ve made your choice, I take it?” Sanders asked despite already knowing the answer as he pulled a key out. He raised it up, handing it over to Erick. “I just hope that this little Ash Salamander teaches you some respect.”

“Not a chance,” Erick stated calmly as he caught the key. He wasted no time, pressing the key into the socket in the cage before pressing the door open. “How about… Cinder?” He asked as he offered a hand to the reptile.

The Salamander, Cinder, seemed to approve of his new name. A small chittering sound escaped from it like a series of happy clicks as it climbed effortlessly onto Ericks arm.

“Ow ow ow… sharp claws okay—” Erick spoke quickly as Cinder’s claws dug into his skin. I could see a handful of crimson droplets emerging out of Erick’s arm where Cinder began his climb, though cinder appeared to be trying to not dig his claws into Erick’s skin.

Erick continued to whimper as he walked back to the group, settling in beside Lucia as he rubbed his arm with glowing flames emerging in his hand.

“Next?” Sanders asked without remorse in his voice. Once again, everyone raised their hands at once—Other than me.

I didn’t know any of the next three students who Sanders picked out, they were the unknowns to me in this class—However they did seem to be their own group of friends. Each of the three of them cheered jovially when they all got picked by very similar looking wolf-like beasts with dark green fur.

The next one who I did recognize to go up was Anestesia, however she already had her choice made as soon as she went up to the cages.

“We haven’t been able to look away from each other, so I’ll take this one Sanders.” Anestesia spoke confidently as she stopped before a cage. Inside of it was a creature that looked almost like an insect—However it had horrifyingly human eyes inside of its skull.

Its body was like that of a centipede colored in an oily black tone until it reached its head. The jaw split apart into four separate mandibles underneath an overhanging upper head which held six forwards facing eyes. The eyes all appeared almost like that of a human, though they lacked sapience behind their gaze, they were clearly filled with a beastial intellect.

“The Mind Reaper?—I hope you realize this is potentially incredibly dangerous Miss Anestesia,” Sanders spoke with genuine concern. “But if you insist… I do believe your magic is an ideal work around with its tendencies.” He added as he approached the cage.

“I’m sure—I got a feeling about it, alright!” Anestesia spoke without concern as she looked towards Sanders expectantly. He let out a sigh, relinquishing the key to Anestesia. She let a wide grin spread across her face as she pushed the door open, and the Mind Reaper clambered up her outstretched arm.

“Hmm… I think… Frederick. You like that name?” Anestesia asked as she looked at the Mind Reaper. It looked… rather confused, and quite disappointed. “Fine… I’ll think about it more.” Anestesia sighed as she returned to the group.

Everyone near her backed away a little, unsettled by the frankly horrifying looking creature. I tried to keep my eyes turned firmly away from it, especially when it tried to give me puppy-dog eyes.

“You want to go or should I?” Tulip asked as she looked over to me. We were the only two left now—And I was finally feeling a little antsy to try and get to know some of the beasts.

“You may both go at the same time—If you wish, you are the last two left after all.” Sanders stated, having overheard Tulips words as he approached the group of students again.

“That works—We can both go.” I said with a smile. Tulip nodded in agreement—Together we finally moved forwards, approaching the caged beasts.