Once upon a time, people walked the land.

Then other things did too.

That day was the day humanity ceased to be the apex predator of life

And life caught up to the human fool.

For a brief moment, the air fought against the sleeping form of a blonde-haired girl who lay sprawled out against her little bed, and the girl stirred and fought back, scratching and kicking and punching her way right out of her bed and flopping down on the hard floor, which grunted in response.

Sighing, she stretched on the wooden floor and sat up, scratching the back of her head, before grunting and hauling herself to her feet. Her hair fell past her shoulders as she rolled her tense shoulders before dragging herself to the mirror just past her bed.

The person who stared back at her with brilliant emerald eyes was exactly her height, exactly her weight, and exactly as tired-looking as she was. Ruffled and disheveled, her curly hair bounced a bit as she rubbed the sleepy out of her eyes, putting her hands above her hands and stretching her five-foot-five frame with a massive yawn. The air, unhappy with the disturbance, wafted a bit of dust back into her face, and she coughed it back out, unbuttoning her nightgown and throwing it haphazardly to the side.

Yes, it was just another normal day for this girl, as she dressed for the day in a navy blue cardigan and black slacks, yawning again as she groggily stumbled out the door of her dorm room and into the hustle and bustle of the outside world.

As she tried to wake herself up by basking in the humid air and warm sun of the large courtyard, some students ran by her with books in hand. Others flew by her or just let them be carried by fire and water and wind and earth and odd purple things and odd white things and black things, or simply sprouted wings and flew. The little fountain that she sat in front of burst into different colors as little children practiced their arts, while other people lulled in groups around the fountain, and she collected her thoughts for the day as a boy slid into the open space on the fountain next to her.

"Morning, Brie," the male greeted her with a friendly wave, and Brie shot a glance his way.

"Hey, Nhanh," Brie sighed back, forming a purple comb out of the air and running it through her messy hair. Nhanh simply ran a hand through his wild black hair, his dark gray eyes sliding over to Brie.

"Don't tell me..." he groans as he adjusts the sleeves of his black sweater. "Did Elean do it again?"

"No... just Seira," she replies. "Looks like the festival is going to be more trouble than it's worth. Dunno what the Court is doing..."

"They're doing everything they can," a voice from Brie's left comments rather dryly, as a flicker of white hair danced into Brie's peripherals. She turns over to see another boy, long white hair waving in the wind as he pulls back his black hood and turns his blue eyes to her.

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"Lord Jai-De is attempting to pull his punches with the whole issue with Ganakru," he notes. "The Festival is getting on his nerves, but it looks like we'll have to act soon."

"Maybe too soon, Jamille," Brie grunts in frustration. "Lady Spara also wants to act as soon as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if Ganakru gets his head lopped off in the next few days, what with the impending festival and all."

"Speaking of acting," Nhanh interrupts. "We need to start right now..."

Brie jumps at the mention of starting and turns her attention to the little bob of red hair making its merry way through the crowd of students towards the crowd around the base of the fountain, as a ditzy young woman dodges students and faculty alike to push her way into view, clapping her hands a couple of times.

"Alright! Shall we get started with today's lesson?" she claps happily, her light gray eyes darting around the assembled crowd through a pair of red glasses. "Today's assignment: simply portal from here to the usual hall!"

Immediately, the little group that had gathered around the fountain split into their own little groups; Brie, the five-foot-four Nhanh, and the five-foot-seven Jamille remained together, not moving from their seats on the fountain.

"Portal from here... to the hall?" Nhanh asks Brie, a bit nervous. "Seems easy enough... but given our previous efforts, you think we'll make it in time for lunch?"

"You don't eat anyways," Jamille mentions, shrugging.

"Anyways, it shouldn't be hard to do that. Remember, Dimensional Magic is a manipulation of space. Take the dimension called space and twist it so that you can 'step' from one place to the other. Keep where you want to go in mind and just twist how space acts in a specific spot," Brie quickly explains, seamlessly opening a rift in space to a little space where a tree grew out from the concrete, little bushes melding in perfectly with vine-riddled brick and age-worn concrete.

"It's not so easy for us," Jamille notes as he begins to slowly warp the space in front of him, flickering up an image of a tree. Brie quickly glances over at Nhanh to see how he is doing, and she spots the skinny and frail boy slowly but surely warping the edges of space.

"And you call yourself a magician," Brie grumbles as she marches over to Nhanh, as the fountain quickly freezes over. Stepping over unstable stones from some Earth Mage somewhere, she plows through eight inches of heavy windstorm to reach Nhanh two feet away.

"I'm Stage One... what are you talking about," Nhanh mutters as he continues to warp space very slowly, before Brie spots the edges of his little distortion wobbling.

"Nhanh..." Brie warns him, slowly backing away from the unstable dimensional rift, until she feels her hair get caught in the gale; the unstable earth beneath her feet shifts, and she falls into the windstorm, the massive gust blowing her right into the fountain. Reacting quickly, she turns and tears a hole in space directly under her, falling through it and landing hard in the place where she was supposed to be: the training hall, her back impacting the trunk of a tree that sat in the middle of the training hall like a fat seal in a blizzard hard, causing a flutter of leaves to gently swirl their way down around her.

Yes, just an average day for a certain blonde-haired woman at the Ganakru School of Magic.

Lizards and turtles trotted by, books in hand, discussing the nuances of some spell or another. A couple of people wheeled about in the sky with the birds, powerful wings riding the breeze. Nearby, a group of five sat together, gills flapping on some of their necks, others shining with a thin layer of mucus over their skin. And at the far end of the hall, a white dog, four feet tall, bit at the bony, plated exoskeleton of a humanoid creature as it scratched the dog, ruffling the flowers that grew around the neck of the dog like a wreath.

In a world tinged with the impossible, where witches and wizards are the norm, where fighting is a national pastime and wars are simply a hobby, Brie yawned, brushing off the bruises from the impact like they were bugs, and relaxed under the tree, waiting for the others to join her so that this totally average and uneventful day could truly begin.