Chapter 8: Humble Beginnings

After the exam, Miracle took charge of the group for the last time, leading them further down into the heart of Dream Academy. The further that the group went down, the more people that they saw as they went. They went from being met by one or two people on each level to the entire hallway being taken up by a mass of people, their large group only adding to the chaos as they went. Miracle explained that, with the exception of the very top of Dream Academy which was used for combat trials and other outdoor activities, most of the commonly used facilities were towards the bottom, which made it very crowded indeed. Because of this, though the students were excited to begin exploring and learning more about their new school, it was fruitless to gain any further information from Miracle after a certain point. They were lost in the tide of people and it was all they could do to keep up.

Even so, Zel and the others couldn't help but be in awe at the scale of it all. The Academy truly did stretch from the top of the mountain to the bottom, wasting no space in the strange architecture for innumerable classrooms, combat rooms, and other unique rooms like a gymnasium, the likes of which neither Zel nor Miriya had ever seen before.

It was actually quite the journey to reach all the way to the bottom, but eventually they started seeing flickers of it through the gaps in the bridges. One could just barely make out some of the shining lights, the shadows cast by individuals walking by. It wasn't until they were near their destination that Zel was able to take in fully what was happening.

Down in the deepest part of Dream Academy there was a flat and ornately tiled stone flooring, seemingly given special care for the tremendous amount of foot trafic that it no doubt had to deal with as hundreds upon hundreds of Splitfolk, Clickfolk, and Trailfolk all made their way across the surface going about their business under dazzling orange lights that were hung every few feet from poles, which let no shadows form on the bottom of Dream Academy.

The main feature of the bottom floor, however, had nothing to do with the people who were ambling about, but rather two sets of perpendicular train tracks that divided the layers by the cardinal directions. Outbound and inbound tracks led in and out of tunnels at the edges of the mountain and there were workers on all ends who were making sure that people quickly passed over the tracks and stayed out of their way, as if they were expecting a train any moment. Zel wondered what a train pulling in would look like.

As if she thought it into existence, suddenly there was a burst of activity and a thunderingly loud sound like a blast from a horn that shook the halls. One of the tunnels suddenly lit up as workers shouted and corralled the crowds out of the way. A train came flying into the center of the mountain at blistering speed. It looked like it was going to tear right through the mountain without stopping before it came to a jarring halt at the very center of the plaza. The students watched in awe as a dozen people jumped off the train, looking no worse for wear than those around, and another dozen hopped on before the train let out another tremendous blast of its horn and launched itself just as quickly out the other side, gone as quickly as it came.

Miracle led them onto this bottom floor and hugged the walls, coated with doors just as everywhere else in the mountain was, until they came along a somewhat discreet doorway underneath the other side's spiral staircase, almost hidden from sight. She opened the doors and beckoned the students to enter.

The students found themselves in a drab little space made of the same stone as most of the rest of the mountain, gray and uncaring. There was a decently sized room that they stood in that had a few amenities like chairs and tables, but beyond that there was a long hallway with dozens of doorways. In the center of the first room was the luggage that the students had abandoned at the train station, it seemed that Miracle had kept her word.

"Here we are, everyone." Miracle announced once the students were all in the confines of the walls. "The final stop of our guided tour for the evening. Each room is equipped with little more than a bed. The toilet is at the very end of the hall. There are no room assignments, you may arrange yourselves however you wish as there should be more than enough beds. You are also all adults, and as such will be expected to manage your own sleeping schedule, there is no curfew. However, if you cause issues for the other students that cause complaints to be filed then you will be asked to stop your bad habits, and eventually be disciplined. Please report to the room that you took your examinations tomorrow by the Tiltwilts three quarters bloom. Good night!"

Miracle expressed this large amount of information very quickly, the words practically pouring out of her mouth as she spoke. As soon as she finished her explanation she slipped out of the front door and slammed it behind her, leaving the students stunned.

Guess she got tired of us, Zel thought to herself.

The students were left a bit awkward at finally being left to their own devices after the long night, but soon they all broke apart and began staking claim over rooms. Zel and Miriya followed suit, grabbing their baggage and looking for a room of their own. They found that almost every room had more than two beds in it, and the smallest number of beds in a room that they were able to find was three, which they decided to settle for. Luckily for them, Miracle was right, there were more than enough beds for everyone, and the students divided themselves up into whatever groupings that they were comfortable with.

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The room that Zel and Miriya found was rather bleak and barren, though not particularly different from any of the other rooms. It would seem that bleak and barren was a feature of being a first year dorm student. It had two small tables that were placed at the top of two of the beds, the last bed was flush with the back wall and touching both the tables. Other than that, there was a small lamp on each of the tables and that was it. Two tables, three beds, two lamps. The lamps were simple flame lanterns that were common throughout Split Sky. Zel lit both with her lightning as they began to unpack their suitcases, unfurling themselves into their new living space when Miriya had a thought.

"Do you think we should invite Jammy, too?" Miriya asked.

Zel was surprised. It hadn't occurred to her to ask. They'd known each other for less than a night afterall, but Zel definitely did enjoy Jammy's company, despite the fact they could only communicate verbally one way.

But I also want to learn how to understand her! Zel thought. She wasn't sure how motivated she was to learn a new language as Flint seemed to be, but she knew that she wanted to be able to better understand Jammy.

"Yeah, let's go ask her!" Zel said. The two of them ventured out into the hallway, where they stumbled into Jammy who was gathering up her own luggage.

"Hey Jammy, would you like to join us in our dorm? We have three beds so it would be perfect." Miriya asked Jammy. Zel noticed that in addition to a suitcase that Jammy lugged on the ground behind her, she also had a very cute purse that had a floral pattern on it. Zel briefly entertained the thought that Jammy and her mother would get along very well.

Imagine my mom's garden if Jammy could get ahold of some of those plants!

Jammy nodded enthusiastically at Zel and Miriya's request but as soon as she did there was a familiar aggressive chattering that echoed down the hallway at her. The large Clickfolk had seen that Jammy was talking to them again. They were angrily approaching them, and the closer that they got, the more aggressive they sounded. Jammy winced as the large Clickfolk got within a few paces of her, where they stopped and violently pointed at her with one hand while pointing at the room that the other Clickfolk had claimed with the other. The Clickfolk then turned around and stormed off. Jammy looked at Zel and Miriya, totally crestfallen. With her head drooping low she made a low whistle noise that Zel and Miriya understood without any need for translation.

"I can't," Jammy said.

Zel was steaming. She had had an emotional night, an emotional couple of nights even. She had been on a train for two nights straight, gotten off it in her smelly two night old clothes, climbed a mountain, climbed down a mountain, gotten made fun of, gotten into arguments, did amazingly well in an exam, made several new friends already, and was generally just having a time. She couldn't stand seeing the large Clickfolk walk away like they had done nothing wrong, thinking they made no one upset. Or maybe it was that they didn't care about who they upset. Zel wanted to give the Clickfolk a piece of her mind. But she didn't. She took a deep breath and tried to hold herself back.

Not tonight. I don't know enough, I need to calm down. Not this evening. Zel felt a twinge of annoyance from the fact that she had actually learned something from Cleinz during their argument. She can't speak Clicktongue and she doesn't know much about them as a people, she doesn't have all the pieces to the puzzle. Against every part of her screaming to go give the big Clickfolk a piece of her mind, she managed to stay calm.

However, Zel also felt horrible for Jammy, seeing how defeated she was as she melancholically drug her suitcase down the hall heading towards the room the other Clickfolk had claimed. Zel suddenly had an idea. As silently as she could so as not to cause the large Clickfolk to turn around, she snuck up behind Jammy and leaned over close to her.

"After we pick our classes tomorrow, why don't we all go shopping tomorrow?" She asked in a whisper.

Jammy gave a discreet nod, and they were all set. Jammy walked to her room, and Zel and Miriya returned to their own as though nothing had happened. Miriya gently closed the door behind her before collapsing to the floor in a pile.

"Ohhhh, maaaaaaan, what a night," she let out a massive sigh. She then got up and recollapsed on the bed that she had claimed with her luggage earlier.

Zel agreed. It had been a long time since it felt like they had any real chance to rest. So much had happened in such a short time and she didn't feel like she had time to process it all. She looked at the room around her and decided that the first thing she wanted to do before resting was brighten the place up a little bit. She got to work unpacking and setting up the room the way she wanted.

There was little way to make it feel like home, however. As thing stood they would be mostly living out of their luggage with clothes and such, but Zel had also brought a variety of books and other small trinkets that they could at least put on the tables to brighten up. As she was getting them out she found a pen that she had brought with her and a journal, brand new for her trip. She picked it up and placed it on her bed.

Once Zel had finished setting up the things in her bags the way she wanted, she hopped into her own bed. By this time Miriya had long since fallen asleep, she was curled up on her own bed, her body gently rising and falling with her breath. Zel snuffed out one of the lanterns to give Miriya some darkness for her rest, but she left the lantern on her side, pulling up the journal and pen.

Zel thought about what she should write. About the train ride, about the Academy, about the people she had met, about how the exam had gone. It all bounced around in her head as she tried to decide where to start, but in the end she didn't choose any of these. There was something else that was burning at the back of her mind that, now that she was alone, she could not ignore anymore. She put her pen to the paper and wrote.

"Tonight something happened to me that I can't explain. I was taken somewhere far away and there was something that knew me. It told me its name…"