Initium Novum: Dracones #1

First Day

The others in the large house could only rush to their morning classes. The house looked many times better than when they first arrived; the scent of fresh paint was distinct in the air and the new furniture was looked outstanding but simple. Meliane came to the house bright and early barging in the room (not literally) but was uninvited. She brought gifts for what teenagers considered hell. Plaid buttoned shirt with dark red edged collars, matched with blue trousers of a much thicker fabric. She had a trace of tiredness on her face awaiting for her master to get ready. The figure was sitting cross legged on the new bed.

Opening his eyes she was the first thing that he saw. Party disregarding her he took up the uniform that he spotted second. Changing in front of the maiden was not much of a big deal and took of his trashy clothing seeing such a smooth and pale back made the maid turn her head. It shouldn’t have been such a problem but good looks had its perks.

After looking at the schedule that she brought yesterday he had quite a few classes. Classes that if he attended wouldn’t know where to start, after all this was his first time attending school and was naturally behind. Some of the courses were compulsory while others were to be chosen from. Children of lower school learnt of these and thus will choose based on interest in it or strength. The few to be chosen by him…. random should do.

Now that it was already the first day Zarmeideus decided he would not take a shower. He was not dirty at all and Meliane could properly vouch for him after seeing his creamy skin. Zarmeideus after buttoning the short sleeved shirt he nodded his head slightly, greeting her. It was good that the uniform was well fitted and she handed him several mint leaves for chewing.

At the same time the little cubs woke yawning and mewling about, eyes drooping with sleep, and at once started to follow their owner, always at beck and call; cough cough- the maiden cleared her throat awkwardly. “Young master, pets are prohibited from entering the classrooms maybe during training outside they can tag along otherwise it is not advised.”

 Zar was stuck in this predicament now, what should he do with them? He looked at the maid. Then at the cubs, they didn’t look hostile towards her but never the less they showed no interest, she would have to do. After thinking he picked up Brialle, the pickiest and placed her directly in Meliane’s arms. With no apparent dislike he turned towards the other two and gave them a look that said behave. That being said he left for his first day, the ravenette wasn’t excited only curious, he heard some of the village boys and girls speaking about this school thing about it being hard but somewhat exciting. Naturally his child innocence made him want to know what it felt like, only now could he experience this.

Out of the house and walking on the path to the main grounds Zarmeideus once again unrolled his scroll schedule; his first class was History, Mr. Topul- Building number 10, class 2. The problem at the moment was that he didn’t know where this building was. Originally he had arrived a week late, and during this week the recruits were given a tour as to familiarize themselves with the compound and this would make them not have a reason to be late. Just as he was trying to recall a sudden breeze swept past him. And the feeling of someone also went by.

Zar wasn’t too worried; however he had initially wanted to strike the figure, a bit startled, fortunately it was that blonde boy from before. Looking up the figure went speeding away kicking up dust with some of his clothing flapping in the wind.

Hmmm.

Maybe he should walk a little faster as well.

At this time the school seemed desolate those who don’t have morning lessons were sleeping and those who had it were already there. At the moment Zar didn’t really feel that worried about being late, it wasn’t his fault after all, mostly he would blame it on Neferro. It had been about fifteen minutes since he lost signs of the blond and reached the main office after that everything just went downhill. Somehow he managed to reach building four, he was at the point where he would decide to just skip that first class.

The only bright side was that the route he took just now was committed to memory. Zar stopped in the hall spotting a little lass, with her hands on hers knees breathing heavily. She appeared from only the Gods know where. She then lifted her head and looked on Zar, seeing the familiar person whose presence she couldn’t be able to forget. She smiled at him and took the initiative to speak even if her breathing wasn’t at normal.

“Hey, long time no see. How’ve you been, it’s me Thailia.”

“….hello” Zarmeideus nodded in acknowledgement. At the moment he was being polite, since he was lost and was looking for some help. The reply shocked Thailia pleasantly and the smile on her face became more giddy and sincere. She then stood straight and walked to Zar.

Despite looking and talking dumb Thailia was a little perceptive…. ish. She listened to gossip but didn’t believe it, only her way of getting information about her surroundings and being quite social that was a plus. She remembered faces and persons she came in contact with and what was spread about them (she still is a sweet heart). Of course she knew that Zar arrived a week late and may not have gotten to tour the school as was required.

“What class do you have now-” Zar handed her the scroll and she read the schedule “Oh my, we have the same class, let’s go I will show you.” As the girl started to walk in front of him there was a bounce in her step and she also hummed a little. The black haired boy didn’t know that just sharing a class with someone could make the other happy. The thought went by as a shrill bell sounded in the hall.

The short girl stopped for a second before starting to panic, without warning her soft hand took a hold of Zar’s wrist and they were off. That bell just now was the first bell, saying you should be at you class. After the second bell is rung you would officially be late. Building ten was a little away; she took turns here and there dragging Zar every bit of the way. The boy would be telling a lie if he was to say that he wasn’t annoyed because he was… greatly. However, he was asking for help so it wouldn’t be right to tell her off.

Luckily this wouldn’t have to happen again, since his memory is excellent next time he will be able to make it on his own. In a matter of minutes the two reached in building ten which was surrounded by nine and eight. Looking at this, building ten was really far from the house especially because they were on the outer outer skirts of the campus. Cruelty at its best it seemed, no wonder the others left so early.

 The poor girl was really out of shape, her breathing got heavier the more she ran and the more she ran the slower she got before she completely stopped in front of the class door. She heaved continuously and Zar stared at her blankly not even a sheen of sweat on his forehead.

“heeee hooooo- heee hoo….”

 What was he supposed to do in this situation…. 

The door read class four and the girl pushed it open with her hands falling to her knees before she stepped inside the room just as another shrill bell rung out the hall. Looking at this girl now it was a good thing during the test they were only walking and not running although he didn’t know how she made it pass the dier with such awful body conditions.

Anyways they were just on time and the girl was finished catching her breath. “You must be Miss Cerayah, Thailia Ceraya and you- boy- Mr. Zarmeideus Loras luckily you two were on time. Take your seat children.”

 Mr. Topul pushed up the spectacles on his thin face. His moustache moved at every word spoken while his beady eyes glared at the mass of students. Only nodding once again to the girl, Zar went to the only back seat available. The man marked the rest of the student’s names on his papyrus. Zar could hear the distinct name calling of his luqi aetra’s, only now taking note of the feeling of being close to the ones connected in his mind.

Acadius Vanatorul….and Haneul Deonte.

Zarmeideus linked the names from where they answered and where the threads were coming from. At the moment there were only two of them and they were sitting far from each other and himself.

*cough cough*

“Everyone, are you ready for your first pop quiz.” Mr. Topul placed away the piece of papyrus and shoved up the glasses on his face. A series of groans sounded in class four while the man took out thick pieces of other papyrus with distinctive handwriting on them. The thinly man walked through the columns putting the papyrus on each desks before going back to the front of the room and announcing the beginning of the test.

“You all have the end of our sessions to finish this paper, you may begin now.”

When Zarmeideus looked at the words written and in all honesty he could not decipher what it was asking him. It wasn’t that he couldn’t read he just didn’t know how to answer the questions. He figured that this was basic knowledge for those who went to primary school because even those who protested were filling out their papyrus meticulously.

The teacher was observing the students and how they reacted to seeing the paper and after no face striked out to him; the man went to sit idly in his chair. Zarmeideus may be confused but as usual he didn’t have much of an expression. Instead of sitting idly, tho he worked to understand the questions and recall incase he read it somewhere. About two hours later the man stopped the test.

“Hand up the papers to the front. Now!” Zarmeideus was the first to send up his papyrus. “After you send up the papyrus you may leave.” He was also the first to leave the room. He pushed open the door and stepped out letting the door swing close behind. The boy went to the side and took out his schedule, seeing general knowledge as the next subject, building nine, class two, Ms. Larnian. Naturally Zar remembered where exactly this place was and needed no assistance before he left the now crowded hall. Through the short distance Zar was the first to arrive at his next class and pushed open the brown door.

The room was empty except for cushions that laid on the ground far apart from each other and large in size. Around thirty of them were there and red in colour. Swiftly, before anyone could call dibs on seating Zarmeideus went to the far back left cushion and sat. later students began to file in the did the teacher filling up the space. What Zar noticed was that the six persons whom he lived with were also in this class. Though they were not close to each other cept for Pyris who sat closely to Keanu, Arael who sat closely to Haneul, (presumably this was her twin brother often spoken about in the house). That left only Amaris and Acadius putting some distance between themselves and the rest.

 Miss Larnian was quite a good looking woman with a firm curvy body with chestnut wavy hair and a smooth face.

She cleared her throat starting off with a roughish voice that soon evened out.

“Hello….class, as you should know I am Miss Larnian, and along with this General Knowledge class I will be your field trainer for Affinity Manipulation Individually, if you have not read the schedule completely you can now confirm that I am your teacher for both of these. You will be learning the basics, along with other things before moving on to the next year.” The woman paced the room with a straight posture and stern, sarcastic voice.

“Obviously, a lot of you have yet to awaken your powers, maybe you will maybe you won’t, if you did you could have passed the lupel dier or would handle it accordinglyish. In this class I will only be teaching you what you need to know.”

A boy raised his hand.

“Miss what do we need to know?”

 “You will know when I teach you, got it kid- Good! Anyways, the other class will be dedicated to training you or preparing you to start your manipulation, if your powers come by then. And as the name states I will only be responsible for your personal manipulation in class, with your aetra’s grouply, you won’t be taught or supervised by me Ah Yes!! And along with my class some of you will be getting personal masters, the whole shebang, these are the top ranking teachers or the schools councils whoever it may be, but alas-” the woman gave a wicked smile.

“-not all of you are that fortunate only….. let’s say…. a handful of you actually have the potential to get this opportunity. At times persons are even chosen because of their luqi aetra’s, but then that may also not be the case.” The woman’s finger pressed against her bottom lip a very wicked gleam in her eyes. At first glance she would have seemed like a nice woman however…. No need to finish that sentence.

“U-uhm uhm… miss, about how much potential do we need to actually get one of these masters?” The same boy from before asked.

“Potential you don’t have darling.” For a split second her voice was wicked causing the students present to shiver.

“Anyways children aspire to be someone who is actually useful and not waste my time for this semester, or if you have me for the next it will be war.” Before it was back to that neutral tone. The shrill sound of the bell rang once again, and it was quite worrisome with how time went. “You may all leave get to your next class.”

Time seemed to fly extremely fast today. Before Zar knew it, it was already the last two hours of the school day. Other classes before now and after General Knowledge was Math, with a soft spoken woman teacher, Mrs. Claire and Languages, that tribes or other countries spoke with a rather cheery, easy to talk to middle aged man, Mr. Plunket. Both were for two sessions (two hours).

In between Math and Languages, was lunch held in the cafeteria where all the first years ate food and took a break from the morning classes. At this time Zarmeideus soon realized that the more he focused the more he could feel the others. He wasn’t sure if this was supposed to happen, and as usual from what he observed they were still divided not sitting close as he saw the other first years doing. One was sitting individually in a corner, he was not sure who it was, another was sitting with a bunch of unknowns while the other four sat in pairs away from each other. Zarmeideus dared not to enter the cafeteria. Instead he sat outside under a lone tree for the remainder of the hour.

For his next class, the last one, it was actually a two sessions outside class called Weaponry, with a pretty brutal female teacher, Ms. Alaxire. This class was being held in the small stadium from before.

Compared to the other female teachers she was extremely boisterous, and rough. And after changing into tunics, which was the only non-uniform clothing they had on hand the students were immediately put to work. She went on and on, shouting at the scrawny students about how they could not wield weapons with such weak bodies. So in the end they had to do laps for the whole two hours without slacking behind. This, for our ravenette was of course a breeze since it was only light jogging that was required even if it was for a long time. He did not take this time to show off as some of the others did and instead tested himself for his stamina and fitness.

All while he was amidst the shouting of Ms. Alaxire. Who gave the students that slacked off the promise of punishment.  Before long that class was also over, he changed out of the sweaty tunic and could only walk back towards the house. He bypassed new students that were lamenting to others about their time with Miss Alaxire, and bypassed the main buildings on the campus of the school. 

Zarmeideus walked on the path that led towards the first years living quarters passing all trees and the other twelve dwellings before walking an additional long length towards the thirteenth dwelling. Purposely he went slow, thinking how all his luqi aetra’s had weaponry and general knowledge class with him but for math, history and languages only  he only saw a about two at most in the same classes as himself cept for math.

For Keanu, Acadius, Arael, Haneul and Pyris were all in his Math class but for languages none of the six were in his class.

Hmmm, perhaps it was only a coincidence.

With that final thought Zar arrived at the new placed door at the house. The boy lightly sighed before entering the freshly scented house and going to his room. There he was further jumped and was licked down by wet tongues with a neutral Meliane standing straight at the side. She was polite as she seemed to always be bowing her head and greeting him.

“Welcome back Master.”