Mark of the Rising Sun
Orientation

The next few weeks went by rather slowly. I went through a wide range of emotions as the day of my departure came closer. I was excited, scared, nervous, happy, and gloomy all at the same time. I had gone to school before, in my old life, but this was not going to be like any school I had attended before. I let my friends know I would be attending a private school, but of course I didn’t tell them the true nature of the place. The school had dormitories, so I wouldn’t be going home much during my stay.

The last night at home, I spent packing up my various belongings, and wondering what was in store for me over the next several months. My parents hadn’t given me much information on school life; They said it was supposed to be a surprise. Hope was with me the entire time trying to calm me down and encourage me. Knowing now what would happen in the months and years to come, I wish that I had stayed home.

I hardly slept a wink that night, but the next thing I knew, we were on our way to my school. The closer we got, the more fidgety I got. I could hardly sit still knowing that when the car stopped, I would be at my destination. Finally the car stopped and I looked out the front windshield. My jaw dropped as I saw the school grounds. The place was huge and exquisite, many large buildings dotted the area and looked of fine make. I could just make out the dormitories at the edge of my vision, they looked like mansions. There was even what looked like a football stadium, although it was much bigger than a standard size.

I climbed out of the car and gawked for several minutes. People were milling about going from building to building. Some seemed to be in a hurry, but others were strolling at a leisurely pace. Finally I found a sign that read Orientation! Newcomers here! I started walking that direction with my parents in tow. My dad had grabbed my belongings out of the trunk and was hauling it along behind us. When I reached the smallest building on campus, a sign pointed me inside and into a gigantic auditorium where several others were waiting.

Again I was shocked, there were humans, of course, but they weren’t the only ones there. There were all manner of mythical creatures, things I had no names for since they didn’t exist in the magical world, and even what looked like aliens. There seemed to be no end to the diversity of life that was represented in this room. I suddenly became rather shy and sat down in an empty seat towards the back away from everyone. My old personality was finally making its presence known. My parents set my luggage down nearby and gave me a hug before leaving. They wouldn’t be able to stay for anything. Apparently it was a closely guarded secret.

I was alone with my thoughts for quite a while before a noise next to me drew my attention. Someone had just sat down in the chair next to me. I had to hide my surprise as the person was not human. It was unmistakably female, and had fur, a tail, and big ears. I would have to say that it was a mix between a cat and a human. It made a very striking combination and I could hardly take my eyes off of her.

She was the first to break the ice. She turned to me and spoke, “Hi, I’m Kat.” I struggled not to laugh, “Yeah, I know, it’s silly. My parents had a bad sense of humor, I have a love hate relationship with the name. I love the sound of it, but I hate the fact that it is so obvious. It’s so frustrating. Man I was so happy to get into this school, I hear it is one of the best in the whole world, maybe the whole galaxy based on the fact that there are aliens in here. What about you, anything interesting about you.”

It took me a moment to realize that she had stopped talking, and even longer to figure out all she asked. “Nope, just an ordinary witch here, names Angela by the way.” I wasn’t about to tell this stranger my life story on a whim. She did seem nice though.

“Don’t sell yourself short, you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t somebody. They only take the best of the best here at this school. There must be something interesting about you. Come on tell me.”

Well she certainly wasn’t shy, and she wasn’t going to let this go without something. I sighed and said, “All right, there is one thing. I was once a man, and have lived on the earth for almost 40 years.”

She looked horrified, “You’re kidding me. Tell me you’re kidding me.” I shook my head fearing that I had just lost her. Instead her smile got wider and she gave me a big hug. “See, I just knew there was something special about you. We are going to get along fine, and if you need any advice, please don’t be afraid to ask. I have been a girl all my life, and know everything there is about it.” I didn’t know if she was joking or not.

I kept looking at her unusual body and wanted so badly to ask her what she was, but not wanting to offend my new friend. Luckily, at that moment a woman came up to the podium and began to speak effectively silencing all the chatter in the room. “Welcome girls, boys, creatures of legend and even those of you visiting us from another world. Welcome to AWAY arguably the best school in North America. Now as you know, entrance into this school is very strict and only the best are accepted. All of you have great potential to become powerful magic users.”

She seemed to be looking at all of us individually as she spoke, which of course was ludicrous. “That being said, if you cannot live up to the potential that we see in you, you will be transferred to another school. Should that happen, you will not have another chance to come back. So don’t goof off, because nothing here is set in stone. Even the stones around here move and crumble.” She paused for laughter, but most were too frightened, I think to laugh. Now, if you are not a student here, we ask that you leave now, as everything from now on is confidential.” A few people got out of their seats and made their way to the doors, mostly parents. Once they left, she continued speaking again, “Now the first thing we want to do is get you settled into your dormitories, so you don’t have to drag your personal belongings around with you all day. In order to do this, we must determine your elemental attunement. There are stations set up throughout the room; Please go to one and wait to be tested. Once we have your element, you will be directed to your dorm.”

I grabbed my gear and hurried to the closest station, but had to wait for a couple of students to get tested before it was my turn. Kat followed me as well, and we chit chatted together for the duration of the wait. Finally my turn came and I was face to face with an old man. He held up some strange device to me, and held it there while he watched it. It took several minutes, which was odd, none of the others had taken this long. He seemed rather perplexed by the results, but I was getting impatient.

At last he opened his mouth. “Well, it seems you have a very strong, attunement to the element of wind, but…” He paused there.

“But what?”

“Oh, I’m sure it’s nothing, probably just an error with the device. It is indicating a strong wind element, so we’ll put you in the wind dormitory.” He handed me a piece of paper with a dorm number and other information on it, but my eyes were still on him. He seemed to be perplexed by something, and he didn’t want to tell me what it was. He blew me off by saying, “Next.” And I knew that he was dismissing me.

Kat was next and in less than a minute, she was also added to the wind dorm and given a slip of paper. Together we walked out of the auditorium and into the sunny day. We had a small map and we dragged our luggage to along the path to our new living space. We arrived at the building with a sign that said air, and a door with a strange engraving on it. The door was opened and several students came flooding out. They ignored us and kept going, but we took the opportunity to enter the building.

It took us several minutes to find the path to the wing we were supposed to be in, but luckily we were both in the same two person room. Reaching our room, we plopped our stuff on our beds and crashed. There was a note stuck on the board in the middle of the room it read.

Welcome Angela and Kat. We hope this room is satisfactory and that you have no problems with the accommodations. Please dress in your school uniform and await further instructions. Thank you.

The note went away after we read it, and we stared at it waiting for something new, but it didn’t come. Then I pulled the uniform out of my bag and stared at it for a long time.

Kat was half dressed before she realized that I hadn’t even started yet, “What’s the matter, is this the first time you’ve undressed in front of another girl?”

It’s not that, It’s just…It’s just I’ve never worn a skirt before. I kept putting it off, hoping that I wouldn’t really have to wear it. I keep hoping that this was some strange dream and I would wake up in my old room, back to my male self. This will solidify the fact that I am really a girl.”

She laughed at that, but not in a way that told me she was making fun of me, but in a way that said, you’re just being silly. “Don’t be such a worrywart. You are a girl now, and always will be. Enjoy it. You are good looking and should show off the body you have. Just relax and let it come. It will feel natural in no time.”

With some reluctance, I stripped out of my blue jeans and top, and donned the blouse that made up part of the attire. Then I put on the skirt. It felt weird wearing one for the first time, and having an opening at the bottom was very interesting indeed. I would need to remember to not be too open with my legs or I might accidentally give someone a view I didn’t want them to have. I put on my shoes again and laid back on my bed awaiting the next set of instructions.

About an hour later, I heard a ding and turned to look. The board had changed again and a schedule had been posted.

10-10:30 –Dorm selection

10:30-11:30 – Unpack and Preparation

11:30-1 – School Tour

1-2 – Lunch

2-3:30 – Meet the teachers/ staff

3:30-5 –Introduction

5-6 – Dinner

6-10 – Free time

I looked at my watch, we had five minutes to be at the tour. I hadn’t unpacked at all. Oh well, that could come later. We headed out of the building to find a mid-sized group waiting for us led by a grizzled old man.

“Alright, that should be everyone. I am Professor Birk, and I will be giving you the tour. Please follow closely and don’t talk too much. Please save all questions until the end. Also don’t go into any of the other dorms without a member of that dorm with you. If you do, you will not like the consequences.” He left it at that and started moving away, forcing us to follow or get left behind.

We followed him up and down the campus as he explained what each of the buildings was and when we should go here. I was feeling rather uncomfortable as the feeling of air on my legs was a sensation I was not used to. I hadn’t worn shorts in years and this had more ventilation than a pair of shorts. No one noticed my discomfort though as we travelled, just me.

There were buildings for classes, buildings for practice, and even a ginormous cafeteria with all kinds of food. It made sense since they had a wide variety of life that they needed to feed and each of them would have different dietary needs. We travelled from one end of the campus to the other learning something about each of the buildings we came to. Not that we could have learned everything in one afternoon.

We eventually reached the area that most interested me, the sports stadium. On closer inspection, it was indeed bigger than a standard stadium and there was a protective barrier around the place. I listened in as the professor explained the place.

“Now as some of you know, this is our sports stadium. It is bigger than Norm stadiums because our sports are a lot more complicated, and need bigger fields of play. We take existing sports and add a magical aspect to the game. For instance, Football is one of our most popular games, but since all of our players use magic, the field is bigger. Since you are all wind users, you might be asked to try out as you are in high demand.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“Wind attributes are the main offensive force. The abilities to change air currents, increase speed and distance, and with some, the ability to fly makes it easier for them to get the ball down the field. Most other elements are not as useful for that. The only exception is of course earth users as they can tunnel under the field and come out anywhere. The only problem with that is other earth users would be directly opposing them. Also, since it is not a game of strength, but magical skill, girls can compete on the same level as the boys. In fact, some of the best players are girls.”

I filed all that information away for a later time. I had never been good at sports, but I had a feeling that here was something I could be good at, if I was given the chance. I would need to get more information, and of course learn spells to boost my skills on the field. I wondered then how hard it would be, how rigorous the training was and how many girls made the cut, if any.

We reached the end of the tour and headed off for lunch. I had a hamburger and fries, and Kat had some fish and chips. Looking around the cafeteria, I saw many items of food that I had no name for, and wondered whether or not they were actually food. But all these items were eaten by the person who got it, and though it seemed weird to me, they really enjoyed it. In fact, all the food there was excellent. In the next few weeks, I would try many a meal, and would find all more than satisfactory. During this time, I also learned more about Kat and her history, her family, and even her race. She was a werecat, part cat, part human, and all the fun of both. Apparently they lived all over the world, but hid from Norms.

After lunch, we headed back to the auditorium for the meet and greet. There were numerous teachers at the school. You had the elemental teachers of course a several for each element, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. There were two that also taught a lesser known magic called light magic, which I was told, I would be taking classes in. To my dismay, Kat would not also be taking those classes. Not everyone had the ability to use light magic. There was also a dark magic, but they didn’t teach that at AWAY at all. In fact, no school did, because of the nature of the magic. Apparently most people had the ability to use it, but only certain people actually chose to learn and use them.

Then of course there were the non-elemental teachers. They taught how to use magic to improve life, heal injuries and many other aspects as well. Pretty much anything non-combative fell into this category, although elements could be combined with these spells to add different effects. Water spells could increase the healing power of spells for example. Even though each of us learned to harness our element, most, after school, stuck to these basic magic spells to get through their life and for work, only using the elemental spells for fun, recreation, and combat.

We sat down last for an introduction to the school, which I had been waiting for all day. The head of the school, Professor Hawethorne who explained things to us. “Welcome again, I hope each of you has found everything perfect for your first day. If you have any problems with your accommodations, or have special needs, please let us know. We understand that something may have been overlooked in our initial preparations.”

She looked around as if expecting someone to call out a complaint before continuing. “Now then, As you know, each of you has been selected for this school, and I know you will all perform marvelously. Starting tomorrow, you will start attending classes with your elemental group. A schedule will be posted on the bulletin boards in your rooms in the morning. Just follow that schedule. Check it every morning as changes may occur from day to day as things come up. For the most part, though, they will remain the same for the rest of the term. We have three terms a year, with a summer break at the end, and we take new students during each of our terms depending on how many we have. Certain holidays will be observed, but not all of them.”

She droned on and on for the next hour. At first, I was listening to every word, but as it grew more tedious, I lost interest and turned to other things. I had been hoping that this would be more interesting. The other students, too, lost interest and found other forms of entertainment. Professor Hawethorne ignored all, only stopping one person who was snoring too loudly and making a commotion. Kat and I spent the rest of the time playing little games to the side and just ignoring everyone else.

The intro ended, and after a quick dinner, we retired to our room to prepare ourselves for the first day of classes and try and figure out what we would be learning over the next few weeks. We went to bed early with a lot of questions going through our minds. Sleep came easily for me as the day had been exhausting and I knew that tomorrow would be the start of something marvelous.

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