I quickly found myself in the middle of the great hall an intense searing pain on the back of my right hand making me release the orb quickly. "Please welcome Emilia to House Phoenix," Bran yelled the whole hall erupted in cheer and applause, Scarlet was practically jumping in excitement, with her hands telling me to come to the table. Looking at Paul he was clapping with a giant smile on his face.... and a noticeable golden Dragon tattooed on the back of his left hand. I didn't quite know how to feel.... not knowing if the visions shown to me was to come true or not..... Or if I should even tell him. Checking my hand that felt the intense searing sensation, now lay a black Phoenix tattoo on the back of my right hand.
Taking a seat next to another freshman I decided to ignore the future shown to me and just enjoy the atmosphere looking at the tattoo on my hand. "Hi I'm Ben..." a freshman next to me introduced himself holding out his hand.
"Hi I'm Emilia" I replied shaking his hand.
He gasped in shock hearing my name.
"Ummm is everything okay???..." I asked noticing his reaction.
"Yes..... Just ummm.....it's nothing..." he said with a smile disregarding his initial reaction.
"No no... Please tell me.. I'm harmless..." I said trying to make him feel more comfortable.
"Well.... rumours has it you're the girl standing in the way of Calista and Paul." he whispered.
I rolled my eyes hearing him say that....."Trust me there's nothing going on between me and Paul.... it's probably because he's not into her and she blames me because of it." I replied.
"Ohhhh I see....so where are you from?..." I've never seen someone with your skin colour?" He asked.
"Ohhhh.... I'm from a small port town... really far away." I replied.
"Ohh I see.... I'm from Allerwick.... it's a small town up north..." He replied with a smile.
"Ohhh .... But isn't the north under attack by goblins?.." I asked.
"Yeah sadly... my family had to relocate due to the recent goblin activity." He replied.
"Are they gonna be okay?.." I asked.
"Yeah…. my family is okay for now." He replied.
"Is it really bad up north?.." I asked.
"Yeah.... don't tell anyone..... But they only named it a goblin invasion as they didn't want to cause much panic... but my parents told me it's much much worse..." He said.
"How bad it is?.." I asked.
"Well it isn't just goblins.... apparently there's orcs giants and mountain trolls as well..." He whispered.
"Woah... that sounds pretty bad..." I whispered back.
"Yeah..... They don't normally worth together... so it's pretty strange..." He said.
"Why don't they ask Atlantis for assistance?..." I asked.
"Well... to the outside world.... all the schools are at peace with each other.... in reality it's more like a stalemate.... no side wants to lose too many students unnecessarily." He answered.
"...I see....." I replied disappointed that I thought this land was peaceful.
The whole hall applause causing us to abruptly stop our conversation and began clapping. Jay began walking towards our table. "Ohhh that's my friend!!!" I said to Ben.
"Ohhh that's cool! Looks like he's in our house." He said with a smile clapping.
"Ohh and the girls behind him are also my friends... The Tiefaeni is Daisy.... the Black-haired Elf is Grace and the blonde-haired Elf is Helen." I said pointing them out.
"Ohhh you made a lot of friends...." He replied.
"Yeah.... Did you make some friends?.." I asked.
"Yeah... Ohh you can probably see them from here....." He said looking at the other tables. "Ohhh so the black-haired boy and blonde-haired girl on the dragon table over there..... they are Marcus and Sophia.... and there's one more..... Ohhh the green-haired guy in the Kraken table is Marco.
"Heyyyy... looks like we are in the same house!" Jay said arriving with a giant smile.
"Yeahhh!!!! Ohh by the way... this is Ben... we talked a little." I said.
"Heyyyy." Jay said taking a seat opposite to him, "My name is Jay." He said holding his hand out for a shake.
"Ben," Ben replied shaking Jay's hand.
"By the way.... not wanting to be too forward... but we're looking for another dude to join our crew," Jay said.
"What you mean?.." Ben replied.
"Well..... See the four girls after me.... they and Emilia is our current group at the moment as you can see… we are missing.... a few dudes... that I can talk dude stuff with..." Jay said.
"Hmmmm..... Well... I do have my own friends but they are in other houses... but I'll defiantly take your offer in for consideration." Ben replied chuckling.
"Brother to brother.... please take this request seriously!!!" Jay said to him.
"Of course" Ben replied laughing.
"Oi we aren't that bad," I said pretending to be offended.
"Ohhh no.... it's completely fine.... just I'd be nice to have another guy to about you know guy stuff." Jay said acting innocent but mouthed to Ben Thank you.
"Ohhh your friend is about to touch the orb." Ben said pointing at Grace.
Jay and I watched in anticipation seeing if she gets put in Kraken like how she wanted. Her orb began glowing blue, she began to smile seeing the reaction looking extremely gleeful, but suddenly the orb began to glow red. Every few seconds it would shift between blue and red.
"What's going on???" I asked.
"Didn't you see this happen to you???..... Yours kept shifting from red to green to blue over and over again for like a minute...." Jay replied.
"Yah.... yours was quite interesting..... Most people only glow one colour.... and there were a few two colours.... but so far you're the only one whose flash all three colours.." Ben replied.
"...yeah I didn't understand it either....." I pretended.
"House Phoenix please give a warm welcome to Aiyonyora Sunwalker!" Bram announced.
"..... Sure her name is Grace???...." Ben asked.
"..... That's what she told us...." Jay and I shrugged but looking curious to ask her when she gets here.
"Hey guys...." Grace greeted us nervously.
"Hello.. Aiyonyora." Jay and I greeted her with smug grin on our faces.
"It's a long story... we don't want to be known for our real names." Grace said ignoring our smug faces.
"Grace this is Ben... we talked a little when I sat down." I introduced him to her.
Ben sat silently starring at grace as if entranced by her. "Hi.... I'm Grace.." Grace greeted him.
"Ohhh sorry... I'm Ben... I've never seen an elf up close before." He said looking all flustered.
Jay and I sat silently feeling a little awkward looking at each other wondering if we should say something or let the conversation run its course.
"Nice to meet you, Ben." Grace replied then turned to look at Helen now approaching the orb.
"Never mind her..... She gives the cold shoulder to everyone." Jay joked.
Grace instantly turned around shooting daggers at him with her eyes. Then turned back to watch Helen.
"So.... bummed you didn't get into Kraken..?.." I asked Grace.
"I KNOW!!!!!! I'M SO BUMMED!!! But it was so crazy to see yours flashing three different colours!" Grace turned to me looking upset but then a little excited.
"Yeah...I have no idea why..... I'm not special.." I said wondering if everyone got a vision like me. Turning around to look at Paul, he look totally normal unaware of his supposed future... contemplating on whether I should tell him or not... or would that just make the situation worse... or in doing so will send me along the path of the vision.....
"Please a round of applause for Ashera Starseeker to House Phoenix!" Bran announced causing me to quickly snap back to reality clapping.
"Hey guys!" Helen said running towards us.
"Ashera huh?..." Jay said grinning.
"Yeahh.... our names are pretty important in Elven society... so Grace and I gave ourselves a different name she said scratching her head like a child caught lying.
"That's a shame.... it's a nice name." Jay said taking a sip of water.
"Ohhhhh Daisy is the last of us!...." I said watching her eagerly.
"Do you really we'll all be in the same house?.. " I asked.
"Hi! I'm Helen." Helen greeted Ben with a giant smile holding out a hand noticing him staring at her.
"That's Ben... he hasn't seen an Elf up close before." Grace explained to Helen uninterested in starting a conversation with him.
"Sorry.... I'm Ben, nice to meet you." He said taking her hand and shaking it.
"Yeah... I invited Ben to join us... because you know.... an extra guy would be nice." Jay said giving Ben a nod.
"Nope...." Grace said coldly still having her back turned towards her.
"Don't worry about Grace.. She's the cold one between the two of us." Helen said with a giant smile.
"So Ben.... want to join us?.." Jay asked.
"Ummmm..." Ben replied looking extremely embarrassed looking flustered unsure how to answer.
"Don't worry sleep on it." Jay said giving him a wink.
"Ohhh another student for house Phoenix Please Welcome Daisy Packwood." Bran announced as Daisy slowly walked to us looking a little upset taking a small glance at Paul.
"Hey....." Daisy greeted us with little to no enthusiasm.
"It's alright.... I'm sure we can chill with Paul whenever we want he seems like a cool dude." Helen replied pulling Daisy down to sit next to her and hugged her.
"Yeah besides.... you know he has the hots for Emilia." Grace said hinting something to her.
Ben gasped hearing her say that and looked at me for validation. "He doesn't these guys are making a mountain out of a molehill." I replied.
"A what?.." He replied.
"It's a saying where I'm from.... it means blowing things out of proportion." I replied.
"Hmmm that analogy makes sense Ben and Jay nodded in understanding and agreement.
"Nah... You're just oblivious..." Helen said with a cheeky smile.
"This sucks... if I was in team Dragon... I would be allowed to train with him every morning and go and see him for help and advice." Daisy said lost in her imagination.
"I'm sure... we can't just go annoying the head of the house 24/7 otherwise they won't have time to do anything." Helen said trying to cheer her up.
"Leave me to my imagination! One can dream!" Daisy snapped at her and went back to her imagination.
"We'll be alright!" Helen said hugging her swaying her back and forth.
"Man.... we're really lucky.... that we are all in the same house." I said to everyone.
"Yeah....." Jay and Helen replied with a smile, but Grace and Daisy replied with a small sigh.
"Ohhh by the way Daisy... This is Ben." I said pointing him to her with an open palm.
"Hi...." Daisy sighed.
".... Woah... a blue-skinned Tiefaeni.... I've never seen one before..." Ben replied.
"Me neither.... by the way where are you from?.." Jay asked Ben.
"Allerwick." Ben answered.
"Ohh dear... that's a northern settlement.... everything okay over there?.." Jay asked.
"Yeah... my family has already evacuated... but the news is grim around there though.
"I wish you and your family the best of luck and hope Arcadia swiftly deals with this situation." Jay replied.
"Thanks... I hope so too.." Ben replied.
"So Ben... what's it like in Allerwick?....." Helen asked.
"Ohh.... so...so... boring and normal..... Nothing exciting... maybe the occasional travelling fair or merchants with stories of adventurers and adventures." He replied.
"Oh so what do your parents do?.." Helen asked.
"Well before they were evacuated we were simple tailors." He answered.
"Ohhh that's nice maybe when your family gets backs we can get some items of clothing made." Helen said with a smile.
"Yeah sure of course...." He replied in a panic looking extremely embarrassed.
As the last student in the line was assigned a house, Bran dissipated the sphere with a small thump of his staff on the floor. "And now let the festivities begin!" He yelled lifting his staff high in the sky and with a bright blue flash a feast magically appeared in front of us and the robots began making their rounds, music appeared in our easy and up above us an illusionary show.
Paul began walking along his table greeting students in his house, shaking hands signing things with the occasional spell being released causing laughter and smiles.
Scarlet on the other hand found it hard to converse with her fellow Phoenix students her aura clearly making everyone near her shake and tremble in fear despite her attempts at trying to be welcoming and friendly.