"Feste."
I swiftly interrupted my spell to concentrate on Midnight's voice that suddenly rang out through my head. Boingo, who was in the middle of teaching me how to perform a spell "correctly", looked full of confusion.
"What's wrong?" The small alien approached me, a serious seargent-like expression on his face. "Do you feel tired? Well, I'll have you know that danger takes no breaks!" He whipped around and started to march around me. "Say you encounter yet another pair of people that want to hurt you. You'll cast some spells, right? But then what if they endure several minutes of fighting and drain you out to the point where you can't do anything? You would be taken almost instantly. And think about how far we are into this session; just a few tens of minutes-!"
"Boingo," I cut off my friend with a respectful tone. "Midnight is talking to me through my head."
My pseudo-instructor ceased his act. "Oh."
Thinking that that would be enough to satisfy Boingo for a few seconds, I turned my attention to Midnight. I began to think, hoping that somehow the principal would observe and understand my message. "What is it?"
Interestingly, he responded only a few seconds later. "Your parents are here. Tell me when you're ready to meet them and I'll take you to the field."
Peering over at Boingo, I spoke audibly to him. "My parents are here and Midnight wants to teleport us to where they are." Eyeing him over, I assumed that he was ready. "You can take us over there."
Before I could even react, I felt space ripple around me as the two of us were whisked away from our solitary corner of the field and towards another spot on it. An instant later, I felt artificial sunlight beat down on my neck and the soft texture of dirt on my shoes once more as the transfer was successful.
"Feste? Is that you?" Still affected by the sudden transportation, I failed to see my mother falling into my arms to embrace me. "It's been so long since we last saw you! I hope you're doing well."
"Yes," I managed. "I'm doing fine." Shaking my head, I finally anchored myself into this new setting.
"I took a big risk, letting you enroll here. Strangely, the fees are small and the principal..." She trailed off, leaving a vacuum of silence that was filled with miscellaneous conversations taking place around us. "Anyways, is this place any good? You know, if they're treating you harshly, we can always just transfer you into a more local school."
First, I began to think back to my more negative endeavours; the incident with the Beginner's Club, then the kidnapping with Ittisk and Thrack. While this alone would cause me to regret ever signing up to learn at this school, I then began to think more about the positives of enrolling here. My teachers' excellent quality of lessons, Boingo's charismatic attitude but seemingly undying loyalty and the bond that I shared with Midnight. One thing that I hadn't realized that I forgot to include in that list, however, was something that I took for granted all this time; the existence of magic. If I went back to my home planet, there would be nobody to teach me. After all, I knew of nobody else that knew how to cast spells.
After all of this thought, I simply replied with "it's great". However, a stray tear that began to run down my face revealed deeper emotions.
My mother was silent throughout the remainder of the conversation, with my father speaking up. "Did you meet anyone while you were here?"
"Yes." I looked down at Boingo, who until this point was intending to listen to my exchange. "This is Boingo."
Both my mother and father were stunned by my friend's small appearance; Boingo's shoulders were only tall enough to reach halfway up our shins. I could hear my father mutter "what the..." under his breath before saying "What's he like?"
"He's..." I pondered ways to describe Boingo while he was sitting next to me. This didn't exactly matter, anyway; I couldn't think of many shortcomings. "Boingo's very energetic and enthusiastic. He has a lot of confidence, as do many creatures his size. Oh, and don't underestimate him; he contains a lot of potential to cast spells. In fact, he was training me just before we met."