"Alright Class, settle down." Mr Woods was beginning our official first lesson.
Despite being exhausted from carrying Ame up the mountain known as the stairs, I was still excited for my first lesson. I mean who wouldn't be excited to learn magic? Who knows maybe by the end of this I might be able to throw fireballs or see into the future.
Mr Woods began writing the words 'Magical Studies' on the chalkboard at the front of the class. "Magical studies is a subject taught across all of the islands in the mystic isles. It's not just about learning about the different types of magic or the uses of magic, it's also learning about the culture surrounding magic and its origin dating back to the time when we weren't separated from normal humans." Mr Woods seemed very passionate when talking about magical studies, and it was completely different from the harsh and sceptic person from yesterday. "Now can anyone tell me the name of humans who possess magic?"
Lleu was the one to put up his hand and answer. "People who have magic are generally referred to as the supernatural or superhuman."
"Very good Lleu. The supernatural will be the first topic we cover in magical studies. There will be lessons on all 5 of the different supernatural species, and there will be a test on it at the end." Mr Woods wiped the board clean and then began writing again. "Mages, hybrids, fairies, witches and sorcerers make up the supernatural. Of course, they all have official names given by the council, but this is what they are commonly referred to as. Today's lesson and the rest of the week's lessons will be on fairies."
Mr Woods tapped the chalk he was using to write, and it began to move on its own. It quickly drew a detailed image of a genderless human on the chalkboard, but it was different in aspects the ears were longer, and the eyes were larger. Mr Woods then used a ruler and pointed at the different organs.
"Despite human beliefs, fairies have never been little winged humans. If you were to define them by the recent standards, they would be closer to the fictional elf than to a fairy. However, please refrain from calling any fairies you meet an elf, most fairies see it as highly offensive.
The reason fairies have pointed ears, and bigger eyes are because of the way they use their magic. The magic they use is all external to their body, so all their sensory organs are heightened to help them have better control.
Fairy magic has commonly been associated with nature or the elements due to the forms it takes. Each fairy has a different aspect of the world they can control with their magic. Some can control the ground, some can control water, and in rare cases, a few fairies could control the temperature or weather.
The different types of magic fairies use are called elements. The element a fairy can control goes after their name in fairy culture. So, a fairy called Steve who could control plants would be called Steve of the forest or Steve of the garden, or a fairy called Diana who could control fire would be called Diana of the summer or Diana of the inferno.
Fairies aren't born with their element, and environmental factors decide what it is before they awaken at 15 to 16. Most fairies have the same element as their parents because of their proximity, but there are cases where an external factor affected the fairy such as a house fire or storm.
Now I will go through every known type of fairy and the environmental factors that could have made them that way. Then I'll ask questions about them to help you retain the knowledge about them."
The lesson continued with Mr Woods explaining the different types of fairies and then quizzing us on them. I couldn't remember the last time I had been that engaged with a lesson.
When the lesson ended our half-hour of break before our next lesson began. Unfortunately, we had less than half that time because we had to help Ame up and down the stairs again. However, she did pay for us to get something to eat, so we were grateful. We also managed to avoid interacting with the other first-year students, who now saw us as terrifying.
When we returned to the class, we had the chaotic coyote Miss Duffy instead of Mr Woods. She was wearing gym equipment and doing stretches when everyone arrived.
"Hey, it's nice to meet you all. My name is Jane Duffy, but you can just call me Jane. However, when Woods is around it's Miss Duffy. I have met some of you already, but some of you I don't know, so I'm going to point at the people I don't know, and I want you to give me your name."
Jane began pointing at everyone except me, Davy and Lleu, and they all shouted out their names.
"Great, now that we are all introduced let's get this lesson started." Miss Duffy seemed very energetic, and she tapped the chalk the same way Mr Woods did. The chalk began drawing on the board this time drawing the circulatory system of a human.
"What this?" Miss Duffy asked pointing at the heart in the centre of the drawing.
"The heart?" Elizabeth answered confused.
"That's right! The heart is probably the most important part of a hybrid, and it's the organ that lets us transform." Miss Duffy began banging her chest after saying that. "The magic that makes us transform lays dormant in our blood. It's only when the heart starts beating faster than normal that the magic becomes active, so the faster this sucker is beating the easier it will be for you to transform. That's why we're going to go outside and do some running."
Miss Duffy then ran out of the classroom shouting "Follow me!". We were all sitting at our desks, so we all scrambled up to follow her. When we got out of the classroom Miss Duffy was in her coyote form, and she was yipping in a way that said "Hurry up."
We all chased after her along the corridor her howling all the way. Ame's expression was that of a dead fish when we got to the stairs, so we all pitched in to help her with me at the front carrying her.
When we caught up with Miss Duffy, she was standing waiting for us as a human again. "Good job, don't you feel your heart pounding?! I managed to get the school's track for us to use, so we will be racing around it until you feel comfortable transforming. Don't worry if you can't first try, it's nothing to be ashamed of."
We were led out to the field outside the back of the school. There were white lines painted on the grass for the track.
"Now some people like to take off their shoes before transforming, so if you want to do that put them in this box."
A surprising number of people took off their shoes and put them into the box, including Davy and Lleu. Feeling in a 'trying new things mood' I also took off my shoes and set them down in the box.
"Are we all ready?" Miss Duffy asked, and we all nodded in response.
"Great! Now, remember you don't have to transform straight away. It's when you feel most active, let the adrenaline do the work for you."
"3"
"2"
"1"
"GO!"
Everyone set off running except me. When I used the partial transformation, I felt closer to my animal side, and when I got home and tested it, I only need a little bit of a jump start to transform and carrying Ame had already done that for me.
Instead of running on two legs I ran on four and bolted past everyone else. I couldn't help but let out a few barks of laughter as I sprinted past them all.
"Well done my rival, but I can't let you beat me." Jack the dragon guy tried to transform with a jump but instead face-planted the floor.
As I was racing ahead of everyone, I noticed I was unusually heavy, and something was pulling at my neck. In my wolf form, I couldn't look up without stopping, but a black, white and orange tail fluttered past my eyes.
'Davy!'
"Well done, Kate and Davy! You were the first to successfully transform. I want you to try and maintain the lead. The rest of you it's your job to catch up." Miss Duffy shouted where she stood.
There were a lot more falls before anyone caught up, but after a while, a fox and sheep were running alongside each other to catch up.
I didn't mind Lleu catching up with us, but I didn't want that Loki to win. I ran as fast as I could with Davy making scared meowing sounds on my back.
"Wow looks like we got a competition! We will have 5 more laps, and the first ones to finish will get a prize!" Miss Duffy's words inspired everyone to start running faster and transform into their animals.
As I was running around the corner of the track, I caught a glimpse of the others in their animal forms. I couldn't see Elizabeth, but I assumed that was because she was in the air.
Davy was meowing like crazy, and for a second I thought I heard the word "Fox" come out of all the meows. It was only a few seconds later that I realised Loki was neck and neck with me. He looked at me with what I guessed would have been a smirch in his human form.
Fortunately, it was the final lap, and Miss Duffy was waiting at where we had started running, but I could tell Loki wanted to win too. We were both moving our legs with everything we had until we got to the corner.
I had the inside advantage, but I was still getting used to using my wolf body. When I went around the corners before I used the outside just to be safe and so I didn't fall over. However, moving to the outside would be throwing away winning this.
When we got to the corner, I tilted my body as much as I could and planted my feet firmly into the ground, but I still felt myself falling over from the sudden change in movement. Just as I thought I was going to go flying I could feel Davy shift his weight to keep me on the ground. He was practically hanging off the side of me to keep me from falling.
Not wasting the opportunity, I continued running as fast as I could until we reached Miss Duffy. When we got passed her, I felt my legs give out, and we began to roll. We both rolled together, and by the time we finished rolling, we were both humans again.
I was on top of Davy, and his face was pink from embarrassment (it kind of reminded me of the time we first run together), but despite his embarrassment, he had a massive smile on his face.
"We won!" He shouted excitedly.
"We did!" I shouted back sharing enthusiasm.
I rolled off him and laid on the ground exhausted. We both wore victory smiles as we lied in the grass.