Circe sullenly plodded down the bright marble hallways. Several third and fourth year Monsters had abrasively brushed past him as they hasted to get to their classes. They joined an aggregated mass of students that bounded up the tall spiraling marble white staircase, leading them to the upper expansive floors of the Pavilion. Circe hadn't seen that level of the building until now but he was sure he wasn't going to be exploring it during his first year.
Circe followed his locker number from the small slip that he plucked out from the back of his textbook. He landed on locker D453, one of the purple lockers right next to Zebulon. Circe's eyes roved the crowded locker scene, there were too many bumbling first years near the purple lockers. Some of whom weren't from the Monster house.
"Where's Avery?" Circe asked.
Zebulon slammed his locker shut and raked back the vines of black hair from his eyes. "Who cares? What did Professor Raufman want?"
"Besides the detention, nothing that I didn't expect. He threatened me and told me to watch my tongue as if I'm the one who needs the attitude check!"
"Are you afraid of him?"
"No, why should I be? He's just a bitter old man. And strange, like most of the professors here." Circe paused, drumming his tiny fingers against his thigh. "I don't know if I told you this, but I feel like this school is hiding a lot of secrets."
"Yeah?"
Circe had the sudden urge to go combing through the Hall of Mysteries again, or maybe take a catlike stroll across the campus at night. But his thoughts were instantly sidestepped as he spotted the freckled girl. She had been shrouded in the far back of the hallway, near the red lockers, talking to a tall knobbly ginger haired girl. The red haired girl waved goodbye to Avery as she went to join her friends for her next class. She seemed much too old and composed for Avery's likeness.
"What're you doing talking to a Sorcerer?" Zebulon said as Avery approached them. He had said this almost in a whisper as if it was a surreptitious scandalous secret that could be bothered sharing.
Avery smiled in a brash way, chuckling. "Because I can. I thought she was pretty so we had a conversation. Oh come on, you guys are being silly, we're here to make friends after all, not just to study. And I'm not going to be fenced into interacting with people only in my house, it's just very classist."
"Classist?" Zebulon raised an inky eyebrow.
"It means to choose who you're going to surround yourself with based on who they are."
"Well how would you feel if we ran off talking to a…a Mecha without you," Zebulon sputtered with difficulty.
"I don't care. They're very quiet, Mechas, but very knowledgeable, like I told you guys. Corinthia has a few friends who are Mechas and they sometimes do her homework for her."
"Well that's not how you felt about Lorraine," Circe said, grinning. Zebulon chuckled darkly, cottoning on.
"That was different."
"No, it wasn't. You're just jealous of her, just admit it." Circe honestly didn't care who Avery talked to. It was just fun getting a little tease out of her.
"I'm not gonna admit to anything. Anyway, that's not what I came here to talk to you about. Corinthia, you know…the red haired girl I was talking with? Well, she's a fourth year and she tells me Raufman is always rude and condescending toward every student he teaches, no matter what year. So don't feel terrible if he made you look bad in front of the class on your first day.
"I'm not," Circe lied. "Honestly."
"Condescending?" Zebulon stared, mouth gaped. "You really are a dork."
Avery punched him in the arm. "Ow!" Zebulon yelped, carefully preening down the pain. "You really got to stop doing that!"
"What's next on our schedule?" Avery asked.
Circe pulled the scroll out of his black suit trouser. "Monster History with Elven."
Avery looked at her scroll carefully. "David Elvengaard, the elf person?"
"No, the mashed potato man," said Zebulon. The warning bell had just rung. "Let's go, I don't want to be late."
The trio took a sharp right turn into the marble hallway, walking by the bedecked portrait walls with the oddly formed marble statues and high twinkling chandeliers until they entered a dim, amber colored room with torches attacked on the walls.
There were several cartography maps hung on the walls and heads of goblins, boars, and other creatures pinned as well, staring down at the students as they took their seats on a desk. The desks sat in rows that stretched all the way to the back of the looming dimness and there were maroon chintz chairs assigned to each desk. Overall the environment was pretty muted and ominous which made Circe feel as if he was walking into a forbidden lair. It didn't help that there were no windows and the mahogany desk that faced them was fashioned with blazing candles. Beside the desk was a tall mahogany podium with the largest golden book Circe had ever seen.
Circe stared around. The desks were almost filled up. It appeared that this class was exclusively for Monster students because he didn't spot Phineas, Malik, or that Russian girl. But there were still about thirty students in the class, twenty fewer than Monster Studies, and half of which couldn't be seen because they were hidden in the back. The class gradually quieted down as the door closed.
"Wow, this is it?" said the professor as he walked behind his candle littered desk. He had long white blonde hair that resembled the gradient of butter and always looked as if it was glowing, long pointy ears, and a young yet ancient face that seemed rather solemn but didn't hurt your eyes if you stared too long at it. "My name is David Elvengaard or Elven for short and I will be your Monster History teacher for this year."
Circe had already met the strangeness of Elvengaard back at the police station, so he wasn't too shocked to be seeing him again. It was more amusing for him to see the started looks of the other Monster students as if they were staring at a gremlin.
"Just a few things to know about me; I'm an elf who was born in Sweden. Most elves throughout monster history have originated in Sweden, I'll be teaching you more about that later on in the class. But yeah, my family and I come from a line of elves from Sweden and I've always loved history since I was a little kid. Now, how about you guys, tell us a little bit about yourself. Starting with you Akatu…" David pointed to the African boy who was sitting in front of Circe. The same boy who had turned into the acid-spitting spider back in the Battle room.
Akatu Mbege stood, electrified, unsure of where to begin. "My name's Akatu and I'm from Nairobi. I come from a family of spiders in the Anku tribe."
"Great…wonderful!" bleated Elven. "Samsarya, you're next."
The girl beside Akatu stood up timidly. "I'm Samsarya Dahi, and I'm from India. My family and I come from a line of poisonous, man-eating sand crabs."
"Ahh the Crackayu, we'll be sure to dive into more detail about them in this class. Jordan you're next, and be sure to keep it rolling. You don't have to share anything you don't want to, just your names will do."
Jordan Quaker, a pale oily haired girl with glasses introduced herself, and then it was Hussein Jaban, Troy Irckus, Riley Amis, Katrina Solfane, and then it was Circe's turn. Elven winked at him as he stood up. He gulped. Surely he wouldn't get bullied in Elven's class.
"I'm Circe Chimer," he said simply and then he quickly sat back down. It seemed Circe had greatly misinterpreted the class because nobody made a solid reaction as the next kid mundanely stood up to lazily say his name. The closest response he got was a yawn from Akatu and that wasn't saying much since he looked pitifully tired.
After Avery and Zebulon had done their rounds of introductions. Circe had zoned out the rest of the class and zeroed in on the strange golden book that was sitting, splayed out on the wooden podium. What secret oddities could it be withholding? Would they be reading it on their first day?
"That was great you guys. It's wonderful that we have finally familiarized ourselves with each other. Now with this class, the aim is to educate ourselves specifically on the origin of the monsters we see and fight in the outside world. In this course we will tackle on four units; Countries and Origins, Tools, Evolution, and Communication. All of these topics have to do with how monsters have changed and shaped our world today, and most importantly why. Think of this class as an extension of Monster Studies with more emphasis on the why rather than the what."
"Today we'll be taking a look at the Book of Elliyim. It's a magical book that allows you to take a visual outlook on the historic battles that monsters have fought with humans. We'll just be exploring the book, and afterward, you'll just take notes on what you saw and hand it in for a quick grade. Now if you could just follow me to the podium…"
Chairs scraped off the floor and a wave of students flooded over to the podium. Circe had been right in assuming that the atavistic, golden book had been strange. Because when he took a glance at the crinkled beige pages, he saw that they were written in blocks of huge, glowing Arabic text. Circe was oddly reminded of a gigantic bible. Nobody could understand what it read besides Elven because he said "We're going to be taking a look at one of the most famous monster battles in ancient history which is the Chimera and Bellerophon at Lycea. You must remember that this was the first Chimera in history, so it was a frightening yet groundbreaking battle for those who had seen it."
Elven pressed his hand on the left page and suddenly the book begin to shimmer and glow even brighter, swallowing the classroom in a burnt golden light. The light grew brighter and brighter, extracting itself all the way to the end of the marble hallway and when Circe blinked he found himself standing on a hard cobbled ground near an Athenian styled building with a chipped ashen marble roof and hard rising pillars. The sky was night blue with a soft haze of smoke and there was a grizzly patch of trees straggling behind them.
"Where are we now?" Zebulon said cluelessly as he numbly stepped on the stairs of the ash white building, looking around the ashy pillars.
"Lycea, I guess." Circe looked around, there were a handful of Monster students but he could seem to find the rest of the class. "Where did everyone go? Where's Elven?"
"Look!" Avery pointed. Up ahead in the grazed dark blue sky, a white winged horse with a man wearing a helmet was trying so valiantly to spear the creature. The three headed flying creature breathed a dancing orange cloud of fire at's fighter. It had a scaly, horny, red dragon head, a gray goat head with golden ringed eyes, and a ferocious lion with blood soaked fangs and venomous green eyes. The snake coiled around trying to take a bite out of Belleraphone and ended up biting Pegasus on the leg.
"They're coming over here. Shit!" Akatu shouted. He wasn't pointing, he was already scrambling in the opposite direction. Several other students, including Samsarya scurried after him. Circe, Avery, and Zebulon stayed a bit longer to watch. But as soon as the Chimera crashed down on the roof of the Athenian building, Zebulon fled into the forest, screaming.
Avery tugged Circe's arm, smoke billowing haphazardly in between them. "Come on Circe, we're going to get hit!"
Circe couldn't move. There was something hypnotizing, even alluring about this battle that he couldn't exactly pinpoint. As he finally saw Belleraphon spear the magnificent creature in the eye, he suddenly realized why. There was a great sharp pain on the right side of his brain.
"Ugh!" Circe winced covering his eyes. Why hadn't the Chimera won over the man? He had the intuition. He could feel what the creature was feeling and think what it was thinking, so why hadn't it won? Suddenly the Chimera turned its three ugly savage heads at him. It breathed a huge gush of fire but it missed him and went toward the forest instead. The creature stared at Circe for a few more seconds and then it died. The golden light flashed into Circe's world once more and Circe found himself back in the classroom.
"Now we're going to take a look at the Great Goblin Fight at the city of Babylon, which occurred around 752 B.C.E. However, you must remember that these weren't the first creatures they fought. They've previously dealt with gremlins, demons, and even angels. Babylon was the center for monsters in the early days."
Elven pressed his hand on the large golden book and the room flashed brightly in yellow, dropping the kids onto the middle of a sandy-tiled courtyard. Surrounding them were tall blocks of crenelated sand-colored buildings with blue and red square patterns and several large pyramid construction that led to a high golden temple near the heavens. By looking at the people, Circe could easily tell who was rich and who wasn't.
There were tall men and women dressed in silky purple and orange robes while there were others dressed in ragged, smudged brown robes with torn sandals. But they didn't seem to be strolling around, they were running into the temples, far away from something. Circe witnessed a huge silver chariot of armored goblins trundling toward them pelting strong, shimmering golden spears at the cowering citizens.
"I would've actually wanted to live here," said Zebulon, spotting several young black princes helping up a fallen mixed girl. "It looks like paradise, but ya know…monsters and stuff."
"It looks like impending chaos," said Avery.
"They look weird," said Circe, seeing a black man with an Asian face and two golden earrings on his ears.
"Next up, Avalium, our final destination!" Elven shouted somewhere among the goblin mess. A mass of goblin footsoldiers were just starting to arrive when the kids were suddenly transported into the great noisy blackness of the modern city. Circe recognized those tall glassy skyscrapers, the glossy twinkling glare of the apartment and restaurant buildings, the smell of uncut gas and the utter hopelessness of ever finding yourself among the robotic masses.
A deep silhouette poked through the inky sky and landed on top of a bank building blazing its surrounding with fire. Circe saw a group of hooded Shadower fly toward the Chimera and attack it with connected flames. The red hungry eyes of the dragon widen, screeching apoplectically into the forbidden night. Then Circe saw a Shadower carry a massive gleaming sword and stab it up and under from the mouth and then through its head while massive green fireballs were shot at it, licking the three headed monster's face in agony. The Chimera fell and disappeared into a whispering cloud of smoke. But again, Circe felt it and met it's eyes when it did. But not only that, he knew, he knew that was his father. And in their collective minds, he knew that he wasn't completely dead. Otherwise he would've felt a great pain. But it hadn't mattered, for the students had suddenly warped back to their warm dim classroom. Circe was facing the strange book again just as he had at the beginning of class, but this time with a sense of uneasy disclosure.
Glossy red notebooks with a pen began to appear on the desks.
"Well, that was all we had for today guys. Be sure to write what you saw, what you liked or didn't like and we'll discuss that next class. Please be sure to hand it in before the bell rings, thanks."
The first year Monster students excitedly marched back to their seats and noisily began on the assignment.
"That Babylon trip. Yup, that was pretty cool. I'll just write that," said Zebulon contentedly.
"I like Babylon too," said Akatu in his thick African accent.
"I liked the first one in Lycea. I've never seen a Chimera that up close before," said Avery in a reverie of thought.
But Circe stared blankly at his page, not paying attention to any of the bumbling chatter. If what he'd seen was true, and it most like was since it had been recorded as fact, then he had just seen the monstrous form of his father for the first time in twelve years. And not only that, there lay the potential danger of him still being alive, that smoke had covered him, not destroyed him. And not to mention that Circe still hadn't felt any stab of pain. No, he was still out there. And it wasn't a question of what anymore, but rather of when. When would he make his final return?
The bell rang with a loud tantrum.
"Leave your papers on my desk please and have a wonderful day!" Elven shouted. "Circe, would you mind if I have a word?"
Circe laid his blank paper down. "Umm…sure."
Once everyone had left, Elven leaned in. "How's your first day going? You seem a bit… bothered. You're not still getting bullied because of that…thing, right?"
"No, I'm fine. Everything's going fine," Circe forced a creaky smile. His mouth was rather dry.
"Good. Hey, maybe this weekend you can stop by my house and we can chat a little bit."
"Sure," Circe shrugged seeing as he had nothing to lose. "I'll see you later, Elven. Gotta get to Monster Transformation."
Circe left, shaking his head. Sometimes he wondered if elves could read minds.