Damian felt the shudder, and Alaric—the headmaster—thought he saw something dark flash, and his interest in Damian piqued immediately. Damian was the last but one in line; he left the orb and went to join those who didn't awaken. The last student behind him, a boy with white hair like his and a tad shorter than him, flashed a smile and went to place his hand on the orb—he also didn't awaken and went to stand by Damian. Those who didn't awaken were told that they had no class till further notice. Everyone in the group was already feeling good about themselves—some of them were going to be variants and special affinity users. The boy with the white hair approached Damian as he was leaving and introduced himself as Deimus Sil. They began talking, and Damian found out that he was an avid reader like himself and was crazy about beasts. Deimus was in a different building, so they each decided to go and change, then meet later on to visit the beasts' pen.
They wandered about the grey section till they actually finished seeing all the creatures it had to offer. Not satisfied, they entered the elevator in the middle of the entire grey section. There were only five buttons—a grey, green, yellow, red, and violet one each representing the sections available in ascending order of danger and ferocity. Damian pressed the green button and down went the elevator. The doors opened, and they entered the green section. The first thing they noticed was that the aura was different from that of the grey section, and the pressure too. In the grey section, the aura was friendly, with little to no pressure at some parts. Here it was different; the pressure was way higher and more significant, and Deimus' knees buckled a bit at first, but Damian felt nothing. They walked around till they came across earth wyverns in an area titled Drakespire Aviary. Related to dragons, wyverns possess two scaly legs, leathery wings, and a sinewy tail topped with a poison stinger that can kill creatures in seconds. The earth wyverns, however, had scales that were topped with various stones. Their necks and most of their bodies were covered by plants, enabling them to blend in with their surroundings. At first they were all still, making it difficult for Deimus and the rest of the students who were also around to see them.
As Damian and Deimus approached, one of the boulders in the aviary moved and cracks began to splinter across its surface, revealing veins of glowing amber beneath the stone. The ground trembled as the rock shifted, shedding its outer shell like a skin. Slowly, the boulder unfurled jagged, stone-like wings and two glowing eyes linked to life. What was once cold and lifeless now stood as an earth wyvern, its body rippling with hardened scales radiating raw elemental power. It shook its head and gave a tiny roar; it was a baby Wyvern, and it looked at Damian with curiosity. It flew towards Damian, but because of the barrier, it was unable to get close to him. Frustrated with the barrier, it spew a liquid at it, which turned to crystal that smeared the aviary's side of the barrier like ice on glass. One of the workers passing by noticed the interest of Wyvern and told Damian it really likes him, though he can't let him it until cleaning time. Pretty much all of the wyverns were up and about sizing Damian. Suddenly, some of the trees far off in the aviary started crushing down, and soon the dust was everywhere. A mighty roar shook the entire green section; once the dust settled, everyone was amazed. In front of them, all the wolves had bowed down and parted ways. Walking among them slowly was the biggest earthworm you ever saw. It had diamond horns, and where the scales had broken or worn off, chucks of diamond replaced them. Its chest was basically an armor of huge spikes of diamond. Its eyes were glowing green as compared to the white serpentine eyes of the rest. Every step shook the ground; everyone stood back except Damian and Deimus, who were very curious. The wyvern looked at them; it was obviously the leader; it made a rumbling noise in its throat, and all the wyverns stopped bowing. The leader came very close to the barrier and peered closely at them. It started rumbling again as if it were trying to speak with them, but they understood nothing. It gave them an annoyed look and glared at Aydha with such hostility that the pressure around the aviary increased tenfold; everyone got slammed to the ground with the exception of Damian. It began pushing against the barrier, although invisible made cracking sounds, and soon enough cracks began to appear before them and an alarm started blaring. The caretakers began milling around, and soon the spellweavers among them drew symbols and signs—enforcing the barrier to prevent the wyvern from breaking out. The others rounded up the students and began showing them out. On their way out, Damian overheard something odd. Apparently, it has been decades since the leader awoke; the rest he couldn't hear due to the blaring alarm that happened to be close by the elevators. They left the beasts' pen and proceeded to the dining hall to eat lunch, and from there they took life a bit easy and lazed around.
They departed, and each went to their room. The next couple of days were a bit boring; they hadn't received any word from the professors about the awakening; they also learned that the green section and below were closed off to everyone until further notice, which pretty much meant going over the grey section, which they had done multiple times. The book he had been reading since he found it had stopped translating itself for him, so he was pretty much stymied and had already committed most of the moves he had seen and read about to memory already.
Nox rang again as it had been doing every day since he reached here, signaling morning. He rubbed his eyes and sat up looking around. He beamed as he saw Aydha bounding towards him—she was clenching mail between her teeth. As Damian guessed it was a summons for the unawaken, finally things were going to shape up and be a bit exciting again.