After some time, Edric agreed to sleep in the same bed as me and I fall asleep in his arms. I wake up to his warm chest. I try to get out of his arms without waking him up but he opens his eyes.'
'Good morning, Starlight.' I smile.
'Good morning, Edric. I am hungry and you?' He nods.
'Great, I will try to find some berries outside.' He takes my hand.
'Wait, lets check the kitchen first.' He takes me by the hand and leads me to the kitchen. There he starts to make something. He gives part of it to me, and I sniff it.
'It is a sandwich.'
'This has sand in it?!'
'No, that is just the name. Try it. I know you will love it. It has lots of baked mushrooms in it.' I do as he says and a great taste fills my mouth.
'Wow this is delicious.' The door now bangs open and my sister walks in covered in blood. She puts a dead bird on the table.
'Breakfast is ready sis.' I give her a piece of my food.
'You have to try this.' She immediately puts it in her mouth.
'It is good, but I rather have my meat. Don't you want some?' I shake my head.
'No, but clean yourself up. You have blood all over you.' She snaps her finger, and all the blood is gone now.
'Better?' I nod.
An hour later Edric and I are standing before a big house. I take deep breaths but than knock on the door. A purple thing opens the door and Edric takes me upstairs. He takes me to two rooms, but they are both empty. I sniff.
'They are there.' I point at the door right in front of us.
'But that is my room.' Edric opens the door, and the two green haired girls look very sadly at the empty bad.
'Em, Mittens, I am back.' They both look up and run up to him. I feel awkward.
'You are home now so I should go.' I want to walk away but Edric immediately grabs my arm and pulls me close.
'Don't go. Please stay a bit longer. Em, Mittens this is Starlight. She was trapped inside the cave with me until we where let go last night. She and her sister had no where to go so she will stay with Luz and Eda. She lived with the beasts since she was five and her sister since she was a baby, so they are bit wild, but Starlight and me become friends in no time. The beasts did not hurt them or me. They protected the girls and raised them. Starlight was interested in me, so they let me live. I could no go out or escape, but I was save and well taken care of. Last night they decided that the girls where finally old enough take care of themselves so they let us go.' The girls nod and hug me.
'Thank you for protecting and saving our brother Starlight.' I smile.
'No problem. Edric is my friend. I won't let anything happen to him.'
I stayed there the rest of the day and had diner with Edric and his sisters. Their parents never appeared, and I am really glad about that. I trust Edric and his sister but I am not sure if I can trust his parents yet. I am clearly not normal. I still have to learn about some of the normal witch stuff like cutlery and I don't even know the names of most everyday things.
Yesterday day Eda and king gave me a speed course about being a witch and today we will go to school. Eda will talk to the principal for us, and I wait in front of the school for her. Starfall went inside with her, but I wanted to stay outside. I still hope to see Edric before I start and talk with him. I am excided but also a little scared, so I need a hug and his kind encouraging words right now.
I look at the road and jump up as soon as I see him but before I can get to hem a crowed has him surrounded. I try to get trough but is no use and I walk back to the stairs. I look down at ground and listen to the others asking Edric all sorts of questions. Like how did he survive? How did he escape? Was he scared? Was he brave? I think he was brave. He saw me as a beast after almost being eaten by my dad, but he still become my friend in the end.
I sniff his scent. He is wearing one of those stones again. What was it called? Clock stone? Censure stone? O I remember now it is a concealment stone but is also named a cloaking stone. Edric and Emira have to wear them from their mother. She needs her children to be perfect and puberty makes them ugly according to her words. She does not want anyone to see them that way, not even in their own house. I think it is ridicules. Edric just had glasses, his hair is a little longer than it is with the stone, his body is more relaxed, and he has a little bit more hair. So what? He still looks very handsome and more natural than he does with that stupid rock. I don't know what Emira looks like without it, but I think they should be allowed to be themselves. Edric is still the most beautiful and kind boy I ever met. With or without it. I want him to be himself and comfortable. Who cares about little 'imperfection'.
Suddenly Edric breaks trough the crowd and walks towards me. I jump into his open arms and hug him tight. 'I missed you and for me you don't need to wear that stupid stone. You are beautiful just the way you are. Who cares what your mother thinks.' I whisper into his ear, and he turns red.
'Are ready for your first day Starlight?'
'I am excited and scared at the same time. I am glad I could still see and hug you before it all starts.'
'Don't me scared my shining light, I am here for you and after school I will take you to see the town.' I blush.
'Thank you Edric I needed that. You are really a great friend.'
'Yeah, friend…'
'Starlight come, you have to talk to Bump.' I look at Eda and smile.
'Coming Eda!'
She walks me to a stage. 'Hello Starlight. Welcome to Hexside. I am principal Bump. Your sister already showed me her powers, can you show me some of yours?'
''Uhm sure.' I make a fire and some ice in my hands. When I hold the fire to the ice and make a small figure of Bump. Than turn it to stone and let it flow to him.
'Something like that?' Nervous I look at him. He smiles.
'You did great Starlight and thank you for the present. You are both excepted.' He snaps his finger and both me and my sister are wearing uniforms now.
'Now what kind of track do you want to follow? Since you are both raised by beasts, I recommend the beast keeping track. But you can also choose one of the others.' He puts his finger up and above his head the names of all the tracks appear with pictures of it. Illusion, healing, potion, oracle, plant, construction, beast keeping, abomination and the bard track.
'I like beast keeping. I don't know much about everything else, but I also find the name belittling to the beasts. It should be called beasts befriending.'
'I agree on the name thing, and I don't know much about the other tracks either, but I want to try them all out before I choose. I want to learn what a bard, abomination and oracle is before I can decide if I want to study it.' The man snaps his fingers. I wear all the track collars and my sister only wears orange collars.
'I did not know that was an option. I want to change and what is that on your head?' Starfall looks curious at the man's head. He smiles and snaps his fingers again. Now Starfall wears the same uniform colors as me.
'Of course, Starfall. You can always change. Let me know when you know which tracks you want to keep following, but you can also keep following them all. Just like Luz.' The little demon on his head wakes up, comes lose and changes into a staff.
'This is my palisman and good of friend mine, Frewin, he helps me see.'
'That is cool.' I frown.
'Starfall is right, but I wonder why trough. Can't you just heal your eyes?'
'Sadly no. My injuries go beyond magical repair. They where hit by a powerful curse that makes healing it impossible.'
'Can I try? I also helped Eda with her curse and everyone else always told her that it is impossible. Your magic is not like any else. It is special. We don't even need to draw circles to use our magic. Just willpower.'
'O no! You nearly died from helping Eda. You stronger now, but if someone tries I will.' The man looks at us conflicted.
'Let them try. After all they could even help me and that way you can do even more fun things with your little imp.' The man smiles.
'Alright girls, you can both give it a try, but don't overuse your power.'
'I will go first.' Starfall walks up to him and touches his hand, but nothing happens.
'I can't go deep enough. Witches are difficult to understand for me. I can cure any curse on a beast, but witches are more complicated. I'm sorry.'
'My turn. I have more experience with witches than you. I was raised as one for longer than you and hugged enough with Edric to understand their body and soul better than you.' I touch the man's hand and close my eyes. I soon find the root of the curse and rip it apart with my mind. Than I open my eyes and heal his wounds. The man looks at me with wide eyes.
'Remarkable girls. Starlight please don't give up on the healing track. You can really help a lot of people and still have time for the others. You also have a real talent for it. I can now build an even better band with Frewin thanks to you. Now girls, if you will please follow me than I will bring you to your first class and give you your timetable.' I nod.
'Eda, I see you at home tonight. I will be going to see the town with Edric after school, so you don't have to pick me up.'
'And I will be going to heal beasts and talk to them so I can help and collect snails with you.' Eda smiles.
'Great girls, I see you and Luz after school. Look after each other and try to break some rules where you add it.'
'Eda!'
'Good girls, that is my cue, I got to go.' Eda quickly leaves before principal Bump can say anything else and the man signs.
'Good girls, here are your timetables. As you can see you start today with beast keeping, followed by healing, followed by illusion, followed by bard magic. After that you have a lunch break followed abomination and plant magic. You have oracle, construction and potion tomorrow and after that you will go back to beast keeping etcetera. It that order you will follow the tracks unless there is an examination for one of your classes. You can come to me anytime you need something or if you want to change tracks. Now if you will please follow me I take you to your class.
The man brings us to our class where a woman with dark brown hair and green eyes greets us. 'Hello girls welcome to my class. You are just in time for a very special lesson. You can each pick an egg or a baby beast and take care for him or her. We have orphaned echo mousses and ratworms as well as different eggs found my students. Normally only experienced students can take part in this lesson but giving your background I am sure you understand how careful you have to be with beast baby's and eggs.'
'You should really try an egg. Nothing beats the moment my puddles came out of her egg. There is nothing more special than a band between you and the beast that you hatched all yourself.' A girl that looks like our teacher smiles at us. We both walk up to the eggs, and I soon pick up a white egg that has black spots on it. My sister picks up the egg next to it which is a black egg with blue spots in different colors.
I close my eyes. 'I never seen this kind of egg before, but I feel that needs to be colder than this.' I snap my finger and a cool carryback appears.
'I will put it in here. That way nothing can happen to it.'
'Mine needs to be warmer and wheat.' A second carryback appears filled with warm water.
'Girls those are just show models. They are even older than this school and where never hatched.'
'That is because the care did not match their needs. Some beasts can stay in their eggs for more than a hundred-year, others even longer and a most won't hatch until they get what they need. However, that does not mean that they are dead. I feel life inside mine. Their devolvement did not start yet. If they where dead than the egg would be rotten and gone by now.' The woman nods.
'I would love to see what is inside of them so you girls can try. Just don't be disappointment like I was when nothing happened for more than a year. If it does not hatch you can always try an other egg or a beast.' We both nod. I look at my egg full of excitement.
'I can't wait to meet you little guy.'
'And I can't wait to meet you my sweet girl.' My sister talks to her own egg. The teacher looks at us full confusing. Not long after that the bell rings and we head to the next class.
For an hour both me and my sister are healing students and even people in town that the principal told about us. People that could never been helped before. He felt we needed a challenge in this class and those people need help. They lost hope. The problem is there are more people to heal than we have time and if we keep doing it, we will collapse. Healing people takes a lot of energy if their wounds are complicated.