"Woah!" They exclaimed in awe.
"This is so cool!" Running their fingers through the fine crafted chairs in the flying caterpillar. Some of them ran about finding what they viewed to be the 'perfect seats'.
"Take your seats young ones or this will be a ride you will hate." A voice said or rather warned. They looked about for a while but found no one. It wasn't one of the wizards, for it wasn't a voice they recognized. Taking it to be the one who drove the caterpillar, the children obediently took their seats. As soon as they did, they each got held by the waist from one end of the chair to the other by what looked like vines, serving as seatbelts.
"What do you think of this? Isn't it amazing?" Kiyan said looking out the window with a smile etched across his face.
"It sure is." Lecter replied and let out a puff of air. " To think I wasn't sure I would make the list."
"I didn't even see you until now." Jarett said to him.
"Well, I saw you three, you were a wolf, you flew in with fire and you, you, what was that bolt trick you did there?" Lecter said pointing at all three of his friends.
They had found a seat together, fortunately it was four seats per row. Lecter had his head facing his left to take a look a them, for he was seated at the edge of the seat. Kiyan was close to the window, Jarett beside him, Raten in-between Jarett and Lecter.
"Bolt trick?" Raten chuckled. "I was only trying to go over the burning wall of fire."
"Well that was the last thing I saw before I got blasted out of the test," Said Lecter.
"These two took themselves out and I suffered the worse of that exchange." Jarett grimaced remembering how much it hurt. "No one even got out with the crystal."
"What? How?"
"We were the last ones there," said Raten.
"And we, according to Jarett, took ourselves out." Kiyan explained.
"That's what happened." Jarett responded. "It wasn't about the crystal after all."
The rest of the journey was quiet with each kid admiring the beauty of the world they lived in as they watched it from above. Every now and then, a beautiful creature would fly past them, ones they've seen and ones their eyes have never gazed upon. The kids in front noticed the Wizards on the pegasus flying in front of them.
For a while they flew in the sky and noticed they could now only see waters beneath them. Land was for a long while not visible, they began to believe the academy would either be on a small island or underwater, the former seemed more reasonable and credible. Looking ahead, there was nothing but dark clouds that reached the waters, it stood as a barrier and gave an eerie feeling when looked at.
"Don't tell me we are going in there."
"Indeed we are, the wizards just did." Another relied pointing out the window. He had witnessed the pegasus suddenly bolt into the clouds, if one paid little attention, they would think they had disappeared.
"I do hope everyone is seated." The voice from earlier spoke again. "Hang on tight." He warned. Everyone held on to their seats having a feeling something they weren't going to enjoy was about to happen.
The caterpillar hovered a bit when it reached the clouds. It flapped its wings faster and began twirling its body slowly, with each turn, it got faster and faster, the kids inside of it began to feel sick. If one were to look at it from below, it would seem a drill had formed in the sky twirling with a speed enough to cause a deep hole if aimed to the ground.
"I'm going to throw up." A boy gagged and placed his hand over his mouth while screams filled the air, some of them unconsciously held hands with their eyes closed shut. Their bodies would even lift above their seats, if not for the vine-like seatbelts around them, they surely would have flown off, bumping into each other and the walls of their caterpillar-like vehicle.
Then like a bolt, piercing through the dark clouds almost at the speed of light, going through the lightning bolts that struck around and rumbles of thunder that made the kids scream even louder, the caterpillar, at great speed, got to the other end of the dark cloud. Its spinning movement had reduced drastically and the kids hearts could now beat less. Still, most of them were very dizzy, some had eventually thrown up the vehicle making the others look away in disgust.
The rotatory movement of the vehicle ceased and everyone could now relax. "We're here." The man's voice resounded calmly in their ears. It took them some time, after having their insides fly about, to decipher what they had heard.
"Wait, did he just say....?" Someone spoke having realized what was said to them. They all looked out the windows with gleams in their eyes.
"Darkmoon!" One of them yelled and they all smiled and cheered. They stared at the massive building the caterpillar headed to while also admiring the place. Their guess was right, Darkmoon was located on an island and there seemed to be a village where it was located. Actually, it was wrong to call it a village, Raldon and Venus combined can not measure up to its standard.
"Oh my gosh, a dragon!" A kid pointed out avd every one leaving their seats all ran in that direction to see, it was a young one flying about. On closer inspection, one of them noticed its features and though it looked very similar to one, it was not a dragon, it was a wyvern.
"Wyvern, dragon, atleast we saw one." The kid who cried dragon shrugged in defense after her mistake was called out. Griffins, Pegasuses, Wyverns and many more randomly roamed the streets, here they coexisted with people and were more than one could count. They also noticed several other caterpillars flying in the air, from the windows, they could see others their ages, inside them.
Coming down slowly beyond the gates of the dark painted mansion, mansion? That's not good enough to describe the building. It was thrice as large both in height and width as the Knight Academy back in Raldon. The building seemed to show unison as it had several flags on it - a purple one with a griffin symbolizing Mulgard, a red one with a single large golden star, another white one with two red vertical stripes and the last one a blue flag with a white crown in its centre. Four Kingdoms together as one.
Slowly, the legs of every flying caterpillar touched the small grass sprouting in the yard of the school. Out of them came out hundreds of students all happy to be here. Grinning from ear to ear, whispering over their shoulders to the formed friends through fright on the flight here or on the entrance exams which was same no matter where they were coming from.
As did the ones from Raldon city, two wizards had flown in with each caterpillar. They now stood in front of the ecstatic young hundreds, numbering up to twenty. They stood in a line as if waiting for someone or some people to arrive, they didn't have to say anything but just look at the children for them all to behave. The doors then opened up slowly and the children got a bit anxious.
"Follow us." One of the wizards spoke and after they cloaked men went in, the new students went in.
"Woah!"
"Someone pinch me, I must be dreaming."
"So cool!"
"It's even bigger on the inside." They all were in awe looking at the grand building they were currently in.
"Look at this brother, we're here," Raten said patting his brother's shoulder. Kiyan was too awestruck to respond.
Walking behind the wizards through a hall of wonders. Wonders? Yes. Everything they set their eyes on were immensely extraordinary. In their minds, out of this world, it was as if the building itself was alive, leading them to where they were meant to be. Instead of feeling creeped out, they were beyond amazed.
They got to an open hall which was assumed to be used to address the students, a convocation hall, to give it a name. It had a chandelier which burnt brightly with orange flames, since bulbs were not a thing yet, the candles which were supposed to be lit were missing, only flames hovering. What wouldn't one see in a magic school?
Out from the wall above them was a stage like platform, though they couldn't see it perfectly well, they could tell it was well decorated. Figures began to form in the podium and everyone had their eyes on there. One wizards, two wizards, three? Three men and two women emerged all dressed in their signature cloaks. Unlike the wizards that led them here, these ones were quite old. Upon seeing them, the young wizards gave an inclination of the head in respect.
The five wizards had a different strong aura about them and looked down at the children with serious expressions on even though they were all smiling. It looked like the first words were about to be spoken as one wizard stepped forward a bit away from the others. He spread his arms and had the most genuine smile amongst the others.
"I welcome you all to Darkmoon Academy!" He said.
The crowd of children clapped, cheered and whistled, their excitement today was unmatched with any other they had ever felt.
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Author here,
I apologize for the delay in updates. It will be consistent hereon out.
I have a new book out named "A foe for the devil." It is currently participating in this month's WPC. Kindly check it out. Your support is highly appreciated.