Alia stepped up the polished granite stairs to the town square. In the middle of the square was a grand fountain with a large statue of the first king of the earthen elves. Surrounding it was a mosaic of all the primal sources. The market was bustling with life, with stands and stores selling delicious treats and food, As well as trinkets and clothes. The smell of the market wafted over to her, a combination of bread, meats, and fruits. She walked near a place that was roasting chicken and pork. Wow, that smells so good! Now I'm hungry..
"Hey, Alia! How you've been!" Alia heard from behind her. She turned around and saw Juvari, one of her best friends, running towards her. "Doing great! How about you?" "Pumped for the journey, excited for school and honestly, tired." he said, scratching his hair.
Juvari was a redhead, with short shaggy hair. He had the natural armor that one in five elves had; earthy brown rocks like an exoskeleton popping up on some parts of his skin. Juvari was the maps and location guy, and loved to go hunting with his father. "The smell of the market is making me hungry." Alia said, starting to walk backwards up the steps. "Me too." Juvari said, sprinting up the steps to catch up to Alia. They walked towards the Academy of Magic and the Arts. the second largest and most grand building in Terrathia.
They got to the school's entrance and climbed up the stairs to the courtyard. The school was huge, with a circular grand hall that branched off to four sections- special classes like astrology, journalism, the honors rooms and engineering. The second was for regular classes like math, reading, science and gym. The third wing was for magic classes like the entrance to battle training, magical studies and elemental studies. The fourth wing was for the dorms.
They found Ulla, another one of Alia's friends. She was laying on a bench, sketching the large tree that grew to the left. Ulla was brunette, and she let her curly hair flow down her back like a chocolate waterfall. She wore circular glasses and loved to draw.
"Hey, Ulla!" Juvari said. Ulla placed down her sketchpad and sat up. "Hey, Juvari and Alia!" She called out. "Are you excited for the journey?" Alia asked, sitting on the bench. Juvari joined them. "Yeah! I'm really excited. I wonder if we'll see a unicorn! Those are pretty cool." Ulla said. "Yeah. I can't wait to learn more about magic!" Juvari said. "But remember, we still have to pass the test in order to go." Ulla said. "Yeah, I guess you're right. One more day in survival class- and I dont wanna eat the wrong mushroom or berry." Alia said. *BONG BONG BONG* "time to go!" The kids walked into the academy and entered the grand hall. To the left and right was the library, filled with stories, history books, activities and spellbooks. In the middle was a large statue, depicting an elven mage doing magic.
students flooded the hall, going up the stairs that led to a large balcony that led to each branch of the school. Behind the stairs was the nurse's office and lunchroom, and in between the stairs was a large tree stump that held up the ceiling. The office was carved into the wood. The walls and ceiling were made of polished granite, both earthy brown and white kinds, with golden decorations and trims. On the walls were large geo-luminescent crystals that lit up the school with a cold-colored glow.
Vines crawled up the walls that sectioned off each golden depiction, stretched up the tall walls and came together on the glass dome, and drooped down and held up a large bush chandelier with glowing berries.
"Let's get to our class, before the final gong." Ulla said, walking up the stairs. Alia and Juvari sprinted to catch up with her. They got to the balcony and went over to the special classes wing. *GONG GONG* "Come on, let's go!" Ulla said. They made their way through the crowd and got to their survival classroom.
They walked in and saw their teacher, Mr.Kanh, shuffling through a bunch of papers and mumbling to himself. "Oh, Hello! Welcome to class. Please have a seat." He said. "Ok." Alia said. They walked over to their seats and sat down, then started chatting.
The survival classroom was made using mostly brown granite, with two windows to the left of the room. (door was on the top right) there were terrariums filled with plants, insects and fish. There were posters hanging on the walls, with topics like what not to eat and their edible lookalikes, what animals to stay away from and which ones would be most suitable for eating, plants good for salads and which ones not to eat or touch, ect. The class filled up quickly. *GONG* Final warning. Class had started. "Welcome to the final survival class. Last week, we went camping overnight and now, we have our test. Only people who pass the test will be able to go on the Journey." Kanh said, getting up and passing the test around. "We will review everything we have learned this trimester, so you better have paid attention to everything. We will not be looking at notebooks. Any questions?" He asked. Nothing. "Great! Let's begin. You have thirty minutes, starting now." Alia finished the quiz about four minutes before the timer was up. Once the timer rang, all of the students gave their tests back to the teacher and packed up. "I hope you tried your hardest- you remembered that getting lower than an 80% will mark you not able to go on the Journey?" the teacher asked. "Mhm," the class replied. Alia, Ulla and Juvari chatted for a bit until the bell rang.
As they were leaving, they walked through the crowded halls making their way to their next class. Suddenly, they got shoved and were forced to walk forward, until they fell over like dominoes."AH!" Alia yelled, falling onto someone. "Sorry! Sorry! That wasn't me!" Alia said. "I did not do that!" "What was that?" The victims of the shove said, attempting to not be the one that was called guilty. Mph. Who did that? They got up, brushed themselves off and continued walking before another wave of force hit them. This time, not causing another domino effect. "WHO DID THAT?" Alia yelled back to the end of the effect line. Silence. "That is what I thought. Cowards." She muttered. "What was that, punk?" Someone said, "Don't anger her. You know what'll happen." Another voice said. "Grr.." the first voice said.
"Alia, what happened?" Ulla asked. "Some kid thought it would be funny to shove a bunch of kids and knock them down." Alia explained. "Well that's rude." Juvari said, crossing his arms. "And they were too much of a coward to show themselves." Alia said. "Oh well. They're gone now. Let's just go, before we are late to class." Alia said.
*BONG BONG* "yeah, we do need to get going.." Juvari said.
They split up and waved goodbye to each other, as Ulla had art. But, Juvari and Alia both had battle training. They went to the magic classes, then walked downstairs, and entered the training zone.