It was dark outside. Although it was mid day, only occasional shafts of light ever came through the dense rainforest canopy.

"Never seems like day here" Kaos thought as he walked up a ramp that led from the floor of the forest to the first level of wooden platforms that webbed the tree-city together. As he walked further across wooden bridges and platforms, he cursed the fact he had waited to buy a new wirecharm.

"At this point it's either a new wirecharm or I'm going to be late" he mumbled to himself.

He looked at the path towards Wondant and quickly decided walking wouldn't be fast enough.

After climbing another section of ramps to the second level of platforms, he finally spotted the shop built into a large tree marked "Spiderway Hub".

"Hope the line isn't long" he thought as he jogged through the entrance of the store. Luckily the only current customer he saw in the Hub was leaving when he entered. In anticipation, he slipped the silver rings off the 2nd finger and pinky of his right hand along with the thin chain that connected them. "Can I get a swap real quick?" He asked the young man at the counter, holding out his hand with the rings. "I gotcha" the man replied as he grabbed the rings and pulled out an identical pair from a drawer behind the counter.

"Since it's a swap it should just be 200 for the charged pair."

"Got it" Kaos said as he rummaged through his pockets before pulling out a few coins of various values, and handing them to the young man. "Thanks man!" He yelled as he dashed out the door with the new rings. He began looking around for a metal wire that led in Wondant's direction. As he oriented himself in the direction of Wondant, he slipped on the new rings.

"There's one" he said to himself as he spotted a wire leading towards the river. He looked up at the wire running over his head, made a fist with his hand wearing the rings, and touched the chain on the rings to the metal wire. His body immediately felt weightless as the magic coming from the rings pulled his body along the wire. As he whipped past branches, platforms, and leaves, he began to lose the stress he had accumulated.

The Spiderways were amazing. They had been created over a hundred years ago, but every time he zipped across them it felt like the first time. As he sped closer to the wall that encompassed Wondant College, he looked for the path to the entrance. As the well-trodden path came into sight, he let loose his gripped hand and floated to the forest floor, still weightless from using the wirecharm. A few seconds later, the weight returned to his body, and he was able to make his way to the crowd of students entering the front gateway.

Wondant College wasn't cheap by any means, but that was because it was top of the line. He had managed to get a scholarship because he was born with a Wish that could heal people. Although he had gotten his scholarship based on being a solid candidate for the "Deka support class", he wasn't enrolling to be a support. Last year, all of his friends parted ways and went to different colleges except his best friend Sepra. She was the same age as him and had decided to enroll at Wondant to become a warrior. That was when Kaos decided that he didn't care where he enrolled, he just wanted to stick with at least one of his friends.

"Where is she?" He thought as he craned his neck to look around the crowd of people making their way towards the tables outside the entrance hall. Hoping to have better luck outside the crowd, he pushed his way gradually to the edge of the crowd where he surveyed it again. Just then, he felt something hard and cold grasp his right shoulder from behind. He slowly turned his head and saw five skeletal fingers gripping his shoulder.

"Oh, hey!" He said spinning around quickly to face the hand's owner. It was a brown haired girl about an inch taller than him who looked entirely normal apart from her left arm being completely skeletal from the elbow to the fingertips. You couldn't quite see where the flesh became bone due to a red handkerchief tied around the border between bone and flesh.

"Imagine if I was a stranger, Sepra" Kaos said, smiling at her "that would have been a bit of a scare".

"And here I was: trying to scare a stranger and it turned out to be you" she sarcastically replied, smiling. "You figured out which class you're going to enroll in yet?"

"Nah," Kaos replied, "I figure all good decisions are made hastily and at the last minute."

"Well, if you haven't decided yet, you could always go big and try out for the Dek class with me!" She said in a sing-song voice.

"I'm not much of a fighter, but I guess it's worth a shot." Kaos said, now seeing a hardship in his immediate future, he hadn't fully made up his mind if he was going to try out for the Dek Warrior class yet, but if it meant not being so separated from his last friend, then it was worth a shot. His Wish was classified as a support Wish. This meant he could help in fights, but he was probably no match for anyone in a 1 on 1.

"I don't know," came a voice from behind him, it was a young, well-built student who looked to be about a year older than Kaos, "usually the entrance arena matches are pretty rough, so unless you've been training for a while, somebody who specializes in magician stuff is probably going to have a hard time, but that's not to say you couldn't do it."

"Well I'll have you know that Kaos here happens to have quite an impressive healing Wish" Sepra said to the man who had just spoken. "In fact, my right arm looked just like my left before he healed it!"

"That's a lie" Kaos said, smirking at Sepra, "Her arms always looked like this, but I can heal people though, and if it's a good day I can also make them fly." 

"Healing wish, huh?" The man said thoughtfully, "honestly, the entrance exam for the Dek Warrior Class is usually team fights. So a support would probably work really well there, you should go for it if you want! I'm Kyris by the way, I'm a second year here, I actually just got into the Dek class myself, so I promise I'm not 'all talk despite my yapping."

"Team fights in the arena, you say?" Kaos thought for a moment, "that actually sounds doable. I guess I'll give it a shot!"

"You probably better get to the registration tables then," came another voice, this time it was a shorter boy who looked about the same age as Kaos if not younger, "I just finished mine and wanted to get out of the crowd. I think they start the opening ceremony in like 30 minutes so unless you wanna miss that I'd go ahead and get the registration out of the way."

"I don't think I've seen you before," Kyris said narrowing his eyebrows inquisitively, "you enrolling to try and get in the Dek class?"

"Nah," said the boy, putting his hands in his pockets, "I enrolled as a Sein for the general magic stuff, I tend to lean towards calmer careers, which is why I picked the general studies. I do enjoy watching a good arena match every now and then though so I'll cheer y'all on if you decide to do it!"

"I'm Kaos, and this is Sepra" Kaos said, gesturing towards the girl who was waving her skeletal hand.

"Cool," he replied smiling and nodding, "I'm Vazai. Wanna all sit together for the entrance ceremony?"

"Sounds good to me!" Kyris said, "I need to say hi to some people real quick, but once you finish your paperwork, let's all meet up at the door over by those plants" he pointed a finger to some oddly colored plants a bit to the right of the door.

"Alright, we'll see you there!" Sepra called out as she grabbed Kaos by the wrist and began pulling him towards the desks. "You know," he said more to himself than anyone else, "I think this year isn't going to suck."