He awoke to the feeling of something hard and heavy on his face, alongside a dull, chilling pain constricting his nose. With a passive groan he reached up and grabbed the object, immediately throwing it away when it started wriggling in his grasp. The light of day barraged his eyes, as he squinted over the edge of his bed where he'd heard the harsh impact. 

          A tiny metal dragon popped into his view, wiping its glossy face a couple times before it gave him an insulted look, and crawled up the nightstand.

          The dragon found its perch on top of the clock, and stared at him with sapphire eyes, a hint of expectancy clouding its face. He blinked, curiously moving his finger towards the dragon's head. It didn't move until he stroked its nose and it latched its toothless jaws onto his finger, promptly refused to unhand his pointer finger and dangled in the air like a wet rag.

          "It's not gonna stop bugging you until you get up," Truvius called. He was already wearing his uniform, and had a friendly smile on his face.

          Káel was adjusting to the blinding light, and still in a trance of fatigue from sleeping. "Get up? For what?" he mumbled, leaning out of his covers and rubbing his eyes.

          "School, food, fun," Truvius said, receiving a blank and tired stare from Káel. "Wait... Do your people not have school?"

          Káel allowed Truvius's question to hang, and snugly cocooned himself back in his covers. "I'm not going," he growled, just as a hard metal object catapulted itself into his head and started tugging tufts out of his hair.

          Truvius watched Káel's irritation grow as the tiny dragon turned to ripping individual strands out. "Suit yourself... But it's not gonna stop bugging you until you get up."

  —————  

          He couldn't believe it.

          Actually, maybe he could.

         After all, going to school was the better punishment when compared to that irritating metal monstrosity. 

          At first he was reluctant to put on the uniform, but it was the only set of clean clothes he had, and was surprisingly comfortable. Ray could have warned him to pack a bag before he kidnapped him, that would have been nice.

          "Th-that supply list was a reminder. Where are his, his supplies?" Talli questioned, still oblivious to Káel's situation; and Vera was trying to keep it that way.

          He silently followed his three acquaintances, the fact that he had to stay on the planet for a hundred days was relentlessly haunting him. What was even worse was the days had 28 hours to them instead of 24, and he still had to get up at 7:30 to eat breakfast, otherwise the demonic metal torture dragon of an alarm clock would make him go bald.

          They ate breakfast, and Káel took a cautious liking to it, constantly stroking the hard lump in his pocket to make sure the rock was snug and stationary, since unnecessary surprises were the last thing he wanted right about now.

          After choking down enough food to last, he opted for tailing the three acquaintances he'd made with a suitable birth of space. Everyone, excluding himself, seemed to know exactly what, and where their next class was. Káel never saw an agenda in his envelope, and after asking Truvius, he learned the functions of a Sender. It looked like a silver bracelet, and from Truvius's description sounded exactly like a cellphone that could only call other people and provide limited notifications. So in all, it was a severe downgrade from his trendy touch screen. 

          Truvius hadn't stopped at explaining the object, and after going over the list of classes he'd been forced into, his tone rose to a weak scold as he explained that the sender was to be worn at all times, in case an emergency sprouted up in the shifty school. Káel of course, had left it in his envelope.

          Vera looked around and narrowed her eyes. "Where the heck are we going?"

          "I-I don't know." Talli whispered.

          "It's that way, downstairs, through the back hall, two left turns, and then up a small flight of stairs," Truvius replied.

          Vera clicked her tongue, not even caring that the exhaustion of talking was showing on her face. "How do you know that?"

          "I memorized the school during the tour, but I guess you came in near the end of it."

          She scoffed. "Don't tell me you were paying attention to the guides."

          Their first class was some sort of science, since Káel couldn't think of anything else to call it. Mr. Truffle, the teacher, was an old man with snowball white hair, and a pointed beard reaching down to his shoulders. His room was neat and lacking any sort of science equipment or decorations Káel was accustomed to, so of course Truvius, who seemed to have a constant need to keep his mouth going, took it upon himself to explain the barren decorations. After the lengthy tale of his tendency to combust the room, that Truvius whispered to Káel during the teacher's equally as exhausting introduction, Káel was seriously doubting the validity of the rumour. As such, he didn't pay much attention to Truvius's tale, resting his chin on his arms with drooping eyelids until Mr. Truffle introduced himself by mixing two strange liquids into a bowl, causing a green fireball to shoot up and lick the ceiling.

          Káel instinctively pulled out his phone to keep on hand for another large explosion, while the teacher rubbed his smoking eyebrows and killed the green flames eating at the ceiling with a burst of wind. He then jumped right into shooting every student in the face with a vast arrangement of information that sounded like he was explaining time travel with a spatula. Káel was relieved to see that everyone in the room was just as confused as he was, except for Truvius, who would mutter the correct answer seconds before the teacher gave it every time, yet still took it upon himself to scribble down a couple pages of notes.

          When class ended, Truvius dragged Káel back to his room to get the sender, then to their next class, history, a surprisingly interesting experience as the teacher explained the recent war way better than Truvius' hyped blurb. Káel managed to get through it without accidentally dozing off, since any history was better than the Canadian curriculum he'd been put through for years. He couldn't say the same about Vera though, she'd put her head down five minutes into class, and he could hear the soft and rhythmic snores over the teacher's booming voice.

  —————  

          Vera was already yawning repeatedly as she walked out of the class, while Talli was frantically trying to scribble down everything the teacher had said. Truvius was finally silent as he completed their little meeting circle, likely because, like Káel, he was trying not to laugh at the red mark across Vera's forehead that perfectly mimed the bumping stripes of her sleeve.

          "The next class had better be good," she said, stretching out her legs from the extended amounts of sitting.

          Talli pulled up her sleeve and looked at the sender. "I-I think we have Lumience c-combat class next."

          Vera yanked up her sleeve to see for herself. "Yes! I can finally blow something up and get marks for it!" she cheered, receiving a quick glance of worry from some students walking out the door.

          Káel found himself being dragged back and forth repeatedly this particular day, and although he hated the monotonous practice, he wordlessly complied when Truvius dragged him back to their dorm.

          Truvius was sticking his head out the window and blowing on a wooden whistle, but Káel had given up wondering what was happening in general while he fumbled around to get his combat suit on. It had way too many straps.

          After a few minutes, a blue bird the size of a large frying pan dived through the window, flying straight for Káel's head to bat and scratch at it as he fell onto his butt in surprise.

          "Shriek for goodness sake he's not attacking me!" Truvius yelled, grabbing the bird off of Káel's head and constricting it's madly flapping wings. The blue bird looked at Káel with a murderous glint to its beady eyes and hissed. "Sorry, this stupid bird thinks whenever I call him I'm being attacked."

          Káel picked a couple blue feathers out of his hair, and ruffled it back to its original state, steadying his leaping heart by clutching his chest. "You have a pet bird?"

          "No, Shriek's my Guardian, a stupid one, but my Guardian nonetheless." Another hiss emanated from the bird as Truvius gently placed it on his nightstand. "Come to think of it, you should get one yourself."

          "A bird?" Káel caught Shriek's deathly glare out of the corner of his eye. "I think I'll pass."

          "Nah," Truvius responded, shoving off Káel's sarcasm. "Guardians don't have to be birds. You can befriend any living thing to be your Guardian." He flinched when he saw the time. "We should get going."

          The room they arrived in was paved top to bottom with smooth grey stones, completely lacking the relaxing presence of any windows, spare a few at the top with iron bars lacing them. To top it off the only set of doors were thick chunks of plain iron that were blessed with siege quality locks to decorate them. Káel gave the prison-like room a shudder, the back of his neck tingling as he noticed the complete lack of desks and chairs, spare a small wooden one for the absent teacher. There wasn't a shred of comfort to the space, only the cold hard floor.

          They found Vera giving Talli's cat-ish dog creature a scratch behind the ears. It had a leopard spotted pelt, with broad pointy ears, and a long snout. It's legs were thin and nimble, with black unretractable claws, and from the looks of it,  it was grabbing tons of attention, graciously welcoming the group of students affectionately stroking it.

          "That's a Sand Maine, they're extremely vain creatures," Truvius whispered to Káel, while Shriek took the chance to nip at his ear.

          The room was like a show and tell for strange animals, in which everyone remembered to bring one, except for Káel. In fact, looking around the room he spotted multiple purple striped uniforms meshing in with the silver, causing the already over-sized class to be blown up to twice it's size.

         Káel sighed as he spotted someone with a cat, he'd give anything to have Jeremiah in his arms right about now.

          "See, you're not the only one who doesn't have a Guardian." Truvius whispered, motioning to Vera.

          "I do actually," Vera retorted, making Truvius aware of his stage whisper. She pulled the left side of her hair back to reveal a strange bump underneath her jacket, the lump cooed as she lightly rubbed it. "She's a little shy around large crowds."

          Truvius leaned in to poke it, but Vera grabbed his finger and bent it back with a glare.

          "She's a Phoenix, I wouldn't go surprising her if I were you."

          Suddenly, a white orb dropped in front of them, causing Talli's Guardian to spring up and stand protectively in front of her. The orb bounced a couple times like a ball, then stopped, wobbling unstably.

          Truvius picked it up, and chucked it at a group of purple uniformed boys waving their arms. It hit the wall and ricocheted around the room like a super powered bouncey ball, with some of the students jumping up and trying to catch or hit it. 

          Until the classroom doors slammed shut.

          The class went dead silent as Mr. Mudelin came to the front of the class. He muttered something at the white orb as it flew through the air, and shattered it with an arrow-like black streak. With an impassive sigh he pocketed the small book he'd been reading, shooting his dry, and surprisingly loud voice through the space. "This is a combat class, not some miserable toy shop."

          Truvius cowered away, fearing he would face the wrath of Mr. Mudelin for even touching the ball; despite the fact he clearly hadn't seen him.

          "My name is Dedrick Mudelin, I'll expect you all to address me as Mr. Mudelin or sir. Any other names and I'll ignore you. As some of you know, and I have been burdened with the task of teaching you lot. Now let's get a few things straight, I don't tolerate purposeful incompetence, or disruptive behaviour, if my words are not enough to deter you from such actions, I have full power over the marks you will receive in this class."

          Mr. Mudelin walked up to the only seat in the class that was barred off by his desk, and ran his hand across the air. As he did, a black bat winged lizard appeared like a hazy cloud. It opened its calm moon coloured eyes, and nuzzled Mr. Mudelin's hand.

          "I hope you all remembered your Guardians." He eyed a handful of students, including Káel. "Today I'm only going to test your current capabilities, and since you're all students ranked C and above, I have higher expectations. Partner up."

          As if their best friends had suddenly become super magnets, everyone in the room lurched for their chosen victims. Most of the girls jumped at each other with iron tight hugs, acting as though their friend was about to be dragged off to execution. Most of the guys simply gave their friend a smack on the shoulder, or tried to lock eyes with them to signal their intentions.

          Talli assaulted Vera's arm, hanging from it with a terrified hug, while Truvius paired up with Káel.

          Mr. Mudelin looked around the room, strangely amused by the organised clutter of pairs. "The person you are standing beside is not allowed to be your partner for the day, go find someone else."

          The room was filled with disappointed groans from the tricked teens, as they wandered to retrieve their secondary choices. Káel went to ask Talli, but Truvius swooped down and snatched her seconds before he opened his mouth.

          Káel kept his distance as he confronted Vera. "Partners?"

          "Fine," she said, watching Truvius walk away with a petrified Talli.

          After Mr. Mudelin ordered the class to do a number of strange things, including tongue twisters that didn't work in English, strange noises, and a staring contest that turned into an aggressive competition, he went straight into testing.

          "First you will be turning your object invisible." he said, walking up to each student with a black sack full of small sticks and glossy pebbles. Káel pulled out a boring grey pebble when the sack came to him, and Vera got a scraggly brown twig barely longer than her pointer finger.

          Vera's stick vanished with ease, and after a couple painful tries, Káel's rock turned into the familiar cloudy form. 

          Mr. Mudelin viewed the rock with displeasure, but kept his mouth sealed as he skimmed through the other students.

          "You're pretty bad," Vera muttered, her green eyes flicking from the cloudy rock to catch Káel's unamused glare. "Sorry, it's just a bit worrisome."

          He looked around to make sure Mr. Mudelin's back was turned, mustering up a whisper low enough to hide from the students around him. "Haven't exactly done this before."

          "I know, but this is a combat school." she replied, her whisper jumping slightly as Mr. Mudelin's voice cut the air with a new task. She quickly followed his instructions to turn her stick green, nodding at Káel for him to try.

          Nothing happened as Káel muttered the spell, but he didn't look frustrated in the least, just wholesomely done with the tragic comedy called his life. 

          Vera sighed, catching Káel's stare again with a serious look. "They'll kick you out."

          "Pardon?"

          She nudged her head at the rock, raising her eyebrows to try and convey a message to the confused boy. "If you can't even do basic Lumience, they'll kick you out."

          "Out of the school?" Káel shrugged as she nodded. "Alright then."

          "Are you simple?" Vera frowned at the soft smile playing on his face. "Hate to break it to you, but you don't have a place to go, since home is an eternity away."

          The calm smile on Káel's face immediately died, vanquished by the stealing strength of anxious worry that never failed to turn his stomach. He looked at the dull stone, then at Mr. Mudelin as he marked a pair a couple meters away. He searched Vera's pitying frown like a helpless child. "I can't-"

          She muttered under her breath, watching as the stone cupped in Káel's hands turned a rich green and looking away to mind her own business, so she didn't risk catching Káel's grateful smile as Mr. Mudelin approached.

          The teacher gave them a quick glance, drifting by like a haunted spirit as he scribbled down some notes. Whenever Mr. Mudelin ordered the class to do something new, Vera tried to teach Káel how to do it, but it always ended with her doing the spell for him as soon as they came within range of the teacher's critiquing gaze.

          Finally, he ordered the class to levitate their objects, and after a quick tutorial from Vera Káel's pebble refused to move from the snug palm of his hand. Mr. Mudelin got closer and closer, and Vera wasn't proving to be of much help, since everything she tried to tell Káel centered around him focusing on the rock, which he was doing to the best of his ability.

          As Mr. Mudelin crossed the danger zone Vera levitated the rock for him, and they both did their usual freeze and stare at the teacher.

          Mr. Mudelin didn't pass by like all the other times, he stopped beside them, giving back their stares with a discomforting frown. "That's enough, Strylaz."

          Vera was so concentrated on fooling the teacher she almost forgot her last name, but dropped her stick when she was confronted with his cold scowl.

          "Both of them, Strylaz."

          Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach as she drooped her head shamefully, and dropped Káel's rock into the palm of his hand. Káel stood there staring at the floor, trying to pretend the teacher wasn't standing there with his chillingly dead face... 

          Busted.

          "You." Mr. Mudelin growled.

          Káel turned his head and tried to pull a cheesy Ray smile. "Yes?"

          He looked down at the pebble impatiently. "Go on."

          Mr. Mudelin was just like Vera, ordering Káel to focus while he helplessly tried to levitate the rock. Some of the students turned to watch Mr. Mudelin calmly grind on Káel's patience, snickering at the sight.

          After five minutes of viewing the motionless rock, Mr. Mudelin gave up. "What rank are you boy?"

          "B, I think."

          His eyes immediately narrowed. "Where is your Guardian?"

          "Don't have one."

          "You don't have one." he said, the corner of his mouth curving with contempt. " Tell me, how did you get your rank?"

          "Not sure, ask the girl who gave it to me." Káel retorted.

          "Levitate the pebble."

          Káel grouchily muttered the phrase at the pebble, and it popped up into the air for two seconds before dropping back into his palm. A couple of the spectating students chuckled at the sight, and Káel looked at Mr. Mudelin with wide eyes and a theatrical smile, slowly raising his eyebrows.

          Mr. Mudelin's scowl had done anything but improve, and now his arms were folded over his chest. "Is this some sort of game to you?"

          "Nope, to be quite honest sir, I'm surprised something even happened," Káel said, noticing Truvius making a big x with his arms.

          Mr. Mudelin dropped his intimidating posture, and scoffed. "It's the first day, so I'll ignore your disrespectful sass. By next week I'll expect you to have your focus, and a Guardian present. Am I clear?"

          "Yes sir." Káel said, followed by a grumbly, "If I'm still here by then."

          "What was that?" Mr. Mudelin snapped.

          "I said where can I find a Guardian?" Káel lied.

          "You can talk to Mrs. Vienta about a Guardian, I believe she is the instructor of your next class." He turned away coldly, ordering the other students to get back to work.

  —————  

          "That went well." Vera said, when the group had gotten far enough away from Mr. Mudelin's class to avoid detection.

          Káel sighed. "He reminds me of my social teacher, the only thing that pleased her was when we all graduated."

          "Yeah, he definitely hates you." Truvius frowned. "I'm seriously doubting you're even remotely related to a warlord, they're supposed to be naturally talented. "

          "Y-you never know, he c-could be a really nice g-guy, and today just wasn't a good d-day."

          Vera put her arm around Talli's shoulder and smiled. "It's ok Talli, you keep on telling yourself that. It's lunch time, right?"

          Truvius nodded, looking at Káel. "How are you gonna take your Guardian back home with you?"

          He was still leaking the contempt he'd built up in Mr. Mudelin's class as he followed the three a few steps behind. "I'm not."

          "So you're just going to abandon one of your friends?" Vera cut in.

          "No, I'll just get one that hates my guts, so it'll be overjoyed to see me leave."

          Truvius paused, looking up at the ceiling like it was the one that had uttered a stupid statement. "Wait... You're going to befriend a creature but keep a friendship while it hates your guts?"

          "I'll make a deal with it, or something."

          "You don't have anything worth a deal." Truvius chimed.

          "Gee... Thanks." Káel thought about what he brought with him. "I think I have a sucker in my old school uniform."

          "A what?"

          Káel shook his head."Nevermind, I'll figure something out. Let's eat."

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