The Introduction Fair

The group managed to get out of the Forest without any further interruptions. When they arrived back at the path leading to the main building, Philera turned and spoke to the children.

"We've now officially finished our excursion into the Forest. I expect that you will all be rather tired and hungry so you should hurry back to your dorms." Her face then took on an expression of slight embarrassment, "I am, umm, sorry that things ended up being so dangerous. Make sure you go and see Kamadus if you're still hurt in any way, I'm taking Ledia to see him now so you're welcome to tag along if you want to."

She looked around at them for a moment longer and then said, "I don't expect I'll see any of you around the college so the next time I'll see you will be two weeks, which is when I think, the introduction fair is."

She gave them a bright smile, waved and then walked away, supporting Ledia with one of her arms, down the path that led to the main building. The rest of the Botanists said their own goodbyes to the group of children and went their separate ways as well, Perceval following in his sister's footsteps towards the main building while Hugo and James wandered off in the direction of the senior dorms.

Kason and Harper split off from the others, who were going to see Kamadus at Alford’s insistence, and made their way to the junior dorms. Once inside his own room again, Kason promptly walked over to the bed and flopped down, face first, on top of the quilt. He didn't know, or particularly care, about how dirty his clothes were; at that moment, all he wanted was to take the weight off his aching feet. He lay there for a while breathing deeply, his face buried in the soft fabric, going over the events that had happened that afternoon in his mind.

It was perhaps a blessing that he managed to get to sleep so quickly that night. Or then again, as he thought later, perhaps it wasn't. His dreams were plagued by larger than life forms of the drakelings which prowled around the outside of his dream self's vision, howling unearthly howls that were much distorted from as they had been in reality.

In one dream he ran through a maze of trees, fleeing from the spectral four-legged forms that haunted him. In another, he found himself trying to run down the corridor to his room, only to find that he seemed to have forgotten how to run. He flailed and shouted in distress but the only thing that answered him was the long, lonely call of an owl that floated to him from where he knew not, accompanied by a chilling cold that froze him down to the bone.

Needless to say, Kason awoke many times that night, each time covered in cold sweat with his heart beating hard in his chest. When morning finally came, he felt as tired as he had when he lay down to sleep and although he hadn't thought that he would get a good sleep, he still felt terrible.

The day that followed passed in a haze of tiredness. He could hardly pay attention to what Ms Luxford was telling them in class and once lessons were over, he went straight back to his room to take a nap. Thankfully, his nap was uninterrupted by any nightmares and so when he awoke again two hours later, he felt a bit more refreshed.

The next day he felt slightly more awake. He had slept better, although not perfectly, and so could now begin to pay attention in class without dozing off every couple of minutes. He noticed as he took his seat in the classroom, that Harper and the others who had gone with him into The Forest also had drained expressions on their faces and dark rings around their eyes. He supposed that they were also having problems sleeping satisfactorily.

Harper seemed to be faring the worst out of them all. He entered the classroom with a listless sort of atmosphere about him and slumped over his desk as soon as he sat down, resting his head on his arms. A few minutes later, the sounds of deep breathing and light snores coming from him told Kason that he had fallen asleep. Kayla and Alford, on the other hand, looked to be faring quite well, they were both visibly tired but not to the extent that Kason or Harper were.

Lexia, however, took the uncontested place of least affected by the excursion. She seemed to be almost back to her usual self; her looks and actions showing only small signs of tiredness. Kason observed her for a few moments while he waited in his seat before the first lesson of the day began. He thought back to when he and Harper had tried to dissuade her from coming along on the grounds that it would be dangerous and sighed at how badly they had misjudged her.

Ms Luxford entered the classroom at exactly nine o'clock and walked up to her podium at the front of the classroom. Kason took the chance while she was still preoccupied with laying her things on the desk to poke Harper awake so that he didn't get into trouble. Harper awoke and gave Kason a groggy scowl before putting his head back on his arms and closing his eyes again.

"Wake up Harper!" shouted a voice from the front of the classroom and Harper's head immediately sprung up from his hands to look towards the front where Ms Luxford stood gazing at him with a stern look in her eyes.

"I noticed that you fell asleep in my lessons yesterday as well!" she continued, "Your desk is a place for you to learn, not to sleep!"

Harper blinked at her for a few moments before giving her a croaky apology. Ms Luxford pursed her lips and gave him one last glare before turning to look at the class as a whole.

"I have an important notice to give you today," She said tersely, "so it would be best if you pay attention and try not to doze off." She cast a pointed glare Harper's direction, who was in the process of laying his head back on his arms. Hearing her words, he looked at her guiltily and quickly changed to lean upon his hands instead.

"A first-year senior division student had their college pendant stolen from them last week. It happened in Constantin at around mid-day and as of yet, we have not been able to locate the missing item. This may not seem like devastating news to you lot, but I'm telling you to remind you that just because you are near the college, we cannot completely guarantee your safety. If you ever go out to Constantin just make sure to be careful and don't deliberately put yourselves in situations where something like this could easily happen."

Someone's hand went up towards the back of the classroom and Ms Luxford signalled for them to speak. "Do you know who took it?" Asked a young boy's voice excitedly.

"No," Ms Luxford replied, "but I'm sure that they'll be found soon enough. Anyway, that's all I have to tell you this morning so let's get on with the lesson. Today we will be continuing our work on transverse waves and their ether applications, if you could all locate your notes..."

The lesson went on like any other. Ms Luxford explaining the theory and setting them problems, with no more mention of the stolen pendant. Time seemed to flow particularly quickly to Kason, as it tends to do when you're having fun or are in dread. Luckily it was the latter case for Kason; he enjoyed science the most out of the subjects they took, mainly because it incorporated the most magical theory.

Once lunch arrived, Kason went with Harper and the others to the dining hall to eat. He was feeling particularly hungry that day and so ordered one of the largest things on the menu, thinking that, given his hunger, he should be able to finish it all. Unfortunately for Kason, his stomach began to complain of over filling before he was even three-quarters of the way through the dish. He glanced around surreptitiously, trying to guess whether or not any of the others would be willing to help him with the remainder.

To his dismay, however, the others were already beginning to talk about leaving. "Are you coming too?" Harper asked him as he stood up.

"No, I should finish this." Kason said with a wry smile.

"Are you sure?" Harper replied, "You don't have to finish it you know."

"No, I'm sure. I'm still feeling hungry." Kason lied. Obviously, he didn't really want to finish eating it but he didn't want to seem ungrateful to whoever was cooking and so felt a sort of duty to finish the meal.

Harper shrugged and left with the others, saying before he did that they would be back at the classroom when Kason finished. Kason nodded and watched them depart before turning reluctantly back to his plate and picking up his knife and fork.

He left the dining hall ten minutes later massaging his stomach as he walked uncomfortably into the nexus. He was just deciding whether to go back to his room and rest for a bit before heading to the classroom when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He jumped slightly and turned around to see Lexia standing behind him.

"Hello," he said in a rather shaky voice, "I thought that you would be in the classroom with the others."

"I was going to, but I decided to stay. I've got something I need to talk to you about." she replied firmly.

"Okay?" Kason said confusedly and waited for Lexia to begin speaking.

"Well, I think that we should go back!" She said enthusiastically.

"What?" Kason replied, feeling even more bewildered, "Go back where?"

"To the Forest."

"The Forest!" Kason exclaimed. This was totally out of his expectations. "No! We can't go back!"

He had spoken rather louder than he had intended and immediately began to feel embarrassed and guilty, especially after seeing Lexia's hurt expression.

"I- I mean we, we shouldn't go back really, should we? It was so dangerous in there, or..." He paused while he struggled to put together a better argument than 'I don't want to'.

"Well, shouldn't we at least until we know enough magic to protect ourselves, right?"

Lexia looked less affronted than earlier but still had a stubborn glint in her eyes. "It wouldn't be too bad. We don't have to go as deep in as we did last time, I just want to go back to that clearing where Hugo and I found you up that tree."

Kason, who was thinking that it wasn't how far that she wanted to go which was the problem, sighed in distress. "Why do you want to go back there?" He said, shuddering as he remembered what he had gone through in that place.

"It's about that owl!" Lexia said excitedly.

"But I thought you said that you didn't see it?" Kason mumbled.

"I didn't," Lexia continued, "but I trust you. And you say that you saw something, which means that something strange must have happened there! Doesn't it make you want to investigate?"

'Not particularly' Kason thought as he looked at her, trying to figure out what to say next. He gave a nervous laugh and looked around the nexus in desperate need of inspiration. He found none, however, and looked back at Lexia's expectant face, grimacing to himself.

"A bit." He began half-heartedly, "But I think it would be better to wait until after the introduction fair..." Lexia looked at him suspiciously. "I mean," He continued hurriedly, "it would be good to have a period to rest and concentrate on studies, right?"

Lexia nodded slowly and seemed to go into thought. "Yeah, I suppose that's a good idea." She said with obvious reluctance in her voice. Kason tried to keep a suitably blank face as he secretly rejoiced in his mind at having successfully avoided giving an actual response.

"Okay then, we'll go after the introduction fair then!" Lexia declared, suddenly becoming enthusiastic again, "We could ask the others if they want to go as well."

Kason immediately tried to protest that he hadn't actually said that he would go after the introduction fair but before he could get the words out, Lexia had already begun skipping over towards the exit, waving at him to come along as well. He sighed and began to walk over in the same direction, glad that he had, at least, managed to escape having to go in the near future.

The rest of the day went by as usual and flowed seamlessly into next with the busy school routine providing more than enough distraction for Kason to forget about his discussion with Lexia. The following week also passed by with relative speed and the day of the introduction fair came around quickly before Kason really realised. And so, it was for that reason that Kason was still asleep at half-past eight when Harper suddenly barged into his room.

"Kason, let's go and look around the introduction fair!" he proclaimed loudly as he pushed the door open.

A couple of minutes later, Kason was out of his room, running a hand through his bedraggled looking hair and yawning copiously. They walked out of the junior dorm building into the courtyard and then down the path beside the planetarium going towards the Training Ground, Kason’s stomach grumbling at the lack of food it had received.

As they neared it, Kason saw that there were a great variety of different tents and stalls set up on top of the smooth grey surface. They slowly approached them, passing by the metal post at the closest corner of the area and stepping onto the Training Grounds itself. This was the first time Kason had been on the Training Grounds and, to his surprise, he found that the grey surface which he had assumed to be rock, was actually slightly springy.

His feet left faint indents on the surface as they walked over towards the closest stall, though they faded away after only a few seconds. They reached the stall after a couple of moments and found that it was empty. The person, or people, managing it had obviously not turned up yet.

"Well, we are a bit early..." Harper said as he gazed at the empty stall.

Kason nodded and looked down at his ring and, after twisting it around on his finger a bit, found the little flowing inscriptions that showed the time. The inscriptions showed that it was just past quarter to nine, meaning that they were indeed quite early. Kason looked at Harper and asked whether they should wait for it to open.

"Nah." Harper replied nonchalantly, "We'll just walk around. There should be some people here, we just need to find them."

With that decided, they set off at a leisurely walk around through the various stalls and tents; Kason enjoying the feeling of the slightly springy surface underfoot.

Unfortunately for them, most of the stalls in their area were just as uninhabited as the first one they had found. They wandered aimlessly for a couple of minutes when all of a sudden, a loud shout from behind a tent to their left made them both jump. After getting over their momentary fright, they made their way around the tent to investigate who had made the noise.

On the other side, they found a group of five people sitting down in front of a half-completed tent having an argument. As they appeared from around the red fabric, one of the five people spotted them and got up to greet them.

"Hi!" The young man called out jovially as he walked towards them.

Kason and Harper returned the greeting and looked curiously at the tall young man walking towards them. He had light brown hair, whose colour reminded Kason of chocolate, which he wore cut short. His eyes were the same colour as his hair and he looked rather muscular in a close-fitting black top.

"Hello," He said again as he reached them, "If you're here for the webmasters' tent I'm afraid we're not quite ready yet."

"We weren't here for anything particular," Harper replied, "we were just wandering around."

"Oh right." The young man said, nodding. Then an idea seemed to suddenly strike him, "Do you two need to go be somewhere soon?" He asked.

Kason and Harper both shook their head.

"Okay, do you think you could help us out for a bit?" The man asked with a pleading expression.

"Umm..."

Kason looked at Harper, who shrugged, then back at the young man. He nodded his head.

The young man smiled when his saw this and spoke in a gratified voice, "Thanks, if you could just come over here, I'll explain what it is we need doing.”