“Who said that?” Alexis said with a raised voice. Parker was pretty sure he could hear some fear make its way in but he didn’t blame her. At least she was brave enough to speak up and ask.

There was another moment of silence before a response came. “I’m Hailee. I’ll be taking you from here.”

“Taking us where?” someone shouted angrily. Everyone was starting to get a little on edge being in the dark, both literally and metaphorically.

“To the school silly!” Hailee responded in a joyful voice. Then, without any warning, a bright light came on right in front of her, making the cave they were standing in visible for everyone to see.

Parker was getting really tired of being in a dark room, then getting light so he could see, then losing it, then getting it back. “Where are we?” he asked, frustrated.

Other kids from the group were shouting the same question along with many others. He could see a little frustration showing in Hailee’s face but then she suppressed it.

“You’re in the arrival caves. Another group just came through a little bit ago so there should be two more arriving sometime soon. Just depends on how long it takes them to figure it out.”

Parker figured the “it” she referred to had to be finding the whole in the wall. He wondered if it would really take the other two groups that long to find it but then he remembered that his group had stood around for probably a while before he’d gotten there.

“If you could follow me this way,” Hailee started walking through a tunnel that was behind her and gesturing for everyone to follow.

Everyone quickly realized that if they didn’t follow her, and the light she was carrying, they’d be left in the dark. Again. Parker and Alexis were the first two to start following Hailee down the tunnel. Parker turned around to see what everyone else was doing and he noticed some of them started to walk but not everyone.

The red-haired girl stood still with a snobby look on her face. The small boy with brown hair stood petrified next to her. Parker could see the fear in his eyes so he walked up to him.

“Hey,” he said in as soothing a voice as he could muster. “You okay?”

The small boy didn’t budge, blink or breathe. Parker reached his hand out and put it on the boy’s shoulder.

“Are you okay?” Parker asked again. Still, no response. “I’m Parker,” he said, trying to think of something that might help him. “What’s your name?” The red-haired girl walked off after giving the two of them a derisive look.

When Parker turned to look at the boy his eyes were as wide as they could go. Parker thought if he strained them anymore, they might just pop right out of his head.

“I’m… Ca… Caleb.”

Parker patted him on the shoulder several times, not sure what to say that would help calm him down. It was understandable that he was afraid, but Parker couldn’t believe that he was scared stiff.

“Well Caleb, why don’t you walk with me? Otherwise we’re going to be stuck here in the dark; and I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being in the dark. Caleb nodded his head slightly just as the light Hailee had disappeared.

Parker could hear Caleb gasp as the light vanished so he quickly grabbed Caleb’s hand and pulled him so they could catch up.

After a minute of slight jogging, they were in a lit section of the tunnel again. Parker tried to push his way through to the front while pulling Caleb behind him, but found it difficult. It took several shoves and a few apologies until Parker was able to make it back up next to Alexis.

As he walked next to her, he snuck glances to take in what she looked like. With each glance, he noticed something different. First was her long blonde hair. Next, he thought he got a look at her eyes. He was pretty sure that they were a light blue, like the sky. Then it was her demeanor he noticed. She walked with a serious stride, as if she was ready for something bad to happen. This girl was about the same height as him, but she held herself much higher than he did.

“How much further?” he asked in a hushed voice.

Alexis shrugged her shoulders, not really sure what to tell him.

“Has she said much of anything else?”

Alexis shook her head back and forth slowly, her long hair bouncing back and forth. Parker felt like something was wrong already. He didn’t really know this girl, yet she seemed off already somehow. She’d been so cheerful earlier and now she wouldn’t even say a word. He wondered if something had happened when he was getting Caleb but didn’t know what could make this girl so quiet.

They walked through the winding tunnels for a while without saying anything. Hailee had a little pep to her step and was humming as she led the group. “Here we go!” she shouted back to the group and then her light went out.

“What with the light going out?” someone from the group shouted.

“If you just keep walking for a minute, you’ll see why I turned the light off.” Hailee’s voice was getting further away as she talked so Parker decided to keep walking and try to keep up with her. He could hear footsteps around him but he didn’t know how many.

“What’s that?” he heard Alexis ask from beside him. He was glad to hear her talk again, but didn’t know why. Something about her made his heart race a little.

Parker looked ahead to see if he could see what she was talking about. It seemed like somewhere off in the distance there was a speck of something in the air that glowed. He squinted but that didn’t help anything.

The more they walked the bigger the speck got. Other’s started to ask more and more questions but Hailee wasn’t answering any of them. Parker could hear her humming as she walked, letting him know she was at least still there.

After a few more minutes of walking, Parker finally saw what the speck in the air was and started to hear a faint rumbling sound. As they got closer to the speck, they realized that it was just the sky at the entrance of the tunnel.

They walked out of the entrance and saw a lake that could’ve easily been an ocean. Water went on for as far as the eye could see. However, the water sat still, creating a mirror-like appearance. It was hard to tell where the water ended and where the sky began.

Above them, the sky was clearer than any sky Parker had seen. He looked up, amazed at what he was seeing. They could see the stars shine brightly, even the Milky Way. The moon shined bright, as full as it could be. In that moment, the entire group had their chins raised, pointing straight into the sky. They were all in a daze, completely absorbed by the beautiful picture painted above them.

“All right, all right. I know the sky is beautiful, but how about you take a look over there.” She pointed to their left, at a castle that rose from the ground high into the sky, made completely of stone. The castle was magnificent, made of many different towers, corridors and courtyards. Lights could be seen coming through enormous windows. Some of the windows were tall and thin, while others were short and fat. In the center, a tall tower stood higher than the rest of the castle. The main tower was a massive cylinder, hundreds of feet tall.

From where the group was standing, admiring the castle in all of its glory, they could see a bridge that seemed to shoot out of the side of the castle that went off into the distance. You couldn’t see the end of the bridge though; it disappeared in the mist and fog that hung over the lake in the distance. “Does everyone see the bridge over there?” Hailee asked. They all turned their heads to look at where she was pointing. Everyone nodded their heads as she said, “Well, you’ll be told all of this later. But, never go down that bridge. You won’t get anywhere. They say it never ends. You either end up getting stuck on it forever, or you somehow just appear right back where you started.”

Shocked looks formed on all of their faces. “So, is it like a rule? That you’re not allowed to go down the bridge?” a voice asked.

Hailee looked into the group, not focusing on anyone in particular, “I wouldn’t say it’s a ‘rule’ but I definitely wouldn’t push my luck. You’ll learn all about the things you should and shouldn’t do here. It’ll seem like a lot of information, but you’ll catch on plenty quickly.”

They began walking toward the castle. From the entrance to the cave tunnel, the castle seemed enormous. However, as they walked closer, down the long stretch of land, it just became larger and larger. To the point where they could no longer tell how big it even was, only able to see parts of it.

Parker turned around looking back at the cave. It was sitting at the very end of a peninsula that shot out into the lake that surrounded the castle. “I thought this was a school.”

“Well, you see, we’re lucky enough to have this amazing castle to have our classes in. You’ll be amazed when you get inside and your house leader begins showing you the ins and outs of the castle. This is where everything is held. Classes, sports, breaks, everything you think you’d ever need. This place will become home immediately and you’ll never want to leave, which is a great thing since you can’t really leave until you graduate.” Hailee was saying all of this with the biggest smile on her face. It was like she was reliving the moment that she saw the school for the first time.

The rumbling sound continued to grow the closer they got to the school. “What’s that rumbling sound we’ve been hearing since we were in the tunnel?” Alexis asked.

Hailee turned around with the same smile on her face as before. “Just wait. You’ll see what it is and I guarantee that you are going to love it!” Alexis wondered what it could possibly be that would be so loud.

A path led from the side of the school they were on around the side of the castle to the front, where the main entrance is. The bridge, that they were told not to go down, led straight to that side of the castle.

Dragging their luggage with them, some on wheels, some just backpacks, the kids made their way toward the entrance. When they finally rounded the corner of the castle, they could see where the bridge started.

On the other side of the bridge, a waterfall rumbled, sending massive amounts of water over the edge of a cliff. The waterfall went on so far you couldn’t see where it actually ended. As they approached the edge to take a look down the cliff, they got a look at how high up it was. Looking down, Parker noticed that he couldn’t actually see the bottom. It looked as though the water just disappeared into a thick fog. “You were right, I absolutely love this. It’s gorgeous.” Alexis said. “How old are you?” she asked, inquiring a little about their guide.

Her fire red hair and white robe seemed to glow extra bright in the intense moonlight. “I’m a second year here, so I’m only around a year older than all of you! One of my jobs is to help the first years, that’s you, make it from the arrival cave to the entrance of the school. And if you look behind you, that’s exactly where you are, right now.”

The group turned around in unison. Behind them rose an enormous arched doorway, easily thirty feet tall and fifteen feet wide. Above the door carved into the stone was a name, “Lancastre: Academy for Imperials”. Above the name that was carved in the stone, was a shape similar to a cross that glowed in the moonlight. Hailee gathered the group in front of the door, turned and knocked in a rhythmic pattern. Then the door began to slowly creak open.