At first, the dizziness was sickening. I blinked many times, rubbing my forehead with a sweaty palm, trying to calm the turbulence in my stomach. It had been a long time since I had felt such severe motion-sickness.

"Hello there!" I heard a voice call out. I opened my eyes to take in my surroundings. I was in a forested clearing, with cobblestone paving underneath my feet. A small fountain bubbled in front of me.

I couldn't locate the voice at first. Then, I turned around and saw a shocking figure indeed. In front of me stood a smiling, bubbly girl.

Except she wasn't a girl - not a human one, at least.

She was a fairy.

I'd heard of fairies before, but never seen any. That wasn't surprising, though, Aerilon was a small town, and fairies were usually thought of to be more lavished creatures; they enjoyed luxury and richer areas.

This fairy had long, curly red hair. She was very short - as all fairies are - and wore a green dress that wasn't exactly formal, but not cheap-looking either. She had bright green eyes, a small nose, and full lips. her wings were translucent and shimmering. In her hand was a small staff, with the handle being a glowing orb resembling tree roots.

"My name is Tazanna," She chirped, "But I'd prefer Taz."

"O-oh, um, hello." I smiled back, ignoring my thumping heart. Then I peered around. As gorgeous as the towering, swaying trees were, and the detailed marble fountain, it didn't appear anything like an Academy.

"If you don't mind me asking," I began, making eye contact with Taz, "Where is the Academy?"

She giggled. "You didn't think it would be right here, did you? I mean, that could be pretty bad. What if someone who wasn't a student managed to get through the teleporter? We wouldn't want them to be able to hurt the dragons."

"Has that happened before?" I couldn't help but ask.

"I'm sure it has," She nodded before continuing with her familiar, big smile, "But I wouldn't worry. Starsky is probably the safest building in all of Yer!"

"Anyways." She paused now, looking serious. "I need to understand that you are a student. Can I have your information?"

Out of a small satchel I hadn't even seen before she pulled out a notebook. It's cover was a deep emerald green, and it's pages were smooth and white.

"My name's Lana Pennington." I spoke. Taz nodded, flipping through the book, murmuring names, until she found me.

"Alright. Your gender, age, and hometown?" She asked.

"Well, I'm a female," I scratched my head with a smile, and she laughed too, "I'm 15 but my 16th birthday is in two days, and I've lived in Aerilon with my mom for 12, nearly 13 years."

Taz's pencil scratched at the paper. "Yep, yep, and yep."

After a brief moment of reading whatever was in the notebook, she looked back up at me. "You're all set to go!" She grinned.

"Pardon?" I cocked my head. Was I going to the Academy now?

"Yeah. There's another teleporter amulet in my pocket. You'll go through it and my other friend Mabel will help you out."

"Is she a fairy too?" I asked.

"Yeah." Taz answered.

"Are there a lot of fairies around here?"

"Not a lot - I think it's five or so? You probably won't see all of us. The Academy's a big place."

There was a brief pause as Taz reached into her bag and pulled out a similar amulet to the one I received. "Here," She smiled at me. "When I press the button you can head on through."

I grimaced at the thought of another teleporter, but nodded. Taz clicked the button, and once again there was a moment of silence before the strange vacuum of air started up again, and a teleporter just like the one before appeared, except this time it was green.

"I'll be seeing you around, Lana," Taz saluted me with her friendly smile.

"Thanks for your help," I nodded to her and then stepped into the teleporter.

This time, I tried to just control my breathing. I blocked out the endless, swirling green light and focused on the excitement in my fluttering heart. Starsky Academy!

I was in the teleporter for just a few seconds before it stopped again. I exhaled in relief. Hopefully there weren't a lot of those around.

When I looked around, I saw that I was in a very modern looking room. There was a bristly brown carpet, some comfortable looking red chairs, as well as a string hung up on the wall with the word W-E-L-C-O-M-E spelled out on it.

Sitting in one of the soft red chairs, with a book in her pale hand, and glasses covering her fiery red eyes, was another fairy. She wore a red-orange dress with golden accentes, as well as matching boots and arm-wraps. Her hair, which went down to her waist, was a wild chestnut color. Her wings were huge, and just like Taz's they were shimmery and glowing. Her lips were a dangerous, bright red.

"Hello?" I spoke up after a few seconds of silence. The fairy arched her eyebrows and looked up at me.

"Hi there." She responded. Her voice was cool and smooth, and a thin smile stretched across her face. She closed her book, reached up and pulled down her glasses to peer at me.

"What's your name, honey?" She stood, getting right down to business. Breaking eye contact, she walked dutifully over to a mahogony desk, which was immaculately organized.

"Lana Pennington." I replied, a little intimidated by this fairy.

"Well, my name's Mabel. I'm sure you've met Taz by now." It was rhetorical. I didn't need to answer, but I nodded anyways.

She reached down, her hand gripping a shiny golden handle on one of the desk's compartments, and then pulled out a massive white binder. I blinked, surprised by how many papers were stuffed into it.

"Alright." Mabel clicked her tongue, opening the binder and flipping through the papers. Eventually she found what she was looking for and took it out of the binder, making sure to close the rings when she finished.

"One time," Mabel told me, her voice amused, "I forgot to do that and every single paper fell out. Dean Ramino nearly had my head."

I couldn't help but huff with laughter at that. She gave me a warm smile. "Doesn't matter what people say about her being 'sweet' and 'kind'. You don't want to get on her bad side."

We shared a bit of laughter at that.

"So," Mabel walked over to me, and I was reminded how much shorter she was than I as she had to stretch her arm just to give me the paper she was clutching. "Here's your schedule."

I read through it very carefully. Every new thing I saw surprised me, and I started to get excited about the classes ahead of me.

From what I could tell, the school was on a three-day rotation system. Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3.

From looking over the classes I determined the ones I was most looking forward to were Dragon Bonding and Dragon Combat! How cool would it be to have my very own dragon?!

"Looks good?" Mabel interrupted my thoughts.

"Yeah!" I grinned at her. "When do classes start? When do I get my dragon?"

"As soon as the two weeks you guys were permitted is up. By that time, we will block the teleporter magic - they won't work anymore - and everyone who has shown up for the Academy will get their dragons and begin classes." She explained.

"What will we do in the meantime?" I asked. "And has anyone else shown up yet?"

"Oh yes, plenty of people have. I'd say about half your class is here already. And in the meantime, you'll see your dorm rooms, socialize with kids your age, stuff like that. In a couple days there'll be a social for the kids who've shown up by then."

"In a couple days?" My eyebrows rose. "That's my birthday!"

Mabel smiled slightly. "Well, that's nice. As for now I can show you to your dorm room, ok?" She tilted her head slightly.

"Thank you, Mabel. I'd appreciate that." I blinked.

"Let's go, then." She waved me along. I scurried after her.

Coming to Starsky still felt so surreal. It was like I was in a dream - an amazing one. I couldn't wait to get my dragon egg. I was also very excited to meet the other students who were attending!

But, as for right now, I just had to follow Mabel out the door.