“You ready?” Rynus asked the jittering Kira, whose face was a mixture of anxiety and excitement. She nodded: her familiar was curled away inside her in his spirit form, her uniform robes were on, and her wand was neatly tucked away on a wand belt Rynus had bought her for school. The rest of her things, like her books, or her clothes, were already at the Academy.

  Today was going to be her first day at the Wondrous Academy, marking the true start towards her magical journey to come.

  She reread the school pamphlet that had arrived the day before, going over the basic itinerary for the day once again. There would be no classes today since the school year didn’t truly start until Monday, giving them the weekend to adjust to Academy life and time to socialize with their peers. Today, they would be getting a grand tour of the campus, learn the academy rules, and in the evening they were going to go watch some special event that was planned. The latter had no details given, so Kira could only theorize what it might be.

  The main entrance door of the Wizards Orchard was thrown open by Kira. Standing on the deck, she looked out at the green expanse around her broken up by a few houses here and there. She took a deep sniff of the fresh air, and ready herself for what was to come. Suddenly her eyes caught onto a figure running up the path towards her.

  “Abby!” Kira almost dove off the deck and barreled into her best friend with a spiraling hug. “You look so cute in your uniform.” Abby twirled around, showing off herself after having received a compliment. Her uniform, like all Academy students uniforms, consisted of a black wizards robe that flowed around her ankles, just short enough to not drag on the floor, a floppy pointed hat matching the robes on her head, a white collared shirt resting underneath with an icy blue tie to add some colour, and a loose black skirt covering her knees. Kira’s uniform was almost the same, but she had chosen to go with an orange-yellow tie instead, like the colour of the morning sun. They had arrived just the other day and Kira couldn't stop herself from trying them on the second she had them in her hands. She had run around all day just to see how they felt.

  “Hello, Miss Tumble!” Kira waved to Abby’s master, an odd lady that seemed to always have a confused expression. It looked like a bird – or multiple birds – had made a nest on Miss Tumble's head; it was a mess of brown and blonde stands piled up in a ball of hair.

  “Kira dear, It's been too long.” She smiled, then her eyes wandered off in thought, something Kira had seen her do often. “Rynus, still keeping your current appearance I see, have you ever thought of reverting it back?”

  “The thought has arisen a few times, but doesn't my beard and gray hair make me look like a wise master?” Rynus chuckled and rubbed his hands through his long wispy beard.

  As a foursome, they trekked through along the dirt path into the city, occasionally they would spot other students of the Wondrous Academy dressed up in uniform, also on their way to the campus. Some were walking alongside older wizards, like Kira and Abby, but they did see some older looking students walking alone or in groups. The percentage of students out and about increased as they kept heading deeper into the heart of Orshon, getting closer to the Academy.

  The familiar gates of the Academy came into view; the two pillars with Rose and Thorn atop them drew Kira’s attention once again. A dozen fully armored knights were surrounding the open gates of the Academy, about half of them were verifying the badges of returning students or were talking to the masters of first years. A line of students had been formed, patiently waiting their turn in. It seemed to be going quite fast, the knights only needing ten or so seconds to verify the students' badges.

  Most students were human wizards, but Kira did spot some other races lining up to get in. There was a gnome like Ereddon who she had met when she first came here, an even smaller person she could barely track with her eyes, flittering about through the air— it was a pixie she recalled— and a Throk, a grey skinned humanoid man with a lack of hair.

  Her turn eventually came up and Rynus handed his badge to the knight. “Lord Thorn, welcome!” The knight greeted him. “You and your apprentice here can come through, just take an immediate right through the gates and you'll see a group of first years who have already come through. A teacher will be there to guide you into the Great Hall once everyone has arrived.” Rynus thanked the knight and patted Kira’s back as they went through the gates and into the campus.

  It was just as grand as the first time her eyes laid upon the scene before her. To either side were tall buildings enchanted with magical decorations. Perfectly cut grass as green as you could imagine lined the ground where there weren't stone roads crisscrossing along. A forest bigger than the one around her house took up most of the campus’ right side, one which she was sure was filled with all sorts of interesting beasts. The biggest eye-drawer was a stone dome all the way in the center of the Academy, namely their next designation; the Great Hall. To the students at the entrance, it didn't look large at all, but once they realized how far away it lay, the scale of the building was slowly starting to settle in their minds.

  Abby and Miss Tumble were right behind Kira, and quickly joined the small circle of students and masters off to the side of the main road. They surrounded a teacher standing atop a stone pillar. “It seems everyone’s here.” The teacher, a stout man with long dark green hair and a plain expression, called out to the first years after another ten minutes had gone by. “I'll be taking you all to the Great Hall where the Principal will explain the rules of the Academy, and then give you a tour of the campus. Don't worry, we will stop for lunch halfway through in case you're hungry.” A few people sighed a breath of relief. “I'll let Principal Terra explain the rest to you all. Follow me now.” The teacher jumped off the pillar and led them down the main road.

  The walk wasn't short, but it did go by fast. Heads swiveled side to side, taking in their new home for the next few years, watching all the magic at work. Kira spotted fountains with water streams that flowed sideways and upwards, a small hut that floated a good thirty feet in the air, and a spiraling bridge of wood that created an archway over the road, with a passageway that glimmered a faint pink light.

  As if reading most of the first year's minds, the teacher turned and yelled back so they all could hear, “Don't worry about walking through the Archway of Forgotten Things, it's perfectly safe and you'll find out why it's called that in just a moment.”

  Kira didn't need to walk through to know what it did, she had read about it in the school pamphlets. When someone walks through its passage, they’ll remember the most recent thing they had forgotten about. The pamphlet had explained that it was built so that students going into the Great Hall would realize if they had forgotten something (most likely homework) before class. Watching the first years at the front of the pack walk through the archway and then immediately facepalm or breathe out an air of frustration, Kira fiddled her fingers with anticipation and closed her eyes as she let the pink layer of magic course over her.

  Ah, Rynus told me to put my books away last night… I completely forgot. The thought shot into her mind. Realizing what had just happened, her face beamed. It really worked! She looked back at the archway and was infinitely amazed by its magic.

  “Shoot! I was going to make good luck brownies for you this morning.” Rynus recalled aloud, “Well, I'll just have to bring some brownies over tomorrow when I check in with you.” The thought of Rynus’ brownies almost made Kira drool, but she resisted. Then the weight of her new living situation dawned on her. She was not waking up to her masters cooking or sleeping under the familiar bed sheets she’d been with for a decade. For the next 8 months she would be living in the dormitories with all the other students; a frightful but enthralling thing to think about. Of course she would still visit home at least once a week since it wasn't too far of a walk away from the Academy grounds.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “I’m sure you're all remembering something you’ve forgotten, hopefully it’s not anything major, but let’s not dawdle and keep moving, the principal is waiting for us.” Their teacher guide yelled back as some students had stopped walking.

  The entrance to the Great Hall was a large open archway leading straight into the main foyer. A smooth stone surface with painted patterns made up the floor, and made their footsteps gently echo out as they went further in. The left and right curved alongside the exterior to form what was essentially a massive hallway circling the Great Hall. Two great pillars as thick as the thickest trees Kira had seen, rose on either side, shooting way up to the high ceiling above for support.

  “This is the outer hallway, it fully loops around the Great Hall, with entrances like this one every hundred or so meters.” The teacher spoke up, his voice booming. “There are six rooms on the inside. The principal won’t be showing you them all, but don’t worry, they're quite easy to find. The one we will be going into is the Auditorium, where assemblies and major announcements are made.”

  It wasn’t through the door in front of them, they had to walk a good five minutes down the left until they reached the next door on the inner ring. Through the door, Kira was met with ten or so benches in descending rows, creating a massive semi-circle around a wooden stage at the very bottom. She recognized the face of the person standing on the stage behind a lectern; it was Principal Jemina. Her voice carried throughout the room, “Please find a seat down here in front of me, somewhere in the bottom three rows.”

  The students and their masters streamed down the stairs between the benches and found a seat, their voices a quiet whisper under the glare of the Principal. “Masters, you may leave at any time, though I suggest sticking around until after lunch.” As Jemina spoke, the rest stopped.

  “With that said, welcome young wizards to the Wondrous Academy!” She raised her hands and the unlit brazier that rose along the walls of the auditorium sparked with flames of all colours. “There's much to discuss and see today, and we shan't be wasting any more time. I will brief you all on the campus rules first, and should anyone break them, they will be punished accordingly.” There were no buts to be had in that sentence.

  “Then we'll tour around the campus, visiting the various buildings, and stop for lunch in one of the three cafeterias about halfway through. Afterwards, I and your guide earlier, Mr. Horroll, will lead the girls and boys respectively to your dorms where you'll find your rooms with your things already in them. You can meet your roommate and mingle with the other students while we prepare for the special event later that evening. When it's time, we will once again guide you back to the Great Hall’s coliseum. Your curriculum for this year, as well as your following years, won't be discussed until your school year truly starts on Monday. We’d rather not have you stressing before your education has even begun.”

  “Now, as for the rules…” Kira didn't think she would have ever gotten bored on her first day of school at the famous magical academy, but lord there were a lot of rules to remember. Curfew is midnight, okay that's easy… the gated district in the northeast was off limits to first years… we needed permission if we wanted to leave campus grounds… It took about an hour for Principal Jemina to finish.

  A bit of Kira was stressed she wouldn't be able to remember all the rules when Rynus gently tapped her on the shoulder. “Don't worry, I planned in advance.” A notebook was floating at Rynus’ feet with a pen scratching in words as Jemina finished up.

  An unseen servant? Kira took the notebook as it came over to her. Each and every rule was neatly scribed onto the notebooks pages. Her eyes widened and her nerves lifted. “Thank you.” She whispered back, carefully tucking it away in her robes pockets to study later.

  “If you will all follow me back into the hall, we have a nice walk ahead of us. Our first stop will be the southwest district where the majority of your classes will be.”

  A nice walk was not exactly the wording Kira would use for the sweaty trek down the paths towards the southwest district. The scenery was lovely, the paths were even and comfortable to walk on, but man was it hot. Kira was used to playing outside under the sun, but today was oddly humid and there wasn't a single lick of shade along the path— and she was wearing heavy wizards robes, which didn’t help. It wasn't just her, she could see most of the other first years with red faces, some with their heads hung, exhausted by the heat already. A few seemed to carry on without problem, while the smart ones had already removed their robes and wrapped it around their waists or slung it over their shoulders. Why didn't she think of that? Kira threw off her robes and Rynus offered to carry it for her, which she happily accepted.

  It took them about 20 minutes to make their way back down towards the district lying in the bottom corner of the academy. It looked like a little market, with six buildings, two to three stories tall each, all a similar shade of dark wood and gray stone. The buildings formed a circle with a fountain in the center. A statue of a human was erected atop the fountain, but Kira didn't recognize this one unlike the two at the main gate. She could spot a few wizards walking around, though they all appeared older and didn't wear student robes like she and the rest of the first years had to wear.

  Probably staff working for the academy, Kira surmised.

  The Principal guided them towards the fountain, until they were all standing around it waiting for her to continue speaking. “Here is the southwest district, also called the Common Square by staff and students alike. Most of your classes will be held in one of these buildings, the only exceptions are your physical classes, and two electives which are held to the east side of the campus— which we will visit later.”

  They didn't enter any of the buildings, but Principal Jemina detailed each one, explaining what their purpose was for. The Common Skill’s building was where they learned non-magical skills like math, English, geography, and history. It wasn't something many wizards really enjoyed doing, but as the Principal explained, they were essential skills for all people to know. Then there was the Magical Foundations building, the largest of the pack, which taught them the basic magics. Off to the side was where Innate Studies were held, a place to help awaken and train innate magic. And the smallest building around, not because it was less important, but because of its difficulty, was Wand Foundations. One of the other two buildings was for second years only, they did a class Principal Jemina called ‘Wizarding’. The last building was the Common Center, a place with entertainment, food, and offered loads of room to relax with others.

  The rest of the tour was a blur to Kira, with lots of walking in the summer heat, listening to Principal Jemina drone on about more information then Kira really needed. There was lots to see, and lots to memorize, but after… however long they had been going on for, Kira was beyond exhausted. Luckily they had stopped for lunch in the Great Hall’s cafeteria, which was delicious (though not as much as her master's cooking), and finally, after another few hours, the girls were being guided to their dorm by Principal Jemina. Kira stuck close to Abby, though neither of them had the energy to chat about the astonishing things they had seen on the tour. Glancing around her, Kira counted 15 other girls with their masters following along.

  The girls dorm was parallel to the center of the Great Hall, but sat almost as far east as you could get on campus, only a hundred meter gap existed between the dorm and the walls of the campus. The boys dorm, as they were told, was on the opposite side of the campus, all the way to the west. They were separated to ‘avoid distractions’ according to Principal Jemina.

  The moment Kira was waiting for came faster than she hoped, which was surprisingly considering the last few hours felt like they lasted forever. In her hand was a bronze key with a 2 engraved on its base, which she carried as she slowly stomped her way up the stone steps towards the second floor where the first years dorm rooms could be found. Most others had already gone up and found their rooms, but she and Abby had explored the first floor for a bit together before they came up.

  “Good luck.” Abby said as Kira came upon the first door to her right. A metal placard with her room number was attached to the center of the door at her eye level.

  “You too.” Kira replied with a nervous tone and watched Abby walk further down the dorm hallway looking for dorm room 6.

  Gulp.

  Kira centered herself with a few calming breaths. As she touched the door knob, a slight tingle went into her palm, prompting the security measure Principal Jemima explained about earlier, searching her body for her key. With a click, the room opened up to her.