Isis Academy -Book 1-Chapter 2

Trying not to trip on tree roots and rocks we followed the guidance of the glowing stone as we trudged through the forest. We headed straight when it glowed brightly and turned this way or that when it dimmed. As we walked past another tree that looked exactly like the last, I began to feel the strain of carrying my entire wardrobe in my arms.

"I feel like we've been walking through this forest forever! What if these rune stones are broken? They could be leading us in circles until our feet wear out!" I exclaimed.

"Don't be so silly." Claire responded. "I doubt the staff at Isis could mess up a simple location spell. And if your rune were broken, it would certainly lead us in a different direction than my own."

Her confidence may have held more weight if she weren't the only one not carrying heavy luggage manually. She was always quick to use magic in anyway that worked to her convenience. Her trust in all things magic and ether related was both fascinating and baffling. I still found some things hard to wrap my head around. As a weretiger I was a child of ether just like her. Also known as Fae Folk, a child of ether was a being that had ether in their blood and therefore had the ability to manipulate ether in their environment in order to perform magic and spells. Despite this I hardly ever used the ability. In fact, I found it a bit unsettling that these invisible particles called ether flowed around and through everything in the world undetected by most. How could something invisible hold so much power? Looking up at the night sky I wondered if there was ether in outer space as well. If  a witch became an astronaut could she cast a spell while walking on the moon? Or would she then be as plain and normal as a human? As I continued to gaze upward, I noticed how brightly the stars twinkled in the sky now that we were away from the light pollution of the city. Strangely enough, some even seemed to dance and flutter above the treetops.

"Fairies!" Claire squealed, breaking me out of my thoughts.

The trees ahead of us were spread more thinly than the ones we had past. Beyond them I could see a clearing filled with chattering people. Above their heads amongst the treetops, as surely as Claire had said it, there was a multitude of fairies. The moonlight reflecting off their fluttering wings was what I had mistaken for dancing stars a moment ago.

"Beautiful." My father gasped. He had stopped mid stride and was staring of into the distance. I playfully nudged him in the arm with my elbow.

"Jeez dad. Haven't you seen a pixie before?" I joked.

"Actually, my little tiger cub, I haven't. When I was in India the weretigers of the forest hardly ever interacted with other fae folk, some had never even met a human. And since coming to America I'd never seen one. At least not that I know of." He kissed me lightly on the forehead before continuing to walk.

I rubbed my forehead in embarrassment. I was a grown woman still getting kisses on the forehead from her father. He still treated me like I was five years old. The truth was, I had never seen a fairy either. On a rare occasion I had seen a twinkling blur out of the corner of my eye that could have been a pixie rushing off and trying not to be seen, but who hadn't?

As we approached the clearing a tall woman with long wavy hair stepped in front of us, blocking our path. She had small half moon glasses that sat at the tip of her nose and wore a pressed white button down blouse with a pen tucked into the breast pocket. In her hands she held a wooden clipboard. Her demeanor was stiff and formal. As I sat the now unbearably heavy plastic container on the ground I finally noticed that the lower half of her body was that of a chestnut brown mare. One of her hooves kicked up dust as I stood.

"Welcome to the Isis Academy Northern East Coast Transport Site. My name is Trilfanie. Please clearly say your name and race into the orb." From a bag slung around her waist the centaur had procured a clear glass orb.

"Why?" I questioned.

"Don't be rude Navamber." My father scolded. I gritted my teeth slightly. I didn't think it was impolite of me to ask a simple question. However Trilfanie seemed to think otherwise. Her originally stern expression had been transformed into a forced smile that seemed to be composed mainly of scowl.

"It's fine sir. This orb is enchanted to serve as a lie detector. It's not powerful enough to be used in interrogations but it is strong enough to tell whether someone is lying about who they are."

Claire had once told me a rumor that there were secret government agencies that were aware of the existence of fae folk and hired them to magically interrogate and torture suspected terrorists. I could imagine Trilfanie as an interrogator. She certainly seemed unpleasant enough.

"Um, Navambar Aldi Sahndeep. Indian American." I said into the orb. Claire started to giggle and Trilfanie stopped trying to hide her frown. After I spoke the once clear orb began to fill itself with sky blue smoke. Trilfanie waved her hand across the orb and the smoke cleared.

"Not your nationality, your race. What is your race?" the centaur said rolling her eyes pushing the orb towards my face. She looked like she was ready to hit me with it. Claire stopped laughing enough to whisper the proper answer into my ear.

"Weretiger." I said into the orb, causing it to once again fill with blue smoke. The centaur looked to her clipboard and made a mark. She then held the orb in front of my fathers face.

"And you are here with Navembeir?" She asked while butchering my name horribly. I half suspected that she was mispronouncing it on purpose.

"Yes, I am her father Adri Sandheep. I am a weretiger as well."

"Yes, yes, ofcourse." Trilfanie mumbled while making another mark on her clipboard.

"And you?" she asked, this time pointing the orb at Claire.

"Claire Hutchings. Witch by blood." Claire answered proudly, separating herself from the humans who tried to practice magic without having the biological capacity to. This was a bit excessive seeing as Isis did not admit human students. I was pretty sure that most humans didn't even know it existed.

"And where are your parents? They're presence has to be recorded as well." The centaur inquired while making another note on the clipboard. Claire's bubbly smile wavered for a moment. Her focus lost, the once floating luggage fell to the ground. Claire's parents owned a successful chain of magic shops along the east coast. Their work often took them out of town for weeks at a time. This week they were in Egypt trying to negotiate a deal for water nymph tears. The water nymphs of the Nile River are said to have tears more magically potent than those of others.

"Um, they're not here." Claire mumbled.

"I see. And is that your familiar?" Trilfanie asked, pointing at Oscar who was being carried in Claire's arms. Claire nodded.

"And I presume that you completed the proper paper work?" The centaur asked raising an eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah. Give me just a moment." Claire answered. She carefully placed Oscar into the plastic pet carrier that she had brought with her as he mewed defiantly. She then shuffled through her purse and finally pulled out a set of folded papers.
"Here you go." She said handing them to Trilfanie. Trilfanie pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and carefully examined the forms.

"This all seems in order. Please submit your baggage for examination and teleportation to the witch over there. Students will travel to the university in alphabetical order by last name and in pairs. We will begin calling students to be transported within the next half hour. Please come when your name is called without hesitation. The Isis Academy relinquishes responsibility for any students or guests that travel beyond the clearing without being escorted by Isis Academy staff." After completing her short speech Trilfanie left just as quickly as she came.

A moment of silence passed before we all broke into laughter. Even my father was chuckling.

"She's a bit severe. Isn't she?"  he said between laughs.

"Yeah, I guess she woke up on the wrong side of the barn this morning." Claire said chuckling to herself.

I released a small nervous laugh as I wondered if Claire's sarcastic remark was a bit offensive. I knew that if I were a centaur I'd probably hate being compared to a barnyard animal. I looked to my father to see if I could ascertain his opinion on the matter by gauging his facial expression, but he seemed to have not heard Claire at all.

"C'mon November!" Claire beckoned.  She had already redone the spell that made her luggage and boxes float through the air and was walking towards the witch that Trilfanie had pointed to moments ago. Oscar seemed displeased with having to travel via floating pet carrier instead of Claire's arms. Picking up the large plastic container once more, I followed her to the other side of the clearing.

While waiting in line to meet with the witch handling peoples luggage, I took a moment to observe my surroundings. Aside from the pixies fluttering to and fro most of the people in the clearing seemed pretty normal. However upon closer inspection clues that they were fae folk could be seen. Sometimes it was something as small as noticing someone had pointed ears and tilted eyes. Other times the clues were stranger, like realizing the girl with leaves stuck in her hair actually had green leafy vines growing from her scalp.

When we reached the front of the line, the woman inquired as to whether we were aware of Isis Academy's Iron and Harmful Substances Regulations. I nodded in answer as she handed me and Claire a handful of luggage tags to attach to our belongings. Last spring, when we received our acceptance letters the school also sent a Student Handbook detailing their rules and regulations among other things. Large quantities of iron are harmful and sometimes deadly to certain races of fae folk. The handbook made it very clear that any student that willingly brought pure iron or any other dangerous substances to the campus would be immediately expelled.  

As we wrote our names and student identification numbers on the luggage tag, the witch waved a wand over our belongings in order to detect the presence of hazardous materials. She told us that after we tagged our things we could throw them onto the cart and wait for our names to be called for transport. A few moments later, with a little help from my Dad and Claire's magic we were loading the last of our belongings onto one of the large wooden carts. Suddenly, a loud scream was heard across the clearing.