A Friend

"Can't believe I'm here..." a voice mumbled beside me.

I kept lookin forward, enjoying the view. The Lunar Academy definitely looked huge and complicated from the outside, but I wasn't prepared to see its... almost boring interior. Much like an ancient castle, the walls were built of strong rock with a gray color. Some parts even reeked of the moisture that seeped in from the dampness of the humidity around the forest.

I tried to get a good feel of the prestigious Academy, but I found it hard to appreciate it since all I've seen so far were its corridors.

"I'm really here," Albert murmured yet again.

"You've never been in a corridor before?" I asked while hiding my smile.

He turned to glare at me. "I meant that it's my first time... Oh, of course you knew what I meant."

"Right," I said, finally releasing my laughter. "I see I'm not the only one who had dreamed of going to school here."

"Well," he grumbled. "You don't look all that happy to me."

"Oh, I'm happy," I reassured him. "It's just that... we've been walking for a long time now, haven't we?"

Albert tilted his head in thought. "I suppose it would be sensible to have the professors' offices deep into the building?"

I nodded mindlessly, and then whispered, "I'm tired though..."

"Did you boys say something?" The examiner turned towards us, slowing down his pace.

"Nothing, professor," Albert replied. "We were only wondering when we would arrive."

The examiner looked at us with a stern gaze. "I would imagine both of you are tired from all the traveling, but if you had managed to get out of the forest, then I suppose you can afford a few more minutes of walking."

I sighed inwardly and instead smiled at him. "Of course, professor."

The man looked at me for a moment that was longer than normal before finally resuming his swift walk.

I was lost in thought when a man in matching robes with the other mages suddenly appeared. He intercepted us with a genial smile. "What's happening here, Professor Whitaker? And who are these boys?"

"New students, Professor Storm. A peculiar pair, I should say," the gray-eyed examiner said.

The new arrival stared at us with electrifying, blue eyes. He had windswept, golden hair and a rugged complexion. He looked quite young to be a professor, but I suppose the world can be a big enough place for such phenomenon.

"I'm Professor Storm," the young man said, and held down a hand to me. "I was apprehensive after hearing about you two, but now I know it's for real."

I took his hand with a smile, but then felt a growing tingle rushing through my veins. The man had electrified me. "I'm Eleftherion," I said as though everything was normal.

A twinkle shone through his eyes and I felt the shock grow stronger. The electricity had now gone to a point where I could feel my brain shake, but I refused to yield. When I didn't make a move to let go first, he finally removed his hand with a small chuckle. I heard him mutter under his breath, "Cheeky."

He did the same thing with Albert, but the boy replied with a loud, "I am Prince A-AAHHH!"

The young professor laughed as he let the boy go. "Sorry, sorry. I do that to all my students. I hope you forgive me. The effects usually stop by now. Ah, right. I didn't get your name."

I stared as Albert slowly began to recover. He seemed like he might've wanted to glare at the teacher, but instead, he glared at the floor. "... Albert. I go by Albert."

"Well, then. Prince Albert and Eleftherion," Professor Storm said. "You two have made quite a ruckus since your exams."

Albert and I looked at each other. "Ah..." I started. "I think you meant my other friend and I. Maybe."

"Oh!" the young man shouted out. "Forgive me then for the misunderstanding. But this means you are the common denominator in these two events."

"If you're suggesting that I had anything to do with this, then I'm afraid you are wrong," I said. "This time, I simply rode on the skills of my companion here."

I looked at the boy with a smile, to which he perfectly smiled back in return. He said, "It's more due to luck than skill, as I've said before, but I'm honored to be under your good grace."

I heard a sound of approval coming from our front. Professor Storm was smiling at us before he turned towards the older man. "Anyway, I came to tell you that the students have started to trickle in the hall. You might as well bring these boys there with the others."

"Understood, Storm. I'll leave that to you then? I'll be at my office." The man looked at me with an empty gaze, but I knew he was trying to tell me something.

"Might I walk you there, Professor Whitaker? I feel bad to just leave like this right after you had helped us earlier," I spoke evenly.

His gaze turned softer. "Not to worry boy. My office is just around that corner, right beside the Head Professor's."

I smiled. "Alright, then."

Nudging at Albert, who was looking at me with suspicious eyes, I led us in a bow. "Thank you for your help, Professor."

Afterwards, he had left and I watched him head towards the left corridor. I tried to complete a little map inside of my brain about the campus grounds. I had an almost complete picture, 'Did we turn a right there, or a left?'

A hand landed on my shoulder, and I did my best not to instinctively flick it away. The young professor had gone between me and Albert and was now holding onto our shoulders. He smiled jovially. "Are you ready to formally meet your classmates?"

~~

While I was busy making my mental map more concrete, Albert kept mumbling and jittered in excitement as we passed through considerably more aesthetic halls than the ones we had come from. The stone walls became more concrete and colors started to brighten up the space. Candelabras of gold and silver hung at the sides with their mysterious glow. Banners of green and deep gold decorated our corridors.

I found myself smiling as upbeat music started to fill my ears. I felt like I should enjoy this momentous day more rather than wallowing myself up with dank memorization games.

"The Lunar Academy has a history as old as the moon itself, or so the legends say," the young professor told us with a handsome smile. "Of course, many believe that the actual age of the Academy would only be about a few millennia old. But as a romantic myself, I'd prefer to believe that the Academy has been here for as old as the Goddess Luna Herself."

He winked at us while his perfect teeth shone. I inwardly groaned, although I couldn't deny that the young man was a looker. I could have felt something for him if it was my past self, but somehow, in my tinier body, I could only muster up mild feelings of attraction.

"Did you graduate from the Academy, Professor Storm?" Albert asked with shining eyes.

"Ha!" The young man seemed to have taken confidence from the boy's innocent question, and he beamed even wider. "That I did, young prince. It would also do you good to know that I immediately took upon my professorship right after my completion rites."

"You must have really liked the Academy to have decided to stay here even longer," I mumbled.

He heard me, but fortunately didn't take offense. "Yes! I love the Academy, to tell you the good truth. I could hardly bear to leave its soggy walls." Professor Storm laughed a little bit more before finally stopping in front of a pair of great doors. He knocked very softly, turning to us with a finger on his lips, before kicking it widely open.

I gasped a little at his almost barbaric action, but then realized we hardly made any great ruckus. Inside the doors was a large hall, wild with noise from children and creatures alike. Music blared in the background, but it wasn't very dissonant as I would have thought. In fact, the chatterings and animal sounds somehow felt like the very lyrics to the upbeat song. There was a certain peace to all the chaos.

I still stood agape as Albert grabbed my arm to pull me inside. A flying paperplane swooped down towards us and I ducked just in time. Funnily though, as Albert had stepped away from it in a hurry, the paperplane still followed after him. Seeing the usually calm boy so flustered and panicked, I giggled in delight. But then, I too was pricked at my back with another miniature plane. I grew annoyed as it flew around me. I made to swat at it, but a hand stopped me.

"Don't be so harsh on the magicks," Professor Storm told me. "Let it be."

The paperplane drifted in the air in front of my face before sliding to poke at my nose before swiftly dying away from my reach. "That little-!"

The professor roared in laughter as he patted at my back. "Come now, the others will be slowly arriving here too."

We looked for the black-haired boy for a short while before finally finding him hiding underneath a clothed table, a dozen paperplanes swirling around it, announcing his position quite efficiently.

Professor Storm then led us into a far corner of the hall, where the loud sounds were somewhat dialed down. There was an open space where there were no long tables around. There were fewer people too.

Then, I felt a surge of magic and from nothing appeared a robed woman with two nobly dressed children in her arms. Both of them looked quite shaken, however.

"I-I died!" one of the boys shouted. "Wh-Where am I? Why am I not dead?"

"Huh..." I muttered, observing the scene well. Just a few paces away from where the mage had magically appeared was a cluster of children in various states. Many were like the first boy: distraught and pale. Very few were energetic, with eyes eating up the wonderful chaos that filled the hall. And far away into the very corner, seated on high bleachers, were a different group of children not much older or younger than our group.

They seemed well-composed and had a regal manner to them as well. In fact, they seemed like the line of royalty sitting at the head of a dining hall. All of them looked down at us with mild gazes, some even bordering at boredom. Yet, a certain girl's lavender eyes called out to me like a plea for desperate help.

'Zepherin,' I shouted to her in my mind, but to the world's eyes, I was simply gazing around the room.

But, she was there. My friend was there, and I had to smile. I turned to Albert, "Do you feel excited too?"

However, he only stared at me.

"What?" I asked. "You don't?"

"I do... It's just weird to see you react the same way that every other kid would." He looked at me weirdly while a smile tugged at his lips. "Anyway! Do you know what this means?"

I tilted my head in confusion. "Care to tell me?"

He sighed in a show-like manner, but a smile crept up his face the next second. "This scene tells me we really are the only ones to make it here on our own... and we're probably the first of our batch to arrive in the Academy!"

I laughed a bit after seeing him smiling so proudly. I decided to dampen his mood a bit. "We're not the first ones to arrive. Look over there."

He turned to look at the raised benches. On them were five children in clean, noble clothes. They didn't look like they had traversed through troll-infested forests at all.

"Ahh, I've heard of them," Albert muttered dejectedly. "Those are the Sinus Fidei Maximus."

"The... what?" I mumbled back in incredulousness.

"The Sinus Fidei-"

"I know. I heard it clearly," I told him impatiently. "But what does it mean?"

He looked at me in silence, probably shocked I didn't know about it. When I was about to tell him off in impatience, he finally said, "The greatest of the smallest."

I let out a breath. It definitely suits her.

"Hey, hey," Albert whispered as he stared up at the bleachers. "That girl's looking at us."

"Is she?" I looked up, and stared back at her. The assassin looked down at me through her lashes. Her once snow white hair had been dyed black, and her youthfulness was all but gone. If I didn't know she was acting, I could have sworn she was serious.

I could've sworn she was looking down at me with great and utter disgust.

Then, she smiled.