Dragon Boy

3: Bridge

The students stared at their teacher and the dark pathway, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Everyone was silent. The Familiars stared into the abyss with great excitement.
The teacher tapped her long toes on the floor. "Well? That was not a rhetorical question! We are operating on a tight schedule, now somebody step forward! And homework on the desk, Familiars don't excuse an incomplete assignment"
Then the red-haired girl slipped her hand down into her backpack, past her caged Familiar, and pulled out her assignment. She set it on the teacher's desk and said plainly, "I'll go first." She was far from confident though, and the teacher sensed it.
"Aoife Demetriou," Ms. Kreechure cooed, "you have nothing to worry about. You were a fine student here and I'm sure you'll be a fine student there."
She cautiously passed the desk and started through the open board. Everyone noticed two lights within the passage that came closer and closer. Within a few seconds, the lights were at the front of the passage and everyone could make out little details around the entrance. It was an old brick passageway decorated with cobwebs. Aoife then took a breath and stepped through. She continued through the passage, and the students watched as she sank down and was swallowed up by the shadows. The lights followed her down, and soon all the evidence of their fellow student was the echo of her footsteps as she descended.
Ms. Kreechure looked up at the clock above the door. "Alright, now who else? Come on, we only have five more minutes!"
The meek boy came forward with his hand searching for his assignment. "Ms. Kreechure, I'll go next, if Aoife is brave enough to go."
The teacher nodded. "Very good, Mr. Donkor. Your assignment, please."
He retrieved the paper and set it on the desk, then approached the darkness. Once again the lights came to greet the next bold student, and they followed him down the steps into darkness.
This helped to pick up the pace. The girl with the crazy hair stepped forth. She slapped her assignment on the desk and declared, "It's incomplete! Sorry!" before triumphantly bouncing down the stairs before the lights had a chance to reach her.
"Very reckless, Miss Gruber!" Ms. Kreechure called. "Who's next?"
The chubby girl came forward and pulled her assignment out of her cardigan pocket. She unfolded it and set it on the desk, then started down the stairs. "Nixie, wait up!"
"Elvia, watch your step!"
The tall boy sifted through his bag and retrieved the crumbled assignment. "I answered maybe three questions," he confessed. "And while I'm thinking about it, this lil' guy keeps eating my lunch. Are there any rules about not feeding him after midnight?"
"No, Sean, now catch up with everyone."
The tall boy then disappeared through the board. He had to duck a bit to clear the top of the entrance.
The teacher then turned her attention to Kyle. "Well, Mr. Akfernen, it looks like you're the last."
Kyle nervously looked around. Sure enough, he was the only one left standing there. He swallowed hard and slipped his hand into his bag. He felt the cool scales of the dragon against the back of his hand. It was soft, and made him feel just a little bit braver. He shifted through papers and tried to find the assignment, then felt his stomach tie itself in knots as he came to the horrible realization that he had left the assignment on his desk.
She let out a sigh. "Left it at home?"
He nodded solemnly. "Yeah."
She looked at the clock. "Well no time to fret, we have three minutes before the bell rings." She pondered for a moment, then shrugged and said, "Well I guess I have time to go with you. Come on, quickly now!"
Kyle nervously approached the threshold and watched as the lights came to him. They resembled fire, but no heat came off of them. He looked around the passage. The walls were made of brick. He looked down. There was a flight of stone stairs before him. There were spiderwebs in the corners. The residents of those webs seemed to be staring at him. There was another light at the bottom, and he could vaguely make out the silhouettes of the other students.
"I know it's a lot to take in but we need to get going!"
Kyle gave one final look back. Then he returned his gaze to the stairwell. He reached forward with one hand and touched the left wall. It was cold and felt a bit damp. He then put his foot on the first step, and heard a soft echo. He carefully continued that way, one slow, cautious foot in front of the other with his hand on the wall at all times.
"Mr. Akfernen, could you please pick up the pace!"
He began to go a bit faster. The other students started coming into focus. They all looked just as nervous as he was. As he got closer to the bottom, he noticed an old wooden door.
"Ms. Kreechure," the meek Donkor boy began, "Has this always been down here?"
The bird-woman laughed as she caught up with her students. "No, class. This isn't down here. You see, where we are right now isn't Earth."
Everyone looked at each other in confusion. "Where are we then?"
"A passageway," she snickered. "Don't worry, it will all make sense soon, but for now..." She paused. She then pushed her way through the small crowd to the door. She reached it with her long talons and pushed it open. It creaked and, in slow bursts of motion, opened, and allowed a bright light to fill the tiny passageway. "...welcome to the Great Bridge of Arachnia."
As everyone's eyes adjusted to the bright light, they were able to make out a grand structure. Before them was an enormous stone bridge. There were three other grand bridges as well, all of which came together into one enormous square. On each corner of the square were columns of unimaginable height. The other bridges came from solid walls that stretched high into the air, but they could not see what was beyond those walls, if it was anything at all. Very few beings were on the bridge, and instead, most of the visitors were flying through the air, either on their own spectacular wings or the wings of another creature. The students stood, breathless, as they took in the amazing sight.
"Two minutes!" the teacher called as she hurried through the doorway and onto the bridge.
Nervously, the students followed close behind her. This time, the tall boy Sean had taken the lead, with Nixie not too far behind, Elvie on her heels, Aoife and the Donkor boy almost side-by-side, and Kyle at the end. Though he had indisputably dreamed about this longer than the others, he, at the same time, was probably the most nervous. While the little Elvie girl and Mr. Donkor were meek and shy, and probably terrified, they also had Nixie and Aoife respectively to keep them safe. They had friends. Sean probably knew the others, or else he just got a bit of a high taking the lead and being the first to fully leave their home and the safety of the passage and enter the uncertainty of the world before them.
Without warning the teacher let out a screech, and beat her golden wings. One of the winged beings above them suddenly dropped out of the sky and landed before her. He was the same creature that she had become, but his feathers were mostly brown with streaks of grey. He had a large heart-shaped face and enormous eyes, with big eyebrows that led right into his massive amounts of hair. or, were they feathers?
"Oh, Gertrude!" the new bird-man bellowed with glee. He put his massive wings around her and nuzzled her face. She neither seemed too too thrilled, nor too upset.
"Hello, Connolly." She shrugged him off after a moment, then gave a grand sweeping gesture to her pupils. "I have brought some new students. Sadly I must get back to my other ones, so they will have to introduce themselves."
He puffed out his chest and grinned with excitement. "Spec-tacular!"
She nodded, and then turned towards her students. "Be nice," she told them bluntly. "Introduce yourselves and do as you're told. I'll be back... soon, I hope." Then she leapt surprisingly high into the air and spread her wings wide, then caught a light breeze that sent her soaring past them. She entered the passage with ease and disappeared into its darkness. Then, the students watched as the wooden door slowly turned into stone.
A wave of panic washed over them as they realized they were alone.
"I can see the concern on your faces," Mr. Connolly boomed. "Please, please, don't be alarmed! Everyone is nervous their first day here at the Bridge!"
"Nervous is an understatement," Nixie half-whined as she looked around.
The bird man shook his head. "It's alright, nothing to worry about. Now, before we do anything else, I feel it appropriate to introduce ourselves to each other. As you may or may not have heard, my name is Connolly. I would appreciate if you address me as Mr. or Headmaster Connolly. Now, I know you're all from Birchwood, so that is how you will be addressed. For example, your teacher would be addressed as Gertrude Kreechure of Birchwood. To me, not to you, because you are all to address her still as Ms. Kreechure. So if you could all please introduce yourselves and your Familiars to me, we can continue! Let's start with you, tall one!"
Everyone's heads were spinning as they tried to take it all in. They all came to their senses one by one, but poor Sean was the last to understand the request. At last, however, he realized and quickly opened his messenger bag to reveal the wingless dragon, now plump from eating most of Sean's lunch. "Sean Byrne of Birchwood, your honor!" he spat as quickly as he could. He turned a bit red as he heard the others giggle at him.
Mr. Connolly came closer. He was very large, maybe about eight feet tall. He towered over Sean, who stood at about six feet and five inches. The bird man lowered his head to Sean's bag and looked at the little beast. "Ah, a drake. Funny little extremists. Now, what is the little fella's name?"
Sean stared back at Mr. Connolly blankly. Eventually he was able to move his wide eyes down at the excited little monster in his bag. Then, without much additional thought, he regurgitated, "Drake."
Mr. Connolly stared at Sean, then retracted his enormous head and shook it. "Creativity is dead in you, child." Then he scooted his great big body over to Nixie and said, "Now you, rainbow girl."
Nixie stood tall, but her words flowed like a river of sticks. "Nixie Gruber of Birchwood, Mr. Connolly, Sir!"
The bird man ran his feathers across the tupperware at the top of her backpack. "Ooh, a Hippocamp. Those aren't something you see every day. Now, what's this little sea horse's name?"
She too looked down at her Familiar. Then she answered, "My partner and I had called it Marisa." Then she shot up and looked at him. "My partner doesn't know about this! She doesn't know I'm here! What's going to happen?"
Mr. Connolly cocked his head to the side to think, as if the answer flowed to one side of his head and he needed to bring it back the other way to remember. "If I recall correctly, Ms. Kreechure tells the partner that you've transferred, or are otherwise too busy moving to come to school. I remember one time she had convinced the partner that the student had dropped the egg off early, and that they were both getting As on the assignment."
Nixie breathed a sigh of relief. "I really hope that works."
"Believe me, it will," he assured her as he hobbled to Elvia. "And you, child?"
She nervously answered, "Elvia Martinez."
Then Mr. Connolly stuck his head inches away from her messenger bag. "And who is this critter?"
She pet her horned bunny. "We called him Egbert, but can I change the name to Skitter-Scamp?"
This made the Headmaster laugh. "I like you, child! And yes, you can change your Familiar's name at any time, though it's advised you don't change it often. Pleased to meet you, Skitter-Scamp the Jackalope!" Then he turned to Aoife. "And who might you be?"
She held up her chin and answered him bravely. "Aoife Demetriou, and this is Joy."
Mr. Connolly grinned proudly. "I see you're going to make a fine student. Don't worry about caging your phoenix, they don't run away." He then bounced right to the meek boy, who seemed even more terrified than Kyle at this point. "And you?"
"A-A-Asim D-Don-kor," he stammered. He offered his gryphon. "A-And th-this is Le-Le-Le-Leonidas."
"Don't be scared, boy. I don't bite." Finally, Mr. Connolly set himself in front of Kyle. "And who might this be?"
Kyle swallowed hard. This was both amazing and terrifying. He reached into his backpack and ran his fingers across the little dragon. It helped him to calm down. "I'm Kyle," he said breathlessly. "Kyle Akfernen."
The bird man's eyes became even wider. "Akfernen? As in, Crystal Akfernen?"
Kyle nodded slowly. "Yes. She's my mom."
Mr. Connolly looked him over carefully. "Yes, yes!" he began excitedly. "Yes, you have her hair color!" He turned his head to get a good profile view of the boy. "Her nose, her chin..." He brushed Kyle's hair from his ears. "You even have her ears!" He backed up and flapped his wings excitedly. "Young Akfernen! I must see your Familiar!"
He opened his backpack a bit wider and angled it so the bird-man could look inside. "Can you see it?"
There was a brief moment of silence, as though Mr. Connolly was contemplating his answer. Then he muttered to himself, "Purple, such an odd color." He turned his attention back to Kyle. "And what is its name?"
Kyle felt his mind turn blank. He had tried to think up a name as Connolly made his way down the line, but had not thought of anything. Then he started making noises as if a name would just come to him naturally. "Purr... um, Vi... Azu... Dra..."
"Come on now, Akfernen! Just give me the first word you can think of!"
Kyle shut his eyes and took a deep breath. Words ran past his eyelids. He could see them. White lettered words, either words that would not make good names or words that flew past too quickly for him to see. He decided to just reach out and grab one. He caught it fairly easily. Nervously he focused on the letters until they formed a word. And what a bizarre word it was.
"Fledermaus," he sighed. Even before he opened his eyes he could tell everyone was staring at him.
"Fledermaus?" Mr. Connolly echoed.
Kyle nodded slowly. "Yes. Fledermaus."
Mr. Connolly heaved his heavy body back on his big bird feet. "It's alright, your mother took some adjusting as well." Then he turned to regard the class as a whole. "Very well, it's been lovely meeting you all. Now if you'll please follow me, I'll take you to the school." He turned around to face the rest of the bridge, and began to walk. "This way."
The class followed close behind their new Headmaster, unsure of what else to do. Kyle hung close to the back. This was all too much all at once. He had wanted this, but now that it was given to him, he was having second thoughts. He told himself it would get better and that he just had to keep calm. He reached into his bag and retrieved his Familiar, then set it on his shoulder. It was a very bizarre creature, but something about it just felt comfortable. He felt its tiny claws poke through his jacket and shirt, and even brush against his skin. He gave it a few pets. It was soft and smooth, but also bumpy from its scales. It was such a bizarre combination. Fledermaus was just plain bizarre.
Kyle continued to let his eyes wander as the group moved. There were plenty of bird-people in the sky. Those who were not bird-people rode on the backs of their Familiars, except for one who rode in the pouch of some great sky kangaroo, perhaps? But the more he looked, the more he saw beauty. Everyone was happy. They all smiled and enjoyed the warm, clean air. The sky in which they flew was the purest blue. Those who were on the Bridge also seemed content. And the Bridge was beautiful, too. Its stone was a beautiful light grey. When he looked closer he could see there were tiny details etched into the columns of the Square, that stretched into the sky, details such as animals and plants. The beauty filled him and he began to walk faster, gaining on Aoife and Asim.
As they crossed the Square, Kyle looked to his left. He saw another person. This other person was tall and slim, and wore black combat boots, skin-tight black jeans and a black vest that was just a bit shorter than his black-and-grey-striped t-shirt. This person had long, not-quite-straight, but not-quite-wavy hair that came to about their shoulder blades, and was restricted into a ponytail. Around their waist was a chain that went from their front to his back left pocket, and on that was a fake purple-grey tail. Their hands were in their pockets. They were normal.
Kyle continued to stare, amazed. But then the "person" turned around. He had strong features, and was quite handsome. But he also had a tall, grey horn sticking out of the middle of his forehead.
Kyle jerked his head away and looked dead ahead. Though the horned man was not the weirdest thing on the Bridge, he was certainly up there. What made it so startling was the fact that, other than the horn, he looked so human. What other non-humans could look like humans here?
Finally, after a brief walk and some paranoia about what other oddities could be afoot, the group arrived at the wall on the opposite side of the Bridge. Instead of a door, like the wall from which they came, this wall had a gate carved into it. The carving was about fifteen feet tall, and at the very top was a circle with 'AA' inside it. The rest of the carving was plain, just a simple barred gate.
"What does 'AA' stand for?" Nixie asked.
"Academy of Arachnia," Mr. Connolly replied. "It will be your new school."
"And how do we get home?" Sean demanded.
Mr. Connolly shook his head. "You can go home on holidays. You live here now."
Kyle's eyes went wide. He wanted to say something but knew there was no sense in arguing. Even if he could just go home and move on, he would always be haunted by these visions. He would never be the same. He looked around at the others. Most of them looked terrified, but Nixie looked almost relieved. Weird.
"But I have a girlfriend! I have to go to work after school! Who will feed my fish? Are my parents okay with this? Will I see my family again?" Kyle was unsure who was saying what - so unsure, in fact, his mouth was moving but he could not decipher what even he himself was asking - but he could tell this was all very upsetting.
"Hey now, relax, all will be fine. You will have time to write them letters soon. We also have prompts so you can get an idea of just what to say."
That last comment did not sit well with anyone. They all remained quiet after that.
Mr. Connolly then turned to the wall and felt around his belt with his foot. After a moment he found a key. The head of the key was round and decorated with a symbol similar to the one the teacher had drawn on the board. He tapped the key against the carving, then took a step back. The stone of the carving began turning into iron, and the gaps between the bars began turning into blue sky and beautiful green trees. There was a pathway that formed, and it lead to a building far off in the distance. The entire transformation took only a few seconds.
Mr. Connolly reached up and opened the gate. It moved silently and easily. It was clearly as well-maintained as everything else around them.
"Follow me, students."
The students did as they were told. Kyle hung towards the back, as usual. As soon as he crossed the threshold, he heard the gates click closed. He looked over his shoulder and looked beyond the gate. Rather than the Bridge, or a great stone wall, he saw a path leading away into a series of mountains and forest. He turned back and saw the others, who were too busy taking in the new sights to notice.
"Where's the Bridge?" he demanded.
Everyone turned to look. There was a collective gasp as the others processed what they saw.
"Don't worry, young ones," Mr. Connolly soothed. "It's still there. You just need the key."
"What does the symbol on the key mean?" Sean demanded.
"Feels like you skipped a line or two," Mr. Connolly muttered. "The symbol is used to unlock access to the Bridge. The key turns any door into an entry to the Bridge."
"Will we be getting keys of our own?" Aoife asked.
Mr. Connolly shook his head. "No, you will be asked to memorize the symbol. Now enough dilly-dallying, we don't want to be late!" He turned and began a hurried bird-strut down the path. At that point, it seemed not to matter to him whether or not his new students followed.
The group looked at each other, as if silently debating their next move. After a few moments, and a few silly faces, they decided to follow the bird-man up the path.
The path was long and well-traveled. Here and there a blade of grass grew, but for the most part, it was all dirt and dust. Tall trees surrounded the path, making it impossible to see anything that was not directly in front or directly behind them. They looked ahead at their new headmaster, and at the structure that was growing ever closer. It looked almost like some kind of Gothic castle.
"Is that the Academy?" Nixie called to Mr. Connolly.
No reply.
"He probably can't hear us."
Sean looked up at the almost-castle and let out a low whistle. "That thing looks more impressive the closer we get to it."
"I wonder how many people are there?" Kyle questioned.
"I wonder how many are from our school?" Elvia added. "Anyone remember Zach Hunter? He supposedly transferred schools last year."
Nixie smiled and went a little pink. "I remember Zach. He was cool. A lot of girls were so disappointed when he moved."
"But maybe he's here."
Kyle felt his lips pull into a smirk. "Now that I think about it, a lot of people 'transferred' schools, didn't they?"
The others snickered about that.
"And we all swallowed that pill!" Sean chuckled especially loudly.
"Guess we should've seen this coming, especially with a teacher whose last name sounds like 'creature'," Aoife laughed.
"Wow, we're easy to fool!"
The bird-man turned to face them. "Enough nonsense!" Then he turned back and continued his hurried march.
The students looked at each other. Elvia and Kyle both wore expressions of guilt, as though they were the reason Mr. Connolly suddenly barked at them. They were all quiet for a bit after that, and spent much of that silence looking ahead at the castle. Its enormous grey walls magnificent spires pierced the sky. It was simple, but beautiful, but terrifying. The closer they got, the more they saw, and eventually they were able to see things flying around the spires.
"Ah, the trust exercise!" Mr. Connolly boomed proudly. "It is completely pointless, but it assures the students their Familiar won't abandon them!"
"How so?" Aoife ventured cautiously.
"Simple! Your instructor hauls you into the air and drops you. Your Familiar will then catch you! Easy as that!"
She went pale and started to fall behind. Asim grabbed her by the hand and pulled her along. "Is any of this legal?"
"I'd say, 'In your world, maybe,' but the way some nuns treat their students I'm not too sure!" He roared with laughter, but this did nothing but make the students uncomfortable. Still, the old headmaster was so caught up in his joke that he could not tell he was not very funny at all. Finally he calmed down, right as they arrived at the castle-like structure. He made a gesture with his enormous wings. "Ah, here we are!"
There was an enormous threshold before the students. At the very top of the threshold was the same circle design with AA in the center. Just beyond the threshold, they could see what looked like a market and a courtyard, hustling and bustling with people and humanoids, most of whom had an animal or great creature beside them. Beyond that was the main building, with a small chunk of stairs leading to an enormous set of wooden double doors. The main building was an impressive rectangular structure with a few small windows, and it simply went up into the sky so high that it was forbidden to students with breathing difficulties. One at the top of that structure could see for miles on a clear day, and, on days were fog cloaked the land, they would be able to look down and see the cloud beneath them.
"It's so simple, but so... amazing," Kyle sighed. He felt his Familiar wriggle with excitement.
Elvia turned to look at Mr. Connolly. "Is this a castle?"
"Yes, and no," the old bird-man explained, slowing to a leisurely walk as he crossed the great threshold. "You see, this was created with the intent of being a kingdom. It was for some time. It was a kingdom for the Family, which will be explained in lesson one. Then there was the civil war, the problems with magical anomalies crossing the Bridge and entering other worlds, and blah blah blah, your history professors will explain it all."
Kyle shuddered. Civil war? His mother and father believed strongly in the existence of paranormal beings, and always told him about the spirits wandering around old battle fields. In that moment he felt as though hundreds of unseen eyes were watching him. There were probably ghosts here, but, he hoped, they would be friendly.
"The year is just starting. Come on! Don't want to be late for orientation!"
The group followed Mr. Connolly across the threshold and into the walls. The other people and humanoids stopped their interactions and looked at the freshmen. Kyle felt his joints stiffen. He could feel their judgement. In reality, most of those other folks turned right back to their conversations or playing with their Familiars. Those who did not resume their positions immediately smiled or offered friendly waves. Only a small handful of the other folk continued to stare, and only a small handful of that group judged. Kyle was just so nervous it felt as though the world was making early judgments on him.
The group crossed the crowded marketplace, crossed the grassy courtyard, and strode up the stairs leading to the doors. When they reached that point, Mr. Connolly turned to them and said, "There are classes going on right now. You best keep your voices down as to not disturb them." Then he turned to the door and, rather than use his feet as he had been doing so all morning, gave the doors a good shove with his enormous wings. The doors swung open with a faint creek and revealed a poorly lit interior. The doors stayed open, and after a moment Mr. Connolly turned to face them. "Don't be scared, go on in."