Willow Academy

Chapter 1: Adventure Awaits (Madeline's Story)

Two girls sat outside the building. They sat on the steps, having ran out the door the moment people were getting loud in the stage room.

The taller of the two girls was noticeably louder as she took the leading role in speaking in the conversation. She had a thin yet muscular body and slightly tanned skin. Her hair was a long dark brown with an ocean blue streak that matched the color of her eyes. She wore no makeup yet her eyelashes were long enough and thick enough to draw plenty of attention to her eyes. She wore a simple sleeveless brown tunic with grey pants and heavy black combat boots. She had a small marking of a sword on her right wrist.

The other was shorter and looked much different. Her hair reached to her shoulders , was mostly straight and midnight black in color. Her skin was slightly pale and without a single mark across her face. Her lips were slender and pale pink and stood out slightly from the rest her face. Her eyes were a deep grey and she had a thin line of mascara drawing attention to her face. On the knuckle of her pointed finger was the marking of a skull.

The taller yawned, leaned back slightly and stretched her arms before she continued talking.

"Morana, what dorm are we supposed to go to tomorrow."

Morana, having been one of the few people to get her schedule early held her own up.

"Queen Claudia said it depends on the schedule," Morana said, she then looked down, "Sorry Madeline, that sounded kind of rude..." she quickly added.

"Eh, don't worry about it," Madeline said, a smile across her face. "Did she say where we were supposed to go today?"

"She said it was preferable that we went to the Hotel Oasis or Hotel Lively."

"What's the difference?"

"Hotel Oasis is for Nobles and Hotel Lively is for Royals," Morana said quickly, as though she had memorized it earlier.

"So we don't really have a choice," Madeline rolled her eyes and jumped up offering a hand to Morana, "Let's get going to the Oasis so we get first pick on the rooms!"

With slight hesitation, Morana took the other's hand and was pulled up. As soon as Morana was standing with no problem, Madeline started walking causing the younger to run for a second to catch up.

As soon as Morana caught up, she asked, "you know the way?"

Madeline simply nodded before she asked, "What dorm did you get?"

"Dorm 3, we might have the same dorm."

"What makes you say that?" Madeline asked. In all honesty, Madeline felt like an idiot speaking to Morana since Morana knew so much compared to what she knew. Madeline's eyes slid over to Morana and saw the large smile on her face and realized while most people would have made a note about Madeline's intelligence, Morana just seemed happy to have someone to talk to.

"Well from what electives you said you chose earlier, we have similar electives and people with similar classes are put into the same dorm typically." Morana looked curiously at Madeline.

"Wait, what electives did you choose?" Madeline asked, actually curious. Typically when Madeline talked to people, she wouldn't care if they had the same classes but she sincerely felt she wanted to hang out with Morana more.

"I took..." Morana quickly pulled her schedule out of her pocket, "Mythical animals, Forging, taming animals, sword fighting and elemental magic."

Morana quickly put the paper back into her bag and looked to Madeline, awaiting her response.

"I took mainly the same things, I didn't take elemental magic but my dad might have signed me up for it," Madeline stayed quiet for a second before she asked, "do you have any really close family?"