The Girl with an Owl

Chapter 19

Once they exited the class, they were back to the boring hallway. It was such a shock for Ajana to go from the beautiful meadow to the regular looking hallways.

This time, however, it was more crowded than it was when they first arrived. Creatures, big and small, were running or flying past them in a hurry to reach their next class. It was so odd for Ajana since she never assumed some magical creatures even went to school.

The newcomers were easy to spot since they had a dazed look about them that was unmistakable.

Most of them were shocked by the contrast of the nondescript hallway and their wonderous classrooms.

It was also easy to spot the ones from Mag. Even though they seemed to have some difficulty navigating the school grounds, they weren't overwhelmed by it all like the others were.

"That was awesome, wasn't it? Wasn't it!?" Bluebells exclaimed, jumping up and down.

Then he hovered above ground being unable to decide what would be the best way for him to express his joy.

"Yeah, that was pretty cool!" Ajana said, smiling broadly.

She was still nervous about her future studies, but she was also excited about it. Nervous butterflies she felt were, at the same time, scary and exciting.

After all, she just came out of a class where she was learning the magical history of a whole new world that she was living in.

Nevertheless, she missed home.

Most of all, she missed her mother's kind, soothing voice that could make all her worries go away. She also missed her father's silly jokes and his belly laugh.

They were always there for her, both of them in their own unique ways. Her mum to help her solve her problems, and her father to help her laugh them away.

Now she had no one to talk to, no one to help her figure out the rules that she needed to follow, or what was the right thing to do.

Was staying there and accepting everything they told her at face value the right choice? She trusted Wallace, but she was born in a world where you had to second guess everything.

Bluebells was a fun guy to hang out with, but there was no way for her to have a serious conversation with him. He was too excitable and happy to be burdened with her problems. It seemed to her that he didn't have any worries to speak of.

Ajana couldn't help but wonder if all the winged horses were like that or if it was just Bluebells.

After the thought occurred to her, Ajana felt bad since she wasn't sure if what she thought was racist or speciest, or something equally wrong.

As she was absorbed in her own thoughts, contemplating a lot of different things, she was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts by a rude shove.

"Out of my way, human!" Orla said as she continued roughly pushing people out of her way to make room for her and her group of friends.

"You know that she is not a human, Orla." Bluebells tried to defend Ajana, but Orla was already gone.

"Would it be so bad if I WERE a human?" Ajana couldn't help but wonder.

Everyone in Mag, except for Orla, was pleasant, but would they be like that even towards a regular human?

"So, what's your next class?" Bluebells asked.

"Magic Basics," Ajana said.

"Oh, I have Flying Basics. They are creative with the names, aren't they?" he said, trying to make a joke.

Even he didn't laugh at his own joke since they were both scared. They didn't want to split up since they felt better about the strangeness of it all in each other's company.

"Well, see you later, I guess." Bluebells said as he flew off following some other fliers in the hopes that they were heading the same way he was.

Ajana was left all alone in a large hallway surrounded by warlocks, witches, trolls, and many other beings. For some of them, she wasn't even sure what they were. Instead of staring at their uniqueness, which they might've found offensive, she tried to focus on finding the right classroom.

It was much more challenging to find it since many students were roaming the halls, and some of them were so big that she couldn't see past them.

After a while, she found the right door, but she hesitated before opening it. For a few seconds, she just stood taking deep breaths, trying to prepare herself for what she might encounter behind that door.

Finally, she slowly entered the classroom.

This time she did scream. She screamed so loudly that she startled the other students who were just peacefully floating on their own fluffy clouds.

"Calm down, Ajana. Everything is fine. You are okay," she heard Wallace's familiar voice.

Upon hearing him, she stopped screaming, but she was still terrified. She couldn't stop looking at the cloud under her feet and imagining herself plummeting to her death.

"Relax, it is just a strong glamour. You are not actually on a cloud." Wallace said as he settled in more comfortably on his own cloud.

That one was much bigger than the others and floated above the students, gently moving from side to side.

The students' clouds were static, and Ajana was extremely grateful for that. If her cloud had moved even one inch, she would have probably fainted.

Although she had always dreamed of flying, the truth was that she was terrified of heights. As a concept, it sounded great. However, whenever she actually found herself high above the ground, she felt sick and dizzy. The view was always mesmerizing, but she could never enjoy it since its beauty was overridden by fear.

Her mind would always play tricks on her. What if she leaned in a bit too far and fell to her death? What if she just jumped off the building by accident?

She knew those thoughts made no sense, but she couldn't stop them from flooding her mind.

After Wallace explained that it was just a glamour, she managed to relax a bit. After all, she did love using virtual reality headset back home, this shouldn't be a problem for her.

In the virtual reality, she even flew high up in the air with no problems, so if she could convince herself that it was the same with the clouds, she would be fine. It was the kind of safety net that helped her relax and enjoy without worrying too much.

After a few moments, she managed to imagine that it was something similar to virtual reality and was able to enjoy the moment.

She sat down on her cloud and was finally able to notice how soft and fluffy it was. She loved the texture and beauty of it.

Also, the view from the cloud was magnificent. Ajana could see that blue skies were dotted with clouds of different shapes and sizes, with students sitting comfortably on each cloud.

Magic Basics had started off nicely. Wallace was her teacher (which he forgot to mention), and she had the opportunity to face her fear.

Maybe she would be okay, after all.

As she was thinking that, Wallace started the class and it was a sight to be seen, an enchanting owl teaching magic students on the clouds.