The Silver Knife

Chapter 1

Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.

The continuous scratching of quills on parchment, rustling of papers and soft sighs and subtle coughs filled the serious and stiff atmosphere of the Hall. It was the end of term exams and the students were bent on writing the last exam of the old year. The defining time of their academic career, just like every year, which would result in multiple eliminations, some happy sky-high marks, and some mere marginal considerations; so that every year, only the best remained.

Oh wait I didn't know you were here. You might be wondering who I am of all people, explaining the atmosphere of an examination to you. Well I am your narrator, or whatever way you would want to phrase that. I like conversing with people, and most often they ask me to tell stories. I therefore came to be known as 'The Narrator' or by some elitists as 'The Storyteller'. Call me by whatever fancies you (but not something like 'the guy who tells nice stories' please I despise people who call me that). So why am I even telling you about myself? Oh yes, ever observed one of those events that seem like there has been a script written out for it? Something that plays out like a movie? Well I don't know about you, but I had witnessed one of those.

Now the story was about a really odd group if you ask me. They were like the least likely people to be friends, or even the least likeliest of all to ever even meet. But here's the twist, they were quite good friends, and many were often jealous of their friendship. It's fun however, to see how the others failed in that attempt. Oh the examination seemed to be over, they're filling out, let's follow them. I'll stop my chattering now, you can listen to them yourself.

A girl with platinum blonde hair with black and red streaks in it walked out with a small animal, wriggling and holding onto the cloak on her back. Oh what was that? It was a dragon! It was a golden dragon, about the size of a large cat, sitting atop her left shoulder. Must be her familiar then. She had a bag slung across her shoulder which held a book, some ingredients maybe? And glass phials. She patted the head of her dragon when a boy caught up with her.

He also had shoulder length blonde hair, a tad bit darker than the girl's. He was about an inch taller than her and had a black cat in his arms. Both of them wore long cloaks, draping down to their ankles. They were talking in low voices about the examination they had just given, trying not to be heard over the already swelling din and bustle of students running past them, some with bright faces and some with rather forlorn ones. Their familiars bent over their shoulders and engaged in what seemed to be in an endless staring contest while their masters talked about themselves and their preparations for next year.

The two of them walked past the library into the courtyard where the sun was pouring in from all sides, a shimmering fountain stood in the centre, drawing the chirping circles of birds to perch on it. The dragon flew down from the girl's cloak and perched on top of a bench. The girl sat down on the bench and heaved a sigh. She was exhausted enough already from the potion brewing in the first exam of the morning. This last one had drained her completely. The boy hummed a tune softly as the cat leaped from his arms and sprang after a butterfly into the bushes.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

A sound of hurried footsteps echoed on the cobblestones as a brown haired girl, much younger than the two others in the courtyard, arrived there panting and completely out of breath and dropped her hands on her knees. She had a backpack and wore a different coloured cloak than the two others. "Lilith, I told you to wait near the library! I have been finding you everywhere! So I thought of checking here and guess what? I found you two! Stop leaving me behind Lilith....I am still pretty new here." She said while gasping for breath. "And I am not really good at running you know...." She said still gasping, although she had regained a bit of her breath. And while she was still bent and gasping, the two others shared a look. The cat in the bushes meowed while the dragon folded it's wings, looking clearly annoyed at the newcomer's presence.

"Yes, congratulations on being able to find us by yourself without running out of breath and dying midway in the corridor." The blonde girl said in a matter-of-fact tone which caused the boy to smirk a little. She got up and stood a foot away from the brown haired girl, locking her piercing icy-blue eyes with the other's beady-black ones. "So how was your test..... well enough to get to the next year?" The blonde girl asked in a very solemn tone.

"Oh I think so! I don't want to leave this place..... I mean- I mean....no one does....Well exams are over! Not that I can do something about it anyway now...." The girl fell quiet as the blonde girl kept a pensive face at her excited chatter. A still silence followed, only to be broken by the gurgling of water from the fountain and light chirping of unseen birds.

"Lilith, I think you are scaring her...." The boy said after some time. The blonde haired girl turned to face him.

"Am I? I don't find it scary." She said as she looked down at the girl in front of her. "Well, if you need more than one whole school year to know where the most basic parts of the academy are, then you better ask someone to draw you a map." Lilith said, looking back at the other girl.

The boy picked up his cat. "Let's go. It's almost the bell for lunch, I am starving." The boy said. Lilith sighed as she held her arm out for her dragon to fly out and perch on. The two of them dashed down the hall as the bell sounded the beginning of lunch, leaving the other girl to trail behind them in her not so fast pace and soon the three of them blurred into the crowd of students at the end of the hall lining up for lunch.