The Secret Plains

26

Narrator's POV

The first thing Kay felt when she fell was...pain, obviously.

"Quick and painless, my foot," she grumbled as she struggled to stand up from the ground, opening her eyes to the harsh light that immediately went through her eyelids. She felt a hand in hers before suddenly remembering Eiren, who she guessed was trying to help her stand up, muttering, "It'll be okay."

She felt another pair of arms wrap around her, hoisting her up, "You alright, (TBO)?"

She could understand that voice from anywhere. "Lucas?"

Her eyes finally opened fully. They were in the middle of a huge grass field, with the harsh sun blaring down on them. Kay could see other kids getting up from the ground in pain and obvious discomfort on their faces. She managed to get up, but she was still leaning on Lucas a bit.

"Did we crash land? Are we dead? Is this Velvimr heaven?" she asked wearily, rubbing her head, and Eiren chuckled.

"No, your reaction is normal. When you first use cloud-crossing, you are basically traveling at around the fastest possible time a cloud can travel, and when you land, as soft as it is, you're gonna have a lot of pain." Eiren explained, "That's how I felt when I first cloud-crossed. You get used to it the second time, and soon, you wouldn't even notice it at one point."

Lucas silently grumbled something that Kay picked up because they were quite close. Was he...jealous?

"What about you?" she asked him, turning her attention to him, "How come you look like you feel fine?"

"I look like it," he answered, "I don't feel like it. Don't judge a book by its cover," he joked, chuckling, but there was a hint of seriousness in his eyes.

A strong wind suddenly picked up, almost knocking all three friends off their feet. Kay managed to see Ms Castellon and a few other teachers, and the seer gracefully landed on the field of grass with them. She looked around and spoke up, "Okay, I'm going to do a headcount. Please try to stay still, everyone."

Most people stopped moving for Ms Castellon to do the headcount, and after she had made sure everyone hadn't...met a tragic death...she started to talk again.

"Okay, if you guys will, please look behind you," she gestured behind them, and Kay turned around with Lucas and Eiren.

It was beautiful.

There was a large, very large white building with various windows, and it looked very grand. There was a balcony made out of something shiny and reflecting the sunlight. It looked like a mega-mansion.

Ms Castellon ushered us into the building, which Kay assumed to be Eldorya Academy. The inside was exquisite. It looked more like a mansion than a school, but apparently, it was a school just like Querida. Querida was just as large, yes, but Eldorya was grander. Way grander.

The crowd of Level 3 explorers, about 30 in total, stopped at one point just to look around. A crowd of students, girls wearing white long-sleeved shirts, purple skirts, and purple ties, walked across the room, chatting while looking at the newcomers.

Ms. Castellon walked to the front of the group and magnified her voice again, not too loud to echo across the entire school but enough for the entire group to hear her.

"Okay, we will wait here until the heads of Eldorya come here to meet us. We have sent for them, so be patient."

They seemed to wait there for minutes on end until a group of smartly dressed individuals walked down the stairs in front of them and stood in a line. There were six people: A wizard, wearing a similar fashion to the seer, with stark grey eyes, was standing in the middle, no doubt the main head. The last person on the line from the right was an elf with dark blue hair tied back into a bun. He wore a white button-up shirt with smart dress pants and polished shoes, one of the only modern clothes there. From him, there was a lady vampire, a female pixie, the wizard, and a male goblin. The last woman was different. She was dressed so casually: a yellow sweatshirt and black joggers, with shiny beige hair packed up into a ponytail, with an unserious look on her face, her yellow eyes dimmed in boredom. "Werewolf," Kay thought. In fact, in Kay's opinion, she looked the most likable. She also looked the youngest out of the six.