The School for Wisps

6.

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Kirana walked blindly, in the dark. The tunnel smelled like millions of stinky animals' droppings, but she kept a hand on the wall. There! A light. A star among endless space. She grinned at the poetry. More like a flower among bird poop. She laughed out loud, and a cloud of bats flew into her face, startled by the noise. Kirana sighed. "Bat poop." She started running, stepped on something, and it grabbed her leg. She screamed and kicked it. Abruptly, she found herself at the exit of the tunnel. When there was enough light to see, Kirana glanced down at her leg. The hem of her jeans had embroidered lettering on it. It hadn't been there before. 'Welcome to PE.' it read. Then she noticed a sign that said: Leave your backpacks here. Kirana slid her bag off her shoulder and dropped it on the ground.

Something smashed into Kirana's shoulder. She bit the inside of her cheek and tasted warm blood. Looking up with a glare hot enough to melt ice, she saw a basketball rolling around the corner.

"I always hated PE." she muttered, bitterly spitting blood on the ground. Running after the ball, she picked it up and looked around for the first time. She was standing next to a brick wall, which looped all the way around a field, basketball court, a... corn field...? and a gym. No one else was around. Something bit her hand. Glancing down, she saw that the ball had grown a mouth, pointed fangs, and two stumpy legs- and it had its fangs closed around her hand. Kirana screamed and smashed her hand, including the fang-ball, into the wall. It fell off and gleefully teetered away on its stumpy legs. Sighing, Kirana began the search for someone. "Am I first again?" she wondered.

"HELLO? I CAME FOR P.E!" she yelled. She heard an echo in the distance and sighed. There was seemly no one around. She walked into the cornfield and almost immediately knew why it was there. A small path wove through the corn. It was a maze! Without thinking, Kirana entered. Nothing's hard in this maze, she thought. They don't have obstacles or even a spilt-path! Walking forward, now smirking, Kirana went right into a spider web that blocked the entire road. Now it was too late. Stuck in place, she saw a gigantic spider approaching, delicately walking along a silver thread. Kirana shut her eyes in horror. But no pincers touched her. Instead, the spider asked her a question.

"What is the name of your school?" the spider croaked, extending a long leg toward Kirana's hair. She shied away. The spider paused, affronted. It stiffly retracted its leg and repeated the question.

"The Academy for Wisps?" Kirana whispered. The old spider nodded and the strings holding Kirana became slippery and deposited her on the other side of the road. Sighing with relief, Kirana moved on, now more cautious than before.

The next obstacle Kirana managed to dodge. It was a flying hover that expelled a weird kind of mist. Kirana held her breath and threw a rock at the hover right as it expelled the fog. The rock banged off the hover's case and left a big dent. The hover, now tilted, plummeted to the ground. The mist cleared up, and Kirana stepped over the fallen hover to face her next obstacle.

Another minute of walking led her to a split-trail. One trail looked bright, and the other one looked ominous. Kirana headed for the light. Before long, she became suspicious about the lack of obstacles. That was when she saw the old man. He only had one eye and seemed to be leering at her in a lopsided sort of way. As she stood before him, staring, his grin became more pronounced. The earth rumbled behind her. Kirana turned, ready to scream... A giant picked her up and chucked her into the clouds.