The Deathless Tsar

Chapter V

The following day is the familiar assignment in Spellcasting. Galina and I sit anxiously on the bench, waiting for class to start. Each student has a small vial of their own hair, and a separate vial of something from nature, with which to create the familiar.
"So, Konsta, what are you doing for a familiar?" asks Liev.
"I'm doing a work dog from Siberia, it's all white and very friendly." I say.
"I see, I am doing a mountain dog." he says.
"A mountain dog?"
"Yes, he is very large and very tough."
Anokhina comes into the room. "Hello, students. I hope that you have thought long and hard about the animal that will be your familiar."
With this, she makes intimidating eye contact with several students.
"The process of turning two objects, a piece of you, your hair, and something from nature, into a living, magical creature is fairly simple, given you know what you're doing." she says matter-of-factly.
"All you do is this: lay the piece of yourself in the center of an enchanting circle, I have several of these drawn on the floor, and put the piece of nature over it. Then, stand outside the circle, point your wand at the two objects, and try to picture your desired animal as vividly as possible." Anokhina closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and with an extravagant twirl of her wand, a bright white dust swirled out of the tip, gathering around the enchanting circle. The dust condensed and out of it came a small, fluffy cat that meowed loudly and ran up to Anokhina.
"Any volunteers to do it in front of the class?" She grins.
Both Galina and Liev's hands shoot up immediately.
"Miss Tsvetkova, you demonstrate first, followed by Mr. Silnyevich." Anokhina ushers up Galina, who takes a deep breath, carefully sets her two vials in the center of the enchanting circle. She holds her wand up to her face with her eyes closed for a time, picturing the animal she selected. Then, with no extra flourish, her arm shoots out at the center of the circle and out of it, the same white powder, which whisks around her and into a vortex over the circle, then condenses into what she had told us about, a large, furry cat with large paws and covered in patches appears, and runs up to Galina, who gasps and scoops it up into her arms.
Anokhina applauded Galina politely and says, "Excellent job, Miss Tsvetkova, congratulations on summoning your first familiar! Mr. Silnyevich, you can go now."
Liev stands up. He towers over Anokhina. Despite his large stature, Liev is quite nimble. He sets down his vials on the ground, imagines his dog, and with some comical flourishes of his wand, promptly summons a large, dark animal that barks once and promptly tackles Liev, who is laughing happily at his new pet.
Several more students summon theirs, shepherd dogs, hunting dogs, several black cats all appear, and in addition, some mishaps happen. Anokhina explains that if you do not have a clear enough image of the animal you want, the familiar will be corrupted and not look right, which means it could have extra eyes, legs, or simply be discolored.
Finally it is my turn to summon a familiar. As I walk up, I imagine the dog, long white fur, smiling face with dark eyes, ears barely showing over the fur. I set the vials down, in them is a tuft of my own hair, and a piece of moss from the greenhouse. I back up, rubbing the black gemstones on my wand with one finger, close my eyes, and picture the animal, clearly it comes to my mind. I point my wand at the vials, and out of it comes the usual white powder, it swirls around a bit, then into the enchanting circle, where it forms the shape of exactly the dog I envisioned. It runs up to me, and just looks up at me with its upturned mouth and blotchy tongue hanging out. I laugh at the dog.
I am so proud of my familiar's pure white fur that I name it after its fur. The dog's name becomes Chisti Beli, meaning pure white, or just Chisti. Galina is impressed by her lynx's elegance and stoic attitude that she names it Sila, power. The two of us walk out of the classroom with our animals happily alongside us. The hallway explodes with noise as all of us exit, everyone is very excited to have a pet completely their own, and one that will follow their every command. Chisti trots in the air, with her head right next to mine.
As we head down the stairs, younger students stare at us in awe and confusion. It's quite entertaining to look at their faces. Liev walks proudly down the halls with his huge mastiff walking with its chest puffed out by his side.
I sit with Dmitri Pechkin for lunch. Dmitri is a very good friend of mine, but I choose to be with him in small quantities because he is extremely talkative.
"Konstantin, you did the familiar assignment today?" He asks excitedly.
"I did, if you couldn't tell."
"What was it like? Was it cool?"
"It was really cool. Some people messed theirs up and have weird, distorted animals for their familiar."
"That's so cool!" he says.
After two minutes of this talk, Mikhail comes and sits with us, carrying three plates of food.
"Privyet!" He says, carefully setting down his dishes.
"Hello, Mikhail." I say. "Where is Ivan? Don't you have class with him?"
"He is still getting food."
"Oh, okay" I say
"Hey, didn't you do the familiar assignment today? How did it go?"
"Great, Chisti, stand on the table."
My white dog leapt from laying by my side to standing on the table. Dmitri smiles. Mikhail laughs excitedly.
"That is you familiar?" He gasps.
"Yes!" I grin.
"That's amazing! I hope mine is like that."
Leo and Ivan then join us. Leo is followed by a white and gold dog that holds its head up proud and its tail curled over its back.
"Gordi, sit," commands Leo to his dog. The dog smoothly lowers its hind legs to the ground without batting an eye, meanwhile, Chisti is prancing around in the air above us.
"Is that your familiar's name? Gordi?" I say.
"Yes, I mean look at him. He doesn't care about anyone but himself." Leo jokes.
Ivan rolls his eyes. "That's only the tenth time you've said that."
"Is that yours, then?" Leo asks, pointing to Chisti, who is happily chasing her tail ten feet above the table.
"Yes, I named her Chisti, because her fur is so flawless and solid white."
"That's a good name, I like that." Ivan manages to say without any sort of a tone. Ivan's familiar is a lean dog, with silver hair and long, slender legs.
"Ivan and I were gonna get a group together to go down to Charodensk today, interested?" Leo says.
"Yeah, let's go."
We all finish eating our lunch and get up. Our familiars trail behind us, sniffing each other and playing happily. The front doors are wide open, allowing a cool fall breeze to flow through the castle. At the high golden gates, we are asked to show our pins on our sashes that show we are allowed to leave the school.
The Academy is located on the top of a high hill, the village settled in a small valley, surrounded on all sides by hills. We head down the hill, laughing among the tall pine trees around us.
"Where should we go?" Mikhail asks.
"I was thinking the tavern. Get something to drink." Leo says.
Chisti, who is prancing happily down the gravel in front of us, stops. She starts to growl menacingly at the forest to her left.
"What is it?" I squat down to her level.
"It's probably nothing. I mean, what could it be?" Mikhail says
Gordi and Zhivo, Ivan's dog, soon join Chisti in barking loudly into the shadowy woods.
"Hey! Hey!" Ivan yells at the dogs. "Stop barking!"
Several large crows fly up from the trees, the dogs watch them, growling, but stop barking.
"That was weird" Dmitri mutters.
"Tell me about it." Leo strokes Gordi between his ears.
We keep walking, laughing and pushing each other as we go. Charodensk is a quiet village of mostly Casters that have gone to the Academy. There are few things to do, but we head to a cafe and sit outside to watch people pass by.
Leo is telling a story about how he was once fighting with his father, when a small girl runs up to us. I recognize her as one of Anna-Maria's friends.
"Help us, please." She shouts.
"What is it?" Dmitri asks.
"Lana. We can't find her! and it's soon going to be dark!" The little blond girl is near tears now.
"We'll help you." I say, firmly.