The book of Bāohù

Chapter 2

The wind wakes me up. I look at the clock. Three am. I’m officially eighteen. I sit up.

“Here.” I hear a voice say. It’s coming from outside. I get up and walk to the window. I can just make out two figures looking back at me. A faint green glow starts forming between them and they disappear. I quickly open my window scanning the area.

“Behind you.”

I spin around. Two men wearing cloaks stand behind me.

“Mages…” I breathe.

A mage with ginger hair and blue eyes steps forward he kind of reminds me of mark. “It’s Lea right?”

I nod.

“Well Lea we’re here on behalf of the academy.”

“What?” I ask

“You know… The academy…” the ginger mage says.

I stand there for a few seconds and hope I don’t look like an idiot “uhm…yeah…”

“You still don’t know what I’m talking about do you?”

“Not really no…” I reply

“Why do we always get the clueless people?” The other mage interjects. His face is hidden under the hood of his cloak.

“How do you not know…” he tries

“Look… we both know I have like no Freaking Idea what this academy thing is so let’s just skip to the part where you tell me what it is ok?”

 “The academy of Bāohù.” He says in an over dramatic voice.

“Basically just a fancy word for protection.” The other mage adds.

“Don’t spoil the fun.” Ginger scolds him, but continues. “Demons enter our realm on a daily basis and somebody has to stop them. Unfortunately guardians don’t fall out of the sky, so they have to be trained. That’s what the academy does.” He says and looks proud of himself I assume because of his explanation.

“…but, why me? I don’t have any special powers or whatever.” I ask.

“Hey we don’t choose the recruits we just get them to come with us, but the people who choose the recruits have been doing it for centuries so they know what they’re doing.” Ginger says with a smile.

“So can we get going now?” the hooded mage asks. Ginger looks over at me.

“Now?” I exclaim in surprise.

“Well. Yes. It’s unfortunate that you turn18 so close to the start of the term, but we can give you the day. Tomorrow everything starts.”

“But my family…” I stutter.

“Oh of course. Let’s go tell them the big news!” Ginger exclaims.

“Shh! It’s three in the morning!” I scold.”Uhm, ok so let’s just slow down for a minute, If I decide to do this, what would I do?”

“Easy.” He starts “you take your stuff, come with us and bam! That's it.”

“As simple as that?” I ask

Ginger nods. “What do you think?”

“I need time to decide.”

“Of course.” He replies. “Take as much time as you need, as long as you decide by tomorrow morning.” He chuckles at his attempted joke.

“We’ll be waiting at the coop tomorrow morning.” He holds out a letter to me, “your letter of acceptance.” He starts turning around But stops and looks in to my eyes “Lea you must have known, you don’t belong here, I see it in your eyes… you were meant for something better.” Then with another faint green glow they disappear.