Phoenix (Disconnected)

VIII-III

Nicole

"Mmm..." I stretched my arms as high as I could. Way to start the day.

It's been two weeks after what happened. Still, a wonder to me how all of this exists. Though if I'll be honest, I always thought medieval times as a general set for fantasies.

I made my way to the bathroom. Bathtub! I always wanted one! We only have showerheads at home even our bathroom is wide enough to have a bathtub. I fill the tub with glee. It's Saturday after all, they say it's a standard Monday to Sunday.

After my shower of the century, which is saddening to leave so soon, I checked the closet for a hunt. Is this...

"Leggings?" I asked myself and stretched it. Looks comfy, eh...I'll takes it. Toss it to the bed and landed invertedly. "10 points for Slytherin!"

Would you look at that beauty! I unhung the orange hoodie from the rack and checked it out. They did answer my request! It has a black inside the hood... if that's what it called.

"All done!" I jumped from sitting on the bed and head to the mirror. Orange and blank aren't bad. These gray comfy high top shoes aren't bad either.

I picked up my phone and scroll. They let me retain my phone, the power of persuading, as well as my wired earphones aside from that the rest are nowhere to be found.

I went out and wear my wired earphones and play my soundtracks on my phone.   Marshmello's BLocKs played first. Following the beat, I skip like a child.

Even this place is advanced, you can see that nature is still alive and have vibrant red-orange leaves that piled on the ground as well.

It's like 10 in the morning and the students are busy going from here and there.

"Excuse me." I remove my left earphone and tone down the volume as I approached one of the students. He stopped and look at me. "Yes?"

Foreigners...Foreigners everywhere. Insert Woody and Buzz meme. "Do you happen to know where is the exit? I mean, the exit of this land?" I have no idea what I'm talking about.

He looked down at me weirdly, I don't blame him but don't make it obvious that I'm an idiot haha, and point where he's facing. "You mean the way downtown? Just go straight. It's hard to miss."

I thanked him and he went away. I'm asking about getting out of here though...But adventure downtown is good too!

I hummed as I go to the direction mister gave me. The music switches to Moving on by Marshmello. My phone surely plays favorites. I shook my head lightly.

"Wow..." This place always gave me something to gawk at. They have falls connected to the river on this land. I lean to the railings to see where the waterfalls, and it's way long down enough that I can't see because of the thick fog.

There's a bridge between these falls, which students are going in and out of that arc right there. I followed the exiting students and saw them handing their scrolls. Alright, Nicole just hands them the scroll.

Finally, it's my turn and hands them my scroll, they looked at me. Did I it wrong? They will know I'm not from here? The guard stared at me. "Well? Open it. We can't access personal scrolls."

"O-oh, of course. Silly me."  I sigh inwardly with relief, I grab both ends of the scroll and pull them apart to make the screen visible. The guard nods and lets me pass.

What now? I looked around, there are color-coded stations. Sadly there's no orange color, Only primary color-coded stations. Blue it is.

Students appearing and disappearing through these stations. I hesitate for a bit and boy, cramming students didn't like that. Complaining that I shouldn't just stand there, so I stepped up. As soon as I did that, a wave of nausea hits me.

It was a flurry of a second, my right arm supports my weight as I leaned down beside the tree and my left hand on my stomach. Note to self not use that thing as much as possible.

"Warp effects. Always in first times." I looked at the person behind me. "Frost?" I forced out his name and he smiled handing me something. "Here, it can decrease dizzy spells." I tear it and shove it into my mouth. It's sweet and minty.

"Where are you going?" He asked. I removed my earphones and hang it on either side of my neck. "Anywhere."

"Oh, then go with me, I'm heading to Caltumus." Calto what? "Let's get you around at the same time."

I followed him to Calatowhoknows. It's like a stationery shop. He brought out a list and starts to collect them one by one.

"Why are there so many variations of the same sized papers?" I asked as I looked at it one by one. No difference and I can't understand the language on the labels. He picked one. "They are varied from their resistance."

He went to the next aisle, the glass shelves are full of pen, quills, brushes, chalks, glass pens and markers. The markers caught my eye, They are embedded by some crystals. That one's color orange! and it's screaming 'touch me!'

"Something you like?" I almost jumped at Frost's voice. He looked at what I'm looking at and picked the citrine orange one and looked at me. "Ritual Markers. You use this to draw magic circles in aerial magic, that is if you're not strong enough to go without one. It's really useful."

And pretty too. I don't have money and even if I buy it, I cant use it. "That's cool. What about the others?" Changing the subject, thankfully he goes along with it.

He explained to me almost everything we came across with. After touring he eventually goes to the counter to pay.

He put his things on the conveyer belt beside the counter and it took the things into the packing station. Frost tapped his scroll and went to pick up the packed supplies he bought.

It's already afternoon and he decided to go back to his dorm. Before he goes back I asked him a very very important question.

"Hey Frost, how do you pay for stuff here? How do you get the money?" He fumbled his scroll. "You can pay with perlins, the currency, or if you have your identification scroll. You can convert your perlins into points if you don't like carrying it everywhere, mostly advised." He showed me his scroll where I can convert money. "As per gaining it. Monthly allowances, spend it carefully. You can work too, part-time, or exceeding performances."

I see...I should run some kind of market underneath the school. "Just refrain from doing illegal activities." He seconded. Dang.

We went out of the store and he turned to look at me. "Well, this is where I go back. You want to go?" I shook my head.
"Alright. Your scroll can guide you to the campus, just tap the Phoenix logo and nearest warp station." Just hearing the w word makes my stomach churn.

"Is there another way to back?" He just chuckled. "You can do it." I gave him a grimace.

I turned around and starts planning on what street will I go next.

"Oh, and Nicole," I turned to look at him. "It's Ice, not Frost." With that, he left. I heard him laughing.

When he was out of the vicinity, I crouch and gently caress the ground. "There there ground, time to eat this idiot. Open the freak up."