Arcanum

"Hey Emilia." Helen greeted me with a loud whisper.

"Ohhh hey!" I replied to her.

"Found anything good??..." Jay whispered joining us.

"Only this one book so far...." I replied.

"Ohhh I"ve read an extract of that one.... it seems so unbelievable but crazy intense." Helen replied.

"What sort of stories do you enjoy???..." Jay asked Helen.

"Romance stories....." she answered.

"Like the princess and the stable boy and true love.... that sort of stuff???..." Jay chuckled.

"Eyyy nothing wrong with that." I jumped in defending Helen.

"What sort of books do you enjoy then???..." Helen asked Jay.

"I enjoy learning things.... so informational books." He answered.

"Well... if you was a sheltered as I was you"d understand." She huffed and walked off to look at some books.

"What"s wrong with her?.." Jay asked.

"It"s not nice laughing at someone"s interests..." I replied.

"I was only joking..." He replied trying to look innocent.

"I think you should apologize at least.." I advised him.

"I"ll do it later..... Maybe after she calms down.." He replied.

"No ... do it now...." I ordered him.

"Fine fine...." He reluctantly walked off.

"Ohhh I wonder if there"s any book on Paul...." "Excuse me." I tried to politely pull the attention of a nearby student looking into a book.

"Hi?.." He replied turning to me curiously.

"I was wondering if there"s any stories on Paul The black dragon Slayer.." I asked.

"Ummm.... there should be a few.... but it includes everyone in his group..." He answered.

"Ohhh could you show me?.." I asked.

"Ummm.... this one... is decent... It"s when they were hired to search for a Paladin into the Under Dark." He said handing it to me.

"Under dark?.." I asked taking the book off him.

"It"s... like another world deep underground..... Except everything there is lawless and generally evil." He answered.

"Okay sure... thanks... ummm...." I thanked him but mumbled not knowing his name.

"Jason." He replied.

"Thanks Jason." I replied.

"No problems." He smiled.

"I"m Emilia by the way." I said holding out a hand.

"Nice to meet you." He relied shaking my hand.

"Thanks again." I said making my way in the direction Helen and Jay went.

"You"re joking right.... you want me to read this one?.." I heard jays voice over a shelf.

"Are you sorry or not?.." Helen replied still sounding angry a little.

"Fine...." Jay sighed.

"You"ll enjoy it don"t worry." Helen said sounding extremely happy.

"Hey.. Guys..." I said peeping around the corner.

"Ohh Hey Emilia..." Jay greeted me.

"Found anything good?.." I smiled.

"Yeah.... Helen just wants me to read this silly story..." Jay sighed.

"It"s a good book you"ll enjoy it." She smiled looking extremely happy.

"Ohh what"s it about?.." I asked.

"It"s about a half orc sailor on a path to discover his ident.i.ty when he decided to flee his tribe." Helen explained.

"Ahh interesting...." I replied.

"Sounds boring... I"d rather learn about spells or monster." Jay replied.

"Ahh it doesn"t hurt to give it a shot." I nudged Jay.

"Are you taking out a book?" I asked Helen.

"Ohhh yeah." She said grabbing out two random books from the shelves.

"Not gonna see if you"re interested in it?.." I asked noticing how she randomly picked out books.

"Nah... I enjoy most books...." She smiled and began walking with a giant smile on her face.

"She"s oddly more happier than normal.." Jay commented.

"Hmmmm..... that"s true I said following her.

"So what did you loan out?.. " Helen asked me.

"Ohh I got two books..... "The Daring Trials and Tribulations of Ser Taryon Darrington and the other is a Heroes of Atlantis on the Search of Hayley." I answered.

"Ohh what are they about?.. " She asked.

"The first is a Party of adventures on the path of discovering some artifact….. And the other is Paul and his group going into the Underdark." I answered.

"Ohhh.... The Underdark really?.." She asked.

"Yeah... heard of it?" I asked.

"Ohh yeah... totally barbaric place.... full of dark and dangerous races and creatures." She replied.

"What can be found there?..." I asked.

"Dark Elves.... completely s.a.d.i.s.tic and evil natured, Fire giants, Dark Dwarves, Mindflayers Evil Humanoid that mind control individuals enslaving them, Basalisks with just a glare will turn you too stone, Ancient Fire Dragon, Lava Slimes and Fire elementals. Plenty of deadly creatures...." She began to list.

"Are they more dangerous then things above ground?..." I asked.

"Well let"s just say imagine... 25 percent of above ground stuff are hostile... well in the Underdark its safe to a.s.sume 75% or maybe 80% of things would want to kill you." She explained.

"Jesus.... why would anyone ever want to live there or even want to go?" I asked.

"Citizens of the Underdark are generally... very shady people... or people who are trying to run away from something." Jay explained.

"I see.... that totally makes sense" I nodded understanding.

"Yeah.... it"s not a nice place." Jay chuckled.

"Ohh we check out our book on that table." I said pointing at the table with the large tome in the middle informing Jay and Helen.

"Cool lets go." Jay said pulling Helen in that direction.

"Ohh where we going?.." She asked.

"We check out the books over there." He answered.

"Ohhh okay!" Helen smiled shouting back.

We waited for a few minutes till a very talk male student appeared. "h.e.l.lo how can I help." he asked waking around us and behind the table.

"We"d like to take out these books please." Jay asked unenthusiastically.

"Sure." the student replied. "Name and year please." He asked.

"Jay Carvell, first years." Jay answered and the book began flicking through its own pages conning to as stop at his page.

"Righto all looks good here. Would you like them sent to your room or you would like to take them with you??...." He asked.

"I"ll take them with me please." Jay replied.

"Sure." the student replied placing the book beside the tome pulling out his wand casting a spell causing a ring of runes to encircle it. "Okay done, here"s your book." the student said handing it back to Jay.

"Thanks." Jay thanked him.

"Ashera Sta.r.s.eeker, first year." Helen smiled nudging Jay to the side.

"hmmmm Sta.r.s.eeker where have I heard that name....." the student pondered as the book began to flip itself. "Okay.... two for you miss." the student replied handing back her books.

"Emilia Patel, first year." I said to him when Helen took her books and disappeared around a corner.

"Okay here is your book miss." he handed it to me when the process finished.

"Thank you." Jay and I thanked him and went looking for Helen.

We eventually found Helen, sitting on the ground her knees up and back against the wall reading one book while the other laid flat on the floor beside her.

"You okay Helen???..." Jay asked as we approached.

"Huh???... Yeah.... I was just excited go start reading she said snapping the book shut. Her eagerness and appet.i.te for reading reminded me of myself.

"You sure?..." Jay asked noticing something I didn"t.

"Yeah I"m good!" She smiled getting up. "Shall we head back?." she asked.

"Yeah sure." Jay replied leading the way.

"You okay?.." I whispered to Helen.

"Yeah I"m good." She smiled.

"Okay....." I smiled back.

"So where we meeting the others?" I asked.

"Hmm the usual, our room." She smiled

"What did Morgana and Ben decide to do?.." I asked feeling a little curious what they"re up to.

"Hmmmm..... Morgana said she was gonna go out for a walk.... and Ben said he"s gonna meet his friends but come meet us after." Helen answered.

"Ohhh I see." I answered. "Are you a little worried with your duel?" I asked dreading mine.

"Nah I think I"ll be okay... I"ve been trained in many fighting styles and been in a few battle myself." She answered.

"Jesus... how old are you?.." I asked.

"Who"s Jesus?... I"m 21 years...." She answered.

"Don"t worry about Jesus ... it"s just a figure of speech." I answered.

"How many fight have you been in?.." Helen asked.

"Maybe two.... but it was just kicking... nothing too serious." I answered.

"Ohhhh that"s why you"re so worried..." She replied.

"Yeah... life back at home.... is different to here." I explained.

"It"ll be alright.... it"s in a controlled environment... everyone loses every now and then." She smiled, "The trick is picking yourself back up after being defeated." She added.

"Calista reminds me of the worst part of school life.... the rich privileged spoiled kid who looks down on everyone!" I seethed in anger.

"Yeah her behaviour is distasteful..." Helen agreed with a sigh.

"And worst yet.... I want to punish her so bad!!!!! But everyone that talks about her... she seems to be way stronger then me...." I complained.

"Don"t worry too much about it.... you"re new as oppose to the rest of us.." She tried to comfort me.

"Doesn"t help me in showing her not to mess with me." I replied.

"Maybe not now but certainly in the nearer future." Helen smiled nudging me.

"By the way..... Can I ask you something?...." Helena asked me.

"Sure wa.s.sup?.." I asked.

"Ummm.... what does it feel like when you see Paul?...." She asked.

"Normal?.. I guess." I answered.

"Your heart doesn"t race.... or you feel speechless or your mind goes blank?.." She questioned.

"No.... why?.." I asked.

"No reason....." She blushed looking away.

"Okay....." I replied, "You know.... me and him have known each other for a while..... I certainly felt like that when we were young and stupid." I replied.

"Really?.." She asked turning to me in excitement.

"Yeah you could say that..... But for me it wasn"t sudden... he kinda grew on me." I replied.

"I seeeeeee....." She nodded in understanding, "How did he court you?..... Did he ask you to dance..... Or sing to you.... or or..... Ohhhh did he confess his undying love to you." She asked excited.

"Have you never had feelings for someone?.." I asked curiously.

"Of course I have!" she instantly straightened like she wasn"t as interested as she was a second ago.

"Well... He just grew on me slowly it was around maybe... one or two years before I discovered I had feelings for him, he didn"t do anything special..... Just spent a lot of time with me and was caring, made me feel special..." I answered her regardless.

"I see..." She said still acting like she wasn"t bothered by my answer.

"But when I do see him I always get this nostalgic comfortable happy feeling..... He does make me feel better.... but nothing like first love heart stopping type of stuff." I replied.

"I see." She smiled.

"Yeah..... Our relationship was hard... lots of complication but we got past them for a while..... Being together with him felt amazing." I nudged her with my elbow giving her the raised eyebrows. Causing Helen to squeak going red and ran ahead to catch up with Jay.

"Young innocence..." I chuckled to myself.