The morning sun set the shadows at a wonderful angle, making everything in its way a veritable giant, a monstrous silhouette of anything that obstructed the sun's rays. One particular shadow set itself across a pair of black, wrought iron gates that stood as the entrance to a grand and prestigious location.
This building, surrounded by brick walls was three stories tall at the inner most parts, which consisted of courtyards and the Library, thus the need for three floors. The outer section of the building had only two floors but was still the same height as the inner area, making the ceilings twice as high and was decorated with splendorous paintings, some replicas of classics, and some new, all of them painted onto the ceiling like the ceilings of great chapels.
In fact, the campus, shall we call it; even had a small chapel area, a few rooms off the Library for the god fearing students of World Academy. This academy took no ordinary students, it took extremely unique people, many of which could never get along but that was part of the magic.
Speaking of magic, there actually were a few students who could perform magic, they form the major fraction of the Magic Club, which studied all aspects of magic, including Black Magic, which one member knew how to perform and even Necromancy, which the entire club vowed to never practice.
Other clubs at World Academy included the Swimming Club and Team; most of the members of one were members of the other; the Newspaper Club, which also published the Newspaper for the Academy, keeping students in the loop with upcoming events and also provided gossip and humour.
There was the Boxing Club and while its primary combat style was boxing, all martial arts were permitted and it was quite the spectator sport, gathering crowds at lunchtimes for a few minutes of rough-and-tumble, one on one action.
There was a Manga Club, which of course approved any and all types of manga and compared them to their anime counterparts if necessary. Any chatter about Manga and Anime were permitted, there were reading circles, reflections upon chapters and the head of the club always had spares for people to borrow if they did not own a copy.
These were some of the major clubs and while there were some minor ones, such as the Nordic Club, these kinds of groups usually went unnoticed by the rest of the students. Speaking of the students, as said before, these were not ordinary students, or even normal humans for that matter.
World Academy was home to the physical embodiment of most countries in the world, there for education and social purposes and also, to avoid any chance of war. And so, Michelle Gallaud; embodiment of the 115 islands that made up the country of Seychelles stood outside the gates to World Academy, ready to start her first day there.
She was heavily tan, almost bordering on dark skin with dark brown hair, done up in long, flowing pigtails held together with lovely, red bows. Her eyes were a deep brown and her face wore a nervous smile as she placed her bags down to open the gates.
She picked her things back up and walked slowly in, taking in the magnificent architecture. There were pillars from Ancient Roman ruins, bricks from Georgian England, plants from Renaissance Spain and Feudal Japan but the area around it did not look more than twenty years old, how odd.
Michelle was greeted at the gates by a golden haired boy with a polar bear at his side, wearing glasses over his blue eyes and a twirling curl sticking out the side of his hair. "Oh hello there, I'm Canada. Now, you must be…Seychelles, correct?" he asked politely, almost silently as he checked the clipboard in his hands.
She nodded and crouched down slightly, getting a better look at the polar bear that sat at the boys' feet. "B-be careful, he doesn't like new people too much, especially tropic countries such as yourself." He muttered quietly, putting his hand in the way between the now sleeping polar bear and Michelle.
"Anyway, I'll give you a quick tour, if you'll follow me please." He said politely, the bear waking instantly and following his owner closely, perhaps a little too close as Canada managed to trip over it twice and almost a third had Seychelles not caught him. "Th-thanks, he's a bit of a handful sometimes."
As the two walked through the corridors and hallways Michelle caught snippets of the goings on inside as they almost glided past some of the open doors. After a few minutes of getting lost in the detail that had been put into the look of the place; the deep blue carpet that had a light yet soft fuzz to it, the smooth and careful paint the walls and the varnished oak beams between the ceiling and floor, also running along between the ceiling and wall and wall to floor.
Finally Canada halted in front of a pair of grand double doors, with dragons head knockers with rings protruding from the almost glowing nostrils. Seychelles didn't notice him stopping though and walked face first into him, causing Matthew, as he was known by his friends, to turn around.
"Okay, here we are at the Library, the Manga Club, which I mentioned on the way here has a private room right of the main desk, so pay attention to that, you can't miss it though, it's covered with anime posters." And with that he pushed open the two doors with ease.
The inside of the Library was something else; at least, it was not what she was expecting. The same colour carpeting as the other rooms around it, but that was just about where the similarities stopped. There was barely any paint as most of the walls were and magnificent mahogany of fine woods, and although he wouldn't say it they were actually from Canada.
But that wasn't the best part about the walls, any part that was not obscured by painting or bookshelf, made of a similar wood had intricate carvings, all of them handmade. In the centre of the Library was the main desk, a circular workstation; with one spot to enter and exit and the rest was essentially a desk, covered with paper and books.
At the moment the desk was empty but Seychelles had no doubt it took at least three people to run it. Behind the desk was the grand staircase that lead up to the second and third floors and of course above the main desk was the observatory. It was a dome that extended out the top of the building and was mostly glass with wood inlaid through it.
The floor was the same deal, so anybody could look into the night sky while having a late night read but in the observatory itself there was a telescope and other devices for Astrologers and the likes. Dotted around the ground floor were small desks and beanbags for studying or calm reading and sticking out barely from the bookcases were small green lamps, throwing light onto the sign telling you what was on that particular shelf.
She simply stood there, in front of the main desk and turned in slow circles on the balls of her feet, which were in sandals, instead of the uniform shoes. Technically there was no rule against not wearing uniform, and Michelle would have preferred to go barefoot but she had been warned that a few countries kept strict eye on uniform, that and it would probably be dangerous to go without anything on your feet.