You know, not a lot of people like old bridges. They're rusty, wobbly and overall pretty dangerous. It doesn't help that they're oftenly have a lot of holes in them… Be it old planks, metal plates or even rocks.
So, as you probably guessed, I'm not a big fan of old, half a century old bridges myself. How did I ended up on one of them, swinging and dangling from a bridge that's at least over 100 meters off the water? Good question! I can't tell you right now though, you see, I'm quite busy holding one hand the slippery iron bar for my dear life. The little black kitten I'm holding in my second hand knows the answer to the previously asked question… But I doubt you can talk to cats.
Alright, I'm sidetracked a bit… Time to get myself up to the bridge.
With all my strength I finally lift myself up to the bridge planks and release the frightened kitten onto them. The poor little thing runs away without even meowing a thanks!.. wait, I don't know cat language - I wouldn't understand cat anyway… Oh well. Since I'm finally not fighting for my life I'll finally tell what the heck just happened.
The reason I got onto the bridge is because I heard a sad meowing of a cat near the road when I was heading back home from school. I'm quite curious so I decided to investigate. Found a little kitten stuck on one of the bridge's column. It couldn't get down on it's own. Of course I literally dropped everything to help it out. Now I realize that that was a mistake - I should've called my parents or firefighters to get the cat down from an unstable, half fallen apart structure… But I never was the brightest.
Awh dang it! I didn't even thought about how to get down myself after saving the cat! Argh!
I carefully hold onto somewhat stable iron chains and look down. The water isn't really shallow so if I drop down I should be fine but I really don't want to get my school uniform wet.
Deep in thought I accidently step onto one of rotten wooden planks and-
I yelp and close my eyes on instinct, waiting for my body to hit water below as I fall down with a few pieces of the rotten wood from the bridge.
It's not a big fall.
It's not like I can die from it.
I'll be alright!
It's been quite a while.
Why my body didn't hit the water yet?
Why won't I stop falling?
Stop.
I open my eyes with a gasp. My heart is racing as I take a look around. I find myself in a room with white rounded walls. There's a big round window on my left and a cyan curtain on my right. When my heartbeat calms down a bit I realize that my head is actually throbbing with pain and my eyes felt so heavy. My body is lying on a hospital bed and I'm covered by a thin white blanket. Strange. What if I did fell into a river after all? Maybe I hit my head and lost consciousness, and now I'm at the hospital, waiting for my parents to arrive and scold me for almost killing myself.
Man, should've called firefighters after all.
Alright, lying in bed is comfortable but I suddenly don't feel like going back to sleep anymore so I decide to take a better look around - it's not often I end up in hospitals and this room looks weird even by my standards. It feels a bit… Outwardly.
I sit down and look at my body as white blanket falls down from my chest. I wear clothes but those aren't mine. It's some kind of a white dress? Well, hospitals do give patients special clothes or something… But I never heard about dresses. Huh, "the more you know" I guess.
I hop down from the bed and land on my slightly wobbly feet. Alright, I just need a second to get back to my senses.
I notice that my hands look weird. They're pale, almost gray or blue in a way. Woah… That's new. I wonder if that's how my hands look, how should my face then? I frantically look around the room for a mirror. There's none.
Well, on the touch everything seems fine (Although my eyes feel weird… But this is probably because I'm still sleepy). I calm myself for a bit. This must all be because of the water! Yes, absolutely! I don't know what happened exactly so maybe they've found me when I was a bit too long in a river. That's why it's weird looking, right? In movies all drowned people have weird skin. Although I'm not drowned, maybe I look a bit weird because of the amount of time I spent in a river! That must be it!
…
Who am I kidding?
That's not how it works! I have no idea why my body still feels and looks weird! I'm just making excuses in my head to not fall into a panic frenzy. I can't even find a mirror to-
Window!
Windows made of glass. I can use glass reflection to look at myself! Yes! I am a genious!
I rush to the window. It's too bright outside. I can't see a thing.
I am an idiot after all.
In my quiet battle for sanity I hardly notice a sound of the door being open. I turn around to greet whoever has come into the cabinet… And then I freeze.
Two humans enter the room. One is a tall blonde with red horns on her head. She's wearing a med staff uniform so I guess this must be a nurse. But it's not her who steals all my attention, not even her bright red horns able to help me avert my gaze from a second newcomer.
It's a guy. Pretty emo-angsty-goth looking one. Spiky black hair, weird black clothes, pale skin almost like mine and abnormal make up. Oh and can't forget to tell you all about his very scary, crazy looking eyes. They're weird. They're scary. They've made my blood freeze in my veins and that guy didn't even look at me. Everything about them screams danger.
It's terrifying.
With a lot of power I get my own eyes off him so he wouldn't catch me staring and look into my direction. I wouldn't survive that gaze… Hm, yes, the floor here is so nice. So clean.
"Zofis! You're finally awake!" The nurse exclaims as I nearly jump at the sudden high pitch voice.
"The teacher got really worried when you suddenly blacked out in the middle of the class, you know!" She continues on rambling as I just stand there, trying to mentally digest what she's saying.
Zofis? What? That's not-.. That's not my name? As I open my mouth to say something I feel it. The guy in black looks at me and suddenly all words I wanted to say scatter away in a wild animal-like panic as I just freeze like a dummy.
"Well! I'm glad you're doing well now!" Nurse says with a big, almost inhuman smile as she pushes me out of the school infirmary. "Come back to me if you feel unwell again, alright? For now you must go attend other classes" She says lightheartedly before slamming the door behind my back.
What-who-why-what?
This is not normal. I-. Wait, what did the nurse said? I've blacked out in the middle of the class? B-but I've just finished my classes! It can't be real. I should've opened the door and asked Nurse questions but… That guy is still there too…
This must be a dream, no?
I pinch myself. And pinch myself again. No matter how many times I pinch my arm nothing changes except now my whole hand hurts like hell. This must be a helluva heavy dream I'm having (Yes, keep telling yourself that).
Ah. Yes. That's it.
I give a sigh of relief. That's all just a dream - nurses don't have horns in the real world, nor do edgy goth guys have eyes that make your blood freeze! Yeah!
But how can I wake up?
I look around. I'm standing in a long corridor with few cabinet doors that appear to stand too close to each other to form rooms. What is this? Some kind of closet spaces? For each individual broom?
Yes, that must be a dream… So, why not play along?
But what should I do now? I still don't want to go back and talk to a nurse (thanks to THAT guy) so I guess I'll just walk around. See what this dream got in store.
I start walking down the hallway. At first it's straight as a line but then it curves and waves as if alive. Soon however, I finally leave the weird corridor. It looks like I'm at the stairway to the upper floor - there's a giant wall on one side that blocks all my view and on the other side of the stairway is a railing. I step closer to the rails and look between the bars.
All I can do is sigh in awe. This place, this school, is gigantic! There's at least 8 floors or maybe even more! There's also a lot of stairs, big and small, wide and thin. Some of them lead to next floors but some of them spiral up to seemingly nowhere. Such a weird place.
Everything here seems to be made out of white marble, with rare spots of seemingly random colors. It gives me a feeling of the holo effect some materials have. I look down from the stairs, at the first floor. The marble floor is clean and shiny, as if newly mopped. Impressive, considering this place is supposed to be a school with seemingly thousands of people being taught here.
Deep in thought you go up the stairs to see if other floors consist of only hallways like the one I came from. They do not. The next floor, I think it's the 4th one, looks like a giant open hall with long pillars piercing through the ceiling. Hm, I wonder what this whole floor could be used for.
I decided to go higher. I keep walking up the wide marble white stairs until natural sunlight hits my eyes. I need a moment to get used to such brightness. I see giant windows, no wait, that is not windows. The whole wall is just missing! The stair curves up as if curling around the side of the building, with it's railing abruptly turning into big shiny columns. Doesn't look very safe if you ask me.
Suddenly, I feel something hit lightly on my shoulder. I yelp and jump away from surprising movement. I turn around and look at the culprit of the scare.
It's a mop.
It's not just a mop however. It's a mop with EYES and MOUTH and a red BOWTIE?!
"ah?" All I can say, trying to regain my bearings.
"There you are! Zofis, didn't think that you'd be the type to skip classes!" The mop exclaims as my brain is still running 900 miles per hour. "Young mamodo like you should sit in class right now and learn! Not walk around the school like a newly hatched tadpole!"
"Uh…" Don't just stand there! Say something! my brain screams at me as I only half-mindedly recognise that the voice coming from my throat sounds nothing like my own. Also, do tadpoles really hatch from eggs-
"Umh… I just felt a bit light headed so I decided to take a short walk and get a breath of fresh air!" It was only half-a-lie. "I didn't want to bother the nurse again since I practically walked from the school infirmary just a moment ago."
The mop raised its brow (Oh no it got brows?!) at that but then it's face (Oh god it has a face!) gained thoughtful expression.
"Huh, I see," The sentient broom said. "I did hear that one of the students suddenly blacked out in the middle of a Telekinesis class. I guess it was you then?"
I slightly nod at that. It does partly correspond with what the nurse said to me, after all.
Wait.
Telekinesis class?!
"Well, do you feel better now or you'd like me to escort you back?" The mop asks me as I mentally tell myself to stop getting shocked by every single little thing my "dream" keeps throwing at me. Come to think about it, I'm not sure where this class is supposed to be…This guy might actually help me navigate through this school.
"I am alright but I do still feel a little bit lightheaded. Although I do feel better now, after, uh, getting a breath of fresh air." Smooth. Real smooth. "I think I should get back to my class but if this is not bothersome for you, may I ask you to supervise me to my classroom… Uh, in case my well-being suddenly gets worse?"
Well, this is not the best of my lines but it'll do. The broom-guy actually brightens up at that. Huh, looks like he's just happy to help.
"Of course Zofis! Please, follow me!" The mop actually started walking (It has legs. Yep, nothing extraordinary) and I hurry after it, surprisingly having a hard time catching up.
Both of us relatively quickly made our way through various halls and hallways until, to my tired legs' relief, we reached a big red wooden door. Hm… I wonder why everything looks so big in comparison to myself.
"Here we are!" The mop happily exclaims, opening the door wide open.
It's a classroom. A normal looking, almost boring classroom with not-so-normal classmates.
Kids. All of the kids look like they're ready to have the best time at the Halloween party. I can hardly find a few children that look more-less human. Some of the kids look like half-animal hybrids. One of them is chewing on his notebook while another just ate a pen. No-one bats an eye on that. (wait is one of the students is a panther-)
"Ah! Zofis! Glad you're finally able to join us! Please take a seat!"
The teacher is a big red bull frog with a snazzy mustache. I'm not sure how I keep being surprised by all of this. It's just a dream after all.
I look around the room trying to find a free spot. Thankfully, I don't have to wander for long - there's only two free seats left. Without needing to be told twice I move through the classroom to the free table and take a seat behind the desk.
"Thank you Moppun, for escorting young Zofis to the class" the teacher frog says as my eyes widen a bit. This mop-guy's name is Moppun. Who'd thought?
Moppun give an energetic nod and hastily leaves the class. Huh, I probably should've thanked him myself too but I was too distracted.
I take a quick look around, wondering what kind of subject this teacher must teach. My mind wanders to Telekinesis… I wonder if all subjects in this school are as cool as that! Maybe it's some kind of a magical school with cool magical subjects like Teleportation or Magical Arts.
"Alright class! Attention back to me! As I stated before, today's theme of the class is…" I hear the frog say and I snap my eyes at him, waiting with high hopes for his next words. "Mathematical Functions!"
I nearly fell off my seat. Math? No. There's no way my brain is going to recreate a half-a-hour experience of solving math problems like in real life. This is supposed to be some kind of magical school. It can't be THAT boring… Right?
A pair of white paper sheets and a pen appear from thin air before me and other students.
A day promises to be long and boring.