Julian and Ellie stopped talking when they realised the train had begun to slow down. It had been several hours now and it was getting close to sunset. Out the window Julian could see the edges of an island, but it only seemed to be a mass of rocks you would find at a beach.
Since they had already changed into their plain white robes earlier, all they had to do was take their belongings. They hurried to grab their suitcases, or in Ellie's case a trunk, but were stopped by an older student who told them they could leave them behind. This wasn't so strange to Julian as opposed to the dress of most of the other students. It seemed there were a variety of colours. There seemed to be up to six colours, something Ellie had told him, the colour of the outer robe depended on the house.
The two of them headed off the train onto a platform set up next to a cave. At the far end of the platform there was another path that several older students were heading towards. He was trying to see what was over there and would have started wandering if not for a sharp voice that called, 'First years!'
He turned around to towards a stern looking man in black robes. He stood there waiting for the first years to come along to him, upon realising that only a handful had heard him he yelled it again even louder.
Julian figured he shouldn't jeopardise his chances at this school straight away and walked over to the man along with Ellie. Once they arrived most first years had already crowded around the man, making it look as if he was surrounded by a mass of white. Julian took extra notice to make sure that he and Ellie stood on the opposite side of the crowd to Hannah.
'Are we all here?' The man said counting all the students. Once it seemed he was satisfied he announced, 'Good. My name is Colin Hall and I will be your coordinator for this year. If you come to me with problems I will do my utmost to assist-'
He paused for a moment looking into the centre of the crowd of students. Once this happened there was a large amount of movement. There was someone in the crowd that wasn't supposed to. Mr Hall stepped forward, parting the crowd out of his way, attempting to find the source. Every time he got close the person moved to another section. When it was near Julian he swore he saw a flash of a dark purple.
When it seemed he was getting nowhere, Mr Hall took his wand out. It was all over at this point, because as soon as he waved it an older boy in dark purple robes was thrown out of the crowd.
'Edwards. Why am I not surprised.' Mr Hall said, clearly not in the mood for this student. He strode out of the crowd after the student.
'Just wanted to get to know the first years, sir.' The older boy said cheekily, tripping over the grass.
Mr Hall stopped trying to catch Edwards and placed his wand back in his robes. 'Oh? So you want to go through the cave again?'
Edwards gulped. 'I think I'm good, sir. Don't think that's necessary.' He quickly added.
'Well then, feel free to go. You've got a Wednesday by the way.' Mr Hall told him.
'Right, sir.' The older student suddenly jogged off towards more purple robes, most likely his friends. Julian swore he could hear laughing as he went.
Mr Hall took a breath. 'Alright, as I was saying, you have any problems you come to me.'
'Now, I'm sure you are all wondering why I have taken you all away from the other students.' Mr Hall announced after checking the older students had left.
Julian and all the other students all seemed to nod in unison. Mr Hall then continued. 'Before you all start your classes in Mornington you all have to be sorted our different houses. It will decide what classes you take and with whom you will be living with for the next seven years. Odds are it will decide who your friends are. But I suppose that last one is for you to decide.' He finished with a slight smile.
Judging by the way the older students had all kept to their own colour, Julian had guessed something like that happened, they even had houses at his now old school.
'Throughout the year, each house is ranked against each other. Every competition won, every good deed. Points will be allocated. 'We encourage that everyone strives for whatever can make their house succeed. I trust I don't need to say should you do the opposite.'
Or whatever makes the enemy houses fail, Julian thought. That definitely wasn't like his old school.
'If you would all like to follow me, the way to be sorted is through here.' Mr Hall gestured towards the mouth a cave behind him. Soon after the first years had began walking towards the cave. Julian took a quick glance at Hannah on the other side of the crowd; she looked fairly nervous. In contrast, Ellie looked relatively relaxed. When they were all in the cave entrance he took a moment to look around.
It was quite a large cave, but that wasn't the part that stood out. The atmosphere of the place was different to anywhere Julian had been, it was the first place that felt like it was magical.
Once they had all been piled into the cave, Mr Hall announced from behind them. 'Now then, I'm sure you're all wondering what houses you'll be sorted into, can't have you go into the sorting knowing nothing after all.' He quickly jumped up onto a rock so they could all see him. 'Lioncrown, Defanon, Owlsight, Imphorn and Terrascale. Each of these have their own unique aspects but I'll leave you all to find that out on your own. Whichever house you will be sorted will depend on who each of you are.' Once he finished the crowd erupted in mutters as if Mr Hall had vanished.
It will depend on who he is? What did that mean? It's not like he felt he was anyone in particular? How were they going to decide anyway? Did he have to take some kind of test? Could they read his mind? He once again looked over at Ellie for answers. He must have looked a little worried as soon after she commented, 'We'll be alright, everyone else seems to make it right?' Her smile looked like she believed it, her posture conveyed otherwise. He hoped he could somehow end up in the same house as Ellie. he had already made one friend and he wasn't going to give that up straight away. But no matter what happened, he did not want to end up in the same house as Hannah.
Mr Hall silenced the first years talking before continuing. 'Alright, if you would all follow me we can begin.'
He began leading them further into the cave, becoming narrower as it went, forcing Mr Hall to bend down to fit through. This of course posed no issue to the rest of the first years. Eventually the path opened up into a large dark cavern that could fit several houses into it. However, most of the cavern didn't have a floor, instead a pool of water stretched further than they could all see. Once the students had all assembled onto the only solid ground in the cavern, which was big enough to fit them all. After creating a light from his wand, Mr Hall once again started talking from the very edge of the ground.
'Here we are. This is the sorting chamber. Once you all have left this room you will all be placed into each of the houses we have. To accomplish this you will all be taking part of a little game.' As impossible it seemed, he smiled while simultaneously looking as stone-faced as ever.
'The goal is to be the first to reach the bottom of the pool and to collect a rock for each of you. this will allow you entry into the castle. You will be assigned to work in groups of six in order to make it down to the bottom. You should all be careful, it is quite deep. I will be coming around to pick the groups for you.'
He pointed towards six students from the front of the crowd to be the first group. It seemed like he was picking them at random, however the next group he picked were all bunched together. It seemed he worked from his own logic for picking the groups.
Julian thought about the task ahead, he wasn't exactly the best swimmer so swimming to the bottom of a pool wasn't exactly what he had planned to do today. But he was sure no matter what Mr Hall was going to make them all to do it anyway. He looked at Ellie. While she had seemed relaxed earlier on, it was pretty clear she wasn't now; she had been looking at the ground since the announcement.
'You doing alright?' He asked.
She snapped out of her daze looking over at Julian for the first time since they entered the cave. 'I'm fine.' She muttered with a half-smile, looking at the people around her. Julian didn't really have an advice for her, he had only just met her a few hours ago. He couldn't do anything but nod back at her.
At that moment, Mr Hall arrived in front of them, pointing directly at himself and Ellie. He then pointed at four other first years before announcing, 'You're group six.' Mr Hall then moved off to select the next group.
He was greeted by the sight of a girl and two boys. He tried looking for the sixth member of their group only to see the one person he didn't want to see.
Hannah walked up to the group and filled in the last spot of the circle the six of them made. Julian noticed she seemed to be paying him no attention whatsoever. The whole group stood in silence, the rest of them must have felt a little awkward meeting for the first time. Julian felt that he was as good a person as any to break the ice.
After Julian announced his name the darker skinned boy took point and introduced himself as Ben Winde with a smile to everyone in the group. After this they went through all the others, with Ellie and Hannah telling the others their names. Fittingly enough Hannah acted as if she'd never met him. The other boy soon followed, naming himself Jack Pip before making a comment about his name like it was the funniest thing in the world. After this the rest of the group looked on at the Asian girl who hadn't said anything.
'So what's your name?' Julian asked her. She finally seemed to pay attention to the rest of the group. 'My name is Yuko.' She said finally with an accent.
She seemed to say it a little slowly, her English mustn't have been great. Julian didn't have a ton of experience with people born outside of Australia, he had mostly just hung around John and Hannah. He felt a twist in his gut thinking about those two now, especially considering the one that was standing opposite him.
It seemed other than introductions the six of them had nothing to talk about; they seemed to be the only group out of all the first years not chatting endlessly. Ben looked like he was about to start a conversation with the group before they heard the voice of Mr Hall.
'Alright everyone.' He stood at the edge of the small ledge again. 'I'm sure you've all met your groups by now.' He started moving to shuffle through in between the groups of students. 'As such, I am fine to leave to your own devices to complete the task. There may be a little more to it than you think.' He stood now at the back of the group just outside the passage that led out of the cavern. 'Good Luck!' He wished before leaving through the passage, a loud thud coming from where he had just been. When Julian looked over he could see the passage had sealed shut.
A long silence entered the room, despite the lack of communication it felt like everyone was on the same page. They were expected to go deep diving without a teacher present? Julian couldn't believe that this worked out for the school. What were they thinking?
It only took a moment before all the other groups started talking at once, from the sound of it everyone else didn't know what was going on.
He looked over at the rest of his group, it was lucky he still could, as thankfully Mr Hall had left the light he had conjured in the cavern. Hannah looked worried at the prospect of diving, Julian remembered she'd never been good at swimming. Like before, Ellie seemed like she was trying to hide that she was just as a scared as Hannah was. Jack didn't seem to care about the task and was instead attempting to talk to Yuko, with little success. Lastly, Ben looked around the group doing the same thing Julian was doing, wondering whether they'd succeed.
'Alright guys,' Ben announced. 'I reckon we should give it a go. We don't want to be stuck down here right?'
The rest of the group nodded. It looked like other groups had at the same thought. When they finally reached the edge of the pool a group was starting to go into the water. Some were easing themselves off the ledge while others were jumping straight in, they must have wanted to get it over and done with.
Julian's group stood on the ledge, each group had made a queue they stood waiting for their turn. Everyone in the group was getting themselves ready to dive in, all except for one.
'So, it's got to be cold in there right?' Jack speculated to Ellie. 'Been waiting for a swim. It's been hot the last few days.'
She obviously had bigger things on her mind than humouring Jack, she was barely holding it together.
'Looks deep, you guys reckon we can go that far?' He asked the group realising he wasn't getting anything out of Ellie. Hannah was the only one who replied. 'Who knows? Hope we can all make it' Her eyes flitted towards Julian.
Ellie somehow become as pale as a sheet.
'We got this, Guys,' Ben said from the front, the groups in front of them had dived in, Julian could see the feet of one student poking out of the water just before she had swam down. 'You all ready to go?'
'Alright. I'm going first.' Jack announced. It's not as if who went first mattered Julian thought, then again Jack's eccentricities spoke for themselves. Ben had started motioning for everyone to go into the water. While Yuko and Hannah sat on the edge to lower themselves into the water, Jack instead opted to jump straight in flailing his arms wildly. Whatever effort Hannah and Yuko had to ease themselves into the water was wasted when the splash washed over them. Jack surfaced long enough to cheekily wave at Hannah's glare before taking an exaggerated deep breath and diving down. Shortly after, Hannah and Yuko did the same.
Julian glanced down at the water, it didn't look inviting, but he reckoned he'd have to suck it up. Unfortunately, Ellie didn't look willing to do that, staring down at the water like her own D-Day had arrived. Ben looked over at Julian and Ellie, he must have picked up on Ellie's discomfort.
'You go on ahead, we'll be a sec.' Julian hoped to ease Ben's concern.
Ben paused, looking between them and shrugged, 'Don't be too long.' He said before jumping off the ledge in a dive that was ten times more graceful than Jack's.
Julian looked over at Ellie thinking how to get her in, he was about to speak when she cut him off.
'I can swim it's just… I can't make myself do it.' She admitted grimly. 'Don't know how Jack was able to.'
Julian looked behind him to the groups waiting behind, they were tapping their toes and fidgeting. They didn't have very long.
'You think they'll let me skip it?' She asked looking hopeful. He thought about the circumstances. having locked them all in the cavern, odds are there was no way that would happen.
'Don't think so.' He answered, not sure what else he could do to help. He wished he was better at this maybe he wouldn't have screwed things with Hannah. The other kids behind him were glaring at him, he held his hand up for second hoping they'd understand. He didn't hear them complain straight away, he had at least a little bit more time.
Maybe he shouldn't have waved Ben off, odds are he'd knew how to help Ellie. What could Julian say to convince her? He couldn't just storm off like he had with Hannah weeks ago. He looked over at her saying whatever was on his mind.
'Look, I know this sucks. I think swimming is stupid too.' He tried.
'But you're not afraid of it.' She pointed out.
'Yeah but there's lots of things I'm afraid of.' He went on, not sure where he was going.
'Like what?'
'Like not having people to help me out.' He answered. Strangely enough the words slipped out of his mouth with barely any effort. 'If I don't have friends with me, I'm sure I'll stuff up somehow.'
The other kids behind them were telling him to hurry up. They were becoming annoyed. He only had a moment before they started forcing them to jump in.
She stopped for a moment, maybe he'd gotten through to her. 'I'm sure you can do this thing on your own,' She murmured.
'Nope, I'm gonna need someone to watch my back down there. Don't really know anyone else here.' He laughed.
She looked at him with a wry smile. 'You sur-'
But he didn't hear what Ellie said next, he felt himself be given a big push from behind, the kids behind them must have run out of patience. He tumbled over landing head first into the water.
Julian was overcome by the silence and the harsh cold, it looked like Jack guessed right. This wasn't refreshing like a pool on a hot day, this water was icy, like he had opened a freezer in the middle of the rain. Normally he could get over that but any other day he wouldn't have winded himself by falling in.
He was a little below the surface flailing around to try to swim up to the only light he could see, despite how close he was that distance might as well have been as tall as a skyscraper. He was sinking down further into the water, he was starting freak out, wildly trying to swim up to the surface, but he kept falling down into the water, slowly running out of strength in his arms.
How stupid it was that he was going to drown before he'd even made it into the school. All that effort put into trying to get Ellie in the water wasted. On top of that he was never going to fix things with Hannah, was he? Maybe he shouldn't have ignored her, maybe it did make sense for her to leave him and John behind.
Suddenly he felt a pair of arms lift him up to the surface of the water.
He broke out taking a sweet breath of air, wildly looking around to see who had helped him. Once he'd turned around he saw Ellie, having a more relieved expression than he'd ever seen on a person.
'Now that's what I'm afraid of.' She told him moving her hair out of her face.
He definitely agreed, spitting water out of his mouth as he tread water, it had a weird taste to it.
'I guess you really do need me to watch your back.'
He grinned as much as he could without swallowing water. 'You're right.'
She gave a smile, 'You'd better watch mine too, alright?'
'Definitely.' He took a breath, they had to get moving soon. 'You ready?'
'Nope.'
She took a deep breath and dived into the dark. He took a moment to check he was breathing properly. He was amazed he'd been able to help Ellie out, maybe he hadn't needed Ben's help after all.
He took a deep breath and angled his body downwards to dive into the water, barely catching the shape of Ellie as she moved deeper into the water. Eventually he caught up to her, the two sharing a glance, silently agreeing to watch each other's backs as they swam further down.
The water was cold and oppressive. They'd been diving downwards for several minutes now. He was finding it quite difficult to hold his breath for too long, he couldn't imagine how Ellie was faring. Luckily the school had enough pity that they'd left several alcoves on the walls of the cavern. Probably because of magic, the water didn't fill into these alcoves, leaving a safe pocket of air. This gave them plenty of chances to rest and catch their breath along the way. Every stop they'd seen a few other first years using the rest stops, the two of them had hoped they would find the other members of their group along the way. Unfortunately, this was not the case, Julian and Ellie must have taken too long on the ledge, besides Julian could imagine Jack wanting to race down there as fast as he could.
It was after a particularly long interval without a rest stop that Julian finally was able to see a faint glow directly below them. He swam up to Ellie and tapped her on the shoulder. Pointing straight down once she'd turned around. She nodded, motioning to dive down with difficulty. What they'd done so far must have taken its toll. She'd been moving with less energy as they went on but he couldn't honestly say that it hadn't been draining him as well. With no rest stop around them they had nothing else but to go straight for the glowing rocks.
They swam closer and closer to the rocks, they should have spent more time at the previous stop. He was starting to really run out of breath and energy at this point. He was a couple of meters out now. The robes he was wearing had been weighing down on him for a while now, thankfully down was exactly where he wanted to go now. He was just about to run out of breath when he reached for the bright rock on the floor.
He snatched it off of the ground. Instantly he felt like he could breathe again, even more than that his arms felt like he wasn't tired at all. It dawned on him why there hadn't been a stop to rest for a while.
He stayed in place, thinking about what their next move was. So they were meant to get the rocks and then what? Head straight back up? He barely even knew how long they'd been down there, he looked up. They hadn't been able to see the light Mr Hall had made above the water for some time now. He was just thinking about how long they would take to get back to the surface when he saw Ellie just a few meters above him, she was barely moving.
Julian slipped the rock into his pocket hoping it would still work, thankfully it did. In a panic he tried grabbing another rock to bring up to her, it felt like it was weighed down to the floor. He swam back up to Ellie to bring her further down. He shook her, hoping she'd start moving. She looked straight at him her light blue eyes scared. She mustn't have been able to move anymore, he reached out to drag her down by the hands to the ground.
She was moving too slow for comfort. When she finally was close enough he guided her hand over to another one of the rocks and wrapped it around. A small pause followed, and Ellie opened her eyes, the rock must have worked.
She picked the rock up and put it in her pocket. If they weren't underwater right now, he was sure she would breathe a sigh of relief. After a moment, he gave her a thumbs up to which she nodded. Julian was definitely relieved she was ok; he was wondering how a school was alright with the possibility their students could almost drown on the first day. Mornington must be an interesting place, if only they could find a way to it.
He wished they had the rest of the group with them, somehow, they hadn't found them. Where had they gone? If they were meant to go straight up then they would have passed them on the way down.
He felt a tap on his shoulder, Ellie was pointing behind him. He turned around and saw a group of glowing rocks straight ahead. The cave continued on. He nodded to Ellie and started swimming towards the glow, as they moved closer, he could see the wall opened up into a new cave that strangely enough he hadn't been able to see on the way down.
Eventually Julian and Ellie got close enough to the group of rocks that they could see the silhouettes of people floating in the middle of the cave. He waved them down; he could make out the face of the one who waved in response, it was Ben. They'd found the rest of the group.
They rest of the group looked happy to see them, he spared a brief glance at Hannah she looked relieved to see him. Odds were she wasn't acting as coldly to him as he had thought.
Ben motioned the group over to a small opening in the wall of the cave, another rest stop. He stepped through the edge of water glad to breath properly again. As glad as he was to breath underwater with the rock, it felt much better to be able to open his mouth without filling it with water.
This stop was somewhat bigger than the others, it was big enough to fit at least two groups. Julian took off his robe, not that he was any less wet in his pants and dress shirt; once soaked robes became quite heavy. The others seemed to think along the same lines as they followed suit once they had come into the small alcove.
'Left us behind did you?' Julian joked.
'Had to. Jack didn't stop moving.' Ben smiled amidst a 'Hey!' from Jack. Suddenly, Jack began ranting about how he was all in the right for darting ahead to Ellie and Yuko. Hannah simply stood back and listened. Giving Julian a chance to talk to Ben.
'You get along ok?' Ben asked him, tilting his head towards Ellie.
Julian nodded. 'Took a bit long, but she did good. You?'
Ben chuckled, 'Well Jack went ahead of course. We've done alright so far.' He suddenly looked embarrassed and muttered 'No clue what to do now though.'
'Neither.' Julian murmured back. 'Follow the cave?'
Ben shrugged; they didn't really have another option. He turned to the other four, interrupting a story Jack had been telling so he could announce what they were doing next.
Julian used the opportunity to circle around the other five, after Ben had told them the plan he started ushering them out the rest stop back and back into the water. Ben led Jack and Yuko out, leaving Ellie standing in front of the water wall, giving Julian a thumbs up on the way out. That only left him and Hannah. Not a great combo in his book.
She stood at the entrance, fidgeting as she stood. She seemed to be thinking the best way to talk to him. He couldn't blame her, talking after their argument last night probably wasn't going to do any favours for their friendship. If it were him he would have preferred to go straight back into the water without the rock.
'How did you go?' She asked. 'I heard something was up with that girl.'
He nodded, 'She was afraid of swimming.' He answered once she tilted her head, confused. 'Can't really blame her, she nearly drowned.'
She raised her eyebrow at that, 'Good job.' she said dully.
'Well, she wasn't so bad, she saved me too.' He admitted nervously, he couldn't tell what it was exactly but he wasn't sure he liked where the conversation was going.
'So, you met her on the train, right?' She said quickly.
'Yeah, pretty early on.' He smiled nervously, probably not the best thing to say, he really wanted to get out of these caves.
'Really?' She questioned. 'I didn't meet anyone on the train by the way, thanks for asking.' A little anger in her voice.
She'd been a witch her whole life, how come she didn't know anybody? Nothing to do about it now, he really didn't want to continue the fight now.
'You know, I thought I remembered someone saying you shouldn't drop your friends so quickly.' She sneered at him.
He stood there silent. He'd tried avoiding her on the train and now he was reaping the rewards. He still couldn't believe she hadn't met anyone on the train, in his head he painfully imagined her sitting alone in a train cabin for hours.
'Look, I'm sor-'he started before he'd been silenced by Hannah. She pushed him backwards.
'You'd better be.' She turned around, walking away from Julian.
'Hey wait!' But she'd already walked through into the water. Leaving Julian to stand there, wondering how he could have done it differently. Maybe when she visited him last night he should have left her alone for planning to leave him and John behind. Instead of running away from her on the train he could have invited her to the cabin with Ellie.
But he hadn't and part of him was glad. As he picked up his slightly drier robes, he thought that if that was how she was going to react, then he was partly glad that he hadn't talked to her. As weird as that was to feel.
He slapped his face, trying to get the thought of Hannah out of his head, he still had a lot to swim through. He took a deep breath, not that he needed it and walked into the water. He had submerged once again. He really needed to thank whoever made those glowing rocks, he wasn't sure how he'd go without them.
He swam down the long corridor, spying the glow of a rock not too far ahead. It was being waved side to side, as best as you could underwater anyway. The person ahead came into focus as he got closer it was Ellie.
Julian tilted his head in surprise, as soon as she saw him do this she shrugged. It was as if she had every right to wait behind for him. From his perspective, he couldn't agree more. He smiled at her as she started swimming next to him. After a moment she pointed ahead of them to a few dark shapes further ahead, it must've been the rest of the group.
He nodded and started to swim faster to catch up, odds were the school probably wanted them all to finish in a group.
It didn't take Julian and Ellie to catch up, somehow the rocks helped them swim faster for longer than he ever had in his life.
When they caught up Julian gave a thumbs up to Ben, who nodded in return. He figured greeting everyone would be good for the group, but he couldn't even catch up to Jack for one and Yuko probably wouldn't even want to give him a response. Leaving only Hannah, which for obvious reasons wouldn't go well. So, he simply swam amidst the rest of the group with Ellie next to him. Looking ahead to see if the cave opened up, every once in a while, sneaking a glance at Hannah, wondering if she planned on strangling him next.
After several minutes he could see the water ahead of him begin to lighten up slightly. The difference wasn't much but it was still there. The group swam further on and discovered a new section of the cavern.
The cave they had been in opened into a large vertical cavern, much like the one Julian had dived down to reach the rocks. The group stopped and looked up briefly, they all seemed to get it without a word, the only way out was up.
Nothing changed much as the group ascended up towards the first proper light they had all seen in a while. They all seemed to wordlessly exude an aura of excitement, especially in Ellie's case. As Julian looked up at Hannah who was swimming above him, once again definitely glad to be given the opportunity to get away from her.
He looked below him at the rest of the group besides Hannah and Jack, thinking they looked like they were swimming slower than before. Maybe the rocks didn't work one hundred percent all the time. But as long as they were able to breath Julian guessed there wasn't much to worry about. Just as he looked back up to focus on swimming upwards he felt someone collide with him from above.
Hannah pushed off him like a springboard to swim faster to the surface. How had she kicked him with enough force to send him flying down past the others? He watched as the rest of the group stopped to look between him and Hannah, confused. Hannah gave an apologetic look playing it off as an accident, but he knew better.
Julian hoped he didn't look as irritated as he felt. He started swimming upwards again to catch up to the group but felt his arms go weaker. In fact, much weaker than he'd felt since they'd picked up the rocks. He kept swimming towards the group with this new difficulty when the last thing he needed happened. He could feel his breath again.
He swam faster towards the group to try and warn them, they needed to get up to the surface and fast. He could see the rest of the group had slowed down, their eyes widened in panic once he had gotten closer. They had noticed it too, the rocks weren't working anymore.
They all panicked, trying their best to swim upwards to the light above the surface, the group wasn't far but they still had another few minutes swimming at their earlier pace. But now they had to use weaker bodies. Right now, Julian felt as if he had swam the length of thirty swimming pools without stopping. Even swimming down the first cavern didn't make him this tired. The rocks must have been dulling their senses rather than giving them energy, tiring them out without even realising it.
Julian ignored the others, doing his best to madly swim up to the surface and the light that lay beyond it. They were much closer now, he could see Hannah further above only ten meters below the surface. But suddenly she stopped moving, he felt much colder than he had since being in the water as he sped up to stop her sinking. He gripped her arm hoping when the rest of the group caught up they could help. He glanced downwards to see how far they were only to feel a sinking in his gut. The rest of them were unconscious too. Even Ben who seemed good at swimming was sinking further down, in the mad shuffle he hadn't noticed the rest had fallen behind he watched Jack, Ellie and Yuko floating in place, completely unmoving.
He let go of Hannah. There was no way he could take all of them up with him, he had to get help. This was a school, right? There had to be teachers waiting to help the first years. He was nearly at the surface reaching his hand out to get attention, maybe someone was waiting just above.
But when his hand was only centimetres away from the light, his body failed. He couldn't move his body enough to move anywhere. Like the others his body began to sink, the last thing he saw was his hand getting further and further from the light.
When Julian woke he was blinded, the sun above him was too bright and too hot. But it felt comfortable, he usually didn't lie in the sun. Being in the dark and oppressive water had made him appreciate it in a way he never had. Hold on, water-
He jolted up, reaching for his throat as if touching it would make him breathe properly. Despite this, he was breathing fine, even more his body wasn't tired anymore. He jumped up with ease, as if he hadn't just swam through underwater caves for a what felt like hours. He looked at his surroundings. He had apparently been laying in the middle of football oval, the clearest possible sky above him. He peered over at a shop several meters away before spying a familiar looking fence. He was back at Mentam park.
He figured that was a good a place as any to get some answers, there was no way this was real. He ran over to the fence that he would always sit on, he noticed there was someone else sitting in his spot. As soon as he was close a boy sitting there jumped down and turned, revealing Julian's own face.
In contrast to Julian's white robes and uniform, the other Julian was wearing his old clothes, a T-shirt and shorts. The other Julian looked him over and smiled.
'Did you enjoy your swim?' he asked, playfully walking towards Julian.
'Who are you?' Julian ignored him.
The other Julian stopped. 'Right to it then.' He scowled. 'Can't you kids have fun for more than two seconds?'
Julian wasn't humouring him, he would never admit it but seeing someone with his body unnerved him to no end.
The other Julian groaned. 'Fine. I'm here to sort you.'
Julian stood still on guard. 'So I'm not dead?
'Of course, don't think I'd be talking to you if you were.'
Julian sighed in relief. 'Right, so sort me.'
'Not so fast.' He paused. 'Hate to say it but you're going to have to get over seeing yourself in person.'
The Sorter started to circle around him as it talked.
'You're not very interesting to be honest, unfortunately you don't fit into every house.'
It became very obvious that keeping this person or whatever it was at bay wasn't going to work, it was just going to do what it wanted. 'Do people usually fit into all of them?'
'Not really.' The Sorter paused. 'Some have. But they're a bit more rare, I was more interested in your friends to be honest.'
Julian tightened his fist, what was with this thing?
'Well,' The Sorter started thoughtfully. 'Not all of them, that Jack and Ben, I knew exactly where to take them instantly. Yuko and Ellie weren't too much harder, they both have lessons to learn from the houses I sent them to.'
The Sorter stopped walking directly in front of him. 'That Hannah though, love people like her,' He smiled. 'It's like they can be moulded in any way I want. To think I impact how they grow up.'
Julian sneered, The Sorter talked about them like puppets, to be honest it seemed disgusting.
'Maybe to you.' The Sorter said, as if hearing his thoughts beginning to circle him again. 'But I've got nothing better to-'
'Just tell me what house I'm in.' Julian interrupted.
'Fine.' The sorter groaned. He paused for a moment, leaving Julian hearing only the sound of the trees in the wind.
'You're not the right fit for Defanon and although you are interested in knowledge, Owlsight won't be an interesting place for you.' The Sorter started.
'On top of this Imphorn seems much outside of your domain, you wouldn't know the spirit of fun if you tried.'
Julian scowled. 'You don't know a thing about me.'
'I don't?' The Sorter's eyes gleamed, 'You're not Julian Vital? Son of Melissa. Who is now sitting all alone because you just had to go running off with wizards. Could say the same thing about your friend Hannah.'
'A bit rich, coming from you.'
The sorter chuckled. 'You got me. Maybe you do have a funny bone.'
'Anyway, I'm left with two choices, either greatness lies before you or you walk anonymous. To be honest, either's fine with me.'
He stopped walking in front of Julian once again. 'So I'll leave it up to you. Do you want to help yourself or everybody?'
Help himself or everyone else? For once Julian seriously considered what The Sorter was saying. It can't just be one or the other here. Could you help both if you picked the first option? But what if you couldn't? If you only helped yourself then maybe it means you have no time for everyone ese. But what about the second choice?
If you only focused on everybody then wouldn't that mean ignoring yourself? What kind of life would you live if you thought that? No that doesn't matter, maybe The Sorter wasn't being as hard and fast with it as Julian thought.
'Everyone.' Julian answered.
'Oh? Why's that.' The Sorter stared intrigued.
'If I just help myself you can't help everyone. But if we're talking about everyone that includes myself, right?' Julian grinned.
The Sorter smirked for a moment before breaking out into a chuckle. 'Well, that's an interesting answer, I suppose.' He stared straight at Julian. 'But to be fair the real answer was that you thought about it at all.'
Julian glared at The Sorter, of course, just like Cross this guy was just playing games with him.
'We're all done here. I hope you like Terrascale.' The Sorter grinned. Julian felt his body begin to get weaker, his vision was getting darker.
He heard the Sorter announce one more thing. 'You might be a little rarer than I thought.'
It took all of Julian's energy to respond. 'But you said I wasn't interesting.'
The last thing he saw was the Sorter raising an eyebrow.
'You proved me wrong.'