Kira Rockwell hurried along the well worn path, barely hanging on her bit of toast as she jumped down the last bit of stairs. Invigorated by the chime of school bells in the distance, she straightened and sped up through the woods surrounding the school, not wanting to be late on the first day back at the Elderglow Institute of Magic. Nearly tripping over a root heave in the road, she turned her head back in surprise just to smack headlong into an untrimmed low hanging branch.

  She cursed her luck, blaming it for missing the school carriage, and finally stumbled onto the better kept road leading to the main gate of the fortress-turned-school. Blinking at the sudden brightness when she left the shade of the trees behind, Kira didn’t slow down to admire the towering masses of faded white brick and pale limestone spires, occasionally dotted with a blotch of green ivy.

  The ancient stronghold loomed protectively over its inhabitants, red tiled roofs overseeing the tops of clouds and stretches of school grounds for miles. Tall stone walls barricaded the school building in, whilst keeping the woods and unwanted visitors out.

  In front of the heavy black gates, where Kira had once gawked at the castle, glowing proudly when sunlight reflected off at the right angle, she hung her head in shame and exhaustion, pleading with the school warden to open said gate.

  “Please let me in, Mr warden,”Kira panted with exertion. “I missed the school carriage. ”

  “This is the property of Everglow Institute, staff and student entry only, ” the warden recited indifferently. “Visitors must require permission from Headmaster Alaric Ravencrest or hold a visitors pass.”

  “But I’ll miss the induction ceremony,” wailed Kira. “How soon can the headmaster come?”

  The warden stared at Kira apathetically. Hot and frustrated, Kira itched to tunnel in with her earth magic, but Everglow being a heavily fortified brick and all, would probably have wards not even the strongest mage could shatter, let alone a measly new year 3 student.

  Not wanting to risk getting blown up, Kira groaned internally and stormed in front of the gates, trying to come up with a plan. A haunting thought crossed her mind as she paced, the first day back is always the busiest, so the headmaster will be way too busy for me, assuming he even knows that I’m out here, what if he only gets notified tomorrow? Am I supposed to just sleep out here?

  Shuddering, Kira’s frustration turned to unease, eyeing the woods behind her warily. The woods weren’t close to the gates by any means - the castle sat in a clearing amidst the trees - but Kira had a sneaking suspicion that the lack of cover wasn't going to deter any curious beasty prowling within the foliage. Especially not hungry ones. Especially not hungry ones that looked like a bug and was the size of a wagon.

  Kira bit back a squeak of terror and scolded herself for this direction of thought. Panicking is useless and Kira has the means to protect herself. Theoretically.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Kira? What are you doing out there?”

  A deep, clear voice shook Kira from her rock bunker plots, and she spun towards the familiar sound.

  “Professor Thornewood!” Kia exclaimed, relief palpable in her tone.

  The Head of the Summons Department nodded to the warden. “Thanks for your work, I recognize this student, she will come with me.”

  “Thank you professor! I apologise for being late.” Kira hung her head awkwardly. “But how did you know I was locked out?”

  “You just got lucky, I’m here to let Barkly back in.”

  The older man clarified as the gate retracted upwards with a series of heavy clanks. Kira went to stand next to the professor while the pair waited for his familiar to arrive. The disturbance in the distance grows closer every second. Birds’ squawks and the scattering of creatures were drowned out by the crash of heavy footfalls, the disruption of the tree canopy neared as a hulking figure lumbered closer to the edge of the clearing.

  The three story tall tree wraith cleared the treeline, and revealed thick, rough rinds of dry bark making up sections of the creature’s body, with bunches of thinner vines filling up and running beneath the gaps of wooden armour, some wrapping around and bunching up at the end of the tree wraith’s gangly arms, forming a rough shape of a hand. Glowing yellow eyes stared out of dark, hollow cavities. And surprisingly long spikes for teeth lined its gaping maw, a crude semblance of a mouth.

  “Nice to see you again Barkly,”

  Kira giggled as the tree wraith sandwiched itself into a ball of vines and squeezed through the comically small gateway, giving a low grunt in greeting.

  Professor Thornewood, turned around without waiting for either of them, and strolled back towards the main building.

  “Let's go get your dorm key, the induction ceremony is almost over. Go straight to the training grounds after dropping off your belongings. Here. ”

  He handed her a timetable without looking back as Kira jogged to catch up. She took it and scanned it to see her first class of the year. She frowned in confusion for a moment as the colour coded first class did not match with any other colour for the rest of her time table.

  “Summoning session?” Kira exclaimed, her eyes shot up to meet the head of the Summons Department. “Is this the one where we finally get to bond with a summons?”

  “If we get to you fast enough,” Professor Thornewood chuckled at her enthusiasm. “The list of students summoning a potential familiar to bond with is quite long this year, might need to set up another one later on in the first month if there are any students yet to summon their familiar.”

  “Barkly would help provide emergency mana should the students be too tired to complete the bonding spell,” he mused as Barkly gave a helpful rumble from behind. “Or help subdue the summons, should it break the containment shields, but I highly doubt it, unless one of them summons a dragon or the like…”

  “Maybe I should call Morvax to help out, but disabling the wards is too much of a bother…”

  “Wait, Morvax? As in the Morvax - your dragon familiar?” Kira interrupted excitedly. “Do we get to meet him?”

  Professor Thornewood hummed thoughtfully, but didn’t promise anything. The department head kept on muttering even as the trio split up in different directions.

  Biding a short farewell, Kira ran towards the dorms as fast as she could drag her luggage. Kira was thrilled to finally get a lifelong partner, and she’s sure that it will be too.