Chapter two

"Wow!" And by wow I don't mean wow this is amazing I mean wow what the hell am I seeing.

"No wonder they call it the land of myth, this place is filled with mythical creatures." Alero said wide eyed.

"Some mythical creatures are disgusting, look at that one." I said disgustedly.

"We shouldn't look surprised or talk like this, they'll know we are outcasts, act normal, blend in." Dinela said and I nodded in agreement.

"First of all we need shelter and food." Alero said.

"I think I can handle that, Mavery gave me some coins, let's find a stall." I said and we all started looking for one.

"What are you doing here? You should be at the academy." A half man, half rhinoceros said to us.

"Academy? What academy?" I asked unsure.

"The Blieum Academy of mytlander." He glanced at us.

"Oh yes, we are students of course, we came to uhm." Dinela said nervously.

"Don't lie to me!" He said angrily.

"What! Oh my goodness!!"

"You know the rules for not going out once it's past the meaning time."

"Oh we are sorry sir, we won't repeat it ever again Mr meldwick." Alero said with an innocent face.

"You mean Mr Cobbler, and I'll let it slide this time, but it must never happen again, now back to the academy." He grunted as he pushed us inside a bus without wheels.

"Where are you off to?" The bus driver asked, I don't know what creature it is.

"Alright." It's said and we took a seat at the back close to the back, Alero was sitting next to the window, with me sitting next to her and Dinela next to me.

"This is a disaster!" Alero whispered.

"We are supposed to leave Aliva and go to the Valley of imaginations, how are we going to get there if we are stuck in an academy?!" Dinela whisper-yell.

"That's not what we should be worried about right now, it's what is awaiting us at the academy we should think about."

"This is not good." Alero said.

"Anyone notice a change in our skin color." Alero said looking out of the window, I looked at my hands, to say I was shocked was an understatement. I looked at Dinela and muffled a scream, her skin is now an orange colour with white stripes all over, her ears are long and pointy like an elf, her hair is as straight as a pole and is light pink in color also her eyes have changed into a golden colour. While Alero's complexion is green with brown patches all over her skin, her hair is black and is up in a bun, she has bright green eyes, the best part is she has a horn for a nose and me, my skin is deep blue with tiny white spots and light blue stripes. I touched my hair and brought it to my line of view, my hair is back in colour.

"This feels weird." I muttered.

"Azyma you have a tail." Dinela said silently. I looked at the side of my thighs and I gasped, it's the same colour as my skin. I felt tears rolling down my cheeks.

"You're crying." Alero said softly, I wiped my cheeks and Dinela placed her hands on mine.

"We'll all get through this." She said with a forced smile.

"The academy stop!" The bus driver yelled.

"We've arrived." I nudged Alero who was asleep, we all got up and exited the bus.

"Damn!" Dinela exclaimed.

"Shit just got real!!" I said, shutting my eyes and taking a deep breath. We started walking to the main entrance, this school is huge and stunning, it's made with bricks and there's a huge statue in front. Someone yanked Dinela back and 'cause we were holding hands they yanked me and Alero too, whoever it was pulled us behind the building.

"Hey what gives!" Alero yelled.

"Shhh," he silenced us "are you trying to get expelled, if you get caught you'll be in big trouble, I suggest you quietly go back to the female's dorm room without being seen." The creature looks just like Alero but its horn is bigger and longer but is purple in complexion and it looks like a male.

"Where is the female's dorm room?" Alero asked.

"Are you kidding me?", it chuckled "its that building over there, go in through the side the wall can serve as a ladder and you can climb in through the window." He said motioning to the building.

"Who's out there? Come out now!!!" We heard someone say.

"We got to run if we're cut we're done for! Later!" He said and bolted.

"Come on girls." Dinela said and we all rushed to the side of the building, he was right.

"Climb on one brick after the other," I instructed Alero, some of the bricks on the wall indeed does serve as a ladder to the window.

"hurry."

"Almost there." Alero said and we heard a faint thud as she jumped in. "My turn!" Dinela said and climbed.

"Come out now or your punishment will be doubled if I catch you myself!!" The guard threatened as his footsteps got louder.

"It's harder than it looks." She mumbled, she got to the window and climbed in, I quickly started climbing, it really is harder than it looks, I reached the window and jumped in, they both helped me up. I looked back and saw rows of bunk beds, I located an empty bunk bed

"Let's go and sleep on the empty bunk beds, the guards will be here any minute now." I said and we all rushed to an empty bunk bed.

"Not this one." Dinela said.

"Why not?" I was confused.

"We need to stay close to each other." We heard footsteps.

"The guard is here." We rushed quietly to another vacant bunk bed, the one next to it is not so vacant there is someone sleeping on it but that's okay.

"You two take this bunk bed. I'll share this bunk bed with this thing or girl or whatever she is." Alero said and climbed on the top bunk trying not to wake the girl while Dinela and I shared the vacant bunk bed, I took the lower bunk while she took the top bunk. The guard entered the room and scanned the place.

"I am sorry but you're not allowed in here." I heard a female voice say.

"Some of them are not really asleep, they snuck in here and some might not truly belong in here." He said, sounding upset.

"Based on what happened yesterday a lot of the students here don't actually belong to this school and tomorrow the principal will sort it out anyone who is said to not belong in this school will be severely punished." The female voice said and the guard signed in satisfaction.

"I'm sorry for barging in."

"It's alright, Fedrick." I heard the door close shut soon after.

"What do you think she meant?" A girl asked. I turned to my other side to see who it was but I couldn't see her.

"I don't know." Another girl answered, I turned back to see Alero staring at me.

"It's okay." I mouthed and she smiled softly, I shut my eyes and immediately darkness engulfed me.

****

"Rise and shine!!" A high pitched voice sang, I opened my eyes grudgingly and shuffled out of bed, I saw Alero trying to wake up Dinela.

"Five more minutes." She moaned.

"Get your lazy ass out of bed, do you want to get us caught?!" Alero whispered causing her eyes to fly open.

"I'm up, I'm up!" She climbed down.

"Freshen up and come down for breakfast." A woman instructed and left.

"Good morning, I've never seen you here before, I'm Melody." A girl said, she looks just like me except she's yellow.

"I'm Agular, nice to meet you,'' Alero said Blatantly.

"Zion." Dinela followed suit shaking Melody's hand.

"And you're?" She asked, looking at me expectantly.

"Zenom." I said with a forced smile.

"Hi." Another girl greeted, and like that we mingled.

"Aren't you going to have your bath?" Melody asked.

"I will." How can I? I only have one outfit and its the one I'm currently wearing.

"Come on Zenom let's go eat breakfast I'm starving." Dinela said after Melody left, or should I say Agular. I hid the bag we came here with under my bed and both her and Zion (Dinela) pulled me out of the dorm.

"Why are we lying about our names?" Alero asked quietly.

"Shhh! We are not talking about that nor are we talking about who we are someone might over hear us." Dinela cautioned.

"Got it." Alero and I said in unison. We headed the same way everyone else was going and we found ourselves in front of huge double doors and one thought ran through my mind, I really hope I am not smelling. The girl in front of us pushed the doors open and we all walked in, it looked like a cafeteria and worst of all we didn't have any money to buy food.

"Hey, I thought you would wait for us." Melody said as she walked up to us with a girl next to her.

"Sorry about that." I apologized. We need to make friends here.

"It's okay, we are friends now so I'm going to treat you to breakfast." She said with a huge grin on her face.

"No need for that." Alero said, rejecting her offer.

"Oh come on, don't be formal." She said, we all grabbed a tray and joined the queue.

"Mashed dopotato and chichen please, my favorite." She said to the creature serving the food, I decided to take what she ordered and Alero took the same while Dinela I mean Zion chose something else, soup and bread at least that's what I think it is. We got our food and went to take a seat, we were joined by two males, one that looks like Melody's friend and the other looks like Dinela.

"Ladies meet carphom and Jagule." She introduced them to us.

"Boys meet Agular, Zion and Zenom , my new friends."

"Nice to meet you lovely ladies." Jagule said, smiling.

"Pleasure." Zion said with a smile. I took a bit of the cichen, mmm-mmm delicious, this tastes really good.

"This is really good." I said taking another bite.

"I know right."

"So what's your speciality? Well we all will be assigned new characters." Carphom said.

"What do you mean?" I asked curious.

"Yesterday a lot of students were admitted to the academy and some snuck in, so everyone will be vetted thoroughly those who were admitted will be assigned a character and those who snuck in will be punished then thrown out." Carphom informed taking a bite from his food. We finished our food and chatted some more, fear gripped me but I was able to mask it. If we can put our names in the names of those who were admitted then maybe we'll have a chance but that's not possible, oh God please help us.

"To the assembly hall!!" A voice sang.

"I really pity those that snuck in." Melody said as we all dropped our trays and headed to the assembly hall, I looked at Dinela and mustered a small frown, we reached the hall and joined the crowd.

"My fellow students, as we all know what happened yesterday was not right and now we are going to right the wrong, the admission officer will call the names of those whose names are in the admission list so if you hear your name move to the right side of the hall but first if you know you don't belong here step out, if you're fished out your punishment will be severe, so come out now on your own accord!!" The principal instructed, the principal is actually a wolf, a wolf man. I looked at Alero who had fear written all over her face, I held her hand and squeezed it for comfort, I saw a couple people going to the front.

"We'll get through this together." Agular mumbled, maybe this is a good thing, if we're thrown out then we'll be able to continue our journey but who knows what sort of punishment we'll be given.

"Is that all of you? I suggest you come out now!!" The principal bellowed and about fifty people came out.

"Take them to the railswing," the principal instructed the guards and gasps were heard throughout the hall, and the guards did as so.

"What's the railswing?" Zion asked the guy next to her.

"They will mine there for the next three months vigorously and they will also help in the railway," the principal said and everyone gasped "those who refused to come out on their own accord will be given the worst punishment. Admission officer start calling names of those who are admitted into this academy." The principal said. The admission officer started calling names,

"As long as you're name is on the list you have nothing to be worried about." Melody said with a smile.

"Your names are on the list right?" Carphom asked, unable to lie at this point we ignored him and braced ourselves.