The girl let out a cheer and threw her arms around me, giving me a tight hug. I was shocked, but didn’t want to push away and be rude. The embrace was warm and friendly. I was frozen, and didn’t hug back.
“Sorry, I’m a hugger,” she said as she pulled away, giggling. “I justlovemeeting new people.”
“Have we… met before?” I asked. Otherwise, the hug would be weird— but this girl looked like she knew all about weird.
“Nope!” she sang. She stuck her hand out, grabbed mine, and shook it so frantically it yanked my body around. “I’m Odette Oksana. I’m a First Year at Arcanea University. Alicorn Faction.”
She showed me her palm. I briefly saw the mark of a hoof on her palm before she drew it away and started talking again. “I’ve never seen you around, so I assume you’re a freshman, too.”
Odette talked so fast I had trouble keeping up. It was like this girl was on a permanent sugar-rush.
“I’m Emma,” I managed to blurt out.
“Great!” I barely had time to get my name out before Odette started pulling on my arm. “Let’s go up to the school together! I know the way. I’m sure we’ll have lots to talk about! How did your summer go? Mine wentfantastic.”
I hesitated. I was afraid of trusting Odette. After all, Gabby hadn’t exactly rolled out the welcome wagon.
But Odette seemed so nice and sincere— and a bit naive. It was like looking at a human version of aMy Little Pony.I figured following her around would be better than making a fool of myself trying to navigate this city alone.
“Sure,” I said. “Lead the way.”
I wasn’t sure I had much of a choice, anyway, because Odette had already pulled me halfway across the station by this time. She practically skipped as she moved, and walked on her toes.
“Do you dance professionally or something?” I asked, noticing the way she moved. She walked upright and poised at all times, like she was in constant awareness of how her body moved. I knew the feeling, because figure skating required that, too.
“Oh, yes. Ballet,” Odette said. “I’ve been traveling with the Russians for awhile, but I gave that up to come to the University. Do you do arts or sports?”
That made my ears prick up. Dancing with the Russian ballet was insanely impressive. Odette had to be amazing. People trained for their entire lives and didn’t get in, and she had stopped that for Arcanea University. This had to be one special place.
Odette was peering at me, waiting for an answer to her former question. “Figure skating,” I belted out.
Odette squealed. “Oh, we’re so close, then! I like skating, but I was better at ballet, so I stuck with that instead. I bet you’resobeautiful on the ice!”
The minute we stepped outside the train station, my mouth dropped open. My entire world opened up to a brand-new universe.
The first thing I saw was some sort of half-bird, half-lion thing standing right in front of me. It had golden feathers, a large beak, and the back legs of a large cat, with two massive wings on its back.
I was walking too fast, and I ended up slamming into the creature. I was thrown backwards— the creature was nothing but muscle.
A griffin,I realized. They really did exist.
It was bigger than an actual lion. I was sure the thing was going to break my neck in two. A shiver of fear passed over me as the griffin turned its massive head at me. I was dinner, most likely.
The griffin I’d bumped into was eyeing me with piercing yellow eyes. I realized that I was looking at a person, not an animal, and swallowed. “I’m sorry. Excuse me. I didn’t mean to run into you.”
The griffin gave me a weird look and slunk out of the way. He probably thought I was some crazy person, looking at him like that. After all, this wasn’t a zoo.
I realized there were more of them standing outside the train station— a whole flock. The griffins were mostly white, brown, black and gray, although I did see an unusual mix of colors, like green or red. Some had the back legs of tigers, cheetahs, leopards or panthers instead of lions. It was hard not to gawk at them in amazement. I pardoned myself again and wove my way around the griffins as I ran after Odette, who was still gabbing.
I heard a massive roar that shook the cobblestones beneath my feet and looked up. There were dragons—literal dragons— flying through the skies. They were all different colors, scales glimmering like gemstones, some as small as a car and others as large as a building. The sun reflected off of their scales and shone in all different directions. They had horns, some straight and some curled, and spines along their backs with tails that ended in arrowheads. Each of the toes on their feet ended in knife-like claws. When they opened their mouths, I observed fangs that were as big as me.
Farther above, two dragons breathedliteral fireat each other. I wasn’t sure if they were playing or having an argument. The fire-breathers descended, and once they approached the ground, changed back into flesh-and-bone men. It seemed like theywerehaving an argument, because their voices grew louder as they passed. They yelled Malovian at each other and shook their fists.
“Well, come on, silly!” Odette said, yanking on me. “It’s like you’ve never seen a dragon before!”
I didn’t want to say that I hadn’t, so I put on a straight face and followed her through the crowd of people coming out of the train station. Most of them were students, like us— the semester started tomorrow, so I shouldn’t have been surprised.
I wasn’t quite sure what an alicorn was before I got here, but now that I saw them face to face, the best way I could describe them was unicorns with wings. Their coats were all the colors horses could be— gray, chestnut, bay, roan, dun, black, palomino, and about a million others. I think I saw a zebra one somewhere in the crowd. But their horns were curved slightly, not straight, and instead of horse tails they had oxen ones, and feathers around their hooves. Their horns seemed to be made of rare stones like diamonds, or some sort of precious metal. The alicorns glimmered as I walked by. I wasn’t sure what to be more impressed by— the beautiful horns or their wings. The alicorns ruffled their feathery appendages, snorting with impatience and stomping their hooves as they waited for guests to arrive.
