First Day- Misdirection (Open)

Damn school. Damn technology. Damn hallways that even his (novice) directional spell couldn't help him with. The lighting made him seem like a ghost, and occasionally flickered. He jumped a little every time the lighting grew unsteady. It wasn't like this in Iceland- well, it kind of was, but not like this. Ari looked at the magical string that was his directional spell. He knew it wasn't working- he had spent 30 minutes wandering with it- but where else to go? He followed the string some more, until he came across a huge door. The string would lead him into the room, so Ari was convinced that he had finally made it to his destination.

Not even close.

The dusty smell of books overflooded his senses as soon as Ari yanked open the door. The string continued on through the many bookshelves the library possessed. Ari suddenly had a feeling that he might not make it to the auditorium until the next day.

Nikolai sat in a far reach of the library, having been there since twilight on the outside to now. He'd left himself be absorbed into the literature this school had, nothing at all like the library his foster parents had. Their collection consisted of geographical type books, encyclopedias and indexes of the like. Typical for people of their status. The only books they had were a few of Greek mythology and Danish fairy tales the young nk had to request himself.

This library was different, though. Not just the fact that the collect held just about anything that could capture Nikolai's interests, the majority of it all was in fact the kind of books that would attract any species that were to attend the school. Currently, the young man was looking through an English spell book, secretly wishing he could work half of these. However, this was only the fifth book to be flipped through since his adventure started. The first had been on Norse mythology, read intently only on parts that held interest such as stories of his own people and elves. The second was just a common fairytale, the blond recognizing it easily as Den Standhaftige Tinsoldat, a tale from Denmark while depressing to most, managed to be good enough to get the man to reread it here. The third was yet another fairytale of a language he didn't understand nor was even be able to place. Nikolai simply thumbed through the pages and looked at the enchanting pictures in black and white. The fourth, right before picking up the spell book which was directly underneath this one, was actually nothing like the others he'd read or want to read. This was a book based on human history, a biology at best. Little did he know, it was a vampyr written book, not caring for it at all and only flipping through a few pages before giving up and looking to the next in the stack.

Hours later, the spell book was still in the boy's hands, definitely being the most interesting out of all he'd read so far. He'd spent those hours touching the imagery and even attempted a few incantations himself, failed due to a lack of magic. There were love spells, form spells, even those processes to do with increasing your hair length. The only one that had made the Nordic stop for a long while and attempt was the freezing time spell. It seemed ridiculous but so compelling at the same time. Another hour passed with failure, most likely either due to his species' limits or the fact he had nothing to draw a circle with. Putting the book back in place, Nikolai looked in the stack by his chair for a new read, only stopped by a large noise coming from behind. His head turned slightly only to notice another enter the library, looking as confused as he himself had been when getting lost and ending up here. Standing up, the Norwegian stepped over and headed off farther into the library, not wanting to bother with company.

Ari continued into the musty old library, slightly stunned by the sheer amount of books there. Passing so many books, he felt the urge to abandon his quest for the auditorium and just stay there, flipping through their ancient pages. A few more minutes of walking through the room- how big was it anyway?- and Ari was close to completely giving up. He set the string on the floor, and dissolved the spell. Only a faint sparkle in the air showed it ever existed- and that would surely fade away soon. So. Alone in the library, no way out (to his knowledge). Ari began to absentmindedly roam the library, until he found a discarded stack of books, left behind by someone. Norse mythology, a few books of fairy tales....human history? He set down the book back into it's pile before nearly tripping on a thick book...of spells. Now this, this was something interesting. Ari sat down to open the heavy book, and began to devour it's words. He had seen nothing like these spells back in Iceland.

Once again taking his original search through the library as he had to find a small portion of the books he'd had before, Nikolai was back in one of the farthest reaches of the large room. The Nordic stumbled upon a ladder, one which extended to the top of the bookshelves of the row he'd been walking through. Looking up with a bit of an agitated sigh, the young man whispered a mild curse in his own language, beginning the crawl up to the top. Curiousity killed the cat, as one would say.

A minute passed with the Norwegian not even hitting the half way mark. Given, however, he was stopping at every other row to check out a few golden bordered books and even those which laid on their sides. None seemed to give him any interest, however. Finally hitting the middle, a very thick book finally caught his eyes. Grabbing onto the bottom of the shelf and pulling to get the ladder to scoot on it's wheels a bit, the blond reached over and lifted it from it's place. The red cover was extremely enticing but the amount of dust managed to make the Nordic sneeze. Now this caused a dilemma for poor Nikolai. He did show interest but in his current position, there was no way to hold onto this book and continue to search for more. Glancing down, simply dropping it to the ground was out of the question. He was very high up and was not even sure the old piece would make it without losing a few pages, if i hadn't already.

Placing the old read back onto the shelf, he came to the conclusion that he'd just grab it on his way back down. It would be much safer than carrying it up with him, anyways, considering its size.

Nikolai looked up, eyes watering a bit due to the amount of dust floating in the air this high up. The lengths one would take to find a book. He stepped up a few more shelves, taking note not to slide anymore or he'd lose the red book's place. Looking around, a large book titled 'Norwegian Folktales' stood out to the young man. Pulling it from the shelf, he flipped open to the index in the beginning and smirked a bit at seeing so many familiar tales. Looking up, it would be safe to say that this specific row could be explored later. Wiping away a few dust-related tears, Nikolai grabbed the book and began to descend, also taking the red one as well once he'd reached that shelf. Finally reaching the bottom after a few moments, his trip down much fast than up, the blond began to head back to the chair he'd found earlier, assuming the other student that had entered would've left by now.

Reaching close enough to see the area, disappointment fell upon the Nordic when he realised the other had not left but became entranced by the same book of spells that had caught his own attention. An unimpressed sigh escaped, looking around to see if there was another chair to seat himself.

Ari was not just entranced, he was captured by the fancy writing in the book. It had everything- love spells, everyday spells, sexua- wait, why should he need to- oh, forget it. There was a much better spell to try out- one that would summon a familiar to it's master's location. Ari's finger traced over the lines of spell over and over, he wouldn't be able to look at the book while actually performing the spell. His puffin, Puffi, had been wandering around while Ari left. Familiars were never kept on a tight leash, they chose where they wanted to be most of the time. Ari had not enough time to contact the puffin and let him know where he was going. This spell would definitely solve that issue.

Taking some special chalk out of his pocket ( all witches carried special chalk for impromptu magic circles), Ari began to draw the basic magic circle, adding in the specified symbols the book instructed to add. The special chalk contained magic essence....normal chalk never works too well for spells, nor does other media. Looking in the book, Ari saw, to his relief, that this spell didn't require anything but the feather/hair/ etc of his familiar. Ari had plenty of those. Placing a black puffin feather in the middle of the circle, Ari stood up, and gave one last glance to the instructions on performing the spell, before setting it down.

Standing back, Ari let his eyes mist into the iridescent shade of purple that represented his magical talent becoming active. In his native Icelandic, he murmured the spell words; a mixture of syllables that would activate the magic circle, and bring his puffin back to him. Over and over, he chanted these words, until a dim glow came from the magic circle. Looking around quickly, Ari said the words in a much louder voice. He had hoped the circle would activate with many repetitions of the words in a quiet voice, but it seems that was not the case with such a weak activation...his puffin might come back in 5 pieces if he finished the spell now. With the louder voice, the glow intensified greatly, and Ari said the finishing words. The magic circle dissolved as a certain puffin appeared, bewildered at the change in scenery.

Finally. Another chair was spotted and Nikolai stepped out into the open to step over to it. He placed the books by the foot of it and eyed at another stack parallel to his new one. The books seemed interesting enough to save him a trip back up the ladder. At some point he would have to take a break, though. Now that he'd thought about it, the young man hadn't even thought of the bathroom since he arrived. Oh well. Things like that could be taken care of later. Not like he had to go, anyway.

Looking at the border of one of the opposite stack's books, something stood out as strange. It was glowing, or at least, seemingly glowing. A turn of the head and the feat of magic before him took him by surprise. Even with the knowledge that this school was filled with different species, Nikolai wasn't yet prepared enough to imagine just what he would see in the years to come. Especially not a witch. It was a witch, right? He wasn't too aware of what other creatures could perform the magic he'd read in that book. Simply watching the glow and hearing the other's voice rise with the light, the sudden appearance of the familiar startled him a bit, even tipping over slightly onto the floor from his original crouching position.

Ari smiled as he picked up the Puffin "So sorry, Puffi....they took me away so soon." He held the puffin close before hearing something fall down. His body immedietly stiffened up, realizing he might have been seen by someone. Tentatively, he called out a hello. His gaze was both fearful for who might be there, and strong in order to threaten them promptly once the person was discovered. He thought he was alone in this library.,...

Nikolai continued to just stare, not in disbelief but shock. He regained his footing and stood slightly, grabbing the red-back book as some form of protection if needed. Fully standing at this point, The Norwegian made his presence known by stepped out behind the shelf that most likely blocked the witch's view of him but allowed the nøkk his own sight. There was no 'hello' from this one. He was not the warm kind of person to just greet anyone. If anything, he saw the other as a current threat. Perhaps using his foster parent's influence to be a prefect of this school was a bad idea. Especially, if the rest of the students were a threatening as this one appeared to be.

Studying the Icelandic face for any sudden changes which would indicate danger, Nikolai kept his as stoic as ever, throwing his hand up as a half hearted wave. The sooner this person left the better.