While Gerrit waited outside the ward, Davis slipped through the double door back inside. His bag was sitting right next to the bed he took a forced nap on earlier. Luckily it only looked a bit dusty so he still had hope that the display on his phone didn’t crack. Maybe it would even have magical reception to earth. To better get it from the ball of clothes inside Davis sat down the bag on the bed. Ms. Lia’s little chinchilla jumped up to see what was going on. “Hey there little guy.” It looked funny to see a grey chinchilla with a green aura around it. Surprisingly enough the small creature even let Davis pet it’s side. It was fluffy as expected but as soon as the finger touched the body something was off. Instead of being warm it rather felt like he was dipping his pointer finger into a planter filled with cold earth. “Aren’t you a bit cold?”

Ms. Lia made her way over, leaving her only other patient to sleep. “You felt her skin? Usually she only does her job, my little Cloudian isn’t one to be cuddled by patients. Now you are wondering, right?”

“Yes, why is her skin like clay or earth?” Meanwhile Cloudian sat down in Davis’s palm and began scratching her ears and butt. Smiling he scratched her some more.

It really surprised the elven woman now. For a familiar to be this at ease in someone else’s palm the person had to have a really good connection either with the master or to it’s nature. “Cloudian is a summoned earth familiar. Her form is temporary, she IS made of earth. You seem to have a way with her.”

Davis giggled as the familiar sniffed between his fingers with its little nose. The whiskers tickled the skin. “I don’t know. I could always just go up to any animal I’ve seen and play and cuddle them. Doesn’t matter if it’s a friend’s dog who isn’t good with men or the snobbiest cat. Do you think I could get such a familiar too? With Gerrit’s ring I was able to blow away some leafs.”

“You said your town had no monastery and Gerrit was able to teach you during that short period? I am sorry that no one could recognize your talent up until now.” Usually scouts from other towns or smaller schools than Academia would visit the villages without a monastery nearby to find promising young people.

Embarrassed Davis began scratching his head. “Don’t worry, I’m from far away, we don’t have any magic at home. It’d be cool though! People would find ways to be an ass about it so maybe it’s better that way. We got enough problems as is.” With a pained smile Davis looked at the elf. “It’s always us versus them. Either in school or somewhere else on the world. Wish people could be the people they want to be.”

“Your words carry a deeper meaning than you want to let on young man. Young people your age should not worry about all the injustices in the world. Go out, have fun and learn. The Professor told me that you just popped out from one of his experiments and he doesn’t know why it spit out you in particular so enjoy your time while it lasts. That crazy fool will have a solution very soon. He’s determined to send people from one place to another. I still prefer horseback or air ship. Who knows what happens to your body in those portals.”

“I’m hiding some things from my parents and my best friend. Sometimes it’s hard to just go out and have fun. Aside from the way I got here it’s really interesting. I’ll make sure to put your advice to good use.” Davis liked the nurse and her familiar a lot. She seemed like a kind hearted woman.

The door behind them opened and Gerrit slipped his head through. “Davis? The Professor is waiting for us, don’t make me get pecked again by his damn raven.”

“Mr. Levisay. Are you badmouthing your master’s familiar? If only he knew what a bad apprentice you are.” The elf tilted her head making it pop out behind Davis’s.

“Oh Ms. Lia…didn’t see you there…I hope you won’t tell the Professor what I just said. I don’t want to do a fifteen page essay on some dwarven architecture or a civil war 400 years ago, pleaaase?” Gerrit knew the weird topics that the Professor chose for extra homework. He never fell victim to them but heard other students groan and moan about it for days.

“Only if you never dare talking bad about one of your teachers again. Now go before I change my mind. You’d do well as my assistant for a few days.” Winking in Davis’s direction the nurse let her familiar climb up her arm and turned away.

Smiling the visitor rummaged through his bag for a second to pull out his smartphone. The display had no more scratches than those from before the crash. It had no magical connection back to earth. Wi-Fi wasn’t available either but that should’ve been a given. “Let’s turn it off to safe some battery” thought Davis. “Without reception I won’t be able to get any messages anyways.”

Academia was a gigantic complex of hallways, seemingly endless corridors and an infinite amount of doors. Sometimes the doors were placed more randomly but on their way towards the Professor’s office the two of them walked past the sleeping area for all third year students. Upon further questioning Gerrit explained that every year about fifty new boys and girls enrolled in Academia. One year they had twenty seven girls, the other it were twenty six boys but in general the administration had three ten bed rooms for boys and girls available. “At one point they decided to split older students into two or three bed rooms. With like six boys in one room it could get really chaotic.” Gerrit grinned knowing exactly what he was talking about. Only two years prior some seventh year students flooded and set a room on fire in the same night. When Gerrit became a fourth year student the next year he suddenly only had one room mate instead of five. Spacing out while walking Davis let his gaze wander into other windows. It felt like every five meters a window was there to let the sun shine in.

At one point where there were two hallways to choose from Davis looked through another window towards the far side where the hallway connected two buildings together. What he saw drained all the color from his face. At first it only was a boy with dirty blonde spiky hair coming out of a classroom behind other students but as the group dispersed and the students went their separate ways with friends Davis recognized his best friend immediately. Without even thinking about it the boy looked to his left and to his right, only seeing a staircase at the end of the right hand corridor. “Fuck” he murmured taking off running. He didn’t even hear Gerrit yelling behind him. His mind was racing with all kinds of questions. Stupid long hallways with their even more stupid high ceilings. To move just one floor down Davis had about thirty stairs and a small platform between him and his crush. Just like earlier that day he ran down the stairs and jumped, skipping about seven stairs on the platform and the way down to the first floor. More and more students were filling up the hallways, having finished their morning lessons. “Maron!?” the boy yelled taking off again. What sense of direction he had of this place was vague to say the least. As he reached the other building following the same way his best friend went he couldn’t see that silky smooth and spiky hair anywhere in the sea of students. The urge to run even further was strong but so was Gerrit’s sudden grip on his hand.

While Davis didn’t even break a sweat running and dodging several dozen students Gerrit was gasping for air maintaining a deadlock on the other’s wrist. “What was that for? Why would you run off like that?”

“Didn’t you see him? Maron came out of that room over there. He was talking with other students like they were friends.” Davis pointed to a door just a few meters in the direction they both just came from.

Gerrit got even more confused. “That was the guy you wanted to play those videogames with?” Checking twice the mage confirmed that the room was a classroom. “No way your friend’s here. You must be seeing things. Or you’re just tired.”

Maybe Gerrit was right. It was already around half past four when he drove off with his bike and in this world it seemed to be only noon. Plus he did drive into a damn bookshelf. “You…you’re right…how could Maron be here. I bet he’s sitting in his room bombarding me with text messages and tries to call me to tell me how lazy and late I am. If only he knew…” Seeing or hallucinating his best friend’s doppelgänger made Davis think about home, putting a severe dampener on his mood.

“Hey. Don’t pull that face. We just have to go to the Professor and he’s gonna tell you that we can send you home in no time. I bet by tomorrow you will be with your friend again. Recreating the steps to make the portal appear is a no brainer!” Gerrit could imagine how hard it was for Davis. He himself could only see his mother and little sister for a month and a half during one year. “Come on, we don’t need more attention on your person than is.”  

A/N: Please don't forget to like and subscribe, maybe leave a nice comment. Your words are the only thing that keeps me going.