Chapter 2: Let's Unpack That.

No sooner am I off the train and staring at the landscape in awe than I am accosted by the sound of someone yelling, waving a sign around with my name on it in my periphery like a hand fan in summer.

“Pace! Pace Alon! Hello- oh excuse me!`` The stranger calling my name accidentally shoulder checks a bystander in their mad dash towards me. This must be the guide who is supposed to show me around and get my living arrangements situated. 

“Yes, that's me- ah” I have to brace myself as my guide finally makes it over to me and trips over the ledge of the platform and nearly faceplants, managing to catch themself on my extended hands. “Are you okay?” I ask.

They look up at me and chuckle nervously, “Yeah, I’m fine, too much caffeine is all.”

I let go of them so that they can right themself on their own. They are wearing what looks like a very classically tailored navy blue three piece suit that contrasts with their pale skin and is rumpled a bit, from a nap maybe, their hair is dark and in their face covering a pair of metal rimmed glasses. 

“Right right, Mr. Alon please excuse my rudeness, I am O’linn Wight. Please just call me by my first name, I will be helping you get situated in Palenwood and introduce you to the scouts academy.” He says, offering me his hand, though not to catch him from falling this time.

“Nice to meet you O’linn, thank you for coming to pick me up, I’m pretty sure I’d have gotten very lost trying to make my way to the dormitories on my own.” I reply with a smile, more to put myself at ease than him. I am finally starting to feel some nerves about coming here, at least O’linn seems to be nice like the train staff.

“I’ll be driving you to the campus now so that we can get you through the paperwork and let you get a day in before training and testing starts. How does that sound?” O'linn asks me.

“Sounds good I could use a day off, those train rides are more stressful than you’d think.” I reply shakily.

“Very true, come now this way, you’ll want plenty of time to unpack.” O’linn replies.

With a nod to answer him I start rolling my main suitcase behind me with my duffle on my back, following his lead to a sleek black car which opens upon approaching it. He helps me load all my things into the trunk, I sit in the passenger seat and watch him start the car. We are off, zipping through neatly organised roads and past what looks like an old abandoned market square, it takes nearly a half hour before we reach the exit ramp onto the main bridge.

“This is the central bridge in Palenwood, it connects the three districts of the city. If you look down you can see the Triward river, its field by the mountains and runs on either side of Aconholt.” He explains, pulling the car over the bridge a bit slower so I can see.

The waterway below is dark and choppy with a strong current running through it, almost looking like deep ocean water during a storm.

“Why is it so blue?” I ask, staring into the bubbling tumult of water under the bridge. 

“The river has a lot of sediment from the forest in it that dyes the water blue, looks more purple to me though.” He speeds the car up again. “On the other side of the bridge there's a roundabout that leads to the scout academy district, it's the smallest district.” He finishes up his explanation as we reach the end of the bridge. 

The district the scouts stay in is the furthest north, and the only one not separated from Aconholt by a river, meaning as soon as we make it through this circle of road crossing the river is the only way back to the main districts of Palenwood. Feels a little isolated already as we pass through the transfer gate. There are less people on the streets already, and no shops or personalized housing is visible. Everything is less lively in the scout district, I can’t really say why though maybe classes have started or no one is awake yet.

“That is your dormitory on the left, don’t worry though it's more like an apartment complex, my dorm is on the floor above yours so we aren’t that far from each other if you need anything.” O’linn reassures me. 

The car pulls into an above ground parking garage, O’linn parks and helps me get all the bags I have out, “You’re room 305 on the third floor, luckily for you we have an elevator.” He slides a keychain into my pocket and waves, getting back into his car then peeling out of the garage.

I look at the exit of the parking garage and then back down to my bags, well I guess I’m on my own for today. There aren’t many cars here and I can easily see the other side of the building where there is an elevator door labeled “Dormitory Entrance” . The convenience is amazing. It doesn’t take long for me to get to the door, climb in and press the third floor’s button and get off. I start walking down the hallway full of doors until I see my dorm number, the door is dark wood with a modern looking inlaid handle. The key fits and I make my way into my new home.

Not too spacious, but not cramped though, thank the gods there's no carpet. I cannot stand carpet, it gets so dusty and it's hard to clean. Obviously whoever designed these dorms had good taste, the floors are wood and tile, the walls are simple, and the furniture isn’t too outlandish. You know some places you move in to, you get there and the walls end up being an ugly color or something like that, this is a nice neutral dorm. I like it, it could use a personal touch though, which means I should start setting my things up.  The bag full of books is the first thing I put away, there's a shelf or two in the bedroom which fit all the books with a bit of room left over for more. The bed already has a full bedspread so I just put the one I brought away in a closet, a tapestry and some wall lights I bought at one of the train stops on my way here make my room feel more lively at least. There aren’t any dishes or silverware and I didn’t bring any with me so I’ll have to get some, looks like delivery is the way to go until then. There's a desk in the little living/dining room. I set up my laptop and magic equipment so I can work on things in one spot. I haven't seen any signs of a place to exercise in here so that's probably done somewhere else, I bet there's a gym nearby. Just about everything is unpacked now and it's still morning, but I’m feeling tired from waking up before the sun did. I could take a nap but then I won’t be able to sleep well tonight, instead I get on my phone to look at the schedule the academy sent me and read some webnovels to burn time. By noon I realise I haven’t eaten anything yet and look up nearby delivery places to get some brunch sent my way. There’s not much, only restaurants that are located in other districts willing to deliver here. I put in an order for some fried chicken because why not, when I am interrupted by a knock at my door. 

“Who the-” I say to myself as I walk up to the door and check the door monitor to see who it is.

Standing there in casual clothes are Rauri and Desro with a tired looking O’linn behind them carrying a grocery bag and a paper bag shaped suspiciously like a bottle. I open the door, feeling a little confused.

“Uh, hey folks, what brings you here?” I ask.

Rauri is the first to speak up while Desro pushes her way in “Welcome party of course!” 

Desro sets down a gift wrapped box on the kitchen counter while I step out of the doorway to let the other two in, Rauri has a small gift box as well which they push into my chest, I grab it with a smile. This is an unexpected but pleasant surprise.

“You didn’t have to get me anything.” I tell them all trying to convey how serious I am about that statement without sounding rude. 

“Parties need gifts, Pace, they need gifts and friends.” Rauri tells me leaning in to watch me unwrap their gift.

O’linn steps in and closes the door so he can set what he’s brought down in the kitchen too. Desro and him are both standing off to the side now apparently also waiting for me to open my present. To not make it awkward I tear the paper off and open the tiny box, which reveals the present to be a compass, the old school kind, it looks fancy and has a chain attached to it. 

“Everyone in the scouts gets one!” Rauri says happily “I hope it serves you well.”

I rub my thumb over the glass face of it and clip the chain onto my pocket then slip the compass into the pocket.

“It's great Rauri thanks, you didn’t have to get me anything though really.” I say with a chuckle, they don’t even really know me, it feels so awkward. I’ll have to get them something in return.

Desro tosses her box at my head and I barely catch it before it concusses me. Shaking it doesn’t give any hints about what's inside so I just open it up with all eyes on me. It's a bunch of paper plates, plastic cups and cheap looking paper napkins with really corny looking cartoon monsters on them. 

I laugh a little before I make a comment on this wonderful gift, “This is perfect, I just ordered food.”

Desro nods and grabs a cup from the box, “We’ll do some toasts with these some other time yeah?”  She says, making a “cheers” gesture.

“You have a deal.” I grab an empty cup too and clink ours together, they make a plasticky sound and Desro smiles at me.

“I just brought some wine and beer.” O’linn remarks, pulling a bottle of wine from the paper bag he has with him.

“The cups will be in use sooner than we thought.” Rauri says, rushing past me and grabbing a cup as well, “What did you order? We should order more.”

“Some fried chicken, and fries.” I reply, pulling out my phone to edit my order, “Any requests?”

“Get some spicy chicken too.” Desro answers, halfway through pouring herself a drink.

“Spicy it is, extra sauces too.” I say to myself as I set the order for the final time.

We all grab our respective drinks then migrate to the couch and chairs in the living room to get comfortable. Desro stays sitting up on the counter a few feet away from the couch. All of us sit around talking about random things until the doorbell buzzes again.

“That's the food.” I say, walking over to the door and opening it to pay for everything, but Rauri swipes their card into the delivery person's card reader from over my shoulder before I can get my card out.

“Thanks, have a nice night.” the delivery person says, handing me the food and making their way down the hallway to get on with their business.

“You are way too nice to me Rauri-” 

They interrupt my attempt at thanking them and reply, “Well friends help each other out, plus I hear you have an important test tomorrow, it's the least we can do.” 

We set the food down on the counter and everyone gathers around to grab some and sit back down.

“It's just some placement test, I don’t think there will be any surprises so I’m not too stressed about it, I’m more worried about who I get paired up with.” I say taking a bite of the spicy chicken. That's really good food though.

“It is a little rough for transfers to fit in, most of us have known each other since we were kids.” O’linn adds.

“I mean, I heard people from outside the valley have a hard time even breathing the air here.” Rauri says.

“Yeah most of them do, but some people are more compatible like Pace. They all have to get tested before they can move here.” Desro comments as she finishes her second drink.

“I got a really high compatibility score so I don’t even really need the mask.” I say, jostling the gas mask around my neck, “It’s mandatory though.” 

“That's got to be nice, I’d hate to have to wear a big ugly gas mask to be able to go anywhere.”  Rauri says. 

“It's never bothered me really, knowing I’m not going to get poisoned from living here is nice though.” I reply, finishing off my second plate,  “Do you all want to watch a movie or something?” 

“Sure.” O’linn says, while Desro and Rauri shrug and nod respectively. 

“Okay so, Horror, Romance, or comedy?” I turn the tv on and open up one of the streaming services I am subscribed to.

“Horror.” Desro demands.

“Horror does sound good, and it's still light out so it shouldn’t be too scary.” Raury adds.

O’linn doesn’t seem to have an opinion, he just leans back further on the couch to get in a good lounging position, so I put on a newer horror film for us to watch together and grab more drinks. The film is nothing groundbreaking, mostly jump scares and huge blood splatters without any creep factor. Desro is surprisingly susceptible to the jump scares, she eventually moves to the couch with O’linn, together they nearly fall off of the couch every time the haunted doll appears on screen suddenly. While Rauri and I comment on how stupid the characters are and get spooked when the lead actor screams especially loud for no reason. It turned out to be a series of movies though and we ended up watching all three of them. The movie was a good idea, everything feels less awkward while we watch them, but by the time the credits are rolling on the last movie the sun is starting to set and I am even more tired than I was this morning. With a big yawn I shut the tv off and turn to the others.

“We should probably head out so you can get some sleep for that big test tomorrow.” Rauri says, giving their own yawn.

“See you around Pace, remember to buy me that drink for toasting next time.” Desro says.

“I’ll get you two a cab before I head up to my dorm, get some rest, Pace.” O’linn tells the others before patting me on the shoulder.

I walk everyone to the door and say my goodbyes then close the door and start cleaning up the takeaway mess on the counter and coffee table. When I head to bed I leave the compass Rauri got for me out on my nightstand, set an alarm for tomorrow and smile to myself as I let sleep take over.