The kids trooped nervously around the goblin. Circe stared wondrously at the many heads that were aggregating to the field. It was a massive count, about five hundred. The closest he’s ever come to seeing that many people were on a football game he’d seen on tv was when the Brixons had gone for a doctor’s appointment. Yelping and frantic chattering chipped the air, It seemed that the massive infantile crowd appeared to be hurriedly dispersing and parting away across the field as if being harassed.
A horde of black beastly horses with glinting red eyes was galloping furiously towards them. They were laboriously bridled by large mahogany carriages, and they were ridden by tall men in black sinister tailcoats with carved pumpkins for heads. A few carriages trundled by until one halted in its tracks. The black, demonic horse leading the carriage stood fractiously and blew a steam of fire from its nose. Its red eyes glowed and released a wispy line of billowing smoke and its blood-red mane bristled in the air as it neighed furiously at the children.
“Har! Step aside you nibbling pests!” the man riding the horse growled. He had a deep gravelly voice as if it belonged under the earth and the place where his head should’ve been was completely mounted by a pumpkin. “Nuckelavee and I have attendances elsewhere!”
Ulrik frowned, priming his grimy teeth. “Stealing the show are we, Eldrich?”
The kids gaped in amazement. A rush of excited murmuring spread like the cold night wind.
Zebulon, the black kid with the dreads, stepped forward and pointed, dewey-eyed. “You’re the Headless Horseman, aren’t you?”
The chattering grew more enlivened. Anticipation brewed from the chipping cold breaths of the creeping night.
“I hate that ruddy name!” The pumpkin man drawled. He was holding the black reigns of his horse with a pearly white glove and his eyes glowed steamy red just like the horse. “I’m christened as Eldrich Brauchman, faithful trooper, and companion to Sir Gawain! Not that bloody “Headless Horseman nonsense!”
“He’s British too!” Zebulon crowed. The crowd roared with laughter and dressed up their amusement with a barrage of clapping.
“Hello thair gov’nah!” piped a kid with mousy brown hair.
“May I have a cuppa?” shouted a mixed girl with braids.
“Biscuits and crumpets!” shouted Zebulon. Seeing the hysterical reactions of the crowd, he continued. “Oooh, how about ‘fancy a bo’oh uh wa’oh?’”
Zebulon was awarded several pats on the back and a handful of chuckles. The big-headed Russian girl and the Asian girl were muttering quietly to each other as they pointed at Eldrich. No one had been this excited to see such a strange mythic figure. The tumult wouldn’t stop.
Nuckelavee, the black horse, neighed furiously, nearly kicking one of the children back.
“Silence!” Eldrich thundered. Afraid of being grilled by the demonic horse, the first years hushed their excitement down. The pumpkin head hopped off and landed in Eldrich’s arm. Sitting on top of the horse was a man with an invisible head holding a pumpkin that had begun to burst into flames. He popped it back on and the flames died away. “Ulrik, you really need to control these kids. Zenithclad vaguely proposed the accompaniment of transportation for this school, however, I was not expecting such unruliness. I should’ve kindled away those hasty missives.”
“Hmph!” Ulrik grunted.
“Har! An outrage indeed!” Eldrich petered on.
“Wait, so you really are headless?” Avery said.
“I certainly am not!” Eldrich said indignantly. The pumpkin’s facial marks danced in concert as he spoke. “You see this pumpkin. This crafty instrument is attached to my body, constituting it as part of a whole. I am not the Headless Horseman!”
“But that is pumpkin, not real head,” said the Russian girl. She had a thickset Russian accent. The crowd shook with laughter again.
“Silence!”
Edrich peered at the crowd carefully and he spotted Circe. “Oh my days, the young Chimera! Your father was a filthy, mighty brute. Monstrous! This is sure to be an interesting year.” The pumpkin man faced forward and tugged on the reigns. “Onwards you filthy steed!”
The horse hobbled away across the field, past the Grand Pavillion, and then disappeared.
“Right,” said a sullen Ulrik, redirecting the attention back to himself again. “That was Eldrich the Headless Horseman. He’ll be part of your transportation team this year at Avalium University. You can either take the carriages or the monster buses if you wish to go long distances. Although pertaining to your school campus, you’ll most likely be riding the carriages.”
“How will they know when we’re around?” Avery asked.
“You simply whistle or wait for one to come up. Alright, let’s get on with the tour!”
There were many paved sidewalks that cut through the field that led to many other buildings behind the Grand Pavilion like a connection of spiderwebs. Among the ambling crowd, a black boy from the crowd swaggered forth, flanked by a girl with white blonde hair and a mixed girl with wet noodly black hair... He had a square face with a thin buzz cut and very narrow malicious eyes.
Circe soon found his legs acting up and stumbled to the ground.
The black boy and his gang chortled as they stood around Circe like a wolf pack. A handful of kids that walked by noticed what had happened and burst into laughter as well. Phineas tried to look away as if he hadn’t seen anything and Zebulon frowned but was reluctant and hardpressed to act.
“Should’ve watched where you were going, Chimer. Honestly, nobody wants you here.” the square-faced boy said. His silent amber-brown eyes reminded Circe of golden poison. “My father works for the Avalium police department. He told me all about your kind. Your dad was a freak, honestly, no honor to his name. My father should’ve arrested him and you.
More kids brushed by, some of them stepping on Circe. Avery came up and grabbed Circe’s arm.“Then your father should’ve arrested himself for having you. Leave Circe alone, he didn’t ask to be what he is.”
“Just drop it, Avery. Honestly, I’m fine,” said Circe, flushing. He didn’t need to be pitied or prodded on by some random black kid. It took everything in him not to clench his fists.
“No you’re not, you’re getting bullied!” Avery shouted.
“Oooh, Is this your girlfriend Chimer? How touching.” The crowd frizzled with laughter.“Do we have a problem?” Ulrik had arrived, nervously shadowed by Zebulon, Phineas, and a few other guys behind them.
“Oh nothing, sir,” the square-faced boy said obsequiously. “We’re just making friends. Aren’t we Jasmine?”
“We’re just having a friendly chat,” said the white blonde-haired girl.
“Well move along then,” Ulrik growled.
The crowd began to move normally again.
“What’s his problem?” Circe asked.
“He’s just a dick,” said Avery. “I heard no one likes his father either. Just ignore them.”
The innumerous gang of kids huddled around the large bricked building. The tall black and purple banners were flapping in the cool wind causing a cool ripple of the printed words of Avalium University. The light inside the building was turned on and Circe got the impression that someone was going to be coming.
“This is the Grand Pavilion,” said Ulrik the goblin, standing in front of the columns. “This is where you’re going to be taking the Avaluation. Professor Sempra will be coming in a few to take you in a few. Any questions?”
“Where are all the students?” a blonde girl asked.
“They are all inside the building awaiting to see your Avaluation. Any others?”
The crowd remained silent. One kid raised his hand but changed his mind.
They continued to walk the paved cobwebbed path behind the Grand Pavillion and arrived at a tall multistoried bricked building with a huge clock and multi-paneled glass roofs. The clock was shaped like an eye with the hands ticking inside the pupil. There were two identical gargoyles standing by the entrance leading up to the sweeping stone steps and in between the stone gargoyles was a magnificent marble statue of a naked angel gloriously holding up a sword. The students veered around the imposing statue and arrived at an arched white wooden door with the mark of a glass eye. Just like the Grand Pavillion, this building displayed many windows and there was a mosaic eye that acted as a wind vane on the roof of the academic structure.
“This is the Monster Center. It’s where all the Monstrums hang out, play, exercise, and sleep. If you’re hungry you can even find snacks here as well. Fights tend to happen here a lot so professors and goblins are inclined to monitor this place a lot.”
They continued to move across the path until they arrived at a curved bricked building with many round windows and a statue of a cloaked man holding an eye. Beneath the statue was an underground chamber that led to a quiet secret room.
“This is the Sorcerer Center. You will find most sorcerers hanging in here. Just don’t bother them too much, they can get quite touchy.”
A gang of older students wearing red and black ties walked by curiously glancing the new students. Then they disappeared into the doors of the Grand Pavilion.
They continued to walk and they arrived at a huge white building that looked like an intricate rectangular tube with tiny black windows. It had a lot of white columns and in the center was a courtyard of a luscious garden with long curly vines. It also displayed two giant figurines made of glimmering blue glass.
“This is the Tech Center, home to the Mechas. Behind it you will find the hospital. You will often find Mechas going there as well as part of their training. It’s also quite a popular destination for students from other RCS houses to hang out as well. Alright, this way…”
Trucking along to the very back of the Grand Pavillion they arrived at a humongous square metallic gray building with a lot of shiny windows, shiny marble stairs, and a clean street with lamposts surrounding it. The building itself was fashioned like a long metallic windowed armchair and there were roads coiling it that winded all the way back to the city. There were a bunch of cars and taxis that drove by and the smell of food tantalized the air.
“This is the Hero Center, home for all the heroes. It’s the second most popular destination simply because a lot of restaurants are in close proximity to it and it shares a great relationship with the city. It’s also the best place for most carriages to spawn if you wish to go somewhere quickly. You’ll see most carriages driving along these roads.”
“Where do they go to?” Circe asked.
“The pipers—what we call our pumpkin head riders such as Eldrich—usually have a designated spot where they go to. But sometimes they don’t always follow it and they go wherever they please.”
“So are all the pipers headless and wear pumpkins like Eldrich?” Circe asked.
“Yes, essentially so seeing as they’re all clones of Eldrich. Don’t ask me how, the professors know more about this than I do. But I would assume Eldrich possesses an easy faculty for cloning or he was assisted by it with an honest hand from a sorcerer. Alright carrying on to the dining hall…hold on…” Ulrik whistled and the smoky shadow of a horse-driven carriage arrived. There were four horse-drawn carriages and they were shaped and carved like a pumpkin in dark mahogany wood. The tip of it had a glowing ornamented flower that blossomed over the carriages.
“Bloody hell! Get on with it!!” the pumpkin-headed rider said. He sounded exactly like Eldrich.
Circe wondered how they were all going to fit into those four individual carriages but as they filed into the first carriage, he saw that the carriage was engorged as more kids walked in. Just like the monster bus, it was enchanted to seat as many people as possible but the inside looked very flowery and gardened as if they were in the amazons. There were dark green vines that entangled around their seats and glowing flowers that acted as small lampposts.
“Har!” shouted the piper and they rode all the way to a large stadium-like building. They all poured out in front of the building. The deep violet neon sign read “Darkplenty Dining Hall”.
“This is the Darkplety Dining Hall. It’s where every student will formerly have breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It also houses a movie theater inside.” announced the goblin. Then they moved to another large stadium-like building that was a couple of walks beside it. “And this is the Blackhollow Hall, it’s where most of your sporting events will take place.”
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