I wake to the sound of spells making breakfast. The smell of mango and dibje fills the room. When I finally look up I see that we are all still tangled with each other in our little pile. Amon is casting while still on the couch, legs under Koa while she is lying on Matteo’s torso. Koa, who is sound asleep, is on top of everyone even though he is the second smallest person in our pig pile when not including his wings. Matteo might be awake, but it is hard to tell as he is under at least three people seeing as when it is just us he takes up more than half the couch. Vic is on top of me and is so warm it makes me never want to get up. She radiates heat as if she were using a spell in her sleep.

“What are you making? Smells good,” I say groggily.

“I’m making smoothie bowls for everyone! I hope you like it!” Amon whispers back.

As we speak the others start to wake slowly, lifting their heads to see the magic work. It does look beautiful, the sigils in the air swirling around an array of fruit as they are taken apart meticulously by the wind. The scraps go in the trash and the rest starts to mix and form the smoothie bowls.

Sometimes I wish my magic was strong enough to do spells like that, or even that I had an affinity to any of the elements. My magic would never be good enough to make a meal from a distance, let alone prepare ingredients. Even if my magic was strong, I don’t have an affinity to an element and it is practically impossible to find any spells that an affinity is not required for. Even now, Amon is using an air spell of some sort. 

“That smells great Amon, thank you for preparing brunch!” 

“Of course, Matteo, I’m happy to help!” She practically glows at the praise, “It’s all ready. Are we eating here or elsewhere?”

“Here should be fine,” I pipe up, “thank you again for the food!”

She starts flying the bowls over to all of us, and oh she is actually glowing. That’s new.

We all start eating, talking in smaller groups about random things ranging from assignments and homework to new recipes they’ve tried.

“I think we should talk about what happened last night, guys. It is so creepy.” Vic breaks the post-brunch silence.

“So, we all are having the same dream from different perspectives. Totally normal, right?” Crickets, “or not… It could be some magic prank right?” Matteo questions.

“We didn’t know each other before last night, why would they prank the five of us for no reason?”

“Drew makes a good point. Unless there is something that connects us it is highly unlikely that this is a prank.” Koa speaks up.

“Maybe someone we all know did it, or someone wanted to prank random people for gits and shiggles? I’ve heard about that happening to some friends.” Amon comments.

“We could do a quick spell, see what other people think?”

“I don’t know how accurate that will be, Matteo.” Koa comments. 

“Still worth a shot though!” Matteo walks over to his desk and brings out his personal scroll, “what should we ask though?”

“Ooh, ooh, ask what it means if you share a recurring nightmare with strangers.” Vic walks towards Matteo, looking over his shoulder at the scroll.

“Okay let’s see… where did I put my ink…found it! Okay ‘what does… it… mean if… I share… a… recurring… nightmare… with… strangers… question mark’ all done!” He draws a quick sigil over the question to share it, “now we wait for a reply!”

“How long will that take,” Vic whines, “Oh wait there’s a reply coming in already?”