Rachel was contemplating the country, Gerais, she was soon to arrive at. Before she left, Rachel’s mother told her that the country was wealthy due to its many mines that mostly contained seemingly endless amounts of metals, amongst other luxury resources. Rachel was familiar with wealth. Her family was quite wealthy, and she could have had any of the products, foods, or clothes that she wanted, but she quite rarely asked for anything. Up until a couple of hours ago, Rachel had not set one foot out of her large house. She couldn’t know what her wants were because she didn’t know what was available unless it was within the walls of her family’s house. But that life was very much behind Rachel, back in the country Tetrades. Her family sent her to Gerais, to study and explore and practice the very sacred art her family and a small number of others were born with.
The station that Rachel’s train arrived at was very plain. It had one bench, one message board, and one ticket counter. Beyond the station was a long road that had nothing else but endless fields on the right and a forest on the left. Rachel was headed towards an academy that would teach her more specifically about what the world outside her home was like. She already noticed that the town, Serra, the academy was home to was quite small. Her walk into town introduced her to small homes positioned here and there, rather than packed so close to each other like in Tetrades. There was also plenty of room for people to gather and watch street performers. The further Rachel walked into town the closer the businesses and homes were, until at the center was the academy she was sent to attend. The academy was the largest building complex that Rachel had seen so far. It was even bigger than the official building which must have been for the leaders in the town.
The academy offered Rachel direction on little signs for the dormitory and for the ceremony that would begin Rachel’s academic year. Rachel followed the sign for the dorm and found that it is located behind the academy in a side wing. There were three levels to the dormitory and as a first-year student, she was located on the first floor. She shared a room with one other female student, which she found when she walked into her room. The other student had already set up her belongings and left. Rachel also quickly set up her belongings. She didn’t want to be late for the ceremony.
With what little Rachel had packed, she was already headed for the ceremony in no time. She easily found her way by following all the other students. They were all walking to the other side of the academy, where there was an auditorium, in the right wing. While Rachel was walking, she noticed a giant field, with a large rectangular patch of soil that didn’t have any grass growing on it. Rachel thought that the field did look like the sports fields back home, but she couldn’t be quite sure of that. She had also noticed some of the soil was discolored but ignored what those stains could be.
The auditorium was quite large and had seats for all the students and even parents that came to see their children off. While everyone was dressed in a wide array of colors, Rachel noticed none were like hers. Rachel had worn her most comfortable clothes because she knew she would be traveling that day. She wore a black long-sleeve top and brown pants. Both were fitted due to their synthetic fabric. The others in the auditorium wore very loose-fitting clothing, Rachel knew it had to have been made of a rawer material, such as cotton or hemp. No one had noticed her yet, which she thought was good. It would give her time to buy clothes that would allow her to fit in.
It was finally evening and time for the ceremony to start. The principal called the audience to quiet down, spoke, “Let this ceremony be officiated,” and motioned for them to watch closely the woman sitting next to his empty seat. Rachel knew exactly what was going on. The woman who was possibly in her late twenties or early thirties stood up and walked a few steps towards the edge of the stage, but she didn’t change immediately as she and Rachel had expected. She paused for a moment as the magic needed time to finish calculating who was going to record the ceremony. Rachel had already felt the burning sensation in her chest from the moment the woman had stood up from her seat. She wasn’t quite sure what would happen to her, but she didn’t want to officiate the ceremony. Rachel’s chest stopped burning five seconds after the woman stopped walking. Then the woman became a very large version of herself. Large enough for everyone in the auditorium to see her. When she spoke, everyone could hear her voice, as if she was speaking in their ear.
Rachel felt relief wash over her. As soon as she saw that the other fairy was the one who was chosen to officiate the ceremony. Rachel had heard about what it was like to officiate a ceremony from her family many times. They would know all about it because humans called on them to officiate all sorts of events that they organize. But Rachel was never allowed to go to those events, she had never experienced another fairy’s officiation procedure, till today. It was beyond what she had imagined. The fairy became a very large hologram whose hair was the same color but longer with curls and her face was so beautiful it was impossible to look away. She wore a red dress that shared the same shade as the academy red color, and the air just around her seemed to contain flecks of thin metal that shimmered in the light. In a sweet congratulatory voice, the fairy said, “Welcome to Canastra Academy known for Military, Agricultural, and Performance Arts, your acceptance to the academy is a great achievement. The record for the ceremony has now been officiated.”
Just after the fairy uttered “officiated”, she shrunk in size and began to step slowly back to her seat next to the principal. The principal then stood and walked to the podium on the stage and continued to describe his aspirations for the new students at the academy. At the end of the principal’s speech, everyone clapped and cheered for the start of a new adventure for the students. Although uncertain about her future, even Rachel clapped.
Rachel walked back to her room sometime after the welcoming ceremony, contemplating what she was. She hadn’t grown up in a fairy school as there weren’t any and thus didn’t know what she needed to do to be a proper fairy. But she knew that the next time she was at any human event that could be considered a ceremony, she may not have the choice of choosing not to officiate the event. Rachel decided to learn more about being a fairy from the fairy she saw moments earlier.
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