Walking through the baking heat of the desert with a snake around her shoulders who spent half the time dozing gave Lynn a lot of time to think, and remember.

At that moment, for instance, she was imagining one of the last places she had been at the academy before the School Board dumped her in a random location. One of her professors had sent a note requesting Lynn’s presence in her office.

“You’ll begin your field exam today,” Dr. Farewhether said pleasantly, nestled amongst the colorfully decorative empty birdcages in her office. Lynn had always wondered at the charm of empty birdcages, or birdcages in general. They seemed rather sad in her opinion.

Lynn nodded. “I’ve been packing.”

Dr. Farewhether’s sleek platinum blond hair had an almost pink sheen to it that reminded Lynn of champagne. She was a beautiful and talented enchantress, still young by most standards. Lynn had always looked up to her even if she questioned her taste in décor.

“I remember my exam,” the older woman mused, resting her chin on her hands and fixing her gaze on Lynn. “It’s an important time.”

“Yes…” Lynn’s hands fidgeted in her lap as the professor continued.

“I want you to be very sure,” she began, “that this is what you want. You’re a year early. No one would blame you if you change your mind.”

Lynn felt the world sinking around her as she stared fixedly at one of the bird cages. “Isn’t it a little late?” she asked softly.

The professor shook her head, making her champagne locks swing around her face. Her smooth brow furrowed as she laced her fingers together, showing off a very pretty ring shaped like a flower. “This exam can be…dangerous, Lynn. We take measures to ensure your safety but any interference on our end would affect the results, including your score.”

In other words, any help would come with a price. “With all due respect, I’m aware of the potential dangers, but I haven’t changed my mind, and have no plans to.”

After that, she had gone to the palladium and been assigned her bracelet and whistle before being teleported by the School Board and dropped into an unknown location. The effects of the spell had yet to wear off as she was still shedding glitter from all the transport magic.

Some of it had fluttered down to land on Veronika’s scales but the snake slept on, snoring softly as Lynn trekked toward the outline of the castle growing ever larger on the horizon.

She was beginning to see palm trees, something she had only ever observed in pictures before. They towered over the sand, casting long shadows in the afternoon sun. At the academy, all the trees were either very old or very young. Every year at least one new tree was planted in addition to the hundreds of others that surrounded the school and populated its many gardens and courtyards.

Lynn thought the palm trees must have been just as old as the oaks and elms that grew on the academy grounds. They were taller but still slender. She supposed even trees had their quirks.

Veronika stirred on her shoulder. “Are we there yet?” she hissed softly. For a snake, her voice was oddly soothing.

Pointing to the castle, Lynn shook her head. “I think we’ll make it by the end of the day. The castle must be enormous to be visible from so far away.”

“It is. I’ve been there,” Veronika said, readjusting her body around Lynn’s neck so that she draped like a scarf with her head perched on her shoulder.

“What’s it like? Have you met the royal family?” Lynn asked, shielding her eyes as she passed a particularly tall palm.

“It’s very nice, but I’ve always believed snakes are better decorators. As for the royal family…I haven’t met them, but I know of them.”

“There is a prince and princess, correct? And at least one of them is of marriageable age, I hope.”

Veronika’s magenta-colored eyes blinked slowly. “Why do you hope that?”

“It’s a fairy godmother’s job to bring happy endings wherever she can and help everyone she meets in one way or another.” It was a code she had tried to live by ever since she decided at a young age to become one herself.

“And you believe that their happy ending is marriage?” Veronika asked, flicking her small pink tongue out. “Interesting.”

Lynn waved a hand. “It’s almost always like that in the stories I read as a child. A damsel in distress meets a handsome prince and by the end of the story they’re married. Or it might be a handsome young man in distress.”

Veronika made a humming noise but said nothing as Lynn continued to speak of the stories she had grown up reading, the exploits of the brave men and women in them, and the happy endings, or lack thereof, in some cases. Cautionary tales, her mother had called them.

She was so absorbed in the telling that she almost missed the gates in front of her, barely catching herself before she bumped into the metal bars.

“I think we’re here,” Veronika said.

Lynn glanced past the gate to the castle towering over the city. Time to pass my exam.

With the memory of Dr. Farewhether’s words as well as everyone else that had cautioned her not to take her exam a year early, failure wasn’t an option. Not for her.