The two roommates ignored each other the next day, aside from giving each other their numbers in case of emergency. Nosderag read in the library after classes. It had a very old-school design, as in it looked like a tribal village in the middle of the Terio region. 

Everything was made of plants, from the vine-covered walls to the wooden bookshelves to the giant flowers used as chairs. The building carried the sweet smells of native flowers and the appearance of a tribal leader’s hut up in the trees.

Nosderag came across a book about magical creatures native to Astraboleria. That book had a piece of paper between two middle pages with a message messily written in black ink.

If you want to see these for real, go to the storage shed behind the armoury. 

Naturally, Nosderag was not one to follow an order from a bookmark of all things, but the more she read through the book, the more intrigued she was.

Her family never had a pet (too at risk of getting accidentally burned) and she had not seen many magical creatures up close. Outside of the occasional banshee hornbills which screamed in her face and stole her lunch in the park, of course.

Curiosity and basic common sense fought. Curiosity won.

Nosderag slammed the book closed and tossed it into the basket beside the nearest bookshelf. A vine descended from the roof and picked up the book, taking it to the appropriate shelf.

She strolled out of the librarian like an ordinary, non-mischievous person. She kept her steps light and her mouth shut. 

The armoury wasn’t far from the library, only a few hundred metres away. Yes, that may seem like a fair bit, but nothing could compare to that dormitory’s damn stairs. Nosderag could walk any distance now.

The armoury was the second biggest building aside from the dormitory, a tacky purple behemoth with gold trimming. Whereas the other top-secret buildings had an invisible shield surrounding them, the protective magic around the armoury was glaringly visible, in that the entire bubble looked like what you see when you try to watch television in bright sunlight.

Behind the armoury was a rundown shed emitting various animal calls. A creature that sounded like a kookaburra if it had been dragged into the ocean seemed to be competing for attention with what sounded like a metallic lion on helium. Underneath those sounds were clicks and the fluttering of small wings. The dark windows of the shed lit up every so often as a creature made a lightning bolt or breathed fire. Luckily, the walls were fireproof as every building in the school was.

Nosderag pondered the situation. There was sure to be a forcefield, right? How could she get in there? She considered asking Administration for a permission slip, a bureaucratic process that would take a few weeks at least. Still, was she really going to risk expulsion just to sate her curiosity?

Before she could turn around and walk away, she heard what at first sounded like a celery stick being cracked. The pain-stenched scream told a different story. A bone must have broken.

Nosderag instinctively ran up to the shed. She felt a sharp sting throughout her body upon breaking through the forcefield, but she managed to make it inside. She contemplated her hands to figure out how that happened, but then the screeching returned and she raced into the shed through its open door.

Why was it opened? A man’s voice inadvertently answered that question. ‘Get back in your bloody cage, you bloody mongrel!’ His broad Australian accent was quite a shock to Nosderag, who was unfamiliar with it. ‘If you don’t get back in here, I’m quitting and you can get someone harsher to discipline you! How does that sound, huh?’

The ‘mongrel’ was a tiny black bat-winged creature with a red beak and legs similar to a human's, aside from the talons at the end. Her forearms were the colour of gold and she had black hair with a golden streak in it. She was a dead ringer for Arayonda, the goddess of the sky, albeit naked rather than wearing a traditional white tunic. She flew haphazardly around the shed, chirping like a blackbird. One of her legs was clearly broken, dangling around.

The man’s beer gut appeared to be making it difficult to chase the ara fairy around. He wore a sneer and grabbed at the air with his sausage fingers, hoping at least one handful of air would also contain the fairy.

He finally managed to get his grasp on the creature and began strangling its neck. The chirps got thinner and thinner until-

Nosderag tackled him like an American footballer. Her arms weren’t strong but the shock was enough to make the man step back and let go of the fairy.

‘What are you doing?’ he shouted at Nosderag, his face red and his nostrils flaring like he himself was about to breathe fire. She flinched, expecting to be burned. She sighed in relief when no fire came out from him.

‘You can’t kill it! It’s just little!’

‘It’s a little pain in the behind. These things won’t listen to human words. All they need is a good beating to start behaving.’

The fairy perched herself on Nosderag, surprising both humans. She rubbed her beak against Nosderag’s neck and purred like a parrot, wobbling on one leg. Nosderag simply had to cross her arms and smirk at the man.

But it was not enough to dissuade the man, who leapt towards Nosderag to take the fairy. The creature flapped out the door. The man went out to chase her, leaving Nosderag to take a good look at the other animals.

The underwater kookaburra-sounding one was a scaled but winged creature, a sleek vision in turquoise.  Its call took on a deeper, angrier tone when it flapped its small but sturdy wings against its tank at the helium lion-sounding creature beneath it. The other creature was a green eight-legged furry monster about the size of a warthog, and with tusks on its face to match. It began hissing at the scaly bird and its hisses sounded like running water. It put its legs between the bars of its cage but couldn’t slip out. 

At the other end of the shed were four little dragons, all of different types. A Chinese lung rapidly changed the colour of its scales as it spit out little signs of the weather such as rain clouds, snow and a miniature version of the sun. The black-scaled Russian alicha kept trying to eat the little sun whenever it appeared. A bida from Mali, a long serpent with golden scales, seemed very cramped in its cage. It kept crying gold coins that disappeared as soon as they hit the ground.

The final one fascinated her, as it was a rare Sumerian kur with grey and white scales that made it look like a mountain. It seemed happy to see Nosderag, judging by the way it flapped its feathered wings at her.

Nosderag reached out to pet it, but then she heard a noise outside and decided to leave the armoury and return to her dorm.

While walking, she heard a familiar fluttering and stopped. She turned her head to the side and saw the ara fairy from before. She nuzzled her beak against her cheek, panting as she collapsed on her shoulder. Nosderag turned behind her towards the shed for a moment before leading the fairy to her dorm.

Upon reaching the dormitory, she took out her phone and called Dalzonf. ‘Hey, can you power the elevator? I am not walking up those damn steps again. And you better, because I have a surprise for you.’

Dalzonf hung up. 

Nosderag began her pilgrimage up the stairs when she heard the whisk of the elevator as it descended. The fairy hid inside her coat. 

Dalzonf yawned, surrounded by pink mist. ‘By the way, you’ll get a bigger crush on me between this floor and when we get off the elevator. Just a warning. Don’t try to pull anything.’

Nosderag scoffed as she made her way to the elevator. ‘I’m never going to live it down, am I?’

‘Not for as long as I’m blackmailing you.’

‘Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me how much of a shithead you are. I almost forgot. You’re... like an oasis in the deserts of Cenaschramm.’

Nosderag’s cheeks burned as her heart leapt. Everything but Dalzonf became blurry like her eyes were movie cameras putting the other girl in focus.

A laugh escaped Dalzonf’s pursed lips. ‘Well, that’s a new one.’

‘Your eyes are like perfectly cut andalusites,’ Nosderag said, leaning in closer.

‘Alright, that’s enough-’

‘You are the reincarnation of Marosos.’

Dalzonf pushed her away and kicked a wall of the elevator. ‘This damn relic. Needs so much damn power.’

The effects of her love tolxing did not disappear as soon as the elevator reached its destination. They stayed in Nosderag’s system for a few minutes. Apparently the symptoms of this magic included making the affected person follow their target of affection like a duckling and then agreeing to her demands to sit in the corner.

Nosderag’s cheeks slowly started to cool down. She blinked quickly as she got her bearings again.

‘So, what is your surprise?’ Dalzonf asked.

‘Oh, yeah, say hi to… I don’t have a name for her yet.’ She opened her coat and revealed the ara fairy.

‘What.’

Exasperation dropped down onto Dalzonf’s face like a waterfall.

‘She was getting hurt by the groundskeeper,’ Nosderag explained as she brushed her finger against the fairy’s little cheek. She gave the other girl hopeful eyes.