The Time Mage

Chapter 6: A Magical Map!

The next morning, Kason awoke to sunlight streaming through the window beside his bed. He groggily lifted his right hand, squinting at the ring on his index finger and fumbling around with it trying to find out what time it was. After messing around for a moment, he found that it was just before half past seven in the morning. He slipped out of his bed and realised that he hadn't closed his curtains the previous night. He looked at the weak sunlight coming in through the glass and thought to himself that he was lucky that the sun still rose late otherwise he might have woken up much earlier than he wanted to.

He tottered around his room still half asleep, feeling that he was forgetting something but unable to figure out what. After having changed his clothes, he decided to sort out the rest of the stuff in his bags onto the shelves around the room. After having done this he stood and looked out of the window, which he almost couldn't do due to his height. The sun was still rising meaning that the barely visible horizon was dyed with a warm orange colour and the tops of the trees in the endless forest appeared to be crowned in flames. He was not sure how the same forest could be seen from both his window and the windows on the corridor but he figured that some magic was happening somewhere and it wasn't anything bad so he wasn't going to worry about it.

His stomach rumbled as he stood there and he remembered that there was a time limit for having breakfast. He checked the ring on his finger again and his eyes widened as he realised that he was almost out of time. He jumped away from the window and ran towards his door, the time was ten minutes to eight which meant he only had ten minutes to get to the dining hall and eat!

He bolted out of his room and down the corridor towards the infinity door leading to the nexus, cursing himself in his mind for not going to breakfast as soon as he woke up. He raced down the corridor and up to the door, but before he could open it, it opened by itself and a girl came through. She was the brown-haired of the two girls who they'd seen yesterday. Due to the close proximity between them, Kason barely managed to avoid fully crashing into her and, even as he dodged to the side, his arm knocked into her, causing her to stagger backwards.

Kason stopped his dash to the dining hall and turned to see if he had hurt her. Luckily the girl did not seem to be hurt, just surprised. He hurried over to her, "A- Are you alright?" He asked nervously "I- I'm sorry for knocking into you."

The girl looked up at him and gave a slight smile, "I'm fine don't worry."

"Ah okay..." Kason said smiling awkwardly, "Well I, umm, I've got to go and get breakfast so..." He gave her a wave and escaped through the doorway. When he was through he stopped in place for a moment and buried his face in his hands to hide his embarrassment, 'I should have been more careful!' He scolded himself silently, 'Now I've gone and hurt someone!' He waited a few moments to regain his composure and then resumed his journey to the dining hall, this time at a more subdued pace.

He reached the dining hall a short while later and hastily found himself a place to sit. The menu appeared the same as it had the night before and he decided that, to save time, he would just order the first item on the list. He was just finishing his breakfast, which had been a plate of toast covered with a peculiar but pleasant tasting jam when he heard a surprised exclamation behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw that Harper was walking towards him.

"I didn't think there would be anyone later than me!" He said as he sat down opposite Kason.

"I woke up late." Kason explained, slightly abashed.

"Oh well, I'll probably miss breakfast completely sometime anyway." Harper laughed amicably.

He waited for Kason to finish eating and then they walked out of the dining hall together.