The Time Mage

Chapter 11: The First Lesson

Kason and Harper stood in front of the entrance to classroom 1b. There was no door blocking the entryway which was cut into the smooth white walls on either side, so Kason and Harper just stepped over the threshold into the classroom.

The classroom was a pleasant looking place. Its walls were painted a pale blue colour, almost white, and there were thirty or so desks placed neatly in ordered rows of six going back from the front of the classroom, where a wooden podium was placed, presumably for the teacher's use. The desks themselves caught Kason's eye, for they had many intricate golden designs covering the wooden legs and up onto the corners of the flat top. The wood used looked to be a kind of mahogany or dark oak and unlike the rest of the desk, the majority of the flat surface on top was unmarked by the coiling patterns.

Across the classroom on the wall opposite where they stood in the doorway, one big window took up most of the space, with about half a meter of wall underneath separating it from the floor. It seemed impossible that there could be a window on this side of the classroom that showed an outside view, given that there were windows in the corridor behind them that also did the same, but Kason had long stopped questioning the college's choice in window placement. There was also a board which seemed to be made of the same wood as the desks, covering most of the wall behind the podium, it also had the golden intricate patterns on it, snaking around the edges of the board and its frame.

There were already quite a few children inside when Kason and Harper entered. Most of them were huddled in small groups around several desks, chatting excitedly about what the lessons would be like. Several children turned when they noticed them enter and called out polite greetings to them, which they returned, before turning back to their groups.

Kason and Harper stood in the entryway for a few moments before making their way over to a desk near the back of the room to settle down and wait for the teacher to arrive. One thing Kason hadn't noticed when he had first entered the classroom was the chairs behind the desks. They were like the chair he had in his room. They were shaped like a teardrop which had had most of the inside and one of its sides carved out to give a smooth hollowed out area where one could sit. They floated above the floor at just the right height to sit on and were made from some material that Kason could not identify.

These chairs couldn't be moved from their places though, unlike the one in his room. When Kason gave one a nudge, it bobbed in the direction he had propelled for a moment before returning back to its original position. Kason sat on the chair he had just nudged and began playing with it, moving it a short way with his feet before lifting them off the floor and enjoying the whoosh of air as the chair moved back to its original position.

Harper sat on a desk opposite him and watched him as he continued to mess around with the chair. They waited for around ten minutes until a sudden influx of people signified the appearance of a teacher. The woman who entered after the rush of people looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties, with brown eyes and long hair of the same colour which she had tucked behind her ears. She wore a cream coloured top and black trousers secured with a sturdy brown leather belt off which hung a wooden stick, ('No, wand!' Kason mentally corrected himself when he saw it) and a pair of leather gloves covered in silver patterns.

She walked smoothly up to the podium at the front of the class and surveyed the children who had all hastily scrambled to their feet when she entered, unsure of what they should do. She had a slight, warm smile on her face as she looked around which somehow made all the children feel less anxious.

"Hello, my name is Mirella Luxford and I will be your teacher for this year. I do not particularly mind if you call me by my first name, but some teachers prefer to be referred to in the proper way, so you should all get used to calling me 'Ms. Luxford'." She paused for a moment and smiled around at them all before carrying on, "Well, we should probably just get on with it. You can all find your own seats, it doesn't matter where as long as you have a desk."