A Curse

Hello reader!
You are about to embark on a journey to a new world full of danger and adventure. You will join Solstice on her journey to find her parents as well as her friends.
This was inspired by the second arc of Tui T. Sutherland's Wings Of Fire - which might I say is very good, go read the whole series - so if there are similarities it's because of that!
Thank you for spending your time reading a useless note,
The author (IcelynWOF)
The letter to Helos Hall:
Welcome to Helos Hall!
We invite you to our school to learn new things and to come together with other tribes. We have set up our school in a different way to most schools though.
You will be put in a group of 6, with angels from different tribes, and will be taught in these same groups. You will be sharing a cave with two other angels- these are your roommates. You will do group projects with other groups as well as your own. The groups are as follows:
Jaguars: Adiran, Farley, River, Storm, Mirage, Aster
Eagles: Blagden, Glyn, Severn, Breeze, Seri, Juniper
Wolves: Nova, Valley, Delta, Skylar, Addax, Wynter
Foxes: Solstice, Autumn, Boreal, Ridge, Calico, Frost
Lynxes: Quasar, Birch, Azure, Rainn, Creo, Icelyn
Falcons: Estella, Ackley, Tide, Adad, Johona, Eira
The first day of school will start on the 200th day. Be ready, two hours after dawn is when the first lesson starts!
See you there!
Chapter 1. Different Questions
"Dublo," she called, "where are you!"
There was no answer, she had gone on a hunting trip into the rainforest with Dublo, and he had recommended they split up to cover more ground. She had been reluctant to agree, but she did say yes in the end. Now she didn't know where she was and Dublo wasn't answering her calls, she couldn't hear his thoughts either: that's what made her the most scared.
"Dublo," she said again, "this is not funny anymore. Where are you?" The last part of what she said was more of a plea than a question.
At that moment everything seemed a bit overwhelming. Where was Dublo? Where was she? Why wasn't he responding to her calls? Why couldn't she hear his thoughts?
She flung herself into the air and scanned the top of the trees for any flashes of pale yellow; she flew over almost every part of the rainforest, not caring if anyone saw her. It didn't matter anymore.
After about an hour of searching, she spotted the huge tree that she and Dublo had marked as a point where if either of them got separated they should meet there.
Would he be there? It's worth a shot. So she did a quick loop in the air and started to glide towards the tree. With a leap of joy, she realized Dublo was there; it took another few seconds for her to realize Dublo wasn't alone. He was with a pale person that seemed so out of place she nearly laughed. The graceful human in the rainforest stuck out like a black dot of ink on a clean piece of parchment.
She realized the expression on the faces of Dublo and the other person as she landed and transformed into a human, they were arguing by the looks of it. Dublo looked really angry about something. That's ironic, she thought, I thought he said he had never been angry in his life. I guess now he has.
The pale person's face was angry, but more like he was trying to hide it. As she walked closer to the pair of arguing dragon-people she still couldn't hear their thoughts. Well, that's disturbing.
"Hello?" She said. "Are you looking for me?" She scowled at Dublo remembering the past hour when she was looking for him without success.
"Solstice!" Dublo nearly shouted at her. "Where have you been! I thought you had been caught by the CloudAngels or something!"
"Yeah, well, I'm here." She paused and glanced at the pale person, "Who is that and what is he doing here?"
"I am Frostbite, and I assume you are Solstice?" She nodded as he reached out his hand to shake hers, but she just stared at it as if he had offered her a piece of rotting meat.
"Why are you looking for me?" Solstice asked as she folded her arms to show she was definitely not going to shake his still outstretched hand.
"I wanted to offer you a place in our school; Helos Valley School for All," he said lowering his hand.
"What type of school?" She asked shooting a dirty look at Dublo who was making a face that said he was disgusted. Frostbite didn't seem to notice or he was just completely ignoring Dublo for the moment. It still disturbed her that she couldn't hear his thoughts or Dublo's.
"A school for dragons from different tribes to help with... peace between the tribes. You will learn new things and work with dragons from the other tribes." He answered.
"Why have I been invited, and where was this school again?" Solstice asked, voicing only one of the many thoughts in her head. Why me? Why do I want to go? Wait, he said Helos Valley. Where in Anglaya is that?!
"It is in Helos Valley, which is next to the Helos Mountains. We chose you to represent one of the ten StarAngels at Helos."
She felt a little jolt in her stomach, obviously, he didn't know she was a hybrid of Star and Ice. She thought he must have noticed by now that her skin was a different shade to that of most StarAngels and her eyes! How could he not have noticed?
"Um...Well...Uh...I don't know if you realize it yet, but I'm not a normal StarAngel or IceAngel for that matter. I had an IceAngel for a parent as well as a StarAngel. Does that make any sense?" The words fell out of her mouth. Dublo looked dumbfounded she had never told anyone she was a hybrid before, with the exception of him.
"We took that into account, yes, we do know that you are a hybrid. We decided to invite you because of that," now it was her turn to be shocked. He listened to me as if he hears that every day! By all the four moons! It took her a few moments to realize that it looked as if Frostbite was waiting for an answer.
"Oh, do I have to answer that question now?" She asked with a bit of exasperation in her voice. In return, she got a face from Frostbite that said 'Duh'.
"Um...Can I have more time?" She asked again.
"Yes, meet me here at first light," he answered.
Snowcatcher wasn't sure what to say. "Thanks, I guess. I'm going to go now if you guys don't mind." She turned towards Dublo. "Meet me at Moon point."
"Bye," Dublo answered, looking at her weirdly as if trying to ask her what she wanted.
Solstice turned and took off into the sky. She had a lot of questions, one big decision and barely any time. She angled herself in the opposite direction of the sun, going towards where the first moon would soon rise. Her mind was whirling.
Chapter 2. Thoughts
Moon point was where she had first met Dublo. It was also where they currently lived. She loved going to the very top of the huge mountain and watching the four moons rise before going to sleep. Solstice went there when she had a lot on her mind, this being one of those times.
After fifteen minutes of flying, she reached moon point. She landed but didn't bother pulling her wings back in. She sat down and started to think about school.
She had never really considered going to school because the thought had never occurred to her. The school did sound nice but that meant meeting new people which was something she would prefer not to do because they always looked at her as though she was from the place above- which she wasn't. That also meant leaving Dublo behind because it didn't seem like he was invited to the school as well.
It would also be very hard to concentrate with all the dragons' thoughts in her head, even with the trick her father had taught her. Solstice's mind was telling her to go, but she wasn't really sure she wanted to go. She would be able to learn new things and some decent history from actual teachers instead of the scrolls they could find.
Someone suddenly coughed from behind her and she jumped to her feet and turned around wondering if Frostbite had come back to tell her something.
"Hey, calm down it's just me." It was Dublo. "I was wondering how to get your attention without making you angry at me...Wait, you aren't angry are you?"
Solstice just glared at him and, sitting down again, said. "It is not funny. But I'm not angry at you. I guess I was a million miles away."
There was an awkward pause.
"So...You wanted to meet me here?" Dublo said awkwardly.
"Oh yeah, wait a sec. Let me get my mind in order." Solstice pulled her wings in and attempted to get her thoughts into some form of organization. It took her a few moments. "Ok I'm ready, and, yes I did ask you to meet me here. I wanted to talk to you about the school offer thing. What's your opinion on it?"
"My opinion?"
"Who else's?"
"Oh, right, yeah. My opinion." There was a short pause.
"So what do you think of it?" Snowcatcher asked. There was another short pause.
"Um...Still working that out."
"You are so helpful, you know that right?"
"Yup. That's me. King of Helpfulness." He answered, somehow managing to keep a straight face. Solstice burst out laughing, despite trying to act serious.
"Well, maybe I don't want you to go, but it's whatever you decide. You know how much I hate schools, but I had a pretty awful experience once with my teacher. This guy sounds nice and the school sounds decent from what I've gathered."
"That was extremely helpful, King of Helpfulness. Now I'm not sure what I want to do. You really wouldn't mind if I went?"
"No, oh, maybe a little bit."
"...So if I said 'Can I go to Helos', you would not freak out?"
"Yes?"
"So...Can I go to Helos?"
"WHAT DID I LITERALLY JUST SAY?!" Dublo shouted, jumping to his feet.
"Yes? And that you would not freak out?" Solstice answered, feeling slightly scared by Dublo's reaction.
"YES!" He said, looking slightly exasperated, and calming down, said, "Of course you can go Solstice if it's what you want."
Solstice answered jumping to her feet and throwing her arms around him, "Thanks so much Dublo! I can't believe I can finally go to school!"
They stood there for a moment when Dublo said, "Come on, it'll be our last night together for a while. Let's go have some fish I caught in the river today."
Solstice released Dublo and looked up at the stars and thought. Thank you.
She turned around and followed Dublo into their wooden hut.
The hut consisted of two sleeping mats, a low table, a small desk and a window facing where the sun rises. Dublo was sitting at the table with a few cooked fish and once she had sat down, handed her one and she cut it in half to save some for later. She had never needed to eat much.
Once they had finished eating their fish, Solstice got a piece of parchment and a stick of charcoal then went outside and sat down. She began to draw the night sky and the four moons that had already risen. Dublo stayed inside the house, most likely drawing on the wall of the hut, decorating it further. He always did this when he was worried about something.
After about an hour, she was done and took the parchment inside to Dublo, who had painted a picture of the flowers around their house. The painting was done in shades of pale purples and blues and it was very beautiful.
"That's beautiful, Dublo," Solstice said gazing at the picture. She turned towards him and gave him the picture she had drawn.
"This is for you Dublo." She said.
"Thanks, Snowcatcher, it's really nice," Dublo said with a hint of sadness in his voice and Solstice heard it.
"I told you if you don't want me to go, I won't."
"You should go to Helos anyways, regardless of what I think."
"Oh Dublo." Solstice sighed and gave him a hug. She let go of him and went to sit down on her sleeping on her mat. She lied down and stared at the ceiling wondering about the school she would be travelling to tomorrow. How big is it? How far is it? What will I learn? How will I make new friends? Will anyone like me?
She thought about the school for a long time and came back to earth when Dublo said, "OK, sleep time Solstice."
"Right," she answered, not really acknowledging what he said and continued to stare at the ceiling, knowing she would not be able to sleep. She heard Dublo lie down on his mat. After a while, his breathing slowed down, telling her he had fallen asleep.
Chapter 3. The Last Goodbye
Solstice quietly got up and went outside to the top of the mountain where she could see for miles around them, she still had a lot on her mind. Her favourite thing to do in times like this was to go to the top of the mountain and watch the stars and the four moons. It helped her focus her mind on one thing, not twenty.
She sat there, for a long time, staring at the stars and moons. Soon she felt tired and drifted off to sleep. She awoke again a short while before the last moon started to set, she went back down to the hut where Dublo was still sleeping. Solstice walked over to the desk and pulled out one of her only pieces of treasure- a thin gold necklace- and put it on. She had always worn it for special occasions because it was so precious to her, right now seemed like a good time to wear it; the necklace was what she could remember Dublo by. He was the one that had found it for her anyway.
She took out the ponytail she had put in her silver hair, attempted to take out some of the knots, and put two braids in her now less-knotted hair. She started wondering about what her parents would think of her going to school. They must have been proud; she didn't really remember much of them though: they had been killed in a battle in the war. They must be happy that the war was over, after years of fighting.
They were always happy when she did something academic, like reading scrolls of the history of Anglaya. Her mother loved her so much but she had to fight in the war, it was the same problem with her father, her parents had fought on the same side of the war, luckily.
"Solstice, I need to tell you something before you go," Dublo said quietly, startling her.
"You seriously need to stop doing that. Okay, what do you need to tell me?" Solstice asked.
"I know you are ready to go to that school, but if you ever want to come back, you can. All right?"
"All right Dublo, if you ever need me just send me a message." Solstice hugged him, turned around and leapt into the sky, glancing back at the hut one last time. Dublo was watching her go, smiling sadly.
Once she was in the sky she turned towards the huge tree where she was meant to meet Frostbite. She felt so free like she could control what happened from now on. It was her time to show the world who she really was, even if it took a while.
She started her descent and spotted Frostbite waiting for her. Once she landed, she said, "I've decided to come."
His face lit up as if he wasn't expecting her to accept the offer, which he probably was. "That's brilliant, I have a few things you'll need to read before we set off though. School actually starts in six days, but I was wondering if you wouldn't mind coming with me to pick up another student."
"That's fine." She answered while he handed her a scroll, and she started to read it. It said:
Welcome to Helos Hall!
We invite you to our school to learn new things and to come together with other tribes. We have set up our school in a different way to most schools though.
You will be put in a group of 6, with angels from different tribes, and will be taught in these same groups. You will be sharing a cave with two other dragons- these are your roommates. You will do group projects with other groups as well as your own. The groups are as follows:
Jaguars: Adiran, Farley, River, Storm, Mirage, Aster
Eagles: Blagden, Glyn, Severn, Breeze, Seri, Juniper
Wolves: Nova, Valley, Delta, Skylar, Addax, Wynter
Foxes: Solstice, Autumn, Boreal, Ridge, Calico, Frost
Lynxes: Quasar, Birch, Azure, Rainn, Creo, Icelyn
Falcons: Estella, Ackley, Tide, Adad, Johona, Eira
The first day of school will start on the 200th day. Be ready, two hours after dawn is when the first lesson starts!
See you there!
So, I'm in the Fox group. Well, at least I know what a fox is. I have no idea what falcons or lynxes are. Solstice handed the scroll back to Frostbite and said, trying to sound more ready than she actually was, "OK. Let's go... Um... Where exactly are we going?"
"It's called 'Loror'. We will be getting Calico; I think she's actually in your group." Frostbite answered.
"Thanks. Loror, here we come! Let's go."
"Great, follow me," he turned around and opened his wings, Solstice following him, and took off into the sky. As they flew into the sky, Solstice thought about what was to come, and what was in the past. This would only be the third time she left the hut for more than a week without Dublo.
This would also be the first time she met someone else on her own, without another person with her. Will the other angels dislike me? Who is Calico? Will they still like me if they know I'm a hybrid? Solstice thought about these questions for a while, she realized it was nice being with Frostbite because she couldn't hear his thoughts. Most of the time Dublo's thoughts were in her head, but he usually said what he thought, so it was easy to talk to him.
With most people, she had to really focus on what they were actually saying, so she didn't accidentally answer a question that was in their head. She had never told anyone, except her parents, that she could read minds. She hadn't even told Dublo. Her parents saw it as a gift with consequences.
Being able to read minds was a power that few StarAngels ever had. Her father had been able to read minds, meaning she was able to read minds as well. StarAngels thought of it as their special gifts, they could breathe fire but no one in their kingdom had magic or were mages. All of the other tribes had magic, but like mind-reading, the gift was rare and extremely valued.
Solstice had hidden her powers because before her parents died her father had told her, "If something ever happens to us, you must not let any know you have special powers, as it would be very bad if they did. There are other mind readers in this world and you might need their help one day, but other than them, you must not let anyone know about your mind reading."
She thought of the gift as a sort of twisted curse. She couldn't ever shut her mind so she couldn't hear anyone's thoughts, she rarely ever had moments like this when she was alone with her thoughts. This was one of the reasons why she didn't go to the small town near where she lived or anywhere else, the noise was so loud it was overwhelming when she first stepped inside the walls.
This made her think about how loud the school was going to be. She probably should've thought it through a bit more first when making her decision to go to the school. She winced, thinking of how loud it was going to be when they first got there. There was no going back now, though.
Chapter 4. One New Ally
They were in the air for a week; flying over forests, deserts, plains, and mountains. It was so much different than the forest around her and Dublo's house. There were ravines and rivers and waterfalls and the sky, the sky was so beautiful at sunset and sunrise-it looked as if it had been painted.
They reached Helos on the eighth day, around noon. Frostbite had pointed Solstice and Calico to one of the openings in the huge mountain.
Once she and Calico had landed on the ledge they walked inside the opening, inside was a huge cavern filled with light. On both sides of the cavern, there were hallways leading off to different places, each one had a sign above it, presumably saying where they led to.
"Hello!" Solstice jumped and turned around to see a CloudAngel whose mind was full of so much joy that Solstice realized that she had somehow managed to shut off her mind-reading, but that was long lost. The CloudAngel's mind was full of 'Yay, I finally get to help with something important!' and New people!' and I just love it here!'.
"I'm Thora, and I'm one of the assistants at Helos. Can you give me your names so I can find your scrolls?"
"Sure, I'm Calico," she looked beside her, almost noticing Solstice's discomfort, "and this is Solstice."
"Thank you, wait a minute while I find your things."
Thora turned around to a couple of baskets and started rummaging through it muttering under her breath, "Calico and Solstice, Calico and Solstice."
She chose two scrolls and turned back around to Calico and Solstice saying, "Ok, here are your scrolls, they have where your dorms are, who is in your winglet and where you will be going first tomorrow."
"Thank you, Thora," Calico said, taking the scrolls and handing Solstice's scroll to her, "Can you point us in the direction of the dorms?"
"Oh, yes," Thora pointed at one of the caves on the left side of the cavern, "It's that one."
"Thanks." Calico started walking towards the cave and realized that Solstice still wasn't following her and said, "You ok?" Is she fine? She looks nervous about something, but what? Probably just nervous about starting school. Still haven't figured her out yet. She never does what I expect...
"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's find out who is in our group." Solstice unrolled her scroll to the place where it said who was in her group and dorm. So I'm with Icelyn and Skylar in room 4, and I'm in the Azure group with Autumn, Boreal, Ridge, Calico, and Frost. Cool.
"What room are you? I'm room 12." Calico said.
"I'm room 4." Solstice answered, "I... I think I'm going to go meet my roommates." I hope they're nice.
"Cool me too, shall we?"
"Sure," Solstice said hurriedly, now wanting to get out of there as fast as possible because she had felt a spear of cold fury drive into her skull from somewhere outside, presumably from an IceAngel. They started walking towards the cave entrance that Thora had pointed out to them.
I wonder what the teachers are like. I hope that they aren't mean.
What would people do if they knew that I didn't know how to read? They better not laugh.
I wonder who our last roommate is, the scroll said it was an angel named Solstice. Probably a NightAngel. Hope she's really nice. I wonder if Icelyn's going to talk to me.
The last thought came from who she guessed was Valley, she had an oddly worried mind. There was someone else in the room with her, but Solstice couldn't reach their mind at all.
When Solstice and Calico turned down the dorm hallway Solstice took in her surroundings. The hallway was lined with torches that filled the area with warm light, there were doors along the sides of the hallway-each with a number above them.
Solstice walked along the passage until she saw a door numbered four. Calico had already found her dorm and was currently talking to her new roommates. She took a deep breath and walked through the doorway into her dorm.
Her first impression of the room was cosy. It had three beds along the walls, with four scroll racks next to the beds-one beside the doorway. There weren't any torches in here, but there were orbs that had small flames in them.
"Um, hello," Solstice said nervously.
"Hi! Are you our third roommate? Oh yeah, I forgot, I'm Valley and this is Icelyn, who are you?" Answered Valley, an EarthAngel that seemed oddly worried about something. She was hiding well though, her voice sounded perfectly happy. Her hair was russet brown and she had deep brown eyes.
"I'm Solstice and I believe I am your third roommate, this is dorm 4 right?"
"Sure, but it's only number four if you want it to be, personally, I think this should be room number eight," answered an IceAngel from on top of one of the beds, "We're the second room from the end of the hallway, it's really weird, to be honest."
Solstice blinked, "Oh, ok then. Sure." Unexpected much? She seems to look at it from a really confusing angle. Actually, she generally seems confused about everything. "So..uhh..Where are you guys from?"
Valley jumped up and said, "I am from the Earth Kingdom, near Macahill Lake!"
Icelyn just looked up at Solstice and said, "Well you probably know already, so what about you?"
"...I'm from the forest on the south side of the Marktm Mountain Range." Wait, what did Icelyn just say? I probably already knew? Does she already know my secret? Have I been found out already?
Chill out.
Solstice froze and thought back, who are you?
You're pretty much staring at me right now. And might I say, that was a pretty good pun.
Icelyn?
Yes, that would be me. My friend, why are you like the way you are? Seriously, has no one taught you anything? You must have had some training of some sort...No, you actually haven't had you...
"Hey, Solstice, are you ok?" Valley said, tipping her head at her.
"I think I'm going to explore this place a bit, so I can get to know where everything is. Do you guys want to come with me?" Solstice said, aiming it more at Icelyn than Valley.
"Sorry, I have to finish this letter, I might catch up with you later though," Valley answered, she looked down guiltily at the paper she had been writing on and thought, They will be angry with me if I don't write back to them.
"Sure I'll go." Icelyn got up and walked out of the room with Solstice. They walked down the hallway and back into the cavern from earlier. It now had a lot of angels wandering around, most of them in groups of two or three.
"Do you want to go flying with me? It was nice when I got here," Solstice asked Icelyn, also wanting to be away from possible eavesdroppers and the noise of everyone's thoughts.
Icelyn nodded her head and ran towards the opening that led outside and spread her white wings. She jumped off the ledge and swooped back around to shout to Solstice, "I have the perfect spot where we can watch the sunset, but if you don't hurry up we'll miss it!"
Solstice laughed and shouted back, "Fine I'm coming," and spread her own wings and jumped into the air to follow Icelyn. The farther they got away from the school, the quieter the other angel's minds became, Solstice wondered how far she would have to go to drown them completely out.
After a while Solstice thought at Icelyn. Wait, if you're an IceAngel, how do you have NightAngel powers? Are you... Solstice trailed off.
Like yourself? In a way I guess...My Grandmother was a hybrid like you. I somehow managed to inherit powers like your own...Let's not focus on that right now though, we're nearly at the spot I mentioned earlier.
Solstice shifted her wings and thought back at Icelyn, ok.
Icelyn's spot was on top of one of the many peaks in the Marktm Mountain Range. It had an amazing view of the sunset, as the peak was taller than the other peaks surrounding it. The sun looked like a huge fireball hanging in the sky, but, now come to think of it, she had read somewhere that it was a huge flaming fireball.
Chapter 5. Lessons
They had flown back to school once the sun had set, grabbing a couple of pieces of fruit on their way back to the dorms. Valley wasn't there when they got back but got back shortly from the library.
Solstice lied on the bed that she had claimed as hers, staring at the ceiling, willing herself to sleep. She couldn't because of all the noise and images from the other angels' dreams in the dorms.
At what Solstice assumed was midnight, she heard Icelyn whisper in her head, You want a hand with the noise?
Yes, please. That would be wonderful, Solstice thought back.
Ok, try to fill your mind with music or something like that. I prefer to use the sound of wingbeats. You should like this noise as you will have it in your head nearly all day.
Solstice thought of the stream near her house, would the noise of a stream work?
Yes, that should work. Now act as if their minds are being swallowed up by the river, go try it with Valley's mind.
Solstice concentrated for a minute and thought of the rippling sound of flowing water. She imagined slipping Valley's mind away into the crystal water, the bubbling of water against rocks.
In a few seconds, Valley's mind was drowned by the sound of flowing water. It worked! Solstice thought at Icelyn.
Nice! But remember this, it is easier to do in a large group of people, as opposed to a one on one conversation, it is also harder to do with images; though it does work well with emotions.
Solstice started to slip minds around her into the flow of the stream. It took her a while to master the trick, but when she did it only took her a few seconds to slip their minds away into the water.
"Morning!" A cheerful voice said too early in the morning.
Solstice lifted her head off the pillow to squint at Valley, "Why are you up so early?"
"Because we have our first lesson soon!" Valley seemed oblivious to the fact that Solstice would rather stay in than get out of bed.
"Fine. I'll get up," Solstice sat up and saw Icelyn smirking at her, Solstice became suspicious and said, "What did you do?"
"Nothing," Icelyn answered, completely unconvincingly. She and Valley glanced at each other, grinning.
"Ok. Fine. Don't tell me, but I'm still convinced that whatever you two have planned for me, is bad," Solstice looked at Icelyn and Valley, then picked up her scroll and checked where she was supposed to be that morning. I have to go to the music room, hopefully, I can find out where that is.
Solstice walked out of their dorm and nearly walked into two tall CloudAngels, who were talking in the middle of the corridor. She mumbled an apology to them and started to listen for Calico's mind; she guessed that Calico would know where to go or already be at the music room.
She found Calico already in the music room and started to head towards her. As she walked, she noticed that as she went deeper into the mountain there were more orbs, instead of the torches in the dorm hallway. The orbs cast a blue and green light on everything in the hallways.
The music room was compact and had an assortment of musical instruments along the walls. Both torches and orbs lined the walls, making the lighting look as if they were outside.
Calico was speaking with an EarthAngel who Solstice thought might be Autumn, the EarthAngel in the Fox group. There was a WaterAngel and an IceAngel speaking in low voices, on one side of the room; Frostbite stood to the left of the door.
"Frostbite, you're the music teacher?" Solstice asked him.
"In a way, I teach two classes. Music and art," he said, "And I asked to be given your group first because I already know two of you, so attempting to remember all of your names won't be so hard. The class should start soon any way."
"Great," Solstice still couldn't read his mind, but it didn't disturb her as much this time. It was almost peaceful without having to slip his mind into the stream as well. But the rest of the room was far from peaceful, she absentmindedly wondered how she was going to get through the classes.
Her thoughts were interrupted when a CloudAngel ran into the room and said, "Am I late?" Solstice recognized him as one of the angels she nearly bumped into earlier.
Frostbite answered, "Very nearly, but the bell hasn't rung yet, so you're safe for today."
As if on cue, the bell rang and Frostbite called everyone to him, "Goodmorning, I am your music and art teacher, Frostbite, and we are here as an introduction lesson. That means we won't actually be playing any music today. So who would like to start us off?"
No one said anything, and Solstice distantly heard Calico's mind go, here we go again. "I'll start us off. I'm Calico and I'm from Loror, I hope we can all get along and perhaps even be friends," she turned towards the EarthAngel beside her and whispered, "Your turn."
The EarthAngel nodded and said, "I'm Autumn, and I'm from the Rock Kingdom, on the east coast," once she finished she seemed to shrink down, almost as if she wanted out of there.
The WaterAngel next to her spoke up and said, "I am Boreal, from Sloer Island. Nice to meet all of you," he nodded at an IceAngel next to him.
The IceAngel drew himself up and seemed to grow at least a couple inches, "Well then, I am Frost," he glared at everyone in the circle and then looked expectantly at Solstice.
My turn. "I'm Solstice from the Marktm Mountain Range." Solstice had been so confident at the start of the day, but that was all gone now. Everyone was staring at her and she heard everything they were thinking, even when she used the trick Icelyn taught her.
She was extremely grateful when the CloudAngel from earlier spoke up, "I'm Ridge, and I am also from the Marktm Range, the northernmost part of it anyways." His eyes looked mischievous and Solstice wondered if he was part of the reason Valley and Icelyn had been smiling earlier. 
"Good, and now that we all know each other's names, is there anything we want to know about the other kingdoms?" Frostbite asked the group.
Solstice didn't speak for the rest of the lesson and no one asked her any questions; which she was grateful for. She was only half-listening to everyone anyway.
Chapter 6. The Beginning
By the end of the first morning, Solstice had begun to wonder what thoughts were her own. The trick that Icelyn had taught her had worked for the first half of the morning, but as they got closer to lunch she found herself losing focus more often and forgetting to concentrate.
Frostbite had dismissed them when the bell rang, telling them their next class was History right after lunch. It took Solstice a few moments to realize that the bell had rung, and then another few seconds to realize where they were meant to be going. She trailed behind the rest of her class, trying to sort out all of the thoughts coming at her.
As they neared the cafeteria Solstice gasped as a sudden pain drove through her skull. She clutched her head and knelt down thinking, Make it stop, make it stop, please, please make it stop.
She vaguely heard a commotion in the cafeteria up ahead, there were shouts but then it stopped, all of the noise stopped. Then Solstice looked up in confusion and saw Icelyn kneeling down in front of her closing her eyes.
What? Icelyn? Are you doing that? Solstice asked through her thoughts, not trusting herself to speak.
Yes. Icelyn opened her eyes. Okay, is that better? I tried helping but I wasn't quite sure what exactly would happen. I tried blocking out their thoughts. She paused for a second, most likely noticing Solstice's confusion and the fact that Solstice couldn't hear anything. Oh dear. I guess I went a bit too far.
Solstice thought, 'You think?' and then remembered that Icelyn could hear everything she thought and looked up and thought, Oops.
Icelyn didn't respond for a few seconds and closed her eyes again. After a few moments she stood up and and Solstice's hearing came back, but she still couldn't hear anyone's mind. There was not anymore shouting in the cafeteria so she presumed that whatever had happened, had been dealt with.
It was weird not being able to hear anyone's thoughts or know what was going besides what she could hear from what the other angels were saying. She stood up and was about to ask Icelyn why she still couldn't hear other's thoughts when Icelyn quickly said, No, don't say anything. I've blocked out your mind reading for a while because it's still pretty loud. Now, come with me before anyone asks you what's wrong and why you practically collapsed.
Icelyn turned around and left towards the cafeteria. Solstice stood for a moment recollecting herself, she could now sort her thoughts out without all the thoughts clamoring for attention in her head. It was strangely silent, with no other voices in her head, almost lonely...
She pulled herself out of her thoughts and walked into the cafeteria, she saw a few angels from her class group sitting together, including Calico and the EarthAngel from earlier, Autumn. She sort of wanted to go over and sit with them but Icelyn was waving her over from a table that was in the back corner of the room.
The only other person that sat with Icelyn was Valley, who was smiling brightly. She walked over to the pair and Valley said, "Hello! How did your first lesson go?"
Solstice had a lot of thoughts, none of which she felt like saying, Well, that's a difficult question, and then caught Icelyn smirking at her. She ended up with, "It was interesting to say the least."
Interesting? Was it because of a special someone? Icelyn asked Solstice, still smirking at her. Solstice nearly laughed out loud but managed not to somehow.
Valley saved Solstice when she said, "What about you Icelyn? How was your morning?" Icelyn turned to Valley, shooting one last grin at Solstice.
"It was great Valley, thank you for asking," She looked around the cafeteria and then spoke again, "How about we go get some food? I'm hungry and it looks like there is some sandwiches or something over there." She said, looking at a place along the wall, of which there was a long line of Angels standing and chatting.
Solstice lost her appetite looking at the long line she would have to wait, while standing awkwardly, to get her lunch. Hey, you don't look so good. Want me to get something for you? But I will probably have to let you deal with your mind reading again.
Solstice hesitated for a second and then thought back, Yes please. I think I'll be able to handle it now. She tried to hide doubts from Icelyn and then added, If it gets too bad I'll go back to the dorms saying I needed to do something for an assignment or whatever. You've been to kind.
Valley said, "Yes, let's!" and then set off, practically skipping, towards the long line of Angels.
"What do you want me to get for you?" Icelyn said, closing her eyes again. Here we go. Solstice braced herself for the noise, but she still wasn't ready for all of the thoughts crowding into her mind.
Wonder what's for lunch?
I might take a trip to the art room this afternoon.
Where did they just go? They were here a few seconds ago. NightAngels...
Shut it out. Come on, Solstice you can do this.
The last thought clearly came from Icelyn, Put it into a river, put it all into a river, Solstice thought to herself. One by one she slipped the other thoughts into the river, though by the end it seemed more like a waterfall,or what she thought a waterfall would sound like.
She tried to focus on what Icelyn had asked her. What do you want to eat? "Um, can I have just a piece of fruit or something? Not very hungry right now." Icelyn looked concerned, and then smirked again.
"I'll come back with some fruit for you. While me and Valley are gone you can go talk to your friend." Icelyn said mischievously.
"Who now?" Solstice said still battling the noise in her head, "Who's my friend?" She looked up at Icelyn and wrinkled her nose, "This is what you were smiling about from earlier, wasn't it? Did you hear that in someone's head because if so, I am not going over and talking to them."
"Hm..." Icelyn said, and then pointed over at Ridge, the CloudAngel from Solstice's class group, he seemed to be looking for someone, "There he is. Talk to him or not, it's your choice. He also seems to be looking for someone." She winked at Solstice and then walked over to where Valley was standing at the back of the line.
Solstice sighed and out her head in her hands. Drama, great. Just what I need. I barely even know him! 
She took her head out of her hands and looked up again, and saw Ridge again, this time walking over to her.
Great, I guess I have to talk to someone again. She looked over to where Icelyn and Valley were waiting in line and saw Icelyn watching her. Solstice caught Icelyn's eye and Icelyn grinned mischievously at her.
Chapter 7. Just Friends?
When Ridge arrived he stood across from where Solstice was sitting and asked her, "Hey, mind if I join you?"
"No." Solstice said not meeting his eyes. She felt conscious of the fact that she could still catch parts of what he was thinking. She stared at her hands and was silently thinking about how she would get back at Icelyn later on in the day.
He sat and paused, Solstice caught a thought that went along the lines of, She's really shy. "So what part of the Marktm Mountains are you from?" Solstice looked up and saw him watching her and she blushed, looking away, and silently cursed Icelyn.
"Um, from the South Western part I guess, and you're from the northernmost part, right?" Solstice asked him, and he nodded. She caught another train of his thoughts which sounded vaguely like, Thought she wasn't listening to the lesson this morning... Solstice once again wished that she didn't have mind-reading powers, or that Icelyn's trick actually worked.
It does work if you do it properly, Icelyn said in her mind. Solstice snorted and Ridge looked at her sideways. "Did I do something?" He asked, confused.
"No, no, it's nothing." Solstice said quickly, looking back at him. Shush Icelyn.
You are going to get found out so fast and I am not going to help you at all.
It's your fault though, stop making weird remarks in my head then!
"So," Ridge hesitated for a second and then carried on, "You are a hybrid aren't you? Not to be offensive or anything though," He asked genuinely interested, and then looked as though he was scolding himself.
"Yeah, I guess so. My parents were from different tribes, my mother was an IceAngel and my father was a StarAngel. The only thing I got from my father was my hair colour." Solstice said thoughtfully, "But they aren't with us now. They are in the place above us. I live with someone else now anyway."
Ridge watched her for a second and then said, "I don't believe in the place above, I guess it just isn't that important to me, and I guess having StarAngel relations would pass that on to you though. They believe in the place above the most, don't they?"
Solstice looked over to the line again where Valley and Icelyn were nearly done picking out what they wanted to eat, "Yeah they are," she said halfheartedly. She only really believed in the place above because her father had. It made her feel more connected to her family.
Solstice reached up to her neck and touched her necklace, and then looked back at Ridge, "What's your family like?"
He shrugged and answered with, "We aren't much. I have my mom, my dad, and my two brothers, it's rarely ever quiet in my house. We own a farm that is run by my parents, and that's pretty much it."
"Oh," Solstice said and looked over to the line where Valley and Icelyn were walking back over to them. She nearly breathed a sigh of relief when the pair got back over to their table, each holding a handful of fruit.
Icelyn sat down next to Solstice and said, "Who's this?" She shot a quick grin at Solstice and then handed her a piece of fruit, "I got you a banana, they seemed ripe."
"Thanks, Icelyn. This is Ridge, the CloudAngel in my class group." She looked over at him, "Ridge, this is Valley and Icelyn from my dorm."
Valley sat down next to Ridge and said, "Hello! I'm assuming you're Solstice's friend." Solstice blushed at that comment, Valley seemed oblivious, considering that she ploughed on, "What was your guys' class groups called? I'm in the Wolves."
"Me and Solstice are in the Foxes," Ridge said, brushing his rusty hair out of his eyes.
"I am in the Lynxes. I don't know what that even is! Do any of you know what a Lynx is?" Icelyn said exasperated.
"It is a creature." Solstice said slowly, "That is alive."
Ridge, Solstice and Valley laughed and Icelyn made a face at her, "Well, thanks. I gathered that much." She also started laughing.
Once they had all stopped laughing Valley asked Ridge, "Do you want some of our fruit? We aren't going to eat all of this." She waved her hand at the two mangoes and pear in the middle of the table.
Ridge looked taken aback, "If that's fine with you. I was wondering when lunch was going to be over because I decided I wasn't going to wait in line that long." He smiled sheepishly.
"Of course it's fine with us!" Valley said, nearly beaming, and handed him a mango. Solstice marvelled at how Valley seemed to be able to just talk and talk and not come to any awkward pauses in a conversation.
Chapter 8. Oh, History.
While they were eating lunch, they had found out that both Icelyn's and Solstice's class groups had a history class together, while Valley' class group had Thora with math.
They all left the Cafeteria when the bell rang, Valley splitting off on her own and running to catch up with other angels presumably from her class group. Solstice felt a small tang of jealousy and then scolded herself, You can be like that if you tried, but no. You don't.
The threesome grew awkwardly quiet, none of them sure exactly what to say. Then Solstice heard Icelyn think to her, You might want to watch out for one of the people in my class group. He didn't seem the friendliest towards the other NightAngel in our group.
Solstice blinked and then thought back slowly, What do you mean? Or do I want to know?
I might as well tell you...He just ignored the NightAngel out of existence, didn't answer him or even act like he was there. And when Quasar started to speak, he would speak over him; Quasar being polite, ignored the fact that he was being downright rude. Icelyn folded her arms across her chest.
"Good to know, thanks for the heads up," Solstice said, out loud, she realized too late: her face a picture of horror. Icelyn looked like she hadn't noticed anything out of the normal, with her neutral look.
On the other hand, Ridge looked at her with a face of mixed emotions. Solstice could pick up confusion the most, but she also caught some suspicion from him. What...? "Um...If you don't mind telling me what that was?"
Solstice blanked out for a moment, thinking of possible ways to get out of this situation when Icelyn spoke up half smiling, "Don't worry Ridge, Solstice just talks to herself sometimes. You should hear her in the dorms."
Solstice blinked and then went along with what Icelyn said, "Y-yeah. I do that sometimes." She silently thanked Icelyn for getting her out of this one. "It's sort of an old habit..."
Ridge looked completely unconvinced about what she had said, but he didn't ask any more questions. His mind did follow a track that made Solstice feel uncomfortable though, Why did she say that? It also sounded like she was speaking to someone else, but who? And is she telling the truth, because it didn't sound necessarily like it?
Solstice looked away and hoped they were getting closer to the history classroom, Icelyn knew where it was because she had memorized the map, unlike Solstice – who hadn't. We are, in fact, this is it. Icelyn thought to her, nearly on cue.
Icelyn stopped at a door in the hallway they had been walking down and said, "Here we are. History." Inside the classroom, there were only a few other students, so they were one of the first students to arrive.
The classroom was a decent size with what Solstice counted to be about fifteen desks with stools pushed neatly underneath them. The walls were covered with maps of Anglaya, each with a small date in the bottom right corner. There was a blackboard at the front of the classroom, with a small pot with chalk next to it on the wall.
Icelyn walked inside the classroom and then started telling Solstice who everyone was, Ridge had followed them and looked awkward. More students walked into the room, and nearly everyone looked somewhat uncomfortably, not sitting down and hovering in small groups around the edge of the room.
Solstice saw Thora walk into the classroom and smile around at the group of students. Solstice didn't feel like smiling back at Thora, and she realized that only a few of the students did smile back at her.
Thora seemed to notice this and said, "Come on, you all can't be that low. Smile for me, no looking like you all sucked a lemon!" She clapped her hands, "Now, you are allowed to sit down. You don't have to stand all the time in my class."
Hi there! If you have read this story so far and actually liked it this will most likely disappoint you. I am officially discontinuing this story. I just don't have the time to continue it, and I didn't actually have a real plot if you didn't notice already.
These characters all weren't the best and very, well, boring. To me at least. I just lost all motivation and interest.
Once again, sorry to disappoint.
Does that mean I have to remove this page? Meh, I'll leave it up for now.
Category:Literature