Approaching the Academy

[Gilsworthy]

At the end of the street, the man named Gilsworthy stopped dead in his tracks. In front of him, looming large and menacing, was the Academy of Magic. 'It's just a building.' he thought, a bead of sweat making it's way down the side of his face. 'It's not as if I'm going inside. I'm just showing Mia where the place is at, and here it is.' There didn't seem to be any magic users hanging about outside, most likely they were inside away from the chill winter air. All the better for him.

He turned on his heel, hands still glumly in their pockets, and addressed Mia, "Well this is the place. If you don't mind, I think I'll be going." A thought crossed his mind; you're only afraid of mages because they kick you to the curb in single combat every time, maybe if you made friends with them they would turn out to be nice? Something inside of him wanted to believe that, but from the few he'd met they had been uniformally clever, peculiar, conniving foxes. It was like their minds just worked on different stuff than everyone else's. Was this girl any different?

[Mia]

The alleyways and streets seemed to continue on, and on, and on into a never ending maze. It was like a labyrinth Mia didn't have a map to, which was basically true except that the town wasn't a labyrinth. Anywhere she looked, there were more streets, choices, paths, alleys, stands, and everything else she could name. It was very nice of Gilsworthy and Niccolo to lead her to lead her to the academy. Well, it was mostly Gil's doing, and Niccolo was just along for the ride. Of course, Niccolo had also been the one to lead Mia to Gil, so, without him, she still would have ended up traveling for a while through the city.

Never had Mia ever seen such a prosperous place before. Nearly everywhere, merchants were bartering with other people; some of them were travelers or wanderers, some were of the upper class, and some were simple citizens and business people. Back home, there had been similar people, but they were never in such abundance! Well, Mia supposed, except during the fair. In her small town, the was a fair every few years where a fancy group of people proudly ventured through their town, rested their for a few fun days, and then continued their journey by heading to the next town on the map. Mia enjoyed their visits; it was like a break from everything they normally had to do, and it was one of the few times that she didn't try causing any trouble. After all, there was enough excitement from the performers, anyway.

After a few more minutes of traveling and Mia's gaze joyfully surmising the things she wasn't used to, Gil stopped. As Mia's excited red eyes turned up to him, she noted an easy frown on his features along with tension elsewhere. Her gentle eyes settled slightly as she silently observed her companion. He obviously had issues when it came to magic. Even though he wasn't a friend she had had for several years, she'd known him long enough to tell that he was uncomfortable in his current situation. Unlike when she told him she was trying to get to the academy, his face didn't show as much scorn and appeared to be simple restrained fear; she could tell that they were finally there.

"Well this is the place. If you don't mind, I think I'll be going."

It seemed that Mia's guess was right, and he really was in a hurry to leave. She smiled somewhat mischievously and somewhat innocently. "Okay. I'll see later, Gil, Niccolo. I'm going to go sign up; I hope I'm eligible!" Her grin meekly spread as she quickly waved at her friends, and turned toward the school, started running in its direction.

Her flaming red hair ungracefully trailed behind her wake as she reached the path. Soon after, her rugged shoe caught onto a crack and she stumbled. Her limbs stretched forward with the gravity and force as her face was on a direct course with appearing not too soft ground. Quickly forcing her other leg forward, her weight became balanced on it and her face stopped about one foot above the ground, her arms bracing themselves along side it. Clumsily, she fixed her position. "I'm okay!" she called back, more aggravated than usual. Why was it that she couldn't run right on this weird ground in the city? It was like really rough, flat stone and it didn't comfort her ankles that much.

At a slower pace, she gripped her bag and continued heading toward the doors. Hopefully, someone would be able to give her some directions inside the school or it wouldn't be too hard to get around.

[Gilsworthy]

He watched her walk off, a smile jerking at the corner of his mouth. She was a promising one, with all that spunk and personality he knew that somehow she would be able to make it for herself. There were too few people like that anymore. His eyes followed her as she tripped clumsily, foot getting caught on a crack in the ground, before quickly regaining her balance and shouting back a harried, "I'm ok!" Gil shook his head and chuckled, Mia was certainly going places, where? He couldn't say, but most definitely headed somewhere good. 'I hope we meet again soon.' was his parting thought as he stuffed his hands back into his pockets and turned to go.

Something stopped him, and he took a final glance over his shoulder, but the doors were already closing and she was out of sight. The thief stood there, watching the cold, forbidding building for moments on end, then slowly and casually walked off, his coat blowing forlornly in the frigid wind.