"Kifo should be here by now..." Kitzi was pacing in his room, carefully avoiding the two small bags that contained some of his belongings. Since Fa'Lina had told him not to pack much in terms of clothing or regular school equipment, he had only needed to pack a few personal items, including things like a relief image of his parents.
After what felt like hours, the air in Kitzi's room started to crack audibly. Suppressing a startled yelp, Kitzi jumped away from the center of the room. Seconds later, the cracking and buzzing died down again. "The Warp-Aci Express is ready to go!" Kifo shouted.
"Sheesh, do you always make so much noise when you do the warping stuff?" Kitzi asked, nervously straightening his light grey robe.
"Aw, you should hear the sounds during mating season!" Kifo replied, floating around the fox's head.
"...please tell me you're kidding," Kitzi groaned, suddenly being very happy for not getting visual mental images. "That much noise during-... can you actually-... I mean..."
"Well, only during our mating season..." The Warp-Aci was clearly enjoying itself. "When watching others, we can be surprisingly quiet."
Kitzi's face was a mask of horror. "Did anybody tell you that you're extremely creepy?"
"Today? Not yet, actually."
"Right... fine. Whatever." He sighed and tried to focus on the here and now. "Should I take my bags somewhere special?" He pointed in the general direction of his bags.
"Center of the room would be fine," Kifo advised him. "Transporting basically requires me to fly around you and whatever you want to take with you. So the center of the room lets me avoid crashing into furniture and stuff like that."
"Sounds like a plan," Kitzi said and quickly grabbed his bags.
"Not going to tell your parents good-bye?"
The question made Kitzi freeze briefly. "No, we did that before... Decided not to make a big scene moments before my departure." He sighed quietly.
"Good thinking!" Kifo praised him. "Last time we had a departure with a large audience, somebody wanted to give the passenger a last-minute hug while I was already doing my thing. Aaaaand, well, everything inside the circle goes, everything outside the circle stays..."
Kitzi shuddered. "Right... right... keep arms and legs inside the circle until you're done... got it."
"You're a quick learner!" Kifo cheered and hopped onto his shoulder. "Ready when you are!"
Standing next to his bags, Kitzi faced the Warp-Aci. "Is that close enough for you?"
"Sure! As long as you don't start jumping around like crazy, there will be more than enough space! Shall we start?"
"I... errr..." Kitzi hesitated. This is it. The moment I leave the house I've lived in for the last 20 years, he thought. Hopefully, I'll return one day. And maybe I'll even meet my parents... even though they'll be in their sixties or so. Ah well. This isn't the time to muse about the distant future... "Yes, let's go..." he whispered and took a deep breath.
The air once again cracked and buzzed briefly. Kitzi inadvertently held his breath until the sounds stopped again. "Ding, first floor... lingerie, bakery, melee weapons, aaaand Fa'Lina's office," Kifo announced. "In other words, we're there," it quickly translated when it noticed Kitzi's confused expression.
"Oh... good, good... and still in one piece, I think," Kitzi whispered and let out a sigh. "Now what?"
"Good question... I expected Fa'Lina to be here... guess something came up." The Warp-Aci sat down on Kitzi's shoulder while it pondered about the situation. "Let's just wait here for now."
Kitzi used the delay to get used to the sudden location change. Judging by the sound of their voices, the room was a bit larger than any of the rooms in his home. And a few deep breaths told him that the room was well-kept, the scent reminding him of his room when he had received new furniture. Smells... polished. A massive wooden table, I guess... He carefully reached out with his hands and, after a careful step, felt the smooth surface of what he assumed was a table. Bingo, he congratulated himself. But I can't rely on everything smelling in a way I can detect. With a few well-trained movements, he let his collapsible cane drop out of the right sleeve of his robe and into his hand. Within seconds, he had extended it to its full length.
"WHOA!" Kifo yelled. "Bad stick! BAD! You got complaints, you tell the management!"
"Sheesh, relax," Kitzi told the Warp-Aci. "I just use it to detect obstacles in front of me," he continued, letting the tip of the cane sweep over the ground.
"Ohhh... that's pretty clever!" Kifo gave the cane a few experimental pokes. "You know, we could tie a few rags to the end on the ground! Then you'd clean up a few corridors while you move through the building!"
Kitzi chuckled. "Sadly enough, you're not the first one to crack that joke."
"Seriously? Darn... and I had been so proud of it!"
"Sorry, maybe next time. Trust me, there should be plenty of opportu-"
"Shhh!" the Warp-Aci suddenly hissed. "Getting a call."
Kitzi blinked. A call? What kind of call? I can't hear anything...
"Ohhhh... I see. Kitzi, come along, I got new instructions!"
"How did you get... a call?" Kitzi asked, following Kifo's voice back to the place where his bags were.
"Telepathy!" came the quick response. "Fa'Lina sometimes uses it, but she's not a major fan of it, so you can imagine what kinda stuff she's in right now."
Kitzi didn't even try to imagine any stuff Fa'Lina could be in. He was still stuck at the first word. "Telepathy? She can do that?"
"You can't?" Kifo asked, sounding genuinely surprised.
"I... don't know, actually. Can I?" I should maybe find out these things before I start getting "calls" inside my head, Kitzi decided and frowned. "Anyway, what's th-EEP!" he yelped when he heard the familiar buzzing and cracking again. "Give me a warning next time!" he snapped even as the sounds died down.
"Aw, didn't you see that coming?" Kifo asked and snickered, indicating that it had chosen its words on purpose.
"Yeah, maybe I should try to see things from your point of view more often," Kitzi replied with a smirk.
"I like you!" the Warp-Aci said. "I got the feeling that you'll fit right in!" It landed on his shoulder again. "Anyway, this is your room. Room 9 3/4! A fitting number for a wizardry school!"
"...what?" Kitzi asked in disbelief. What idiot assigns numbers like that? That got to be a joke! The light draft that was typical for long corridors told him that Kifo had most likely dropped him off in front of his door. Quickly, he reached out and let his hands slide over the door until he found the relief of a number. "Number 256," he sighed. Gotta memorize that... assuming that this really is my room.
"Yeah... that joke's been Fa'Lina's idea," Kifo admitted. "Nobody actually gets it, not even me. All this talk about its connection to some wizardry school just confuses people, but Fa'Lina claims that she's just being 'ahead of her time' or something like that. I say she's just plain nuts, but does this woman ever listen to her Warp-Aci? Besides, how-"
"Kifo?" Kitzi asked, interrupting the stream of words. "Is this my room?"
There was a long pause as Kifo was contemplating whether or not to say something annoying. In the end, the Warp-Aci decided against it. "Yup. The first digit means that the room is two floors above the ground floor, by the way."
"Wonderful. You got the key?"
"You don't get any keys," was Kifo's reply.
Kitzi growled. "Listen. The room number thing was a silly joke, but this is kinda pushing it. So just give me the keys so I can find my way around before I'm being shoved into my courses."
"No, students really get no keys!" Kifo said, sounding serious for a change. "The lock is only there as a sort of backup for non-Cubi staff members!"
"And how do the students get in?" the Cubi asked, not bothering to hide his confusion.
"You just know that the door is unlocked."
Kitzi opened and closed his mouth. "What are you talking about? Is this some exercise in wishful thinking? Is endless optimism some Cubi power nobody told me about?"
"No." Kifo sighed dramatically. "Sheesh. The door is enchanted. If you touch it and tell yourself it's unlocked, then the door recognizes it. The rest of the time, it's locked. And of course, other students will be locked out unless you allow them in."
This is ridiculous, Kitzi told himself when he touched the doorknob. But whatever. Might as well give it a try. "The door is... unlocked," he whispered, and to his amazement, the door opened.
"There. What'd I tell you?"
"You've been telling me many things," Kitzi replied. Including some things that are hopefully not true...
Kifo floated past Kitzi's head and into the room. "Eh, you've seen one of those rooms, you've seen them all," it muttered.
Kitzi carefully stepped into the room and placed the bags next to the door. Judging by the way Kifo's voice sounded, Kitzi guessed that the room was slightly smaller than Fa'Lina's office. The sound of singing birds was also gone, telling him that, unlike his room or Fa'Lina's office, his new room did not have any windows. Not much of a loss, even though I kinda liked the sun's warmth. Oh well, I don't have to stay in here all day, so I'll manage. Using his cane, he started to map out the room in his head. He quickly found two tall closets, a fairly large table and a bed. A second door led to a bathroom, but Kitzi chose to map it out later. After a few additional sweeps with the cane, he found two smaller drawers and scratched his head. "Kifo?"
"Yes?" a voice asked straight into his right ear.
"Don't DO THAT!" Kitzi yelped and stumbled away from the voice.
"Heh, sorry! Couldn't resist! But what is it?"
Kitzi rubbed his temples. "Just do a visual verification for me. Are there two closets and two drawers in this room?"
"Sure. One set is in your corner, and the other one at the other end of the room."
"Is there a reason for that?" the fox asked and cocked his head.
"One set is for you, and the other set is for your roommate."
I got a roommate? Interesting... "Any idea who my roommate is?"
"Sorry, but nope," Kifo replied. "Fa'Lina doesn't tell me such details, so I'm as clueless as you are. Well, okay... maybe not quite as clueless as you are."
"Gee, thanks," Kitzi shook his head. "So, does that roommate have more of a clue about what I have to do next?"
"He or she could certainly show you around," Kifo mused. "There are a few... procedures to go through, and I won't be able to stay around much longer, anyway."
"You're leaving?"
"Sorry, but my job basically ended when I dropped you off here. But think of it this way: You're not expected to go anywhere on your own, so just sit back and relax for now." And with that, the Warp-Aci hopped out of the room.
"Five minutes at SAIA, and I'm stranded already." Kitzi rubbed his temples again. "And I think I'm getting a headache. Super."
---
Author's Notes:
- Quite a few things spotted by llearch, combined with a few hectic days (during which I had barely time to get the daily batches done) led to the slight delay.
- The idea for the door system is a combination of Amber's brief explanation of the ward on the bathroom door and the realization that Abel doesn't seem to have pockets in which he could keep his room keys...