ADAD Chapter 2: Welcoming feast

 This time, Prisila was not made to separate herself from them, and she sat between Anastasios and Darius. Their plates were piled up with all kinds of foods. Darius had never seen such foodstuff before.

There was a big chunk of meat in his plate, that had a purple color. A golden miasma rose from it. Next to it, there were strangely shaped vegetables, or, at least, Darius had figured they were vegetables. 

Before them were platters with additional food, each meal stranger than the one before it. Darius had never seen so much food in his life. He had a purple juice in his glass, while Prisila and Anastasios had red liquid in theirs, which Darius presumed was blood. But the strangest things were the servants. 

Little girls, with Fey wings, which looked to be no bigger than fifty centimeters. They waved their hands, and food flew from the platters and into the plates of the children. 

"Have you ever had dragon meat before," a boy, who was sitting next to Darius, asked. "It is just that you keep on staring at the meat as if you want to poke it." 

"I have never eaten dragon meat, or seen a dragon," Darius admitted. The boy smiled, and offered his hand. 

"My name is Harvey, I come from Alinar," now that Darius was looking, he could see that the boy was a Fey. The demon boy took the offered hand, and shook it. 

"Darius, I am from Fairstar. These are Anastasios and Prisila, they are from Baskia," Darius said, introducing his two friends. 

"Oh, vampires," Harvey said, with wide eyes. "I have never seen a vampire before. Can I see your fangs?"

Prisila's nose scrunched up. 

"That is very rude of you to say," she said highly. 

"It was? My wings are there for all to see," Harvey protested, and then smiled. "I guess, if you are scared..." 

Prisila opened her mouth, and her fangs extended. 

"Who are you calling a scared cat, Fey?" Prisila hissed, and the boy clapped his hands once. 

"Oh, this is so great. There hadn't been a vampire in Alinar in the past millennia! I thought that I will only ever hear about them in stories. Is it true that sunlight hurts you?" Harvey asked, taking out a notepad from his pocket. 

"No, that is a silly rumor," Anastasios said, a frown on his face. "We also won't stop to count rice, if that was what you thought about asking next." 

"Oh, sorry, I must come off as a country bumpkin. It is just that, Alinar is an isolated realm. If the headmaster of Orestria hadn't come to the fencing competition I was in personally, I wouldn't be here right now," Harvey said, and then showed off his entrance badge. "See? I am here on a scholarship. I think I will be in the rogue house." 

"That is good for you," Anastasios felt more respect for the boy, and he shrunk into himself, when he thought that he had paid his way in. 

"And you? What type of competition got the headmaster's attention in your cases?" Harvey asked, and the three blushed. 

"We, uhm..." Darius attempted to explain, but he was too embarrassed to do so. 

"We paid our way in," Prisila murmured, and Harvey blinked. 

"Wow, you must be really rich then," and the boy realized what he had said, and waved his hands before himself, to defuse the situation. "Well, I hope we are friends. And that we are in the same house." 

"I want to be in the Martial Arts House," Anastasios said, clearly having done his research. "My favorite weapon is the katana." 

"What is that?" Harvey asked, and Anastasios looked around, and then took his bottomless backpack from the floor, and took out his katana. 

"Do you want to hold it?" The vampire prince asked, and Harvey reached out towards the slim sword. 

"Sure. It looks sharp," the Fey said, and took the handle carefully. "Wow, it is so light." 

"No weapons on the table," a pixie, one of the servers, chastised. The katana was back in Anastasios's backpack before long. 

An old man in a robe came through the double doors which marked the entrance of the main hall. Darius craned his neck to take a better look. The robes were simple. Black, with a silver trim. The man had long hair, that was in a loose ponytail. He looked to be clean shaved, but Darius couldn't tell from his spot. 

"The headmaster. Look sharp now," the pixie said, and went to line up with the other pixies. 

The headmaster went to the raised platform, and cleared his throat. 

"Welcome, children, to the beginning of an adventure that will last two-hundred years for you, and a month for your parents," he said, and a hush spread over the hall. "The first week, as you were already told by professor Gideon, will be your sorting. You will be made to jump through many loops, not literally, of course."

Darius saw that a chubby boy, that was sitting a bit further away from him, relaxed in his seat and allowed himself a small smile. Their eyes met, and Darius waved at the boy. The boy waved back, and the headmaster cleared his throat again. 

"Now, before you eat, there are a couple of things I need to tell you," the man said, and everyone straightened in their seats. 

"Until you reach your majority, you are to remain in the castle. No excursions to the other realms in the Realms of the Forgotten Times, I am afraid. If we decide that you need to wait for your immortality to kick in, we can hold you for just that long," groans were heard from the children, and the headmaster chuckled. 

"Now, now, don't despair. Orestria is a huge realm, and you will get to know it like the back of your hands, before long. Also, if you perform good enough, you will be sent off to other academies in the Realms of the Forgotten Times to enter competitions," he then clapped his hands, and the pixies got out of their lines. "Now, without further ado, eat, drink, be merry. And remember, no matter what house you are in, the friends you make tonight will be with you for the next two-hundred years, if not for life."       

With that, the headmaster took his seat, and the children were allowed to begin eating.