Chapter 2: The Gates

Ateek tries to reach for his suitcase…

…which is no longer there. With a start, he turns around, eventually completing a full circle. There's nobody in sight, and he can still see a good way in every direction. There's no way anyone could have sneaked up and stolen it, not in the short space of time he'd looked away from it.

"That's…" Ateek stops and realizes. his next word was going to be "impossible," but he is not sure who would be kidding. It would be impossible by human standards, but currently Ateek is on the edge of a world full of magic and people with incredible, terrifying abilities. With that fact at the forefront of his mind, his suitcase's disappearance becomes a little easier to believe.

"So, no. It's not impossible. But it's still THEFT!" Ateek says out a loud. " HEY, umm you suitcase thief! give me back my things!" Ateek says nervously, he is currently in the unknown.

"Hee hee"

"Huh, who's there?"Ateek says while looking at every direction, trying to find the source of the sound, but he's efforts were useless"

"Pfft, why would they let a human like you enter the academy? Has the academy really fallen?" The anonymous person speaks out and finishes with a sigh.

Ateek waited a good few seconds to only realize the anonymous person was longer there, Ateek was sure that this person was the same person who took his belongings, even though he didn't see who this person was, he did know one thing, the voice of the anonymous person was feminine, so the person was surely a female.

"Ugh, At any rate, it'll make the rest of the walk easier."

Ateez turns to look at the gates again, They're closed.

He takes a step back and look at the gates, he then tries to climb over the gates, hand over hand. Now all he needs to do is swing a leg over the spikes without managing to…skewer himself. As carefully as he can, Ateek climbs over the metal spikes topping the sign.

There's a brief wobble as he shifts his weight over the top, but he manages to drop lightly to the ground without breaking anything. Under the circumstances, he's willing to consider it a win.

With the gates at his back, Ateek looks around. It might be his imagination, or the thick canopy of trees, but it suddenly seems darker and colder.

He shakes off the thought. It's probably just his nerves getting the better of him, and being late for the appointment is unlikely to make a good first impression

After a few minutes of walking, the darkness and the cold are even more noticeable. They don't feel quite natural; even under the shade of trees and with the sun setting, it shouldn't feel this gloomy.

It could be all in his head, or it might be all too real—an eldritch manipulation of his surroundings.

Ateek shivers over the thought, feeling the chill shoot through him again. Wondering about the cause of it isn't going to make him any warmer.