The Secret of M.Y.T.H. - revised

As I got dressed for my first day at the new school, I reflected on how much had changed since this time last year.

Last year I was just a regular boy, with a girl as a friend who would soon be my girlfriend, trying to navigate the beginnings of puberty and typical school stuff, nothing unusual about me at all.

Now, pretty much none of that is still true.

I am way beyond “usual”, nowhere near “regular”.

And not even a boy.

I’m a girl.

A girl with magic, who regularly transforms into a unicorn. (Or more accurately, a unicorn who regularly transforms into a girl).

I learned that not only is magic real, there are all kinds of magical creatures out there. And sadly, not all of them are nice.

But this would be the first time for meeting a bunch of magical creatures at once, as I would be going to a school specifically for them.

So I was a touch nervous about making a good impression.

Fortunately, I won't be going alone, as my girlfriend Melody is also a unicorn, and will be going with me.

Melody’s mom was going to drive us to the campus today, so we could be part of the orientation, so I finished getting dressed. I was wearing a skirt, not because of the dress code of the school, but because my girlfriend is an evil girl who used the dreaded puppy-dog eyes on me until I said yes.

You’d think being a girl now myself I’d be more able to resist, but no such luck ...

Dressed and fed, I walked over to Melody’s house, and soon we were on our way to the school.

We drove for about an hour out of town, to an area that was made up of farmland. We turned into a dirt road that led to a gate with the letters “M.Y.T.H.” above it. We drove through the gate ...

And into heaven.

Okay, I’m exaggerating a little.

But the campus was beautiful. There was a large lake with a river that wound around the campus, there was a huge field with a gigantic barn next to it, there was an enormous cafeteria, an even larger gym, a couple of dorm buildings, a very large main building where our classes would be held, and a building that I thought was a large dovecote, until I saw an honest to goodness dragon fly out of the top.

“Wow,” I exclaimed.

Once we had done a quick tour, Melody’s mom dropped us off at the gym where our official orientation would start. We walked through the entry doors into the gymnasium and looked around for a moment before we spotted a banner saying "Orientation for new students".

We were the first students there, but soon others began filing in. Even though they (mostly) looked like regular boys and girls, I could feel the magic they had, and saw little hints of the kind of creature they were.

Then I heard someone call out for Melody and I.

I looked, and it was Ari, who I had met and had a sleepover with. The three of us chatted for a while, and then we were joined by three more girls - the triplets Abby, Betty, and Chloe, three were-kittens who had also been part of our sleepover.

“What are you girls doing here?” Melody asked.

All three girls blushed, and Abby said, “Were-cats mature a little faster than humans. Mom said we’re ready for junior high.”

“Cool!” I exclaimed.

A teacher waved and called out for Abby, Betty, and Chloe. Abby said, “Oh, I think that’s our teacher, gotta go!”

Giggling, all three ran off.

Another teacher called for Ari, and she said goodbye and headed out. A few minutes later, while we were waiting for our own names to be called, two girls came over and introduced themselves as Elizabeth and Rachel. Elizabeth was leading a dog on a leash, and when I asked about him, she told me that Biggun (as she called him), was her familiar.

“Oh, so you’re a Magi?” Melody asked, “We’ve met a few not so nice magi.”

Elizabeth nodded, and said, “yeah, some are jerks. But, I promise, We’re not like that.”

I could feel her sincerity, and said, “in that case, I hope we can be friends.”

We chatted for a few minutes, and then I heard my name being called followed by Melody’s. We held hands as we walked towards the teacher, ready to start our first day of school ...

*****

The secret of M.Y.T.H. chapter 2

The teacher introduced herself as Mrs. D’Arcy, and said she would be our teacher for our “mundane” classes.

“We don't want to neglect math, science, and social studies, just because you have magic,” she said.

“Makes sense,” Melody said.

“The way classes will work is like this: You’ll have 50 minute classes, with a 20 minute break in between. So Social Studies class starts at 8 AM, ends at 8:50, you get a break, and then at 9:10 the next class, Math, begins. At 10, you get another break, and the next class, which is English, starts at 10:20. That class will go to 11:10, you get a 20 minute break, and then the last class of the morning, which covers Science, starts at 11:30 and ends at 12:20. Then comes lunch, and you get one hour and ten minutes.

The afternoon classes are different, as they will be based on powers, magic, survival, combat, and the like. That class will last from 1:30 to 3 PM, with a short ten minute break in the middle. At three, you get your last class of the day, which is an elective of your choice. The electives available will depend on demand, so select at least a couple of options in case your first choice cannot be made available. Anyone who does not choose an elective will be given a 50 minute study period instead. Any questions?”

“What about the dorms?” Melody asked.

“Dorms are single-occupancy rooms that share some common areas in groups of 4, and then larger common areas where more students can gather. so mixing of genders can happen. Grades mostly stick together during school hours, but can mix after hours, and your next-door neighbor for dorms could be any grade,” Miss D’Arcy replied.

“Cool!” I exclaimed.

Then an older, serious looking woman approached us. “Melody? Bonnie? My name is Victoria Drakae, and I am the headmistress here. Will you two please come with me to my office?”

“Are we in trouble, ma’am?” Melody asked, nervously.

“Actually, the opposite. But please come this way.”

I replied, “Okay” then I shrugged, and followed the headmistress.

When we got to the office, we found the Naga who had dropped off the were-kittens at our house.

“This is Mr. Ozezs. He’s going to be the head of security here.”

“Hello,” Melody and I said together.

He nodded, and then did something complicated with his hands. There was a poof of smoke, and then in front of him was a young girl, maybe fourteen years old.

“This is Sabrina. She has been ... paroled into the custody of the school.”

“I told you, it was Karion, not me trying to get those were kittens,” Sabrina whined.

“And we believe you. Which is why you are here instead of a magic-proof cell,” Ozez replied firmly.

“That, and the fact I know the secret that Karion found out.”

“What secret?” I asked.

“You know how magic has been fading for the last couple of thousand years? Well, that’s not going to be a problem much longer. Magic is making a comeback.”

Melody and I looked at each other in shock ...

*****

Chapter 3

Mrs. Drakae sighed, and said, “That wont be a secret much longer regardless. But I was hoping to get the kids a chance to get settled before we told them.”

“I’m confused, what is she talking about?” I asked.

“When Klarion did this prank at a school, where he made the food start fighting, he realized the whole spell was ... easy. He had access to much more power than he expected. Eventually he figured out there was much more magic than there used to be. Or at least that’s what he monologued while he was setting me up to take the fall for kidnaping some were-kitties.”

“So you really weren't at fault for that?” I asked.

“I was really stupid, and trusted him, allowing him to put me under a suggestion spell. I’m ... really sorry.” (If you want to read her story, you can find it titled “A M.Y.T.H.-ing witch” https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/70086/myth-ing-witch-... )

I looked at the young girl, and she looked sincere to me, so I said, “I’ll forgive you. I hope the girls do too.”

“Thanks,” she said, “I hope they will.”

“Why don't you girls go have lunch.” Mrs. Drakae said.

We all went to the large cafeteria, although calling it that doesn’t really do it justice. It’s a massive dining hall with a kitchen capable of preparing specialized meals for any magical creature.

Apparently, the teachers were trying to get us to mix together rather than stay with others of the same kind, as they had set up the tables so they had a mix of magical species at each table. And I could tell that at least in some cases there was a lot of awkwardness about that.

But there were kids belonging to different magical species making friends too, just as Melody and I had done with the were-kittens.

Melody and I went and found our table, and found an interesting mix of magical races. One of them was a girl who turned out to be an actual vampire, although not the “I vant to drink your blood” type. She told me that her clan had debated long and hard about sending someone to the school, because of the negative reaction they felt she would get, but she had volunteered, believing that it was a necessary step to any interspecies cooperation.

Another was a young girl who was able to take both animal and human form, much like us unicorns. In her case, she could shift from girl to fox and back again.

Once lunch was over, all the students came back to the assembly hall where Mrs. Drakae addressed us all, telling us about the increase of magic.

She said, “While we do not know the cause, we believe this trend will continue for some time. Which means among other things, we are going to get more magical creatures being created. For reasons we do not yet understand, some humans are being transformed into magical creatures.”

One of the students raised her hand, and asked, “Why should we worry about more magic?”

“For several reasons” Mrs. Drakae replied, “First, access to more magic means we are all going to have to exercise more control, or even a simple spell could backfire and cause great harm. Plus there is the fact that while most magical races are contributing to this school, and to the idea of working together, not everyone agrees. And those people will be more dangerous the more magic is available.”

“Like Klarion?” I asked.

“Perhaps not.” She replied, “We have sent an invitation to him to attend.”

“Say what? Why would you do that?” I practically shouted.

“Because I would rather have him here, where we could keep an eye on him, and possibly even redirect his ... current tendencies towards something more positive, than letting him go free, perhaps getting worse.”

“Could end up being a mistake” a man’s voice said, and then the man himself came onto the stage.

I wasn't sure how old he was, because while his face was unlined, he carried himself with a kind of weariness, like someone who had seen and done too much.

Mrs. Drakae said, “May I introduce Silver John, who will be assisting Mr. Ozezs with security on campus.”

I asked the man “you were saying bringing Klarion here would be a mistake?”

“He’s already shown signs of psychopathic behavior. Having him here would be putting the other kids here in danger.” John replied.

“Do you believe he’s beyond redemption?” I asked.

“Let’s just say I dont want to risk the other students to find out.”

“All right perhaps we should see if there are any alternatives.” Mrs. Drakae said, and then added, “any other questions?”

“No Ma’am” several voices replied in unison.

“All right,” She said, “Everyone go finish unpacking, and then you have the rest of the afternoon as free time.”

I was astounded to discover that my dorm looked like a typical dorm room on the outside.

For one thing, it was bigger on the inside than the out.

It had an honest-to God stable for my unicorn form, including a good selection of hay and oats and warm mash, a trough will a continual supply of fresh water, a specially designed toilet, and a sleep bar (unicorns, like horses, sleep standing up. The sleep bar will keep me from accidently falling over in my sleep.)

My human side was just as well looked after. If I for some reason didnt want to go to the cafeteria, I had a full sized kitchen with a fridge,a stove, and a dishwasher.
I also had a bedroom with a large canopy bed, a gigantic bookcase, two dressers, a walk-in closet with a shoe rack. There was also a full bathroom, including a tub able to hold two of me, which had a jet feature if I wanted a jacuzzi, and a computer desk, a makeup area with a chair, table, and a large mirror, and a couch with a table and a TV set.

I would have called the bedroom set-up “girly” before my transformation, but since I was now a girl, I could be as girly as I liked.

My stuff was soon delivered to my room, and an unseen servant had put everything in the proper places in no time flat.

With that task done, I went to find my girlfriend, so we could find out what fun we could get into before bedtime ...

******

Chapter 4

As it turned out, it was a pretty tame night.

Mr. Ozezs and Silver John kept a watch over us kids, and in any case Melody and tried to be good girls and make our folks proud.

That said, we had a pretty good time anyway. They had set up a pool, so we swam and then warmed ourselves by a large bonfire making s’mores, singing goofy songs , and went to bed feeling pretty good.

The next morning we began following our class schedule, although our classes were more an introduction to the course, the teacher, and our classmates if we hadn’t met them yet. The last class of the day, because we hadn’t selected an elective yet, was just a short primer on the electives available, and an introduction to the teachers who would handle the elective classes.

Both Melody and I decided we would take Phys Ed as our elective, so we could end our school day with a bit of physical activity.

So we met the P.E. teacher, who was a centaur named Mr. Tor. To my surprise, he had gym outfits for everyone who was going to take Phys Ed, including shoes.

We took our outfits back to our respective rooms, and then went to see what we could do with ourselves until suppertime.

Mostly that involved trading stories with the other kids, and I learned a few things about some of the magical races in the process.

The next day, school started in earnest.

Honestly, the first half of the day wasn’t too different from what we would have gotten in a “normal” school. Mrs. D’Arcy covered the mundane subjects, and I found her very easy to listen to. She told us she was not quite human, as she had been given the essence of a goddess, and she had the gift to sense and heal the pain of others.

Lunch time gave us another opportunity to get to know some of the kids better. It seemed like most of them had parents who were part of the movement to get cooperation between the various magical species, which made sense. I also learned that some magical creatures had negative myths about unicorns, which Mel and I did our best to correct.

The afternoon was very different from anything we would have gotten at a regular school.

We joined the other magical creatures of all types who were practicing their magical abilities.
After class, I sat beside Mel, and we were holding hands watching the sun set.

“I think this is going to work. All magical creatures working together.” Mel said.

“I hope so,” I replied, “I have a feeling this unity will be tested, and soon.”

She didn't say anything more, and so we sat there looking towards the future - together.

End?