“You said your mom got that for you where now?” Zyn stared at the man of stone and lightning while trying to straighten out his newly donned uniform.

Isak had changed into his uniform before even entering the first portal on the way to student check in, and circled around the pet rock, still coming to terms with it being real. Still grinning from ear to ear. “Little shop in the big city. Had to get me something, this was all she could afford.”

“Think they have any more?” Zyn asked, to which Ozzy the cave octopus immediately clicked his displeasure. “Oh now don’t act like that, it would be a big help!”

The octopus clicked louder, turning bright red and shifting away from his shoulder perch to the back of Zyn’s neck to avoid all further eye contact.

“There were no beasts to tame into a familiar back home?” Xoco asked, taking notes down in a journal of the runes on the transformed rock.

Isak winced ever so slightly, bringing him back down to reality. “Pretty much anything that we didn’t eat as livestock was trying to eat us. The ocean was not an exception.”

“Sounds like a rough place.” Zyn said while trying to win back Ozzy’s love with a glow beetle, to limited success. “Where was it?”

Isak flinched, immediately redirecting. “Really? I would have thought the underground was worse.”

Ozzy raised a hesitant tentacle before quickly snatching the beetle, chirping happily at the prize and much to the relief of Zyn. “Nah, that’s only outside the cities! You get the best of both worlds! All the comforts of a big city so long as you stay in them, and if you feel like testing your mortality you can go for an outing into the depths.”

Diversion deployed, Isak read aloud from the single page instruction manual to try and figure out anything about the rock man. “Says here, ‘Krazy’ that’s with a K, ‘Kazimir’s Affordable Stone Solutions, prototype mark 10. Fully customizable on the fly-’ just a bunch of marketing speak after that for a paragraph.” He said holding the paper out to point to it before continuing. “Uhhh let’s see, after activation register name. Name helpfully displayed on the chest.’ Yeah in a language I don’t know.”

“That’s your name there?” Xoco looked up from her journal, pointing to the glowing rune at the center of the large rock forming the chest.

Isak shrugged, looking closer at it. “I suppose so.”

“Good! That will help me translate the other text!” A smile filled with razors spread across Xoco’s face as she scribbled down a final note and stowed her journal for later.

“Really?” Isak asked.

“Of course! It gives me one known word to work off of instead of none!” She grabbed Isak by the shoulders, pale skin tone doing him no favors as a blush overtook him. “I’ve never seen this language before! And it bears magical significance! I’ve been studying magical text ever since I was a little girl and thiscouldbeamajordiscovery!”

Xoco pulled him into an over excited hug, before quickly setting him back down. “Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. May I study your rock man with you?”

Speech and higher thought fled from Isak and leapt off the ship like an easily distracted basilisk. Just as the silence and dumbfounded expression was starting to get awkward he remembered how to speak. “Yeah! Yeah no that’s cool. You’re cool. Language is cool. Rune magic is cool. Studying would be cool. Because...yeah.”

Ignoring the fumbling, Xoco smiled even wider. “Thank you!”

A loud horn sounded to let the students know they would be at the main island soon, all heads turning in its direction. The relaxed atmosphere under the tropical morning sun shifted as the students all started getting progressively more excited as the school loomed large in the distance.

“Never enough time, it seems. We’ll meet up later, then?” Xoco smiled down to Isak.

Isak returned with his own toothy grin. “Yes! Looking forward to it!”

The jungle troll hefted her trunk over her shoulder and quickly made for one of the boat’s bathrooms to get changed.

The starstruck human waved goodbye, grin still on his face right up until he turned to see his grimacing friend.

“What?”

“Oooooooof.” Zyn said, shaking his head. “That was rough.”

“Oh come on, it wasn’t so bad!” Isak pleaded.

Zyn’s grimace turned into a sympathetic frown.

“Yeah? Well...at least I didn’t call her a snooty rich girl.” He defended.

Zyn held up a finger. “Once. I made one mistake, then excused myself to let my friend fly high after I gave him that boost. And then, my poor friend fell down the stairs.”

Isak seethed, crossing his arms as he turned his attention back to the rock man.

“So. Many. Stairs. We’ll work on it though.” The drow gave another reassuring pat on the back.

Grumbling was the only reply Isak could manage before tilting his head, looking at the rock man. He decided to test the waters of something rather to get his mind off of seething and stumbling. “Hmmm. Hey uh...rock?”

It turned its “eyes” to Isak, that being sparking orbs of lighting set in two carved out stone pockets.

“Do you have a name?” He asked.

“That is for you to decide.” The rock man said in a voice like a rockslide in a thunderstorm.

Thinking for a moment, the most appropriate name came to Isak. “Vidal.”

A new rune seared itself onto the newly dubbed Vidal’s forehead.

“Gonna have to tell Xoco about that one.” Isak said.

“Sure you’ll remember how to talk?” Zyn teased.

Isak frowned, but refused to dignify that with a response.

Another horn sounded and the pair looked over the side of the boat, seeing the academy and its grounds up close now after having been focused on Isak’s new fortune for so long. It bore all the marks of a massive old fort spanning much of the island converted into an institute of magical learning. All graciously donated by The Emperor after the completion of The Southwestern Campaign. Despite being over a thousand years old at this point, both the main fort and the adjoining settlement capable of keeping it all stocked to act as a launching point for an entire campaign were remarkably well maintained. Despite many of the structures being quite tall, they were clearly built with fierce tropical winds in mind.

The aesthetic bore an air of comfort on top of the solid foundation of utilitarianism. Even from this far back it looked to Isak like paradise, far more than he had ever dreamed of. Far grander than any of the larger towns he had passed through in the portals to his new education after being scouted as an aspiring mage. It was enough to bring a tear to his eye.

He quickly wiped it away, flicking it away and jumping at the sudden low chime that emanated from Vidal.

“Did...did I hit you with tha-” His concern was quickly replaced with further amazement as the network of lightning holding Vidal together vanished, only to be replaced with streams of water all coursing like a mighty river. The runes on his stone body, save the one on his head and his chest, all changed as well.

The two young mages stared again, as Zyn finally broke the silence. “Your pet rock is the coolest.”

Even Ozzy seemed to agree, chirping and chittering happily.