Chapter Text
New year, new students.
All the Dorm Leaders had gathered in the Mirror Chamber for the ceremony. One by one, after Crowley finished his speech, the freshmen stepped towards the enchanted Dark Mirror, ready to be placed in their respective dorms.
The magical artefact spoke with its solemn voice as it examined each new student by their inner magic, features and soul. After that, it formulated its verdict and each one would go behind the Dorm Leader, that would show them the way to their room.
“Nya! Too bad I don’t get another minion this year” Grim ruffled his gray fur, while perched on Yuu’s shoulder. They faked a pout “Hey, you got tired of looking at my face?” they poked the feline’s cheek, chuckling.
“It’s that we’d be fast at cleaning up when the ghosts aren’t around” he replied, grooming his paw while watching the ceremony. After all, Ramshackle was a Dorm too.
After what seemed an eternity, only one student remained. Now that he was the only one standing, everyone else noticed how taller and older he looked compared to others. He wasn’t a young teen, but probably in his late ones. Strange, usually students signed up at the age of sixteen. He was slim yet athletic, had long, silky brown hair, dark skin tone much like Kalim or Jamil’s, pointy ears, and brown eyes. His clothes consisted in an elegant eastern like robe, brown and gold, with black pants and brown shoes with more golden decoration. The robe only had one sleeve that was so long it reached below his knee. He also wore a golden spiral shaped earring and was very good looking.
“State your name” The Mirror proclaimed
The tall young man sighed and cleared his throat, he looked slightly nervous, judging by how he fidgeted with his clothes’ fabric
“Kalyan Vishvaas” he spoke with a smooth, silky voice tone.
“Hmm” Replied the mirror, staring at the last student with its hollow eyes. Kalyan shivered softly, tightening his lips.
“I see a cunning soul that hides a beast behind a human face” It said, after taking a closer look “I sense… A serpent, elegant, yet deadly”
The other students murmured. A serpent? Were there snake Beastmen in existence? Strange, but well, if the Mirror said so.
“You shall be assigned to Savanaclaw, among the other beasts who live under the teachings of the King of Beasts' spirit of persistence”
Kalyan sighed, bowing at the Mirror with a smile. Now that he did, they noticed his lips could stretch much wider and he had snake fangs. Apparently, snake beastmen were a thing.
“My pleassssure” He hissed, flicking a forked tongue. He received his pen/wand, his uniform and joined the other student. Leona eyed him with a raised eyebrow, ears flicking. “Hmpf… A snake. Just great”
“Oh, Dorm Leader, snakes are given such a bad rep” Kalyan mused, bowing again with a smile “I am wise enough not to meddle with a Lion’s claws”
Kingscholar’s lip twitched “Hm, you’d better not play games, here in Savanaclaw there’s only one rule: obey me, or the consequences won’t be pleasant” But Vishvaas didn’t lose that smile of his, maybe it was not to be seen intimidated or maybe he just wanted to get in Leona’s graces, who knew.
“Naturally” the Serpent replied, and then followed the freshmen in the mirror leading to Savanaclaw.
“What a strange guy, eh, Minion?” Grim swayed his trident like tail as they headed back to Ramshackle to make some inventory for the upcoming classes. They had to check if they had enough textbooks and supplies.
They were soon joined by Ace and Deuce, who had gladly skipped the house tour of Heartslabyul for the newcomers and let Cater do so, they just wanted to chill and talk about the break with Yuu.
The human had the time to explore this new, magical, strange world, and they were completely fascinated by it. They sure hoped Crowley would find a way to let them travel back and forth between their homeworld and this one, they would miss their friends for sure.
“We got five notebooks per class; I think this is enough for now” they stated, checking the school materials on a list. Yep, they had everything.
“Nya, we’ll just buy more from Sam if needed!” Grim happily jumped on his desk “Another year to prove how great of a wizard Grim is! Nya-ha!”
Ace rolled his eyes “Yeah, sure you are” yet he yelped as a little flame almost caught his hair. The feline crossed his arms with a smug look “I practiced and can make smaller flames now! I got it under control!”
Deuce chuckled, clapping “Great work, but please, do it outdoors. Oi, in the meantime, wanna play some games and hang out? We have a lot to catch up”
And so, the four friends spent the afternoon yelling at the videogames Idia provided them for when he’d (rarely) stop by to hang out. Ace got a little too invested and he even started holding the controller while he laid upside down on the sofa. His excuse: he had a better perspective on when the enemy would spawn.
Once it was dinner time and had enough playing, they all headed to the cafeteria and got in line to get their food. Yuu eyed the day’s food choices and decided to have a lighter meal, just to be prepared for the next day and don’t feel sick during the night.
However, they couldn’t help but notice the Savanaclaw peculiar newcomer, now in uniform, sitting by himself on a table, writing on a paper sheet next to a letter envelope.
“Hm, I kinda feel bad for him” they pondered, then headed towards the table, just because they were friendly and didn’t want the snake beastman to stay by himself.
“Hey, I saw you here by yourself… You mind if we sit here?”
“SSSSS…! Oh…” Kalyan’s pointy ears pricked up and he hissed, startled. Then relaxed with a sigh “Sorry, I was too focused on writing. What can I do for you?”
“Nothing, we saw you all alone and we decided to join you” Ace extended his hand “Ace Trappola, this is Deuce Spade, from Heartslabyul” they both introduced.
“I’m Yuu, and this is Grim, we’re from Ramshackle”
“Oh, yes, the magic-less human and their feline companion, I heard about you” he cleared his throat, joining his hands together “Namasssste. Kalyan Vishvaas, at you service. Already most happy to have company on my first day”
The group of friends enjoyed their meals, they wanted to be friendly but also didn’t want to sound rude towards the newcomer.
“So, uhm…” Ace began “Where are you from?”
“Currently? Shaftlands” Kalyan took a big bite of the curry with rice, hissing with approval “Oh wow, the food is great here. I thought school meals would be dull” He chimed, keeping on eating.
“What do you mean, currently?” Yuu tilted their head, while Kalyan smiled “Me and my parents are nomads, we don’t stay too much in one place”
He pulled out a picture of him with two other people, slightly taller than him and both with reptile fangs, the mother was making a cheeky grin with her forked tongue sticking out and the father had both his wife and son in a tight hug. What a happy family picture.
“Woah, your parents look so… young?” Grim stated, but the beastman put the photo away with a giggle and a wink “Family secret, kitten”
“I suppose you didn’t start school sooner because of your way of living? No offense, just curious” Deuce sipped his juice.
“I’m not offended, don’t worry. And yes, Deuce, you’re correct. Eh, our life isn’t easy, but we have each other. I was writing to my parents right now before you came along” Kalyan then asked where he could send the letter, if there was a post office around the school. They nodded and offered to lead him there.
“Yo, sorry for the intrusive question” Ace said as they got up after dinner “You’re not venomous, right?”
Kalyan started making a hissy giggle “Tss-sss-sss! Oh no, no, no, no. I’m not. I got Python blood in my veins. Don’t worry, Ace, I don’t bite” he chuckled again, putting the letter in the box, ready to be sent.
“Well, thank you so much for the evening. If you need something, pay me a visit”
The four friends waved him goodbye while wondering why Leona was so suspicious of him. He seemed like a nice guy, maybe a little eccentric but not a bad guy.
Well, tomorrow would be a school day, so they would better go to bed early after preparing their backpacks.
“I wanna stay in the jungle!”
Here we go again. Another dream… Yuu was getting tired of those. When they had dreams, they usually meant bad things would happen soon.
This time they found themselves in a thick, humid, jungle. At the top of a tree there was a child with a… Panther? And were they talking as if they were friends? Strange.
“Huh? Heh, you wouldn’t last one day…” the panther stretched and yawned. Yuu totally agreed on this one, how old could the child be? Ten? Ok that he could talk to a big feline, but he was still a child.
“I’m not afraid, I can look out for myself!”
Famous last words, for a shadowy, long silhouette appeared behind the foliage. It was a snake, a long snake that eyed the kid just like Grim did when he was offered a can of tuna or any fish.
Yuu would have screamed for the kid to watch out and run away, or for the panther to wake up and scare it away.
The reptile suddenly spoke with a slippery, suave voice
“Ssssay now, what have we here?” he chuckled to himself “It’s a man cub, a delicious man cub”
“What are you doing there, kid? Get away!” Yuu yelled, to no use. The child shoved the python’s snout away, telling him to leave him alone. After the panther once again begged him to go to sleep, the serpent grinned deviously and… Something happened.
Yuu could see its eyes changing colors in a spiral pattern while he hummed a lullaby, captivating the young boy in a sort of spell, and then the tail appeared, and it started to coil up the boy tightly in its grasp.
“Eheheh, he won’t be here in the morning” last thing the wicked serpent said before Yuu would see everything go black.
“GAAAAAAASP” Yuu woke up, rubbing their head and grumbling mentally about another bad dream. Well, this time they were certain Kalyan Vishvaas would be behind it. And they would prevent anything to go wrong.
Nope. They would NOT put up with another crisis. Not this time.
“Grim, Grim wake up, we have to get prepared for class and… I gotta tell you something important”
The feline imp walked beside his human friend on their way to the cafeteria for breakfast, talking about the bad dream they had. It wasn’t a coincidence that Yuu would have a vision about a man-eating snake right after a snake beastman started attending Night Raven College.
“He hasn’t done anything bad though, at least not yet” Grim huffed, trusting his friend enough to believe them, after everything they’ve been through, he would indeed.
“What do you suggest, Yuu?” he asked while drinking milk and munching some cookies. Yuu nervously twirled the spoon inside their cappuccino, smearing the cocoa and sugar all over the foam.
It was important not to rush things, especially if Kalyan didn’t do anything yet, as Grim suggested. They couldn’t just accuse him of something nonexistent.
“Maybe we should ask someone to keep an eye on him?”
“Hm, this ain’t bad” Grim smiled, then tapped his paw on the table, thinking “Who do you suggest?”
They knew all Dorm Leaders by now, but some of them could be… Unpredictable.
“Helloooo Prefect! Can we sit with you today?” A happy voice called for them, they looked at whoever did so, then at each other. They nodded vigorously and spoke together
“Kalim”
The young nobleman and Jamil joined them, asking about how the break was and what did they do. Luckily, he was the one to approach them, despite his clumsy personality and all, he was a loyal friend and more than happy to help.
“I spoke with my parents about Jamil’s situation and how I don’t want him to hold back because of me”
He did keep his promise, that was another good reason to ask him this favor.
“Hey, Kalim… You do have some freshmen in Scarabia, right?”
“Yup, why do you ask?”
Yuu explained their nightly vision, and how they always had one before something bad happened, when anyone went Overblot. Even before Jamil did.
The vice housewarden frowned, sipping his tea. Yeah, he wasn’t proud of that moment.
“I had a dream about a massive snake about to devour a child in a jungle” Yuu confessed, sighing, “And I had a conversation with the snake beastman from Savanaclaw, Kalyan Vishvaas”
“Snake beastman?” Jamil frowned, pondering a little “I’ve never heard of such thing”
“Maybe they’re just super rare!” Kalim was worried though, he didn’t want another Overblot to occur, he would help his friends however he could
“Count us in!” The Dorm leader piped up with a brave smile
“Wait, I didn’t say anything!” Jamil replied, baffled and annoyed. He didn’t want to get caught in another crisis and facing more monsters or maddened students.
“Jamil please, it’s for preventing trouble to happen!” Yuu begged their friend “You don’t have to do anything. I just want you to ask the freshmen that will share classes with Vishvaas to report anything suspicious”
Jamil was relieved of this, good. It was an acceptable plan to begin with.
“Fine, fine. I’ll help you too… I also want to research a little about these snake beastmen, maybe Kalim is right and they’re rare. Or maybe almost extinct”
A hissing sound made the four shiver head to toe. They turned around to meet Kalyan’s wide reptilian smile and brown eyes.
“Goodmorning, Yuu, Grim. Were you talking about me?”
“Ah, hi Kalyan! Well, we were…” Grim stammered a little, Kalim stepped in with a wide grin “Hey! Welcome to Night Raven College! I’m Kalim Al-Asim, Dorm Leader of Scarabia. Me and my vice Jamil here are friends with Yuu and Grim!”
Kalyan seemed to relax a little from a tense expression. Yuu could swear his neck muscles had gotten swollen and then back to normal…
“Well, nice to meet you then. How nice that there’s not much rivalry between Dorms” He sat down, sipping some green tea.
“Ahah, just wait until Leona starts ranting about Tsun- Malleus Draconia and Diasomnia” They blushed as they were about to call the Fae Prince with the nickname they gave him long ago. Not that they stopped using it when they were together.
“Oh dear” Kalyan rolled his eyes “Well, he’d better leave me out of this. I tend to avoid fighting and competition”
Why was he even sorted in Savanaclaw then?
“Well then. See you in class!” The serpentine finished eating and walked away with his notebooks and stuff.
The group of friends sighed with relief. That was close.
“We’d better get going. Please ask around after class, ok? See you at lunch, ok?”
Kalim and Jamil nodded, heading to class for the day. They promised to ask the freshmen how everything went according to plan.
[…]
“Mreeow. I hate Trein’s lessons, I almost fell asleep again” Grim whined once at lunch, Yuu waited for the Scarabia wardens to report anything to them once arrived.
“Hey, Yuu!” The noble approached “I have news! But they aren’t exactly… Bad? Maybe we got him wrong”
Kalim had a first-year student tell him that Kalyan made an excellent first impression in Crewel’s class, he already knew many notions, he was at least second year level thanks to his parents’ teachings when he was homeschooled. As he explained the teacher, his mother was a doctor specialized in herbal remedies, and his father was a wizard that used incantations to make his wife’s medicine more effective, he had learned from both.
“Woah… Divus Crewel was happy? Am I dreaming?” Grim snickered, letting Kalim continue.
“So yeah, as I was saying, he was approached by a Pomefiore student asking to explain him a few things he didn’t get after class. Not only that, but also kids from his own dorm and other ones. And he accepted”
Yuu blinked, looking at their plate and thinking about what their friend just stated. Maybe they judged the mysterious student a little too soon, that sounded like something very kind to do for his disadvantaged classmates. And that dream could have just been in fact, a dream.
“Oh well, that’s good to know” Yuu huffed “Phew, I thought we would have to face a rabid Snake Overblot Monster sooner or later. Wait, where’s Jamil?”
“He went getting some books for his research”
Maybe it wasn’t necessary, Kalyan seemed like a good guy. They were happy to be wrong for once.
“Tell me. Which is the part you didn’t get?” Kalyan was in his room with another Savanaclaw student, he had his notes and textbook and asked him to explain a paragraph again. He didn’t understand the differences between two specific plants because they looked very similar.
“Wow, you’re awesome at tutoring!” the young teen chimed after a while “I feel bad for having it for free though. Can I do something for you?”
Kalyan blinked, tapping his chin and then smiled “Yes, you can. I don’t want money, really, I’m good. However, you could pay me with a few extra snacks from the cafeteria, what do you say?”
“You want to be paid in food? Woooah you’re awesome!” He smiled, telling him to wait and getting a couple bag of chips from his backpack “Here, I got these, got them from Sam’s shop”
Kalyan happily started to snack on them, his eyes fluttering closed. He almost looked like he hadn’t eaten in two whole days “Ah, thanks, I really needed that”
“No worries. Dang I’m so happy you were sorted here, you know? I was scared at first because of all the new environment” The boy looked aside, biting his lip softly. Kalyan flicked his tongue out, blinking. He sensed stress and decided to investigate further.
“Wanna talk about it?”
“Eh, just, fear of disappointing my parents and so on…”
Kalyan held his chin, thinking about something for a little while. His classmate didn’t notice but the serpentine young man’s eyes changed color for a second, from brown to golden and then blue.
He smiled… A little too wide.
“Well, I happen to know a few tricks for anxiety. Being a nomad is sssssooooo stressful. You have no idea, little cub”
The other boy tilted his head, nodding already. He really wanted to go well in school, but he was really discouraged about how difficult he found the first lesson already.
“Please, teach me. I’ll bring more food for you if you want”
“That can be arranged, also please, spread the word in the dorm or among the other student about my tutoring and anti-anxiety exercises. Would you do this?”
As the teen nodded, Kalyan smiled again and sat down on the carpet “We’re going to do a little meditation here, it’s a thing in my homeland. First of all, we shall start taking deep breaths. Close your eyes and just listen to my inhaling and exhaling”
The boy closed his eyes, breathing in and out like he suggested. Then he proceeded to breathe in, hold his breath five seconds and then out.
“That’s it. Now listen carefully…”
If only the boy could see the devious smirk creeping upon Vishvaas’ lips
“Open your eyes
Let go of your fear
Cease to resist”
The boy was puzzled, those words sounded like the beginning of an incantation, but he obeyed anyway because that tone sounded much more soothing than ever before. By the time he opened his eyelids, he felt his gaze to be glued on Kalyan’s. Something was keeping him looking, he couldn’t turn away, he didn’t want to turn away. It… Felt good to watch. He could watch forever, he wanted to get lost in that gaze, especially after the grinning beastman proclaimed three last words:
“Trusssssssssst In Me”