The Sun rays were shining bright throughout the forest. Summer had come to an end but, damn, it was sunny. In the deep forest, there were two fawns running through it - one was smaller with the ends of her tail coloured pink, and one had tiny horns sprouting out of his head. The smaller one, with her shorter legs, was faster than the other. Abruptly, both of them came to a halt. The smaller fawn had it’s head high as if it was showing off to the other one.

The two fawns had all of the sudden, stood up on their hind legs and changed into their human forms. Their little fawn legs extending and changing into human legs and arms followed by the rest of their body. They seemed to have completed their transformation, and one was a girl and one was a boy; the boy still has his tiny horns on his head. The girl was smirking at the boy, crossing her arms over her chest.

      “I prove my point.”

The boy frowned, obviously irritated with what the girl has said.

     “Alright, fine, whatever.” The boy scoffed. “Luhan, your horns,” the girl chuckled and the boy - Luhan - frowned and pats his forehead. “Damn it.”

     “Luhan, you better master your transformation. It’s dangerous to stroll into human areas with those horns, they’ll see right through you.” The girl smiled as Luhan’s horns vanished. “I’m working on it, Irene.”

Irene nodded in agreement and pulled Luhan’s hand towards the bark of a huge tree. “Come on, we’re going to be late.” Luhan made sure that his sigh was loud enough for the entire forest to hear. Irene glared at Luhan, hitting him with much underestimated force. Luhan yelped.

    Suddenly, the sound of flapping wings was heard and both of them looked up to find a flock of phoenixes slowly making their way to the ground. One of them, Luhan recognised as Chanyeol, transformed first and strutted his way to both of them as the other phoenixes reached the ground.

    “Well, well, well, look what we have here. Two, uh? What are you two again?” Luhan glares the boy and stepped forward. “You wanna pick a fight, huh, Park?” Chanyeol smirked at Luhan. Another phoenix, known as Jongdae stepped forward and nudged Chanyeol playfully “No, we would never harm a lady.” Saying that Luhan was furious was clearly an understatement.

    “You-”

    “Stop it, Luhan,” whispered Irene to Luhan. “Come on Luhan, now your brother has to defend you?” Chanyeol spat, amused as Irene pulled Luhan away from the group of phoenixes. “Come on, they’re simply a waste of time,” Irene tried to convince Luhan but it was too late. Luhan concentrated on the group of phoenixes and was able to make the group, drop on their knees, screaming. Luhan had managed to play a high frequency sound in their brains causing them a lot of pain and slight hearing loss for the few painful seconds. Luhan could only smirk.

“LUHAN!” Irene yelled at him and pulled Luhan by his ear. Luhan yelped and clutched his ear but did not object. She pulled him towards a low transparent platform by the bark of the tree and pulled a low branch which automatically brought both of them up. The reason why they were being brought up was because their school, Cyfriniol, Institute of Mythical Studies, was held up by huge trees.

When the platform reached the top, Luhan and Irene got off and stepped into the school’s foyer. Irene still had her hand on Luhan’s ear. “Damn it, Luhan. They’re Phoenixes! They could do anything if you mess with them!” Irene scolded Luhan and finally (finally) let go of his ear. The other students at the foyer stared at both of them with shocked looks on their faces.

A prefect rushed towards Irene with full speed, grabbing her by the arms and saying “Hurry, the first years are already falling off the platforms,” before pulling her away, Irene looking over her shoulder and mouthing ‘we will continue this later’ to Luhan making him roll his eyes.

Luhan, all alone, walked towards the school’s courtyard and sat down on one of the seats there; observing the other students there. Most of them were obviously first years since there was a group of students that were admiring the coloured marks on their arms. A little girl had a light blue and black mark on her arm and Luhan glanced at his own light blue and black mark and smiled.

Luhan looked up to see a boy he knew all too well, Junmyeon. Junmyeon was carrying six bags, struggling with them, making Luhan stand up and take two bags from him with a smile. “Let me help you with that, buddy.” Junmyeon let out a relieved sigh when Luhan blessed him with his presence.

     “Wait, where are your bags?” Junmyeon asked. Luhan gave him a questioning look.

     “Already been sent here, of course.”

Junmyeon sighed. “My parents always tell me to bring my own bags, so I won’t trouble others.” Luhan just nodded in response, ignoring the shade Junmyeon was throwing him. Junmyeon, finally realised what he just said, widened his eyes and grabbed Luhan’s hands making all his bags fall to the ground. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to offend you or anything” Junmyeon cried and Luhan, taken aback, quickly assured Junmyeon that it was alright and it was nothing to fuss over.

    “So, what did you do over the summer?” Luhan asked as he led Junmyeon up the stairs to the Fawn dormitories. “Nothing much actually, my father asked me to take up the banjo.” Junmyeon said, making Luhan let out a loud chuckle as they were climbing up the last flight of steps.

As they entered their dormitories, Luhan glanced at the portraits of the head of the Fawn clan over the years aligned on the wall of the huge circular room and smiled. Oh, how he truly missed this place. There was a fireplace at one side of the room with a couple of beanbags and armchairs in front of it and a group of students were sitting there. At the other side of the room, the path was forked with two staircases leading upstairs; one towards the boys’ dormitories whereas the other one leads to the girls’ dormitories. Luhan and Junmyeon crossed the crowded circular room and walked up the staircase leading to the boys’ dormitories.

    “The banjo? Why the banjo? Out of all things?” Luhan asked Junmyeon, still amused. “My dad wants me to be the instrumental when we sing Christmas hymns in church.” Junmyeon’s dad is a priest, and a pretty good one too. “Why can’t he just hire a professional banjo player then?”

Junmyeon shrugged, not putting much effort into his reply. “We are running low on funds, we need to save as much as we can.” Luhan knitted his eyebrows together in confusion, “But doesn’t the fee for banjo lessons cost money too?” Junmyeon gave Luhan a grin and put his bags on his bed. “YouTube.”  

Luhan never laughed so hard.

***

Luhan walked into the hall, all the first years on the stage. This is what happens every year, the first years will sit in their respective clans. There are four clans; Shape-shifters, the highest on the ranks, the cunning ones. Then there is the Phoenix clan, second ranked, charismatic but cocky. Next are the Faeries, they are the kind and peaceful ones. And ranked the lowest are the Fawns, they have the intelligence and grace.

    “Did I miss anything interesting?” Luhan whispered as he sat down next to Irene. Irene shook her head no, eyes focused on the stage. Luhan faced the stage and immediately stopped himself from laughing when he saw a boy with tear tracks on his cheeks with a red and orange mark on his hand. Junmyeon, who was sitting beside Luhan, noticed as well and did not hesitate to let out a laugh. Irene shot both of them a glare and they quickly quieted down.

   “That poor new Phoenix. Probably would get bullied or something,” Junmyeon whispered to Luhan. A first year girl with her pigtails bouncing on her shoulders was walking towards Luhan’s row of seats and took the empty seat beside Irene. Luhan and Junmyeon knew what would happen next and covered their faces to avoid embarrassment.

     “Hi! My name’s Irene Bae and I’m your fellow Fawn clan member, nice to meet you,” Irene introduced herself and the girl nodded in excitement. “Hi, I’m Kim. Yeri Kim!” said the girl, full of enthusiasm. Irene nudged Luhan, indicating that he should introduce himself too. He rolled his eyes and put on a small smile, “Hi I’m Luhan and you are Kim. Yeri Kim.” Yeri nodded with a smile before looking back at the stage, pigtails flying about.

Irene jabbed Luhan in the ribs, “That was so ty, Luhan.” Irene said before she too, looked back at the stage just as the principal, Professor Tylwylyth Teg, was about to give his speech. Luhan looked at Junmyeon and and gave him a smirk, “Ah, I remember my first day of school.” Luhan whispered mockingly.

Professor Tywylyth held onto a microphone, smiling at the students. “Ah, I remember my first day of school.” Luhan and Junmyeon did a little high five before returning their gazes on the principal.

    “I would like to welcome all the first years to your new home, Cyfriniol!” Professor Tywylyth boomed and the crowd instantly cheered. “And to the old students, welcome back home!” Luhan and Junmyeon both cringed at the cheesiness and Irene shushed them both by hitting them.

“That is all, my lovely students. Head back to your dormitories and make your new clan members feel at home,” Professor Tywylyth said once more before turning himself into a faerie and flew away. Luhan is not even surprised anymore by his exit when he has seen it for over a million times in his five years in school.

Luhan and Junmyeon both walked with their clan members towards their dormitories when from afar, he spotted Chanyeol and his other Phoenix friends scanning the Fawn clan. He quickly ducked and pulled Junmyeon with him.

     “What?” Junmyeon asked and shot Luhan a quizzical look. Luhan immediately shushed him.

     “I controlled the Phoenixes’ minds earlier on the way to school because they were being such s and I think they’re about to kill me.”

Junmyeon, eyes now as big as saucers, slapped Luhan’s arm in fury.

“DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH?”