Being under the teleportation spell felt a bit like being in the vacuum of space. It only lasted a moment, but during that time, all Kylie could see was darkness, and she felt like her lungs were about to explode. When she and Airi reappeared, Kylie dropped to her knees, starting to cough and gasp for air.

                “You—cough—could have warned me—cough—about that!” Kylie said.

                “Sorry,” Airi said. “I should have remembered how awful it feels to teleport the first time. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”

                How does anyone get used to that? Kylie asked herself as she stood up and surveyed her surroundings.

                They were on the wooden deck of a large ship, and all around them as far as the eye could see was water. Wind whipped Kylie’s face and arms, and she shivered.

                “Where are we?” she asked.

                “We’re on board the Pegasus, a few miles northeast of Jacksonville, Florida, I think,” Airi replied, then checked her watch. “It’s almost seven-thirty and you’ve had a long day. Why don’t I show you to your room so you can get settled in?”

                Kylie nodded.

                “Alright.”

                Kylie followed Airi to a nearby door, which then led to a flight of stairs. The two of them walked down it until they reached a wooden door, which Airi opened. It led to a hallway with doors on both sides, all of which had room numbers. Kylie followed Airi a few yards down the hallway, until they reached a room numbered 114. Airi took a key out of her bag and used it to open the room’s door.

                “Here you are!” Airi pronounced, holding the door open for Kylie. “Tomorrow morning you can sleep in if you want, but just so you know, breakfast starts being served at seven and ends at ten-thirty.”

                “Okay, I’ll try to be there,” Kylie said, nodding.

                “I’ve picked up some other kids your age on my way here, who are also coming to the Academy. Most likely, they’ll be at breakfast, so maybe you can make some friends there.” Airi said, smiling.

                “Cool!” Kylie responded. “And thanks for showing me to my room.”

                “My pleasure! G’night!” Airi replied.

                “Goodnight!” Kylie answered.

                Kylie hauled her suitcase into her room and closed the door. Inside was a bed with white sheets, a small couch, a TV, and a writing desk. Kylie opened a sliding door that led to a small closet, and a second door that led to a bathroom with a shower. It reminded her a bit of the hotel rooms that she had stayed in while on vacation with her parents.

                Kylie set down her suitcase, opened it, and took out a book that she had packed. After she had read for a while, she started getting ready for bed. A few minutes later, when she had gotten under the bed covers and turned out the lights, she noticed that because there were no windows, it was pitch black: darker than being in a cave at midnight without a light source.

                It’s always hard, sleeping in a new place, but eventually Kylie was lulled into a light sleep by the sound of her own breathing, and the gentle rocking of the ship.

* * *

                Kylie woke up at around eight o’clock and proceeded to get showered and dressed. After that, she opened her door—and realized that she didn’t know how to get to where breakfast was being served—or anywhere else on the Pegasus.

                Oh well, she thought, heading down the long hallway of doors. Maybe I can find someone to point me in the right direction.

                After what felt like an eternity, Kylie figured that she was lost, and probably walking in circles. It was no use. All the hallways looked the same, no matter how many twists or turns she took. She might as well start knocking on the room doors and asking for directions from the ship’s crew. Kylie was about to tap on a door to her left, when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye, to her right.

                It was a creature. But what kind? With a lion-like body, blue fur with orange tiger stripes, three tails, wings, pointed ears, a thick, orange, horse-like mane, and horns that curved upwards into an arch shape, it was unlike anything she had ever seen in her life.

                The creature started to walk slowly towards her, and Kylie panicked, starting to whimper. What would it do if it got its paws on her? Would it bite her? Claw Her? Lick her to death? And… what was it doing on the ship in the first place?

                Just then Airi appeared, running down the hall.

                “Razor!” she called. “There you are!”

                Kylie looked up, confused. Had Airi just called the creature by a name? Did that mean that it was her pet?

                Airi knelt down next to the creature, looking it in the eyes.

                “Razor, don’t run away from me like that again,” she said. “Do you know how long I’ve been looking for you? And when I have better things to do as captain of this ship!” Airi gave the creature—Razor—a stern look, then turned to Kylie. “I’m so sorry,” she told her. “This must be your first time seeing a quinjac. Razor must have startled you half to death!”

                “A quin-what?” Kylie asked, trying to remember how Airi had pronounced it.

                Airi chuckled and shook her head.

                “A quinjac. Sorry, I should have explained sooner. This is Razor, my quinjac.” Airi placed her hand on the creature’s head, which stood slightly higher than her elbow. “Lately, he’s been feeling a bit claustrophobic on board the ship, so he’s been trying to escape my quarters. Today, it looks like he succeeded, and nearly scared one of the Academy’s future students to death!” she gave Razor a half-stern, half-playful look. Razor replied by rubbing his head against Airi’s waist, and Airi laughed, scratching him under the chin. Kylie smiled. The way Razor leaned into her hand reminded Kylie of Thomas.

                “So, you… own Razor? He’s your pet?” Kylie inquired.

                “Not exactly. You don’t really use that term when you’re talking about a quinjac and its master. The relationship is much deeper, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not the one who pays if Razor does something mischievous.”

                “I see,” Kylie said. “I was about to ask someone for directions to where breakfast is being served when you and Razor found me. Do you think you could show me the way?”

                “Oh, of course! Follow me,” Airi replied.

                As the two of them began to walk down the hallway, Kylie said,

                “So, you told me that a quinjac’s relationship with its master is deeper than that of a pet’s with its owner. What does that mean?”

                “It’s complicated. The relationship between a quinjac and its master is more like a bond between two friends, partly because quinjacs can sense their master’s emotions, and they always do their best to lighten their master’s mood. It works so much so that they’ve even been rumored to have healing effects on their masters, both mentally and physically.”

                “That’s incredible,” Kylie replied. “What else can they do?”

                “Well, they’re incredibly agile, they can jump long distances, carry heavy loads, be ridden on… and fly, of course,” Airi said, gesturing to the orange wings on Razor’s back. Razor made a half-growl, half-chirp noise and gave his wings a slight flutter, even as they were tucked in. Kylie giggled.

                “He knows we’re talking about him,” she said.

                “He certainly does, doesn’t he?” Airi answered, scratching the ears of Razor, who was walking along beside them. Razor leaned into her hand, reminding Kylie again of Thomas.

                “Here we are!” Airi announced, opening a door which led to a room full of tables and chairs, with a buffet on the left end. Already seated there were six people: two boys and four girls. Kylie smiled and waved shyly, thanked Airi for showing her the way, then walked over to grab her food. Being served that morning were pancakes, bacon, and fruit salad. Kylie grabbed a plate off a nearby stack and started putting food on it.

                Once she had a full plate, she walked over to where the other people were seated.

                “Is it alright if I sit with you?” Kylie asked.

                “Sure!” one of the girls answered with a smile. She had pale blond hair, watery blue eyes, and long, elegant hands.

                “My name’s Kylie Renjay,” Kylie said, remembering to add her last name to her introduction. “What’s yours?”

                The blond-haired girl who had spoken introduced herself as Etha Quan. The two boys introduced themselves as Jasper Ardeo and Enrique Caligo, and the other three girls were named Terah Carus, Oralia Pinewood, and Jennifer Leafley.

                Jasper had tousled red hair, green eyes, and freckles. Enrique was Hispanic, and had tanned skin with dark hair and brown eyes. Terah had shoulder-length brown hair, sea blue eyes, and a high forehead. Kylie noticed marker stains on her hands and bruises on her legs. Oralia had a similar hair color to Terah, but hers was an inch or two longer. She had hazel-green eyes and freckles. Jennifer was about a head taller than Kylie, and had bushy, curly, brown hair, hazel eyes which were covered by her pale pink glasses, and lightly tanned skin. All of them seemed to be about twelve years old.

                Kylie sat down and bit into one of the pancakes. It was mediocre at best, but she still enjoyed it.

                Jennifer asked Kylie if she had gotten lost on her way to the breakfast room, and Kylie laughed.

                “Yep. After wandering around for about ten minutes, I ran into Airi and her quinjac, and they had to show me the way,” she replied.

                “Whoa, you saw Airi’s quinjac? What did it look like?” Terah asked.

                Kylie went on to explain Razor’s unique appearance, while the others oohed and ahhed as she spoke.

                “So you’ve never seen him?” Kylie asked, once she had finished. Terah shook her head.

                “No, I’ve heard Airi mention Razor, and I always wondered what he looked like, but I never saw him. He was always in her quarters.”

                “Huh. I guess he did a pretty good job of not escaping until today.”

                “You’re pretty lucky,” Jennifer said. “I had to resort to knocking on the door of one of the crew member’s quarters and asking for directions.”

                “I was about to do that too!” Kylie exclaimed, and they both laughed. There was a pause, then Kylie decided to ask a question that had been on her mind for a while.

                “So do any of you guys know what exactly our job is, or who we’re up against?” she asked. Each of the others shook their heads and replied with variants of “no”.

                “Really?” Kylie asked. “None of you know what our job is as Guardians?”

                “I’m assuming we’re some kind of… elite team,” Jennifer said, tentatively. “But I’m not sure. I never thought to ask Airi when she brought me aboard the Pegasus.”

                Kylie sighed. How could she go to a new school, if she didn’t know what she was training to become there?

                “Do you guys think we’d be able to ask Airi about it?” she said.

                “Nah,” said Jasper. “She’s probably too busy being all ship-captain-y.”

                “Well, I guess we’ll just have to find out when we get to the Academy,” Kylie decided.

                The conversation continued. Kylie learned that Terah and Oralia were neighbors and friends from the same town in Florida, Jennifer was from Virginia, Etha was from Maine, close to the border of Canada, Enrique was from Texas, close to the border of Mexico, and Jasper was from Kansas.

                Once Kylie had finished eating, Jasper said,

                “Why don’t we all move to the game room?”

                “There’s a game room?” Kylie questioned.

                “Yep,” Jasper grinned, getting up from his chair. “You’re gonna love it. They’ve got tons of board games, card games, movies, video games….”

                He continued talking about the various games the room had as he led the group down the uniform hallways, and into a room with a paper sign taped to it, saying, “Game Room”.

                The game room was apparently a wide space, with a couch, coffee table, TV, and cabinets on one end, and foosball and air hockey tables on the other. The tables, couch, and cabinets were all attached to the floor. The handles of the cabinets were placed close together with a hook in between them to keep them closed. In case of a storm, Kylie figured.

                It took the group of new friends a while to decide what to do. Enrique and Jasper wanted to have an air hockey tournament and Oralia, Etha, and Terah wanted to play a card game, while Jennifer and Kylie remained neutral. In the end, they took a vote, and decided to have an air hockey tournament first, then play a card game.

                The air hockey tournament went well. Jasper won, with Enrique as a close second, and Etha coming in third. If they had counted the others, Oralia would have come fourth and Kylie fifth, with Terah and Jennifer as sixth and seventh.

                The group then switched to playing various card games, some of them involving regular decks of cards, and the other games coming from inside the wooden cabinets, of which they had to read the instructions on how to play.

                They had been playing games for about two hours, and it was close to eleven o’clock when a speaker sounded above their heads, making the group jump.

                “Hi, guys,” it said. It was Airi’s voice. “I just picked up a new girl, and I’m sending her your way, along with some food. Just wanted to let you know.”

                “Huzzah for food!” Jasper cried.

                Etha gave him a look.

                “What? I’m hungry,” Jasper said, arms raised in an apologetic gesture.

                The girl arrived a few minutes later, with a knock at the door. Jasper opened it, and gazed lovingly at the tray of sandwiches she was holding. The girl swept into the room and placed the tray on the coffee table in front of the couch. Then she bowed slightly to the group, placing her hands in front of her legs.

                “Hello, my name is Katsumi Hayato,” she said, her voice airy and melodic.

There was something aloof about her presence: the way she walked, holding herself upright and gazing directly forward, the way her dark hair flowed behind her. The way her eyes scanned the room, as if looking for imperfections.

                The rest of the group introduced themselves (or attempted to do so, as in Jasper’s case, whose mouth was full of sandwich).

                “It is a pleasure to meet all of you,” Katsumi said to them, but didn’t offer to shake hands.

                “So where are you from, Katsumi?” Kylie asked.

                “New York,” Katsumi replied. “My parents run a Japanese restaurant there.”

                “Oh, cool! I’ve been to New York a few times. I’m from Washington DC.”

                Apparently, Katsumi had visited DC once when she was nine, and the two of them went on to talk about the differences and similarities between the two cities. They were discussing the number of pigeons when Jasper invited them to play a card game with everyone else. Both girls accepted, and the group continued to play the game for a few hours.

                The day flew by. Before Kylie knew it, it was 6 o’clock, and the speaker above the group’s head was sounding again, this time to call all of them to dinner at the dining hall. The group cleaned up the game they were playing, and walked down the hallways and into the large room full of tables.

When the door was opened, Kylie stopped short. There, seated at one of the circular tables, was her best friend, Charity Delmare.