Corin Belcoth woke up with a sense of anticipation so great that it made him seem light-headed for a moment as he leaped out of bed. Or maybe that was the blood rushing to his head. Either way, today was an important day. Today was the day he would prove to his friends, his parents, and his teachers that he was not a weakling. He would prove that all the people who said he�d never make it to the Order of the Dove were wrong and watch them burn with envy as he took the white robes while they still wore the dull brown of the Order of the Hawk. A smile crept to his handsome features, lighting his green eyes with a happy sparkle as he practically skipped over to the closet that held his clothes and flung open the doors, causing the mahogany to bang against the stone walls with a resounding crash. Right now, the well being of his doors was the last thing on his mind.
Picking out a cream-colored shirt and light tan pants, (they would match best with his new robes once he got them) and laid them on the small bed that matched all the other beds of a trainee in the Order of the Hawk. He stripped out of his almost-white pajamas and pulled on the pants, pulling the drawstring taut around his waist and tying it in a complicated knot. He wasn�t taking any chances that his pants would fall down in the middle of the presenting ceremony.
Next, the shirt went over his head to cover his chest, toned from eleven years of exercises and four years of fighting training, which strengthened the body in order to hone the students� magical powers. Only trainees in the Order of the Osprey and above were allowed combat training. The teachers said it was because only those who had reached that level or higher had achieved the discipline that was required for proper fighting techniques to be preformed. Corin hadn�t like that rule when he was younger, but once he had entered the Ospreys, he had thought it fair and reasonable.
But today, it almost seemed like no rules applied to him, not even that of gravity. He floated to the mirror on his dresser and ran a brush quickly through his honey-colored locks cut close around his ears. Once he was sure that no stray hairs were going to pop up and make him look like an idiot in front of his examiners and teachers, he reached for the threadbare brown robe that hung on a hook next to the mirror and dresser.
He held it in front of him for a minute, staring at its worn appearance. It had been used everyday for the past two years, serving to declare his status in the Order of Mages to all who saw him and knew what it meant. But now, it was time to discard it for a new robe, one that would raise his status in the eyes of the world, not just those aware of the colors worn by each order, because everyone in Tarin knew that anyone wearing a white robe was a mage from the Order of the Dove, the highest Order possible to achieve. He would strike awe and respect into the hearts of his allies, and fear into the hearts of his foes.
A sharp knock on his door threw him out of his reverie. �Come in!� he called a little too loud in his excited state.
�Corin?� a blonde head peered around the door as it opened. Blue eyes searched the room, taking in its contents: bed, table, desk. The dresser, however, was hidden by the partially opened door and thus, so was Corin.
�I�m over here Kala.� He leaned over toward the door and waved merrily.
�What are you doing? You have to be in the assembly hall in about ten minutes. You don�t even have your robe on yet.� Kala�s voice was frantic, �You just can�t be late to your own testing. That would be so embarrassing.�
Secretly, Corin agreed with his girlfriend but wouldn�t show it. Not so close to his robing, that is. �I know, I know. I�m almost ready, see.� He held out his robe in proof as he sauntered toward the blonde smiling, �I even picked out clothes that will go with my new robes when I get them.�
Kala giggled, �Silly, you have to pass the test before you can get your robes.� A delicate white hand reached out and swatted at him playfully, all urgency forgotten. She could be so easy to distract, sometimes.
One reason why Corin liked Kala so much, they had been together for a year and a half, was that she was so na�ve when it came to certain things. He loved to explain to her all the things that she got wrong. It made him feel important in a world where he was considered the opposite. So Corin smiled indulgently and responded while swinging on his robe, �Kala, they don�t choose someone to take the test for the Order of the Dove if they don�t know that they can pass it. That would be bad for their reputation if the mages of the Dove made such a blatant mistake as to choose someone who was too weak to pass their tests. You see?� Even as he said this, however, a small seed of doubt planted itself into the pit of his stomach.
The blonde girl nodded, although a slightly confused look resided in her eyes. Normally, Corin would take the time to sit her down and explain it all to her until she understood, that was just the good boyfriend he was, but he was in too much of a rush right now. Maybe after he got his white robes he could make her understand. Until then, he had to hurry and get to the assembly hall.
�Come on Kala, let�s go.� He said, grabbing the girl�s slender wrist in his hand and pulled her out of the door. Kala stumbled a bit but regained her balance with Corin�s hand to steady her and then jogged to catch up with the rapidly moving boy. He moved down the marble hallways outside his room, their smooth, perfect face broken by the wooden doors of the other students� rooms spaced at regular intervals. The ceiling soared high above him as if trying to outdo the sky itself.
These halls were symbols in and of themselves. Symbols of wealth or power since only the amazingly rich or powerful mages could truthfully claim to own even a bit of the costly substance. In the school�s case, it symbolized both of these, wealth and power, because the mages who had founded and maintained the school possessed both.
However, that was not all these halls represented. They were symbols of strength also. Strength to stand against time and the elements. Corin used to spend hours staring at the marble halls when he had first arrived, the long creamy stretches of glossy stone dotted with gray, rose, and blue swirls intermingling in an intricate dance. The amount of marble in just that one hallway had fascinated him, a young boy who had just been pulled off his parents� farm and plopped squarely in the middle of the biggest city in all of Tarin. Once he had been �discovered� by a wandering mage there had been no time at all for him to adjust to his new path in life and prepare himself for what lay ahead. But he had learned soon enough through blows both physical and verbal that standing and staring like the country bumpkin he was was no way to win friends.
Later the marble hallway had become just an everyday thing like the rising sun, something to be marveled at for its beauty but privately so as not to lose one�s standing in the eyes of the others.
But today, Corin barely even noticed them as he rushed passed toward the mahogany door at their end, worn brown cloak billowing out behind him like the wings of the hawk whose Order he was so eager to leave. Kala, having been released from Corin�s grip, jogged along behind, her own pale gray robes of the Order of the Osprey (which was one level below Hawk) bouncing at her ankles.
They burst out of the heavy oaken doors at the end of the marble hall and into a sun-dappled courtyard of brick walkways, manicured trees, and sculptured bushes. All of this was surrounded by the brick walls of the school and four oak doors identical to the one he had just came out of set at each of the four points of the compass.