I froze for a second before grabbing Piper's arm and sprinting away. She fought me. Why was she trying to pull away? Maybe she had a better plan than running, a good hiding spot I hadn't seen on the grassy grounds. I let go of her arm and looked to her for direction.

She stopped running. "What are you doing?"

Eva screeched in frustration, apparently realizing the same thing I did. Piper must not've been wearing her glamour glass. She couldn't see the dragon. I grabbed her arm again and started running.

"Stop it," she shouted, yanking her arm out of my hand.

"There's a dragon," I shouted back.

She just blinked at me, obviously confused. "A dragon? Where-" She looked back at where we'd come. The dragon was watching us, still standing where we'd left it.

Piper started shaking. Not from fear, no. She was laughing. "Lilly, that's a wyvern, not a dragon."

"What's the difference?"

"Besides the fact that wyverns don't have forelegs? They're true magical creatures. They generate their own magic, like witches and fairies and everything. They don't need to eat magical creatures to survive."

I crossed my arms. "Unlike monsters?"

She looked uncomfortable. "Officially, monsters are called parasitic magical creatures, but yeah." She waved at the wyvern.

The wyvern waved back with one of its wings.

"That wyvern we just ran away from is a friend of mine. I told her I'd let her borrow my notes since she was sick on friday. You should come and meet her. There are a decent number of wyverns and other draconian variants around here. You should get used to them."

"If you say so." I followed her back to the wyvern.

"Hey Blagg, I've got the notes right here." Piper took off her backpack and rifled through it.

Blagg leaned forward to look at me. She sniffed the air with huge nostrils. Her snout was a lot shorter than a dragon's. Eva shivered on my shoulder. I fought the urge to flee, and Blagg seemed to notice.

"Why so afraid?" she asked in a deep, gravelly voice.

Piper glanced over her shoulder at me. "Oh, she's never met a wyvern before. Lilly Hemlock, didn't I mention her?"

Blagg nodded. "Do you want a flying tour? The campus is amazing from the air."

"No thank you, I've got class really soon."

"Uh huh."

Piper held up a notebook. "Here it is. Just get it to me at lunch. I'll be eating outside by North Dining."

"Thanks." With surprising dexterity, Blagg used two wing claws on one wing to pinch the notebook and tuck it into a pouch on her stomach. Not a bag pouch, like a pouch pouch, kangaroo style.

She nodded at Piper. "See you later." And she took off.

"See, that wasn't scary at all," Piper said. She turned to give me an annoyed look.

I stuck my tongue out. "How was I supposed to know she was a wyvern, which is apparently completely different from a dragon? I've never been around Otherworlders. My parents didn't even let me read fairy tales when I was younger. I had to catch up on all of that this summer."

"Fine, fine." She held her hands up in surrender. "I don't really blame you. Just remember, no one here is going to hurt you. There aren't any monsters on the rosters, which either means there aren't any in the school, or they're so good at acting normal that no one notices they're pretending to be magical creatures. Either way, you're going to be fine. There haven't been any murders here in like forever."

I would've asked what exactly "like forever" meant, but she'd already started moving. She trotted down the hill. It was the first time I'd had a chance to look around since we'd gotten here. My grandparents' descriptions of the place didn't do it justice.

It was like being in an enormous snow globe, only instead of snow, there were perfect fluffy clouds and a golden light that came from nowhere. I could see where the campus ended in the distance. The ground met the sky much closer than it should've if I was just looking out to the normal horizon. All around the border of the globe were more archways like the one we'd come through.

Our end of the globe was on top of a hill that overlooked dozens of white stone buildings. The buildings looked like modern castles, covered in tempered glass windows and medieval arches alike. From a distance, they looked fairly large. Then you realized that the tiny lizards moving around their bases were actually wyverns, and those ants were humanoid beings.

"It's like its own city," I said.

"Yep," Piper said over her shoulder. "The place is even bigger than it looks. There are mini-dimensions inside of this pocket universe, and even smaller pocket universes inside of the mini-dimensions. It's insane. But don't worry."

"I'm not worried. I have a map." Not that a map would do much good if I had to cross this entire campus and climb fourty stories to get from class to class.

She laughed. "No one uses maps anymore. This is the 21st century. You got a student ID, right?"

"Of course." I'd even stuck it in my pocket in case I had to get it out quickly. I pulled it out and sped up just a little so I could walk next to Piper. My ID was about four times as thick as a driver's license, and it was gray all over. "It's a little weird though, isn't it? I mean, the ID is supposed to have identification on it, right? Or was mine printed wrong?"

She snorted. "No, it's not printed at all. It's got basic ID features off of campus, but while you're on campus and connected to the network, it does a lot more. Just double tap it."

I double tapped it. The ID turned transparent, and golden lettering hovered over it, detailing my name, birthdate, etc. "Is this holographic?"

"Kind of. It's magitech from the fae planet. They're great with illusions."

There were a few icons at the bottom of the ID, including one with a knife and fork, one with a map, and one with train tracks. I clicked on that one.

Gold light swirled around me, obscuring everything in an instant. Before I could even call Piper's name, she disappeared. Or rather, I disappeared and reappeared somewhere else. I was still looking down at the campus, but from a much greater height. The tallest building had to be sixty stories, and its top was at eye level.

As far as I could see, nothing was holding me up. Several other people of various species hovered in front and behind me. They--and I--were speeding along, several hundred feet in the air, with no apparent means of support. I clutched my ID in my hand. It had gotten me up here, and it sure as heck was going to get me down.

The centaur riding in front of me disappeared in a flash of golden light. I glanced down. It was hard to tell, but I was pretty sure the centaur was on the ground now. It could've been another centaur, or it might've been some completely different creature. It was hard to tell, going this fast this high up.

Bad fly, no how fly, Eva hissed. Why fly? Not work, not should work.

Her thoughtspeech got scrambled when she was nervous, but I got her meaning. Neither of us had any idea what was going on or how.

My ID buzzed, and Piper's head appeared hovering over it. I clicked a little green dot that I assumed was an 'accept' button.

Piper laughed. "You having fun up there?"

"Where is up here?"

"The invisirails. I was going to tell you about them before you took off. If you push the home button--it's a house shape at the bottom of the screen--I'll walk you through getting off."

I pushed the home button. Piper's face shrunk and flew to the corner of my ID. She kept talking.

"Now, click on the rails button again."

When I did, a list of locations appeared hovering on the screen. There were things like North Dining or East Classroom Building, and also things like Gate S3: Sorciereville, USA, Earth or Gate E2: Varaktu, Lemoria, Fae.

"Should I go back to the gate?"

The little Piper head shook. "Nah, I'll catch the rails, too, and we can meet at the Beginning Magic Building. Just click on the building you want, and it'll drop you off automatically when you get there."

"Right. I can do that." My hand shook a little as I looked down at my dangling feet. "What if I drop my ID?"

"Don't worry, it's on a zipcord. See you soon!" She hung up.

A zipcord must be one of those retractable strings people attached to IDs in hospitals. Mine didn't have one. I should probably get one. It didn't matter right now. I pushed the button for the Beginning Magic Building, and it turned green. A little countdown clock appeared next to the button saying that I had two minute before I reached my destination.

We turned a sharp corner in the air, and a gust of wind made my ID fly out of my hand.