Closed The crossing semi-open

Date: Evening of Sept 1st, 2021

Weather: crystal clear sky with a waning moon. Chilly and moderately windy.

Open to 2 more once Rin Carmilla posts

Ana was awestruck. This might actually have been one of the first time in her life when she was genuinely lost for words. She had caught her first glimpse of the castle from the train, but now that she was seeing it from up close, it was even more impressive. She had known that it must be big. After all, hundreds of students lived there along with all the staff and there had to be room for classrooms as well, but it seemed like the castle had a million towers, one higher and spindlier than the next.

She had sadly lost track of Nia, her friend from the train, in the bustle at the station, but that was okay. They had already agreed to meet again once they had settled in.

An adult had shuttled the first years away from the older students and Ana had allowed herself to be pulled along by the crowd until they got to the edge of the lake, where she now stood in front of a group of small four-seated boats. Some first years were already climbing in, while others, like Ana, were still taking in their first real sight of the castle.

Ana managed to pull herself together long enough to climb in to an empty boat herself, but paid no attention to who was joining her. She wrapped herself tightly in her coat against the wind and returned her attention to the castle.

With little light from the waning moon, the majority of the light came from the castle itself, many of it's windows glinting brightly in the distance. She wondered briefly whether the older students had already arrived, but even if they had they would probably be in the great hall getting ready for sorting and the feast that came afterwards.

"It's absolutely amazing! I can't wait to get there!" She said to nobody in particular. "I just wish we could make these go faster. It's bloody freezing." The boats were plodding along at a leisurely speed, staying together and seemingly all driven by the same magic. And as much as Ana was enjoying the view, she would enjoy actually being inside the warm castle more. Not to mention that now they had arrived, she was developing an unexpected bout of nerves about the sorting and wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.

Suddenly a ripple moved the water to the right of the boat and Ana could have sworn she saw something large and dark moving underneath the surface. She instinctively shifted her weight towards the other side of the boat, causing it to sway.

"Sorry, but did you see that?" She asked the person sitting behind her who would also have been in a good position to see it. Hopefully they had or she was going to start wondering whether she was going crazy from nerves.