The first thing Alyssa did when she stepped into the bookstore was to close her eyes and take a long, deep breath as the scent of books, parchment, and ink filled her nose. It was truly her happy place. She could spend hours and hours browsing the shelves, admiring the beautiful quills and latest ink colours, and even picking out the best parchment papers or notebooks.

"There you are!" her father, Theron, exclaimed as he emerged from behind a shelf with a book in his hands. "Got your robes all done?"

"Yep!" Alyssa nodded, bouncing on her feet in barely contained excitement as she stared at the shelves behind him.

"Alright, Alyssa, you've got an hour," her mother said as she entered the store behind her. Alyssa gave a little cheer and bounded towards the nearest shelf. "Remember to get your schoolbooks too!" she heard her mother say as she disappeared down a row of shelves.

As she browsed through the books, she came across some interesting titles, like a book about dragon keeping and another about divination through twigs. There was even a book she thought was floating, but was in actual fact, resting above a book invisible to the human eye. If she could, Alyssa was sure to buy every one of those books that had caught her eye. But alas, she had made an agreement with her mother that she would only get one book each trip. And unfortunately for this trip, she was only allowed to get what the school required of her. That didn't stop her from pausing to read the books, though. After all, she had an hour to spend in the store.

With a skip in her step, Alyssa headed down another row of shelves, expanding her ever-lengthy list of books to read.