Dyna stood by, her reptilian eyes widening slightly with anxiety as she watched, waiting. The shimmering red light of the swirling portal reflected off the metallic finish of her beloved Senpai's body as his right hand disappeared, penetrating the portal. His robotic face seemed to grin, right before he leapt through the portal.

Seconds crawled by in silence, Dyna desperately trying to convince herself that she hadn't vaporized him, when suddenly, what could only be described as a... a creature... slid through the portal to stop where her Senpai had been standing only moments before. The dinosaur stood there, eyes locked with the eyes of a woman who appeared to be half snake. Both blinked, staring, before panic set in. Shrieking in unison, Dyna stumbled backwards, tripping over a chair as the snake monster slithered backwards, apparently attempting to use the desks in the back of the room to climb up the wall in an attempt to get as far away from Dyna as possible.

Dyna flopped about, struggling to right herself with the legs of a chair tangled amongst her own. Once she finally managed it, she noticed that in her thrashing, her bow had fallen to the ground. No matter how she stretched, her arms were just too short to reach. Her dilemma seemed to break through the snake girl's panic. Slowly, cautiously, she slithered over to pick up the bow, tentatively reaching up to place it back on the dinosaur's head.

"Hi. I'm Medi," the snake girl said, shyly.

"Hi. Do You Need A Dinosaur," the T-Rex replied.

"What?" Medi asked, the snakes in her hair tilting their little heads to one side.

"That's my name. You can call me Dyna."

The blue portal behind the metallic man flickered.

“Who are you?” the human asked the metal man.

“Apologies for the lack of introduction. My identification is Idem,” the robot replied.

“Nice to meet you Idem. I’m Steve,” the human paused awkwardly. “Well, I got to go to class.”

“I’ll come, too,” Idem announced.

Steve closed the large tome on his desk and shoved it into his haversack. He snapped his fingers and green flame from the sconces extinguished. He pulled on the black iron ring attached to the heavy wood door causing it to creak open. A short bipedal creature with pointy ears and a long flowing robe walked past the open door. An enthusiastic neigh from a pure white unicorn greeted Steve. Steve sighed and avoided looking at it as he left his room. Idem followed exactly two meters behind Steve down the stone hallway. The late summer breeze blew through the open windows, making the soft torch light flicker.

“Steve!” a bunch of girls squeed as he entered the large lecture hall.

“Let me help you with that,” the centaur said as she grabbed his haversack.

“Do you need help to your seat?” the bearded dwarf lady asked.

“How about something…” the satyr started.

The entire room fell silent as Idem walked into the room. The bagpipe player in the back stopped, letting the air out of his bag in a long and awful sound.

“Who… who is your friend?” the dwarf asked.

“Oh. This is Idem. He’s new here,” Steve answered.

“I am requesting knowledge beyond my mathematical understanding,” Idem added.

“Alright everyone, take your seats. Even you, metal golem,” a tiny creature with glowing pink wings shouted from the front of the classroom. “If you don’t have Intro to Conjuration, you are in the wrong class.”

—

The red portal flickered behind the two reptilian girls. An alarm rung from one of the night stands. “Oh no! I’m gonna be late for class,” Dyna shouted. “Come on!”

Dyna grabbed Medi by the arm and rushed out the door.

The two reptilian girls passed through an open roll up door. A gruff older gentleman with a metal hand and one glowing blue eye stood at the front of the classroom.

“You’re late Dyna,” the teacher scolded. “I would have hoped your tardiness wouldn’t start on the first day of school. And your friend must be…” he checked his roster, “Idem?”

“Medi,” the Naga girl corrected.

“Whatever,” the teacher shooed them to their seats. He turned back to the class. “In front of you is an old school combustion engine. Your first task is to disassemble…”

Medi began to chant quietly under her breath. Her eyes flashed red as one of the snakes in her hair shot out a twirling beam of sparkles. The beam impacted the block of precision crafted metal. The engine shook for a second before the crankshaft decided it was finished dating the piston who was cheating on it with the spark plug. In less than a second this engine broke up. Each piece sat next to the other in an organized array of metal.

“All done!” Medi announced with a smile.

“Uh… what?” the teacher muttered. “Alright, then. Let’s see you put it back into working order.”

“Hm… I’ll give it a try, but I’ve never been good at the back together part,” Medi answered.

Once more a beam of light sparkled against the table. The crankshaft had a change of heart. It really wanted to be with the engine bearings. And the piston was going to try to make it jealous by dating both the valve spring and the camshaft. All in all, the end result looked more like a chicken than an engine block. It even let out a loud “Bauk” and plopped down an oil pump in the shape of an egg.

“Right then,” the teacher said with wide eyes. “We’ll just put this over here and try not to think about what just happened.”

--

“Oh I see, you’re just altering the entropic values of the object using quantum entangled quarks that aren’t actually disobeying thermodynamics!” Idem announced triumphantly.

“What? No! That’s ridiculous,” the pixie replied.

A trolley car broke through the stone wall of the dorm walkway and impacted the ground with an explosion of dirt in the courtyard, shattering the peaceful quiet of the afternoon. A hippocampus popped its head out from the nearby pond. All of the students in the nearby classrooms rushed out to see what happened.

A frantic pixie came up from behind the crowd, shouting, “What’s going on? Alright everybody, stay calm. Keep your distance from the glowing wagon.”

The trolley’s electronic sign flashed, “You have arrived.” With a puff of air, the doors opened. All of the creatures gasped, but there was no one inside. The internal lights flickered and then blinked out.

“It seems to have died,” a manticore from the front shouted.

The pixie pointed at a harpie. “You! Go inform the head wizard.”

“No need to fret,” Idem announced. “It is perfectly harmless.” The wheels popped off and the trolley slammed into the ground. “Mostly harmless,” Idem corrected.

--

Medi was nodding off in her Modern Optics and Photonics class. Suddenly a centaur appeared in the back of the class.

“Um… where’s the restroom?” the centaur asked.

“Out to the left, third door on the right. Take the pass,” the teacher said while scribbling Greek symbols all over the blackboard.

“You, iron golem, tell me what you know about this object!” a griffon roared at the robot in the front of the crowd of creatures surrounding the trolley car.

“This is a transportation device from my world,” Idem replied.

The griffon landed. It loomed over the robot, showing off it gargantuan size. “Your world?” the griffon asked.

“Yes,” Idem announce without hesitation.

“Should we expect MORE of these objects?” the griffon asked with deliberate emphasis.

“The sample size is too small to correctly determine future outcomes,” Idem responded.

The griffon glared at the robot. “Begone with you.”

“Head master,” the pixie interrupted, “what of the object?”

The griffon mutter under his breath, telling the particles of the trolley to take a vacation. The trolley evaporated into the atmosphere. “What object?” the griffon growled.

--

“Oh wow!” a little girl squealed. “It’s a horsey in school.”

The centaur lifted his head from the drinking fountain. “I am no horsey. I am Ivanroth of clan Orth…”

“Can I ride you?!” the little girl shouted.

“No!” the centaur shouted in disgust. “I am no mount! I am a warrior of the…”

“Pleasssssssseeeeeeeee,” the girl said, screwing her face into a pout..

“Go away. I will not be ridden today,” the centaur huffed while stomping his hoof.

“Umph,” the girl complained before sticking her tongue out at the centaur and running away. She tripped on her own shoelace and scraped her knee. “OWWWWWWWW!” she howled while big, fat, dramatic tears began to well in her eyes.

Heads popped out of all the nearby classrooms, concern and curiosity on every face. Low mutters could be heard that the centaur had hurt the little girl as the mood turned from curious... to hostile.