See If I Care

~7~

*Gobbledygook*

~Parseltongue~

-July 31st,993-

Alex lay in bed for a few minutes after they woke up that morning, just taking note of how they felt that morning. They were excited for the day, since it was their 13th birthday, and their birthdays with the five Protectors and Founders of Magic were always fun; especially since their birthday was during the time of the year when the castle was empty of apprentices, so they were able to spend the entire day with all five of them.

After a few minutes, they pulled themself out of bed and over to their wardrobe, ignoring the mirror hanging next to it until they were ready for the day. They studied their wardrobe before deciding on an androgynous outfit that leaned slightly more masculine. They pulled on their compression vest first, which was made of a mix of Acromantula silk and cotton, and which Merlin had gotten made specifically for them when they started going through puberty and found that some days they just couldn't deal with their developing curves. They slipped on a long-sleeved cotton shirt and then laced a regular, leather vest over the top. They pulled on one of their looser pairs of pants and laced a pair of shin-high boots over the top.

Once fully dressed, they strapped their wand holster on one arm and their knife holster on the other, both hidden under their sleeves, and strapped their daggers to each leg and tapped the rune on each dagger holster that caused it to turn invisible. Next, they attached their short swords to their belt, so they hung at each hip, again tapping a rune on each holster to turn them invisible. Finally, they placed their bow against their back, where it shrunk down and automatically stuck to the rune sequence sewed into all their clothes, the sheath of arrows being placed underneath their bow.

When Alex was done and fully kitted up with their various weapons, like they did every morning, they finally turned to the mirror, feeling up to looking at themself. They took in their appearance before nodding and leaving their room, heading down to the hall for breakfast. Alex entered the hall and took their seat at the table, the other five already there and waiting for them.

"Good morning Alex," Sal said, inclining his head towards them.

"Good morning Sal," they replied, before nodding towards the other four and greeting them as well.

"Happy birthday Young One," Merlin said.

"Yes, happy birthday Flame," Godric said.

"Thank you."

"Finish your breakfast and then we can give you our gifts," Helga said. Alex sent Helga a smile before continuing with their meal, conversation flowing smoothly amongst them. When they finished, everything was popped off the table, being replaced by a small pile of wrapped gifts.

Rowena pushed a gift towards them first. It was a tall gift, and when Alex unwrapped it, they found a pile of notebooks waiting for them. They looked through the various notebooks, all of which were a different colour, and noticed each of the notebooks had a different branch of magic or area that they were studying labelled on the front.

There was three notebooks in different shades of red; the mahogany one had Arithmancy across the front, the crimson notebook had Runes embossed across it, and the rose notebook had Spell Craft across the front. The warm orange notebook was labelled Healing, and the sunny yellow notebook had History on the cover. The jade green notebook had swirls across the front, labelling the notebook as ~Parselmagic~, and the pine green one had Fundamentals embossed on the front.

Alex continued looking through the notebooks, finding an aqua one labelled Languages and a teal one which had Potions written elegantly on it, while Aura Control was on the front of the navy-blue notebook. A royal purple notebook had Mind Magic on the cover, a caramel brown notebook had Animals embossed on the front, and Elementals was written on a chocolate brown notebook. There was a pitch-black notebook with Dark Magic curling across the front, a dark grey notebook labelled Offensive while Defensive was written on the light grey notebook, and a pearl white notebook had Light Magic on the cover.