Eyes In The Sky - Chapter I

Another day dawned I knew would be a lot different to the usual. It was another day of new students arriving to the academy. Just in the past days I was asked once again to be one of the chosen guides to show the newcomers the way round the campus grounds. Not that I ever had a problem with this. I'm always happy to see new faces around here.
But before I keep on confusing you, my name is Leroy and I am a senior student at the Beast Academy. My beast form is a male eagle harpy, one of the rare kinds. I still remember my first day at the academy. It was a rather cloudy day but the atmosphere was very calm and relaxing. This was the day I met my friend Jake, a male sphinx, who I have been very close to ever since. He is the sort of guy who can always make you laugh no matter what mood you're in. We have also been roommates ever since we arrived at the academy.

But I'm getting off topic. I sat up in my bed, stretched my arms and yawned. I got up and went over to my iPhone docking station and put on some music. This wasn't much appreciated by late sleeper Jake since it was quite early.

"Will you turn that off?" Jake said annoyed.

I looked at him and smiled. "No, I think you should learn to get up earlier. I have to be at the guide meeting soon because the new students are arriving."

"Well that's absolutely fascinating. That doesn't mean you need me to be awake though."

"You're right. I just like pissing you off."

He sighed and fell back on his pillow. We would always support each other when the other one needed help. I got dressed and headed off to the main building where all the guides would meet up. When I arrived the other chosen students were already there. One of the teachers came up to us and told us which group to guide through the academy. We had gone over the tour in the past days so that no one would forget. I started to make my way to the front of the campus to get to the group I had been assigned to.

Just before I reached my destination, I had a common encounter. Three guys, about one or two years younger, looked at me while I was walking past and started yelling over to me.

"Hey birdie. On your way to hang out with the losers again." said one of them.

"I'm guiding a group of new students through the academy to show them their way around. How about you three finally start being mature and stop picking on other people."

Another one of the three pricks spoke up. "Wow! Birdie here's trying to be a tough guy, huh?"

"Just drop it."

I wasn't in the mood to deal with the Samson brothers crap today so I just kept walking, hearing them laugh behind me. I turned around to see them having already found their next victim which was a small boy. If Jake had been there we could have taken them down but by myself I was rather powerless so this time I had no other choice but to tell the teachers.
I arrived at the big place at the front of the academy where huge crowds of people were waiting to be divided into groups. The teachers put everyone into groups and told all the guides which one to go to. While the other guides were being told about their groups, I looked back to the Samson brothers again to see them getting beaten by a huge blue tiger beast just before one of the teachers stepped in. I didn't bother with it any longer and tried to find my group. It literally took me a couple of minutes but I finally found it.

I ran up to the group and introduced myself. "Hey everyone, my name's Leroy and I will be your guide for today. There's something I need from each of you before we start the tour. Your names and beast form."

One of the youngsters raised his hand and I asked him to speak. "Yes?"

He told me his name was Tony and that he would prefer to show his beast form because he thought that explaining it would be too complicated. I told him to go ahead and he did. I was hugely impressed by the sheer size of it and immediately realised that it was the massive tiger beast I had seen just before. It was, as already mentioned, a huge winged tiger with three pairs of legs and a pair of big wings on its back.

"Very impressive! Didn't I see you take on the Samson brothers earlier?" I asked.

He didn't have to change back to human form to tell me that it was him I had seen. He shifted back and also told me that his mood can affect the weather. I didn't quite believe everything he said but there was more than enough time for him to prove it later. For now I had to get on with getting all the newcomers names on paper. After that I started the tour showing the new students the dorms, the arena and all the other parts of the academy. The tour ended in the dorm building where I told the new students to carefully pick their roommates since there was no swapping at this school.
It reminded me of arriving here on the first day and having only met Jake while taking the tour. He ended up being my only roommate in the end which I'm happy about now since it's more peaceful with just one person sharing a room with you.

Tony came up to me after just five minutes and had already chosen his roommates. I gave him the friendly advice to take room number 17 while it was still available since I knew from experience that it was one of the much better rooms. Everyone had already found their roommates and chosen their dorms when I found one student standing all by himself.
I handled a couple more situations with other students but overall it was a rather quiet day. Everyone who was chosen to be a tour guide today got the rest of the day off classes which meant I would be back in the room way before Jake would be. I signed off with the teachers in charge and made my way back to my room. When I arrived I threw myself onto my bed and once again turned on the music on my iPhone. I really enjoyed working with new students but it was still quite exhausting sometimes.

I needed to relax a bit and get my mind right so I opened the big window and stepped onto the sill. Shifting to beast form I immediately felt lighter and more careless, instantly holding onto the ledge with my razor-sharp eagle claws. Feeling the wind on my exposed body I let myself fall off the edge and spread my wings, giving me lots of updraft. Going higher and higher I felt the pure freedom this body always gave me while breathing in the fresh air through the nostrils on my hook-like beak. Using my tail feathers I circled the airspace above the academy multiple times until I started descending. I flew back to my room window and landed on the window sill. Still in my beast form I walked off the ledge into the room and to my bed. The door opened behind me and I shifted back to human form. It was Jake coming back from his last class of the day.

"What are you doing?" he asked surprised.

"I just came back from a quick flight if that's ok with your highness."

He smiled, went over to his bed and dropped his bag on the floor. "Well at least you had some spare time today. I'm quite exhausted."

"Survival Training?" I asked.

"Trust me. They expect so much from a sphinx, especially from a male like me. Even a creature as strong and fearless as a lion has its boundaries."

I nodded. "Sure thing bro. Just relax for a bit and you'll be better. You want a bottle of water?"

"Yea please." I opened the minifridge on the other side of the room, grabbed a bottle of water and threw it to him. He caught it with the help of his amazing reflexes.
We spend the evening talking about old times including our first day here at the academy. Jake had shifted to his beast form and curled up on his bed like a little cat. His big lion body made him look a lot bigger but his human head with the fluffy lion ears set the proportions right again. Every single one of his yawns exposed his savage lion teeth and tongue. His beast form had always amazed me but, as I had seen today, it came with a price.
It got late and we soon went to bed. I knew the next day would be just as exciting because this place was no ordinary high school.