Nathaniel Locke could be described easily by most. Brown hair, green eyes, freckles across his face and just a little over six and a half feet tall. Nearly all features of his were average. Never truly standing out amongst the people around him. A seventeen-year-old guy that never got the chance to experience the outside world or the chance to prove his worth. A child that lost both of his birth parents to tragedy. His mother had died of illness in his infancy. Years later, his father remarried. Only four years later, his father died in a plane crash on a routine business trip due to engine failure. Now, in his final years of high school, he is raised by the woman that his father married after his mother passed. A woman that, to Nathaniel, seemingly popped out of nowhere, Amanda.

While not his mother by blood, Amanda had always treated Nathaniel as her own, even after his father's death. To Nathaniel, she was an extraordinary woman. She was forty-two but didn't look a day over thirty. Her long auburn hair was almost always loose and frizzy, freckles similar to his own dotted her face and her brown eyes almost seemed to be able to read your deepest thoughts. She had a knack for that. Being able to look right through you and be able to tell when something was amiss. And at this moment, Nathaniel found himself in such a situation.

Amanda worked for an advertising company and had a personal laptop that she needed constantly for designing any jobs she was assigned. It also just happened to be a laptop that Nathaniel found out was capable of running the games that he enjoyed playing online. Amanda, of course, knew he did this and would constantly remind Nathaniel that it was her laptop meant for her work and not a teens antics and playtime. That didn't stop her from acting like she was unaware that he would sneak and play it when she "wasn't paying attention."

Unlike usual, Nathaniel had knocked the laptop off of his desk and it would no longer start. To avoid getting caught, Nathaniel tried to sneak the computer back to its resting place in the drawer in the living room. But, after successfully placing the laptop where it belonged, when he was on his way back to his room, his step-mother had stopped him.

"Nathan, what happened? Is something wrong?"

This was exactly what Nathaniel was trying to avoid. He had hoped that his step-mom would just try to boot up the laptop, see it wasn't working and either replace it or repair it, but she just had to catch him after the hard part of his "stealth mission."

"What? N-no, nothing's wrong, why are you asking?"

Not only was Amanda able to tell very easily if someone was lying or if they were feeling off, but Nathaniel was a terrible liar. His voice would shake, he would stutter and you could always see his eyes go anywhere that wasn't you.

"Well, it's just that you seem kind of pale and you're a bit jittery. You're only like this when something bad happens. So, don't hide anything from your mother. What happened?"

Nathaniel knew that he had been caught at this point, the moment that his step-mom spoke to him, he knew that she had caught him red-handed, so he figured he may as well save himself some trouble and tell her the truth.

"Well, you see...uh...well… I may or may not have erm...broken...the computer."

Amanda saw this happening at some point. As good of a kid she knew Nathaniel was, he was a tad accident prone. Honestly, she was just surprised that it had taken this long for it to happen

"Nathan, I thought that we agreed you would ask me before you used the laptop?"

Yes, his step-mom had warned him before and told him to ask her to use the computer, but she only let him use it when it was for a school project or something!

"Yeah, but there was an event going on and I didn't want to-"

So, that was the case this time? Well, it didn't matter to her. She had things to do that day, laptop or no and she needed to get them done, but that wasn't to say that she wasn't going to need the laptop for later. So, putting two and two together, she decided to send the one who caused the problem to fix the problem. Thankfully, she had purchased a warranty for the laptop, knowing that this kind of thing would happen with her butterfingers of a step-son, so he would only have to hand it over for repairs, something that even he shouldn't be able to screw up.

"I don't care. I hope you didn't have any plans for later, because you're going to take the computer to get fixed."

Well, it's not like Nathaniel had plans anyway. That didn't mean he wanted to do it. But, he knew that when his step-mom got mad about something or when he did something wrong, that there was no fighting against it. So, he had to sigh in defeat.

"Fine. Where was the tech shop again?"

That was another thing about Nathaniel. His severe lack of direction. Amanda swore that if she never held his hand in the grocery store when he was a kid, that he would be at the service desk every single time. Sighing in frustration, she scribbled the directions to the repair shop on a piece of paper and handed it to him.

"Here. Don't come home until you get that computer fixed, or you have bought a new one."

With that tone of voice, Amanda was definitely steamed, and Nathaniel had no intention of feeding those flames, so he left with a short nod to his step-mom and grabbed his jacket on his way out the door.

The state of Washington was always a bit too cold for Nathaniel's liking, but spring was finally coming around. While you couldn't quite feel that spring was coming, you could see it. Birds had begun to return to the area and a few trees were starting to bud. These were the things that stood out the most to Nathaniel at least. But, he couldn't let himself get distracted, he estimated that he had been staring off at the trees and birds for a few minutes, so he consulted the directions that his step-mother had given him.

"So if the store's on fifth, then...oh God, I'm already lost."

Even with the directions, his step-mom had given him, after only twenty minutes of walking from home, Nathaniel was lost. And as per tradition, whenever Nathaniel would panic, he would talk to himself.

"Okay Nathan, you'll be fine. You've been lost before, you'll find your way there… Maybe I shouldn't be talking to myself…"

Two hours had gone by and Nathaniel still didn't seem to be any closer to finding the tech shop. He took another look around, running his hand through his hair, and happened to spot a very inviting bench in the park nearby. Since he didn't think that he was likely to run into the store anytime soon, he decided to rest for a moment.

To Nathaniel, nothing felt better than the Spring breeze. He took the time to gaze around. The lake nearby had its fountain on and had several ducks afloat on its surface. A number of people were walking around the park, some jogging, walking pets or simply sitting around and enjoying the scenery as Nathaniel was. He wished he could just stay there for the day, but his step-mom would kill him if he didn't show up with a working computer.

Once again, Nathaniel stood up and began to search for his elusive destination when a strange, green object appeared in front of him. It seemed like some kind of portal but, that was impossible, right? Nathaniel got closer and started to investigate the green floating disk in front of him. He peered around at the passersby. He even tried asking a passing jogger if they were seeing what he was. But, the jogger didn't respond, in fact, the jogger didn't even acknowledge that he was there. It was almost as if both he and the portal didn't exist to the world.

So, what? Could no one else see what Nathaniel was seeing? Could they not see him? Still curious about the disk-like object that popped into existence, he touched it. Surprisingly, the surface wasn't at all solid, acting more like suspended water than a solid disk. The space behind it was cold, more so than the chilly post-autumn air around him. Then, the disk began pulling on him. Nathaniel couldn't fight back, it was far too strong. In a last-ditch effort to pull himself free, Nathaniel dropped the laptop and started pulling his captured arm with his free hand to no avail. He was pulled through in seconds.

There was no telling how long Nathaniel was out for. Seconds, minutes, hours? He had no idea. When the portal, that's what he had deduced that it was, had pulled him in, he found himself in a black void and passed out shortly afterward. Now, as he regained consciousness, he could hear voices surrounding him. Not only that, but he was able to smell smoke as well. It was painful for him to open his eyes, but he had to know what was going on.

What Nathaniel had expected to see when he woke up was a group of people passing through, chattering about him being asleep on the ground. But, what he saw were parting clouds of smoke. Through them, he was starting to make out the details of the people around him. The first that he saw was a girl, quite a bit shorter than he was. Once the smoke cleared sufficiently enough, he was able to make out more details. The girl was wearing a very strange outfit. She wore a black skirt, a white button-up shirt, and cloak with a medallion at her chest. But, the thing that stuck out the most to Nathaniel was the girl's hair and her eyes, both were pink. Nathaniel had heard that some people dyed their hair strange colors and that some people wore colored contacts, but he had never seen it in person before.

The girl was staring right at Nathaniel, and now that Nathaniel was able to take another look around, he saw that she wasn't the only one. All around him were people in similar outfits to what the girl was wearing. A few in the crowd stood out to him. A couple of girls, that were basically visual opposites of each other stood at the forefront of the crowd. On the right was a tall girl with dark skin, a mane of flame-red hair and a very large pair of breasts that Nathaniel had to pull his eyes away from. Next to her was a much shorter girl. In contrast to the bombshell next to her, the girl had short, cold-blue hair, equally cold eyes, and red glasses.

Closer to him, standing next to the pink haired girl was an elderly, balding man in a robe. Now that Nathaniel thought about it, his ears had been ringing the whole time he had been awake and he was starting to pick up sounds. Except… he couldn't understand what the people were saying at all. They were speaking a different language, and as far as Nathaniel could tell, it sounded like French. Now, while Nathaniel couldn't speak the language fluently, he knew a small portion of the language thanks to his introduction to French course back in his freshman year.

It seemed that the red-haired girl that he had spotted earlier was making fun of the pink haired girl in front of him. The only indications he had of this were the redhead's pointing finger, her laugh and the repetition of the word "zero." While he couldn't guarantee that it was an insult, Nathaniel was reluctant to say that is wasn't.

Once the redhead had finished taunting the poor girl to Nathaniel's side, who had started to turn red in both what Nathaniel assumed to be anger and embarrassment, the pink haired girl practically spun on her heel and yelled at the old man.

Since Nathaniel wasn't really able to make out what was being said in the conversation between the two, he switched his sights from the people around him to the area around him. First, were the huge stone walls that surrounded him. That alone was enough to tell Nathaniel that he definitely was not in the park anymore. Second, were the grand towers that were attached to each wall.

How was this possible? Where was he? Was he somewhere in France? That would certainly explain most of the situation. The people speaking French, the strange getups, the castle. But, there was something else. How did he get here? Nathaniel had already guessed that the thing he saw earlier was some kind of portal. But, what was with the smoke from earlier? No one else seemed to be bothered by it.

In the time it took for Nathaniel to look around and think about things, he hadn't noticed the pink haired girl getting closer to him. Before Nathaniel was fully focused on her again, she had already crouched down a foot or two in front of him. Her face was full of conflicting emotions. The most prominent ones that Nathaniel could make out were anger and embarrassment.

Out of her belt, the girl pulled… a stick? No, that didn't seem quite right. Was it supposed to be a wand? Did he get pulled into some strange, French, magic cult? The girl had closed her eyes, started to twirl the wand some in the air in front of her and whispered a chant. When she had finished, the pink haired girl's face started to show less anger and more reluctance and… disgust… towards him? That was just rude. The words that Nathaniel could make out didn't amount to much. "Be thankful", "wouldn't do" and her name was all that Nathaniel could get out of her. Louise, something or other, Vallière, that was her name. Nathaniel didn't have much time to think about that though, as the pink haired girl closed her eyes and started to lean towards him.

Was she doing what he thought she was doing? No, that wasn't how Nathaniel wanted his first kiss to be. Nathaniel leaned back and put his hand over her mouth. His French was very rusty, but it was the only way he was going to communicate with these people. The words he spoke came out choppy and horribly accented.

"Sorry, I can't."

The pink haired girl appeared more than mildly surprised. That surprise of hers quickly turned into anger. All in one motion, she had pulled Nathaniel's arm away from her mouth, pushed him back onto the ground and put her lips on his own.

The kiss was nowhere near what Nathaniel had expected it to be. At the same time, he couldn't say that the circumstances surrounding the kiss were necessarily normal either. Not to mention, the girl didn't seem to have any fond feelings towards him when she did it. The kiss was short, but Nathaniel noted that her lips were soft and oddly warm.

Louise, he was sure he had heard her say her name was, got off of him and stood up, face devoid of any emotion besides embarrassment. Nathaniel remained on his back, staring at the sky.

Nathaniel had been pulled to some strange place, possibly in another country, he had no way of reaching his step-mom and just lost his first kiss to a girl that he never met before. Nathaniel's thoughts didn't go much further than that, as smoke filled his senses again. The smell wasn't coming from the air. It smelled almost like burning flesh. Nathaniel looked down at his left hand… it was glowing. The pain set in shortly after. It felt to Nathaniel like not only his hand was burning, but his mind too! The pain was greater than anything he had ever felt before. Nathaniel felt himself beginning to lose consciousness again as the pain started to fade away. After what happened the last time he passed out, Nathaniel was reluctant to do so again. He fought with every fiber of his being to stay awake. It felt like an eternity, but the burning finally subsided. What did that girl do to him?

Nathaniel took another look at the girl that had kissed him. His breathing was ragged, he was now coated in sweat and he was fighting to keep his eyes open. Through this, he was able to manage a few words to ask the girl, Louise, a question.

"What did you do?"

The girl didn't look like she understood a single word of English. Then again, no one around her seemed to understand what Nathaniel had said either. The old man even went as far as looking at him in bewilderment. Louise turned back to the old man in the robes and seemingly asked him a question. Again, Nathaniel could only make out a few words. One of which was very obviously "translation." The man nodded and pointed the wooden staff he had been holding at me and chanted a few words that didn't even seem French. Nathaniel felt an odd sensation pass through his body for a short moment. The girl returned her focus on Nathaniel and spoke to him.

"Now, what did you say, commoner?"

What was this? Now, all of a sudden, this Louise girl was fully fluent in English? Nathaniel supposed that his other question was a bit more pressing than her sudden mastery over a foreign language. So, Nathaniel asked his question again.

"I-I asked...what did you just do to me?"

Nathaniel had too many questions. Where was he? What was he doing there? How did he get there? And, did Louise call him a commoner?

"I finished the familiar binding contract."

Nathaniel could not believe what he was hearing. A familiar? What did that mean? He didn't believe how blind he was to it earlier, but scattered within the crowd of people, were several creatures. They ranged from normal dogs and cats to strange things that Nathaniel had never seen before. A giant flaming lizard, a floating eyeball, and far in the back near a tree was what Nathaniel could only describe as a dragon. Did that mean that it wasn't some magic cult that he was in, but an actual group of people that could use magic? Like in Harry Potter or something? Nathaniel just kept getting more questions, but what he needed were answers.

"You said a familiar? What do you mean a familiar? I don't understand."

All of this seemed like some cruel joke to Nathaniel. Was this what he got for playing games on his step-mom's computer without her permission? An all-expense paid trip to a world of wizards?

"That's right. Today is the familiar spring-time summoning ritual for the second years at Tristain's Academy of Magic. I summoned you as my familiar, as much of a disappointment that that is, and bound you by the contract."

Louise explained everything in such a calm manner, it was hard for Nathaniel to believe if she was trying to mess with him. Tristain? An academy for magic? Even more questions that he doubted would be answered anytime soon. Still, he had to get back somehow. His step-mom had to be worried sick by now.

"Then...what...what do I do now? My home… my mother… How do I go back?!"

Nathaniel couldn't help but yell. He was panicking. Everything he had ever known had just been torn from him in an instant. Nathaniel looked desperately at the people in the crowd. From, Louise, to the old man, to the people in the crowd. It was only the old man who stepped forward.

"I'm sorry to say young man, but it won't be possible to go back the way you came. But I'm sure Miss Vallière here would allow you to visit your home if given the opportunity. Where are you from?"

Colbert could understand the pleas of the young man in front of him. While it was one thing to take a creature from its home in the woods or mountains, it was another to pull a human across the realms from their home. So, while the familiar summoning spell was one way and there wasn't any way to find where the familiar had come from exactly, they could at least give him the opportunity to visit.

The young man seemed to be deep in thought for a moment but gave him his time. Surely, he must be confused and frightened. Then, the young man looked at him again and spoke.

"Morton Washington in the U.S."

Colbert could tell that there may have been some difference in accent, but there was no country that's name sounded even remotely similar to such a place. Even so, the boy must know at least of the great nation of Tristain.

"Yu Esh? I'm afraid I've never heard of that nation before. Tell me, boy, does the country Tristain sound familiar to you? Perhaps Germania or Albion?"

More and more and more questions! Nathaniel was at a loss. Not only was he horribly lost, he was sure that he wasn't even on earth anymore. As far as he knew there weren't any places that had those names. Not to mention, the people there didn't know about the United States.

"You're kidding, right? The United States of America? One of the global superpowers?"

Colbert could only feel pity for the poor boy. He must have been pulled from some far-off land. Perhaps as far as Rub' Al Khali, far to the East. The boy had been speaking a language that he had never heard of before, after all.

"I'm afraid I just named most of the powerful nations we have contact with. I'm sorry to say, but it seems it will very difficult, if at all possible, to bring you home. Not to worry. I'm sure Miss Vallière will take very good care of you."

That was it. Nathaniel was completely sure of it. This wasn't Earth, or at least not the same version. Nathaniel had read about something called the multiverse theory. Something about there being a universe for every possibility for every situation. Could this just be some version of Earth where magic exists? He wasn't sure, but it was a possibility.

Nathaniel was about to ask more questions of the old man that he had been speaking to, but Colbert had already turned to face the crowd of people that surrounded them.

"Alright everyone, with that out of the way, that finishes your familiar summoning ritual. You all have the rest of the day and tomorrow to rest and get to know your familiars. You are dismissed!"

Many of the students immediately walked away with all manners of creatures in tow. Some of the students even began to float off in various directions. With everything that had happened so far, Nathaniel was not so surprised as he was amazed. Magic, he realized, was a reality here. But, what kind of magic did they utilize? What kind of magic was possible here?

Of all the bad things to happen to Louise, this had to be one of the worst. She would have almost preferred the usual explosion to have happened and no familiar shown up. To summon a commoner was unheard of! Already, she was a disgrace to the Vallière family. She had tried her hand in all schools of magic with all levels of spells. Every time produced the same result. An explosion without the intended effect of the spell.

For the longest time, because of the explosions she caused, she figured she may have some sort of affinity for the fire element. After continuous attempts in the field, she only got the same results. After everything today, Louise just wanted to rest.

"Familiar! Come on, we're returning to my dorm."

Nathaniel hadn't been here all of ten minutes when he had been hit with the information that not only was he in some far-off place, possibly another dimension with no way of contacting or returning home, but that he was to serve some pink-haired girl he had never met. It wasn't like he had much a choice in the situation. Lost, alone and without any idea what the world was like beyond the walls he now found himself behind. For now, Nathaniel decided that the best course of action was to see how things played out.

Finally picking himself off the ground, Nathaniel staggered his way towards Louise. She had already turned her back on him and was on her way to the nearest tower that met the walls. Whatever spell it was that she had performed on him earlier, the familiar summoning whatever, he was almost completely drained of energy.

"R-right… I'm… on my… way…"

That was all Nathaniel could manage. All the excitement and exhaustion had caught up to him and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Alrighty! A couple of things I want to say. I have been gone for far too long, and I am doing a remastering of a fanfic that no one asked for! To anyone who has already read this fanfiction to where it is now, thank you for taking the time to do so and I hope you have enjoyed it. To anyone who is just now picking it up, the same applies, but what comes next will not.

Before now, this entire fic was written in a first person perspective and in my opinion, pretty poorly. So, to remedy this, I am rewriting all existing chapters in third person and will begin doing the same for future chapters. Yes, that does mean that this is not a dead or abandoned fanfiction. Even though it may have seemed like it.

College has taken WAY more time and effort than I ever could have thought possible. After I get all caught up with the existing chapters, I do plan to continue with this. I will not be satisfied until I hit a point where this story can actually end. So, do keep in mind that no matter how long the wait, this will have more chapters at some point. I really hope that to those of you who are following this, that the wait is worth it.