Morning came all too early for many of the students at the Arcane Orphanage. 5 am was early, but reasonable considering their extensive preparations. They all knew the drill; many had been following the same regiment since they were old enough to leave the nursery. They had an hour to get up, dress, and stretch. Breakfast was at six, followed by bathing, training, a break, classes, lunch, more classes, another break, cleaning the orphanage, some free time, dinner, more bathing, and some personal time before bed at 10.  

The boys' dormitory was situated on the Western side of the compound, for the orphanage was best as a series of buildings connected by rooms. They had classrooms, a mess hall, a gymnasium, a meeting hall, a library, and private rooms for the staff. The orphans themselves lived in dorms, with bunks on top of each other up to three beds high. Everything was shared in common for them, as a way of saving money and a way of building a sort of camaraderie.


Among the many races there were humans, elves, halflings, dwarves, goblins, kobolds, orcs, dracons, lizardfolk, and many others. Some were represented by many individuals, others were the sole member of their species at the orphanage. Humans were the most common, followed by goblins and halflings. Having so many races made adapting common standards difficult. It was decided that in order to simplify accommodations, the styles of living and dressing which suited the largest number of individuals would be adopted. This meant that while the light goblin, lizardfolk, dracon, and kobold loincloths were avoided, it also meant that footwear was not usually an option either. This was good, as the common opinion of most of the species was that going barefoot was good for the foot muscles. The clothing for the boys consisted of a sleeveless shirt and a pair of shorts. As the orphanage was in a rather warm climate, this suited most of them quite fine. Sandals were available for outside use if absolutely necessary, but their use was discouraged, and no footwear was allowed indoors in any event.

Aurelian woke up as soon as he heard the familiar sound of the other males stirring. They were summoned by the loud bell rang outside by the groundskeeper, and they quickly woke. Failure to rise within five minutes of the bell was a punishable infraction, after all. The white-skinned boy climbed down from the top bunk, a spot he had claimed the night before. As they had no assigned beds, he had to make due with whatever he could reach in time, and the top bunks were generally preferred. He took a moment to get up. At age 13, he was starting to become a man, and he wondered how much longer he'd be compelled to follow this routine. Running a hand through his dirty-blonde hair, he did his best to straighten it out and make it look presentable, although no one really cared about his looks in this side of the compound.  

Within a few moment, he climbed down from the bunk and found a free space of floor to stretch in, with just enough room between himself, a young dracon, and a young kobold to do it in. Some of the young grew quickly, and the kobold was almost grown despite being in the orphanage for barely a year. Most species present in the orphanage matured at about the 'standard' human rate, so the courses were about the same for most of them. 

"Nnn... morning Arjun. Sleep well?" 

The dracon turned to Aurelian. "Well enough. There was this stupid little halfling who kept babbling in his sleep about some jewelry he lost before he got here. I don't think he shut up until midnight."

"Ah, we can talk more about it later. Gotta get dressed!" 

Like the others, Aurelian made his way down the hall to the carefully-folded piles of clothing, picking out a pair of shorts to wear over his boxers. It took him only a moment to tie the twine which held them in place. As usual, he skipped the shirt. For some reason, he didn't like that kind of clothing. Perhaps it was vanity on his part, trying to show off to the ladies. For someone so young, Aurelian had a surprisingly developed musculature, even though he was still a long way from maturity. Thirteen was hardly an adult, after all.