I left for Etis to start a life there. Aspen called me to give some pre-shifting counseling. 'You can call from Etis?' I asked, startled to see her name flash on my phone.

'Girl, we have 5g internet here. Also, I'm making an international call.'

Oh, this place is beyond understanding.

'Please bring only very personal things. Because from clothes to food, you'll get everything here. So no baggage on this transfer.'

I did what she said. I jumped into the mirror without any luggage. After much practice, I finally landed on my feet in Ryan's Etis's apartment.

'We have a lot to cover.' Aspen delivered, what do I call it when leaves started coming out of her hands? 'Look. First, we'll find you an apartment. Then we'll get you enrolled in school. Then we'll find you a job. Then we'll do a small tour and then dinner at a restaurant. Checklist for today.'

I smiled excitedly.

'I honestly hate when newbies come here. They know nothing. Why don't you tell her about the less desirable things in this place? Like to pay your bills everyone has to work or that-'

'Mat! We'll go step by step. Kashi, first thing first. We use United States Dollars. So dollars. And life's too expensive here, but so are payments. Don't worry. Plus, I haven't lived here either so except the apartment part, I'll need to actually do the rest with you.'

I smiled even more excitedly. Ryan and I were literally starting off together. It'd be one hell of an adventure. I found out Mat was an overly pessimistic person.

After Aspen and Mat argued undeniably and then stopped after Ryan reminded them of the actual purpose of being in there, Aspen opened Ryan's laptop and started showing me houses on the internet. 'EWW. Etis Wide Web.'

I snorted.

I clicked on some potential apartments. Then we shifted to that apartment we clicked on. 'Weren't we at Ryan's?'

'This is an advanced step into Virtual Reality. You can change the settings back to normal.' Ryan chuckled as he reverted the settings back to still screen. I changed it back.

After looking at three apartments, I finally found the one. It had one bedroom, a living room, and an open-ended kitchen. The walls were splashed with different colors of paint messily. Those that weren't were painted a beautiful yellow. The bed was queen-sized and seemed fluffy. There was a study in the bedroom with all sorts of stationary assembled and a bookshelf decorated with fairy lights, which had all my favorite books. There were beautiful paintings hung and there was a sofa cum bed.

'This comes for 5000 USD per month. There are an inbuilt microwave and a fridge here too.' Aspen counted. 'Now let's get you a job.'

'Am I not too young for this?' I asked excitedly. I mean, I was so happy. Like this was freedom and independence. But I was worried about school and degrees and everything. I still wanted to get a creative writing degree from Cornell University. 'Like what about my education?'

'Well, there isn't very much formal education here. People mostly learn what they want and need to. And the School of Etis is the only place where learning goes on. But you can obviously return back to Earth, preferably skip into your college time and yeah.'

That was some relief.

'What work would we do then?' Ryan asked. 'It'll be stuff like cashiers and coffee makers. Like-'

'I know! The kind of work students does when they are in college.' I jumped in excitement. 'I'm so in!'

After scrolling through hundreds of jobs which made me jump every time I looked at them (it was mostly for fun), we finally agreed upon some work.

'So, Ryan will work at the Moonlit's for the afternoon hours and Karishma will work there for the evening hours. In the afternoon, Karishma will help out in the Central Library and Ryan will work at the library when Karishma is at Moonlit's.' Mat readout. 'So, its 15500 dollars for both of you. 7000 at the library and 7500 at Moonlit's. 1000 dollars will be the fixed allowance all Etilets get. I've successfully registered your bank accounts. They're really easy to use by the way.'

'We're rich Ryan!' I cried. 'Oh, I wanna see the school now.'

'We should probably head to school. That's where we spend the morning time. It's hardly 3-4 hours, unlike our Mumbai ones.' Ryan said as he kissed me. He also said the money we got was equal to almost what everyone got. There was only rich in Etis.

Damn place.

'New students?' The guard at the gates of the school asked.

'Yes I'm Ryan Roy and this is-

'Yeah yeah. Go in. Right. Admissions department.' He shoved us away. Rude people exist everywhere on Earth.

Oh sorry Etis.

I mean both.

A giant board with School of Etis carved on heartwood flew at the center of the place. The place was divided into four different pathways by a huge fountain just beneath the flying wood board. The admissions department was to the right. 'To the left is the library. The center pathways lead to the theory building and practical buildings respectively.' Mat explained.

'You guys studied here or what?' Ryan asked, which was weird considering that they were best friends.

'We're trees, Ryan, we are born with our powers.'

I gasped. It felt weird and I felt as if I was living in the time when myths were made. 'I hate the sight of the woman behind the desk.'

She had sharp red eyes and concave yellow pupils. She hissed her fangs out. 'Betta! Stop doing that!' Mat scolded. She instantly flicked into a young woman with pink lips. 'Sorry Mat, I was just bored.' She giggled.

'Why do you do this job if you're always bored in it?' Mat growled.

'They pay me a 20,000 dollars per month just to sit and do nothing here for just five hours. I'm not leaving it for any reason.' She danced around. Mat growled even louder. It sounded horrible.

'She's one of the few women on the Enchanted Islands who can shapeshift.' Aspen explained, 'In our world, no one really knows what powers they have until they acquire it. Also, people like Betta feel shapeshifting is not of any use.'

'Yeah, what would I do with this, man? Scare people around or be cute?' She exclaimed as she shifted into a half bunny rabbit. 'Come on you guys write your names here and collect your IDs and come to school from Monday.'

We quickly did so and moved out of the school campus.

This was a weird place with weird people all around.

'Actually, Mat was in charge of the environment protection guild in the school for three years.' Aspen talked as we headed to the forest, to look at the small corner which was dedicated to all the spirits like Aspen and Mat. We'd then go for dinner in Moonlit's and the next day we'd do some more touring before slipping into normal Etis life from the day after. 'See we are the tree spirits. We have rock spirits, the river spirit, the soil spirit, and the flower spirits.'

'And Kashi, the best part of Etis is the air realm. I mean it's my favorite.' Ryan said. I insisted he take me there that very moment.

'We'll go there soon. And also, you'll learn about Etis more clearly in school. That's a mandatory class, where we learn about Etis and its functioning and all.'

'Fine guys, hold on to your breaths because we shall enter the la nature village, the lobby of all nature spirits!'

Aspen announced as breathtakingly as the place was.