As soon as Rosemary was finished with her conversation with her family, she used a drop of the girl’s liquid hairdressing spell to grow her hair back out. After putting the bottle back in her purse, which was actually a flying sidepack, she headed back to her dorm room.

  Once there, she put the liquid hairdressing spells back in her safe. She then replaced her T-shirt with the pink henley-style top she had gotten earlier that morning from Amy. She then sat and thought for about ten minutes about whether or not she should bring her flying sidepack with her. In the end, she decided not to until she was sure it would be a good idea — so after removing the wallet she put the sidepack in her safe too.

  In her satchel, she put in a copy of ‘Prehistory of Magical Primates’, which she had checked out from the library days before. She then went down to the common room to read it. The very introduction gave an overview of how most primate species, including humans, had some magical specimens — but there were also several species, including some entire clades, whose populations were entirely magical.

  It went on to explain how the books would not only describe known magical primates of the past, but attempt to discuss the factors that drove their evolution. It also explained that the book would discuss some ideas of why some groups of primates became exclusively magical while others didn’t.

  “So why aren’t you with your new present?” she suddenly heard Sarah ask her, calling her attention out of the book.

  “Well you said you were going to try to find a chance for me to try it out,” said Rosemary, “but you never told me if you were able to.”

  “No, I mean the other thing you got from your parents,” explained Sarah.

  “My flying sidepack?” asked Rosemary. “Is it a good idea to use it when I’m not flying?”

  “Why not?” asked Sarah. “It’s basically just a purse with magically hidden compartments for things that you might need if you go flying.”

  “Oh,” said Rosemary. “I wish I’d known that.”

  “Anyway,” said Sarah, “you may as well get it now — and be sure to put your broomstick in the broom compartment. I spoke to Professor Feng, and she says we can use the North Wing Courtyard after lunch, and I can take you on a little field trip to show you how to use its features.”

  “But to put my broom in the sidepack,” asked Rosemary, “don’t I have to take it out of the box?”

  “Of course!” said Sarah. “But you’re gonna have to eventually do that anyway! I mean, you want to fly the broomstick, not just leave it in your safe.”

  * * *

  When Rosemary opened the box that her broomstick came in, the only thing she saw was the collapsed broomstick itself and a paper booklet. Figuring that the booklet was the instructions, she put it in the main compartment of her sidepack. She then took out the collapsed broomstick itself. It looked like a wooden cylinder, about ten inches long and two inches thick, made of two shorter wooden cylinders fixed to each other end-to-end. On one of them were embossed the words “2002 Skyblazer”.

  She put the cylinder on her desk and got to the task of figuring out how to access the hidden compartments of her flying sidepack. It turned out that it was extremely easy — though for the life of her, she couldn’t explain how she did it.

  In the broom compartment, she found two round compartments — so it could store not one, but two collapsed broomsticks. She slid her broomstick into one of them, wondering why anyone would need to carry more than one broomstick with them.

  She then took a look at the shopping cart compartment, where she could put a shopping cart collapsed into a cane. To her surprise, she found that it already had such a cart in there — just like the one that she had bought at the Four Winds in the Magical Levels beneath Lenox Square.

  “You didn’t say it comes with a shopping cart,” she said to Sarah after lunch, when they were walking from the Great Hall to the North Wing.

  “It shouldn’t,” answered Sarah. “I’ve never heard of a flying sidepack coming with a shopping cart.”

  “Well I found that mine has one in it,” insisted Rosemary, “exactly like the one I got this summer in Atlanta.”

  “You mean exactly like it?” asked Sarah.

  “Yes,” affirmed Rosemary.

  “And did you bring it with you to school?” asked Sarah.

  “No,” admitted Rosemary. “I left it at home.”

  “So that’s probably it,” concluded Sarah. “Your folks probably put it in there for you.”

  “Could mundies get it open to that compartment?” asked Rosemary.

  “No,” admitted Sarah. “But they could have gotten a witch or wizard to open it for them. And if yours has a cart in it that’s exactly like the one you left at home, that’s almost certainly what happened.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Rosemary remembered that her parents had gone shopping with Clara’s parents and realized that Sarah was right.

  “By the way,” asked Rosemary, “why’s there room for two broomsticks in there?”

  “Oh, it’s not meant for two broomsticks,” explained Sarah. “But there’s magic bicycles that collapse the same way broomsticks do — and you’ll probably want to get one of those too.”

  “Why ride a bike when I can fly?” asked Rosemary.

  “Because you can’t just take off from anywhere,” explained Sarah. “I mean, deploying a broomstick and getting on it where mundies can see you is kinda frowned upon. Sometimes you need a bike to get to where you can take off — or to get from where you can safely land.”

  “But isn’t turning a little cylinder into a bike also a problem?” asked Rosemary.

  “That’s why most magical bikes have features for when you need to put them somewhere without collapsing them,” said Amy. “You can chain them up more securely than a mundie bike, and even put them in bike lockers.”

  Finally, they were standing in the North Wing Courtyard. “Okay,” said Sarah. “Let’s see your broom.”

  Rosemary opened her sidepack to the broom compartment. She pressed down on the cylinder that was her broomstick, and it popped out. She lifted it, and held it out to Sarah.

  “Okay,” said Sarah. “First thing you need to remember is that the labeled side is the front, and the unlabeled side is the back.”

  “Okay,” said Rosemary.

  “Now hold on a moment,” said Sarah. She opened her own purse — which turned out also to be a flying sidepack — to its broom compartment. Having done so, she got out one of two cylinders that it held.

  “Now look closely at what I am about to do,” said Sarah. “First, you twist the front part to the left and the back part to the right, until it locks.” Sarah demonstrated her instructions on her own broomstick. “Then, immediately, you hold it out so that neither end points to anyone.” As she said that, she was already holding it out as she described. Before she even finished that explanation, her cylinder began to extend in either direction, and a bristly broom-head formed on the rear end.

  “Now you do it,” she said.

  Rosemary did as she was instructed, and within moments she was holding a broomstick far more impressive than the one that she rode in Ouranourgy class. The one for Ouranourgy class, if it weren’t for the dial, could easily be mistaken for a broom that you would actually use to sweep the floor. This one, however, was of well-stained wood, sculpted into a nice form that almost invited you to sit on it. Even the bristles on the back seemed organized and deliberate in their placement.

  Where on the broom for Ouranourgy class had the dial to select the skill level, this one instead had mounted a fully transparent crystal ball with a red arrow inside of it that pointed away from the Needle Tower. She noticed that Sarah’s broomstick had one just like it.

  “What’s this ball?” asked Rosemary.

  “That’s the navigational interface,” said Sarah. “When you’re not just flying around a training area, it can help give you an idea where you’re going.”

  “How does it do that?” asked Rosemary.

  “Well, for starters,” explained Sarah, “it’s a compass. That arrow you see inside it? It always points true north.”

  “What makes a north true?” asked Rosemary.

  “Well,” said Sarah, “you’ve heard of the North Pole, have you?”

  “Yes,” acknowledged Rosemary.

  “Well, here’s the thing,” explained Sarah. “There’s really two North Poles. There’s the one on top of the Earth’s axis — and there’s the Magnetic North Pole, which from most places is pretty much in the same direction, but isn’t in exactly the same place. The compasses that mundies use point to the Magnetic North Pole. But this one points to the actual Geographic North Pole. True north.”

  “I see,” said Rosemary.

  “But that’s not all it does,” said Sarah. “It’s also a crystal ball that’s your interfaces for all the features that real-use brooms have that educational ones don’t — mostly navigational features. But there’s one feature that isn’t a navigational feature that you need to learn first. Get on your broom.”

  Rosemary mounted her broomstick.

  “Now, wave your hand over the orb,” said Sarah, “and say ‘Collapse’.”

  Rosemary did as she told. A red rectangle with a red ‘x’ inscribed within it flashed for about a second above the orb, during which time Rosemary heard a robotic voice say: “Command inaccessible.”

  “What’s wrong?” asked Rosemary. “It says the command’s — inaccessible?”

  “That’s a safety feature,” explained Sarah. “The broom won’t collapse if you are sitting on it, standing on it, or in any way relying on it for support. Now, get off your broom, hold it with one hand, and try it again with the other hand.”

  Rosemary got off the broom and held it in her left hand. Again, she waved her right hand on the orb and said, “Collapse.” The orb disappeared and apparently so did the bristles. The ends of the broom pulled inward — and moments later, Rosemary was holding the same ten-inch cylinder that she had started with.

  “Great,” said Sarah. “Now you know how to collapse your broom. So, open it up again, and I’ll show you how to use some of its other features.”

  * * *

  Rosemary and Sarah mounted their brooms, cloaked themselves, and flew above Misty Peaks. There, Sarah gave Rosemary some basic explanations of the green lights that she would see if she invoked the broom’s navigation — lights that would appear on her periphery if her destination were beyond her field of vision, at the place she was going to if it was within her field of vision, and as guide lines if the place was beyond the horizon.

  After having Rosemary locate various places, far and near, the two flew to Gatlinburg and back with Rosemary leading the way. They didn’t land in Gatlinburg. They just flew there, turned around, and headed back to Misty Peaks — but Rosemary still got a thrill seeing from the sky the same town that she had fond memories of having visited on the ground a number of times before.

  When they got back to Misty Peaks, they landed back in the North Wing Courtyard, collapsed their brooms, and put them away in their flying sidepacks — which they also used as purses.

  “What if I forget how to fly?” Rosemary asked Sarah as the two walked back to Hemlock Tower.

  “You don’t really forget,” said Sarah. “It’s kinda like riding a bike. Besides, Professor Feng organizes occasional broom excursions just so the skill’ll sink in enough.”

  “I never heard of them,” said Rosemary.

  “That’s because first-years are only told about them in the spring semester,” explained Sarah. “In the first semester, you practice in Ouranourgy class. Besides, surely you’ll get some chance to fly over vacation.”

  “I don’t think so,” said Rosemary. “We’re going to be staying with my aunt and uncle, who are mundies and don’t even know about magic.”

  “Well, even if you do get rusty over break,” said Sarah, “you can always brush up later.”

  “I guess you’re right,” said Rosemary, as her mind went over to other concerns she had regarding the upcoming winter break.