It's the first day of Autumn and the official start of the fall semester at Ash Forest Academy of Magic. The school is located deep within a dense forest of Crow trees, trees covered in black colored bark with leaves that fade from white in the summer to grey in the fall. The trees reach up to twenty meters in height and afford a great deal of privacy to the quaint academy. Your nerves get the better of you as a guide leads you and a group of other second year through the winding trail. You can't help but imagine all sorts of goblins, gremlins and ogres that may hide in the thick underbrush of the forest. Your nerves slightly subside as your group passes through the stone gates of the academy's entrance. A pair of imposing stone gargoyles perched on either side, ready to spring to life and intercept any threats that should try to pass. Unlike the rest of your group, this is your first day on the Academy's grounds. Although a second year student on paper, you never completed your freshman year, having tested out of it through a series trials completed over the summer.

Your group is herded into a great marble covered lobby filled with a sea of students of all grades. While the upperclassmen all blend together the freshmen stand out with their pristine, unworn uniforms, missing house patches, and tense postures. You start to feel self conscious as your eyes gaze down at your own unmarked sweater. Although your entering as a second year, With no assigned house, you'll need to be sorted along with the first years before orientation officially begins. You try to distract yourself. A quick scan across the room reveals a bevy of attractive girls. There's the busty blonde in the phoenix uniform with a scowl on her face, avoiding the rest of the crowd. Across the hall, on a bench with two first year girls, sits an older girl also sporting a phoenix patch, with olive skin and a pair of enticing long legs enveloped in black stockings. She's having a friendly chat and seems much more approachable than the blonde.

Your concentration is broken as the doors you had entered through open once again and an old man who looks to be about two hundred years of age steps into the lobby. The sea of students parts, creating a path for the elder to reach a podium where four other teachers stand at attention. He introduces himself as the headmaster, Frederick Hallgrave. The teachers to either side of him are all House Masters, ready to lead their houses through the rest of the orientation once the new students have all been sorted. The headmaster gives a brief explanation of the house system, all of which was available in the brochure you had failed to read.

Students are divided between four houses. Houses Phoenix, Pegasus, Wyvern and Cerberus. While students of all houses attend class together, each house has its own separate dormitory and many activities, clubs and competitions are divided by houses. The house a student is sorted into is dependent on their aptitude in each of the four most prominent magical fields of study. All freshmen and unsorted students are asked to form a line in the center of the lobby to be sorted. As you try to quickly get in line, you end up bumping into another student, knocking her down. You profusely apologize to the girl on the gerund as you lift her to her feet. The brunette with the big brown eyes flashes you a pearly white smile and insists it's fine and apologizes, believing her own anxious sprint caused your collision. The fall appears to have knocked a button off her blouse exposing a tiny pink bow nestled at the center of the white lace bra pushing together her perky cleavage. Your eyes quickly dart away from her chest as you insist she take her place ahead of you in line. Your eyes focus straight ahead toward the headmaster as you desperately avoid being labeled a pervert on your first day.

One by one, each student is handed a round metal pin. They're instructed to clear their minds and squeeze it until it becomes soft and malleable. Upon opening their palm each student discovers the pin has morphed into the shape of one of the four house mascots. One after one, the pin takes the shape of a flaming bird, a winged horse, a dragon with an arrow shaped tail, and of course a menacing three headed hound. You anxiously watch as the cute brunette ahead of you opens her palm to reveal the noble winged horse of house Pegasus. She gives you a smile and wishes you luck before skipping to join the other students of her house.

Finally you stand before the headmaster. He places the pin in your sweaty palm and you grip it tightly. You feel the cool metal begin to warm and warp. You're supposed to keep your mind clear but you can't help but think of the girl you just met. At last you feel the metal has stopped moving and you open your palm to find you've been sorted into...