@Silent Observer@PixelJunkie



From his laxed position he glanced down at the hand and back up to Kiara with a raised eyebrow before squinting his eyes an looked past her. He then brought a hand up to cup his chin and an arm folded over his chest to support said arm, discreetly getting a whiff of her scent. "Unseelie, huh? This will be fun." "Kiarraa~......Where have I heard that before..." He sat there for a moment before his eyebrows quickly raised and lowered as he shrugged it off, shaking his head and adjusting his seated position as he looked at Kiara. "Doesn't matter. You may call me Sul- Sit up Alice!" His gaze shot over at her with a stern look before it mellowed out to a smile again. He looked at Kiara, using a hand to gesture towards her with a light nod, blowing off her handshake. "This here is Alice, a dear friend of mine. She may seem nervous but she is quite the tenacious type when it comes to making friends, isn't that right?" He gave her, for the first time, a genuine reassuring smile. One that said "I am not her to put you in danger but rather to keep you from it." He sat back as Kiara's attention would be turned to her, giving him a chance to analyze her from head to toe with not a cautious but a watchful gaze, a light killer intent oozing ever so slowly from him. That intent was lost when he went to reach for his pockets for a cigarette.

"Dammit where is that boy..." He mumbled silently to himself.

~~~ Kiara ~~~

The dragon was quite obviously studying her, trying to size her up, for whatever reason. She didn’t really care. After a moment of pondering with his hand under his chin, he spoke. “Kiarraa~” the name rolled off of his tongue in a purr, causing bumps to rise along her arms. She was about to say that he could say it as much as he wanted, as long as he always said it like that, but he continued speaking. “Where have I heard that before…” the dragon pondered.

Kiara watched to see if he could put the pieces together. She knew that a fair amount of black, red and green dragons fought on the Unseelie side of the war, maybe he was one of them. If so, he would have met her father, who no doubt spoke highly of his ‘beautiful darkling’. It appeared that he couldn’t recall the familiarity, so he began to introduce himself, but only managed to get out "Sul-" before turning to chastise his ‘friend’. Sul turned back to Kiara, snubbing the handshake as he did so. Kiki pulled back her hand, elegantly unfazed by his insolence. ‘Fine then, he smelled funny anyway,’ she thought. She briefly wondered if this ‘friend’ was more than just that.

Alice, as he introduced, seemed to be anything but a threat, however. In fact, the fear that was rolling off of her in waves was enough to more than pique the faerie’s interest. Looking past Sul and to the shrinking girl, Kiara stood up and got uncomfortably close to Alice. Kiki’s hungry eyes changed from their default pale grey, to an abyssal black. You could practically see the tendrils forming between the girls as Kiara fed on the fear; the exchange would leave the faerie feeling sated, and the vampire feeling surprisingly free of her previous fear.

“My dear, I do not know what particular demons you are running from, but I do hope they never stop chasing." The smile she sported as she spoke was the kind that send chills down your spine. "You. Are. Delicious!” Kiki said, and although the words were menacing, her tone was as sickeningly-sweet as her scent. Kiara stood up straight then, increasing the distance between herself and Alice. “But, you need to toughen up, Cupcake! This is a school for monsters, you’ll need to build up some thick skin if you wish to survive among some of these creatures.”

With a cool, crooked smile, Kiara took her leave to return to her seat beside the dragon. He seemed uncomfortable, almost like he was searching for something. “Dammit where is that boy…” he muttered. Or, searching for someone, apparently. Kiki sighed a little, she should have known. “I knew you seemed a little distracted. So, what’s this boy like? He must be a real treasure to have captured a dragon’s attention.” Kiara wore a smirk, amused by her own play on words.

---

Laurel inspected her face for anything obnoxious like pimples or the like before she sprayed her hair with something that smelled of warm musky amber and a rich vanilla. It quickly permeated her entire body and she changed clothing quickly pulling on a pair of tight black pants and a tank top that hung loosely over the top part of her body before sliding her feet into a set of tall grey boots. Tonight was a feast and that meant Laurel had an excuse to dress up, at least she felt like it anyways. With her long black hair impeccably straight and her green eyes lined with black eyeliner to make her already thick lashes look even thicker and a simple coat of chapstick on her plump full lips she deemed she was ready to go and headed straight for the dining hall in the main building.

It was just as beautiful as she remembered it had been the previous year and she could see nothing particularly new other than some of the lights had been replaced with a different kind of bulb than had previously been there. She assumed this was because of the headaches some of the students got from such bright lights after years of darkness. As she opened the doors and scanned the room Laurel didn't see any familiar faces at first but when she took a second look she found her roommate sitting at a table with a young lad with long dark hair and what appeared to be a very new vampire. She decided that since she hadn't spotted anyone else she already knew that she would head to sit with her new roommate.

Laurel carefully slid into the seat next to Kiara, as silent and smoothly as she always seemed to be. She could easily tell the male was a Dragon, her parents had some dealings with them. Some of them good friends and some of them not so good friends. It was hard to tell whether they were going to shake your hand or eat you sometimes. Some of the lines of her people revered dragons while some of them hated them and wished for their destruction. Her line was sort of in between the two, as long as you behaved they would as well. They were valuable trade and company partners to have though they were some of the worst to try and make deals with. They were usually the funding and the negotiator. A dragon was a dragon no matter what, the only thing that mattered as much as offspring was riches. The dragons that she had met these days seemed to get most of their money through mostly legal means. She only heard a little bit of the conversation, as she approached, there was so much noise it was hard to isolate particular conversations unless she really tried.

"Do you all mind if I sit here?" She questioned easily, showing a mouth of pearly white teeth, her canines were a bit extended though nothing like a vampire's would have been. It was just part of her particular gift set. The same bracelets that she wore in her feline form also adorned her wrists in her humans form, as did the extravagant necklace now. She nodded her head slightly at Kiara after she spoke, acknowledging that the other girl was there before returning her smile to the Dragon and the Vampire in front of her.

Alice sat up bolt upright at Sulley’s tone, and she bit down on her tongue to prevent the squeak of surprise that threatened to escape. As he went on to introduce her to Kiara, Alice bit down harder, especially when he sort of semi-addressed her. Did he expect a response? Was he teasing her? Where the two of them secretly working together on a plot to kidnap her whilst Oliver wasn’t looking? She settled on a small terrified nod in reply, and warily eyed the two of them, not that it would really tell her very much, everyone here seemed just as suspicious as everybody else… she really didn’t know where she was supposed to stand.

Of course, she’d much rather stand somewhere that was as far away from Kiara as possible, because she was seriously beginning to infringe on Alice’s personal space. She glanced towards Suleykaar, eyes wide with fright, as Kiara approached, rippling with an air of something that wasn’t quite malevolence, but close. She turned back to Kiara, or rather, was compelled to. A strange tugging sensation wrapped around the pit of her stomach, tendrils that reached deep inside her soul, the very core of the anxieties and fear that had taken root, and pulled. It was unlike anything she’d ever experienced before, full of a resonant emptiness, a dull exhilaration that tingled through the tips of her fingers like pins and needles.

Alice could only sit, dumbstruck, as she felt her pulse slowing, her breathing becoming a little easier, her muscles relaxing, all replaced with a sense of hollow relief that seeped into her limbs and settled. She wasn’t sure if she should be terrified, or if she should be grinning wildly… it was definitely strange, and disconcerting, and… now she was being called delicious. That was definitely terrifying.

“I-I’m what?!?” She yelped, startled at the complete frankness of the statement. She didn’t really want to be called delicious, by anyone, never mind scary cryptids with black eyes and vaguely menacing smiles. She felt the fear that had been taken slowly beginning to accumulate again, almost as if it was a physical thing. She shivered, and pulled her coat tighter around her willowy shoulders, “What are you? What did you to me?” She muttered, her pitch high, but the pervasive numbness mad it difficult to articulate the words. And then she realised she’d just talked to somebody she’d only just met, on her own, without extreme prompting. That was a chilling thought. If the… thing that Kiara had done could lower Alice’s barriers so far in just a matter of seconds, what could it do over an extended period of time? Could she really trust somebody who referred to her as a piece of confectionary? She tried to make desperate eye contact with Suleykaar, but he seemed rather preoccupied by the fact that his cigarettes where currently somewhere other than tucked neatly into his pocket.

Of course, at that moment, yet another complete stranger arrived at the table, and Alice couldn’t help but wonder what degree of ridiculously scary this person would be, on a scale of creepy soul-suckey-ness to nicotine deprived dragon. She couldn’t be any scarier than anyone Alice had previously encountered, right? Apparently she also already knew Kiara, like everybody else, and upon this realisation, Alice tensed.

They really were going to try and kidnap her, weren’t they? She was vastly outnumbered, this was bad, with this many people she could be taken down in seconds. She felt a pressure building up in the back of her mind, an energy that ebbed and flowed, uncontrollable. In front of her, the table rattled slightly.

Her breath caught in the back of her throat. This had happened before, once, when she and Oliver had been cornered. It hadn’t ended well for anyone, least of all their hunters. She gulped, and tried to get a grip, hopefully she could put a lid on this before anything happened, or before anyone noticed. If not… well, she really didn’t want to consider that.

@PixelJunkie@Aspen Wren@Silent Observer


As Suleykaar looked through his jacket, internally cursing that boy for taking so long he answered her with his usual tone."That boy happens to be a business partner of mine and a at the moment has started to become a slight thorn in my side. A simple thing to grab is a pack of-" He managed to look up at to see Kiara taking advantage of Alice's fear and he quietly sighed to himself. 'She's lucky I'm here. If wasn't she wouldn't last this this academy. She's worse than a damn lycan." He heard Kiara's comment about having to "toughen up" so he internally smiled at not having to tell her again himself. However Kiara needed to also learn that she cannot go about feeding off of Alice without his permission. He would allow her to, under supervision, but only to help Alice steel her fear, otherwise it would result in a punishment. This time would be a warning.

He stopped looking for his smokes and sat in his normal position until Kiara sat back next to him in which he sat up and nodded to her with a smile and wink. His face than moved to a emotionless look as he stared at Alice. "This is what I was talking about Alice. There are monsters here, like Kiara of the Unseelie courts, who prey upon emotions, like fear" Emphasizing on fear. He also knew of Kiara, but not so much of what she did in the Unseelie courts, they were across most realms, fairly known. It just so happened his realm, more specifically, the dragons in his realm, did NOT care for them. He gestured towards Kiara. "Some Faerie for example do. They prey upon emotions; fear, anger, sadness-" He leaned over to Kiara and and whispered into her ear, boosting the bass in his voice. llllllusssst. But-" Pulling away from her. "-if you learn to control those emotions, steel them away or at least make them impossible to sense or feed off of, you will be closer to being truly safe rather than only the façade of it. He gave her his second genuine smile and wink before looking over at Kiara with a smile and what sounded like almost a deep draconic growl. This caused some in the dining hall to look over. Then it happened to quick for most to see.

He pivoted in his seat as he went to stand, grabbing hold of Kiara by the neck, his sharp fingers pressing against her skin, and lifting her out of the seat, which had skid back a foot before falling. Her feet were on the ground but just barely. As for Suleykaar, his wings had manifested in those few seconds, scales had appeared on the skin that was visible. His body gave off a slight heat wave as did the glow from his throat; dragon fire. Dragon fire rested in his mouth as he began to talk, never once hindering his words. His *true draconic voice bellowed across the room, silencing almost everyone. His eyes focused on Kiara with a predator glare but at the same time, taunting her. "Kiaraa~ You best listen as this is your only warning~ Alice and her friend are minnnee~ Should you ever try that a-gain you best ask permission before doing so. Or the court will have to buried only bones of its past member, understand He brought her close so that he could whisper in her ear, the bass in his voice rippling off of her body. Kiara~, of the Unseelie courrrt." He stared into her eyes for a moment longer with a ferocious grin on his face before letting her go, his draconic humanoid form returning to its normal glamor covered form, minus the eyes. They remained draconic. His voice returned to normal as well, regaining its Nordic undertone as he sat back down and looked at the new girl and smiled before gesturing for her to sit.

*A.N: an octave up from Smaug the Terrible of "The Hobbit" trilogy

“Go ahead, Roomie.” Kiara said to Laurel with a light smile, completely satisfied by her meal and present company. So far, this school was awesome. Alice seemed a bit stupefied by the exchange they had just shared, demanding to know what Kiara was. That was a good sign, ten seconds ago the vampire before her could barely sit up straight, and now she was asking direct questions. Kiara had only helped the girl, truly; This was a victimless crime.

Sul explained that the boy was strictly a ‘business partner’, and an annoying one, at that. Good, that means that he wasn’t spoken for, not that it would really matter to the girl who always gets what she wants. The dragon helped himself to explaining what she was to the vampire girl and Kiki had to fight the urge to cross her arms like a petulant child who got their moment to shine taken away. “They prey upon emotions; fear, anger, sadness-” he leaned closer and whispered in her ear “llllllusssst.” The tickling breath in her ear caused another wave of shivers; the hungry color change of her eyes was the only thing betraying the coy smile that she sported. He pulled away all too quickly, and went back to talking to his vampire pet. Lame.

Then, in a rather bi-polar moment, sharp draconic fingers were curled around her throat, lifting her straight out of her chair. The faerie hung from his grasp, her gaunt body looking all the more like a creepy skin-and-bones ragdoll in comparison to his shifting form. And then he really did it: He taunted her! Patronized her, even! Kiki’s eyes flared an angry blood red. How dare he handle the war chief’s daughter in such a way?! Kiara’s own wings revealed themselves as her glamour faltered. “This is supposed to be a feast you big, stinking, BRUTE!” Kiki thrashed around violently, swiping at his arms with claw-like fingernails and swinging her legs up to kick against his chest.

“PUT!” Kick!

“ME!” Kick!

“DOWNNN!!!” Kick, kick, KICK!

And then, he did. Sul let her go abruptly, causing her flailing body to drop to the ground like a stone. He proceeded to sit down and smiled like it was nothing. What a pompous, arrogant, asshole! Kiara shuffled back up to her feet, positively fuming at this point. “You don’t scare me, lizard! I will never ask anyone’s permission for anything, let alone yours, do you hear me?!” Her tiny hands were balled into fists at her sides before she released one to stick a pointing finger just centimeters from his nose while he sat. This was probably the only way she could ever appear to be standing taller than someone. “Touch me like that again, and it will be you who learns the true meaning of fear. They don’t call us the Nightmare Court without reason.”

After saying her piece, Kiara smoothed down the ruffled leaves on her outfit and stuck her nose up haughtily with a "Hmph!" She stood the chair up, recovered her glamour, and reclaimed her seat with otherworldly grace.

Cigs… that was something Oliver could do, easy. If all of Suleykaar’s requests turned out to be this straightforward, then maybe this wasn’t going to be as difficult as he’d initially thought. With a final glance towards the terrified looking Alice, he headed towards the door. She’d be fine on her own, maybe… and this was for her benefit anyway, probably. He stuffed his hands deep in his chinos pockets, the motion slightly more aggressive than it really needed to be, and pushed forward through the throngs of people entering the hall. Hopefully he’d be back before he was missed, not that it would be too big a deal if he wasn’t, he’d already done more to draw attention to himself than he’d planned.

The halls were pretty much abandoned by this point, with only a few stragglers rushing towards the main hall, casting curious glances towards Oliver. He glanced around the lavishly decorated corridor, trying to remember the way to the dorms. He hadn’t really been paying much attention to the route when he’d walked over with Suleykaar, as he’d been too busy focusing on the million and one other things that had been going on, and he was kicking himself for it now. He knew that the dorms were in another building, but he wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to get out of this one-

“Watch where you’re going young man!”

“I’m sorry!” Oliver yelped, taking several hasty steps back, realising he’d just collided headfirst with a, rather tall, woman, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you the-“

“Do you know who I am?” She demanded, making him stop short. Platinum curls, considerably older than any student (physically, at least), and a stony glare all made Oliver realise he’d just made a huge mistake.

“I’m really sorry, Miss, err…” he stumbled over his words, uncharacteristically flustered.

“Mrs. Langley, if you don’t mind,” She cast an icy blue eye over Oliver, and he squirmed beneath the scrutiny, “and what, pray tell, are you doing heading away from the dining hall?”
“Well, I was-“

She interrupted him again, “Whatever it is, it is clearly of minimal importance, turn around at once!”

Oliver flinched away from her harsh tone, who was this woman? He certainly hoped she wasn’t going to be one his teachers, “I’m sorry, I just, er, really need to go and get…” he trailed of as her glare intensified. This was not going well, Suleykaar would probably retract the agreement on the spot if he found out that Oliver couldn’t even do something as simple as getting a packet of cigarettes from the dorm room, and Oliver could not allow that to happen. He’d have to figure out a way around this.

An idea popped into his head, “Please! I really have to get back to my dorm room! I left my phone there and my dad’s expecting me to call him, he’ll be mad if I don’t, and he’s really powerful-“

He stopped again, interrupted this time by great peals of laughter, “You really expect me to believe that, Mr. Oliver Raynott?”

“Wait, how do you know my name?” He asked, his voice barely above a croak. Was she working for his father? Or worse, was he going to be in her class?

“I don’t think there’s a vampire out there who doesn’t know your name! Your father really is quite annoyed at your little escapade, he’s paying a small army to look for you, and is blackmailing the rest of us to keep an eye out as well,” she smiled, and Oliver felt as if his innards had been scooped out, fried, and served up to him on a silver platter.

He began to back away, slowly at first, but ready to break into a run, grab Alice, and get out of there within minutes if needs be, “You’re… you’re not going to turn us over to him, are you?” he said, barely keeping the slight tremor out of his voice.

She chuckled, and as she did so, her eyes darkened, “Now, why on Earth would I do that? I taught your father when he was your age, and he was one of the jammiest little bastards to ever walk these halls,” her expression turned to one of appreciative disgust, “and that’s really saying something, because this academy’s seen an awful lot of jammy little bastards.”

“So… you’ll help us?” Oliver asked, confused but hopeful for another ally.

“I shall do no such thing!” She snapped, and placed her hands squarely on her hips, “You and your little friend are by no means the first students to attend Rosa Clare whilst facing something much bigger than yourselves, nor are you the only students to do so this year. It is not our job to fight your battles for you, it is our job to teach you how to fight them for yourselves. And besides, it seems you are already making powerful allies, and that girl has a lot more potential than she lets on.”

“You mean Suleykaar and Alice?”

“Who else?” she cast an judgmental eye over Oliver once more, “It seems you’re going to have to do a lot of relying on your allies for the time being, so if I were you, I’d take this opportunity to make as many as I possibly could, for you will not survive alone.” With that, she walked away, presumably towards the feast, leaving Oliver standing alone, and feeling rather uncomfortable.

When she was gone, Oliver realised he now knew exactly how to get back to the dorm, and did so in record time, Mrs. Langley’s words echoing in his ears. He couldn’t afford to slack off, especially after receiving such a formidable warning. He knew for a fact that she wouldn’t be the only vampire here, in fact, Oliver was fairly certain most of his classes would be full of vampires. Having apparently blown all chances of keeping a low profile, he was going to have to just stay on their good side, he’d just have to work on presenting himself as being too likeable to want to turn in.

---

Oliver made it back to the dining hall in record time well, record time considering he’d had a rather terrifying encounter with a teacher on his way there. He was of the opinion that he should get points for effort at the very least. He spotted Alice and Suleykaar on the other side of the hall fairly quickly, along with two other girls, one of whom… Oliver sighed, and figured it would probably be best not to ask why Suleykaar had his hand around some poor girls throat. At least it wasn’t Alice, although she did look kind of shaky, and pale, and completely terrified, nothing new there at least.

He was about to make his way over, nicotine filled prize held triumphantly aloft, when the room shook with an unbelievably loud growl. Oliver froze, the deep words rattling through every bone in his body, reminding him oddly of when he went to see the second hobbit film in the cinema when it was released, except more terrifying and with less popcorn. Everyone in the room stopped, and a deathly silence fell, broken only by the girl’s, he assumed her to be Kiara, rather confident retaliation.

And then Oliver noticed people were staring, even though it was at Suleykaar and Kiara (and the other poor girl who seemed to have gotten caught in the crossfire), he knew exactly how Alice was going to interpret it.

Already, he could feel the floor beginning to vibrate beneath his feet, could see Alice clinging desperately to the edge of the table, the table that was also beginning to vibrate under the massive amounts of energy she was generating. Oliver knew Alice was powerful, he also knew she had little to no control over said powers, and being in a crowded room full of people she thought might be looking at her was not going to end well for anybody.

He glanced at the cigarettes in his hand, and a small frown crossed his lips before he quickly controlled his expression. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if people knew how powerful she was, it’d be like painting big red target right across her forehead but if he could get Alice out of here before she went nuclear, no one would be any the wiser. He just had to divert people’s attention for a few seconds, of course figuring out how to do that would be the hard part.

He estimated he had at least a few minutes before stuff started flying, which should be plenty of time to figure out a diversion. But first of all, he had a job to finish, “I’ve got them!” He yelled, running across the hall, Suleykaar’s cigarettes raised above his head as he ran over, “It wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re here!” he drew to a stop near the others, and offered the cigarettes to Suleykaar, before turning to address the entire table with a worried smile and a greatly decreased volume, “ And I’m not sure if you realised this or not, but Alice is probably going to accidently tear this entire place apart if she stays here much longer, so I would greatly appreciate your help in creating a distraction, please?” he anxiously glanced at Alice, her control was getting better, but if she didn’t get out of here soon... he breathed deeply, trying hard not to think of the consequences that would be undoubtedly terrible.

He then realised he’d forgotten something, and addressed the two girls, “By the way, my name’s Oliver,” he said offering them a small wave, before giving Suleykaar an apologetic glance, “Sorry we’re so much trouble,” he said with quiet urgency, too low for the others to hear, “I promise this isn’t how it’s going to be forever, she’ll get better control eventually, and already it’s about fifteen times better than it was before… Please, just help us one more time?”

Suleykaar

As he sat down and took quick notice to her enraged self he could only cause the smile to grow wide into a toothy grin as her little finger, only centimeters from his face shook slightly from anger. He chuckled before playfully attempting to bite her finger, only more teasing. He let out a snort of smoke. "Oh, you're just a treat." His pleasantry left quickly as he felt the table begin to shake and he looked over at Alice with an inquisitive look. "Could that be-" He sighed and shook his head as he heard Oliver's voice. A frown remained on his face as he approached him. Could he be any louder?

“It wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re here!”

"A simple task of retrieving one pack of cigarettes was not easy by any stretch? I hardly can believe that..." With a disappointed tone. He dipped his head to the side before returning it to it's original position. "Could be worse." He said with a sigh as he lit up a cig.

As soon as he heard that Alice could possible tear this place apart, he now had confirmed what he thought. A small smile on his face.

"That radiates from Alice? And to think I questioned her strength. You surprise me Alice...Not only are you a vampire that's a bit timid but you hide a great power within which I'm really interested as to knowing why you haven't used it before... Your not so much trouble as more annoying yet interesting. A strange combination but an exciting package nonetheless. As for Alice-" He leaned forward, interlocking his fingers together and rested his head on them as he glanced at them all. "Any of you know of any sufficient suppressive magic?"

---

Laurel was quite startled by all of this commotion, apparently she had picked a table full of crazy people to sit at. The dragon grabbed ahold of her roommate and things go wild really quickly from there. Apparently this was some kind of drama filled triangle of insanity. Another vampire appeared as the female one that was already at the table, whose name seemed to be Alice, started to rattle the table and lose control of her mental waves. "Not a bit, that isn't my specialty. Give me a moment though."

The slender young woman slipped away from the table to sniff out someone she had met in class last year. A tiny petite witch who was one of the strongest Laurel had ever met and suppression. She returned quickly with the tiny and very unassuming witch. She was petite and blonde and had a brilliant smile as she looked at the group. "She isn't going to like this," the tiny witch murmured as she looked at Laurel and the Dragon. There was a soft pale blue glow as the young woman spoke in her native tongues, the words drawing power from the air around her before it dissipated as she directed the spell at the Vampire who was seemingly going to be out of control at any moment. "She shouldn't be able to do much for a while, I just dulled the connection between her powers and her anxiety and fear. Have her smell this when she becomes alarmed, it should help ease the tension and keep her in control. You may want to take her to Mrs. Langley to have her show her how to control her powers. She's too strong to not have some training. Mrs. Langley should be able to help." The tiny witch nodded at the Dragon and the other Vampire whom had introduced himself as Oliver. She pulled a small pouch of herbs from her coat pocket and tossed them onto the table in front of the female Vampire.

"Nadia is right though, she needs to see Mrs. Langley. She's the best there is for young vampires. Nadia's coven are world renowned healers." Laurel announced, she was glad she had committed Nadia's scent to memory in case she ever needed to find the girl. Even though she was at school she was already up to par with some of the less powerful adult witches. She was very powerful despite her age. Just as Laurel was about to open her mouth to talk again she heard the distinct sound of a fork tapping a glass. She immediately sat down and shut her full pouting lips.

Madame P was standing up on top of the raised platform were the teachers were at, champagne flute in hand as she looked over her students with a friendly smile. "Since not all of you were present for my welcome speech I say again that all of the staff we welcome you all to our little piece of heaven and our sanctuary. There will be a ball in just two days time so you all will be allowed to order your formal wear if you need to do so. One of the advisors will pick it up for you in the human realm as we do not allow our students to leave during their time here. The Welcome Ball will be an opportunity for some of you to find a mentor of someone within your own species who isn't related to you. This will be a great time for all of you I hope. Now I'm sure all of you all are starving so I shall get off of my soap box and let you all dig in!" She looked over her students one last time and gestured to the waiters that were standing in the corners of the room to fill the tables with food. There were bottles of different kinds of blood, platters and platters of different kinds of food.

Sul smiled at her anger before attempting to nip at her finger. “Oh, you’re just a treat.” He said, and Kiki had to stifle a smile of her own. That was pretty sexy. Hiding those feelings, and after saying her piece, Kiara smoothed down the ruffled leaves on her outfit and stuck her nose up haughtily. She stood the chair up and reclaimed her seat with grace.

Closer to the table, Kiki noticed the slight tremors running through it, and cocked her head curiously. Soon after, a boy vampire rushed over to Sul with some small rectangular package. Ah, this must be the dragon’s treasure she thought, giving the boy a sweeping glance. He was also quite attractive… maybe she had died and found herself in a little slice of heaven? Regardless, she was here now, and she didn’t plan on leaving anytime soon, at least not without a trophy or two.

The vampire boy explained that Alice was the reason for the table’s trembling, bringing the faeries attention back to her. “What an interesting little sharp-tooth you are…” Although a lot of Unseelie faeries in fact had sharp teeth themselves, ‘sharp-tooth’ was their slang term for vampires. Thankfully, Kiki’s roommate knew a witch that could help suppress the vampire’s anxiety-induced flare up. Laurel might be a good resource to have, Kiki being a first-time third year student and all.

The sound of metal and glass colliding quieted the entire banquet hall in milliseconds. Madame P stood up and gave another speech. She emanated beauty, power, wisdom, and grace. Kiara was quick to admire the head mistress, but what she had to say was even more exciting.

“A ball!” Kiara squeaked. “Oh, I always loved a good revel back home.” Kiki gushed and balled her tiny hands up under her chin excitedly. “But, I don’t know anything about human realm formal wear!” She looked to her seemingly well-dressed roommate, feeling a little self-conscious, and crossed her arms over her bare midriff. “Will you help me pick something?” she asked with a hopeful smile.

Suleykaar

"She is isn't she? I see why he would want her killed Oliver...She's hiding something and I do intend on fining out what it is... This time he gave Oliver a more tan mechievious grin with a gaze to match before snorting out a bit of smoke with his expression returning to that of a more neutral one. "But in due time." He leaned back in his chair and turned to Kiara with a wink.

A few mintues passed before an announcement was made about a ball that would be held in two weeks time. Suleykaar simply rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Humans and creatures alike have balls, hm? Hopefully they are better than the ones I've seen in the human realm. Nothing short of one step mixed in with a few twirls to some string and some simple drums but that was long ago... Now its more with human technology; technological basslines, snares, and other weird noises, a lot of what humans described as dubstep. Apparently a man who goes by the moniker "Skrillex was big for sometime but it seems his artistry has somewhat faded into the background due to the rise of...I think it wa called "hip-hop"...Sounds more like rabbits jumping around." He chuckled to himself. "I wonder what's in store for us, hm?" As he thought about it he frowned, his eyes closed with a slight vein popping out. "If this school plays that infernal Monster Mash song I will burn this place down and piss on its ashes...Wretched humans mocking what they believe are myths and legends and yet the proof is right there in front of them... The last part he mumbled as Kiara had squeaked at the idea of a ball.

When she turned to her roommate he gave a rather puzzled look. "A member of the Unseelie court doesn't know how to dress for such an occasion? That's quite amusing." He went to open his mouth to say another witty and somewhat condescending remark until he turned his attention to Oliver and Alice. "Actually with that being said have you two figured out what your going to where? Nevermind...I'll make sure that you are dressed properly. No business partner of mine will where some two-bit manufactured suit or dress. I'll ave that taken care of." He pulled out his phone and pressed one before putting it on speaker.

"Suls? What's up?"

"I need clothing. Not for me..."

"Need me to give her a buzz."

"Could you?"

"I could.." Suleykaar chuckled.

"Thank you." He hung up the phone and smiled at the two of them. "Ohhh this will be very entertaining.

---

An older gentlemen had moved from the front of the hall whee the faculty sat and decided to take the initiative of interacting with his soon-to-be students. His name was Lorenzo de Ghardelli, one of the oldest teachers her at the academy, besides her. He wouldn't say that they were on bad terms but it was just he had a way of teaching and she had hers. It was that simple. He approached the table that seemed to be what most people were talking about and wore a genuine smile.

Alice...Oliver...Kiara...Suleykaar...Lurel, sorry if I mispronounced that... Laurel. It's a pleasure to meet all of you...Especially a dragon nonetheless. Lok avok-" Suleykaar' eyes widened slightly as a genuine smile crossed his face.

"Z-Zul kosil...Hi mindok tinvok do dovah?" Lorenzo bobbed his head side to side twice with a ponde-ish look before nodding.

"Ganog wah fey nahlaas." Suleykaar chuckled.

Lorenzo then turned his attention to the others. "Alice and Oliver...I do recommend you try the 1884 AB+, it's quite delectable and as for you two-" Looking at both Kiara and Laurel. "I do recommend either the caramelized duck or the quail with either a 15 century merlot or 1645 Riesling." He smiled once more before moving off to another table to introduce himself to the students.

---

Outside of the Rosa Claire Academy Realm

In a rather large cave behind large closed doors sat 5 crimson winged lords, behind them draped on the finest cloth a portrait of their ancestor, Tiamat. Each one adorned a look of agitation and anger as their gaze bore into a small figure in the center of the room. One moved in close, a large growl bellowed from its body.

“Zhar'Ryk! Fos los seik do daar! Druv lost hi faan mii het!”

Another had gotten directly in his face as he remained motionless and and fearless. “Hi pruz lost pruzah dahrin sen! Nid gein diinek Fylix laag!”

Faal Kul do Tiamat lost kosaan krinaan. Suleykaar los wah noraas. Zharr'Ryk's slitted eyes glanced over the dragons.

Fos? Vokorasaal! Tolro uzgroleinuv! The Winged lords roared.

Nii los vahzah. .. Zu'u lost koriaan ok dinok voth dii meyar miin. Rok lost personally sein tum ativut do faal Kiir do Tiamat ahrk atruk kent kos drehlaan do nii. Zu'u tovaak yun Kul do Tiamat kos faan ahrk Zu'u recommend dimaar fah kostaad.

Quickly the dragon closest to Zhar'Ryk raised his claw. “Firok! Vir Krilon Hi Orin Tovaak Tol! Zu'u Saag Hi Lost Faal Gein Wo krii Mok!” As the claw came down a large crater was made as Zhar'Ryk easily blocked it. He gripped the claw of the large dragon and pivoted his body as lowered himself, quickly bringing the large lizard over his body and putting it onto its back with a loud thump and roar.

“Tyrion, hi pruzaan mindos hin staad hi wuth firok uv hi fen mindos tol dii nebenfaan amongst pah dovah gevild maleyk. Ol fah Suleykaar... Zu'u fen haalit tol dimaar” Zhar'Ryk growled as he turned away from and begun to walk towards the exit. The one sighed as he cocked his scaly head slightly to the side. "And how do you plan on doing that?"

Zhar'Ryk as he walked withdrew a brochure from his pocket and threw it behind him. "By going here."



The door closed behind the winged ones as Zhar'Ryk transformed into his large scaly mass, leaping into the air and taking flight as he did so. His abyssal like voice bellowing across the open air.

Zu'u bo fah hi............... Zeymah.

---

Having clearly avoided a massive disaster Laurel wasn't quite so sure what all she had gotten herself into at this point. When Sulley rang up a friend, business partner as he called it, to get clothing for the pair of vampires Laurel shrugged at Kiara. Dragons were always wheeling and dealing and making sure people owed them favors, massive ones. They were quite good at it actually. "Well I suppose that is taken care of then. I'm sure, who ever it is that's getting your clothing won't disappoint. My father's associate eats his personal shoppers when they choose poorly." she laughed a bit at the thought of your life depending on your fashion sense.

Laurel turned her attention to Kiara then, looking the girl over, "I think you're about a size smaller than I am, maybe two. I'll call my mother later on after the feast and have her send someone to get us both some dresses with shoes and what not." It wouldn't be hard for her mother to acquire one of a kind pieces as she was a dress designer in her spare time.

When the professor came by she nodded at him, simply acknowledging his words to her and Kiara. He mentioned the new vampires name as well, she was quite sure that all of the teachers here had a list of all the students and knew nearly everything about them. Laurel was one of the first in her family to come through the academy so there was little family history here. The Gifted were a little more reclusive than some of the other species of cryptids. Perhaps even on the same level of dragons though even they were starting to get quite far out into the public eye even if they didn't truly reveal themselves. Most of her direct family were nomadic, traveling constantly and never staying too long in one place and especially in the city but they owned an empire to be reckoned with in trade.

Laurel's cool green eyes seemed to level those around her, she focused on one particular male elf a bit too long and he turned his head only slightly before quivering upon seeing her now brilliant yellow eyes, her slitted pupils dilated slightly as the lines between her original intentions and her new one blurred. The feline within her whispered, 'Prey.' She was a hunter and would always be that away. She twitched her nose slightly before turning her gaze elsewhere, eyes still as golden as a dragon's treasure hoard.

"I suppose I ought to call my mother now and have her send someone after a dress for Kiara and myself. Perhaps something that will show off my newest artwork." She purred at the thought, the air around her rumbling with the sound as she tapped a slender finger on her jawline.

The dragon made some condescending remark about it being amusing that she didn’t know how to dress for this occasion. Of course she didn’t, she wasn’t allowed to go to the human realm yet, it was too important for the faeries to maintain a secret existence, Kiara had to master her glamour first. She knew how to dress in faerie couture; her family was royal blood, after all. Kiki narrowed her eyes at Sul but he started talking to Alice and Oliver before she could tell him off yet again.

Thankfully for the others, Laurel was there with a distraction to put out Kiara’s hotheadedness. Laurel said that Kiki was probably a size or two smaller than herself and that her mom could pick up stuff for them. Faerie clothing was magical, so it didn’t have sizes, it would just shrink or stretch to fit the wearer perfectly. Kiki would soon find that her size fell somewhere between zero and one in the human world, unhealthy by most mortal standards, but Kiara wasn’t mortal, and she hardly ever ate solid food, unless it was ridiculously sweet. Even then, more than a bite or two would make her feel sick.

Laurel mentioned something that would show off artwork “Like tattoos? Ooh, that’s a good idea, I’d like something with a low back I think, to show off mine. Yes, a low back, and black, with feathers!” Kiara loved to wear fashion that paid homage to her relationship with Morrigane, the crow queen. “I don’t know about shoes though, I like for the souls of my feet to be in contact with nature…” she was excitedly rambling like a child, tapping her bare feet on the stone ground for emphasis. “Oh! I can pay though. Well, my daddy would.” Kiki smiled bright. Yup, she was that girl in the school.