Gliding over the clouds in the morning sun, Alex had never felt so free. He loved flying, it was one of the most amazing experiences he had ever known. It was a simple pleasure, for him, but he loved it nonetheless.

His wings beat slower as he began his descent, gradually arriving at the school which he was to attend for the next period of his life.

He had travelled the world, searching for places with people like him. He had found many shapeshifters, but many of them feared their gift, and even more of them feared him. He had never came across someone who was accepting of the gifts he had. Of course, quite a lot of people feared dragons, and rightly so. They were large, fearsome, and weren't exactly known for their gentleness. However, his family were different. Stories of dragons and knights and maidens were exaggerations, and were based on dragon warriors. His family were closer to scientists than warriors. They studied things. Mainly magic and it's possibilities. They had found a few limitations to magic, which had resulted in fame and fortune for his family, and he hated it. He wasn't one for a lot of attention, though he liked socialising, he also liked his alone time.

He hit the ground with a soft tread, and his wings retracted back into his body. He arched his back and stretched. He had been flying for quite some time. More than usual when in his human form.

He walked towards the gate and sighed, wondering whether opting for a single room was a good choice. He wanted to socialise here, but he assumed he'd be able to, without having to share a room. And if push came to shove, he could always switch to a double room.

Flint stood by the steps of the old building. He looked up at the high towers and smiled happily as they reminded him of the castles back in his homeland which where once used by kings and queens. His day dreaming was cut short when he heard a gate opening and turned to find a boy walking through them. He had silver hair and was stretching out as if he had travelled a long distance. I wondered if this boy knew where the dorms where so I could put my bags down and so began to walk over. Stopping just in front of him "Hi I'm Flint, is this your first day too?" He asked extending out a hand for the boy to shake.

Alex smiled to himself. His social life was off to a good start already. He put on his best winning smile and shook the boys hand. 'I'm Alex, pleasure to meet you flint. And indeed it is my first day here.' He looked around. 'But so far I like what I see. This place seems to have an awful lot of land around it.' He turned back to face Flint. 'Sorry, my mind wanders sometimes.' He chuckled.

I don't want to be here....

That was all Erza kept repeating through her head as she glanced down solemnly with a small glower at the open sketchbook in her lap, a nicely sharpened 2H lead pencil loosely grasped between her two fingers and gliding gracefully across the coarse-grained paper with every stroke of the young girl's hand, the artist at work on another masterpiece of hers. Today, this blistering and miserably humid day in the ides of August, marked the beginning of her second year at the school, and as she had done before on the eve of her first year at this secluded and mysterious academy for the likes of her kind...whatever that was, soon to maybe be a ritual for her maybe, she spoke to no one, not even the new arrivals at the majestic, iron-barred gates of the ancient castle-like building that stood looming over her, casting her entire figure in absolute shadows, same as the very tree she rested under, her back supported by the thick trunk of wood pushing against her, her knees curled to her breasts...and as customary, her sketchbook already plopped in her lap and a pencil already in hand.

As much as she was concerned, Erza didn't exist to no one at this moment. It was just her...here in a world of her own machinations, where she was safe...safe from hate...safe from prejudice....safe....from herself...... I hate this place....

In her ears were her earbuds to her MP3 player, already slowly belting out Slipknot's Vermilion Part 2 as she continued drawing...mostly just small character sketches here and there, nothing too showy or glamorous, but even so...Erza was a little proud of her creations.

Rhiannon looked around the room she had been guided to, either by an older student or a teacher (she wasn't sure which, it was hard to read the age and status of a large wolf). Already she had ended up using her ability, softly humming after said wolf had proved unwilling to be her guide initially (in fact his initial response could well be described as 'angry') had allowed her to manipulate his image of her until he was happy enough to show her where the rooms were.

"A double? I guess Tad is pretty strapped for cash." She muttered to herself and walked in. Choosing the bed closest to the window (it was in the corner, Rhiannon felt safest in corners since she could see everything in the room at once) she claimed it by putting her black and wheeled travel case heavily onto it before leaving in search of someone to talk to. The place was quite a maze and she found herself sweet-talking (or, rather, sweet-singing) someone into being her guide again. Once outside she saw a couple of boys she identified as being new, same as her, largely by that unfamiliar awkwardness badly masked by a deliberate overconfidence.

"Bora dda, fellas! You guys new as well, tidy?"

"I can agree with that" Flint remarked following his line of sight as he looked around "Don't worry about it Im sure everyone will get used to how amazing this place looks" Flint gave Alex a smile as a girl walked over and chimed a welcome to Flint and Alex "Yeah where new I don't really know where I need to go" Flint said nervously scratching the back of his head. He wanted to ask what made the two people In front of him not "normal" in the basic sense but thought it would be rude to ask, This was the first time he was a around people like him after all. "Was that welsh you spoke before?" I asked attempting to release some of my nervous tension.

Alex turned to face the new arrival. It was the first female he had seen since entering the gates, although that wasn't difficult seeing as he had only ran into Flint so far. 'Indeed we are.' He answered the girl. 'My names Alex, this is Flint.' He smiled, he recognised some of the Welsh words, but not much of them. During his travels, he had been to the UK, but mainly spoke English. Welsh was a rather difficult language to learn, for humans.

There...almost done. All that was left to do was smudge in a few lines so they would blend with her shading, creating a more definitive and streamlined appearance to her work, instead of it just looking like half-assed, mindless scribblings, but still...that's how they kinda felt to Erza. She sighed deeply lifting her head against the bark of the tree behind her, her raven black hair, tousled and tangled from many a sleepless night, draped over her slender shoulders and her bangs falling forth to conceal her dark green eyes in the very shadows she thrived in....away from the rest of the mortal world. Closing her sketchbook, she set it back in her Silent Hill 2 messenger bag, also where she carried an old and beat up three ringed journal with some of her writings, stories mainly but a few poems and some song lyrics, and of course her texts and tomes for the classes of her choosing...and of course the core curriculum. But it was as she began to rise to her feet, she noticed....another girl. Who's she? Her eyes locked onto her, the girl talking to those guys just a few feet away from where she was standing. She was...definitely cute to Erza. A funny feeling about the dark girl as she admired this other female, her shimmering red locks flowing about her slim shoulders, her adorable, slightly rounded face and the beautiful complexion of her skin. Erza would have to say she was...rather smitten.

"Tidy. I'm Rhiannon, by the way. You can shorten it to 'Rhian' if you prefer, everybody seems to after a while." She smiled, forgetting that she was, for the first time, in a place where only she spoke Welsh. It was such a way of life for her that it was only when they went to the larger towns in Wales, or anywhere outside of Wales for that matter (including England), that people looked at her with no understanding. Of course, she spoke English fluently having been raised to speak and taught both as first languages.

"Ie (ee-yeah), I forgot I wasn't in Wales anymore. Let me know if I'm not making any sense, sometimes I just slip back into it by accident." Again, she grinned but it was slightly nervous and the stretching silence didn't help her slightly awkward nature. Remembering Flint's earlier question she pointed towards the main buidling.

"I came from there but our rooms are all in that tower. Well, the girls' are. The... werewolf I had guide me said the boys and girls are in different towers." She skipped over the part where she had manipulated said werewolf's mind into guiding her, hoping that if the boys needed directions whoever they asked was a little more forthcoming.

"Ah ok and don't worry about it my grandmother is welsh so I can understand a few words here and their I come from England after all quite close to wales. Closer to wales then London or Scotland if that helps centre where I'm from" Flint smiled noticing that he was blabbing on "Well I think we should get to our rooms, we can stick our bags in and then im sure we will meet up later Rhian as I am guessing the girls are not aloud in the boys dorm and vice versa " I looked to Alex "Joining me?" I asked as I turned to walk to the main building.

Alex chuckled. 'I understand little bits of Welsh.' He admitted. 'I've done enough travelling to pick up certain words and phrases in most languages.' He shrugged. 'But out of all of them, I think I know the least Welsh.' He smiled. 'And thanks for the info. That should come in pretty useful.' He looked around. 'I'm gonna have fun here, there's a lot of ground to cover.' He turned to Flint. 'Yeah, sure, why not?' He shrugged.

Zaccar and Lucatiel wandered around the halls of the school, last time the could without that many of the new meat coming in."So you saw one of these new kids and don't remember anything?" Lucatiel asked again of her brother.
"Yes, red haired chick, was to busy to help nor did I feel like it but then I'm standing in some other part of the school on my own. Probably another manipulator student," he replied as they walked near the front doors and looked out seeing some of the new people that were entering the school.
"That's the girl!" Zaccar said spotting a head of red hair. He wasn't entirely made about what had transpired but more annoyed by it but that would be hard to tell, especially when he roamed roamed the school grounds in his werewolf form, as well as his sister which dwarfed most of the students by at least a foot.
"Ah well why don't we give them a warm welcome as soon as they come in, or I will at least. Girl tower after all, no boys," Lucatiel snickered with a mischievous grin ",Seems like this will be an interesting year. Better then last at least, it was so dull last year."

Flint smiled as he went into the main building and to the front desk. He asked about the dorms and he was given a small map of the area, he soon found the boys dorm. "Ok well we may as well head there now" He muttered as they began to follow the map to the dorm rooms. "Its a lot of walking" Flint panted as they walked up a large spiral staircase but soon got to the row of rooms. Each numbered accordingly.

"That's the girl!" Rhiannon heard the call and quickly said her farewells to the two boys. "Tara (tah-rah)" Before hurrying away. The voice had been too close to that of the werewolf from earlier. Since she had 'nicened' the person to be her guide, largely through defensive reflex than anything else, the tone of their voice had been different to what it would have been usually. Still, it wasn't like she did anything wrong per se, especially since the person had done it all of their own free will; all she had done was provide them some encouragement.

"First day and I'm already trying to hide. Brilliant." Noticing a nearby tree she made for it, partially to hide and partially because her control over nature always made the proximity of vegetation a haven for her. She reached the bottom of the tree and placed a hand on it, letting her thoughts flow into it.

I'll just be climbing you for a little while, okay?

This important part of etiquette done she jumped and easily reached the lowest branch, swinging herself easily up onto it and using the momentum to propel herself up to the next one from where there were plenty of handholds to easily climb higher. She found a small spot where several branches interlaced to form a small seat and sat down in it with her back against the main trunk of the tree.

"Not a bad spot, tidy."

Alex chuckled. 'Indeed it is. Try being high up the tower. I'm right at the top. I feel like changing to a double room just so I don't have to walk as far up this tower.' He said with a laugh. He wasn't really sure what to talk about, he couldn't find a conversational opening that would lead to a full conversation.

"Well look you scared her off now," Lucatiel laughed as the red headed girl ran off ",Not to bright though. Doesn't she know that were's have keen senses."
Zaccar shrugged though laughed slightly ",Well it provided a good laugh at least. Guess that's good enough revenge for me."
"Ah and I had plans for later," Lucatiel sighed sarcastically ",Guess introductions will have to wait until later."
They both remained near the entrance for the time being talking mostly about this school year and what to expect. This would be there third year here since they had made it there home. Though they might of been intimidating they were nicer then they looked, except for the full moon when the wolf took more control over them but other then that they were big softies unless you got them agitated which took a lot.

Flint laughed softly "well how about we drop off our bags and try to find Rhian again ? Maybe then we can have a look around and find out where everything is?" Flint then went off to his room. Opening it with the key he was given and dropping off his bag. Quickly taking out a few things then leaving to meet with Rhian again. Rushing quickly through the corridors and to the main entrance spotting two people he had not met "hello?" he said weakly to the large wolves.

Hunter had already holed herself up in the ancient library the castle held. Books already piled up around herself about anything and everything that could possibly relate to her or whatever else she deemed interesting. She found herself a nice quiet corner in the massive place. Subconsciously, she made the pile of books somewhat a fortress for her. She settled right smack in the dab in the middle of the piles. Her legs crossed, and the book settled on top of them. It was a hard thing to admit, but she was a big bookworm. She used to only steal books from people, back in her early days of thievery.

With her earphones safely tucked inside her ears, blasting her current favorite song there was probably no way anybody was going to get her out of the state she was in. Her fingers traced or tapped at the hardcovers of the books, sometimes tapping to the beat of the song. Her faint shadow fidgeted and seemed to fuss about, clearly not relaxed. While she was in the state of calm euphoria.

"I'm trying to read..." Hunter mumbled blankly.

And to Erza's bewildering and astonished surprise, here had come the beautiful girl to her tree. Oh no! Suddenly she could feel her face growing uncomfortably warm, her pale white cheeks reddening with a mortified and anxious heat as she quickly broke eye contact from the redhead and affixed her dark green gaze upon the tatters and frays in her dark grey skinny jeans. Also her hands flew quickly to the back of her head and pulled the hood of her Metallica: And Justice For All sweatshirt almost completely over her head. Odd it was indeed for the girl to be wearing a sweatshirt for the end of summer, where the sun bared down hard with all its unforgiving heat, but...it was just how Erza was. She never really liked to flaunt herself out there much, and...she didn't really think she had anything to display. Her skin...it wasn't the cute pale like this redhead climbing the tree she rested under for the remainder of the day, it was sickly pale....almost...death pale. Some would think it was just from the shadowed girl not getting enough sunlight. She was practically a shut in, but....her skin's always been this haunting white as much as she could remember.

Still keeping herself covered, Erza shivered slightly, and she was pretty sure her face wasn't pale anymore. Dammit dammit fuck! Ugh....why does she have to be over here? Maybe if she just opened her sketchbook again and started drawing, pretending to ignore the redheaded girl...maybe she would leave, but...did Erza want her to leave? Opening her messenger bag again, she fished out her sketchbook and pencil, back to work on her original drawing, just touching up the shading and...making it look like she was busy with something else and didn't want to be bothered to talk right now...yet in the back of her troubled and clouded mind, a part of Erza was hoping the redhead would talk to her.

Singing to herself, Claudia hid in the recreation, slicing the skin on her forearm. Yeah it hurt but she was pretty used to this kinda thing by now so, whatevs. Her white hood shadowed her face as blood dripped into the pentacle on the floor. Nothing like a demon summoning to really get back into the swing of school. Gosh she loved doing this, if mostly just to torment her demon. The blood offering made, she dropped her anthame, grinning, and raised her hands up high.
"ເພີ່ມຂຶ້ນ, ຫນຶ່ງວັດຖຸບູຮານ, ແລະໃຫ້ຄວາມປາດຖະຫນາຂອງຂ້າພະເຈົ້າ!"
As she spoke in Lao tongue, fires raged up from the floor, for a moment rivers turned to blood and the unholy screams of ravens filled the air as the flew from their prison, upcoming a great, dark demon with his wings slowly unfurling and he let out a great scream of triumph from being set free. His golden eyes looked to her, and he extended his hand to her, to greet her with the dark tongue they only spoke in when in the presence of a witch. The demons hand flopped limply.

"Guuuuuurl I ain't got time for all this showbiz." Isaik snapped sassily, waving his hands back and forth. Claudia giggled.

"Gurrrrrrlll I ain't got time for your whining."

"GUUUURLLL"
"GUUUUUUUUUURRL"
"GUUUUUURL"
The two laughed and hugged, having been a while since they'd seen each other.