Away for the Holidays [event]

[ωΘĿƒ]

Crane nudged the casting pillar farther from the center of the runed circle. It was heavy, yes, that and awkward. It was always hard to shove a huge block of solid granite around a cement floor. There was a lot of friction, so that made things worse, and not to mention the density of the casting pillar, which for any good pillar had to be pretty dense to withstand a portal so big. It was really, really difficult. In fact, that is why he had Mike helping him.

"Okay, a little more left.." Crane urged.

"Daniel, give an old spider some time!" Mike barked, grunting with the strain. The pillar grated against the floor with a deep, thick rumbling noise. "I'm not young and spry like I used to be, you know! Not everyone is immortal in this joint!"

"Joint?"

Crane frowned thoughtfully, watching Mike struggle with the pillar.

"Since when have you started using language like that, Mike? It's so unlike you."

"Yes," the spider sighed, "forgive me. These children and their young lingo. They rather leave an impression after a while."

Crane tipped his head in a sort of calm worry. He didn't like the sound of that, for some strange reason. It must have been the connotations that came along with this "rubbing off." He did not favor the ones that came to mind.

"I hope not. The next thing you know you'll be spray painting lockers."

The thick grating sound stopped as Mike bent over, dabbing at his head with a little red scarf. He chuckled merrily, much like an old English gentleman might. His mandibles crunched together with a few sickening pops, and he put the scarf down on a nearby lab table.

"Oh, don't make me laugh, Daniel. You'll give me a heart attack."

The two of them laughed together in the solitude, both knowing that it wasn't as funny as it sounded. Mike was getting old. There was no mistaking it. He just wasn't the giant, deadly spider beast that he used to be.

"Anyways," Mike cleared his throat, "the pillar's moved. Right where you wanted it."

Crane stared blankly at the large column of stone for a moment, as if having a conversation with himself over its position. Mike knew when Daniel got like this, it was best to keep quiet and let him finish thinking. The man could be brilliant, if only he wasn't so bothered by that damn bloodsucker all the time.

Apparently White had wanted to come on the yearly skiing trip this time. He had never asked before, and had never shown any interest in coming at all before. Actually, if you thought about it you had to wonder how White knew there was a yearly skiing trip. He wasn't allowed on school grounds, and no one talked about it much, considering it was a well-kept secret and one of the perks of going to a school so adept in the arts of magic. This year they were going to the Swiss Alps. They would be back by suppertime, if the portal worked.

"More right." Crane finally said. Mike rolled a few sets of his eyes, while a few more sets remained fixed angrily on the chimera in front of him.

"I just moved it right! Can't you bother yourself to compensate for the displacement? How far is it off, if you wouldn't mind me asking?"

"A quarter inch."

"What?!?! I'm not moving it a bloody quarter inch! Young man, you had better use your powers to work with it as-is! How far off will it put you, anyways? A few feet, I suspect!"

Crane tipped his head to the other side, looking at Mike as if he expected him to be joking.

"I thought the children went on a winter trip..."

"What do you mean winter?" Mike spluttered.

"If I make the portal now, we'll end up in Ecuador."

Mike plopped his massive armored body on the ground tiredly. Ecuador? How did he know that?

"What is the weather like in Ecuador?" The spider tried, hoping.

"...It's Ecuador, Mike. The equator is there."

"Right..." The old spider sighed. "I'll move it..."

Crane smiled.

"Good man."

[Oren]

Kendryek looked at the sheet of paper in his hand. Chasity had given it to him at lunch a few days ago. There was supposedly a skiing trip that the school was taking. There was a room number at the top so he had been following it. It hadn't taken long for him to find the room and now he stood in front of the door. He hesitated at the door. There were voices inside, almost arguing, talking about some large block of some sort. They sounded like teachers. Was he the first one here?

He was about to find out, now wasn't he?

Placing a hand on the doorknob, he opened the door and walked inside as if nothing was irregular. The sight that greeted him was anything but expected. A very large spider and a chimera were by a large stone block, granite, if he was correct. But the granite nor the chimera mattered for all of two seconds as he took in the extremely large, eight-legged creature. The creature was working on pushing the large block, but that didn't really matter either.

Kendryek took a big breath and slowly let it out. Spiders always caught him off guard. Especially ones as small as one's palm or smaller. But this one was bigger than that, much bigger, so he nodded a greeting to both the creatures with a small smile and a slight bow.

"Pardon my initial reaction. It is an unconscious response at the sight of spiders. I assume you are setting up the portal? Do you need an extra hand, though I'm thinking I won't be of much help in moving that thing."

A portal was the only thing that made sense since they were in a room within the school building. Not to mention that it was the only reason that a large spider would be pushing a large granite block around. It also explained the one-day skiing trip. Though he wasn't sure if he was going to go. Probably not. Skiing might be fun, but there were better things to do with his time, like studying the positioning of the stone on the floor and the effects it would have on the portal if it was moved while they were gone. That was always something fun to do, though he'd most likely get in more trouble than he cared to deal with.

For now, he'd watch the happenings and see if he could help in any way.

[Iƪƪia]

Ailyth was rushing down the hall as quickly as her legs would allow. Which was pretty fast, actually. And her excitement only seemed to allow her to run faster as she sprinted down the hallway, eagerly reading off the room numbers.

She'd been thrilled about this field trip since she first heard about it just days ago. A skiing trip! Though she wan't entirely sure was skiing was... She knew it was a sport. Or at least, she was pretty certain of that. And she knew it was done where there was lots of snow. And... That's about it. Well still, it must be cool!

Ailyth liked the snow. It was like water, only colder and somehow not as wet. She had always enjoyed bouncing around the forest just after a fresh snowfall. That was also when the other forest creatures would make their appearances in their new, pretty, white winter coats. She always knew she'd have someone to chat with then. And whenever the snow got too deep, or her feathers got too wet, then they'd just stay inside and talk about how much snow was outside.

Caught up in her memories, Ailyth suddenly realized that she must have passed the room she had been looking for. She skidded to a stop, colliding with a scrawny-looking boy who had just entered the hall. She stumbled backwards, laughing, before she turned and pointed down the hall.

"I missed the door!" With that, she sprinted back down the hall, still laughing, leaving the boy to simply look after her, confused.

This time, she hit her mark, even slowing down before she got to the door. However, her excitement hadn't diminished at all as she threw open the door with a flourish and pranced inside.

"Hello!" She beamed at the others as she entered.

There were only three others in the room... Seems she was always early for some reason. But only one of them looked like he could be a student. Then there was this cool-looking spider guy and... Wasn't that other dude the principal or something? She knew that she'd seen him somewhere before.

Still smiling at them all, she stepped forward to inspect the weird marking on the floor. Looked like some sort of magic. Oh! This must be the portal-thing she'd heard about. Though she'd never used a portal before... But it looked awesome!

"Cool."[/color]

[Ari Phoenix]

She was still new, yet somehow had gotten the paper that said she could go on the trip. She wasn't sure if she wanted to go on it, but felt that it would be better to go on it, than to stay back, especially since she needed to meet others, and to learn how they were. Also if she was correct, a Teacher would be there, so if she lost control, maybe the teacher could help her. At least she hoped. She walked down the hallways slowly, looking for the room, with only quiet thoughts going on her head, and humming being the only sound she really made. She didn't want to be shy today, so she needed to make herself comfortable, but didn't want to start singing yet. She heard they were doing something like Skiing, she had heard the word, but didn't know what it meant. She hoped that what ever it was, it would lead to helpful and hopeful interaction.

She saw a boy standing there confused and dazed, and smiled at him as she passed, giving a slight bow, before walking on. She got to the door only a few moments later, and looked in. She was certain that was the right room, there were four people inside. She slowly entered, carefully, still holding the paper with the invitation. She looked around, one Giant Spider, and three human looking people which she figured where not as they seemed, one of which was Kendryek. She smiled at him, and bowed a little "Kendryek-senpai, it is nice to see you here." she spoke, as she looked at the others, one was someone who she thought might be a teacher, and the other was a girl. She seemed hyper.

"This is the laboratory isn't it?" she asked, sounding out the word carefully, to try not to mess it up, a few times that day already, she had accidentally asked for the lavatory, AKA the bathroom, and didn't want to make them think she was asking about such a place, when she wanted to be at the field trip meeting area. She hoped she didn't come off as strange or freakish, or impolite. She needed to find out though. She bowed to the Spider and the two people she didn't know, giving them respect.

[ωΘĿƒ]

Z gallivanted down the hallways, shoving things into his backpack as he went. He had one arm in the sleeve of a huge, fluffy winter jacket and the other was dragging a snowboard customized with his very own bumper stickers and some cool flame designs.

He loved skiing! Or, snowboarding, but whatever. As long as he had some supplies and a good, thick winter coat he was good. He didn't like cold. He was a fire dragon, so it was like sticking a flame in water for him, but at the same time he did enjoy sports and stuff. And he could get some good air time if he really hit the big slopes! Yes!

Yanking his other sleeve on, Z skirted to a halt in front of the lab. The lab - he loved the lab. It was so ripe for the picking for all those cool chemicals that blew stuff up and whatnot. Of course, the room itself was locked when people weren't in it, and there was some kind of magic on the cabinets so you could only open them if you were a teacher. Damn magic! He was so close to getting some of that funny yellow powder-stuff too!

"The fun has arrived!" Z beamed, shouldering his backpack and shifting his board under his arm. There were only a couple of people here right now, but that didn't matter. He'd wait.

After all, how often did he get to go skiing in the Alps? Mom always made him go to the Rockies instead...
[/size]

* * *

Crane peeked over his shoulder at the new arrivals, forgetting Mike completely as he focused more on taking a head count. It was always a good thing to know how many people there were, just in case the portal didn't work as well as it was supposed to and threw someone, well, wherever.

Magic was funny that way.

"Hark, young ones!" Mike gasped, dabbing his head with the scarf again. The first one in was a dragon, and instantly, the powerful creature responded with a mixture of surprise and fear. Crane turned around, but instead of looking at the dragon student, he instead took a quick look and then went to examining the position of the block of stone right next to him. There were three of them. Three points to triangulate a location. Mike finished moving the stone and threw the scarf back on the table, too tired and out of breath to speak. Instead, Crane decided to say something, still staring intently at the stone.

"He gets that a lot. Don't worry, we've got all the heavy lifting out of the way for this trip. There's nothing you can help with."

He remained fixated on the stone pillar, glaring at it with such focus that he hardly noticed anything else. He did this for about five minutes, then in a sudden motion, a black tentacle shot out of his back and nudged the pillar back an inch, disappearing immediately after it had come.

"Alright, I lied. Now we're done with the heavy lifting."

Mike glared at the back of Crane's head, muttering to himself.

"Getting an old spider to do all your dirty work..."

Crane was too distracted by the rest of the group to hear him.

"Ah, more people. Yes, this is laboratory one." He said, smiling at the girl who asked. He nodded slightly to the one that came in before her.

That was four now, and five was on the way. Ezekiel crashed through the door just as Mike caught his breath back.

"Alright children, alright!" The old spider huffed, "Gather 'round and take a lab seat. We shall wait for the others to arrive and then we will leav- Damion! Don't touch that beaker!"

"Sure thing Mikey." Came the cheery reply.
[/size]

[Elle]

Elle stood outside the laboratory door, debating whether or not to enter. She didn't really care for skiing... Or other winter sports. Or sports in general. Honestly, she wasn't very athletic. Kind of an embarrassing admission for a dragon.

Inhaling a deep breath, she shoved her hands into the pockets of her bulky winter jacket. Her left hand met with a small, smooth orb. She had kept the little object on her at all times since she found it. For some reason, she just felt the need to keep it with her. Aside from that, the orb seemed to have a strange, almost calming effect on her. She always seemed to subconsciously touch it whenever she was nervous or frightened. Which was quite often.

Exhaling, she pushed open the door. Not many people were there yet. Great. Why did she always have to be early?

She recognized Z and the dark-haired girl was familiar too, but the other two students were strangers to her. Realizing that she had just been standing in the doorway as she watched the others, she immediately walked toward a chair in the back of the room. Placing her hand into her pocket once again, she settled on nervously watching the creepy spider-like creature.

[Iƪƪia]

For one going on a skiing trip, Illia must have looked terribly under dressed. She wore a simple t-shirt covered only by a light, leather jacket. The boots she wore had less of a heel than usual, for practical reasons. It could be quite difficult to maneuver through snow in heels.

In reality, the chimera was more than prepared to contend with the cold. Unlike other creatures, she didn't have to worry about the cold weather. She was an ice chimera. She was built for that. It was high temperatures that she couldn't stand. Actually, it was more for the weather than any other reason that she had decided to go on this trip. They didn't get nearly enough snow at CA, and so she planned on lounging on a pile of the cool crystals all day while the others went about playing their little sports.

Arriving at the proper room, she pushed the door open and stepped inside. After quickly glancing around the room, her sites rested on the two figures in the center of the room.

As much as she'd have liked to, she resisted the urge to scowl, and instead forced herself to smile pleasantly at them, even nodding toward Crane slightly before stepping past them and dropping into a seat beside Z.

She still hadn't forgiven the dragon for all the trouble he'd caused her. And yet... Her hand moved toward her neck, sliding over her newest necklace. Well, it was only polite to be nice for the time being.

***

Stopping the door with his foot just before it closed, Ivan pushed it the rest of the way open before entering. As always, he was confronted with the need to quickly evaluate everyone in the room. At times it seemed like a rather bad habit, but it always proved useful in the end.

One was a rather worldly-looking dragon. It was obvious that he'd been around for quite a few centuries. The other seemed to be a fairly quiet phoenix. Female. Mostly. Already familiar with the other students, he turned his attention elsewhere, mentally photographing the portal in the center of the room. The other two were staff, of course. He was familiar with the chimera. The schools infamous founder, Daniel Crane. And the spider was the creature who manned the detention hall, if he wasn't mistaken.

"Ah, lovely day for it," He said with a smile, glancing back toward the portal.

It had been an interesting decision that he'd had to make. Between going along on this little trip or remaining behind in a mostly empty school. Each had it's benefits though, in the end, he decided on the former. There was something that needed to be done, and it couldn't be accomplished if he were to remain behind. After all, she was going.

Looking toward the chimera girl, he gave her a slight smile as well as a nod of acknowledgement which, after a moment, she hesitantly returned. Such trust issues. Even a simple smile couldn't be trusted according to her manner of thinking.

Striding to the back of the room, he leaned against the wall, next to where Elle had decided to sit. He didn't say anything, yet he managed to glimpse how her left hand was placed into her jacket pocket. It seemed as though that small orb had become something of a security blanket for her. Interesting.

[Oren]

Chasity looked at the door. Should she go in yet? Whisper hadn't said if he was going or not, so should she wait outside just in case he was? She paced back and forth just along the hallway. No, she should go inside and have a seat. It would be a good time to socialize. Her would shouldn't revolve around Whisper.

She opened the door and walked inside. There were two teachers, Kendryek, a Japanese girl a few feet from him, and quite a few other students she thought were familiar but couldn't place names to faces. She nodded a greeting to Kendryek and took a seat at an empty table near the middle. Now all there was to do was wait.

Today was the skiing trip. She really liked skiing and she knew that Kendryek did too. He loved the cold and the snow. He was a northern dragon, after all, born and bread on the tops of Japan's mountains. He had insisted previously that he enjoyed warm climates, but the cold was his sanctuary. She could tell because every time he flew he always went up high where it was cold. Part of that was because he was big, but thousands of feet in there air was the only place where he could find the cold whenever he wanted.

Then her mind wandered to Whisper. He wasn't white, he was black, in fact, but did that really have anything to do with what he liked? She hoped it didn't because if he did like snow that meant he was coming on the trip, and if he was coming on the trip, they could go down the slops together.

Unconsciously, her eyes wandered to the only person in the room that she knew by name: Kendryek. He was simply studying everyone in the room, staying quiet and very still. The girl near him was really pretty, and she couldn't help but wonder if they were friends... or more than that. Probably not. He wasn't the type to start dating only weeks after he'd broken up with someone.

Looking at the large block of granite, she noticed that it sat on some strange symbol. They were using a portal? It wasn't so unusual and it shouldn't have surprised her, especially since they were taking a one-day trip to the Alps. It was the only thing that made sense.

<|>~~<|>~~<|>~~<|>~~<|>~~<|>~~<|>~~<|>~~<|>

Kendryek watched as more and more students walked into the room. There was a girl he recalled being named Ailith, then Aori came in and said hi. After that, a few more students came in: a girl called Elle, a boy called Z, another girl called Illia, a boy he didn't know the name of, and Chasity. She nodded her greeting.

He was always amazed with how much he noticed. He had never really met anyone in this room but Aori and Chasity, but he knew the names of most of them. It was all thanks to his 'information-gathering' 'habit'. Stupid habit. It always gave him a reason to not go up and actually meet someone. He was always able to determine as much as he wanted by simply watching someone. Except in the case of the person he was watching for.

Yes, he was keeping an eye out for a specific person. Whether that wolf walked through the door or not would determine if he was going. If Professor Crane was gone, assuming the chimera was indeed the mysterious founder, and that wolf was here, he wasn't sure what chaos the group would return to.

[Ari Phoenix]

She saw many more people step into the room, and went quiet. She decided it was safest to take a seat near the only person she really knew, Kendryek. She wondered just what everyone knew of her, and how much she was known about. She did realize that there was a chance, everyone in that room wasn't human, though she also wondered if that was the case, how many was able to tell what she was, compared to her, who had no idea what anyone but the Giant Spider was. She hummed to herself silently, realizing that she needed to calm her thoughts.

She felt calmer, and wondered what Skiing was. She didn't know too much, but wondered if it was Water based? Was it in a place of hot or cold weather? She didn't know. She wished she could go flying, and feel the air under her wings. She knew that it was a fun thing for her, but knew it was frowned upon, especially since She could be seen flying at night, thanks to her blue flaming form. She wondered if there was going to be a chance for her to do such things though.

She also wondered how long she would be at this school. She understood she would get an education here, but would that help her out in the end? Would she be able to go to the school for long enough to become proficient as a human, and as a Phoenix? She didn't know. She looked at the man that had created a Tentacle out of his back and placed the Stone pillar that was probably something magical, in place. She wondered what the distinguished man was, only knowing that this man was probably powerful, even she could feel it.

[kaiya]

Lily and Luca had been wandering the school building for the past few hours, trying to find their way to their dormitories, when they heard a few students talking about a gathering going on later that day. Apparently, there was going to be a skii trip to the Alps. Lily, of course, bounded right up to the little cluster of strangers and started chatting them up, getting all of the information.

Now, another hour or two after meeting the other students, the twins were headed for what Luca could only image as a bad idea. Seriously, they were woodland creatures. Going into nothing but snow was not his idea of a good time.

But Lily wanted to go.

"Come on, Lu! We're almost there," Lily urged, moving her legs even faster as they made their way down a long hallway. Luca sighed, smiling slightly at his sister, and allowed himself to be tugged along behind her. They were going at a brisk for a few moments, so he was really confused when she came to a sudden, tripping stop.

"Carry me?" She batted her thick golden lashes at him and grinned.

"Oh, alright. Hop on," he conceded, bending his knees a bit to make it easier for her to get onto his back. She was so waiflike that he barely felt her body. They were light-weighted, as a general rule, but it was still strange to know he was carrying his sister...but to feel only the slightest of pressure. "Ready?" Without waiting for an answer, he set off at a steady jog.

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Lily laughed as her brother sped off. He was jogging, sure, but that was in their terms; to anyone else, he would have appeared to be sprinting. The wind in her face was wonderful and relaxing, and she closed her eyes to savor it. They both loved running, but Lily herself also liked to be a little spoiled by her brother.

Therefore, the ride was over much too soon. She had only been on his back for a few minutes before he was slowing down, walking, and coming to a stop in front of a classroom door.

"Are we there yet?" she asked needlessly. Of course they were, Luca undoubtedly remembered the room number from the conversation with the strangers earlier. He didn't bother replying, and she hadn't actually expected him to. Tapping her heels against his thighs jokingly, she leaned sideways and around him to open the door. "C'mon, you socially inept little man." Luca stared at her with his mouth in a grim line, but she could see the amusement lighting his eyes.

Together, they entered Laboratory One. She could feel him instantly tense beneath her, but she didn't comment on it; he had never been as at-ease in social situations as she had. There were a handful of people there, but she hardly noticed them. Instead, her eyes were fixed on the giant pillar...thing. "Ooh..." Tapping her brother twice on the shoulder, he easily read her signal and bent down so she could hop off him.

Approaching the the giant pillar...thing, Lily wondered what it was for. Some sort of magic, surely. But weren't they just going to the Swiss Alps? What would a giant rock do? Perplexed, she abandoned her wondering and instead turned to admiring. "That's a nice rock you got there, mister," she said, glancing at the man with glasses that she was now standing next to her. "What is it? What's it for? Can I touch it...or would that be bad? I don't want to hurt myself, you know. You see, my brother—that guy over there—" She paused to gesture over her shoulder with her thumb. "—gets real twitchy whenever I hurt myself, which is funny because I am a total klutz with two legs, if you get my drift. As usual, the girl prattled on and on, not even knowing whom she was talking to.

[ωΘĿƒ]

After Crane had done looking over so carefully all the placements and triangulation issues, he went to the actual writing himself.

Most portals, he found, needed two things - the physical pillars and the chalked-out runes of where they were to go and how they were to get back. It was a pretty complicated procedure, and as such the runes had taken a few hours of scribbling on the nice clean ground to finish. Now though, he had to check them for spelling errors.

If they had an error and he didn't know about it, bad things would happen.

"They're all here, Mike. All that are coming."

Crane bent down low, glaring at the chalk scribbles of ancient runes on the ground. They were arranged in a circle - the classic base of rune magic - and had the directions written all along the curve of the circle. It all looked fine, but you could never be sure until you looked... and sure enough!

The chimera squatted, rubbing out the little scribble of a letter that looked a little like "b" and then rewrote it with another, more complicated design. Yes, that would be better. They didn't want the portal to collapse half way through the transfer. Then who knows where they'd end up.

After he'd done spell checking, he began to add the last few runes on the ground next to the circle. There. All done. He rechecked everything one last time, and looked up to finish seeing Mike's speech about safety and whatnot being carried out.

"...and to conclude, the Swiss Alps is not a playground! You will not feed the Yetis! You will not run off alone, and you will not touch anything that looks like yellow snow! Stop laughing back there! This is serious!"

Crane smiled slightly. Mike could be so serious sometimes. He himself took another head count of the people and found a few things to be attended to still.

Where was Coyle?

Almost as if summoned, he could tell the fiendish little creature was in the room. Namely because he shoved through the door, grinning widely and demanding to be handed his skiing gear. Mike growled at him, crunching his mandibles together angrily, but Crane only pointed to the stone pillars.

"You'll get all you need once you go through through the portal."

The beast's grin widened at sight of Crane, and he bounded over to the old chimera happily.

"Oh I get it. This is one of those fun portals, isn't it? The one where you get suited up inside the portal. Fun!"

"Yes." Crane nodded. "It's one of those."

As expected, as soon as he got his answer Coyle ignored Crane to pay attention to soemthing else - a girl standing in the corner of the room. As Crane recalled, that one was called Elle. He knew why Coyle would want to look at her, and that made him frown a little.

Oh no. not again...

Instead of getting involved in another of Coyle's interesting adventures, Crane instead decided to say something to the one called Kendryek.

"The wolf isn't going to be here. He's in the garden." He paused a second, as if considering something, then continued on. "Would you mind looking after the place while we're gone? Something tells me there's going to be trouble."

Kendryek was the one that was looking after Le Cyll, wasn't he? Yes, that sounded right. He was also a dragon - a true immortal being. Crane himself wasn't truly immortal, he just came to be immortal after a while. Kendryek, on the other hand, had seemed to have found a great stability in his life because of his long existence. He seemed to be very level-headed and aware of the world as it really was. He also seemed benevolent in a way - a trait very well put to use looking after the school of remaining children. Most of them were good kids, if not a bit lost, but some could be very troublesome.

"I'd greatly appreciate it." The deceptively young chimera smiled meekly, facing the even more deceptively young dragon. All the while, Mike bellowed out the final instructions.

"Okay children! Everyone form a single file line right there!" He pointed to a little white line on the floor. "No pushing or shoving! And the new students please be aware of your chaperones! Professor Crane here," Crane raised his hand absentmindedly, "and your school's guardian beast, Coyle!"
[/size]

* * *

Coyle smiled when Mike said his name, waving his hand shyly as he cracking a huge, menacing grin. He loved chaperoning field trips! They were always the perfect places to cause a little chaos. Looking at Crane, he couldn't help but sneer slightly though.

That old stick in the mud, lovable as he may be, would have to be undermined though. That was a tricky thing to do... Crane had this funny way of knowing what people wanted - even Coyle. He'd have to be quick and deadly if he wanted to accomplish anything.

And speaking of accomplishing things, the temporal beast looked over at little Elle. She had his anchor, he knew it, and he would get it back. He just needed to undermine ol' Russian funny-guy.

That guy could really dance. It would take some really talented pirouetting to get anywhere with him around.

Looks like another full plate, and he was loving it. Ah, what fun life was!
[/size]

[Oren]

Kendryek looked at Professor Crane the second the chimera started talking to him. Look after the school? That was something quite unexpected, but definitely something he wasn't against doing. Especially since Le Cyll wasn't coming and even more important because of Professor Crane's misgivings of the future. He nodded and said, "Such an honor. I will do my best."

Turning to Aori, he smiled apologetically. "Sadly, I must stay here, at the school. Chasity, the girl over there," he pointed to his x, "is a good friend and understands Japanese culture and language quite well. I would suggest staying near her. Farewell." He bowed slightly in a traditional 'goodbye'.

He then nodded a goodbye to Chasity, a quiet understanding passing between them, before quickly walking out of the room. He now had a very good reason for staying, not just his own personal reasons.

That was, if 'babysitting' Le Cyll could be classified as 'personal reasons'.

[Elle]

Upon noticing a form move silently past her, Elle looked over her shoulder to see Ivan leaning against the wall, quite close to her. She managed to smile slightly before turning back around and looking around the room. He seemed to have become something like her bodyguard now. Ever since the dance he had always kept a close eye on her. It was kinda... Uncomfortable. But at least she felt safer... I mean, she should, right?

Rolling the orb between her fingers, she looked up and caught sight of the same boy who had caused so much trouble during that dance. And he seemed to be watching her... Which was even more unnerving. Why was he staring at her? What did she do? What did he want? The fact that the spider had just called him a chaperone didn't help either.

Rising out of her seat, she turned nervously to face Ivan. Not wanting to point, she sort of nodded her head slightly toward the other boy.

"I... Don't like him."

She cast a quick, nervous glance back towards him. Well, it should be okay, right? They wouldn't let him cause a lot of trouble, would they? Then again... No, of course not! Besides Ivan would be with her, and she had seen just how strong he was. So... He would protect her, right?

[Iƪƪia]

Jumping down from where the desk where she had been seated, Ailyth took two long strides toward the portal, stopping just in front of it. She took a moment to watch the portal in wonder, biting her lip as if it would contain her enthusiasm.

Looking away, she watched another girl watching the portal. It was a blonde-haired girl, the likes of which Ailyth had never seen before. The same went for her brother. Maybe they were new? Then again, it was a big school.

She took a moment to wonder about what type of creatures she might be. Were they the same type, or different? Their human forms looked very similar, at least. They might even be twins. Well, on to a more important matter: from the way she was talking, it sounded as if the girl was as excited about the portal as she was. Finally! Someone who understood her enthusiasm!

"Pretty cool, right?" She skipped over to the girl, smiling broadly from her to her brother, "And it's, like, all magic and stuff... And we get to use it to, like, poof to another place!"

Not the best description, admittedly, but it was how she assumed a portal to work. So, from her limited knowledge it wasn't really a bad description after all.

***

Upon hearing Elle's worries, Ivan only smiled. If she was that disturbed by the bothersome demon over there, then perhaps she wouldn't attempt to stray to far from him for the day. No, of course she wouldn't risk putting herself in danger.

It was perfect, really. Sometimes it was just lovely how everything came together. And how did he need a plan to work out right now. Nothing had been a complete disaster, but there were many that were... Sub-par? Yes, some things were actually less than perfect, and he didn't like. Although, now his luck seemed to be changing...

Chuckling softly, he placed a hand upon the dragon's shoulder.

"There's nothing to worry about, my dear," He assured her, "I'll make sure that you remain safe."

Spinning her around, he lead her toward the portal, all the while watching his adversary. However, he didn't make any sort of motion or say anything at all. He simply smiled at the beast, keeping a hand on Elle's shoulder as if to taunt him.[/color]

[Ari Phoenix]

Aori quietly got up, and went to to the line, where she stood. She studied the person that Kendryek had spoken of, wondering what type of person the girl had been. She waited, knowing that there was snow, meant that she had to keep her temper as cool as ice, otherwise she might start an Avalanche, or melt the frozen water. She thought about the mess it would cause and started to worry. She didn't really know how to deal with snow when she was around people she didn't know, though she remembered playing in the snow before. She remembered it was cold to the touch, and would melt away when she was in her natural form. She knew that it was pretty as well.

"I hope I don't mess this up." she spoke more to herself than anyone else. She was actually frightened of this trip, but understood that the teacher wouldn't allow anything to happen to any of the students, she hoped. She started to wonder how long it would take for them all to line up, in order to distract herself from the worries she had. She also noticed that this place had a strange feeling about it, and wondered why she hadn't felt such a thing before. Was it the lab itself? She would have to ask someone later.