New Place

[Steve]

The Arcane Academy, a large academy for those gifted in the arts of magic. A large school in the sky, modern by most standards, and yet somehow, Steven got lost even with the map he had. Embarassed with himself, he looked around slightly sheepishly, wandering around to see at least the different locations and get himself reoriented. For now, no such luck. Sighing to himself, he shook his head. "How did I get lost here? I'm from New York and I manage to get lost here? It figures," Steven says, talking to himself as he put away the map.

Arriving only the other day, his weapons not on his person but back at his room. So far he had been looking around for an hour and still no such luck. Looking around at the people, maybe someone could help him out and find his way.

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

Torm makes his way through the busy corridors of the school. It's a harder task than you'd think it would be. For Torm, it is right now a rather difficult one. On top of being rather larger than many students, he carries under one arm his trusty ladder, and over his other shoulder is slung an enourmous, shapeless satchel that clinks and clanks with his every step. Altogether, this makes for relatively slow progress. On his other shoulder, a Clockwork Pidgeon stands chittering happily away at itself, which adds a measure of strangeness to the scene.

Now there is a lull in the crowd, and Torm takes the moment to stop and shift the bag to a more comfortable position. The bird pecks his shoulder now, and warbles a bit, indicating that he should look around. Torm's attention is drawn to a dark-haired man with a kind face who is clearly lost.

"Hey, you looking for someplace?" Torm calls out at the man. He plops the bag to the floor and gestures at him to come on over.

[Steve]

Hearing a voice, Steven looked around confused, before seeing an orange-haired man calling him over. Looking around to be sure he wasn't talking to someone else, he pointed to himself in slight confusion, speaking up as he did. "Who, me?" Steven asks, blinking a little bit. Walking over to the man, he looked him over a little bit, seeing a strange pidgeon on his shoulder.

"Actually...I'm new here. I'm looking around and....I got lost honestly. I've been trying to orient myself, but no such luck," Steven explains sheepishly, embarassed that someone of his age got lost so quickly. "Oh! Whats your name?" Steven quickly adds, nearly forgetting to ask that.

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

Torm chuckles a bit. "You're not truly lost until you can't be found! Less than that and you merely don't know where you are." He could understand how the place could be very disorienting.

"Hey, the name's Torm, and it's a pleasure meeting you." He extends a hand jovially, and the bag on the floor rests momentarily forgotten. "How about your name?" The Clockwork Pidgeon tilts its head sideways in a fair approximation of birdly curiosity.

[Steve]

Steven nodded his head, admitting the truth to that logic at least. Still, it didn't exactly help out his situation earlier. Still slightly embarrassed, he barely caught the man's name, Torm. Shaking his hand, a small smile appeared on Steven's face, at least maybe now he'd be allright. "The name's Steven, nice to meet you," Steve answers jovially, looking over to the bird.

"Hey, what is that? I've never seen that bird before I think," Steve asks, pointing over to the pidgeon. He looked at it with curiosity, his eyes showing a questioning look.

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

"Oh, Botta here? He's one of my little marvels; a clockwork pidgeon. Almost entirely mechanical, but with a dash of enchantment." Torm flicks the bird gently, and the flick makes a tinny, metallic 'toonk.' Of course, no bird, mechanical or otherwise, likes to be flicked, so it flutters a little in indignation and pecks at the hand, but Torm is too fast for it and just chuckles a little and says to it "Hey, lighten up, fella!"

"So you're name's Steven, eh? Welcome! You know, that's one of the first solid, normal names I've heard in a while, come to think about it. Are you from the States, by any chance?" Torm is genuinely curious; new people are always interesting to meet.

[Steve]

"Cool," Steven answers, looking at the mechanical bird. Almost entirely mechanical, but with some enchantment skills. He could feel just a twinge of jealously knowing that this was made with what probably sounded like what he could do. Then again, Steven knew of his untrained nature, something that couldn't be helped. Shaking his head mentally to get out of the train of thought, he looks over to Torm's comment on names.

"Really? Well, this is a magic school, so I guess that would make sense. And yeah, I'm from the States, New York City for most of my life. So you can probably see my embarrassment in getting lost so easily around here," Steven responds, a goofy smile plastered on his face.

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

Torm laughs a bit. "Nah, don't be embarrased. Being used to one city and moving to a new one built and maintained by an entirely different culture is enough to get anyone lost."

Torm cracks his knuckles idly, and continues. "Glad there's some more States representation! I'm from Texas, myself." Also true was the fact that Torm had grown up exploring the countryside and never lived in a city, but that exploring experience had served him well in this complicated place. "So, Steven, do you need to get anywhere specific, or are you merely unsure of the general layout? We can chat as we walk, if you like."

[Steve]

"Yeah, guess you're right," Steven says, stretching out his arms and legs a little bit. Getting a few kinks out of his neck, he listened to Torm 's voice. It was somewhat of a relief that there were others from the same country at least. However, it was still a little bit of a shock, trying to take in everything that had been happening. At least the mechanical bird wasn't too big of a shock at least.

"So far, I'm just trying to orient myself around here, find everything. So far, I only know where the dorms are. Anything beyond that, and I have no clue at all. It well...really sucks, and the layout is a tad complicated, at least for me," Steven says, explaining as to what he was doing. "If it's possible, I'd appreciate your help," Steven finishes, nodding his head at Torm.

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

Torm grins broadly and does a mock bow, or at least as good of one as he can manage with a 7-foot ladder tucked under his arm. "No trouble at all, Steven, I'd be happy to show you around the place. I hve no idea where to start though..." Torm lifts his hat briefly and scratches his head for a moment, then puts it back and heaves the sack from the floor back up over his shoulder, which jangles and clinks noisily. "Well, for starters, you won't really need that map. The first time you wander around the place, it's naturally almost impossibe to find out where you are or where you going because the map only shows you where the halls and corridors are supposed to be in theory. This is a magical academy in more ways than just the fact that magic is taught here and that it floats in the sky."

Torm half-smiles mysteriously, and continues. "Once you've been to places and know what they look like, you can pretty much just start walking and eventually, you will be lead there by the hallways. Don't ask me how it works. It's extremely old and complicated magic. Of course, this doesn't always work; sometimes, you end up somewhere completely different, and especially not if you've damaged the building anywhere recently. It's all about just imagining your destination and walking the path that feels right."

"So! Any preferences as to where we head off to?"

[cloche]

Quick, short breaths came from a nearby area. They began to sound clearer and more exhausted with each second. The pitter-patter of feet was disorganized and clumsy but determined and honest, not the sound of enemies.
“Zut,zut,zutzutzutzutzut...Mon dieu!” the voice was light and in distress, most probably female.
As the voice became nearer, a small figure only a little less then ¾ the size of a door, scurried hurriedly toward the area in which the rest of the occupants on this board resided. Upon her bag was a incredibly large back, more then half her size, filled to the brim with unknown but seemingly heavy possessions. The girl wavered in her disorderly run. Finally, her body gave way to its normal tendency: to trip and fall.

[Xavier]

Xavier had been walking down the hallway on his way back from a hunting trip with Birazcir. The wolf trotted by his side with a happy grin. Biz had managed to take down an elk alone, this had indeed impressed Xavier. Sadly there was no trophy to take as the pair didn't kill for the trophy but for the communion with nature that it provided.

As he walked through the door he noticed a small girl about to fall. As she fell he moved to help her up with a friendly smile on his. She was a rather small looking girl Xavier was surprised she had managed to make it this far with what appeared to be a rather heavy load that she was carrying.

"Do you need some help miss?" he asked, kneeling down beside her to help her up and starting to pick up her belongings which had fallen all over the ground as a result of the fall she had taken.

[cloche]

“Oooooooohhhh...” she groaned as she rolled herself around and back to a sitting position, only to fall backwards in the immense weight of her backpack. Positioning her legs in away that she could push with her whole body from the ground, she gently patted her cheeks before once again trying to stand up, but with no avail.
Ironically she fell back even more so that her body slumped lower on her backpack and knees still open and bent from her almost squat position from before. Her dress had scrunched up and twisted under herself so that it was now only barely reaching her knee, providing not much cover to someone who was at that level. This, then leading for a very interesting view to a certain someone who had bent down to help her, but was not spoken to as of yet because of someone else’s strict principle to not talk to strangers.

[Xavier]

Xavier attempted to help the girl but then found himself in an interesting position. The way she was sitting and the way he was kneeling was providing him an interesting view. He looked away, blushing faintly. Xavier had to be delicate with this so as not to embarass the girl or himself. He could only pray to whatever god that was watching out for him right now that Lex wasn't currently around.

"Um miss...you're dress, it's a little high," he said trying to be delicate and trying not to look and scratching the back of his head embrassedly, "Here let me help you," he said as he stood, holding his staff in one hand, "Mother Gaia, grant me the strength of the bear," he whispered softly as a small ethereal bear appeared at his side. It transformed into a little statuette that attached itself to the staff. A gentle green glow spread across his body, spreading strength through his body.

With renewed strenght and vigor, thanks to his Strength of the Bear spell, he lifted Cloche up and set her on her feet, "That backpack is rather heavy, are you sure you don't want any help with it?" he asked, with his typical and natural friendly, good-natured grin, "Oh I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Xavier Mcallister, a pleasure to meet you," he said, holding out his hand.

[Lexandra]

Lexi had been out today collecting new feathers to make her arrows. She hadn't really used that many but she was trying to learn new spells so that she could become more proficient in her craft. So collecting new and similar feathers had been her morning project. Xavier had been out hunting with Biz and so she had figured it was the perfect time to go out on her own and climb up and down trees stealing feathers from nests and branches.

Her satchel was filled and she had a small shopping bag as well because she had stopped at a store in the city that had carried the more elite feathers like that of a phoenix that she needed. As well as some shafts and a few unshaprpened arrowheads. Armed of course she came back on campus with Shadow on her belt, Daphne on her back, and her trusty Dagger on her person somewhere.

She stopped underneath a large tree seeing a white feather there that was beautiful. She bent down her bangs blocking her view for a moment as she ran the feather through her fingers after picking it up. It was exquisite. That was when she heard Xavier's voice.

"Umm.. miss you're dress.. is a little high." he soft voice said and her eyes went wide as she stood up. "Here let me help you."

Let him do what?! Get your filthy hands off my man! Then the TRAITOR casts a spell for HER and picks HER up. Why that little ladies man. He better be happy I only have two bows and not all three or each one would get their bloody and very specially located painful piercing. Lexi was near shaking now as she pulled Shadow off her belt and with one look she shot Xavier.

It was a perfect shot. Right through the clothing of his shoulder pinning him to the wall nearby but not peircing his skin. Another flew and the same on the other shoulder. She walked over and ignoring the girl she looked right at Xavier.

"So this is it. ... 'Oh Lexi don't worry I'll help you find your past..' Was that all crap? Xavier Mcallister you answer me right now you pathetic excuse for a dog!?" she said coldly her eyes narrowed as she aimed Shadow at him once more. She .. was .. pissed.