Lucky Combat

[Grove]

Grove took Mr. Hargel's advice, separating himself from the rest of the class to make sure he had plenty of room. The sword was a little on the heavy side, but he could swing it fairly easily with both hands. He tried a few swings using only his left or right hands. He could swing one handed, but not very quickly. Not very impressive, but he could at least use it if one of his arms were injured or disabled.

Satisfied for now, he stood back and waited on the rest of the class and Mr. Hargel. Those few swings had been just enough to show him how much he truly needed to learn before he could even think of trying to kill the Demon.

But he would, some day.

[Prince Adashan]

Prince sighed as Aislin approached them. This simply wouldn't do.

Making sure Ms. Hawk's attention was elsewhere, he sneaked out the small pepper shaker he'd hidden in a pocket for just such an occasion. He quickly tapped out a few flakes onto his hand, then inhaled, hoping it would be enough to cause him to sneeze again. It was.

Hair now a bright lemon yellow, and feeling much better about himself, Prince turned on his best smile.

"Hello! The lovely lady with the longbow is Rose. This charming lass is Jalora. And of course, I am Prince. It's a pleasure to meet you....."

[Ethan McCordy]

Ethan nodded a little at Talon's assessment, though he did wince a little as well. Relying on his strength and body? That wasn't going to get him very far. His strength of will, maybe he could do something with. But physically he'd always been a string-bean runt, and he probably always would.

Then Talon announced for them to pair off and Ethan groaned. Great, just great. Nobody was going to want to pair up with him, per usual. He'd get to endure the humiliation of everyone else pairing up and then the teacher having to force someone to take him. He sighed heavily, scowling. Might as well get it over-with up front, he supposed.

And yet, suddenly, there was someone standing very close to him again. His nose twitched--catching and recognizing her scent, telling him who it was before he even turned to look. Kate gave him one of her feline smiles.

"C'mon, Wolfy," she purred. "Now's your chance to show me how well you grapple."

Ethan just blinked at her, dumbfounded. "What?"

[Anastasia Noldavir]

Ana looked pensive at Talon's brief lecture. It hadn't even occured to her that they were still under the influence of Lucky Day, and yet Talon had managed to best them all with ease. It was a very telling statement, and wise advice to keep in mind, she decided. Magic and tricks would only get one so far. It still ultimately came down to your own power, physical or otherwise.

When Talon suggested they pair off, Ana turned to Gabby with a questioning look. "You wanna be my partner?" she questioned, though there was probably no need. She doubted Gabby would say no.

Ana didn't really know any fighting techniques, beyond taking some tae-bo classes for excercise. No doubt Gabby would probably kick her butt, metaphorically speaking, with even the small bit of training that Talon had given the other girl. Still, Ana would much rather pair up with Gabby than anyone else, even knowing that.

[Mattie Sykes]

Mattie stepped a little ways away from the others, hefting the two short-swords in her hands and testing their weight. They were surprisngly light. She gave one an experimental little thrust, and then a little twirl. At that she grinned.

Hah, she thought to herself. Xena, Warrior Princess!

Now doing battle with a slew of imaginary monsters, Mattie continued to slice and whirl with her weapons. Perhaps a little too enthusiastically, and not paying near-enough attention. One moment she was decapitating an especially onery ogre, then in the next her sword came up against something solid and unimaginary.

Mattie jerked in shock, turning with a gasp. And realized with a mixture of stunned awe and horrified humiliation that she'd nearly actually decapitated the dreamy Michael. The stunned awe came from the fact that the pale-featured boy had blocked the sword-swing somehow with his bare hand. And he wasn't even really looking at her, either.

"Oops," she winced, feeling her face heat in embarrassment as she quickly lowered both weapons. "I'm really sorry. That was pretty stupid of me."

His only response to that was a soft, "hmph," before continuing on, never once looking completely in her direction. Mattie slumped afterward, much of her previous glow of excitement dimming considerably.

[Aislin Phyre]

Aislin turned her gaze to the speaker and didn't blink as he spoke. Hadn't his hair been . . . never mind. She nodded and flashed a small smile - almost no more than a quirk at the corner of her lips - at each person.

'Prince huh? Either very presumptive or very unlucky. Becca had a golden lab called Prince.' she schooled her features so that her thoughts didn't register on her face, but even she couldn't stop her eyes from darkening a few shades.

"Aislin." she said at last, no longer wondering over his hair colour. "My name is Aislin Phyre." the smile she gave now was decidedly bigger and more recognisable as such. "Pleasure to meet you." she held out a hand to shake, planning to do that with all of them even as a part of her, as usual, urged her not to.

She was used to ignoring that side of her by now, even if she couldn't always do it. She shifted the longbow in her grip so that it wasn't hindering her.

Rose, she saw, was actually a fair bit smaller than herself and with long angel-fine white-blonde hair and an expression that looked neutral but had hidden naunces of expression that you had to search for, at least for now. Jalora looked to be somwhere nearer to her own height, with darker skin and browner hair, her face appearing kind and open. Prince, the one she couldn't quite decide hair colour for - pink? yellow? white? - had a more regal bearing, though she doubted he was actually a prince, and was actually a little taller than she was, which was a new thing for her. Other people were rarely taller than she at the moment, and scanning the arena she could see several others.

'Oh thank god, no longer the freak.' her eyes dimmed again at her poor choice of word. 'Stupid.'

[Rory Weyr]

Rory stepped far enough away from the others that he'd be in no danger of hurting anyone, and then gave into the little-boy urge that had been eating him as soon as he'd picked up the weapon. He swung the sword back and forth several times, reveling in the audible slice of the air that rewarded him, grinning a little to himself. Satisfied that he'd made the right choice, he gave off playing for now, and went back to waiting for class to resume.

While he did so he let his eyes wander around the arena, touching on various individuals of interest. It was interesting to see other 'oddities' such as himself. He had a few in his own family, but other than that he'd never actually met another were-creature, vampire, elf or the like. Especially interesting was the redhead in the archery class. Something in him recognized like for like, and he somehow knew that she was fey as well. What's more, a full-blood rather than a half-breed like himself.

Rory smirked, and endeavored to keep her in mind, among many others. True, he was already in a relationship and had no plans of sabotaging it for something else. But he would be attending Briarthorn Academy for several years, and teen relationships had a funny way of changing as often as the weather. It never hurt to keep one's options open.

[Aislin Phyre]

Since the attack on her school, Aislin had found that she had become very sensitive to the feeling of being watched. It was probably because of her newly revealed heritage, or so she assumed. So it came as almost no surprise when her body turned slightly and her eyes automatically scanned the arena.

Her watcher was in the melee class, one of the ones that was taller than her. From this distance all she could see was silver hair, but she knew she met his eyes sqaurely. Like Rory - though as yet she didn't know his name herself - she recognised him as another fae, though at this distance she couldn't tell anything more than that.

She turned away again; for the moment he didn't concern her. Instead, she turned back to Prince and looked at him quizzically. "I'm sorry, this is probably a stupid question but . . . i could have sworn your hair was another colour entirely before."

[Prince Adashan]

Prince eagerly shook her hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well Aislin."

He caught her glance toward Rory, but managed to keep the smirk off his face. Especially since the teachers were watching.

At her questing his hair, he couldn't help by sigh.

"A rather unfortunate accident back home. Father was teaching me some alchemy basics, and I'm afraid I knocked something into one of his experiments. Father has promised to find a cure, but I rather doubt he's trying to hard. Wants to teach me a lesson or some such. Though, I do find the side effects rather interesting most of the time."

Making sure the teachers where looking elsewhere, he sneaked the pepper shaker back out, and put some more on his hand.

"So, any time now that I sneeze." He inhaled, waiting for the inevitable sneeze. "My hair and eyes change to a random color or pattern."

He glanced down at the tips of his hair, satisfied with the pale blue color it had turned.

[Aislin Phyre]

She let out a barely restrained chuckle. "I can see how that would make life unique." she agreed, eyes now glowing a warm honeyed gold. "Summer must be an interesting time for you."

Trying desperately to restrain her grin - and failing miserably - she turned to the girls. "How about you two? No surprises?" she tucked a lock of auburn hair behind one ear as she spoke, her other hand tapping an absent beat on the wood of her bow.

Aislin had a feeling that this was going to be an interesting few years for her.

[Headmistress Briarthorn]

"N-none from me!" Rose said entirely unconvincingly, shifting her weight uncomfortably, her hand now tightly grasped around her pendant.

[Aislin Phyre]

The red-head tilted her head in a barely perceptible gesture, but didn't comment or push the topic.

Let the girl keep her secrets; the gods only knew that Aislin had plenty of her own, and she intended for them to stay that way, for as long as possible if not forever. There were just some things that one felt simply couldn't, or shouldn't, be told.

She barely registered the cooling sensation sweeping across her eyes, suggesting that the warm honey-gold was now a few shades browner. It was so much a part of her that she never paid it any mind. The only realisation it brought her was that since her 'awakening' the sensation had been more acute.

With a sigh she glanced at her bow and hefted the quiver back onto her shoulder to thwart its attempt at escape. "What are we supposed to be doing again?"