Storm's light blue eyes widened in surprise and his arms flailed as someone bumped into him from behind and knocked him off balance. When he regained his footing without falling flat on his face, he turned around to meet a flustered Cassandra. He blinked as he heard the quiet girl's apologies and laughed slightly when the moment sunk in.

"No worries, Cass. I was hiding from my brother," he said and frowned slightly as he looked at her flustered face and closed eyes. "You okay?" he asked as he cocked his head slightly. A shriek was heard outside and Storm recognized it as his brother's 'chicken call', as Storm called it.

_____

Riley watched as the feathers on Sahale's hand quickly melded themselves back to the girl's skin. She twitched her nose slightly as she acknowledged the slight finish to the transformation. When Sahale stood up, Riley inclined her head to follow the girl's movement, the silver Aviators hiding the girl's gaze.

"No promises," Riley replied with a wave of her hand. The girl left and Riley contented herself with throwing a few grapes into her mouth. When she swallowed, she picked up her tray and dumped the leftovers into the garbage bin. When she wiped her hands on her short-shorts, Riley traversed the cafeteria.

She came to a stop at the hallway that would lead back into the main area. She let her feet do the walking, to reach her destination of the lobby. When she found herself in the desired room, she walked over to the bulletin board that was displayed by the front desk. Her lips turned up into a smile and Riley grinned devilishly to herself. The Games were being held today at seven o'clock tonight.

"Best grab my stuff," Riley said with a chuckle. She would skip classes for the rest of the day, as everyone would, and instead prepare for the Games which would be held in the Arena.

___

Drake dipped his wings down lightly and steadied himself just above the tree-tops of the forest. He cocked his head and listened to the life bustling in the forest below. With a few strong beats of his wings, he propelled himself faster through the air.

The zephyr cooled his already icy feathers and below him, the tips of the leaves nearest to him coated themselves in frost as he flew by. He arched his spine back and stroked his way upward, turned around in the air to gaze at his icy wake. Another scent wafted to his beak and the keen eyes of his phoenix form were suddenly alert.

Drakine, he thought as he inhaled the scent. His heart warmed slightly at the thought of her being out here, but he shook the feeling away. Though he attempted to hide the inevitable, there was no denying his attraction to the dragon girl. He continued to look for her, but he could not see much around the mass of trees. Another few strokes and he continued on his way through the forest. His wings froze slightly as he saw the marred tree more than thirty meters away from where he was flying. Drakine.

Drakine had long since closed her black, darker than pitch, eyes as she leaned against the rouch bark of the tree. Withouth her sense of sight, her other senses picked up slightly. Highening to draconic level. There was a slight breeze. It caressed her skin and made her flame-esque hair flutter around her waist. The forest smelled like pines and wet dirt; rising from below. The sun high above her caused her exposed skin to prickle with the sensation. But then, another scent came to her attention.

It had the musk of a boy, the cold tang of ice, and the smell of birds.

Her eyes opened and glanced in the direction it was coming from. Some ninety-eight feet away was a phoenix covered in ice-white and blue feathers. Pushing herself away from the trunk of the tree, she walked out to the middle of the branch; keeping an eye on the mythical avian. There was no doubt who she knew it was.

Drake.

A phoenix boy with the power over Ice.

She snorted at the silliness of the boy's name. It simply didn't match his abilities at all. In fact, he sounded like he should be another dragon shifter.

Or aleast being able to shift into something that bore scales.

Shrugging, she crounched gracefully and let her transformation to the dragon comense. As usual, the bone shifting and growing felt extremely weird, but did not hurt as it looked like it would. Within the span of a few minutes, a black dragon was curled around the branch. Her black eyes narrowed as her nostrals flared; releasing the shimmering heat her black hellfire released. Lifting her triangular head, she roared out a challange. A dare to enter her space.

After closing her powerful maw, she moved so she curled around the trunk instead. Her claws digging deep into the bark and wood of the tree. Wings flared out a few seconds later as she flew up to the highest branches, settling down on them with ease. Arching her short neck, she let her wings stay unfurled as she snorted out a small whisp of black hellfire flames.

Cassandra rubbed her cheek awkwardly as it burned cherry red, trying to apologize yet again for tripping over Storm. Biting her cheek nervously she almost managed to get some words out when a loud shriek burst her concentration. Wincing and clapping her hands to her ears, though it was too late for that, she leaned against the wall behind the salad bar.

"Your brother, right?" she asked, casting the windows a withering glance. However magnificent his shifted form was that hardly gave him the right to give everyone else heart attacks with such sudden shrieks. Rubbing her arms she frowned once again and glanced down at Storm.

"I suppose I'm fine," she said uncomfortably, averting her eyes after a few moments. "But why are you hiding if your brother is already gone?"

Ooc; Waiting for Sahale~

Drake's light blue eyes followed Drakine's lithe dragon form as she made her way to the higher branches of the tree. He cocked his feathered head as he examined the rest of the tree. The groves in the bark seemed cruel to the life of the tree, but he also saw the grazes as a work of art and a show of ownership. This was Drakine's tree.

He circled a few ways away from the tree, dancing around her form playfully from afar. With a swoop downward, he landed on an awkward-looking branch that jutted out from another tree about ten yards from hers. He clicked his beak at her once before standing as erect as his pheonix form could.

Slowly, his feathers sank into his skin and his structure shifted to that of a hominid. When the transformation was complete, Drake's right hand clutched the tree branch and he found himself in a kneeling position. With ease, he kicked his legs out from under him and sat down on the tree branch, feet swaying in the light breeze. His blue eyes seemed to smile as he looked at the icy remnants from his transformation coating this section of the tree in a sheet of ice.

"Drakine," he said with a nod of his head as he looked at the dragon girl. He shook out his rather tousled hair and looked up at her. His smile broadened as he contemplated on what to say next. "Did you hear about the battling tonight? There's supposed to be Arena challenges going on. I thought you'd be interested," he said as he stretched his arms.

___

Storm smiled when Cassandra tripped over a few more apologies before she shifted the topic slightly. He watched her wince when Drake's shriek reached her ears and he sighed, silently cursing his brother at the moment. "Yeah, that's him." Storm responded to Cassandra's question.

He chuckled when Cass asked her next question. "Even when Drake's out of the building, he can still drop a few layers of ice on me when he wants," Storm said with a wink as he hurried to fill his tray. He wasn't particularly hungry, but he was entering the arena battles later tonight so he figured he should eat a bit. He grabbed an apple halfheartedly and stayed by Cass's side. "Mind if I stick around with you for lunch?" he asked with a smile.

Ooc; I'm getting rid of Maks's Kitsune and Taylor's winged wolf because I don't want to deal with that now. xD

"Eh, no?" Cass replied, a bemused smile hinting at her lips. Glancing down at the salad bar she quickly grabbed a plate heaped with salad, cheese and olives. Though not strictly vegetarian Cassandra could hardly see the point of eating meat, especially since it wasn't particularly tasty. At least, in Cassandra's opinion it wasn't. After a moment's deliberation she poured some light Greek dressing on top of her plate of salad, vying for some flavour this time around.

Glancing at Storm awkwardly she padded over to a table near the back of the cafeteria, a nice sunny spot right by the window, and patted the second seat when she walked by it, indicating that Storm was free to sit there.

"What's with all the food?" she asked, pointing at his tray curiously. He hadn't seemed very hungry when she'd last taken a good look at him. Nibbling on some of her own salad Cass waited patiently for a reply, occupying her mind by flipping a coin around her free hand. It dove in and out of her fingers slowly, not touching the skin once. Though the look on Cassandra's face was serene you could see the concentration etched in the tiny frown that had settled on her face.

Drakine's triangular head followed the bird boy as he flew around her position. Her upper lip curled into an snarl as she bared her fangs and growled a bit warningly. The smooth black scales that coated her skin began to ruffle; giving her a more dangerous appearance. She kept her wings unfurled and the two spikes at the end of her tail poised to attack incase the phoenix shifter came to close.

When the boy stopped at ten yards away, she narrowed her eyes as she watched his shapechange back into his human form... His weaker form. She could attack him now if she wished, but she remembered the words he had spoken that didn't seem attuned with the movements of his mouth.

There was an Arena fight tonight.

Her scales lay flat. Except for those along the back of her neck. Perfect. She could challange this idiot and maybe get him to leave her alone. Her lips covered her fangs before they were pulled back again into an evil draconic smile. She would enjoy this very much.

But first...

Opening her maw, she exhaled shimmering heat from her flames before the black hellfire jetted out aiming for the branch underneath Drake.

Storm glanced down at his tray which consisted of a small bowl of Mac n' Cheese, a few slices of fruit, and a medium-sized brownie. He looked at the apple in his hand and shrugged at Cass. "Honestly, I wasn't really thinking when I took this much. I don't like to eat before Arena battles, but I do anyway." he said with a shrug. Storm bit into his apple and after swallowing, opened his mouth to speak again. "No meat?" he inquired as he glanced down at her tray. "And how about the Arena battles? You entering?"

___

Drake's muscles were tensed even before he had shifted back to his human form. Drakine was looking to start a fight with him already and that caused a light grin to splay on Drake's face. When he mentioned the Arena, her position changed, looking less aggressive toward him. She seemed to smile, the scales around her maw shifting slightly, but something in her eyes made Drake tuck his feet back under him and onto the branch.

His eyes widened only slightly when she opened her maw and while a jet of black flame engulfed the branches underneath him, Drake soared over them. He let his form shift quickly, bones quaking with protest. He was going to be sore later, but anything was better than falling into the hellfire.

He unfurled his wings quickly and zipped straight above her head, letting a few icicles detach themselves from his frosty wings as he went. With a gleeful coo, he picked up his pace knowing he had more than likely set a death wish out for himself.

Ooc; Just realized I put an 'o' instead of an 'e' in Headmaster for the ti
tle. |D

Cass started slightly, tilting her head and offering Storm yet another bewildered look. He really needed to stop surprising her like that. Lips quirking upwards she shook her head, confusion melting in to realization once the world 'Arena' clicked. Though she'd been here for nearly two months she'd never seen or taken part of the battles. That, and she had taken to calling it the Colosseum, just like the history nut she was.

"Oh! Okay, the arena and those battles. I suppose I should, since it's all part of the 'experience' and whatnot." She frowned though, as combat wasn't really her style.

"Though to be honest, I could really do without bashing people with my abilities." The more practical side of her told Cassandra that it would hone her abilities, seeing as any mistake that ended in death was looked upon...disfavourably. "As for the lack of meat?" she said. "I'm not strictly vegetarian, but I don't see the allure of eating dead flesh." She had to chuckle this time, and shook her head.

"Gods, I must make eating meat sound like eating a dead human or something," she said with a light cough. Glancing at Storm thoughtfully she let the coin switch to her other hand casually, brushing some errant hairs from her face.

"What about you?" she asked. "Will you take part today?" She figured that Storm would have an easy time. You couldn't dodge wind, seeing as it surrounded you all the time, and it was hard to run away from weather. Her, on the other hand, her abilities were slightly less useful.

"You'd have a chance at least," she continued with a small, weary sigh. "What am I going to do? Foretell their deaths and hope that it scares them enough so I can lock them to the ground? And only that if I could get my clairvoyance to actually listen to me."

Ooc; The last part, where she's talking, she's sort of laughing. She's joking about what she would do. :P

Drakine snapped her jaws together as she watched Drake soar off as he gave a coo. A growl escaped her before it turned into a loud roar as she beat her wings. Jumping off the branches of her tree, she circled around it once before she flew after the bird boy. Curling her limbs against her body, she made herself streamline as she rose on the warm thermals rising from the forest floor.

She had beat her wings once before leaving them at an upward angle, instead of horizontal. Her black eyes watched the fleeing ice-white form and they narrowed into slits as a second eyelid closed over her eyes. The transparent lids prevented her eyes from watering when she flew. It also protected the soft eyes against bugs and other little peices of debris.

[[ Short. Sorry about this. ]]

Storm shoved a small spoonful of his macaronni into his mouth and chewed as he listened to Cass's words. For a girl who was so shy, she sure loved to talk. He smiled slightly when he realized this may be the only time she's opened up to someone like this. "You know they have double battles sometime," he said as he pointed his fork at her. "Maybe we could be a team sometime," Storm said as he pointed his fork toward the coin she was twirling around her fingers.

"You can move metals," he commented and then glanced down at his food. He sighed and pushed the tray slightly away from him, piling a few napkins onto the disregarded meal. He glanced at a clock behind them while he answered her next question. "Yeah, I probably will enter. I haven't done so in a while, but what I'm really looking forward to is seeing Drakine kick Drake's a$s," he said with a chuckle. "Boy deserves it," he added with a slight shake of his head.

___

Drake flew almost lazily ahead of Drakine, knowing the dragoness would more than likely keep her distance while he was ahead. He shook out his neck and the feathers cast little bits of snow into the air below him. When he neared the school, he dipped his wings down and set himself onto the ground in a flurry of wing-beats.

When his talons cut into the earth, he nestled his wings against his side and glanced back up at the sky. He watched Drakine as he felt his form begin to shift again. When he returned to his human form, he waved at Drakine before setting off inside. When he walked through the doors to the cafeteria, he gave Storm a withering look and continued out into the halls.

"I can," Cass agreed quietly, flicking the coin upwards and grinning slightly as its revolutions slowed and it howevered between them. Smirking lightly, an ex
pression she realized she almost never used, she sent it twirling in a fast figure-eight, twitching her fingers to throw it upwards before catching it lightly. The movement had been for show, as this was entirely a mental exercise, but it would be boring if she just sat there and the metal moved. "Though the floating is actually due to magnetokinesis," she added, hoping she wouldn't have to start explaining it to Storm. Half the time people weren't sure what her powers were, since she disliked using anything but the scientific terms. Ferrokinesis, magnetokinesis, etc.

Pursing her lips she glanced down at her salad, finished off two or three quick bites and then placed her fork down, smiling at Storm. "Thanks for the offer," she murmured. "If they're doing doubles today I'd...uh, lo-like to team up with you." Glancing around she noticed the distinct absence of both people Storm had mentioned. Quirking up an eyebrow she glanced at him.

"Is it just me or does Drake have an unrequited love for Drakine?" she asked, covering her mouth with one hand to hide the easy grin that was forming there.

Ooc; Oops, I guess Cass ain't as shy as I meant to make her. :< I need to stick a mental breakdown somewhere now. xD

"Awesome. Glad to hear it, partner." Storm said as he winked at Cass. He rolled his eyes as he caught Drake's stare and restrained himself from sending a whirlwind the way the young man had gone. He turned back to Cass and watched her expertly spin the metal around in her hands, the silver substance never brushing against her skin in the least.

"So you're not exactly controlling the metal itself like Taylor would do with her telekinesis," Storm said again as he tilted his head toward the brown-haired girl chittering happily with her brother. "You control the magnetic fields," he said with a grin. He scratched the back of his head and sighed at Cass's next statement.

"Bro's an idiot if you ask me. That girl's as dark as the flames she spits," he said with a mock shudder. "Honestly, I don't get what he sees in her," he grinned after that and chuckled slightly. "She's torched him enough times to get her point across, but he denies it. He's convinced she loves him," he said with a full-blown grin.

Drakine growled when she saw Drake wave to her. Her eyes narrowed and she halted in her flight, tempted to spit a ball of hellfire at his retreating form. Instead, she roared her prescense before circling into a landing. Once her paws touched the ground, her talons duck deep into the earth before furling her wings tight against her lithe, scaled body. Lowering her scaled mass to the ground she slowly shifted back into her human form as the scales melted into skin, her wings disappeared, and her tail shrank as the bones in her body shrunk and disappeared.

When she was done, Drakine was crouching on the grass, looking at the claw-marks she had made in the earth. A smirk appeared on her lips before she slowly stood up and prowled back to the cafeteria. She was hungry again.

Shifting made her loose more energy than she could afford at the moment. And she wanted to be at her best to fight in the Arena tonight. She'd challenge Drake and get him to leave her alone once and for all. For he'd be a char-broiled deadman. Or bird. Depending on whichever form he used.

Shrugging one shoulder, she picked up a tray this time and loaded it up with meat, startches, greens, and all sorts of other good, healthy -- ew -- foods that would replenish her energy. As she walked to an empty table, she figured she'd have an energy drink later. Just in case. When she was sitting, she quickly cooked the meat with a small tongue of black flames before digging into the rest of the food.

[[ |P Short... ]]