Niccolai strode through the halls to the Mysticism class he had chosen to take to help get his grades up. He was fairly decent, but he new if he was going to work professionally as an artist anywhere. He hefted his bag further up onto hsi shoulder, his crystalline blue eyes cast downwards until the familiar...aura, I guess you could say, of the room washed over him.

He lifted his head, his brown hair falling slightly into his face as he ventured inside, his thick shoes thumping noisily against the floors. He felt his cheeks grown warm at the noise he was making before he took his seat, staring down at the tarot card on his desk. He reached out and gingerly lifted it up ina a tan-gloved hand, the young man blinking once.

Death.

Was this some sort of...message to him? The Russian male lifted his light blue gaze tot he teacher in wonder, tilting his head slightly. It was then that he noticed a classmate, Sable, nearby. He smiled slightly, carefully setting the old, worn card back down before he ventured over, a kind smile present on his face. "Privet , moĭ drug," he said, using his usual greeting of 'Hello, my friend' in his original language of Russian. He tilted his head slightly, then grinned. "How are you today? Today is a very nice day, is it not?"

Then he glanced at the teacher with a smile, nodding his head in a greeting to her. To have been speaking Russian his whole life, Niccolai's voice was actually rather soft and comforting once you got past the rough pronunciation of the letters he had. He really didn't lilke it when people decided to make fun of his accent so he usually ended up yelling at them in Russian and scaring them off. He'd gained a reputation for being a rough sorrt of guy, but all the students in the Mysticism class knew who he really was.

He was a rather gentle soul, and he had a passion for art. He wanted to be accepted, and here he was...he actually enjoyed it in this room.

Jade stalked through the halls, her long black hair flowed behind her gently and gracefully. Her blues eyes were glued to the sc
ript she had just been given, unwilling to look away for fear of it disapearing. People around her rushed to move out of the path she walked for when she wasn't paying attention, there was no telling if she could stop for you. Somewhere behind her came a chuckle, but she ignored the sound and continued to read. Suddenly she stopped and realized she forgot her bag in the clas.sroom. "My ba-... Oh thanks Jake." She sighed with relief as she saw her older brother extend his arm out to her with her bag held in his hand. She snatched it and slung it over her shoulder, continueing her path to the Mysticism course. She figured she needed an easy clas.s to have more time to study her s. She continued walking with her brother at her heel until she smelled the incense emminating from the room. She suddenly felt very confident and so she sped up and burst into the room. "Someone help me! I have lost my brother and can't find him anywhere. He is just a child, someone please help me find him!" Her face tried to recreate the worry one would have felt for loosing a younger sibling. The only reason she was struggling with this one, though, was the fact that her brother was older and had just entered the room behind her. Ya, he took the same course too. She sighed with defeat as she took her seat. Peering down at the Tarot card she smiled.

Empress.

It fit her perfectly, the posture and the gracefulness of the woman. "Do I want to know?" She asked with a smile, the card making her very happy. "Yo teach! Why don't I get a chair like this?" She joked, pointing at her Tarot card. Her brother rolled his eyes as he took his normal seat beside her. He too had a Tarot card at his seat. They all did, and he was now very curious to find out why. He picked up his card and looked at it, not really getting the message that his teacher was trying to send.

Judgement.

Even though he didn't really care for the meaning of the card, the word it represented gave him a sort of hope for his criminal justice course. And Dad said that I wouldn't get anywhere in life. He smiled triumphantly.

  Garrett did not just walk down the hall, he strode. Wearing a pair of fatigues tucked into combat boots and a grey tank, with a black bag heavy from books slung over his shoulder, he was unable to hide his physical power. People parted for him, not because of wariness, but because of respect. He greeted everyone equally with a smile, pausing for a few moments to speak to some from his classes or who shared his unit. He laughed when he smelled the room before he saw the door. Lavender and sage scented smoke drifted from the cracks around the frame.

  When he dropped into the seat next to Jade, he saw a card on his desk. The Chariot? Looking up at Ms. Meddles he asked softly, "What is this about?" He held up the card.

  Sybil sighed as the last of her students entered the room, then rose and drew the curtain over the door, blocking out the light. She stepped back to her desk and collected a little green velvet bag with small stones in it and began to pass them out, all without saying a word. When she finished, she moved back to the front of the class. "Good evening, guys," she said, smiling timidly at them. "I know you're all wondering what's going on. Especially you, Niccolai, with the card on your desk." She gave the boy a gentle smile. That particular card was hard to understand and frightening. "Tonight, I performed a reading for each of us. It might not make sense to you as I explain it, but it will shortly, I promise. I'll start by telling you about your cards. Keep in mind that this was a reading for the entire class, not for each individual, so there will be things from each card that pertain to all of us." She turned to Sable. "Sable, the card I drew for you is incredably appropriate. It is the Fool. The Fool isn't a reflection of your personality, I promise," she said with a little laugh. "It is an indication of a journey just begining. A joyful journey that will not be without its dangers, as you can see from the cliff."

((Feel free to respond. I have to go eat with the inlaws now, so I'll be back in a couple hours.))

Sable blinked and looked up when he heard the familiar Russian greeting, smiling shyly at Niccolai. "Privet, moĭ drug," he replied, doing his best to politely immitate Niccolai's greeting. His accent had gotten pretty good recently, since he heard the greeting pretty much every day from the Russian. "I'm doing good. You?"

It wasn't long before everyone was in the room, and he watched as Professor Sybil pulled the curtain over the door, blocking out the last of the light from the outside. It made Sable feel as though the room was completely cut off from the rest of the world. When she passed him a stone, he took it wordlessly, running his thumb over it curiously before tossing it to eye level once and catching it, enclosing his fingers around it tightly. Now he really was wondering what was going to be done this class.

He listened quietly to the teacher's words, narrowing his eyes slightly when she talked about doing a reading. He stared at The Fool card, realizing now that it must be a Tarot Card. He wasn't really familiar with them aside from the occasional mention of them on television. So, they were just doing Fortune Telling. He couldn't honestly say he believed in all that.

When he heard his name being said, he looked up, a dark blush rising to his cheeks when she said the card was appropriate. For a second, he thought she really did think him a fool until she explained it more and he looked at the card in new light. A journey was beginning? A dangerous one too. He was intrigued to say the least. He stared at the card, trying to imagine what it meant. He doubted a dangerous journey like that could really be starting, but he still couldn't help his excitement. Even if it couldn't be real, it was nice to dream.

((-bumps--

Once Niccolai's card is explained I'll post. xD;))

  Sybil smiled as she watched Sable study the card. If only he knew... She could read disbelief in his eyes. Sobering, she turned her eyes on Jade. "Jade, the card you hold is the Empress. Yes, she is regal, and beautiful, but she is far more than that. She is the embodiment of maternal instinct, power, protectiveness. She speaks to your attitude towards your friends, and to my instincts towards all of you. In a way, she is both of us, just as Sable's card was all of us."

  "Jake," Sybil said, turning to look at the young man. "Your card is Judgement. It is a sign that there is a Judgement upon us, either our own, or one we will pass on another. It also speaks of your judgement, of people and of situations. The Judgement card says to trust that. Can you all see it tying together already?" she asked, looking from face to face. "Our journey began with the fool, and we are being protected by maternal instincts and guided by our own judgement."

  "Darien, you are justice. That is what we are seeking. As you can see, justice is blind. So should we be as we pass the judgement we have been given by Jake's card. We must be impartial and strive to see that Justice is done for all involved." Now she locked eyes with Garrett.

  "Garrett, this is where we begin to truly see things move. In your hand is the Chariot. Travel. Adventure. A journey that we started as a fool. Now we must take the things we have learned; that we have maternal protection, that we must trust our own judgement, that we must seek justice, and combine them all. We must take these things out beyond our classroom and into the world that awaits us past that door." She was begining to see dawning comprehension in the student's eyes. Wondering what would happen when she revealed the truth, she moved on to Niccolai.

  "Niccolai, you card is certainly the most frightening of all of them. I understand why you would be confused by it. The Death card is never an easy one to see in a reading. But, once you understand it, you will see why it is not a bad card. In most cases, Death simply means the death of the old. Think about it. In order for you to become a college student, your persona as a high school student had to die. The Death card is really about the death of stagnation and the freedom to move on to new things. So, when we begin our journey, trusting in protection and our own judgement, when we seek to temper judgement with justice, and as we move forward past the place where we were, the old will die away and the new will be born in it's place. Now," she looked around the room, making eye contact with each one of them. "What questions do you have?"

((Yes, I do read the Tarot, and yes, this was an actual reading. I randomly drew cards, one for each character. Freaky huh?))

ooc:// Oh my gosh, that's so cool! I'm learning. One of my friends reads the cards, and he's scarily accurate. Like... It's ridiculous. He's teaching me, sort of? Anywho, back to this.

bic://

Darien loosened internally. So the professor was unaware. That made her feel a bit better, less exposed. She had taken her own card completely out of context, and her smile warmed considerably. This tale the teacher was weaving was quite beautiful. The stone in her hand... It felt warm to Darien's touch, calling to some part of her soul. The girl held it to her heart, eyes closing for a moment.

"I have none, professor. If the cards and yourself are being honest, and a journey is to unfold, then at least I'm wearing good walking shoes. As for letting the old die to take in the new, I believe that to be the easiest part before us." She looked to the her fellow students, her cool blue gaze level and calm despite the sudden adrenaline jolting through her system.

Niccolai gave the other male a warm smile, tilting his head slightly. "I am doing alright," he replied before he looked back over at the teacher when she started to explain things again. He blinked, turning to face her before he looked at the card on his desk again.

Then he moved over to lift it up into his hand. "The death of...old me...?" he murmured softly before he closed his eyes with a smile and a chuckle. "Old me died when I left Mother Russia..." he said softly before he looked back over at Sable, holding up his card. "Whether it be furture or past, I am ready, comrade. You ready as well, da?" he asked, moving closer as he cocked his head in a curious manner. He had been the one to get the Fool card, after all.

And then he remembered the stone and opened up his other hand to stare down at it, a faraway look on his face after a while. His blue eyes were unfocused, his brown hair falling just far enough into his face to hide his facial ex
pression. "This will be interesting journey, will it not?"

((I fail so hard. o.o)) 

Jade sighed, her features taking on a comical appearance. "Oh well. I thought for a moment there I was going to get a phone call saying I was the long lost daughter of some queen. There goes my dreams out the window." Even so, her laugh was light and airy. With her eyes resting upon the stone on her table, her confusion returned. "I thought the Empress was pretty. Why am I recieving such an ugly looking stone?" She asked, holding it up to stare into the black. She was captivated by the fact that when she looked into it, she could have sworn she saw chains moving about in them. Blinking back surprise, she placed the stone back on her desk before looking at Jake. "Judgement, huh? I always knew you to be that kind of a guy." She smiled and playfully punched his shoulder.

Jake just shook his head, a grin on his face. "At least my stone isn't black. Oh wait, it reflects you perfectly. It's the color of your soul, demon." He hissed, jumping up from his chair as his sister withdrew a small foam sword from her bag. "You don't pay attention when I talk do you? Then you would have known I got this today." She grinned evily, standing up to chase her brother.

  Sybil dropped her head into her hands for a moment, watching her two most playful students run around the room, untill they came perilously close to knocking over one of the candles. "That's enough! Jade and Jake, please find your seats!" Garrett gave the a sympethetic smile as they sat. "The stones I gave you are reflections of an element, and are each engraved with a creature that belongs to that element. Jade, yours is called snowflake obsidion. That is refering to the pattern of white reflected through it," Sybil sighed again, knowing that her next revelation was not going to go over well. "It is the stone of Death." Garrett started from his seat, moving towards the girl, before Sybil could get her hands up. "No, it's not predicting your death, or wanting your death, it simply is. Your creature is the chimera."

  Looking over at Sable, she indicated the yellowish crystal on his desk. "Sable, yours is topaz, the stone of Wind. It is a stone of flexibility and power. The creature belonging to it is the gryphon."

  She had watched Jake eyeing his stone warily earlier. She couldn't blame him, not after what his sister had gotten. "Jake, you have in your hand a ruby. It is the stone of fire, a force that can both protect and, if allowed to run wild, destroy. The creature on it is a dragon." 

  Darien's face was turned inward, Sybil noticed when she turned to speak to her. "Dairen, you have a diamond. It is the stone of life, with all of it's ups and downs. Life and Death," she directed her gaze towards both girls, "Are simply two parts of the same whole, like right and left. Without one, the other cannot exist. Darien, your animal is a unicorn."

  Sybil saw a bond forming between the two young men, even as she watched. It made her glad to see it, as she knew they would need it in the coming events. "Niccolai, your stone is a sapphire, the stone of Water. It embodies Water's adaptability and tenacity. The creature carved there is a hydra." Finally she turned to Garrett, who was watching everything with distant eyes, taking in all that was being said without commiting to anything.

  "Garrett, you hold an emerald, with the power of Earth. It is steadfast and powerful, just as the ground you walk on is, but unpredictable as well, like an earthquake or landslide. Your creature is a golum." Having said all, she walked gracefully around the room, moving dosail, or clockwise and muttering under her breath. "Earth, for the north..." she poured a handful of rich red clay drawn from a bag on her hip into a small dish. "Air, for the east..." Here was a window, which she cracked. The fat yellow candle burning there sputtered in the sudden breeze. "Fire, for the south..." Here was a small brazier containing a single glowing coal. She sprinkled a few sage leaves over it and filled the room with the fresh herbal scent. "And Water, for the west." On a side table sat a little Zen waterfall. She switched it on and the sound of the trickling water filled the suddenly silent room. Now, she stepped to the center of the room and laid two leaves side by side, one a vibrant green, the other withered brown. "Life and Death, to unite them all..." 

  There was a sudden down rush of air that blew out all the candles, except for the ones representing the elements. In the now almost complete darkness, there were eerie lines of colored light connecting the six elemental displays. The room was filled with a strange humming. "Children, hold tight to your stones now..." Sybil whispered as the lines of light suddenly expanded into a blinding flash of white light.

  When vision returned, they all lay in a pile on something that felt suspiciously like grass...

Darien watched all this with morbid fascination, listening to the name of each stone and marking their keepers and creatures. She especially noted Jade, looking to the girl and her stone. Without one, the other cannot exist. That was a very important detail to keep in mind. The connections were obvious to her, how Earth and Water needed each other, as well as Fire needing Air to survive. That didn't mean romance to her, as obviously Water and Air were quite close, but the balance of the elements relied on their safety.

Then the humming, and the shock of being pulled bodily from the world she knew as home. Darien squeezed her stone all the while, hardly feeling as it cut into the tender flesh of her palm, warm blood trickling. Once her sight returned she immediately began to take stock of the situation. Grass. Forest. Stone. Others. At least they had remained as a group through that sudden transportation. She continued to ignore the cut on her hand, still gripping the stone as though her very existence depended on it. The hand hung at her side, drops of blood slowly falling to the grass as she stood.

"What. The. Heck."

((No you won't! ;) Thank you Miss superhelpful but I think I can take it from here. <3 ))

Everything was turning out to be a great day for Jade. A new sc
ript from her acting clas.s, and an amazing part in that sc
ript. The stars were aligning just for her and nothing was going to ruin that day. She didn't even think twice about the wacky 'ritual' that was taking place before her eyes until she was blinded by the flash of light. The stars were aligned alright, enough to take her from her seat to the middle of nowhere. "What. The. Hell! Are you insane! You drugged us, I know you did! That is so not humanly possible!! I don't believe this! Tarot cards are one thing but magic incantations and... and... and flashes of light! This isn't real, it just can't be." Jade got up and was pacing around until she began hyperventilating and fell over. Jake was immediately by her side, completely alright with the sudden turns of events. His card had been judgment but that didn't mean it had to be a bad one. Infact his thoughts were quite the opposite. "You weren't kidding about that journey, were you?" He asked the teacher, turning back to calm his sister down. He noticed that he still was holding his stone and his Tarot card, as well as his sister's card, which he had been looking at during the 'lecture'. He looked around, admiring the view about him. "So where are we anyway and what are these stones for?" He asked, feeling a weird sort of power grow within him. It was familiar as if it had always been there, but not as strong as it was now. 

((Oh and just so we are all on the same page for later. The chimera is a shapeshifter of sorts... Just an FYI for those who were not familiar.))