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"Because - NAG you? Hey, I never nagged you to do anything!" Ialo defended. He would have never acted like this around other people, it seemed that Luna brought out his old self. "I thought you looked fine," he continued, not realizing he could be digging a deeper hole. He followed Luna to the edge of the roof, and his gaze narrowed as he saw her posture stiffen and her weight shift. He placed his hand on her shoulder. "Let's bring you inside and get you some breakfast," he suggested quietly, his stern manner back.

"What's the matter?" Ophi asked Valrie as he let go of her hand for a moment to open the door to Ella's office. "Something worrying you?" He still cradled Krish in his arms.

Ophiuchus was about to speak up, when Krish began to wail. He tryed to shush the boy, but he only calmed down a moment after a student, Jewlet, walked by. Ophiuchus looked up at her. Her mind was blocked off, so he couldn't pass the incident off as anything more than a coincidence. But there was still something in that blank gaze that made him suspiscious. He looked down at Valrie, who was gripping his shirt like the world was about to end. Magic oozed from his left hand, the arm holding Krish. It formed a shield around the boy, that blocked any psychic or magical interference. In fact, OPhi realized, he ought to make charms for these kids... He ushered Valrie into the office. "I know dear, I know..."

She smiled at him. She wondered about her previous thoughts about him, the negative ones at least. She doubted them for a couple moments until he touched her shoulder. She looked back down, she mentality already wondering how far down it really was. She turned back to him, her eyes soft and young. "Do you miss it?" she asked, looking up at him.
"Do you miss how it was like when you were attending Mystic Fountain?"

Athena stared at the clock in her classroom, silently willing it to go faster. There was something she needed to check, and she needed to check it now. It was of great importance, but not great enough importance to rush out of class. Alas, as the saying goes, 'a watched cauldron never boils'. She scowled as the seconds ticked by, each one slower than its predecessor. Tick-tock, tick, tock... tick... tock.....tick... She barely held in the growl welling up in her throat.

She needed to know when exactly the next new moon would be. If her calculations were correct, it would be the seventh new moon since her fourteenth birthday. That was something that she had been anticipating for a long time, but suddenly she was shying away. She didn't want it to happen at the same time that she did.

An explaination? Perhaps one is necessary. You see, on the seventh new moon after the fourteenth birthday, human-yokai mixes go through a change. Their human features become slightly more demonic, depending on their ancestry. For K9-type, their canines elongate to become similar to a dog's--which means they resemble vampires in a way, their claws become that much sharper, and they grow a tail to match their ears. Sometimes the eyes will become larger, with the iris taking up more than normal as well. They will also transform fully into a yokai form--Athena would become half-fox, half-dog. The transformation's time changes with each person--more powerful yokai take longer than weaker, and must stay in their form longer. One would think, though, that it would be the sixth month after the twelfth birthday, to make 666 (6+6=12, then 6 months), but because of the human, it is 777, the holy number (7+7=14, then 7 months).

It wasn't really the actual transformation that Athena feared, though. It was the amount of demonic aura and magic that she would release during it. It would be enough that, should a light creature touch her (well, for the average transformation), they would go into a state of shock. But if she, like her parents and most of her older siblings turned out to be more powerful, simply being with in a twenty-meter radius could do it, and a touch could be lethal. Lin would be in particular trouble...

And what would the elf think of her afterwards? They were already having trouble simply because of the half-demon thing, but after the transformation, she would be more demon-like than now, as she'd be able to change into her yokai form at will. Her aura would be more demonic. Thanks to her humanity, she would still be human enough, light enough that Lin wouldn't have trouble being around her. Normal demons would be affected by Lin's very presence and her touch or magic, but Athena's humanity caused that to become null. She had almost an immunity to white magic, though if used on or against her it would make her feel ill.

She was scared of something she'd never thought she'd be scared of. High school changes your life, she thought, as Aphrodite and Artemis always said... Too bad I never put much thought into that simple sentence 'til now.

Valrie looked down and then back up. "Okay." She said taking a seat on the floor. She looked at Ophi as he spoke. She nodded her head. "Yes, sir." She placed the book in her lap and leaned against the wall. She opened the book and began to read again.

Finally, the bell let out a shrill ring, causing Athena's ears to flatten subconsciously, even though she'd been expecting it. Rushing out of her class, she walked as fast as she could while still constituting as walking on her way out of the school. She almost bumped into about half the student population on her way, but she dodged some and those she didn't dodge managed to dodge her. Magic schools had their perks.

After leaving the main building, she made a mad dash for her dorm room, jamming the key in impatiently and growling when it missed and caused a scratch on the door itself. "Get-in-there!" she said lowly to the key. It did go in, and she unlocked and opened the door, rushing over to her calendar.

Looking at the calendar, she searched first for the day's date ("Aha!") and then let her finger slide along the slick paper to that Saturday. Her eyes widened and she sighed. "Crap! Crap crap crap!" It was the day. She didn't have to count; the second she'd gotten that calendar, she'd grabbed a pen and counted the moons, then marked the date of her Transformation with excitement (after double- and triple-checking to make sure she didn't make any mistakes).

"Why do the fates have to mock me so...?" she wondered to herself, broodily leaving her dorm and heading for the gardens. The previous class had been her last class of the day, but she couldn't stand to stay in the dorm. She needed fresh air, and she hoped the gardens would provide her with that.

How would she get this done!?