Spring was right around the corner and the cold air was slowly ebbing away with the winter season shifting over the horizon. The campus was bustling with life as it always had even though classes were not in session today, not that he was attending anyway. The demon sat on the small alcove by the window, his legs propped up among the pillows, his back pressed against another to the wall, a hefty book in his hand. Thick, black framed glasses resting on the bridge of his nose, electric blue eyes and golden eyes shifting down the page as the words painted themselves into his mind. The book was heavy enough to be considered a weight in the gym, but the topic itself was one he was interested in. The title, 'Interspecies Interactions of Demons and the Hierarchy of Family Life, written in an elegant manner down the spine of the tome, the title sparking his interest a few hours prior as he strode through the library. The room was lit with natural light, something he found much more comforting than using the lamps and candles that were provided, opting to save his earnings than using it for the small, but necessary, things when there were other alternatives. The room had seen some changes since he had moved in; the furniture had been completely switched out in favor of some that he liked instead of ones provided by his family. The once black, glossy drawers, bed frame, night stands, shelves, and desk, he swapped them for ones one would typically see in the human world. Or something very similar, perhaps picking up that 'IKEA' magazine while on a vacation wasn't a good idea. At least he didn't get in trouble for perusing it while on field trip time. Riku was no longer hanging around the room as much, opting to stay beyond the Closet; so it was usually just Aster and Fraustus who seemed to get along now that Riku wasn't involved to instigate trouble. Uru'baen had made many acquaintances since coming here, people he found bumping into on more than one occasion. He had thought of them as friends, but never followed to see if they felt the same about him. Perhaps he was fine with that.

His eyePhone went off with a strangely jarring sound. Marking the page, he reached to answer it, noticing the name that displayed across the screen. He was thankful that he had left the estate, now that he was being introduced to the new modern technologies that were available to him. Smiling, he hit the button to accept the call, bringing the device to his ear. Not that he necessarily needed to. “Hello, Brenna.” he answered, his voice calm, soothed, but still deep and throaty. Brenna, his lovely, younger sister. He could not recall the last time they had spoken, often tried between his classes, but he had imagined that his mother was rough on her since he was gone. “How are things?” There was no reply. Silence. Uru looked down at the eyePhone to see the clock still ticking, indicating that his sister's phone was still on. “Brenna?” his voice concerned.

“S-sorry, big brother. Uncle was calling for me. He's gone now.” her voice was so soft, sacchrine.

Her voice brought a smile to his face. Placing the tome down, he got to his feet, unraveling the scarf from his neck to place it on the back of his desk chair. “Tell me everything.”

He could hear her chuckle on the other end. Her voice was hushed as she spoke, he could only imagine she was alone in her room, avoiding people in the house. This was her own time, her time with her brother. The brother she hadn't seen in so long, that she enjoyed listening to his voice. “Classes have been getting harder, mom has been hiring multiple teachers for me. I don't really want them, it is getting out of hand... but I can't really say anything to her. You know how she gets.” Uru huffed in agreement. “One teacher to teach me the subject, then another to have me use it, and another to issue my examinations. It is so silly!” she laughed. “Was it like that for you, too, big brother?” she questioned softly.

Uru was pacing around his room, slowly, as he listened to her speak, moving with no real rhythm. The motion itself was enough to capture the minis' attention, watching him as he moved about the room. A smile on his face. “No, it wasn't anything like that. One teacher was it for me. A new one each time I made one quit.”

“I wish I could make them all quit.”

“Heh, don't say that, Brenna. You will upset mother.” That was the reason that seemed to tip things into his favor, opting to scare away the teachers. With the family losing money and reputation of having an heir that couldn't control himself, they figured that if he was exposed to the crazy outside world beyond the estate, the 'lesser qualified teachers', and 'respectable demons', that he'd turn around and beg to come home. It's been a year and he was nowhere near to doing something like that.

“Well, I have been taking dance classes. It's my favorite. I just kind of ignore the teacher and let myself dance to the music. Mom said I was a good dancer and said that I should do a show for the other Alphas.” That was a compliment if he ever heard of one. If his mother did truly say that then that would certainly mean that his sister was now her pride and joy, throwing all sorts of expenses in order to better her daughter. The pacing was growing on him. He continued to listen as he reached for his black, designer jacket that his sister had sent him last holiday. It was certainly warm, the design was alright, but the material wasn't exactly what he was looking for. The fur that lined the trim was something he had to get used to. Wrapping the scarf around his neck, he caught her giggling about their uncle having to be her dance partner for one of her examination routines. Outside he adjusted the eyePhone from one ear to the other. “When do you think you'll come home to visit?”

He shook his head as began to walk toward the campus, the dorms weren't exactly as quiet as he was thinking. The loud clamouring of the students as he walked down the hallway was kind of annoying, having to cup his large hand over the speaker so not to disturb her story. “No, I'm sorry. Not anytime soon. Perhaps when mother gets the stick that is wedged up her tail, then I'll visit.” She laughed. He knew that the only thing that was really standing in the way of him coming home was his mother. His uncle was not going to stand up against him after the humiliating defeat in their ritualistic challenge. He recalled it clearly how they fought tooth and nail as by the law that was written. Their fight ending when their uncle made a fatal error of grabbing at his scarf, exposing his arm to razor sharp fangs to dig into the man's forearm and a driving right hook to the face. He recalled his uncle imploring him to be spared, something that was against the rules as the victor decided what to do with them, which was often death. He remembered his mother's expression at the behavior and he took pleasure in sparing his life knowing that his mother wouldn't forgive him.

“T-tell me more about your time at school, please?” She whispered. He could almost hear the creaking of a bed and the swishing of what he could assume to be a blanket. She had crawled into bed with her phone nearby.

“School has been good. It keeps me busy, as you know. The teachers here are nicer, strange, but nice. They do a good job of teaching and the other students seem to be learning. The students do a lot around here; festivals, carnivals, events for the holidays. Never a dull moment, really. There was that one time my room got destroyed by these shadowlings that destroyed half the campus.”

“W-what!? How can you say that the school is safe if things like that happen, big brother? Are you okay? What about Aster and Fraustus? Are they okay?”

He smiled. “Yeah, they're okay. They've gotten better since you've last seen them. Mellowed, you could say.”

“I think you've mellowed.”

He huffed at this, but smiled regardless. She couldn't see it anyway. “The teachers hold outside classes and lessons from time to time. Been to the human world, too.”

“You have!? That sounds so cool! What was it like? Are they scary? What was the field trip for?” Her voice squeaked in obvious excitement. The whooshing sound behind her meant she must have sat up. Excited indeed.

“They are shorter than I am, but taller than you. They don't have fur or claws or scales or wings or tails, they kind of look like what most of us look at when we have to wear our school pins. They actually smell... pretty bad. We went to observe them and to see what really scares them. Turns out what scares them sometimes scares us, too.” He recalled the two times he went to the human world with the professors here. Once to some sort of fair of the humans' time period where they walked around in funny clothes and had weapons. But when they went the second time it was in a time where they had similar technologies to them where they went to a place called a 'theatre' and watched a moving picture that seemed to startle everyone. All the while, he couldn't help but notice the fetid smell each time he did go.

“I miss you, big brother...” she murmured over the line after a few moments of silence.

“Yeah... I miss you, too, Brenna.” He voice falling. He could hear the shuffling on the other end of the phone. Looking up at the sky, he imagined it was almost noon, which meant that it was getting late for her. Nap time. Uru smiled as he continued to walk around the campus grounds. If he ran into anyone he knew, they'd find it the strangest thing to see that Uru, the big, grumpy guy was smiling. “Get some sleep, for me, will you?” She answered with a soft whine. “Good night, sis.” He hung up, her name and smiling face disappearing from the display screen back to the background being a candid shot of the forest. With a dramatic sigh, he slipped the phone into his pocket and his arms across his large chest. Sitting down, he let a soft rumble start in his chest. He had thought he had taken everything he could to school so that his mother had no way to threaten him, no way to blackmail him, have absolutely no hold of him. But he never would have realized that she would use his sister, her own daughter, to try to keep him in line. No, he could believe it, it would have been no surprise either. She was the lowest type of demon he could think of. It was within their nature, a nature he tried with every fiber of his being to reject. He never wanted to be like them, he wanted to be like himself. He wanted to be a demon who didn't rely on other people's money, their help, or the use of underhanded methods. Shaking his head, whenever he thought of his low his mother was, he could not help but think of his father. His father was strong, he was proud and proficient in many fields. It was his father who taught him how to fight, survive, hunt, and take care of himself. Since the events that plunged the campus into some sort of nightmarish, chaotic memory of themselves, he was able to remember the things that his family had done to him since he was young. The banishment of his father, the horrible things his mother once did to get her way over the packs that pledged their fealty to her.

His father... the Alpha of Umbra. He worried about the struggling pack after the banishment of their leader. The others either hunted into their territory or took in their members when their numbers dwindled. He hated the fact that he was more of a Cocytus than an Umbra when it came to his innate abilities as a demon. Perhaps it was why he preferred to fight with his fists than to rely heavily on magic.

His phone rang again. Picking it up, he got to his feet after glancing at the name. “Hello?” he nodded. “I'm on my way. No, I'm free. Yeah, I'll bring it.”