Welcome to Gaia! ::

The lights in room G-9 were lit dimly on the crisp night, as the warm flicker of candlelight licked shadows up the sheer drapes framing a small bay window. Joining in the dance of these shadows, there was another figure, but it was larger, more tangible. No sooner had the shadow appeared, it glimmered into tangibility, revealing a tired Alauniira sitting beside the closed window.

Her dark skin gave her more natural cover than anyone else she had met so far at this "Windsor Academy", and yet, it was this skin that made her have to hide at all. Refusing to entertain the thought of this possible internal struggle, Alauniira decided to ignore it, as she always did, and instead exercise her stress through one of her favorite addictions.

Quick fingers lifted a small, thin roll of paper to her lips as she extended a strikingly red tongue to lick a line down the edge. She rolled it tightly to trap the assorted herbs she had inside and quickly fidgeted for her lighter at her side. The herbal cigarette lit with a dull hiss as Niira took her first inhale, letting the warmth burn down her throat. Sure, tobacco might be what all the elders she had ever known smoked, but the young half-drow provided the clean burned of freshly dried herbs. Her favorite mixture included a small bit of lavender to sweeten the smell of the smoke.

Cracking her window open so as to keep her smoking a secret from anyone passing by, Alauniira felt her eyes land out on the horizon. Her half-drow form was barely visible through the miniscule crack made by the ajar window, but it still alarmed her, putting her senses on alert. Should someone pass by beneath her, the elf was certain that she would know before they even got a chance to realize what exactly they were looking at in her window.

For now, Alauniira would enjoy her cigarette and the breeze and rejoice in the fact that she knew, for the first time in a very long time, just where she could relax... or so she hoped.

Lost in her own thoughts and the soothing drawls of lavender, Alauniira had almost let the intruder at the door go unnoticed. Almost.

The instant her ears picked up on the sound of the door swinging open, the drow vanished into the shadows, staying in their depths as she took on her disguised form. She crept close to the walls of her room as the illusion took hold of her, leaping from them the moment that she was sure she was hidden.

The door to the dorm was thrown open, clattering against the far wall and knocking a clock to the floor. Not even waiting to recognize who it was, Niira was immediately an inch away from the interloper's nose; purple eyes were ablaze with rage. "WHO THE <********> DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? DOORS HAVE LOCKS FOR A REASON!" Niira had locked that damn door, and she was sure of it. Even if she was wrong, of course, she would never admit it.

"This is MY damn room! MINE. ******** hell!" The anger and surprise in her made her cheeks blush, but in the disguise it was invisible. She hadn't quite mastered the spell to the point that she could make her tanned skin echo the marks and scars that were present on her dark blue shade.

Alauniira Rilynduis did not like surprises. Her eyebrows pushed together so hard it was as if they were fighting each other for property rights to her forehead. Lips were drawn into a tight line, and her hands were balled into fists.

It was the wrath of a drow, and it was everything that Niira could do not to get into a fight with this poor girl. Not to mention that she had tossed the cigarette out the window when the interruption had occurred, leaving her itching for another.

Still blind with rage, Alauniira was waiting for the intruder to speak; she didn't even really realize that this was a girl/student/human. At that moment, Kimora was a manifestation of evil that the half-drow girl was prepared to scream into oblivion should her temper not be soothed.

The apathy that Kimora showed in the face of Alauniira's anger was precisely what the half-drow needed, no argument or exchange of words. She just needed to yell and be listened to convincingly. "You should be sorry," she spit angrily, letting her rage cool off just as quickly as it had flared. The door had been locked though, damnit. Whoever repaired the facilities would need to come fix her lock as soon as possible.

Purple eyes continued to stare unflinchingly at Kimora, offering no greeting or pleasantries. That is, until she saw the dark-skinned human roll a quick cigarette. Her gaze dropped to Kimora's hands, itching to try the sage but unwilling to admit it. "I knew that about sage," she lied, softening her defensive stance. "I just like the challenge."

Another moment passed as Niira weighed her options. No one had been in her room, and the elf liked it that way. But, on the other hand, there were cigarettes involved. "If you have one of those for me, then you should come in here and close the door." Spinning on her heel, Alauniira marched back into her room, taking a seat at her windowsill again. "And make sure the damn door is locked this time."

Alauniira lit her cigarette eagerly, sliding back into her seat at the windowsill and blowing the smoke out the window as best she could. The sounds of an apology tickled at the drow's ears, causing her to turn back and face Kimora. "Huh?" she blurted out, wondering why the girl was saying sorry at all. What had she done again? "Oh, yeah, don't even worry about it. Not a big deal." Hot and cold as ever, Niira had already flipped the switch and was ready to move on.

The end of her cigarette blazed brightly as she took a long inhale, letting the smoke fill her lungs until the burning was too much. Slowly, she breathed out the smoke along with her own introduction, "I'm Niira." Sitting in the silence and dark of her room, Alauniira felt no need to speak as she was totally enraptured by the soothing sage. A few moments passed though, and it was then that Niira realized what the strange noise she had thought she was hallucinating was.

"A wolf?" she voiced aloud, sitting up and holding the cigarette in the corner of her mouth. "What the hell? Do you hear that?" Burning through her cigarette quickly, Niira extinguished it in her mortar and pestle that was sitting on her nightstand, a kind of makeshift ashtray for her usage. The drow ran a hand through her hair, quietly eying the rose colored bottle she had gotten from Herbology class only a few moments ago. "Damn. We should probably go see what is going on," she reasoned at last, crossing to the door and opening it.

Once the two had left, Niira locked and rechecked the lock several times before making her way down toward the sound, rose-colored bottle still in hand from her Herbology class.