A Silence Golden [OPEN]

[Guest]

Thump.

The sound of object bumping object was starting to become a like a rythmical music to Ea. She sat on a small stack of books, her skirt flattened out on her lap as she sorted through them, the books themselves floating in the air in front of her. It was quite an easy task for her, something as simple as sorting through books, but if she went about it normally, it would take her forever; so she did it this way. As she noted each book's place and moved to the next, each book was placed in its place on the shelves around her as another book rose from the ever decreasing stack, readying itself behind a couple others in the air as she continued. It was mindless work, though certainly time consuming. She'd already gone through a few hundred books, the shelves all lined with them. She remembered where each book was, and what exactly it was, too; something that seemed to be hard for most others people she'd met.

She loosened the tie around her neck and leaned back on the stack of books to rest against the shelf behind her, straightening out her skirt and straightening her skirt out unconciously. She wasn't used to wearing a uniform, much less one with something such as a skirt; she was used to wearing shorts or sweatpants to school. Wearing a skirt made her feel weird, vulnerable; so she had taken on the task of helping organize the library for the year to come. It was something to get her away from the mass of students that had conglomerated in most of the halls and dormitories, and allowed her after a few days without reprieve a little time to relax. She raised her hand and a book floated in front of her, flying away to its place in the shelf with a flick of her wrist as she drew another up for inspection.

Ea stretched lightly, covering her mouth slightly as she yawned. "Mmm..."

[Guest]

Today had sucked, to put it shortly. Last night had been a bit longer than it really should have been. He didn’t see what a library needed so much bloody paperwork for but Kryn had nagged him until he’d gotten it all don’t properly and on time. Normally he was pretty chill but when it came down to work, the man got serious. Tsuinoshu snorted to himself at that and smirked at all the times the silver haired man had gotten ‘serious’ with him. Not bad memories at all.

He straightened his tie and vest as he walked towards the library. The staff uniform might not have been everyone’s favorite thing but it was given to the staff and it made him look good so he figured he’d just stay in uniform. Both ladies and gentlemen liked a well-dressed man. Upon coming within hearing range, he picked up the sound of books moving around in a steady dull thump. He quickened his pace, wondering who the hell was touching his books when the term had barely started. If it was some punk messing up his system…

Only it wasn’t. He smelled the scent of female as soon as he entered the library and saw the girl with books surrounding her, docilely putting them into their places. A teek, then. Then he saw what she was sitting her rump on and a growl started in his chest that he cut off before it could go further.

He stood with arms across his chest and an eyebrow raised, eyes uncovered by brown contacts today, and stared at her. Technically he wasn’t supposed to touch the students, but she really needed to get off his books. Many were old and hard to find nowadays, therefore valuable.

“That’s not a chair, kid. Get off my books like that.”

[Guest]

"Uwaa?!"

Ea started up onto her feet so fast her concentration broke, the books dropping from the air as if they hadn't even been floating. In fact, the one she had been looking at had fallen against her shins, sending her plummeting down just as soon as she'd stood up. She hadn't expected anyone to find her in the library... but what was more was the way he'd said it...

"My" books...

[Guest]

The irritation he had felt earlier melted away at her surprised response, he could tell it was genuine. Just the fact that it curbed his ire was annoying though, despite her cuteness slightly making up for it. She started to get up and his instinct kicked in before he registered what he was doing.

Books. Falling. Leg. Girl. Bloody hell.

Without thinking, he coiled an arm strongly around her waist in a sort of slow motion haze. With the other arm he caught a book and then quickly caught as many of the other falling books on top of it. Reality snapped back into place with the sound of a book hitting hardwood. He’d missed one.

“Chikusho…” He muttered under his breath, looking down at the book. Only a bit of not-black hair was peeking into his range of vision. The girl. She was still dangling from his arm. Crap. Cluskio would be irritated if he thought the shifter was manhandling students.

Tsuinoshu set her on her feet before bending to pick up the remaining book with the arm that had kept her from falling on her face. It’s binding was torn a bit, nothing he couldn’t fix but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place and he sighed, trying not to get irritated. Turning towards the girl, he held the book up and shook it a bit for emphasis.

“This book be worth more than your left eyeball on de black market, girl.” He said to her, the slight irritation coupled with the little adrenaline rush causing his Bajan accent to perk up, “That why we don’t be sitting on de books, yeah?”

[Guest]

"E-eye..." Ea was a bit in shock at first. Instead of hitting the floor, she was suspended by an arm before being set upright. The girl just sort of stared at the man for a few seconds, dazed, before everything that he had done and actually said came rushing back to her. She took a step back from him unconsciously, mouth open slightly, though words refused to come out.

In the end she merely nodded her head quickly, bringing her arms up defensively and looking around at the books near her feet, rather than at him. She had caught a glimpse of his eyes when she looked at him; it was immediately apparent there was something different about him. The fact that he was able to move so fast confirmed it; he was different from just "human". She would've fallen to the floor otherwise.

She caught herself in her own thoughts and shook her head to clear them away. It was a bad habit of hers to think too much, no matter what the situation was. She didn't even think about anything related to the conversation usually; anything that popped into her mind got her full attention. She was just like that.

In the end, she could only manage to utter out one coherent phrase. "T-thank yo.... u."

[Guest]

She stared at him in shock and he could smell her nervousness. It wasn’t fear, but still he felt a little sorry. The teek seemed to be a little awkward. He could relate to that. Years spent roaming the wild like a beast had made him a little odd himself. Again he raised an eyebrow, as she seemed to be lost in thought after stuttering over the word “eye” in response to his comment.

Either way, he turned to put the books down safely on top of the stack she’d been sitting on. By the time he’d straightened she was thanking him.

“Don’t mention it. Really. Don’t.” Gold eyes assessed her form. She wasn’t strong but given her size she might be fast and flexible. You never knew with the ones Kryn took in, and he’d take in anyone with promise. So there must have been something about her worthwhile.

“Why are you in the library right now anyway?” the question was without a pronounced accent, though his English was always colored with an island lilt. "You aren't skipping class in my library, are you, kid?"

[Guest]

Ea shifted uncomfortably as she felt his gaze on her, trying not to squirm on her feet. It had always felt weird to her when people looked at her, but it was even worse now that she was in a skirt; it felt perverse. The man himself was a mystery; his answer to her thanks didn't tell her if he cared at all about manners, his accent also was confusing. She'd known before coming here that this school was different from other schools; that she'd be able to use her abilities her freely, but she hadn't known that people like him would...

She shook her head again, shaking the string of thoughts from her mind at his question. Skipping class? Did that mean that there were classes today...? "T-there are c-classes today?!" She had thought that classes weren't starting up until the following week. If they had started up today then technically, even though she didn't know, she had been skipping classes. Anxiety welled up quickly in her, and she had to resist the urge to cry at the thought she had done something like that.

[Guest]

This teek was odd. Plain enough. The nervousness he sensed about her increased and he couldn’t figure out why. Then at his comment, the nervousness turned into an actual fear but he didn’t think it was at him since he hadn’t actually don’t anything to her yet. He watched her carefully, noticing nuances and slight scent that alerted him she was about to start sniveling. Tsuinoshu reached his hand up and ran his fingers through the thick black mess, ending with his hand behind his neck, about an inch above where his hair ended. Seriously? Emotional students wasn’t really his job description.

“Easy, cub. I don’t know when your classes start. So just breathe, yeah?”

Her distress pressed upon an instinct like pressing upon a tendon. It made the protectiveness in him wake up and the hand at his side twitched with the impulse to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. He doubted she’d take it well and he didn’t need any more incidents with touching students inappropriately. Even though he always kept them legal, Kryn seemed to frown on Tsuinoshu’s more…animalistic urges. Either way, this cub needed to relax.

“But really, what are you doing here?”

[Guest]

At his words she calmed down a little bit, but the anxiety she'd felt only lessened. Now she really did want to know exactly when classes started, just to be certain. To think, she could remember which book was where on the shelves she had organized, but she couldn't remember her own schedule. Something that took her mind off that worry was how he'd spoken to her. He'd called her a "cub", which was definitely something new to her. In fact, she had no idea why he referred to her like that in the first place, so she let it slide. She'd figure it out later.

"I-I... just wanted to do something... without many people...?" For all her brilliant academics, she couldn't word a sentence right to save her life. what she'd said was closest to the truth though; having to interact with people constantly wore her down. A quiet place like a library was just a place she liked to relax; or at least some place not many people use.

[Guest]

Upon hearing her reason, Tsuinoshu really couldn’t help himself at all. It was just so hilarious that they both chose the library for the same bloody reason. He burst out laughing, his naturally deep and almost gravelly voice booming across the otherwise empty library. It echoed across the tables and chairs that would later be occupied by studious teenagers and the occasional one trying to skip or sleep. Those ones would get thrown out. Gladly.

“Without many people, huh?” He repeated when he’d stopped laughing. This teek, while weird as all hell still, was intriguing to say the least. She was a slight thing but at least she seemed to be quiet and if she wanted to spend her time here among his books to get away from the world just as he was doing himself, so be it. To deny the modicum of peace to her would be a cruel thing if she needed it even half as much as he did.

“So you want to help out in my library.” It wasn’t a question. The girl wouldn’t have been putting away books if she hadn’t wanted to help. Tsuinoshu shook his head, still amused and put out his hand for her to shake.

“The name is Tsuinoshu Raishin. You’ll call me Tsuinoshu, just that. No Mister. And yours, cub?”

[Guest]

Ah his outburst of laughter, Ea drew up her arms defensively in surprise, flinching at the noise. Ha she done something funny, or did she do something wrong? His voice carried and ricocheted in the library, seeming much louder than it should have been normally. Of course, that was probably due to the sound constantly being refracted and reflected off-. There her mind goes again.

His first line after his outburst made her give him a confused look at first. When he offered his hand though, she knew that somehow the meeting had seemed to go well. She reached out hesitantly and took his hand, trying her best to actually look at him, and not his hand. "U-um... Ea S-Sae... you can call m-me what you like, e-ehm... Tsuinoshu...?

[Guest]

Man but she was a twitchy little thing. He almost felt bad for her. How the hell was she going to defend herself in training sessions. That annoying protective instinct rose up in him again once he felt how small her hand was in his. Bugger all, he hoped that her teek abilities were enough to keep her out of the infirmary over the course of the year. There was always some little punk who thought they were the big bad and tried to let everyone know it. The thought itself made him growl slightly but he curbed it before it had the chance to get up into his throat. No need to scare scaredy-cat here more than necessary.

He shook the hand carefully, as apparently even laughter freaked this one out. Though, admittedly his voice timbre was a little rare. Tsuinoshu hoped his speaking voice wasn’t also upsetting her. He frowned at the thought. There he went again, unable to control the things that scared other people. But what could he do about an extra deep voice? He got what he was born with just like this little one here. Bugger all. He was not about to get deep here with the girl watching him. Ea Sae, she said her name was. He tried it out in his own voice as he let go of her hand. At least she managed to look at the general direction of his face. It was a start.

“Ea Sae. Right. Well I’m the librarian here, if you couldn’t guess. So if you want to stick around this place, you’ll be seeing me quite a bit.” Gold eyes went from the teek to the books she had been putting away.

They were still on the floor and he still needed to mend that one book that she’d dropped in surprise. Another sigh escaped his lips as he picked it up and started walking in the direction of the back of the library, calling behind him, “I gotta put this on the list to be fixed. I’ll be back to take care of those books. Help if you like.”

Then he stopped, because he really did care about the books.
“You put them away with your hands if you can’t control your gift proper. Don’t damage another one of my books.” He said without turning around, and then continued on his way.

[Guest]

Ea couldn't say whether she thought it was a good thing or a bad thing that she would see more of this person, Tsuinoshu. He seemed outrageous, and exotic, but he most certainly wasn't a bad person. In fact, he seemed to know how he wanted to run things so well, that she actually sort of felt comfortable relying on him. Well, that was only based on the confident air he seemed to be saturated with...

"Y-yes."

She watched him walk away with the damaged book, feeling slightly guilty that she had been the cause. However, if he hadn't startled her in the firs-. No, she should have been able to maintain her ability, even then. The fact that she wasn't able to meant she still needed more practice. She turned back to scan the stack of books for a moment before letting out a small sigh. Her telekinesis was in fact the only thing she had going for her for physical work; she was actually quite weak. She'd always hated and avoided sports, and she could never do too much work lest she wear herself out completely.

Shaking her head again, she set the power back online, sitting on the ground with her back to the shelf while lifting half a dozen books into the air. She wouldn't be surprised by him next time the only reason she had been the first time was because she didn't know other people were there.

[Guest]

Tsuinoshu went into the back room and filled out the proper form for reporting the damage to a book and then put it on the small workbench for repair later. The room was relatively small and used specifically to repair books, it was also attached to his own office. It would be silly to have his office in the main building so an office was put here when the place was built. Apart from the rest of the faculty, secluded. Just how he preferred.

From there his thoughts drifted back to the teek touching all his books. Or rather, she probably wasn’t touching them. She’d had pretty good control of things before he’d made himself known. Hopefully she wouldn’t lose it all when he came back. He would see in a minute as he was already making his way back to where she was, dragging a cart full of other books on it behind him with one hand. Sure enough, there she was. Books in the air and all, but at least she had figured out his system and was doing it properly. A smirk came over his mouth as he looked over her work and saw it being done right, perhaps she would prove useful around here after all.

“Looks good, cub. We got these to do as well.” He said and started separating the books according to what section they would be going into, including the ones on the floor next to Ea while she continued. Once he got the books destined for other sections organized and the ones for the sections she was working on placed on the ground, he pointed to some of the books furthest away from her. She probably hadn’t looked at all the shelving info on them yet.

“If I grab these, let them go, yeah? The ones on the floor are for this section.”

[Guest]

Sure enough, Tsuinoshu returned without the book; probably to check up on her. She gave him a small smile as he reentered the place, keeping most of her attention on the books. Juggling multiple objects in the air was something she'd come to do regularly, and even after the first time, which gave her a severe headache afterwards, it was still tough. The process of applying and reapplying the power to objects to juggle them was difficult. It required her full concentration to be able to do that with an object.

Oh, there went her thoughts again.

As he started to shift through the books that were stacked she observed him out of the corner of her eye. He was letting her stay in the library, even though technically classes shouldn't have started up again; but if they had... The thought made her feel uneasy again. Anyways, he seemed to be a nice person, if a bit on the blunt rough side. She would probably learn more about him in the future, though who could tell?

Ea's only reply to his instructions before continuing her own role was a simple one. "Hai."

[Guest]

After getting her affirmative he started plucking books out of the air, only needing to look at the titles to know where they went. His teeth still ached from last night when he’d been so exhausted and irritated from all the forms he’d had to fill out that they’d started to shift without his knowledge. Funny how when he shifted consciously it never was painful. It figured, though.

Tsuinoshu finished getting the books he needed and turned just his head towards the girl, one hand rubbing the gums above his eyeteeth through his cheek. “I’ll be taking care of these. Call if you need me.”

He was about to walk away when a though occurred to him. Who else was going to help this awkward little teek if not him? And he doubted she would really be calling him even if she did need help. For some reason that thought irritated him and he turned his head to her again with a dead serious face, gold eyes bright with intensity.

“I mean it, cub. Call. If you. Need me.” He stated, slow and evenly, before heading off to put his own collection of books away.

-

[Guest]

Ea watched the man leave after a short time with a stack of books in his hand. He had told her to call for help if she needed it. She wouldn't need any though for something as simple as this. It wasn't hard work, and it kept her mind off other things for the most part. She could focus all her attention into organizing the books, and completely ignore the fact that she might have missed class, for the moment. Oh, wait...

The man turned around again though, and the look he gave her was so fierce she almost dropped the books again. "Y-y-yes!" She replied, unable to even attempt a longer reply. What would she do if she actually did need help? Could she just yell for him, even if it was known to stay quiet inside a library? On that thought, she was more afraid of what he would do if she didn't call him, than what he would do if she did.

So with those things in mind, she continued sorting and stacking and shelving the books.

[Guest]

Annoying. Annoying! He wanted to shove the books in their places but that wouldn’t do anyone any good. What the hell was he thinking anyway? What if she needed him and called him and he had no idea where she was at? It was the dumbest thing he’d done all bloody week. He paused for a moment. She probably didn’t get his connotation anyway. A shrug of broad muscled shoulders and he was calmly back to putting books away in their proper spaces. The teek had social issues, that was clear as a window. He had no worries.

Yet that nagging feeling still came back. Tsuinoshu was no one’s buggering babysitter, still he couldn’t help but acknowledge the well of protective instinct that rose up on sight of her tiny and seemingly defenseless self. Well what was he supposed to do about it in the first place? It’s not like he could follow the brat around all day and make sure she didn’t get into crap. And it’s not like she could really call him from anywhere and he’d automatically know where she was. Pointless bestial instinct. Did him no good and now he was thirsty, hell.

He shoved the last book into place and wandered over to the front desk, under which he usually kept several flats of water bottles on top of eachother. Ripping the plastic open wider, he took out one and then after a moment took another out. Might as well give the kid one, too. About to walk back to where she was manipulating his books, he stopped and picked up the phone instead. There was no answer so he left a message asking the start date of the term before heading back over to the girl.

Crouching down relatively close, he rolled one of the bottles across the floor to her. “Water. Drink it. No passing out in the library. I don’t know if we have the infirmary manned yet and I'm not keen on carryin' ya all the way to the manor.”

[Guest]

Ea gave Tsui a small smile and picked up the bottle from the floor, studying it a moment before twisting the cap open. "Thanks." With that she took a gulp, not really thirsty, but she figured it'd be rude not to. Most of the books were already shelved now, with only two stacks remaining to be put back. The books lifted into the air in a timely fashion, to float on by her gaze as she scanned their titles before sending them off in their respective places. It was starting to get tedious as the shelves got filled, requiring her to have to shift some books in the shelves to keep everything organized. Because of the effort, she was getting slightly tired, though it wasn't enough for her to become concerned and stop.

She shifted slightly in place, hugging her knees as she tried to focus all her attention on sorting the books, though the man's presence made her slightly nervous. It was going to be even more difficult now to sort them as she had been with him there; it wasn't that talking with him was too much for her to bear; it was that it killed how much control she could maintain over her ability. Books were lifting into the air slower now, in fewer numbers as well, the whole "machine" sort of system she had going slowing down as a result.

[Guest]

“Yeah, yeah…” He said in response to her thanks, trailing off as he wandered off with eyed her. Things were moving slower, he could tell that easily. Maybe she was getting lazy. Another moment and that thought was dismissed. She didn’t seem the type to get lazy with an authority figure on her twelve. Though really he was on her nine, if one wanted to get technical. He twisted the cap off the water bottle and commenced guzzling half the content. People usually didn’t want to get technical with him. Still. Things moving slower, eh? Curious. Maybe she was tired. To confirm he took a breath of air and crinkled his nose. Bah, even a shifter with no experience with teeks would be able to tell she wouldn’t hold her gift for much longer. He mentally scoffed and downed the other half of the water.

“Oi. If you tired, cub, use you hand, yeah. S’what god done gave ‘em to ya.” He winced as his Barbadian accent slathered itself all over that like frosting on a cake. A hand full of fingers slid through his messy mane and he plucked up some more books before turning to go. He really hated it when his tongue got a little too lubricated and his speech pattern suffered. Who knew if she understood what he was saying. He wasn’t about to restate the thing.

“There’s nothing left to do after these books are put up.” There was one thing he could tell her though that she would definitely need in her later years. It was better to find out from him than from an enemy, “Also…don’t ever. Ever. Exhaust your abilities with mundane task. You’ll be screwed if an emergency comes up. Ok? I’m not the only one who can smell your fatigue.”

With that, he crushed his empty water bottle into a ball with his free hand and continued on his way. First to the nearest recycle bin to take care of the bottle and then to put away his books. Perhaps the teek being here wouldn’t be so bad. She could definitely do sweeping at least. He hated sweeping all the hardwood. Though mopping was different. Mopping required more effort and it somehow lulled his mind into a state of zen. If sand raking was anything like mopping, he could totally see how all those monks stayed so chill.

[Guest]

The girl frowned slightly at the librarian's words, first normal as he replied to her, then being inflamed with an accent that contorted them all into a incomprehensible jumble, causing her to lower the books steadily back onto the stack as her concentration reached its limit. It was something she'd have to learn over time how to do; controlling her ability while doing other things. However, for now she had reached her limit with it, unable to cope with conversing with the man while maintaining the routine. It would have been fine had he spoken normally, but the accent through her off completely, forcing her to concentrate fully on piecing it together.

With the books resting safely on the stack, Ea stood up, brushing off her rump as she strode over to it, picking up the book off the top of it and scanning its cover before placing it in its proper place on the shelves, grunting slightly as she was forced to set it on a lower shelf to shift some books over. She could understand the point he had been trying to get across, but "emergencies"? She knew that the school was different from normal schools from the beginning, that she would be able to learn about her powers here, but did that also mean there was a risk that bad things could, and would happen? He'd spoke as if she'd need her ability during such an event. The thoughts only raised more and more questions, all of which had no immediate answer.

Another thing... he had said "smell your fatigue." This remark rose even more questions in her head as she gave the man a nervous glance as he left. Sure, his accent was odd, he had a strange aura to him, and he kept using unusual terms; overall, he seemed sort of out of place. She started to get a feeling that he might also have a power himself, but even then, what could it be to make him like he was? She shook the though from her mind as she slide the book into the shelf, standing on her tip-toes to be able to reach it. The best way to find out something about him was to ask herself, but if she did, it would undoubtedly come out wrong. She would be left to wonder, then.

With those thoughts finally dying down, she went to work with full commitment to the task, filling the shelves with the rest of the books only a short time later, weary from even that short amount of physical labor. The feeling only made her want to master her ability sooner, that way she wouldn't have to resort to such tasking things.

[Guest]

Another bottle of water later saw him done with the stack he’d most recently acquired. As he swaggered lazily over to the main desk again, crushing then dunking the empty water bottle, his mind drifted back to the teek. So little, that one. Looked like a baby. Then again, she was a baby compared to him. The thought made him feel old and he sighed. The scent of a slightly stressed body crept up his olfactory system and he raised an eyebrow. So she’d taken his advice. Or maybe she was just too afraid of him to risk dropping one of his books again. A lupine smirk went up one side of his face at that. Good. At least his books were safe.
Then he realized he’d been staring at his hands for the past few moments and his irritation quirked up. They were smooth. Cuts from a few evenings previous had already faded into silvery lines of scar tissue and were disappearing still. It was odd sometimes. Watching other people age in a way he never would. Gray at the temples in so short a time they might as well have never been any other color. Organs failing and illness wrapping its tendrils around the mortality of humans so blindingly fast. Lives being taken by wounds that would only take his body days to overcome. What a morose train of thought. He was frustrated with himself now. The beginning of the new school term always brought this on and he hated it every time. The memories. The nightmares. The everything.

This particular growl he didn’t catch in time and as it tore the quiet of the library he felt a tight tingling in his eyes. He felt his pupils widen for a moment and then contract into what were probably slits now. Like an idiot he’d not put his brown contacts with nice normal round pupils in this morning. Like a bigger idiot he’d opted to come into the office today and do some upkeep despite being tired, both from a few days back and from last night. Tired meant his mind was dulled just enough for his control to lapse. He managed to choke off sound from escaping his throat and took a breather, leaning forward to rest hands flat on the main desk with head bowed and eyes closed. Over the next few moments he put himself through a calming technique courtesy of Kryn well before things could have any chance of escalating. The last thing he needed was to have a face to face with the Headmaster about demolishing the library. With a student in it this time, no less.

[Guest]

Ea was just walking out of the aisle, water bottle hanging half full from her fingers when she stopped abruptly, hearing a low rumbling sound. It sounded different from anything she'd heard before, briefly reminding her of a dog growling. Regardless, the sound sent shivers up her spine. She looked around quickly, scanning the area for the source of the sound, to no avail. She hugged her elbows lightly, trying to remember which way was to the main desk. After a moment she just started walking, slightly afraid to just stay where she was, in case something really did find its way into the library.

Her mind was on alert, those familiar cords that controlled her power kept lit by nervous tension, ready to spring to life at a moment's notice. It would be best to find Tsuinoshu and report the sound, though by how loud it was it would surprising if he didn't hear it himself. The likelihood of something like a wild dog being able to make it into the Library though seemed extremely slim, which left to question where exactly it came from. As she turned around the last aisle, bringing the main desk into sight, her hopes of gaining an answer from Tsuinoshu went up... but so did her anxiety. He was leaning over the desk, hands on it spread apart equally. At first glance, he seemed almost serene; although the air of tension that seemingly enveloped him suggested otherwise. She stopped a few feet from him, bending forward slightly and angling her head to the side, checking to see if he was studying something, unable to get the right angle without leaning over further.

"Tsuinoshu...?"

[Guest]

He was feeling much better when he heard his name timidly called from behind him. When the voice was matched with the cub, that obnoxiously pervasive urge to protect something ebbed through him and he took a deep breath. Surprisingly it helped him calm down even more, apparently his subconscious saw the need to protect her from himself as well. How wonderful. He’d have preferred his eyes not to be so lupine but he didn’t want to freak the kid out even more, she was skittish as hell already, so he straightened and turned nice and slowly.

“Yeah?” His voice came out so rumbling and rough that he sighed mentally at himself. While his shifting was quite an advantage when he was doing the kind of work he was most used to, in almost any other situation it was troublesome. Maybe she wouldn’t notice anything and remain blissfully unaware. Though he himself knew that he had no intent to harm her, it’s not as if she would know that. He wasn’t keen on having to deal with a hysterical student so early.

[Guest]

Ea's breath caught in her throat slightly when he spoke, the way he turned around seeming as if he had to ease into it. What exactly was he looking at? Or was he looking at something at all? Did she end up disturbing him when he didn't want to be disturbed? Was his voice so rough now because she had upset him at a bad time? Her voice truly left her when her jumbled thoughts reached a connection on meeting his gaze.

Could the sound have come from him?

His eyes were slit, even if it was only slightly, there were no records of any -and this word is used strictly by its definition- human beings with slit pupils. If that connection were made, along with her own knowledge that the paranormal is in fact, quite normal in this time period, it would be safe to assume that he either had animalistic traits, or could be something of a shifter. Either option didn't enlighten her as to what exactly he was, but it certainly eliminated any probability of a wild dog having gotten into the library.

Ea's legs buckled under her as her vision flashed before her, her legs folding underneath her as she slid to the floor. She sat there, dizzy, reaching a hand up and closing her eyes, steadying her head manually with her hand as she recovered. Thoughts were like breathing to her, and often she'd find herself dizzy in class listening to lectures as a result. After using her power and doing actual physical labor -though menial-, it wasn't surprising to her to find herself in the state she was in. Whether the dizziness was caused by a spike in fear or just a brain-ache, it was hard to tell.

Both of those feeling had been involved though.

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