Footsteps echoed within the corridor as Tess slowly walked down it focusing on the sound intently. She always felt that if she did things in a particular way that she might imitate what she read in her favorite books. Pretending that she was some character that someone was observing or reading about was one of her greatest imaginations. Thankfully, Tess kept this mainly to herself and only acted these out alone.

Lord knows how embarrassed she'd be if caught.

Finally, she stopped and noticed the series of maps along the stone walls. She wasn't quite sure what were on them and where their paths led. In fact, she wasn't even really trying to look for anything. It was like she was staring right through the wall itself outside. She sighed heavily.

If her family paid any attention to her, they'd say she had become depressed. Tess didn't believe in that. She just deeply missed what she was familiar with. She missed her friends. She missed the home she grew up in. She just missed everything.

The only thing that helped her avoid thinking about it was exploring this school. The massive size of the place made it seem like an endless journey that captivated her attention, so that she couldn't think of anything else. Until these solemn moments when she was faced with the fact that she would never just forget.

And as silly as it would seem, Tess knew she would eventually just have to let herself get through the grieving process naturally.

Ah, it had been a while since she'd been in the school, but the red dragoness felt like visiting her brother's castle and some of the students. Wandering the halls was one of her favorite things to do when she was around the school, always led to hearing such interesting chat in the halls and dorms, or running into random students and learning something new, meeting someone new. Today was perfect for the latter option, and meeting a rather unusual student at that, a kind she didn't see very often. "Hello there, hope I'm not interrupting anything." The dragoness smiled, hoping she wasn't too intimidating to the young girl.

At hearing the voice, Tess sharply turned her head to source only to then look up at the stranger. Her eyes widened immensely at the dragon before her. Never had she seen such a thing only reading about the terrifying beasts in folk tale. The dragon's opening statement, though, was anything but.

"No," her voice whispered out in a soft alto, "not at all." She then took a glance back at the wall that held her attention for so long. "I'm just getting to know school grounds...My name is Tess, by the way, marm'." She blushed at her own awkwardness.

Usually, on a one-on-one basis Tess was fully capable of having a lengthy and interesting conversation. There were very few times that she just shriveled into herself ending it one sided. For this particular moment, Tess felt it could go either way. And with not even a single acquaintance in this town, she definitely didn't want to screw this up.

"A pleasure to meet you Tess, I'm Crimson. Local chef in town and sister to your headmaster here. Glad I didn't interrupt anything." She smiled and held out a hand to shake. "I could always give you a tour if you like, but sometimes it's best to just get your own feel for an area right? Wander around for a while, start to know when you're in what area just by looking at a few little details? And that way you never know what you'll run into, like me for instance, hehe." And she was probably right that if Tess had been going from point A to point B in a direct fashion they wouldn't have ran into one another.

Upon hearing the dragon's name and the kindness in her voice, Tess visibly relaxed genuinely smiling lightly for the first since her family moved. Direct politeness was something Tess rarely got to receive, and she was tickled that here she finally did. She considered the Crimson's offer fighting between what she wanted and what would've been more polite.

"You don't have to worry your time on me. Since I moved here I've been walking this entire town to get the feel," she paused reflecting on her own words. "But, I don't know if I'll ever really get the feel for it here."

She didn't mean to seem so down, but nothing could replace what she lost. The spiritual uplifting she got by seeing her friends or reading a book beside her favorite stream was lost forever. This place, Tess felt like, was on a balance beam that constantly swayed back and forth.

She wasn't quite sure if anything would feel normal from then on.

"Oh it's no worry, no bother. I know how unusual this place can be, and how long it can take to get used to it. Really helps when you have a few friends though, and guessing you've just been moved into the area. I could tell you just about anything you could want to know, but I guess the best thing to do at the moment is just say I'm the owner of the Foxford Restaurant in town. That way if you ever need to know anything, you know where to find me and who to ask for. But I don't mind walking around the school for a while with you now, gives me a chance to get to know you and see the place again." It wasn't like she had an appointment or anything with her brother so why not?

Crimson seemed to be a very persistent and ready-to-please person, and Tess began to feel flattered at her generosity. Tess shrugged and said, "That'd be great then. Thank you." She felt a little ridiculous and like a five year old by the shyness in her voice and hoped that Crimson didn't notice it. An awkward silence began to form as Tess shifted her feet.

"You own that restaurant? My family and I haven't gone yet...Is it hard running a business like that?" It was her only lame attempt at breaking the ice. Her ears began to get hot, and she felt slightly dizzy feeling completely embarrassed of herself. She began to wonder how she was going to even survive her senior year without her friends.

With her luck, she'd be one of those unfortunate cases being shoved in lockers, forced to wear the dunce cap, or having her intimates cascaded on a flag pole. Tess inwardly groaned dreading all of it already.

"Hmm, well not for quite some time but I guess when I was just starting out it was a little difficult. Everyone either hates or loves the new place in town but eventually I became THE place in town to most people. Oh there's plenty of other restaurants, especially since even if everyone wanted to eat at mine there wouldn't be enough seats, hehe. So, if you don't mind my asking, what do you want to do some day? Or if you haven't figured it out yet, any ideas? Perfectly fine if you've got no clue, my brothers never really knew what they'd want to do but they both have pretty good lives." Was she spending too much time chatting? Not leaving enough room for her to get in any words? It didn't seem that way but the other girl did look a little nervous.

Tess noticed the flow of Crimson's words. They just seemed to flow after one another with perfect ease and so naturally. It was obvious that Crimson never had any problems with conversation. In fact, Tess caught herself over analyzing everything the other said in hopes that maybe she could imitate it. She wasn't a robot, and this wasn't a situation that she should be focusing on anything other than Crimson's answer.

"So, if you don't mind my asking, what do you want to do some day?" As soon as the sentence reached her ears she began to think intently barely hearing the rest. That's a good question, she thought to herself. She never put much thought into it really.

Of course, she thought of the typical stuff like a police officer or a nurse. All that, though, involved people. Rash, emotional, and usually out spoken people. Tess couldn't see herself sticking with that for very long at all. Then she thought about Crimson's occupation. Tess could cook, but could she cook for thirty different people at the same time? And a waitressing job just scared her.

She needed something in quiet and solitude that didn't demand a lot of public attention. Even something that she could deal with just one person at a time for short intervals. She thought and thought which seemed like an eternity, but it only took maybe five seconds.

"A secretary," she quietly said. It was so quiet that she had a hard time believing she even said it. She looked up at the dragon to see if she had heard.

"Really? That actually sounds like a nice plan. It's definitely a job that's going to be in demand, and there's always room to grow if you need to. I'm sure it will work out well for you as long as you want it to." She was always optimistic and it wasn't hard to "cheer" for someone in her mind. Even the bad guy sometimes deserved a little credit, maybe not a lot or good credit but it could be deserved all the same. She took a few steps and looked out a nearby window out over the school grounds, smiling and humming a little tune to herself. "It's a lovely view around here no matter where you go."

Tess smiled taking reassurance in Crimson's words. She looked outside as well and noticed the line of green trees, the well kept grounds, the blue skies, and imagined again what the school looked like on the outside.

"You're right. I was a little skeptical when my father said we were moving here, but it took me by surprise. I always thought you'd have to be out in middle of nowhere country to find beauty. I guess every place as its own." The ramble of words caught her off guard. She hadn't meant to say so much.

"I've heard it from a lot of students that have come here, they hear the school's a castle and they think it's going to be a terrible thing. They picture a castle as a cold, damp, dark miserable place and when you get here it's anything but that. And the town's mostly the same way, not nearly as run down and gloomy as you'd think. Of course if you want to talk travel that's a subject for my one brother Blake, he's been all over the world and now he seems to think this place is the best for him to stay for a while." She was hoping the conversation was still relatable, and maybe she'd find out if the girl had any siblings now that she made a strong reference to her own brother.

Tess smiled and nodded. It just seemed like the proper thing to do. When Crimson mentioned her brother, images of Tess' own siblings came into mind. She considered it for a moment then decided to say,

"This is the first time my family has moved anywhere, and my sister loves it. She got in a lot of fights at school, but that's because of her big mouth. My brother's too young to really know the difference."

She panicked a little realizing how dysfunctional she made her sister sound. Annaise did have an authority problem and a little attitude, but she practically raised Tess and their brother. Shouldn't she have given her credit for that?

Crimson smiled and even giggled a little. "Sounds like a normal family and the usual sort of feeling after moving. Everyone handles it differently. As long as you're all there for one another you'll all be fine I'm sure. And even if you aren't just stop by my restaurant for a bit of dessert and you'll feel better no matter what, hehe." It never hurt to toss in a little advertisement for her place after all. "Cafeteria food is great here but it can only go so far. They're talented but I think I've got a few dozen years of experience on them all, probably still on at least half of them combined." Only if she combined the newer ones but it could still be close to accurate. She did have at least half a century of working in kitchens and cooking as experience to back her up, just about everything was routine.

Tess didn't know much about dragons and couldn't fathom how long they could live. She took a quick glance over at Crimson noticing her claw, teeth, and well body mass. She looked like the perfect weapon, but Crimson was nice....Were the rest of them?

"How many dragons are there around here?" She hoped it sounded like a casual question, and she decided to leave out "are they all nice like you" question.