Marcus stood behind the desk placidly, putting his hands on either side of it as he leaned forward and surveyed the classroom in front of him. Behind him was the blank chalkboard, not yet filled with the many notes and assignments that would accumulate as the school year went on. There were at least twenty empty desks in front of him, probably a few more. Marcus knew that there were enough for the class. With the wide variety of foreign languages available at this school, only some of the students would be taking Spanish. From what Marcus had heard, it seemed like French was the most popular language of the school. However, that didn't mean that the Spanish class would necessarily be small. Plenty of students here probably had family in Spain, or wanted to vacation there.

Nyradine, in her favored coyote form, slinked under the desk and began prowling idly through the empty desks. Coming to a halt at the front of one of the middle rows, she lifted up her canine eyes to look directly at Marcus. She looked back and forth between the desks around her, and shook her head in disdain. Marcus had a very small smile on his face, his stoicism overpowering any ill feelings he might have. Nyradine, however, felt no such need to present a reserved image. As a daemon, she felt totally free to express her lack of respect for the school the pair now found themselves inhabiting. Marcus returned her stare calmly, not letting his daemon get him overexcited. There was nothing he could do about their situation, not yet. There was no sense getting riled up about it.

"It's not exactly Oxford, is it?" Nyradine asked with more than a little sarcasm in her tone. "Oh, I don't even miss those enormous lecture halls in Liverpool....not when I can come and be in the grandiose Room 12B of Berryn Falls Academy." By this point, the sarcasm was practically a tangible substance drifting through the air. Marcus could not deny that this classroom was rather small and unglamorous compared to some of the lecture halls they had seen in Liverpool's universities. Marcus felt a twinge of annoyance once again at being forced to come and teach at this relatively quaint little Academy. Then he calmed himself....getting angry wouldn't get anything done. If he wanted to get back to proper civilization, he would need to plan carefully. And prepare his Spanish lessons.

"Come now, Nyradine," he said with a smile. Nyradine's antics always seemed to calm him down, as though she was expressing the emotions that he was too reserved to express himself. "Be fair. There isn't exactly as big a tax pool here to build the school with. Berryn Falls hardly possesses the same resources as Liverpool..." He sighed, and opened his desk to begin looking at his lesson plans. Spanish was the first language he had learned other than English, and was his personal favorite to teach. Still, the beginning lessons could be a bit tedious. It took some students ages to grasp the idea of verb conjugation. "Don't you worry. We'll get back to city life soon enough. We'll just have to stick it out here a little while longer."

Nyradine sighed, an odd noise coming from a coyote. Pacing away from the student desks, she came around to Marcus and plopped down next to his leg. Rolling over onto her back, she gave a great yawn and stretched out, resting her head on Marcus's foot. It was one of her favorite positions for a nap, and she knew that they might be here a while. "I don't see how you can stand it," she said sleepily, "Having to teach at this miserable little school." Marcus gave a long suffering smile, and absent-mindedly reached down to pet Nyradine's stomach. She gave a contented growl.

"It's not that bad," he said, looking over the lesson plans and student roster. "It's....well...." He struggled for something positive to say. "Pretty," he settled on. He sighed, realizing how pathetic a trait that was. "The landscape is very.....pretty." Nyradine gave a little chuckle, then stretched again. Marcus's thoughts turned to the pretty Isabel Walker, and he gave a rather wolfish--or coyote-ish--grin. "Besides....there are a few people here that I find interesting." With a chuckle, he returned to his work, losing himself in the mind numbing repetitiveness of preparing his Spanish lessons. Suddenly, he heard a noise at the door. Adjusting his glasses, he turned to look at the entrance to the classroom.