Calm, Reserved for Selta & Alataniel

Seltana sat on the port, gazing out at the sea. He wasn't entirely certain what he was doing here, but he suspected it was because the Port seemed to be much more calm; a welcome escape from the constant bustling of the school. He sighed vaguely, wondering if a few moments peace was really worth the boat ride.

The boy was sitting on the soft grass of the port with his knees to his chest. His hair was now a somewhat light blue as a result of dieing it. The dye was supplied by Julius, and he'd have to figure out what the Master was doing with so much hair dye in his room.
He wore a long, loose, dark grey shirt on which the neck was altered so it fit his like a choker. He also had on black slacks that would have fit if he were a healthy weight; but he wasn't so they didn't really.

'It probably isn't healthy to go this far out of me way just to avoid people,' he thought vaguely. It was a true statement, but he wasn't quite ready to find out if they were more accepting than the rest of the world.

Alataniel sighed quietly as she walked along the beach. The bottom hem of her long, green skirt now had a thin layer of sand covering some of it, and a few individual grains of the stuff had grabbed onto the frabric around her waist as well, kicked up into the air when she took a step. She had gathered up the sides of the dress to a length slightly up past her knees, making it easier for her to move through the sand. Because of her hitched-up skirt, you could see the shoes she wore. They were boots, but instead of being bulky and large, they were small and easy to move in.

Her green bodice was tightened over her usual white shirt, and tied in a bow along the sides and front. Alataniel's long, black hair was tied into two long braids that were laying on her shoulders. She wore a small flower above her right ear, as well. It was white, and looked somethingl like a Tiger Lily, but it was about one quarter of the size.

Alataniel's eyes were up and faced forward, though they occasionaly strayed to the side as a small bird alighted on a palm tree, causing the leaves to sway slightly, or when a large wave came further onto the beach than the others, and threatened to get Alataniel's feet wet. It was at times like these that she regret putting the boots on at all. In fact, not too far from the dock, Alataniel sat down in the sand and began to untie the laces. It was far too tempting to get in the water, and though she wasn't really considering removing her skirt and shirt in order to swim, it would be nice to feel the cool water on her feet.

As Alataniel stood again, she noticed a small person sitting on the edge of the dock. Holding her boots in one hand, she walked over, hoping that she wouldn't be disturbing them too much. She took a step onto the dock, the board creaking under her foot. "Hi!" Alataniel said, smiling.

"Oh, hello," Selta replied to the girl with mild surprise. He stood up gently and brushed the sand off of his pants before smiling cautiously at the girl. He looked over the girl gently, wondering what she was doing there. He assumed she had to be a hopeful- why else would someone be there?

"I'm Selta, what's your name?" he asked, his feminine voice soft as ever. The boy still wasn't used to meeting strangers- especially not nice ones, and as a result he tended to shrink into himself a little when he had to deal with them.

After asking the question he looked her over again, trying to decide what element she wanted to join. It was foolish to base this on the way someone looked- but he supposed that with the flower and all the green Earth was the most likely choice. Besides, he didn't know if she dressed like this all the time- she very easily could have chosen clothes that would say "Your element is the element for me" if she were there for an activation.

'Will you stop analyzing someone you don't know and just relax, already?' he chided himself a bit. It was a habit he had, trying to figure people out based soully on their appearance, and not a particularly good one. While you could learn a lot about how a person dressed and walked, people could also change this to try and give a false apearance. After growing up with someone who often dressed in all black with white make-up for the fun of it, you'd think he would have learned better by then.

Alataniel was glad that she hadn't scared the stranger. She tended to do that a lot, when walking up behind someone. 'Well, when you think of it that way, it seem kind of obvious that someone would react badly.' She walked up closer to him, shortening the distance between them from about ten yards to something more like five.

"I'm Alataniel. Pleased to meet you." She said, smiling again. "What brings you here?" Alataniel asked, tilting her head to her left shoulder slightly. Selta was quite small, even compared to the relatively short Alataniel. She was but five feet, eight inches tall, which placed her at about a foot above Selta's head. The stranger's height made Altaniel slightly confused as to Selta's age. If someone was that short, they were probably young, if not children. 'But Selta appears to be here, waiting for a Master to arrive for an activation. If that's the case, Selta can't be anything under fourteen. Oh well, I'll figure it out sooner or later.'

Although Alataniel couldn't believe that she was thinking it, she was having a bit of trouble figuring out the gender of her new acquaintance. However, Alataniel decided that the truth would present itself before too long, and she didn't have to risk offending Selta by asking.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Alataniel," Selta said, bowing his head gently and smiling a little at her. He supposed he looked like a small child to her like he did to most people, and that was probably why she asked rather than assuming he was a hopeful, "I came here because the school's always busy... I was hoping to get a bit of a break from it. What brings you here?"

The boy tugged at his sleeve a bit nervously, not really sure what else to say or even if he was supposed to say anything. The school was so weird to him, the people seemed so open to newcomers and didn't seem to care if there was much of a difference. Admittedly, it wasn't as easy to see that he was different beyond his hair now- but he was used to people being more suspicious of strangers than this.

Alataniel nodded as Selta answered her question. "So you've already been activated? What element are you? And what's it like in the school?" She asked, excited by the prospect of hearing more about the school she so desperately wanted to join. She tended to come off as annoyingly enthusiastic when she was really interested in something, and then an opportunity presented itself to learn more about it.

It did seem slightly odd that Selta was old enough to have already been activated... But, then again, a lot of people were short, and Selta couldn't really help how tall they were. For most of Alataniel's life, actually, she had been very, very short. It hadn't been until she turned twelve that she began to grow quickly. It was something like five inches in a year when she turned fourteen. After that, however, Alataniel's growth had slowed down quite a bit, which was probably good, because she would have ended up at something near six feet tall, had she not stopped.

"Oh, right, um..." Alataniel said, realizing that Selta had asked her a question. She had completely missed it for a while there. Apparently, her brain ignored everything else when she heard something about the inside of the school. "I'm hear for my activation. Actually, I've been coming to the port every day for a few days now. Master Benjamin hasn't come yet. So I'm probably going to keep waiting for a while. Oh well. Maybe it's like a test, to see if I really want to join Earth, or something. Oh, sorry, I'm rambling." Alataniel said before quickly shutting up.

"I'm in fire. I know I don't seem it, but I like all the uses for it. I'd like to work with metal and it'd be better to know that I can't burn myself on it even when it's molten," Selta said to her first question, blushing a little that his answer had become so long. "The school is very interesting. There are many people and they're all very diverse. It's a bit overwhelming at first... if you aren't used to it."

He shuffled the toe of his boot in the grass for a moment as she told about waiting for her activation. He hadn't waited for his, but he suspected that the moment Julius heard his name he was halfway to the platform anyways. Maybe it was just that he'd gotten lucky in choosing the elements at that time more than anything. "It's too bad about your activation. I hope it starts soon- I'm sure you'll enjoy it at the school."

Alataniel was very happy to hear the word "fire" come out of Selta's mouth. If you recall, Alataniel had already met a boy from fire. And you probably all remembered how that had ended up. "Really? Fire? That's interesting. Have you met any of the other students yet?" Alataniel asked, hoping that he had met Jett.

"Oh, that's nice. I'll probably end up in a ditch somewhere, but I tend to be bad with directions unless I've gone somewhere for years. Then I'm pretty good at remembering how to get somewhere and how to get back from there. Alataniel smiled and nodded kindly.

"As do I. And it's always easier to wait for something when you have someone to pass the time with." Alataniel said, hinting that Selta was helping her deal with her boredom and impatience. She was telling the truth, as far as she knew it. The old saying "Time flies when you're having fun" only applies when you're actually. having. fun. It's pretty difficult to fool yourself into having fun, as you're automatically in on it. But at very least, Alataniel was getting plenty of sleep while waiting for Benjamin to be able to activate her.

"I've met two girls so far... And the Fire Master, obviously," he replied to her first question with a slight smile. "One of the girls was a Fire mage, the other one I don't know. I've seen quite a few people, though. But I haven't spoken to that many."

Selta giggled a little at her comment about ending up in a ditch somewhere. He probably would- for different reasons. It was a bit hard looking that far into the future. When you're 15 any period of time longer than 10 years starts getting a bit hard to grasp, and he expected he'd still be studying when he reached 30. It was hard to think of what he would really be doing when he finally left.

"I'm glad I can help with that... If I am helping. I don't think I'd be able to wait that long. I'd get too nervous that I might not make it by the end of it," Selta said with a smile. It was easier to deal with things when you had someone to talk to. Well, maybe not easier for him- Selta still didn't really know how to deal with people, but he had observed that others dealt with things better when in the company of others.

Alataniel nodded, slightly dissapointed. Oh well. It's not like it really mattered that Selta had met Jett. It's not like she was going to gain anything from knowing that they had met. "Well, that's nice." Alataniel said, nodding slightly.
She smiled as Selta laughed, which was nice, because it was always nice to know that you had made someone laugh, but it didn't help Alataniel decide which gender Selta was. In fact, it made it quite a bit more difficult to figure out.

"Thank you, you are helping. "Alataniel said, smiling again. "Well, when I started the first day, even one hour of waiting was incredibly boring. But after a while it got easier, and I started to figure out how to entertain myself. Swimming, sleeping, climbing trees, making sandcastles, talking to people that walk by, playing with the birds that fly over, and other stuff like that. Actually, it's a surprising amount of fun now." She finished, rambling slightly. The long waits had definately increased her patience, and, as so many people said, patience is a virtue.

"By the way, climbing palm trees is supposed to be really difficult and painful for most people, especially men, but I found it surprisingly simple. Do you know what they mean when they say that it's hard?" Alataniel asked, tilting her head sideways. As it were, it was difficult for most people to climb palm trees. Not impossible, but your legs and arms definately hurt after you climbed up. And on the way down, you usually had to slide, and the bark of a coconut tree is incredibly painful to slide down, though it's nothing compared to the pain of men climbing down the trees.

"I'm glad to help, even though you seem to be able to keep yourself entertained just fine. I don't think I'd be doing as well as you are," Selta replied with a shrug. He was more than a little impressed by everything she managed to do. He certainly wouldn't be able to do that. He would end up pacing enough to run a hole in the ground and fretting the entire time.

"I've never climbed a tree, any kind. I don't plan to start now, either. I'd imagine it would be painful to a certain degree. But I think that most trees are like that, it really depends on whether or not you have any idea what to do or if you just sort of leap into it blindly," Selta said with a shrug. He wasn't actually sure what a palm tree was. It sounded weird, 'palm tree'. Maybe it was shaped like a hand or something. The youth smiled to himself at the idea, glancing at his own palm and wondering why someone would name a tree after that.

Alataniel smiled. "It took a little while to figure out what I could do... But after I realized how easy it is to find interesting an fun things to do on a beach, the waiting became far easier." She said, scratching the back of her neck. Before she had realized that if you took your skirt off, you could swim in the ocean surprisingly well, Alataniel had been bored out of her mind on the beach.

Regarding the worrying and pacing, Alataniel had always found it far easier to not worry or stress about something before it happened. When she was younger, she would prepare for things almost ten years in advance, an she would panic over tiny details that didn't go the way she had planned. Her mother had eventually explained to her that fretting about something just made it more intimidating, and that you would come up with better answers and more logical conclusions if you decided them based on the situation at hand. That, and Alataniel wasn't very good at deciding things in advance, but was quite adept when it came to thinking on her feet.

"It took me quite some time, and a lot of cuts on my legs, to figure out how to climb the trees. "You see the trunk," She turned around and pointed to one of the many palm trees growing about seventy-five yards from the water. "Because it has no branches, it's more difficult, but the bark is easy to get a grip on with your feet."

Seltana nodded at her comment about finding things to do. It would be interesting to see what he came up with, and probably better for all involved that he didn't have to. Most of what he found to do was either really bad for him or involved staring at nothing and trying not to remember anything.

"Ooh... I see. Yeah, that'd be odd. I think if you tried that it'd hurt a quite a bit. I would want to try, I don't have the strength to pull myself up and I don't like my skin getting torn to bits," Seltana said, looking in the direction, his eyes widening a bit when he saw what kind of trees "palm" trees were. He was sure there was some logic to it- but he couldn't exactly see what.

The flame mage shuddered to think about trying to climb the thing from her description. He wondered how bored he would have had to get to be willing to do something that tore your skin like that. It wasn't a very pleasant experience, he figured. He hated getting so much as a paper cut, and couldn't see climbing a tree if it was basically roundabout self-infliction of pain.

Alataniel shrugged in response to Selta. "Well, every time I climb the tree, it gets easier to get up and much less painful going down. However, wearing a long skirt makes things fifty-thousand times more difficult. Now I have to climb barefoot, but with only my feet. It a bit harder, but it's good at keeping me in shape." She laughed, amused by her own words. "And you can see just how bored I was to even consider trying to climb something that burns going up and shreds going down.

Alataniel breathed in the salty air and smiled. "It's nice here. It's almost like someone decided that they were going to dream up the most idyllic setting for a beach, then they woke up, and here it was." She said, walking to the edge of the pier and sitting down on the edge of the boards. Still wearing her long dress, she was careful to pull it up a bit. Getting the bottom of your pants or skirt wet was more annoying than getting the entire thing wet, because then the water could hit your legs every few seconds, an it usually caused blisters and irritated skin.

Alataniel's feet dangled over the edge of the pier, kicking forward and backward and she looked out over the bright blue water. It was quite a warm day, and Alataniel would not object to going for a swim. However, she was wearing a long skirt with a thick slip underneath, and going into deep water with that would cause her to sink straight to the bottom. That, and it would take her quite some time to dry her entire skirt, which meant that she would have nothing to cover her bottom half for some time. The only way to prevent something like that from happening was to remove her skirt before going in the water. However, even Alataniel wasn't outgoing, and insane, enough to walk around in a shirt and her undergarments. At least not when there was a stranger or a man present.

Selta smiled at her comment about boredom. It was a very dangerous mindset, in his experience, and caused most of the ideas that seemed like good ideas at the time. That was more than dangerous enough on it's own. He could easily see why it'd cause her to do something painful just to see if she could. The youth knew from experience that common sense and boredom lived on opposite sides of the universe and never got together.

"Knowing this place someone probably did. That or someone got bored and thought to themselves "y'know what would look nice here?"," Seltan pointed out cheerfully, a bit amused that she had to lift up her skirts. It was the main reason that he hated them- they got in everything and were a hassle to clean and do anything in. From what he could tell skirts were just there to make it harder for girls to do anything. So did most female fashion, actually, which was part of his logic about why being a girl wasn't in his best interests.

The youth snickered a bit at how easy he got onto rants about things like that as he walked down the port and sat a few feet away from the girl, pulling his legs to his chest again as he glanced over the edge as well. "The water looks nice... I wonder if you're allowed to swim in it."