21 feverish dream

Late into midnight and she was dropped off without much. A small suitcase of her clothes, a backpack of her school stuff, and a duffel bag of things she wanted to keep safe or the few highly prized ingredients for spirit crafting. Waving towards her grandfather as the school gate locked and his truck was a speck in the distance. Mid-term late joining meant she was placed in a non-appropriate age dorm ( Not that it mannered or any fuss about it).

She was escorted by a demon that finds her lack of reaction suitable to someone arriving at midnight. There weren't any crowds like the few times before that she entered these grounds. She was in a locked door single private room. It a slightly closer to the school graveyard than previous times. The boards of school information were harder to read in the dark dim lighting, she would have time to read them another time. The exit fire signs flicked as she passed them, making that buzzing fly noise. She is given her key by the demon drops it to the floor and takes leave. She wasn't interested in having a demon slave, her pets would eat the poor guy. It was all the same, removing all the cursed pranks and replastering her walls with many of her dream pictures, places she loved or found beautiful in her soul travels. She never put anything important on display, everything on the show was replaceable or was a copy from somewhere else. She left the student desk mostly untouched and her bags barely unpacked. It was about time to sleep, the young body was exhausted. Her terrible will be in the morning.

Tonight in her dream, it was time to stand still. A random place in the undertaker realms, a meeting-up area. As always she was always quirky and never followed the typical rules. Anyone else would think twice about dipping toes in a water fountain in this place. Yet here she is, legs gently swaying in the water. Seated on the stone edge and always hands petting the nearest creatures. As always she never speaks and at best would hum or sing songs. She many songs she heard in passing while travelling and these are often random but catchy.

"Excuse me, little girl." A confused undertaker looks around, "Had you seen a lady in long veils and high heels?" Even still Lea didn't answer, she was as if she didn't hear the man. She pets the aquatic-scaled monsters that use this as a partway portal. Gates are in many shapes and many forms. They appreciate her calm company more than others that feared and stabbed. She would be a siren herself.

The man is frantic in pacing, and circles the fountain all the same. He never gives up asking or looking. Circles a little fast each pass. Lea had finally stopped singing and many came and crawled out of the woodwork. So many faces and strangers. They all left her be. Her aquatic friends moved on. She is alone seated in the fountain water, peering at her sad broken reflection. She looked like her first time here. Her clothes and that scary fear behind her eyes. That version of her felt comfortable with Lea staring back so serenely and with indifference. Now her reflection looks like how she should.

"May I please request a job?" A stranger behind her, she didn't look back this time and she doesn't jolt at the hand that attempts to brush her skin. She simply reached her hand to the water and plucked a fan made of ice. The point of obscuring her expression was telling enough in the act. She didn't act human in her expressions and the entity before doesn't seem aware she is a living person dreaming. They stand hoping she just takes a hand or speaks back.

"I need help finding something only from the land of sandy Redstone." They show an amulet, carved from opal stone. The pearlescent glimmer through white clouding clear stone. Even still, opal is expensive to stock. She likely has some in her shadow, stored away in her locked merchandise. She has made candles with hidden gemstones within the wax, it was an easy sell for both spirit and living worlds. As long as the materials sold were appropriate for the buyer. She posed showing doubt of trusting to sell anything to a stranger, sceptically study of weapons and armour.

"Don't just ask anyone randomly to trade things. What if it was dangerous to them or illegal." Pulling the odd man away from her. She drops the ice fan back into the water and continues playing with the water. No singing but happy at her own pace. It seems his lady friend that he asked about has finally arrived to find him. Now they were having a mental argument over talking to strangers, the eyes and gesture hands of expressions.

Lea scoops a little water in her hands, pouring it into a vile. She corked and puts it in her pocket. She stands up on the edge of the fountain, stretched and still slightly splashing. She felt like the dancer in the red dress from the restaurant. She softly posed into form and then the music softly hums in her, and like magic she was at stepping rhythm, twirling furiously and enjoying herself in this dream. She came to the end of what she remembered of the restaurant, taking the bow. The crowd of waiting undertakers clapped impressed by her dancing.

"You have wonderful control and soft rotation. You seem professional." She stands straight and stands still, staring into the distance. She was almost as if ready for the next song to carry her again.

"I throw a gauntlet to the highest ranking here!" Exclaimed from approaching Duke titled undertaker, "I will forfeit an expensive blade as price. I will take only the pride of beating you and 10 gold blanks." He glares feeling no biters, "I will accept the same trade to anyone who duels me. I will comprise on coin amounts, lower ranks can't even earn gold."

"Challenge will only be accepted if the duel is to disarm or until one is unable to duel." She spoke as they do, posed defensively with ice fans. She does not step down from the fountain stone and so she was eye level with the man. He plays with his moustache over his lip. Considering it, "I am not an undertaker like you, so coins are having to be negotiable."

"The first to live the marked ring is the loser or that they are unable to fight or lost their weapon for any reason." He posed oath and she now hops to his marker. She posed her left hand, but it still worked. He raised a brow at how small she is. Even then, he took her fight seriously, not underestimating or assumptions about her age. She blocked fencing jabs, she was quick and she mirror him to some extent testing his patients and striking methods. She got fancy in getting bored and that tips the edge. He went for more risky strides and was using demon-hunting techniques. She managed to break his weapon with too harsh a hit with the ice fan. He draw out another weapon, his pride was on the line for this. Even still she used tap dancing around him, she was entertaining to watch as she mocked him. It was meant to be him mocking these lower undertakers. She was able to tap out tunes of old classic songs which had the crowd humming or clapping in time. The Duke was frustrated and overboiled in his need to mock someone. She knocked him to the floor in one swift motion and her fan pose at the throat. He lets all his weapons go, and in a deep growl - admits defeat. She picked up the weapon that he claimed as her prize, she takes a courtesy and helped him off the floor. She carried this blade to the fountain water and presented it to the nearest aquatic friend. They take it and disappear for a long while. She returned to the stone edge, she pose herself ready and at ease was back to Spanish dancing. She claps and the crowd claps echo. She was entertained as they were of her. Even some laughter of jokes and good emotions raised.

At the end of her song, even the aquatic friends were a pleasure with the dancing. They brought back a fitting weapon for her to have and use. They had even a belt for her to strap to her. Placing to her waist and letting her be on her way. Many of the crowd was changing and the tension was back to it being just a dull meeting stop.

"Madam." Hand posed in the hope to fool her but she stops her heel on the demon's foot. She posed with open arms and enjoys the free fall. She leaned backwards for the water, splashing into making herself awake from her dream.

She giggles to herself at how great that dream was, wide awake staring at the empty ceiling. She frowns as it dawns on her that she was not home and that second she was a young child in a boarding school. She gets off the bed, suitcase used as a step up to a big bed. She picked her outfit and she carries it all to the shared showers of this dorm. It is 5 am, and hardly anyone or troublemakers want to be awake. She was properly fresh, leaving back to her door by 7. She went to breakfast by 7:20 am.

She managed as she did before, sat alone but at a full table. She ate Gritz peacefully for the most part. She returned to her dorm room at 7:57 am. She had some elite student posed at her door strangely. She opened the door despite them, she picked up her backpack. She makes the last look at of one her drawings, it has been changed because of her dream.

"Great, so you're not clueless." The student huffs, and she closed the door behind her.

"I already had a shower this morning and my breakfast. I know my way around from the maps. Did you at least have where my lessons are?" They glare, "It is nice to meet you, Gregory. Your one the lower end of the student ambassadors. You need to improve your social skills. It makes all those other things you're great at, better. Maybe teach someone someday." She stops at how pale he looks, "Don't worry. I just have funny dreams, that's all." She tilts in suggesting to walk. He can at least do that much, guiding her out of this building through the demon tree courtyard. He was testing her but she takes things nonchalantly. He couldn't work her out. They made it to the teacher's annexe and activity clubhouse. From here, she was given basic directions. They check her bag as she goes in, metal detection included. She breezed with no fuss and ignored the demons lingering everywhere. She makes it to the preschool area, she wasn't the only child but no one was going to approach her. She is a total stranger. Although she learns throughout the day, all these young children were sent here too early for the legal requirements to be in effect. She draws all day between snacks and lunch. She eavesdrops on what they all spoke about around her. She worked out names, some that can see and the ones sent here because their rich-class families expect high expectations.

"Wait to be taken back to your dorms, except our newest member. Lea, you can head back now without guidance." She ignored the tricks of demons, well she was choosing to. It backfired as it was a lower servant demon that was in charge of this young club. Assuming she can't hear the demon. They approached her, tapped her attention and pointed at the door. They had thick glamour to hide the demon aspect, didn't work for her but she wasn't bothered anyway. She shrugs at this direct order, packs her stuff and left.

It was evening dinner time. The quickest meal was a basic sandwich meal deal. She bought it and took it back to her dorm. She reflects on what the first day was like. Completely dazed by how bland it had been. She wasn't scared of anything that this school provides. She decided that she will do something more productive tomorrow. She knows that she was expected to stay within the confine of the teachers annex, given her age and needing supervision. She could, as long as she was watched by demons - go meet teachers or help them. That is her plan.