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The whole situation in Gryestaff was wrapped up fairly quickly. Things had seemed to be spiraling out of control and after everyone got the telepathic message to gather in the square and then head for the academy, Gryestaff and its chaos was left behind to the professionals. Ignoring the others, Malqwen whistled for Mawik, and the young osprey flew down to his shoulder. The birds talons dug into his shoulder without his coat, but Malqwen didn't mind too much.
The trip to the academy took longer than it likely should have, with the swirling snow and limited visibility. Snowflakes the size of his eyes settled on top of head and Malqwen found himself wishing he hadn't used his cloak as a breaking mechanism. But living a life of impulse meant dealing with the consequences of your actions, and Malqwen suffered through it.
After a while, a dark shape loomed up in front of them, reminding Malqwen of the ribbed hull of an airship from the inside.
"We're here," The telepathic girl leading them started. "We made it… ...This is the Vanguard Academy."
So this was it? It was indeed impressive. Malqwen doubted it would compare with the splendor of the palaces his brother was training in back in the deserts of his homeland, but there was something about those towers and slanted roofs that were indeed awe-inspiring. It definitely wasn't as colorful as his home, being mainly several shades of grey, black and white, and the slanted roofs, as interesting as they were, were very different from the easy-to-run on flat roofs of the desert cities. He wondered how he would have to adapt his techniques to be able to climb them efficiently.
"Please look around the campus while I make some enquiries at the main office." Telepathic-girl directed the students.
"You are safe here. I am sure Vingeth will come here and help you to your rooms shortly."
Malqwen had no intention of sleeping tonight. There was so much to explore! He had to climb up somewhere high and get a good view of the place, find a forge where he could create the custom pieces of metal for his tinkering, find a place to practice hawking with Mawik. He needed to find all the forbidden places and get into them, needed to find out about the fun things he could do and rules he could break in his free time. No, he wouldn't be sleeping tonight.
Just as Malqwen was stroking Mawik's head, contemplating what to do first, a white-haired, pale-skinned, color-less-eyed girl with weird runes bumped into him and spilled the assortment of objects in her hands. That reminded Malqwen that he had left all his luggage in the buggy; nothing important, but the spare clothing would be missed. Turning back to the social situation at hand, Malqwen did the first things he always did with people: First, come up with a sarcastic nick-name before learning their actual name and then deal with them.
He settled on Clear-Eyes for this girl.
"I'm so sorry, I, I never mind. I just...sorry."
Malqwen wasn't sure how to react at first. Normally if someone bumped into him he just ignored them and continued. Normally he wasn't nice enough to help clumsy people pick up the stuff they dropped. Normally he wouldn't even give them a second glance.
And this was a perfectly normal situation. Malqwen ignored Clear-Eyes and went back to thinking about what to do next, subtly noting "clumsiness or lack of alertness" as one of her characteristics.
Malqwen decided getting a nice view of the place would be the first thing to do, despite the ice covering most of the climbing holds. He could deal with ice. It always formed in the altitude of the airship.
The delay caused by bumping into Clear-Eyes made him one of the few students left, as most of the others had already gone in. He passed by Kitsandra and Zayne discussing architecture and rooms as he passed in, only glancing at them once. He'd have time for social interactions during class.
Finding a fairly secluded section of tower, Malqwen started climbing. The stones were slippery with ice and the going was as difficult as he anticipated, but he still managed to get all the way to the roof because of the easy to reach footholds. The windows had plenty of interesting scenes happening in them; he smelled the sulphurous smoke of an alchemy experiment gone wrong in one window, saw dusty stacks of practice swords in another and steered clear of what sounded like the teacher's room. Some kafuffle was going on between two teachers and luckily they were too engrossed in their conversation to notice him climb right by.
From the gargoyle upon which Malqwen perched, a good deal of the campus could be seen. The tower was probably to lowest, but he could still see the forest, a small lake and a meadow, and of course the complex of building which made up the academy. Above it all, a giant stone building floated. Malqwen could see no physical way up to it.
The meadow would make a nice place for training Mawik, and the forest seemed like a peaceful place to be alone and tinker, or practice sword-play against a tree. As if summoned by thought, Mawik appeared from his own scouting of the academy. Malqwen tossed him one of the little balls of rolled up dried fish he kept in his falconing pouch, making sure Mawik kept him company a bit longer. He returned to contemplating the scenery as Mawik tried to get his beak into Malqwen's food pouch.
Malqwen's thoughts were interrupted as he spotted a few figures down below; he hoped they weren't Academy Authorities. He wasn't done scouting the terrain and enjoying the view yet, and while the teacher's office was likely warm, he didn't mind the cold too much. He sincerely hoped it was some student. Those would probably be easier to deal with, and he may even get some company aside from Mawik, who was decidedly un-talkative at the moment.
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