To Sleep, Perchance to Dream--Aye, There's the Rub

Trusting Mistrust

If she expected sleep to greet her quickly, she was sorely disappointed. The aching in her body from her tussle with the Chimera, the...dreams or visions or whatever she defined them as, made sleep elude her. Instead, she was left with the harassing moonbeams filtering through her window to keep her company and the soft sighs of her new roommate to interrupt her harried thoughts.

She was left with nothing but a headache that pounded dully against her skull, making her stomach roll and every muscle in her body feel as though it was being pricked by needle.

It'd been a brutally horrid evening and she was no closer to understanding the significance of her presence here. And the cryptic assurances of the headmaster certainly didn't assuage any trepidation she felt.

If anything they sent warning bells ringing in her ears.

Nor did the acrimonious attitude of her would-have-been guide...who had—Ellie begrudgingly admitted—been right about the concussion.

Not that she'd ever admit it that pompous, demanding, agitating...

With a small groan of frustration, after tossing about her bed for a few hours, she finally rose and tiptoed through the darkened bedroom and towards the adjoining bathroom to the left, hoping a shower would ease the fierce throbbing in her skull and the prickling of her skin.

This whole affair was unsettling to say the least. Ellie certainly didn't want to spend any longer here than need be, not after what she'd seen and her rather bizarre interaction with the headmaster...

Especially given the fact that he'd known her mother.

THAT fact was interesting and a bit disconcerting. And she wondered about the twinkle in the man's eye as he assessed her appearance, the smile never slipping from his face, even as he knew a Chimera was lurking about the outer grounds of his precious school.

You'd think he'd be a tad more worried about the whole affair.

Ellie shook her head to try to dispel the thoughts as they flittered through her mind in rapid succession, sending her dripping locks smacking into her eyes.

A bit begrudgingly, Ellie admitted that the water was warm and inviting, and did help to temper the knots in her shoulders and stomach, washing the remaining bits of dirt and grime and tingling from her fingers and toes. But the ache persisted and the girl knew she couldn't spend the whole day standing beneath the spray of steaming water. And though she'd been given a pass for the day—not that she'd planned to attend courses anyway—the girl knew she couldn't and wouldn't spend the entirety of her free time cooped up in an unfamiliar room with her thoughts. It never boded well.

Hastily, the girl shut off the water, and hurriedly dressed in the pajamas she'd been afforded the night before and ventured back out into the bedroom, wary of waking her new roommate who still slumbered in a tangle of sheets and ginger hair, soft sighs and snores escaping her mouth.

The agitation she'd tried to assuage with the shower returned when she realized that she didn't have her trunk and, therefore, had nothing else to wear but her tattered uniform...

Until—to her utter surprise—she found herself staring at a rather beaten, scuffed, and dirty trunk with her initials on it sitting at the foot of her bed.

A trunk that had not, in fact, been sitting there when she'd entered the bathroom to shower.

With a suspicious glance towards the opened window Ellie ventured towards her trunk, spying the small, crisp note waiting atop it.

Miss Way,

Apologies for taking so long to return his to you. My hopes all your belongings are intact. The university will, of course, provide a replacement uniform for your time here at the academy. I look forward to seeing you around campus and in the classroom.