Some decisions were made in a split moment, and Raule’s decision to fall rather than stand tall after Talia crashed into him was one. With a hand behind him and another on Talia’s chest, he managed to cushion both their falls relatively well. Oh, the two of them still ended up in a heap on the floor, but at least neither of them hit anything particularly hard. Letting out a quiet sigh as Talia rambled on top of him, Raule was about to reassure her that it wasn’t a big deal when she scampered off and disappeared within the crowd. Blinking in a mix of confusion, amusement, and a smidge of irritation, Raule was quick to give a few passing fifth years the middle finger at their jeers, though both parties meant it all in good-humor. 

He was about to stand up when he noticed that Talia had not departed flawlessly, but had left a small silver fox behind. Its eyes seemed to hold a fair bit of emotion and intelligence, and staring into them Raule had a fair idea of what was on the creature’s mind. Holding his hand out for it to climb onto, he muttered, [b]“Come on. Wouldn’t want you getting crushed after all.”[/b] He wasn’t going to deal with a first-year’s panic about losing their pet if he could avoid it. Hell, he even rummaged through his bag and pulled out a piece of jerky to tempt the fox with. Thankfully the animal seemed cooperative for the most part and hopped onto Raule without much trouble.
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The headmaster’s speech was about as much as any of the older years had come to expect. A bit random, a bit encouraging, highly improper for someone of his stature if you cared about such stuffy things, and all around condescending. He had somehow managed to enter the hall mid-speech, giving a small shrug that emphasized about how little fucks he gave about doing so. Which for the reference was zero, so the headmaster could call him out all he wanted. He knew the old gemstone hadn’t missed his “stealthy” entrance, but apparently didn’t deem it worth his time to rag on a fifth year. As the speech finally came to an end with a bit of applause from some confused first-years because that’s what you were supposed to do right? It died rather quickly when they realized, that no, such standards didn’t apply in this case. 

Standing tall amidst the rush… okay not really. Raule took a spot away from the exits of the main hall and leaned against the wall as he scanned the many students rushing to leave the building. He was trying to figure pick Talia out from the crowd, something that wasn’t really working given how she wasn’t exactly tall compared to a fair share of her peers. With a small sigh, as he really did want to get to his own business and couldn’t really do so while carrying around her pet, Raule let a bit of energy infuse his legs. Holding the fox so it didn’t go flying away, Raule kicked off the hall’s floors and easily leapt a dozen meters or so to reach the ceiling. There, his claws dug into the stone as he hung and surveyed the student body from above. Much better, albeit now he had a fair bit of attention on him. It didn’t really bother him and he used his new found vantage point to scan the students below. Oh, there she was.

With a slight swing of his legs, Raule released his grip on the ceiling and flipped himself so he faced the floor. From there, a slight push was enough to propel him towards the floor. The students around Talia tried to scatter, but were frankly too slow, so Raule actually had to put some effort into not bowling over a dozen of them. Twisting his body so he slipped in between them, Raule stood up in the midst of likely a dozen people’s personal space. [b]“My apologies,”[/b] he said to all those around him as he held the silver fox by the scruff of its neck and out towards Talia, [b]“but I believe this is yours.”[/b]