[right][h1][color=D9CC47]Dune[/color][/h1][color=D9CC47]Mentions:[/color] [color=c9346a]Heather[/color] ([@Cello]) [color=D9CC47]Location:[/color] Haven Academy[/right][hr][hr] [indent]Dune found her thoughts wandering once again. It was easy for thoughts to wander when all you had to keep you company was your own thoughts. It perhaps sounded weird, sure, but despite the crowds around her, Dune felt even now that she was alone. Not that that was a bad thing - she may have preferred it that way, even if it hadn't been the only thing she had known in a long, long time. Her idle gaze followed the slowly, gently twirling shape of an irregularly deep orange leaf falling gently from a high perch. The leaves didn't seem to mind being alone, they were beautiful nonetheless - perhaps moreso for it. But that's not what Dune's wandering mind was leashed to, no, she had long grown accustomed to keeping to herself. Instead, she thought more about what was lying ahead for her, rather than what or who was currently beside her. If an entire village shoulder-to-shoulder couldn't save her parents, what could she expect to gain from a simple singular acquaintance? No, this was a journey she planned to take on her own. Of course she knew from here-say that the academy put prospective huntsmen and huntresses into teams - but it was a temporary arrangement. After graduation, a huntress could carry on by their lonesome, if they so wished. Admittedly, when Dune had tried to think that far ahead before, it seemed like a distant dream - but today...it was different. Reaching the point where she could finally take a true step towards becoming a huntress was so much more real now. She was so distracted by the roaming of her thoughts that she didn't even notice another girl tramping over to the very tree she was posted up against herself. It was the exasperated sigh that snapped the Faunus from her absence of mind. Dune turned her head to look sideways at the auburn-haired girl, her arms crossing across her chest as she caught just the last half of whatever it was she was saying to herself. She raised a brow at the measurably shorter girl's...[i]mature[/i]-sounding curses, reckoning that someone had gotten the better of her for her to get so worked up. Dune watched her expression as the other girl turned and seemed startled by her presence, the red-head's face flushing in surprise as she shot to her feet. The girl was quick to try and change the subject as the Faunus just watched her coolly. Dune turned her gaze away and looked around them, the soft breeze and equally as soft sun smiling back at the attention. [color=D9CC47]"It is, isn't it?"[/color] Her eyes unfocused for a moment. Those were the first words she'd said to someone her age in.. a while. Usually she just ignored anyone who tried making small talk with her - not out of rudeness, moreso out of tunnel vision to whatever she was actually doing at the time - which if it wasn't training, it was reading in most cases. Why now did she opt to engage with a complete stranger? Well, if she were ever to do it, at the academy would probably be a better place than nowhere. After all, this girl might be a future "teammate" of hers, even if unlikely. Her gaze turned back to the flustered girl. She studied her for a brief moment, the cogs within her head turning stoically as she looked her up and down shortly. Her lips parted slightly, as if to begin speaking, but after a slight pause, she silenced herself again, turning her golden eyes back to watch the crowds once again. She considered offering advice to the girl regarding whatever it was that ailed her, but decided against it - she had never been good at giving advice, usually just regurgitating things that her grandparents or tutors told her - plus, she had no idea what the girl's problem was. It was simpler to just let it figure itself out. [/indent]