Thunderstorm

Ross chuckled, knowing the professor enough to not take it personally. Leading them out. "Don't listen to him. He's just a grumpy plant."

"Are all plants grumpy?" asked the Prince to Ross. "Most usually don't talk, so I don't know."

"If I was rooted to one spot all day and being chewed on, I would be grumpy too," replied Mikaela.

Ross shrugged. "He's always weird when he meets new people. He's wary of everyone since that Russian spy tried to trick him into returning to the labs for testing."

"Eh, most people I know tend to be wary of others for various reasons," Mikaela replied. "So it's not that big of a surprise to me."

Ross shrugged. "I like to try and give people a chance. If they screw that up then i'm wary of them and may as well rip their head off."

"Lovely," Mikaela replied dryly. "But I'm one to talk."

Ross shrugged. "I don't like being betrayed. If someone crosses me they wont be treated the same around here."

"Most people and animals are like that. It's not unusual," Mikaela answered.

Ross nodded and sighed. "Well most of the people around here are pretty nice. If a bit weird."

"Sounds like the tournaments," the Prince replied. "It seems like everyone a bit weird except us."

Ross nodded. "Most people here are not weird because of what they are. They are weird because they are here."

"I guess that's kinda like the tournaments too," remarked Mikaela. "So it is weird for others to go to school?"

Ross chuckled. "Yeah, everyone is allowed to go to the school but there are people that dont' trust what we teach or don't believe it. We rarely have people from the spiritual district come to classes."

"Why not?" asked Mikaela. "I would think they'd be interested in the magic at least."

Ross shruged. "Some of the more religious familes teach their own magics and keep it close to the family. Plus some of them are into the dark arts and not allowed on the campus."

"Oh," Mikaela replied. "So where are we going next?"

Ross grinned, walking up to a beautiful building covered in long strings of ivy and red brick. "The magical arts building. It's one of the more awesome places in the school. Taking things like painting and music and putting magic into it."

"Putting magic into a painting?" asked Mikaela. "What, so it can move or talk or something?"

Ross nodded. "Yeah, but it takes skill to do it. Putting life into paintings is a level three class."

"Cool!" the Prince piped up. "Are there any of those paintings we can see there?"

Ross nodded. "There is a gallery full of them. Though I would also warn ya that some of them were made by rude and jerkish people. One of them is actually pretty creepy too..." He shivered and led the way into the building and up stairs twards the gallery.

"Meh. We see weird and creepy things all the time. We can handle it," Mikaela answered.

Ross sighed and shrugged. Moving into the gallery there were paintings lined along the walls. Some of them innocent looking enough while some threw curses and yelled at anyone that passed.

Mikaela was amused by the angry paintings. "Life is that bad, is it?" she asked a painting of an old hag. "You poor old wretch."

The prince stayed near the nicer paintings, currently watching one with a cougar and its cub.

Ross stuck close to the duo. Ignoring the darker area in the back completely, or trying to avoid it. Watching the painting reply. "You wouldn't know a wretch if you saw it you stupid little tart."