Seth approached the table his familiar had chosen. He recognized the two girls at the table. One was the girl with the shadow raven familiar, that Seth's own familiar was staring intently at, and the other was tsunami girl. There were puddles on the table and floor.

"I'm sorry," Seth said. "This is my familiar. She wasn't disturbing you, was she? She was a bit spooked by the ruckus over there."

"Oh, she wasn't disturbing us at all! How could you think that, she is just adorable!" The girl with the shadow raven had been trying to coax the cat closer.

"Would you mind if we sit here?" Seth asked. He glanced at Owen who shrugged.

"The seats are available, but they're also wet," tsunami girl said. She put away a sopping wet towel and pulled out another one and positioned it on the table. The open seats were to her left and both were soaking wet. The girl with the shadow raven was sitting next to her on the other side, and her own clothes were getting wet just by being in proximity to tsunami girl. She seemed unfazed by it though. A janitor was wringing a mop into the bucket behind the two girls.

"Water doesn't bother me," Owen said. "I take baths."

The shadow raven didn't like the cat staring at it and dove at the cat before flying away. "Oh! Stop that!" the girl said.

"I'm so sorry," Seth said to everyone at the table while trying to grab the cat. She skittered just out of reach. "She is a new familiar and not very well behaved yet."

"We all saw that during class," tsunami girl said while snickering.

"Leave the bird alone," Seth scolded the cat.

"Aw, the pretty kitty is just being herself and Reginald started it anyway. I think she is beautiful! So cuuute!" the girl with the bird squealed. "Can I hold her? She looks so soft!"

"If you can catch her, go ahead. I have no problem with it," Seth said.

The girl reached out again and the cat walked right up to her and nuzzled her face. The cat did give a bit of a side eye to the shadow bird.

"So soft and fluffy! Who's a sweetie? Oh aren't you just the bestest little kitty ever! What's her name?"

"I haven't named her yet."

Everyone at the table stared at him, including Owen and the cat.

Seth ran his hand through his hair. "I've tried to name her but she doesn't like anything I've suggested."

Tsunami girl snorted. "If it was dumb names like 'Kitty' or 'Pussy' I'd hate them too."

"I tried other names," Seth defended himself. "My name is Seth, this is my friend Owen."

"Blaise," tsunami girl said, "and that is Duvessa with her raven Reginald the Second. Next to Duvessa is Pendra and Booth. I don't know who they are," she pointed to a trio talking to the neighboring table.

Blaise took a soaking wet towel from under the table and wrung it out in the janitor's bucket. The puddle under the table continued to slowly grow. Her shoulder length hair formed a wet tangle of loose curls that continuously dripped. Her gray student's uniform was lighter than the standard uniform, which puzzled Seth because it should be darker due to being wet.

Duvessa had pale skin and light eyes with long, dagger-straight black hair. She was only slightly damp from sitting next to Blaise. Seth thought she looked familiar, like she was related to someone he'd met.

Booth was scruffy and suspicious. His unkempt hair was tied up, probably more for convenience than hygiene. Pendra was completely average, and had no interest in talking to Seth or Owen. He did seem annoyed that Duvessa was engaging with them.

Seth and Owen nodded greetings to the other two boys. Seth wondered why Reginald was the Second, and what might have happened to Reginald the First.

With pleasantries exchanged, Duvessa turned back to the cat. "We simply can't leave you nameless. It is an absolute travesty. What do you think of Fluffy? You are so soft!"

The cat growled and her ears dropped.

"No? Don't like that? Sweetie?"

"Tasty! Tasty Kitty!" came from Reginald the raven.

"No, Reggie, Sweetie, not Tasty." She turned back to the cat. "Misty? Silver? Princess?" Duvessa continued to try names, most of which Seth had already tried. None of them met the cat's approval.

The star shaped heartwood of the table started to glow slightly, and the glow spread to a formation on the table. Dinner platters appeared in the center of the table loaded with slices of ham, piles of bread rolls, and roasted vegetables. Hot tea and pitchers of fruit juice completed the meal. Everyone at the table dished out their own plates as they continued to discuss and offer up names.

"She's a snow leopard, right? Maybe Snowball? Snowshoe?" Blaise offered. "She's got huge paws."

"I think she's a lynx," Booth said. "She's got those long ear tufts."

"No," Duvessa said, "her tail is too long for a lynx. Here I'll show you." Duvessa closed her eyes and drew a symbol in the air. The shadows around the table pooled together like merging ink and coelesed into a feline shape. The shadow lynx had a short tail and large tufted ears. Seth could even recognize the differences in the face shape between the shadow cat and his familiar.

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His familiar was less than pleased with the shadow cat and jumped backwards when it tried to rub up against her.

"Aw, is the shadow lynx scary? Here, I'll make it a snow leopard now." With another gesture from Duvessa the shadow lynx changed form, becoming longer and deeper chested with small round ears and a tail as long as its body.

"Huh. She's not one of those either," Blaise said.

"Well, aren't you just the most mysterious one, huh? Do you like that?" Duvessa said as she reached out to scratch the skittish cat's ears.

"How do you know so much about cats?" Booth asked Duvessa.

"My power is creating creatures from shadows. I need to be really familiar with different creatures to make them, so I studied lots of animals. It has to be an animal I've seen or actually exists that I'm very familiar with for it to work. I can only do about this size or smaller though."

"That's a bummer. It would be cool if you could summon a wyvern or something to ride it," Pendra said.

"Is Reginald different then?" Seth asked. "You have him summoned all the time."

"Yes he is. He's the actual shadow of a raven I know. The raven is my grandmother's familiar, and since our powers are pretty similar I can have a shadow version of him as a shadow familiar." Duvessa dismissed the shadow cat.

"That would be Reginald the First?" Seth asked and Duvessa nodded.

"That must be a special raven," Owen said.

"Oh, he is. He's not a regular raven at all, but we haven't figured out exactly what he is," Duvessa answered.

"We still need a name," Blaise said, getting the conversation back on track.

"Money! Money Kitty," Reginald said. Seth had no idea what the bird was talking about.

"I can see why you didn't name her," Blaise said. "She's difficult and bossy. How about 'Boss'?"

"I'm not naming my familiar 'Boss.'"

"Boss cat," came from the raven.

Duvessa giggled. "That would be funny. Do you like the idea of being the boss?" she said to the cat. The cat rubbed up against Duvessa's hand. "Oh yeah, you know it. If you're the boss, then why don't you tell us your name?"

"Cat's don't talk."

The cat meowed to Duvessa.

"Mau? Is that what you said?"

"I'm not naming my familiar 'Meow'," Seth complained again.

"You're not. She is. And it's not 'Meow', it's 'Mau'. It's a different sound. Cats use all kinds of sounds, like 'mew' which is higher pitched, 'meow' is in the middle with two sounds, and 'mau' is a lower sound."

"They all sound the same," Seth argued.

"It's not," Duvessa said. "Say it again, Mau."

The cat did, and Seth noticed it was a different sound.

"Now say meow, so he knows the difference."

And the cat did.

"Does anyone else think it's strange that the cat is meowing on command?" Booth asked.

"She's a smart cat. Most of the time anyway," Seth said.

"She's a smart kitty all the time! Aren't you, Mau? Huh beautiful?" Duvessa was stroking and petting the cat again and the cat flopped over and stretched out clearly loving the tummy rubs. "Animals that can become familiars understand what people say to them," Duvessa explained to Booth. "But them doing as told is another story,"

"But there are other languages. What language do the animals know then? Just ours?" Pendra asked.

"I don't think it matters?" Duvessa said. "You talk, they understand. But she's still a cat. Just because she knows what you're saying doesn't mean she understands what you want from her." The cat had her paws wrapped around Duvessa's arm as she received face scratches.

"All right. I guess her name is Mau, as chosen herself," Seth conceded. He felt a bit jealous. His familiar wasn't that affectionate with him.

Owen spoke up. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but why are you wet?" he asked Blaise.

Seth had been wondering the same thing for a while now, but wasn't blunt enough to just ask outright.

Fortunately Blaise wasn't embarrassed or surprised by the question. "My power is too strong for me. I can't shut it off all the way, and it leaks."

"Yours is the strongest power I've ever seen," Seth said. He'd seen a few powerful mages too. "Do others in your family have similar power?"

"Nah, my family are all fire mages. All of them. I'm a complete anomaly, and figures it's water." She smirked. "Very convenient for putting out an arrogant older brother. So what kinds of powers do you guys have?"

"Mine's just a minor wind power," Seth volunteered.

"That didn't feel minor to me a few minutes ago," Blaise said.

"Ah, sorry about that. I didn't mean to do it," Seth apologized. He'd need to have some down time before he could figure out what was going on with his power.

"I'm not sure what mine is characterized as. I make the things I use better. Like swords sharper, tools sturdier, that kind of stuff," Owen said.

"That's not a real power," Booth scoffed. "Are you using a transmutate or something? That would be your actual power."

"Never heard of transmutate or whatever. My uncle realized what I was doing was a power when I always wanted to use the oldest scythe in the barn but the thing never broke on me. He picked it up and broke it on the first swing. I was mad, because to me that was the best one. It worked the fastest."

"Scythe? So are you a farmer then?" Duvessa asked.

"Yeah. We have a farmstead near Blue Ridge."

"Hey, this seat taken?" a new voice asked. It was one of the guys that had been with Arnold.

"Unless there is a butt in it, all seats are available," Blaise said before anyone else could reply.

"Thanks, the name's Isaac."

"What's-his-face didn't want you at his table either?" Owen asked after everyone introduced themselves.

"Arnold is a good guy, even if he is a bit rough around the edges at times. I just figured I'd see if I could join you and make sure there were no hard feelings. I can go if you prefer," Isaac said and partially stood before Blaise and Duvessa both said he should stay, as courtesy demanded they should. Once they said it was fine, Seth knew no one else would be rude enough to ask him to leave. Isaac had to know that too. Owen looked like he was considering it anyway.

"I'm gonna disagree on the good guy part," Owen said. His hostility towards Arnold extended to Isaac.

"He is a good guy and a friend of mine," Isaac said, his tone light and non confrontational. "Everyone here is a first year, yeah? Did you all have Professor Laur? What did you think?" he continued, moving the subject.

Isaac proved to be friendly and easy to talk to, and Duvessa and Blaise accepted him as easily as they did Seth and Owen. Booth and Pendra mostly talked to each other.

The cat– Mau– had moved herself to the center of the table and looked rather like a queen holding court. Seth could feel her suspicion of Isaac pretty strongly. Yeah, he was friends with a jerk, but Seth wanted to fit in here so he'd give the guy a chance.

She mellowed a bit when Reginald kept trying to pluck hairs out of her tail. Well, mellowed towards Isaac. Reginald she dunked in a gravy boat.

The conversation moved from the previous class to the food options and finally to the class coming after lunch. Combat class.