Golden Thorns: chapter two

As the ship docked Coran packed his small hold-all. Five ammunition clips, a change of clothes and a toothbrush later and he was ready to leave. As he moved through the crowd he found himself searching for the distinctive copper hair. He quelled that thought almost as soon as it emerged. What was he thinking? He should be observing, listening, alert to his surroundings. He stopped where he was and leaned on the cabin wall, closed his eyes and immersed himself in the idle chatter of the hoard of prospective students. He filtered out most of the pointless nonsense, introductions and so forth, and focused on specifics. One kid, four metres to his right, boasting about this crossbow-axe thing he was carrying, two more on his left arguing over the assignment of teams.

"I heard that they pair you off on your entry grades," one said

"Don't be an idiot, it's probably completely random" the other countered.

Teams. Ha, what a joke. What use were teammates when you were alone and surrounded by beowolves.

Coran could hear the ramp go down. He waited for the crowd to thin out and was just about to move off the wall when he heard running footsteps. He snapped his eyes open and ducked around the corner, ready. The footsteps were getting closer. An assailant? He had to be sure. Any second… now! Coran simply stuck his foot out and a kid tripped, hit the deck and slid a good five feet before coming to a complete stop, his bag landing on his back.

"Ow, geez man can't you see we're already late enough as is?" he grumbled as he got hurriedly to his feet and grabbed up his luggage. For the second time today Coran was stunned into silence, though for a completely different reason. He'd seen Faunus before so he was used to seeing ears or a tail that weren't exactly human, heck he'd even seen a girl with giant rabbit ears getting off the ship just now, but this kid took it to a whole new level. As he dusted himself off Coran realised that the stranger in front of him was covered from head to thick, muscled tail in small, beige-green scales.

Noticing Coran's blank stare for the first time, the kid muttered "story of my frikken life," before holding out a hand, with a small claw on the end of each finger, and introducing himself in a bright and perky fashion as "Devlyn, Devlyn Lazarus."

"Coran."

"Well come on Coran, it wouldn't do to be late on our first day, now would it?"

"No"

And with that, Devlyn was gone, sprinting down the ramp and across the docks. Reluctantly, Coran followed.