I wake to the presence of someone approaching the bed, far closer than I would have let them get in the past, and I have to suppress the urge to lunge for the dagger that I hid between the mattress and the frame. Not even a moment later there is a soft touch on my butt followed by a gentle rocking back and forth.

“If you don't wake up soon,” a voice calls out gently to me, “you won't have time to get ready.”

“Don't wanna,” I yawn as I try to ignore her, settle my nerves, and go back to my napping.

“We have to leave soon,” The voice tries to reason with me as I pull the blankets down around me tighter, “And don't you want to make a good first impression.”

“First impression?” I parrot as my mind starts to wake up, having determined that I'm not going to be allowed to go back to sleep.

“With the heads of the classes,” The voice that my waking brain recognizes as Melodiana sighs at me, “At the welcoming ceremony that they planned today...that we are required to attend... because we are going to be tested.”

“You could just tell them that I’m sick, or in heat nobody wants me to show up there like that,” I tell her lifting my hip to move a couple of tails that had gone numb overnight. This turns out almost immediately to be a bad idea as Melodiana catches this opening in my still sleep muddled defenses and slips her arms around my waist and picks me up.

“Nooooo I don’t wannaaaaa,” I cry out all the while I struggle in vain against the six-six Dargoth girl holding my back to her chest with her left arm, and attempting to untangle me from my blankets with her right.

“It won’t be that bad,” she grunts continuing to forcefully rouse me from my nap. “Oh will you just cooperate with me for just a few minutes please?” she ask as I twist myself back and forth in her grip somehow managing to end up facing her still clutching my blanket, my last remaining defense against the waking world knowing that if I lose it I will have lost the fight.

“Lily,” she calls my name as I twist around to escape and I feel her grip slip giving me that brief elation that I had won and would not have to go to the ceremony. Seconds later I realize that I am now in a really bad position and am forced to make a choice, between keeping a hold of my blanket and falling onto the cold wood floors, or letting go and clinging to Melodiana who now wears a mask of concern.

I make my decision, let go of the blanket, and wrap an arm around Melodiana’s neck as she reaches out with her right arm to try to pull me back into her.

I am left staring into her dark emerald green eyes and with the sound of heavy cloth hitting the floor the blanket falls, and Melodiana releases the breath she had held. I have a few moments to admire her pretty face. It is oval shaped, and already wearing a light amount of makeup, so she has been up for at least a while. It is framed by a few strands of blond hair that escaped the grasp of her bun and her horns curl toward the back of her head. Her cheeks are nicely tanned like the rest of her body, and lean showing the years of training in her mountain home; yet they still carry a soft look to the,. By the second she is growing steadily red, as she looks down becoming more and more conscious of my bare breasts pressing into her.

I smile inwardly and decide to punish her just a little for dragging me from my warm bed underneath the morning sun. I lean forward into her and gently rub my cheek against hers, while wrapping a couple of tails around her waist, and I slide my free hand down her shoulder, and across her breast before bringing it to a rest on the side of her stomach while whispering into her ear in a low sweet tone, “Oh thank you my brave knight, whatever can I do to make this up to you?” I feel her already warm face begin to heat up even more, and then she drops me on my now bare bed.

“Y-yyyy-you should at least sleep with a night shirt, and not completely na-naked,” she stammers at me while turning away quickly.

“I am not naked,” I tell her, as I quickly jump in front of her. “See I’m wearing panties,” I say as I bend forward laying my tails against my back, and run my fingers underneath the bands of red fabric clinging to either side of my hips while playfully shaking them, “and besides I don’t own any night shirts.

“Just get dressed and ready to go,” she shouts over her shoulder as she has yet again turned away from me, and is walking towards the window.

“No,” I reply as I walk over to my dresser, pull out the matching bra, and begin to put it on with a smile on my face. “There is very little reason for me to go and look around the facility again, and It would be such a waste of a beautiful morning anyway don’t you agree?”

“Weren’t you just trying to waste you’re beautiful morning, as you so put it, by sleeping?” she ask me with that exasperated tone in her voice.

“Sleeping is never a waste of time,” I proudly declare as she turns around.

“You’re going to get fat,” She says in a hushed tone, her eyes wandering down to the mounds of flesh on my chest.

“I can’t hear you, lalalalala,” I say folding my ears backwards in an obvious mockery of her complaints.

“What will it take to convince you to go?” she asks sounding exasperated.

“Why do you even care?” I ask her as curiosity pecks at me, “It isn't like my behavior will reflect poorly on you or the twins.”

“I just thought you must be here for a reason,” She bites her lip before sighing and continues incredibly quietly, “and I had hoped that we could at least get along while we were here.”

I sigh to myself as guilt gnaws at the edge of my stomach, “If you buy me dinner I will go along with this ceremony.”

“Done,” she says perking up while looking happily to me.

I sigh again as I walk towards the door for the shared powder room. “I'll have to keep an eye on you or you will cause me a large headache in the future won't you,” I complain to her quietly as I close the door behind me.

As I enter the powder room I find my uniform hanging, wrinkle free next to the mirror. “I suppose I will have to thank one of them later? Probably Melodiana,” I mumble as I pull my skirt from the hanger.

I pull the black skirt up and fasten it around my hips, before I lift my jacket from the rod and complain while sliding my arm through the sleeve, “This is going to be too heavy to wear all day long.” I sigh as I pull my long hair out from underneath it before putting my other arm in.

As I pull the left flap of my jacket over and begin to hook it from my shoulder to my hip I notice that it feels tighter around my breast, and around my hips, and my mind wanders back to Melodiana telling me that I’m going to get fat, and I shake my head trying to rid myself of the thought.

I run a brush through my hair until I’m satisfied that there aren’t any knots in it, and after I put the brush onto the counter I fish one of my red ribbons out of the drawer that I had claimed the night before. I pull most of my hair into a high ponytail and tie it in place with a bow. I adjust it once or twice until I am satisfied that it’s not going to fall out, and I take the strands of hair that I left out and begin to braid them, before I wrap the braid around the base of my ponytail hiding the ribbon holding my hair up leaving only the bow visible, and use the jade ornament that Mama sent with me to hold the braid in place.

I stand back a little to look at my reflection and I see a five foot eight inch, six foot if you add in the height of her ears, girl with a slight scowl staring back at me with one cold purplish pink eye and one gold. She has a heart shaped face that’s softer than other Kitsunes and snow white hair that extends to her waist even when pulled up.

She turns slightly to look up and down her uniform and I catch a glimpse of a few white tails fanned downwards knowing that there would be nine in total and they all would end in black tips. I sigh softly to the girl in the reflection, and she does the same to me.

I run my fingers up the black sleeve of my right arm from the wrist to just past the shoulder where it meets with the white fabric covering my chest were my family insignia should be and pause for just a moment rubbing the area, before deciding that Mama made a good decision on how it all looks together.

I grab my gloves off the counter and put them in the band of my skirt as I head out and into the common room where Melodiana is waiting on me with our Lamia housemates, I believe they were Leyla and Iris Snow. I repeated their names so many times, and was corrected so many more, that I am fairly certain that those are correct.

Leyla is wearing her brown hair in a braid that goes halfway down her back and she is wearing a white blouse with the insignia of a swooping hawk, and a blue skirt over her red scaled lower body. She has well developed muscles across her arms and probably her back and chest as well. She has a diamond shaped face and looks as if she hasn't quite woken up. If fully awake and alert my sisters would say that she is lovely. She looks at me through her half closed hazel eyes and asks, “Coffee?”

“No thank you,” I smile to her which and she shrugs to me as I sit at the table to eat a quick breakfast of eggs.

Iris looks across the table at me. Her brown hair is in a cute bob and she is wearing a yellow dress with an insignia that, of course matches Leyla's.“So how does it feel to be the smallest person in the room?”asks in a sleepy tone with a smirk on her face. I continue to chew while I examine her face. It is softer than her sisters, and her eyes are a bright blue as well. Overall she would be considered cute.

I pause for a moment at the thought of the coven and how they will always find something about others to compliment, and at how kind they are. I contemplate them just long enough that my mouth decides to take over.

“Well I don’t know,” I shrug my shoulders and point my fork at her, “It seems to me you have the smallest breast in the room, so why don’t you tell us?”

“Pa-Pa-perverted dairy cow,” she shouts at me as she covers up her front and looks at me red faced. She gets up from the table and rushes out of the room into the kitchen, which elicits a slight hiss from her sister as she sighs.

“Wait what?” I halfheartedly call after her.

“Is having to harass every person you meet a racial trait, or just a personal one?” Melodiana ask me looking slightly cross.

“I didn’t harass Leyla,” I tell her, and then continue under my breath, “and you enjoyed having my bare body pressed up against you.”

This causes the exact response I was expecting. A bright red Melodiana is looking down into her plate and avoiding eye contact, assuming or hoping that if she ignores it that it will just go away. This in turn fuels the curiosity of the Leyla who is now looking back and forth between us trying to decipher the meaning of that small exchange, and glowing an even brighter red than Melodiana, as her mind apparently owns a mansion in the gutter.

Iris apparently recovered her composure and she returns from the kitchen to the silent red faced girls, and in between bites of my eggs and I smile to her and give a little wink and a wave.

Leyla quickly moves to her sisters side and wraps around her and begins to babel. “Ya have ta stay away from that, that lecherous demon,” she tells her and points to me, “she will steal away my baby sister’s purity.” She then wheels on me and places herself between Iris and me, and continues on while glaring, “And ya stay away from her, ya can fulfill your urges elsewhere.” All the while Iris just has this bemused look on her face, apparently not quite understanding why her sister is prosecuting me before she starts to move toward the front of the house.

I stand up from the table and stride over to Leyla and let my hips swing wider than normal. I smile and flutter my eyelashes at her as I pause in front of the frozen Lamia and adopt the same tone I used with Melodiana earlier this morning. “Alright,” I begin and I pause as place my hand on her shoulder and lean up to her face bringing our lips closer together, “I’ll fulfill my urges, as you call them, elsewhere.” I tell her while leaning in even closer to the blushing girl. “You are definitely pretty enough,” I whisper to her quiet enough that she was the only one to hear, “And I promise to treat you well.”

She pulls away from me glowing extremely red, presses her hands into her checks, shut her eyes tight, and shakes her head back and forth muttering something that I can’t quite make out.

I walk back to the table and grab my empty plate and look at Melodiana and tell her, “Now I have harassed everyone this morning,” and I walk to the kitchen to take care of my dishes.

Half way there I hear Melodiana sigh, “I can see that,” and I can’t help but to laugh just a little.