A School in Sight

"It does nothing, I'll survive, takes more than a little bit of accidental arrogance to insult me anyways."

"Well... Good to know, then." he smiled, then looked up when he heard the faintest flap of wings - and before long, a hawk was flying over to them, at which he smiled. They were barely half a mile away from the Oasis, now, too.

As Kakashi looked up, so did he, looking up at the hawk. "Something not a reptile... Is that bird a shapechanger too or just an ordinary hawk?" He asked.

"Skinchanger," he corrected with a smile, and, true enough, soon a woman stood there instead. "I see you found someone new." she smiled at Kakashi. "I did. As you asked."

"Ah, eh yes, skinchanger ofcourse." He said, shaking his head and then looking at the woman.

"Well done." the woman smiled at Kakashi, then turned to look at Neil. "And if I may ask, what is your name, young Skinchanger?"

"Hmm? Oh, My name would be Neil Walker, can I ask what yours is?"

"Of course. My name is Arania Willow. I'm the principal and co-founder of Arania school, you see." She did look to be quite a bit older than Kakashi.

He noded. "Ah, I see, nice to meet you then Arania."

"And a pleasure to meet you." she smiled and gave a small, respectful nod, that was really more or less a small bow. "I hope that you will find your stay at the school comfortable."

"Well, if it's less warm than out here I'm going to enjoy the stay immensly, if I may ask, why did you choose to found the school out here in the middle of a desert?"

She smiled. "I was born and raised around here, and it is also the easiest for everybody to travel to, since it's in the middle of our world." she explained.

"Well.... Looking at that it makes a lot of sense... But the area is so very hostile to everything not born out here. Doesn't that make it difficult for most to get here?" He asked.

"It does, but it ensures people will only come here if they truly wish to be a part of this." she said, while they finally reached the Oasis, the palm trees offering some light shade. "Others will turn back when the heat gets going."

"Thats.... A really good point actually." He said, rushing into the shade. "People have to be serious to make it through this."

"Exactly." she smiled. "Kakashi here... Well." "I was almost more dead than alive when I found it the first time..." he gave the weakest chuckle. "I got lost for a few days."

"Oh you did?" He said, looking at Kakashi. "Happens to the best of us I guess, now I'm pretty glad that I had you to guide me then, else the same would surely have happened to me" He chukeled.

"I would've never known about the school if it hadn't been for the humans pointing me in the right direction when they saw me. They'd seen it before. A human, slightly bloodied up, animal pelt... Yeah." he grinned. "I could control my forms right from the start. 'Tis why I was offered a place as teacher instead of student."

"You could?" He asked, looking at Kakashi with slightly widened eyes.

A small nod. "For some reason, I could. I didn't transform back to a wolf when I touched my pelt. Only if I thought about wanting to be a wolf again."

" I see... And that is something we other skinchangers have to spend many a winter on learning isn't it? Any idea why you just could do it like that?"

"Yeah, you do. Or, most do. And I don't know, I just... Could, somehow. It might be that every Skinchanger has another gift so to speak, and mine's great control... I've been toying with trying to stop it halfway and see if I can get a nice blend. Haven't succeeded so far."

"And it's only because it's you that I allow you to continue. It could be potentially dangerous, even fatal, for one without the immense control you have." Arania commented.

He looked up into the palm trees. "I see.... Have you seen any other of us Skinchangers with some kind of additional 'gift'?

"Well. My student, Namila, seems to be able to sense someone's mood and intentions just by looking at them... Not just from their body language. She gets way more details than most do."

He nodded. "I see. Wonder if every single one of us have someing extra then or if it's only a select few."