Circe Academy Chronicles

Chapter 4


As soon as Orinda and I step out of the shop, I see a mass of white seem to float past. Before I can get a good look at it, it‘s gone.

“Hey Orinda, are there any ghosts here?” I ask. Even though she’s new here like me, she should know a little bit more.

“Not that I know of...I mean, ghosts are super rare. There are more of my kind than them.” She gives me a puzzled look. “Did you see one just now?”

I shake my head. “I have no idea. I’m probably seeing stuff. I've been through a lot of stuff lately." As soon as I say that, I remember all the things that have happened up until now, and feel a slight tingle of excitement, but push it away.

“It’s not important. Let's look around some more,” I suggest, wanting to learn more about this place, as well as try and keep my mind clear. We start walking around, not looking for anything in particular, but it seems like there are quite a few student-run shops selling all kinds of stuff, ranging from clothes to paintings and a few that I have no idea what to call.

“Hey, that shop looks really nice!” Orinda suddenly says, pointing to a shop that frankly defies description. The walls and roof are warped and bent at unnatural angles, and on top of that the place is painted a sickening mix of green and neon orange. For a moment I want to ask Orinda if there’s something wrong with her eyes or what, but I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t think the place looked interesting at least. But man, she and I have REALLY different opinions on what "nice" architecture is.

We head into the shop, and right away I’m overwhelmed by the smell. It’s kind of musty, like an old basement, but at the same time there’s a strong, smoky, sort of spicy smell, like a health food store.

“My, my, I wasn’t expecting any customers this early in the year,” a soft voice whispers into my ear as a pair of delicate fingers brush against my neck. Before I can look back at whoever it was, they're gone.

“And such lovely ones, I might add!” I look toward Orinda and see a tall woman with red hair and a figure that looks like she belongs on a 1950’s pinup poster wearing a robe standing next to her, running her fingers trough her hair.

And just like me, before Orinda can react she’s gone. Both of us look around for her for a few seconds.

“Over here, dears,” her whispery voice seems to come from behind a shelf.

“This is really weird,” Orinda comments while furrowing her brow. Okay, so even over here, this woman is weird. I don’t know how to feel about that, but pushing that aside, Orinda and I walk around behind the shelf lined with all kinds of books. Some of them have titles written in English, but with very odd names, like (Necromancy Made Easy :Raise The Dead For Fun And Profit) and (200 Recipes For A Vegan Vampire). The first one is really creepy, but the second one makes me giggle a bit. But there are dozens of other books that I have no idea what they say. I don’t even know if the language their written in exist on earth. Hm, maybe I should have brought Lana out with us, I bet she'd take one look at these books and know their titles, what language they were in, and probably be able to tell me the author's favorite animal just from what font they used...

Once we round the corner, we’re greeted by the sight of that odd woman floating in the air with a box next to her. She picks books out of it, examining them briefly before setting them on the shelf. “It’s so nice to have my first customers of the year,” she says in a soft voice that has an almost flute-like tone as she lowers to the ground.

“Welcome to my shop. I am Gudrun. At least, that’s what everyone calls me,” she comments, shrugging her shoulders. Orinda looks at me with a slightly confused expression, but I find her just as weird.

“Now then, how may I help you?” she asks.

“Well, we were mostly wondering what this shop is,” I tell her. She giggles, the musical tone in her voice sounding like bell.

“It’s very simple. I sell whatever my customers want, whether they know it or not,” she says, grinning. It’s then that I notice that her teeth are all needle-like fangs that lock together perfectly, and her eyes have a smoky gray color to them. It’s a little unnerving the way she stares at the two of us.

“Umm...it looks like a bunch of books,” Orinda says. I can tell that she’s also creeped out by Gudrun, just like I am.

“Yes, that’s true, but you see, they are not ordinary books. Every one of them is...special,” she says in that flute-like voice as she twirls quickly. “But that’s not important. Have a look around, and if you find something that strikes your fancy, feel free to take it.”

“What about paying you?” I ask. Something about her just bothers me.

“Don’t worry about it. I get more than enough payment from the joy that my books bring.” She floats back to the shelf she was at before. “I just wonder if either of you will be as fun as little Mimi was.”

She chuckles again. Orinda leans in close. “I don’t think I want to get any of her books,” she whispers. I nod in agreement. This place just feels wrong.

The two of us turn around and begin to walk out of the store, but just as we reach the door, something out of the corner of my eye catches my attention: a small, bright red book lying on the floor. Something about it strikes me as important...I know I should just leave it there, but I can’t seem to resist the urge to pick it up. Orinda is already out the door. I try to fight it off for a few more seconds, before giving in. I bend over and pick it up. It’s small enough that I can slip it into my skirt's pocket along with the stone Chinatsu gave me.

“Janis, are you alright in there?” Orinda asks, peeking in, obviously not wanting to come any further back in.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I tell her as I walk out. Right away the musty smell is replaced by crisp, fresh air. For a moment I think I should tell Orinda about the book, but the thought passes. I feel kind of guilty about it, but decide not to dwell on it. Besides, it's not really her business if I do want to take what that weird lady offered, right?

“So what do you think we should do next?” I ask Orinda. Just as she’s about to answer, I hear a low rumble coming from her stomach. “How about we get something to eat?” she asks.

Now that I think about it, I’m feeling kind of hungry, as well. Makes sense, considering how much energy I used up with Chinatsu. I agree with her that a meal would be nice. Orinda and I start to wander in the direction of where Yuu told me some of the restaurants are.

There are several restaurants lined up all next to each other once we get there. I can tell right away that some of them serve food from countries on Earth, mainly because they have signs saying so, but there are plenty that have interesting smells coming from them that I can't identify, and all over are students of different races.

“How about that one?” Orinda says, pointing to a small café-looking place at the far corner. It has some tables outside with a few humans and elves sitting around. They have what look like pastries, but the sign over the door is in some langue that I know had to be from Terra.

“Okay, it does look nice.”

And with that we walk over to it. Thankfully the descriptions of the food are written in English, as well as a few other languages. A lot of the stuff sounds good, but I’m not sure what a few of the ingredients actually are. I finally decide on some soup that’s got a bunch of vegetables in it, while Orinda gets a fruit salad.

“I’m kind of surprised you're getting a salad,” I comment after the waitress walks away. Orinda gives me a strange look.

“Why?”

I shrug my shoulders. “I thought you’d eat mostly meat, since you’re a dragon.”

Right away I regret having said that. I need to remember that all I know about dragons is what I’ve heard in old fairy tales! But she doesn’t look offended at all. “That’s actually a really common mistake. We dragons are omnivores, and while I do like meat (especially if it’s really rare) my kind eat most fruit, at least at my age,” she tells me.

“So how many types of dragon are there?”

She puts her fingers to her chin and thinks for a moment. “I’m not sure how many are left, but a long time ago there were hundreds. But most of them were wiped out in wars...we got caught up in all kinds of wars. Sometimes we waged war ourselves...most often armies would offer so much money for dragon mercenaries to join their army (even those of us without magic are huge and powerful enough that we can take on dozens of enemies at once) that my people just couldn't seem to resist joining up and eventually being killed in battle. And sometimes we got caught up in wars that we tried not to join...one side would think some of us were planning to join the enemy and attack us to be safe. Since we have children so infrequently whether naturally or magically, entire species of us could die out in a single battle. But now? I know of at least four, including mine.”

Just then the food arrives. As we eat, she continues to tell me about her race. They start off looking like what most people on Earth would think a dragon would, but when they reach about eighteen or so, they change into the human form that she’s in right now, and stay like that for about ten years. After that they can freely change between the two forms whenever they want.

"Those life stages are where the myth about us being carnivores comes from, I think," she remarks to me as she eats a slice of some fruit that I think must come from Terra (although there are a lot of weird fruits on Earth that most people never even hear about, so who knows). "You see, we're omnivores. In our bigger, "true" form, we're huge. We have to eat more than a regular person (you'll probably notice I eat a couple more meals a day than you), but it's not too much...the problem is, though, that there's really only one kind of food that comes big enough that a dragon like me can eat in that form: meat! I mean, when your jaws are as big as several people combined, it's hard to eat stuff that's much smaller, like fruits and vegetables. So even though I CAN eat an apple or brogberry when I'm big, you'll never see me doing it because it's practically impossible to get it in there. A nice big cow, though, that I can easily nibble on. It's so much food that it'll last me a few days, but the important thing is that it's big enough for me to handle.

"Now, once we dragons get into this stage in life, we tend to eat almost nothing but fruits and vegetables and grains and dairy and such, because it's so delicious and different from the meat we've had to eat for the rest of our life. But what image will make you think of what a dragon eats, a girl with a tail eating a salad or a giant lizard devouring a cow? The second image is what's more interesting, so that's what everyone remembers."

By that time, we're done eating. I never would have thought hearing about history and social stuff would be so interesting to me!

“So what was your life like before you came here?” she asks as we walk away from the café, not really knowing what we’re going to do next.

“Well, nothing that special...my life was kind of boring. I went to school up until last year and watched TV a lot in my free time.” Man, in comparison to her, I sound even more boring than I thought! “I was going to take a year off before college, but I guess this takes care of that for me. I guess my life kind of sucked. Not very interesting.”

“I bet it wasn’t that bad. At least you had lots of peers. Like I told you, dragons are really rare. There were only two others who were around my age.” Orinda looks at the sky with a wistful gaze, but quickly returns to her normal bright smile. “But now I can meet lots of interesting people like you!” she says, before leaning in and giving me a small kiss on the lips.

The feel of her lips sends a shiver of pleasure through me. I look around and see that, like before, there are a few people fooling around out here in the open. But even though it’s still kind of embarrassing to see them, it’s now...also a bit of a turn-on!

I know there’s no way I have the nerve to do anything with this many people watching, and I have no idea how Orinda would feel about it. But my lips still have some warmth from that little kiss of hers. I start looking around for some place where we could have just a small amount of privacy. Finally I spot a nice alleyway between a couple of shops. It’s fairly wide, but it seems dark enough that no one will see us. I take Orinda by the hand.

“Come with me,” I tell her as I lead her to the alley. Right away she seems to pick up on what I have in mind.

As soon as we get in to the alley, she pulls me into a tight hug and kisses me. I can really feel the power in her arms...even if I wanted to get free, I wouldn’t be able to. But why would I ever want to? She starts off a bit more aggressive as she slips her tongue into my mouth and starts to wriggle it around. Her hands slide down the back of my skirt, that strange warmth of being with her spreading through me. I decide to take a bit more action and pin her tongue with my own and suck on it lightly as I gently brush the base of her tail.

She gasps sharply and breaks the kiss, letting go of me. When she does, some part of me that I never knew about seems to be guiding me as I gently pin her against the wall and start kissing along her neck. I unbutton her shirt. Once it’s open half-way, I pull her bra away and start kissing all over her breasts, purposefully avoiding her nipples. Just as I'm really getting into a rhythm, Orinda recovers from the pleasure from her tail.

“That was really cheap. I’m going to have to get you for that one!” she says with a grin. Her fangs seem to glint faintly in the dim lighting of the alley. She reaches down and removes my skirt and panties both in one quick movement.

“Now how about I show you what I bought at Glitter’s store,” she says as she reaches into the bag. She quickly pulls out what looks like a small, silver ring.

“She told me it’s one of the best sellers,” she comments as she slips it onto the middle finger of her right hand. Before I get the chance to ask what’s so special about it, she places her hand over my cunny, and right away I feel powerful vibrations going through my whole body, bringing me to orgasm in a matter of seconds.

As I take several deep, shuddering breaths, Orinda lifts up her hand and starts licking it clean. “She said it would be stronger for a human, but I had no idea it would be that much of a difference.” I can understand why that thing is so popular, but I can’t help but wonder how long it takes for it to work on her. I’ll have to find out some time.

“There’s something I really want to know about you, Orinda,” I comment as she bends over to put the ring back in the bag.

“What?”

“Which is more sensitive, your clit or tail? Because it seems like every time I touch you on your tail, you just about cum,” I say, grabbing her tail near the middle. She lets out a sharp moan. I start to gently stroke it, loving the smooth, glossy feel of her scales, along with that odd warmth. Rather than answer, she just keeps moaning.

“So I’m guessing it’s about the same.” I decide to add to it and use my free hand to stroke her clit as I keep running my hands along her tail, focusing on the base right above her ass, as it seems to be the most pleasurable to her. Orinda reaches back with one hand and starts to rub her own pussy, and I can just barely hear her gasping out pleas for me to use both hands on her tail. But I get an even better idea. I change my position so that I’m straddling her tail while gripping the base of it with both hands. I start to slide up and down the length of it, loving the feel of it against my cunny, the whole time making her moan and shake her hips as she fingers herself.

It doesn’t take any time at all for me to cum, but I can tell she needs something more, so I get off of her and lean in and begin licking my own cum off of her, which is just the final push needed to send her over the edge.

Orinda stands up, and right away I take her hand and lick it clean of her cum, moaning as I do. To think just about two days ago I would have gagged at just the thought of doing this! Now I can’t imagine not doing it every day!

Once we both clean up and get redressed, we walk back out the alley, and no one around seems to care or notice us.

“That was great,” Orinda says as she leans in to kiss me again, but I stop her.

“If you do that, we’re just going to end up in the alley again,” I tell her in a completely serious tone, and even though I would like to fool around some more, there’s still a lot around here I’d like to see. Orinda pouts, but agrees.

We finally return to the dorm after a few hours of wandering around and go inside.

“I’m going to go to bed early tonight. I’m not used to doing so much stuff in one day,” Orinda tells me as she heads upstairs.

“Goodnight,” I tell her, catching a peek up her skirt as she bounds up the steps. The sight of her panties causes me to get another twinge of horniness.

“She’s really cute, isn’t she?” Yuu says as she walks in. I nod in agreement.

“Anyways, she’s got a good idea. You should probably go to sleep soon, as well. After all, classes start tomorrow,” she says as she sits on the couch. “And trust me, the first day is always the hardest. But after that it’s a lot easier.”

She’s got a point. I’d hate to screw anything up on my first day of classes, whatever they are like. So I go to my room, and find Seren sitting on my bed.

“Hey, you want to give me a foot rub?” she asks, holding up one of her slender legs and wriggling her toes. Normally I’d tell her to get out, but for some reason I can’t seem to get the words out.