Reyna Academy

Aria: Multi-Colors

Aria wandered down the halls looking for her room. She could feel the stares that she was receiving from the other students for her "strange" appearance. At least, she'd heard whispers from people in villages that she looked strange. She actually was quite used to her appearance and thought she looked rather well today. Her skin was tan, from traveling outside with her father, and had been scrubbed clean of its usual layer of dirt. Her normally tangled dark hair had been tamed for today and hung loose underneath one of her fathers' caps, the one with a red feather tucked under the brim. She was wearing a bright brown tunic with a square cut out design along the edge. Her skirt was new, she had made it especially for today. Instead of the usual appearance of being made of leftover scraps of multicolored fabric, which they often were, it was made of uniform sized squared of different colored cloth sewn together with no apparent design, which there wasn't (She thought that it had turned out rather well. It reminded her of those quilts people put on their beds in winter.). In her hand she carried her favorite pipe, the ebony one.

Aria's eyes darted around, studying everything. Her eyes were probably the most strange looking thing about her. One eye was a bright clear blue. The other was brown as chocolate. Aria knew most peoples eyes were usually the same color. However, Aria liked having different eyes from everyone else. It was like her father always said, One just being one color was so boring. That was why he was the "pied"* piper. He was never just one color, even with his clothing. He had passed on this fondness for more than one color onto his daughter, along with his amazing ability to to play the pipe. Aria was almost as good a pipe player as her father. She couldn't get crowds of animals and children to follow her like he could, but she could hypnotize animals and people with her playing.

She hoped that this place would be different. Aria had never stayed in one village for longer than a few days. The "good" people of Hamlin had given her father a reputation. When Aria was still a very small child, not even five, her widowed father had come to Hamlin to take care of their rat problem. When they had refused to pay him, they expected him take his leave. He had. With Aria perched on his shoulders and his pipe to his lips he had strolled out of the village, followed by the children. When he had returned a week later and demanded payment the good burgomaster had been all to happy to pay him even more than his original fee. Her father had only accepted what was owed him and had returned the children none the worse for the wear. They had even said it was the best fun they'd ever had. Still, rumors had spread, painting her kind and loving father as a heartless kidnapper. The children were safe and sound and there never would have been a problem had the burgomaster agreed to pay him in the first place! That her father was seen as a villain and couldn't stay in a village for more than a few days for fear of violence on the part of the villagers was not fair!

Aria worried about her father out there in the world on his own. He'd been on his own with her ever since she was three and her mother was killed. Back then her family had been a part of a bad of gypsies. Her mother had a great talent for reading palms. At a village she'd read the palm of a passing nobleman telling him that a great tragedy would befall him in two days time. At first he'd scoffed at her. When he lost all his gold two days later to robbers he blamed their band. He came back and arrested them all, including her mother. Her father had been away taking her to an apothecary to get some medicine for a fever. When the nobleman couldn't get them to tell him where his gold was. He'd killed them all, burning her mother at the stake as a witch. Her father buried her body along with the rest of their band. Then her placed Aria on his shoulder, put his pipe to his lips and walked away, continuing to live their nomadic lifestyle, all alone except for his daughter.

Aria loved her father dearly. He was the only companion she'd ever had. No one had wanted their children to play with the daughter of the Pied Piper. Everywhere Aria went, people judged her for who her father was or her "witch's eyes." She'd grown up on the road with her father, learning to make and play her own pipes, traveling the world, and making friends with wild animals. She hadn't had the most conventional education or childhood and it suited her just fine. Aria knew that she was more rough and tumble than most of the girls here, having arrived on foot instead of by carriage or means of magic, but she was excited nonetheless. At last she wouldn't have to worry about her father waking her up in the middle of the night because there was an angry mob after them. She'd sleep in a real bed and not under a blanket on the ground or in a hay bale in a random barn. She would be able to relax for once... And if anyone tried to mess with her, she thought walking by some blonde, regal princess type looking down her nose at Aria, well then... Perhaps she'd suggest to them that they should cluck like a chicken for an entire day. Aria smiled at the thought and tightened her grip on her pipe.

Presently she was on her way to her dormitory. She knew that she'd be sharing a suite with other girls and that one would be her roommate. She'd be stuck in the same room as them for two years, until she was eighteen. She really hoped that they weren't rich, stuck up snobs, like that blonde girl from earlier. She'd had that whole "so much more superior than thou" look about her. Aria hated girls like that. From the letter and word of mouth that Aria had heard, this school did enroll a LOT of royal highnesses and nobles, but they also had commoners in their number. Aria knew that considered lower than peasant a by most, being the daughter of a wandering musician and a gypsy, but she was still a person. She had rights and respects that were owed to her as such and she would take no disrespect from anyone, be they the daughter of a farmer or a grand emperor.

She examined the golden key that hung around her neck. They'd handed them out at the entrance ceremony, golden keys with fancy, curling letters on the end to state their suite numbers.They were on chains and meant to be hung around their necks, so that they didn't lose them. Aria doubted she would have even if they hadn't given her a chain to hang it on. It was the most expensive thing that she had ever received (being an infamous child snatcher and his daughter did not pay well).

She looked up to see the room that matched the number on her key. Seven. Aria fitted the key in the golden look and turned it. the door opened easily, the hinges not even squeaking. that did not prevent the four girls inside from noticing her.

One had dark skin and curls that looked like wood shavings. Her leaf green eyes stood out, preventing her from looking like she had been carved from wood. she was by far the most proper looking of the bunch in her velvety,magenta dress.Another wore a long green dress, red hair and tanned skin (although it was not as dark as Aria's). She looked as if she'd rather be anywhere else. The third girl broke the pattern with her brown eyes, although her pigtails were bright red, far brighter than the girl in green's. Red seemed her favorite color as her skirt, blouse, and under-dress were all shades of red. By far the most surprising girl was the one on the end. She had swarthy skin, deep blue eyes, and her mahogany brown hair was cut short at her jawline and tied back with a blue scarf. She wore no dress, but a merely a blouse and petticoat. To add to bizarre nature of her appearance in such a prestigious school, she held a dagger and seemed to be playing with it. Not one of these girls looked as if she belonged here. Aria liked them already. She boldly stepped forward to met her colorful new roommates. Perhaps these next few years wouldn't be as bad as she thought.

*{*Pied mean more than one color*}