Adjusting to Dorm Life

Liliana actually snorted and then laughed at Finch's dumb bird comment. It was probably the first real laugh since her parents had decided she'd come to the school and left her to attend to her grandparents.

"Yes, crows are amazingly smart animals,' she agreed, glancing at the large black bird on her hand, who was eyeing her now, tilting his head to the side, like he understood everything she was saying.

"No, not so much pet birds," Liliana admitted as she smiled at the crow, "More like an affinity with certain birds... crows, sparrows, ravens, owls..." she explained as she looked at Finch again, not sure she made sense or if her dorm parent even knew what she was talking about.

"Some crows are spirit guides, psychopomps, like me... they, we, help move souls along when creatures pass on to the next life."

"Are you sure about that? That they don't deal with souls?" Liliana asked Finch with a small smile as she looked at the crow on her hand and gave it a quick wink, to which it flapped its wings at her and cawed as it took off.

Liliana burst out laughing. She liked her dorm parent, Mr. Finch. "Crows and ravens are also wily creatures. I find. They will steal a shiny object that takes their fancy and replace it with a rock, leaf or old bottle cap, or get revenge unexpectedly for a perceived slight," she said turning to look at the birds, hands behind her back.

"Do, no, are the birds the same from where you are from?" Liliana asked with real interest, knowing, having heard, he was one of the people who had come over across the dimensional portal from a place called Halcyon.

Liliana nodded, she did know that. All animals had accents, the same way all living things had souls... or mostly. There were a few creatures, beings that were supposedly soulless, but she refused to consider them at that moment. The idea always left her feeling disturbed and somewhat scared.

Not really thinking too much about the sudden change in topic, maybe the idea of soulless creatures had distracted her, Liliana said without thinking too much, "I am from out there originally, beyond the Veil, what they call the Narrow Reality," she explained. "I am from a place called Aberystwyth, it's a coastal town in northern Wales."

Liliana frowned slightly, not at the chanting ... which was funny in its own way, but at the rather odd comment of "not having visited in his world".

"Can I ask you something, Mr. Finch?" Liliana said respectfully as she placed her hands behind her back, smiling widely when he stated that birds were good for keeping tabs on wayward students.

"Was your world similar to this one?" she wanted to know. She had heard a few strange comments here and there, over the last week or so, of the world the new arrivals had come from.