As the sun gently warmed the lawns outside the mansion, a lone female strolled across the quad quickly.  She was quite a pretty young woman, petite and slender.  Long dark brown hair waved down her back and flowed gently behind her even though there was not a breath of wind.  She wore a pink striped top over an above the knee white pleated skirt,  a pair of white Converse finished the look.  She held a basket in her hand, making her way toward the mansion's extensive rose garden.  She admired the sweet scent of the flowers as she passed, a smile spreading over her glossy pink lips.  "Ahh...now this feels like home..." She said as she sat her basket down and closed her eyes.  The quad, which recently had not seen a hint of a breeze suddenly came to life, a gentle wind picking up and wafting the perfume of the rose garden across the entire lawn.  She opened her eyes and went to work, tending the garden while singing softly in what sounded like those who could recognize it, like Korean.  She snipped any blooms that seemed to be marring the petaled glory of the rose bushes, wistfully sitting them aside.  The more pretty blooms, she cut and tossed into her basket, prepping them for arranging later in her room to brighten up what she saw as a rather dry sort of place.  She kept on with her work happily, the breeze she had created gently wafting both the lovely scent of spring and the perfume of the flowers to any passers by.

Elizabeth relished these summer days. There were far fewer classes than during the typical semester, just summer school or a few elective courses some of their year-round boarders chose to take to fill their days. That meant Liz had far more free time and far less stress since many of her students were gone for the summer.

The blonde only felt guilt for a moment before banishing it with a grin. Nope, she’d earned this break. On top of the staff being somewhat stretched thin, there had also been moments where Liz had had to step in for other teachers, as the ones that were also X-Men got called away for other engagements. Adding to that, Liz also lived at the mansion and so dealt with students and possible issues all day long. And that didn’t even take into account the other crazy things that kept happening, like when he’d ended up forestalling a bank robbery.

No no, this was a day off for her and she was making the most of it!

And by making the most of it, she meant doing as little as possible.

Liz slowed from her jog, having finished her several laps around the mansion’s perimeter, her sneakers crunching on a gravel path. She wound up in a walk, panting, sweating, a bit of fire in her legs, but also high on endorphins. Her pet African grey parrot took her slowness as a sign he could finally descend on her and use her shoulder as a perch, his claws only barely nicking her skin. Likewise, her German Shepherd came running over to her side. Both her boys had been happy for the exercise as well, something they didn’t always get enough of during the semester, but Liz was trying to make up for it now.

“Good boys,” she murmured, patting her dog’s head and channeling some of her love into both of them. In that moment of mental contact, she caught the most delightful of smells. “Oh!” she said in surprise. “It seems the roses are in full bloom! Let’s go check them out, why don’t we?” Her pets didn’t answer or respond, but they accompanied her as she set off toward the rose garden, which wasn’t terribly far away.

The trio quickly espied a woman working in the garden so Liz approached to within hailing distance. “Lovely day for gardening, isn’t it?” she said brightly.

Her work seemed to entrance her, her basket overflowing with red and pink blooms cut at varying lengths.  She had finished pruning all of the blooms that were less than perfect, the rose bushes now blazing with color and scent.  

The woman's voice seemed to rip Mina from her trance, the young girl jumping a bit at the sudden sound.  The gentle breeze that warmed the air and spread the lovely scent now whipped up quickly, blowing all of the blooms she had cut from her basket and across the lawn.  Mina tried to catch a few of them while simultaneously trying to control the reaction of her powers to being startled.  Anyone in the nearby area would have been buffeted by the wind, whipping hair back and stinging eyes.  The strong winds tore through the rose garden, beginning to lift one of the bushes from the ground, the roots ripping up from the soil.  

Mina knew she had to concentrate to avoid destroying part of the beautiful gardens.  She closed her eyes and focused as best she could, the wind slowly calming down to nearly nothing.  As she looked around, her cheeks turned bright red.  One of the rose bushes was leaning over, its roots exposed and nearly no blooms left on any of the bushes within the area she had been working.  "Oh no..." she said softly, running over to the destroyed rose bush and bending down to try and put it right.  She tried to sit the bush back in it's place, pricking her fingers on the thorns.  With a wince, she let the bush drop back down onto the lawn, looking up at Liz. 

"I'm sorry...you startled me a bit and I do not have full control over my mutation...you are not hurt are you?"  Mina looked quite embarrassed a few drops of blood rolling over the pale skin of her fingers and arm.  The lawn was covered at this point with pink an red petals, which to some would look quite beautiful, but to Mina was a show of weakness.   

Elizabeth sowed a friendly question and reaped a hurricane.

“Nico!” she shouted as her feathered friend was flung off her shoulder, his talons scoring two bright red lines in her skin along the way where her tank top didn’t cover her. The parrot let out a startled squawk and opened his wings, catching the aerial upheaval and using it to float away, well clear of the sudden windstorm.

Debris hit her eyes and Liz hissed and immediately covered her face as her eyes closed in automatic response. Likewise, her dog turned against the wind and pressed up against her legs, but steadying her and rocking her at the same time. She could feel the wind stinging his sensitive nose.

Then just as quick as it began, it ended. Liz’s ponytail settled down, a good chunk of it having escaped her scrunchie and Nico squawked again as the updraft died off. He soared around until he landed on a young tree, well within sight, but out of range of the effects of the sudden windstorm the other woman had obviously called up. He gave her the evil eye.

Liz herself put on a strained smile and knelt down to ruffle her dog’s ears, trickling soothing feelings of calm and serenity into him, to take an edge of his confusion and sudden alertness. “Well, you’re in a good place at least,” she remarked wryly, wiping an eye and surveying the damage to the rose garden. “No, we’re all fine. Just surprised. I guess that’s what I get for starting a conversation by talking about the weather.” She quirked her lips in a smile and winked at the woman.

“My name’s Liz,” she said by way of introduction. “This boy here is Zorro. The parrot back yonder is Nico. Don’t worry about him, he looks at everyone like that.” She didn’t need to see him to know the daggers he was glaring at the woman. She could feel his intentions and Liz decided it was for the best that nobody else could read his mind.

“So you’re new here, I take it?”

The young woman stood up and dusted herself off, smoothing her skirt over her legs.  "I do so apologize and beg your forgiveness...I am Mina Park.  It's lovely to meet you Liz."  She glanced over at the destroyed rose bush and the others that one were so colorful now bare and green.  Oddly even though the wind had nearly tore everything apart around them, Mina's clothes and hair were in near perfect form.  She frowned as she once again tried to right the rose bush she had ruined.  "I suppose I shouldn't be that broken hearted about destroying such a thing of beauty...I hear tell there are mutants here at this school who could put this right in an instant..."  Mina smiled and nodded as she was introduced to each animal.

She smiled and approached Zoro, kneeling down.  "Hello there Zoro.  I do apologize if I've scared you." She stood and spied the red marks on Liz's shoulder.  "Oh no!  You're hurt!  We have to get you to the infirmary!"  Mina took the young woman's hand and pulled toward the mansion, completely forgetting the mess she had left behind.  

Liz waved a hand and spoke automatically. “Oh no, don’t worry about it, I’m sure it’s nothing.” Honestly, her shoulder wasn’t in that much pain. She’d had worse, for sure, and many memories from animals who’d been through so much more. There wasn’t any point in making someone she’d just met feel bad.

“It’s nice to meet you as well, Mina,” she said warmly, looking over the devastation with a hint of amusement. The mansion had seen so much worse. This wasn’t even in the top ten of the worst things that had happened to the rose garden. Fortunately, they had great gardening staff.

“Yeah, we try to take care of things around here, but we understand when powers get a little hectic,” she said, shrugging in a “what can you do” fashion. “But you’re right, there are several around here, professionals and amateurs who can fix this.” And clearly Mina was new, if she didn’t know that for sure. Well, that answered that at least.

Then Mina was moving like the wind and Liz blinked several times as her wrist was snagged. She was pulled along a few seconds before she caught up with the situation and pulled back. “Whoa, hold up,” she said, swiftly hitting Zorro with a wave of calm to quell his burgeoning growl as a person potentially assaulted his mistress. “It’s really okay, nothing serious,” she said, swiftly sliding her hand out of the other woman’s grip. “No need to rush or anything. I’m not going to die, it’s just a scratch. You’re good, no real harm done.” She smiled again. “Well, no real harm done to anything that’s not a rose bush.”

Zorro stalked up beside her and stared at Mina calculatingly. Liz soothed him with another mental caress and patted his head, putting on another smile for Mina. “I take it you’re a new student here then?”