<div class="floatright">(http://i.imgur.com/FdBqxim.jpg)</div><br/>The Headmistress continued speaking as she walked, and it occurred to Pipa that if this woman, in charge of all of the women who would be training here, had only been here four years ago it was entirely possible they were very close to the same age.  From the corner of her eye she watched the pale skinned beauty and tried to determine her age.  It was possible that she would have been selected at 16 and even entered into the dungeon before her seventeenth year, which would only make her a year or two older than Pipa now.  But that didn't seem quite right, while the headmistress looked young certainly, there was an air of maturity to her that went beyond the physical youth.  Still, the odds were very slim that she was out of her middle twenties since she was, as far as Pipa could tell, a human.  Then again, everyone knew that surviving the dungeon changed a woman forever.  The majority of women who entered did not survive to reach the reaping level and make the choice to exit the dungeon.  Of those that did exit the dungeon, only those with a manageable amount of corruption could re-join the mortal realms.  Headmistress Ravensoul must be one of those who escaped with little visible corruption.  Then again, the sight of bare flesh under her cloak, just a flash of it, suggested that even she had not escaped untouched by the dungeon's corrupting influence.  Pipa could speculate all she wanted but it would probably be wiser to focus on what the headmistress was saying as they were almost across the courtyard.<br/><br/><strong>"...druidic magic,"</strong>she said in a tone that suggested she'd had this conversation before.  Pipa had missed the first part of the statement, but was able to pick up what the headmistress was saying easily enough.<strong> "Which let me find food and water on my terms.  Survival is crucial of course, and while the magic of the dungeon very rarely punishes a contestant to the point where she starves or grows too dehydrated to continue, it can set up rather nasty surprises around what might look like an easy meal or drink.  I think more girls fall because they don't think about their next meal or having enough water, then get desperate when faced with a chance to..."</strong><br/><br/>They had reached the building and from behind her one of the two acolytes, the male of the two, cleared his throat politely.  Headmistress Ravensoul looked at him for a moment then back at Pipa,<strong> "I'm sorry I do tend to go on.  I shall leave you here in the care of the priest and the acolytes."</strong>She leaned in and kissed Pipa on each cheek quickly, but then stopped for a moment and inhaled sharply through her nose.  Pulling back away there was a twinkle in her eyes and a grin on her lips that caused the diamond stud to glitter.<strong>"Why my young contestant, you are still a virgin aren't you?  You wouldn't be the first girl who came here thinking she could fool her way past the priest's magics, but you know we couldn't allow it don't you?"</strong>Her grin was matched by the fact that the headmistress leaned away from Pipa, her eyes scrutinizing the quarter orc, an action that again caused her robe to gap slightly open down the middle.  This time Pipa got more than a glancing look at the thin ribbon of pale flesh beneath and knew for a fact that save the cloak and the wide leather collar, the headmistress was nude.  The slight glint of a belly ring and shadow of dark pubic hair was more than enough confirmation.<br/><br/>There was something in the way the woman looked at Pipa that screamed that the raven haired woman could either smell or sense the sex on her.  Pipa's instincts also told her that this might be her first test, lying to the woman now might not go well.  But Pipa was fairly certain that she knew what being a virgin meant in terms of the Dungeon, and as far as she knew she hadn't broken any rules.