"Keep up!" Constans laughed in reply and picked up speed, a burst of enthusiasm in his tone. There were so many things he wasn't allowed to do in the tower, so many rules, but he could still run. He skidded across the flagstones on his padded shoes, using his momentum to ricochet off the door into the boy's apprentice dormitory.
He caught himself on the post of a bunk-bed before he could pitch forward, grinning madly while looking up to take his bearings. The room appeared empty at first, since naturally most of the apprentices who bunked there spent their afternoons in practice or study, which was why it startled Constans when he noticed three pairs of eyes staring back at him in veiled surprise. His own surprise lasted only the split second until he recognized the three boys draped sullenly over one of the bunks near the bath-room; Ronal, Alpin and Carrick, doing their best to look as jaded and disinterested as possible. The three of them perked up at Constans' entrance, shifting to attention while still paradoxically trying to look cool and detached. Constans surveyed his troops with an amused sort of pride, a part of his mind paying attention still to the sound of Aurin jogging down the corridor toward the room.
Alpin and Carrick were nearly the same age, from Highever, and had been joined at the hip since being dumped off here together in the aftermath of the Blight. Ron, the runt of this pack of unruly human boys, was only about nine years old and had been at the tower a little under a year, but followed the other two around in a constant state of hero worship. Since Constans had arrived at the tower a few months prior the older boy had been absorbed quickly into their group, his de-facto leadership only encouraging their already-extant tendency towards delinquency.
Constans made a mischievous face at his gang and gestured wildly for them to hide themselves; in unison all three slid or jumped off the edge of the bunk on which they perched, scattering the playing cards they’d been wasting their time on and slipping under beds or behind trunks. The boys disappeared just in time for Aurin's footsteps to reach the doorway.
"I'm sure someone has a cup or something," Constans replied to the earlier question flippantly, smiling at Aurin as he shoved himself off from the bedrail and wandered toward the baths. "If there's not one on the vanity there's always some under the beds, since everybody steals them from the cafeteria."