Playing Tag

[tasha]

The crisp winter air embraced the small body of the ever so fabulously dressed Tasha. The unfastened cloak she wore was billowing out around her as the wind caught hold of the fabric, revealing her favorite dress. The curls that normally covered her head had been pressed into a straight lazy form. The red of her hair shone exuberantly against the black of her coat. Her pale skin seemed to be accentuated by the white of the snow falling in light flurries around her. She hadn't the ability to clear a path before her so she merely trudged through the snow in her boots as she made her way toward the fabled whomping willow. She had yet to see it first hand and had decided that she would have to see just why it was considered so vicious. Without a thought of if she wasn't supposed to be there or not she had strolled away from her last lesson of the day and found herself midway to her destination before the chill of the winter air got her. Though, she merely trudged on with her goal in mind.

Tasha's blue eyes burned brightly, even more-so as her skin seemed to almost blend in with the vibrant white backdrop. Her hair trailing behind her, speckled with snowflakes, and her cloak the same. The pink satin parasol she carried was held to her right shoulder and and she was twirling it, which made the black designs atop the parasol seem to blur. The parasol offered minimal shelter as it was for show, and she felt most comfortable with one in her hand. She had also taken to hollowing out the ends of her parasols to hide her wand. Tasha had decided she was clever for such a trick. Her hair had ribbons in it as well, though only in bows that did nothing to maintain her hair. She was dressed just like a little doll, and the light flurries and winter breeze almost seemed to buffet her small , delicate frame. Though, even with this she decided she'd play a game of tag with the Whomping Willow.

Tasha stood a rather good distance from the monster tree and decided now was the time to judge the distance. She removed the end of her parasol and out fell her wand. Catching her and, Tasha closed the parasol and put it in her bad, setting the bag on the ground. Tasha then stood looking up to the great willow with a fascinated look and smiled, her demeanor as buoyant as ever as she removed the pink ribbon from her left wrist. As she smiled at the tree she dropped the ribbon to the ground and pointed her wand, speaking the incantation. "Lemuto lepus"
After her words were said the pink ribbon was instead a small hare, rushing off toward the trunk of the whomping willow. Tasha bounced with glee as she watched her successfully transfigured ribbon dodge a few crushing blows from the tree.

Tasha stopped bouncing seeing that the hare got no closer the three yards before getting caught. The great tree flung the hare directly at the saddened first year and paused again. Tasha watched the pink rabbit hurtle toward her and raised her wand again. With a sweeping rise of her wand she closed her eyes to regain a bit of focus and brought it down with the incantation. "Revertudo"
As her eyes opened her pink ribbon flew past her ear and into the winds. Tasha sighed and her hair changed into a light blue and back as if a wave of foreign color washed over her head. Tasha looked back to the tree with a steadfast defiance and was ready to challenge it again.

"You won the first round Mr. Tree... But I'll be the winner of this match." Tasha called out to the plant.

"And don't you cry when you lose"

Her taunts obviously held no purpose but the little girl was determined to have a win. Tasha pondered what her next spell should be as she heard a crunch in the snow behind her. She didn't move from abrupt alarm but it was likely she simply had a visitor. If not that then a spectator, which would make her play harder. Tasha looked up with an excited grin wondering if she might even have received further competition in her game. Though, the fact that she wanted to win wouldn't change as long as they were playing tag.

[Keaira O'Connell]

As the walls of the castle seemed in no way to help the depressed, and generally somber mood that Keaira had been in lately it seemed that it was time to remove herself from them. After what was nearly two weeks of keeping herself secluded, Keaira knew that it was time to face the music of her life. No matter how she tried to hide there would always be the constant noise of the minds around her. There would always be the connection between her and Zane, and she would always have something to stress her out.

With such revelations surrounding her, Keaira took her cloak from its resting place at the foot of her four post bed, and threw it over her back, fastening it in place. Her feet slid gently in to a pair of black velvet boots, they zipped up the side, ending just below her knee cap, however few would see that due to her previously donned cloak. Slowly Keaira gathered about various articles of attire and one by one added them to her outfit. A green and silver scarf, an pair of black gloves that were just a touch longer than her wrists, a black and grey stripped hat, and finally her prefects badge, were all added to her ensemble. As always Keaira traveled with her single strapped book bag slung across her right shoulder, containing a multitude of things with in its magically enhanced space.

Feeling adequately prepared for what the outdoors would bring to her, Keaira slid through her common room portal, and headed up the single flight of stairs needed to escape the walls of the castle and find some measure of release from her depressive state. If only there was one less thing that she had to deal with, after all there was the complicated mess that was Alessandro and Zane, the hazards of being a shadow warrior, which included training, and generally trying not to be killed, there was school, with the OWLS coming up and her prefect duties it was a wonder she even had time for anything else, and then there was Zonko’s. Too many things perhaps for one girl to handle, and then of course when you threw in the added chaos of being a telepath, Keaira had a large portion on her plate… and maybe it was time to get rid of something.

Feeling that it was needed, Keaira had written out a note to the owners of Zonko’s explaining that with her homework, and prefect duties increasing due to the half way point of the year having just past, she would need to have her hours cut back a bit. It made the most sense to unfortunately give up partially on her job, in order to get the free time that she needed to work out her mind. She knew that it would come as a blow to her coworkers who had grown accustomed to seeing her there each day, striving to be the best employee she could, but they would get over it.

The note was safely tucked away with in her book bag, gently pressed between the pages of her Latin book so that it wouldn’t be wrinkled during the journey. Trudging through the snow slowly Keaira’s eyes scanned the grounds for students breaking school rules, or generally doing things they shouldn’t. Her footsteps each fell gently on the snow covered ground which caused a slight crumpling sound. The rhythmic sound kept her moving forward and unfortunately diverted her attention from where she was originally headed. Her mind was focused back on where she was with the sound of a loud thump. Her footsteps stopped falling as she looked in the direction of the noise. Seeing a young girl standing near the whomping willow, Keaira knew that as a prefect she needed to warn her. Moving several feet in their direction Keaira called out to the girl.

“Hey, you know that tree is dangerous. You should be careful how close you get to it. And generally the teachers get really upset when you do things to damage him.”

Whatever it was that this young girl had been doing, or planning, Keaira had intentions to stop it. The whomping willow was not a tree that should be used for target practice, and was certainly not the tree that should be purposely angered. Her intentions of delivering the note to Zonko’s had been pushed to the recesses of her mind as Keaira moved in on the girl. Sometimes it was simply bothersome to be a prefect. Surely all the students are warned about the tree, why did one of them always have to come out and test it?

[tasha]

The fascinated first year had barely just finished her first challenge with the tree when she began thinking of her second. There wasn't an intention to harm the tree, though it may be getting angry with the pestering. Tasha merely wondered if she could get a ribbon on the trunk, that was all. If she was unable to do so she would quit, but either way she had tried but nce thus far. Tasha gripped her wand for a moment and removed the ribbon on her right wrist and tossed it into the air. The snowy wind caught the ribbon and dragged it along in a wild looping motion. "Lemuto Av..."

The wind struck out toward the tree and the girl barely heard the sound of another person's voice. The sound had caught her attention mid-spell and instead of turning the ribbon into a bird the ribbon simply shot off toward the tree. Tasha turned to face the newcomer and abandoned her thoughts of the tree in that instant. A flaw in judgement perhaps, but it was how she did things. Tasha often forgot what she was doing outside of the thing before her. A kind of one track mind, with blinders and all. Though, in these instances the attention shift wasn't so wise.

As Tasha waved innocently at the person who'd called her the ribbon shot off and whisked through the branches of the brutal tree. The tree swung a branch in an attempt to swat the darting ribbon and made the ribbon head back toward Tasha. Tasha was unaware of the danger of her situation as one of the large thick branches hurtled toward her. Tasha bent over to pick up her bag, deciding to give up for the day and go inside. Her hair was speckled in white and her robes were not warming anymore. Tasha felt the chill in her fingers and all, and then she lifted her bag and saw the tree sweeping in to assault her.

The girl froze and closed her eyes. She brought her arms in across her chest and cringed, bracing for whatever was to come. Her tiny frame would in no way be able to shrug off a blow from the big willow.

[Keaira O'Connell]

Keaira’s steps did not falter as she watched the young girl ahead of her. Seeing her wand in one hand and a ribbon in the other, Keaira couldn’t help but wonder what the girl had in mind as she spoke words that were inaudible to her ears, and yet not as inaudible for Keaira’s mind. The spell had not be complete, however, based on the words she had heard, it sounded like she was going to transfigure the ribbon in to a bird. Interestingly enough Keaira wondered why she would use that spell and lose her ribbon instead of simply using an avis spell to conjure a flock of birds. Her thoughts on the matter however were interrupted as she saw the small girl turn her back to the tree and opt to wave at her.

Foolish children Keaira thought harshly as she watched the girl bend over to grab her bag, unaware of her surroundings. To allow herself to be left exposed to the tree seemed to be idiocy in Keaira’s mind, although she had learned quite quickly while she was in China to always be aware of her surroundings. After being woken up to a dagger to her throat; being brutally attacked during her ‘free time’; and every once in a while, having a friendly conversation turn in to a full out hand to hand combat situation; she had learned to be aware of what was going on around her as she never knew when the next attack…lesson would occur.

Although, she had to admit that being in those situations had taught her how to react quicker than most people could think. Seeing the tree begin to flail about Keaira deftly pulled her wand from its hidden compartment in her book bag by simply reaching her right hand over to the shoulder strap that cut across her body at a diagonal. With her wand in hand Keaira flicked it in a quick and cutting motion and pointed it at the girl. With any luck her spell would save the girl from being crushed.

“Defendo”

It wasn’t the safest move, however the use of the revulsion jinx should push the girl the few feet back that she would need in order to avoid being crushed by the tree. Plus she knew that the jinx wouldn’t hurt the little girl all that much considering it was pretty much designed to merely knock people back. It of course would do far less damage than being struck by the tree would. Moving as swiftly as she could, Keaira hurried toward the girl. If her spell did not hit the girl and send her back far enough to avoid the clobbering branch, then she would probably need some kind of medical attention. Although, Keaira certainly hoped that she would be fine, mostly because it would avoid her the unnecessary task of bringing the girl down to the hospital wing.

[tasha]

Tasha seemed to feel the entire of the world slow and act in exaggerated form. The tree sweeping it's destructive branch through the air. The flurries of snow being swept by the swooshing branch that cut through the air. The slow movement of each flurry seemed to resound in her eyes as the branch came in at a looming and slow pace. Though, as everything had slowed she couldn't react, she wasn't frozen in fear, but inability. Her mind was blank when she searched for a spell to defend herself. she had plenty of spells she'd been playing with, but other then that she was useless. this situation was screaming that her own ignorance was her undoing. In the back of her mind the racing fear of being struck by the brutal branch was dulled by the need to go and learn a way to protect her self.

Just as she had accepted that she would be out for a week because of this hit she was struck. The hit she'd felt wasn't what she'd expected, more like her whole body as suddenly rejected from the place she'd been standing at. She opened her eyes mid-strike to see the branch sweeping over her. It was an awkward feeling but the branch seemed to have just barely missed her. She flew through the air without actually being hit by the tree and she was oblivious as to what had happened. her body hit the snow and she tumbled about for a moment before stopping with her body covered in the powdery precipitation. Tasha felt the soreness of being hit, but merely a bruise or two from the tumble through the snow. She hadn't been busted up as badly as rumored of those hit by the whomping willow. In fact, she was quite okay in the way of surviving that experience.

Tasha fumbled about struggling to sit up and realized just how dizzy she was. She hadn't flown very far only a meter of so in reality. She had rolled at least that far though, so she was well out of the reach of the tree now. Her eyes were a bit out of focus from the suddenness of it all and her mind was racing in it's thoughts. She needed to know what had happened, but she had no idea where to start. The tree hadn't hit her but the blow had been real, she had totally forgotten that someone else had been there. If it was not for the light weight of Tasha body she likely would have been smacked by that branch anyway, so her luck was in her lightweight frame. She looked up from the ground that seemed to have caught her gaze and saw someone running in the distance. though, as she focused she noticed it wasn't really that far off, and that the snow had made her look more unclear.

Tasha noticed her bad and wand were still in hand and could have giggled just because it was somehow comical. She got up and her usual springy and happy glee sprouted from her face. All of her glowing nature was dragged under the fear and she spryly skipped to the coming girl. She was acting just as before, her mind saw the situation as passed, and as such she no longer needed to be fearful or sad. Tasha was actually rather pleased that she wasn't beat down by the vicious tree and instead had been saved the pain of being clobbered by a spell. She knew easily that the girl was older and had to think of a way to thank her. She whipped out her book from the inner pocket of her jacket and stopped moving as the other girl neared. Tasha consulted the book as was her usual.

"How do I thank the girl that saves my life? How do I thank the girl th.." her muttered whispers ended.

The book was quicker to answer after her talk with Kerridon in the library. So now it would answer with a fast comment rather then taking five or so repeated questions. The page this time was near the front and the writing sprawled across the page as if washed on from right to left. Tasha looked at the page and blushed, her thoughts going blank in her embarrassment and she just looked at the instruction. Seeing her savior not far away she closed the book and rushed toward her with a slime and a rosy color to her cheeks. Without a word Tasha ran up and jumped onto the girl and attempted to kiss her. Tasha had run in pretty fast and there was a slight chance she would knock her over in the process. Either way the situation was a bit different then that of the normal advice from her book.

[Keaira O'Connell]

((ugg sorry I've been taking forever, hope your not too dissapointed))

As Keaira watched the glow of the spell shoot across the grounds quicker than she could ever imagine running, she was once again reminded that without magic in her life things would have been much different for her, and this young girl. It seemed like an eternity as Keaira moved forward watching the girl, the spell, and the tree, waiting to see if her spell would have the desired effect, and push her light body out of reach of the monstrous branch. It only took a second for the spell to hit the girl, before she was flung backward though.

A small sigh of relief escaped her lips as she watched the minute girl fall backwards and the branch swoop over top of the empty space. Without slowing her pace, Keaira moved in on the girl, at the very least she planned on finding out her name and house so that she could inform the head of her house that she had been dangerously provoking the wrath of the Whomping Willow. Of course not all things that one plans come to pass. As Keaira rushed toward the girl, she noted the same thing mirrored across the way. The girl was rushing toward her.

Several things flashed through her mind as she slowed a bit, and the girl kept coming. It appeared that the girl had plans on jumping on to her, and thanking her in an over exuberant manor, something Keaira had no desire to experience. Several options soared through her head including one where she hexed the girl on the spot and simply walked away. However, by the time she had decided on a course of action that didn’t including damaging the girl worse than she already was, it was too late, and the girl was nearly upon her.

It all happened in a matter of a few seconds. First the girl was running, and then she had leapt into the air, headed for a collision with Keaira. And then Keaira stepped to the right, as the girl came flying at her, tucking her head down and out of the way as the girl, flew through the air just to the left of her. Keaira had a momentarily flicker of a thought to reach out and grab the girl before she landed face first on the ground where Keaira had just been. But the thought disappeared quickly, and Keaira simply turned to watch to see if she would manage to recover quickly enough before she managed to embarrass herself any more than she already had.

[tasha]

Tasha's thank you was skillfully dodged and she was allowed to simply fly by. She had literally jumped, and as such she was expecting to have run into another body, but now she was simply flying along unbalanced. Her body was more or less aimed headfirst into the snow and she closed her eyes. The girl landed flat against the ground and a bit of snow flew up at her sides as she landed. For a moment Tasha didn't move and merely lay unmoving. Then Tasha decided to push herself up and onto her bottom. She looked up at Keaira with a slightly disappointed look on her face. Rejection was always bad, but she'd been allowed to fall in the snow. Her normally pale skin was rosy red from the snowy collision with the earth.

The thought of being embarrassed never really came across her head, as she wasn't feeling it at all. Instead she was a bit sad that she hadn't been caught. Though, she couldn't truly expect a stranger to save her twice in one day could she. If anything it was fair that she had been allowed to fall. Now she felt a bit less worried about repaying the stranger. Tasha rose to her feet and brushed the snow away. The white snow clung to her robes and gave her a serious chill, the girl didn't want to play anymore. The cold was really effecting her now.

"Well.. now I'm freezing. I wasn't hit, but now I'll get frostbite..."

Tasha sighed shaking the snow from the fabric as best she could. There was nothing else she could do just yet to dry herself. She looked up expectantly to the obviously more experienced student and then back to her robes. The feeling of being small and incompetent fell into her mind when she thought of how little she knew. Tasha hated not having helpful spells, there was nothing more insulting.

"Could you.. maybe.. help me out again?"

Tasha asked, a bit of nervousness in her voice as she asked. She was unsure of the girl and didn't know if the request would become a joke to the girl.

[Keaira O'Connell]

As the scene unfolded in front of her, Keaira had to work to suppress a small laugh at the younger girls failed attempt to tackle her. It was amusing as all hell to see the slightest flash of shock that covered the girls face before her eyes were closed tightly. Keaira made no move to continue with her days’ event, nor to help the younger girl off the ground after she fell, she simply waited and watch as the girl took the time to sit up, and slowly stand. After a few seconds Tasha began to brush at her now soaked clothes, and Keaira couldn’t help but feel a slight pang of guilt that she had caused that.

It was not that Keaira was overly kind, nor did she have such a strong sense of guilt at the girls own faults, but whatever the case was, she let out a long sigh, and pointed her wand at the younger girl. The spell she had chosen to help the girl had a pretty complex wand pattern, but it was one of the few nonverbal spells she had learned. With the wand pointed at Tasha’s clothing, a stream of hot air, flew from Keaira’s wand onto Tasha’s clothes. In a few seconds, the clothes would be completely dry, and warm, as well as anything else the girl was carrying. Of course Keaira had to walk a complete circle around the girl to make sure every part of her clothing was dry, but it was still easily and quickly done. And when it was Keaira dropped her arm down to her side and looked the girl over.

“Is that better, Everything dry? Well, do me a favor, and stay away from that tree. That tree is dangerous and more than a few students have found themselves in the hospital wing for a week or two because of it. Don’t let me catch you near it again, or I will report you to Professor Archer. What’s your name?”