Seeking Adventure (maybe a little trouble as well) on Pecari Commons

Elijah Errant

November 06, 2011 12:24 AM

Seeking Adventure (maybe a little trouble as well) by Elijah Errant

His arm slung in a cast, Elijah frowned a bit, unused to having to scratch his head with his right hand. The itch traveled behind his left ear, and awkwardly the fingers of his right hand followed after it, seeking the source of his irritated distraction. If nothing else, Elijah wished that he could return in time just so he could raise his right arm in alarm to defend his face as the black-feathered Hippogriff shrieked above him, her claws descending in one great flare of darkness, and when he awoke, blood. Elijah harbored no ill feelings toward the beast; Sombra had been feeling understandably moody since he’d accidentally run into her on his broom. However, her anger only a week before school started resulted in him being without his wand arm for at least another week (that was okay, he didn’t actually know any spells and he doubted he couldn’t at least grapple with his other hand for a few beginning classes) and perhaps missing out on Quidditch Try-Outs (not okay, he would have to write back to Grandfather and plead with him to slaughter Sombra out of vengeance).

The excitement of a new year lingered in the air, though most students had gone up the stairs to bed. Elijah sat on the floor, legs extended in front of him on the rug, back leaning against the couch while the fire flickered. ‘Finally here.’ He’d known about Sonora for a few years now. Now that Julio was Ambassador, it was decided that Elijah and his sister spend most of the year with the parent who could actually spend some time with him. Leaving his half-sister Carmen behind in Madrid, Elijah and Yasma went to live with their mother in one of the Spanish settled communities deep inside the Grand Canyon where the muggles couldn’t reach. There were a few Native Tribes that knew about them, some muggle and some magical, but they hardly ever bothered one another. Elijah’s form was highlighted by the fire, the flames playing with his shadow, curving and twisting him, moving him like a puppet. He smiled, shifting, cradling his arm against his chest. ‘It’s nice here.’ Sonora didn’t feel so far away from home. He was still in Arizona, and though he missed Spain, Julio had seemed to move on with his new wife (his third wife) and his new daughter. As long as Elijah knew his father wasn’t lonely, he didn’t have to worry about him, think about him at all. His mother and Yasma had each other and grandfather. For once, no worrying. Elijah could just think about himself.

‘… I’m bored.’ Nothing to worry about, no one else to think about besides himself. He was bored, he needed something to do. Besides the throbbing in his arm, anxiety pumped through his veins. An adventure needed to be around the corner, he wasn’t used to sitting still, not during the night. Spread out on a rock, his bare feet dipping into a rare spring running through the cracks, eyes closed and a blade of grass entwined around a thin caramel treat to suck on, the hot Arizona sun beating down against his skin, a mix of murmured Spanish and indigenous languages swirling around his head. But the night meant broomsticks, thestrals whose wings beat against his legs, gripping onto the flesh of a creature he couldn’t even see, or Hippogriffs who rose high, taking no heed from his orders, simply swerving right and left at their own whims. ‘They better have Hippogriffs around this place.’

Bored of just staring into the flames, hoping for enlightenment, Elijah pressed his right palm against the carpeted floor, slightly bewildered that having one arm stuck in an angular position would affect his ability to stand so much. Leaning a little against the couch, he finally fully stood, stretching his good arm, twisting his back, loosening his body, before he paused in mid motion, staring up the stairs leading to both the boys’ dormitories… and the girls’. “Well…” He reasoned quietly to himself, a grin slowly spreading across his face, the fire illuminating the brightness of his teeth, contrasting sharply with the darkness of his deeply tanned skin. “If they really didn’t want me to break the rules, they wouldn’t have them in the first place.” That logic seemed sound to him, so he made his way up the stairs, one hand on the banister, unsure when the supposed enchantment would take place. He made it to the top before turning toward the Forbidden part of the dorms. One step forward… the other step forward… right… left… right… left… right…

There was a sound, and Elijah froze, one foot raised in mid step. “Ah…” Someone – he was guessing, based on brilliant observation, that it was a girl – was approaching, still hidden from clear view by the darkness of the corridor. “Hola.” He took a step back, a grin still playing on his lips though he wasn’t particularly excited to get in trouble. ‘Let this not be a prefect. Or worse, a lame tattle-tale.’ He only wanted a bit of adventure. “Nice night, yeah?” He wondered how far he would have gotten, how far he still might go, before the enchantment would have attempted to dump him back where he started.

0 Elijah Errant Seeking Adventure (maybe a little trouble as well) 0 Elijah Errant 1 5

Waverly Canterbury

November 06, 2011 10:32 AM

No trouble for you! by Waverly Canterbury

Waverly had been enthralled by everything as they had walked to the common room. Everything was so interesting and so...magical! She could hardly believe she was magical still. She had been quick to go up to her room after their head of house had dismissed them, but now that it was night, she had changed into her pajamas and was ready for sleep...if sleep would come to her. She lied in bed for quite awhile, too excited to sleep. So finally she decided to go exploring. She knew that curfew was at ten o'clock, but it wouldn't hurt to explore a little bit, would it? To look at the portraits? Maybe she could explore the common room.

Waverly got up and pulled on her robe, covering her matching top and bottom yellow pajamas. She usually had her long brown hair loose, and it was uncombed and slightly tangled, but it didn't matter if no one was downstairs. She felt excited. She really wanted to see everything and know everything about this place. It was all so exciting! Waverly could hardly contain herself.

She slipped on her slippers and opened the door quietly so she wouldn't wake her roommates. And then she crept down the cooridor to the main stairs, she saw the light from the fireplace, indicating that someone was there already. And she came face-to-face with a boy. Her heart jumped a little in surprise, but she frowned. No, she was not about to go anywhere. She thought of a reason for being out of bed quickly before realizing that he had been heading towards the girls' dorms.

Waverly put her hands on her hips and frowned at him. "Just where do you think you're going?" she asked. If he thought he was going to go to the girls' dorms, he would've just been sent back down! Silly boy. Ew, why would he want to peek at the girls sleeping? That was weird. She shook her head and then saw his arm. "What happened to your arm?" she asked suddenly.

19 Waverly Canterbury No trouble for you! 218 Waverly Canterbury 0 5

Elijah

November 08, 2011 2:22 AM

I always find a way to have some. by Elijah

Tilting his head, dark brown eyes slightly narrowing in the darkness, Elijah took another few experimental steps toward the girl, his body heightened in anticipation of being magicked away. "Pardon," He flashed a grin at her. "But where I come from, we introduce ourselves before we start interrogating one another." Interrogating was the newest word he learned from passing strangers, and had successfully found a way to use in every single conversation so far. Actually, his mother's village was filled with overly suspicious characters who would rather interrogate and attack any passing strangers with questions rather than ask for names. And his father's family was filled with individuals who simply tended to forget propriety. "Jorge Garcia." Extending his right hand and the name of his fellow first year Pecari, Elijah waited for the girl to respond with her name. As he didn't feel like shaming the Errantez name (it was still odd for him to be using the condensed American form of the name) on his first night, he hoped instead to temporarily mislead the girl for as long as he could.

"I got caught in the middle of a duel." He affected a somber look, pausing for both dramatic effect and to clamp his teeth down hard on his tongue, preventing the corners of his mouth from rising any higher. "A dark lord named Gregorio Peckish kidnapped my mother from our village. I went after him along with my brothers and uncles and in the middle of fighting one of his spells hit me. It was a whole big thing, you'll probably hear about it in the papers soon. It happened yesterday." He took another experimental step forward. "So now I'm asking the questions. The guardians of this school sent for me. I'm a secret agent working to make sure things inside run smoothly. You were going to the boys dormitories, weren't you?" Elijah spoke accusingly. "That really is a serious offense.”

Eljah let the words simply flow out, nothing reining them in, his dark eyes brightened in the darkness, seeking out expressions and meanings in the girl’s face. Was she buying what he was saying, was she impressed by his lies, convinced by his delightful deceit? Maybe his accent that painted the syllables in trace vestiges of Spanish would distract her. “Lucky for you, I’m easily bought off. Do you have some chocolate or something?” His tone suddenly took on a slight eager whine, unconsciously imitating a puppy. “My arm was hurting and shaking all through dinner. I couldn’t eat a thing.”

0 Elijah I always find a way to have some. 0 Elijah 0 5

Waverly

November 08, 2011 4:03 PM

You are much more mischievious than you let on by Waverly

Waverly narrowed her green eyes at him. She folded her arms across her chest. As soon as he introduced himself as "Jorge Garcia," she knew he was lying. For one thing, she had sat with said first-year at the opening feast. After that, she couldn't believe another word. How could an eleven-year-old go after a dark lord? It was silly, his whole story. She didn't know why everyone thought she was so gullible, being a muggle-born. She'd show them! "You were going to the girls' dorm!" she scowled. She pointed at him accusingly. "You're coming in this direction right now!"

Waverly crossed her arms again. "And for your information, I was going down into the common room. If I had chocolate, I would've eaten it all by myself!" She did not like arrogant magical people, that was for sure, and it was a mix of being kept from going down and exploring the castle corridors past curfew and being offended that he thought she would be gullible enough to buy his story that fueled her anger. She was usually a very nice girl, but had enough of a backbone from the teasing she had received in elementary school.

"Humph." She stalked past the rude boy, calling behind her, "I hope you get hexed when you try to sneak a peek at the girls!" She didn't know how bad hexes could go, but she knew they were pretty bad. Not that she really knew any hexes herself. She didn't like the magical people that tried to fool her into believing stupid things about magic.

Waverly went down to the common room and sat down on the couch, still a little angry. Of course, as she looked at the magical items of the room, her mood was quickly restored. As much as she didn't like the arrogant folk here, she loved everything else. And she'd win them over. She'd know all about magic after she finished her first year here!

0 Waverly You are much more mischievious than you let on 0 Waverly 0 5

Elijah

November 12, 2011 2:02 PM

And you are much angrier. by Elijah

"I go where the wind takes me." Elijah shrugged. "I can't help it if the girls' dorms are in my way." The girl seemed really angry at him. The corners of his mouth began to twitch, a smile spreading and provoked by her rage which seemed rather out of place at the moment. He let out a laugh at her next comment. "That's called gluttony, Querida." She pushed past him but it took only a half-second's hesitation before he was following her down the stairs. She sat down on the coach. He jumped off the last step and plopped himself down on the soft carpeted floor, his back to the fire, the flickering light highlighting his outline, shadowing the rest if him except his grin that was still bright. 'Why sneak a peek at girls when you're right here to entertain me?' He stayed silent for a few moments, easing into the carpet as best he could, his arm stiff and uncomfortable from the motion of the jump.

"You know, you still haven't told me your name." He continued to gaze up at her. "I mean, it's only polite." Until then he was content with naming her himself. 'Chica Enojado.' He couldn't help feeling a bit disgruntled that she would actually want him to be hexed. Hadn't he given her a great performance? And his arm really did hurt, shouldn't she have been caring after him? 'Maybe she thinks the cast is fake or something?' He waited for his arm to give a shudder, like it had during dinner. Little tremors of pain spiking his blood and the surface of his skin, his muscles trembling. 'Oh great, when I need you most, you're actually good.' He glared at his currently non-existent pain. "Oh!" He clutched his arm suddenly, rocking his body backwards, writhing in agony at the girl's feet. "Get a healer! Get a healer! I'm dying, I'm certain of it!"

Continuing the act, he allowed his face to contort as horrifyingly as his body was, cradling his left arm as he spazzed on the floor, waiting for the girl's concerned attention. Moans of exaggerated pain escaped his lips, his dark brown eyes half lidded as he tried to get a peek of how his performance was affecting Chica Enojado. This wasn't exactly the adventure he had envisioned not five minutes ago when he made his way through the dangerous magical wards that protected the Girls' Dormitories, but this was pretty fun too. All at once, a dramatic stillness came over his body, his gasp of pain cut through, as if all the breath he had in him couldn't produce a full sound. Closing his eyes fully, completely at Chica Enojado's mercy, Elijah rolled his head to one side, let his heart rate (which had increased in the excitement) slow down and sucked in his breath, refusing to breathe, and played dead.

0 Elijah And you are much angrier. 0 Elijah 0 5

Waverly

November 13, 2011 4:27 PM

Got that right! by Waverly

Waverly heard the boy come down the stairs and frowned. Gluttony. Whatever. Waverly folded her arms across her chest, unsure of what "Querida" meant. It was unfair that he got to speak another language. It was probably an insult. Unfair! She refused to look at him as he lied down on the carpet (fluffy, soft carpet), opting instead to look at the fire and observe the room.

"My name's Waverly," she said stiffly. "And you didn't tell me your real name either. It's only fair that I told you mine." She hoped that not all Pecari's were like this. She'd just have to get used to all kinds of people, she guessed. Waverly sighed. She was a little hot-headed sometimes, that was true. The boy's sudden cry startled her and she looked at him, watching in surprise and then shock as he began to writhe on the floor, moaning and clutching his arm. Well goodness, had he hurt it somehow doing something stupid? She didn't know, but he was asking for a healer! Oh, what was a healer again? A doctor? Who was the healer here?

Waverly couldn't think of what to do until he seemed to pass out. Not being a nurse or a doctor at all, she went to him, frantic and unsure of what to do. She pressed her hand against his chest, feeling his heart beat, and then frowned. What was she supposed to do now? She pushed down on his chest like she had seen in movies, and then remembered that she should probably check to see if he was breathing first. So she put her hand over his mouth and under his nose to see if there was any air coming out. Didn't seem like it. So Waverly pressed down on his chest again, carefully avoiding his arm.

"Oh, what am I supposed to do?" she asked herself, slightly panicking. She didn't want to go out because it was past curfew (all thoughts of exploring the castle forgotten by now, of course,), and anyway, she didn't know where the nurse was. What would her mother do right now? "Oh," Waverly whispered, "wake up!" She pressed against his chest again and then put her hand over his mouth to check if he was breathing. Her first day here and already she had to deal with a hurt boy. She had broken her arm once, but didn't know that it could make someone pass out from pain. Maybe magical injuries were more painful? The thought made her shiver.

0 Waverly Got that right! 0 Waverly 0 5

Elijah

November 14, 2011 10:56 PM

Riding the Wave by Elijah

Biting his tongue to keep the laughter at bay, Elijah felt his chest rise a little beneath the pressure of Waverly’s hands, the hilarity of the moment filling his body like hot air. He was sure that he could levitate on his own, no need for magic, the boundaries of air no longer applying to him. He’d discovered the secret of true, boundless, natural flight. ‘Provoking Waverly.’ His levitating wavered, however, as her panicked tones draped over what should have been pure comedy. ‘Awww,’ He felt a rush of empathy for the girl, and then sudden delight. ‘She cares about me! Hah! I knew she wouldn’t have really wanted me hexed.’ Her hands moved from his chest to hover over his mouth. Elijah relaxed his face a little more and let his breathing follow through, his breath slipping through his lips, meeting Waverly’s hand. ‘Uh oh.’ Not far behind his breath, he could feel the laughter building, hot air causing his insides to levitate, everything building pressure, his dark caramel skin reddening even in the shadows cast by the fire. He had to let it out, or else he’d explode. Elijah didn’t try to fight it.

In Puerto Rico, on vacation with his cousins, he had swum out with Niccolò, Inigo, and Marcos, each of them gripping to rafts their fathers had made for them, bobbing up and down with the shallow waves, giggling with their mouths half in the air, half drowned in salt water. Sudden shouts on the beach turned their heads, and they squinted in confusion as their mothers and grandmothers waved their arms in the air, panicked as if they themselves were drowning in the sand, and their fathers and grandfathers cupped their hands over their mouths, leaning forward and shouting unintelligible things at them. Struggling to make out what they were saying, it took them a few moments to realize what was quickly creeping up on them. Elijah had turned, eyes that had been wide with childish pleasure now turning into a gasping fear as the biggest arching wave he’d ever seen came crashing down on him and his cousins. It had hurt to fight against the wave. Now, older and fully mature, Elijah knew it was always best to just go along with the tide, never resist, accept the waves. Ride along with it.

He rode along, now, with his releasing breath and sudden laughter, his body shooting up suddenly and his chin brushed Waverly’s hand that partially blocked him, and his lips swiftly found her cheek as he laughed again against her skin. “Hahahahaha!” His laughter lived separately from his body, from his mind. Like flames they needed only a spark before they found their own independence. “I can’t believe you fell for that!” He grinned brightly up at her, balancing as well as he could on one arm, the other still cradled against his chest. He could still feel the warmth of her hands.

0 Elijah Riding the Wave 0 Elijah 0 5

Waverly

November 15, 2011 2:28 PM

Ooh! by Waverly

Waverly's hand was over his mouth when he burst out laughing, and then she felt a kiss on her cheek and her face turned bright red. Embarrassed, mortified, and feeling slightly violated, she stood up, furious. "How dare you! You made me think that you were hurt! How could you pretend to do something like that?!" She could feel the magic running in her blood now, strangely, and an armchair suddenly flipped over onto its back. The armchair flipping reminded her of school when she had set the grass surrounding a former bully on fire with her accidental, raging magic. And she would have been fearful of the same thing happening, except that she wasn't paying attention to that.

Being bullied in elementary school had made her a shy girl, but she had overcome that when her magic came in to play. It had confused her greatly, at first, but it scared the bullies off, so she was grateful. And once they were gone, Waverly's real person came out and she had blossomed into an excited, outgoing girl. She cared about people, but she hated it when she was embarrassed. She never knew what to do with herself. She just wanted to crawl under a rock and hide right now, hide from this boy who had used her instinct to try and save a "dying" boy. Ugh! Stupid, stupid! She couldn't believe she had fallen for that.

"You are so--so--!" She had no words in her anger, but instead shouted, "You're such a stupid boy!" and then stomped up the stairs to the girls' dorm.

0 Waverly Ooh! 0 Waverly 0 5

Elijah

November 15, 2011 5:38 PM

Buenas Noches! by Elijah

The air rippled with a sort of electricity. Elijah blinked up as Waverly stood, briefly imagining thunderbolts streaming from her hands and those glaring angry eyes of hers. 'Mother can have my sickles, Yasma can have my rat, Abuelo can have - ' His thoughts were caught short by the armchair near them flipping over backwards; a hard THUMP. Pleasantly surprised that she was not going to kill him, Elijah sat up cross legged, continuing to smile at her, his head tilting to the side as her face contorted in interesting ways, her voice stumbling over simple words, her mouth gaping open like a pretty fish, pressed against the glass of an aquarium.

After gulping air for a few moments, Waverly finally spoke and immediately Elijah responded with an odd snort-like sound, having tried to stifle another wave of rising amusement. "No - no wait! Hahahaha!" Elijah was overcome with the mixture of childish giggles and laughter wracking his body. "Lo siento!" Waverly stomped off and Elijah fell back onto the soft carpet, grinning at the ceiling, his laughter continuing to spill out.

It took him awhile, grinning rather unfocused at the dark ceiling, before he was able to sit up again, rolling over onto his knees, brushing away the few tears that had welled in the corners of his eyes due to laughing so hard. He pushed off with one palm and stood shakily. The room was warm, toasty, and though his grin stayed wide and bright, the rest of him began to droop, his lids slipping partly closed. He had just enough breath, once he'd reached the top of the stairs, to lean his head back and shout, "BUENAS NOCHES, WAVERLY!"

It hadn't been the adventure he'd been expecting, Elijah reflected, crawling on top of his sheets, turning to rest on his unharmed side. 'But still a whole ton of fun.' His first night at Sonora set a high bar. He expected that the rest of his adventures would be just as entertaining. Eyelids finally sealed shot, a soft sound whistled from his nose and gentle darkness coaxed him into sleep.

0 Elijah Buenas Noches! 0 Elijah 0 5