Professor Spencer Morgan
April 27, 2012 2:35 PM
Beginner CoMC! by Professor Spencer Morgan
Spencer Morgan smiled at his beginner students began to gather around him. As always his class was in the large clearing, the logs he had set up for sitting still held the cushioning charm. Spencer loved teaching and he had not even been doing it long. He loved introducing new animals to the young witches and wizards. He hoped he like his old Care of Magical Creatures Professor had for him, he inspired just one student to follow the noble path of Creature Healer.Once everyone was seated, Spencer smiled. The students had a few classes with him by now so they knew to call him Professor Spencer and that he tended to be lack on the rules in his class. "Good afternoon class! Please turn in your essays on Bowtruckles and we'll get started!" once the flurry of shuffling paper was finished Spencer was ready to introduce the next creature to his students.
"The Clabbert is what we are going to be studying today!" he said cheerfully. Spencer himself had kept a few Clabberts as a child they were fascinating. "The Clabbert looks like a cross between a monkey and a frog. It has smooth green skin, short horns and a wide mouth full of razor sharp teeth. It has long arms and webbed hands and feet allow it to move gracefully through the tress." As the green eyed man spoke the case holding the Clabberts opened exposing the creature.
"Now as you see they have a large pustule on its forehead. This flashes red when the Clabbert senses danger. Because of this in the past witches and wizards used to keep them as an early warning sign for approaching Muggles, and unknown wizards. Though the International Confederation of Wizards were forced to introduce fines to stop this because Muggle neighbors thought they were Christmas lights and often wondered why they were up in the middle of summer."
"The Clabbert lives in nests up high in the trees, and it feeds on small lizards and birds. It's a social animal and often lives in nests up to twenty Clabbert."
"Now for today's lesson you'll pair up and grab a Clabbert. You will try and get the pustule to pulse red. They won't just pulse red with you guys being near him. Please use the dragon hide gloves and try not to get near their mouths. Their teeth are fairly sharp."
Subthreads: Beginning again by Theresa Carey, Pecari with Sairahiniel Light, Pecari, Theresa, Sayre Light
In search of a partner by Lucille Carey, Teppenpaw with Clara Abernathy, Lucille
Scrolls and Smiles by Alexandra Devereux, Crotalus with Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw, Alexandra Devereux
What sharp teeth you have! by Waverly Canterbury - Pecari with Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus, Waverly
A subject by Thad Pierce with Aria Yale, Teppenpaw
... by Angel Shield - Teppenpaw with Andrina Thornton, Aladren, Angel
That doesn’t look friendly by Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus
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Professor Spencer Morgan
Beginner CoMC!
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Professor Spencer Morgan
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Alexandra Devereux, Crotalus
April 28, 2012 1:26 AM
Scrolls and Smiles by Alexandra Devereux, Crotalus
Alex frowned slightly as she came into the Care of Magical Creatures clearing, walking more slowly than usual because she was moving while she was also looking over her essay one more time for any errors she might have missed the last two times she’d read it back over. She was no Aladren, of course, nor a boy, but she didn’t see that as a reason to not do her best on everything she had before her to do. She was supposed to be the test of how a Louisiana girl would do in school if the Careys proper decided to send her younger cousins to school; she saw this as a good way to go about it.Once she reached the clearing, she stopped completely to go over the final two paragraphs, and then she looked up and shrugged, consigning it now to the hands of Fate. As she looked around, blinking a few times to clear her head after reading like that, she saw Theresa and Lucille and offered them each her customary very slight smile, which didn’t emphasize her bold nose and too-wide mouth as much as a full smile did. It was still a little strange, having so much family around all the time, but she had been gradually getting used to it since the last Reunion and had been with the South Carolina cousins and Jane – and, then, Edmond, though she had never actually spoken to him, since he had an odd habit of vanishing whenever he saw her or Theresa starting to curtsy – all last year, so she supposed she’d stop noticing that she was in classes with her mother’s cousins by next year. Suppressing as usual the urge to go pat Lucille on the head like a kitten, she found a log and folded her hands, waiting for Professor Spencer, as he’d apparently decided he’d like to be called, to get things started.
Who knew, she thought as he began. Maybe next year, they’d work their way up to a Care of Magical Creatures teacher who used his last name. Would they go straight to Professor So-and-So, or would it just be a last name, and then one who did things the traditional way in fourth year? Alex was curious about that, honestly. She sort of hoped they didn’t get an old-fashioned one until fourth year; the oddballs were good for variety.
“Huh,” she said to herself, under her breath, when she saw a clabbert. They were in the trees at home, and it could make for a show at night, though she had never gotten too close to one before. Her mother, at least, always remembered that she wasn’t an Alexander and wouldn’t let her go rambling or climbing trees or other things that might lead to her having much direct contact with wildlife. She leaned forward a little, noting how it did look sort of like the pet monkey one of her great-aunts on the Devereux side owned, only…not. And their assignment was to make it light up. It would have been more impressive it were dark, but they’d have to do the best they could, she supposed.
She stood up, straightening her maroon skirt as she did and looking around for a partner. She gave someone a wider smile than she had her cousins. “Shall we?” she asked, tilting her head toward the professor a little to indicate what she meant by that.
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Alexandra Devereux, Crotalus
Scrolls and Smiles
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Alexandra Devereux, Crotalus
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Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw
April 28, 2012 7:26 AM
Not sure about scrolls, but smiles are nice. by Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw
Melanie was not a girl who had spent much time outdoors. Outside were germs and if she were outside she bring those germs indoors with her and infect her sister. She had to be careful about that. Any time that Melanie caught a cold or something, Valerie would catch it from her and got much sicker than she did even if the younger girl kept away from the older one.In fact, that was how the third year had caught pneumonia the year before coming to Sonora. The Teppenpaw had had a cold, which Valerie had caught and then it turned into pneumonia for the older girl. She'd been so sick that she'd nearly died, been in the hospital nearly a month, followed by a really long recovery. Melanie still hadn't forgiven herself for it even though nobody else had ever blamed her. She probably never would.
Also, it wasn't the most ladylike thing to play outside either. Melanie had been raised from birth to be an indoor girl. She'd preferred playing with dolls to running around or climbing trees, which would have been difficult in a skirt anyway. The Teppenpaw was also a city girl. There wasn't a lot of nature in St. Louis. Maybe in the park or something, but Melanie really didn't go there.
So she didn't really look forward to Care of Magical Creatures much. She was not fond of being out with all the dirt and bugs. Melanie just plain did not care for any sort of insects, living or dead. Admittedly, the first year was a girly girl who liked nice and pretty things.
Furthermore, animals were not something that she was used to either. In theory, the Teppenpaw liked things like unicorns-in fact, Melanie had a whole collection of unicorns, toys and figurines and stuff-and kittens, but obviously, she'd never been allowed to have a pet. The only animals that the first year had experience with were stuffed or cooked.
She turned in her essay on bowtruckles-a gross species, but Melanie generally didn't have a problem with writing essays, in fact she'd had practice with research helping Valerie-and eyed the clabberts warily. The idea of angering something with sharp teeth did not thrill her. Was the professor completely insane? She knew very well that Sonora had a well trained medic who could surely fix a clabbert bite, but that didn't mean Melanie wanted one.
The girl next to her, one of the second years she thought turned to her and asked,
“Shall we?”
Melanie smiled back at the girl. The idea of being partners was acceptable, even if the activity sounded relatively unpleasant. "Certainly." The first year replied. "I'm Melanie Lennox, of the St. Louis Lennoxes." She introduced herself, curtsying towards the other girl, which she hadn't done when meeting Lucille or Gareth because she had been sitting down at the time.
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Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw
Not sure about scrolls, but smiles are nice.
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Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw
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Alexandra Devereux
April 28, 2012 12:26 PM
Scrolls can be okay, too by Alexandra Devereux
Alex returned the curtsy almost reflexively, not even thinking about it. Half of being an auxiliary member of her mother’s family, and one of its patriarch’s great-great-grandchildren, was in knowing when to bob up and down, and how deeply, and to whom, and the rule for just meeting another pureblood of her own age and sex was one of the simplest she had ever had to learn. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Lennox,” she said, inclining her head slightly. “I am Alexandra Devereux, of the Louisiana Devereuxs.” She did not use the Carey name; she thought her mother would have encouraged it, and that the Louisiana Careys would have permitted it, but Alex had never wanted to, even beyond more than suspecting that it would upset her father.St. Louis. She had never been there, but she knew from her geography lessons that it was in Missouri – or at least, she was pretty confident it was. Alex had studied American geography without as much interest as that of some other places, which seemed more exotic simply by virtue of not being places she would most likely spend some part of her adult life attending a party in, depending on whom she married. She thought of it as the Midwest – big, flat, sort of golden-brown, though she didn’t remember enough to know if that was exactly true. It was just a general impression.
She would have to read more about all that, she supposed, brush up on lessons which had never enthralled her even when they had been interesting, in the next year or two; she would, she knew, soon be old enough to have to attend parties and meet people, and it would be helpful to know what the place they were from was like if they weren’t other southerners. It would make it easier to not insult someone too egregiously. People might be a little more forgiving of a thirteen-year-old, but by the time she was fifteen, they would expect her to be all but an adult, in that aspect at least. So she would need to work on it. It was her duty, and not something she could just blame on Mother’s family; Father’s had tried, once, to be the same, and they still expected things from her, too.
“Are you related to Miss Valerie Lennox in third year?” she asked, remembering that name from last year, and from her own House. The other girl did, she knew, unnerve Theresa a little; whatever else you could say about their family, they were usually a sturdy bunch.
Once the usual pureblood small talk was concluded, though, there was still the task of the clabbert before them. “I suppose the trick is to startle it without touching it,” she said. “Do you have any ideas about how to do that? I don’t think they’d let us work with it if it would jump to attack us.” She hoped her logic there was sound, but it sounded good, anyway.
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Alexandra Devereux
Scrolls can be okay, too
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Alexandra Devereux
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Melanie
April 30, 2012 7:40 AM
I suppose it depends on what they say. by Melanie
"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Miss Devereaux." Melanie replied. "You may call me Melanie." She didn't know a lot about the Devereaux family, just that they were a family that was starting to diminish and that she believed that they were also connected to the Careys if the Teppenpaw remembered correctly from genealogy and recent gossip. Mother had tried to drill into her which families were and were not important, especially ones that had children around Melanie's age.It was as if Mother had put all her hopes and ambitions, the future of their family on the first year's shoulders. Not that there weren't other Lennoxes around. Her father was an only child but her grandfather had brothers and they had children and grandchildren. The family name would be around for years to come but it as far as Mother seemed to be concerned, it was Melanie who had to make connections among the current batch of students.
In some ways, it was a freedom that Valerie had that the first year didn't, but it was such a small thing and the Teppenpaw wouldn't trade places with her sister for anything. She knew how much the older girl suffered, how bad she felt most of the time. Melanie was rather glad that nobody put pressure on Valerie, she simply couldn't handle it and the first year could.
Actually, she probably would have been even angrier with her mother had she done so to the older girl. It was just that Melanie didn't like how Mother acted like Valerie was completely useless as anything but a tool for her to get sympathy and attention. The Teppenpaw hated when her mother did that It was disgusting and hypocritical, given how little attention she normally paid to Valerie. Mother could express concern, but she was hardly a hands on mother.
Melanie nodded. "She's my sister." The first year replied. "Do you know her?" She couldn't really recall Valerie mentioning Miss Devereaux at all but at least she hadn't had anything bad to say. The only person Valerie had ever mentioned that she thought didn't like her was a boy in her class named David who didn't seem to be around anymore. Melanie couldn't help but be happy about that even though she hadn't met him. She didn't want people being nasty to her sister.
She looked back at the clabbert. "I'm not sure." The Teppenpaw admitted. "I'm not really used to startling anything or dealing with animals of any kind." She had always supposed to be quiet and not disturb Valerie when the older girl wasn't feeling well. Plus, Melanie didn't especially want conflict, so trying to anger or annoy something was not in her nature. "Maybe get behind it and make a lot of noise?" The first year suggested. That would startle her if she was too deep in thought or something.
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Melanie
I suppose it depends on what they say.
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Melanie
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Alex
April 30, 2012 10:22 PM
Good point, good point by Alex
“Melanie,” Alex repeated with another small smile. “Thank you. You may use my name as well.”She supposed that would be translated as calling her Alexandra, at least unless they reached the point of acquaintance where it was normal to drop a syllable or two casually from time to time. That was another thing about school which was unusual to her; at home, even her father, who was normally very formal, called her Alex. Her full name was only used on formal occasions, she thought since it was easy enough, speaking casually, to slur ‘Alexander’ and ‘Alexandra’ so they sounded too much alike, when Alexander was her grandfather and that was probably why Mother called her Lexie instead of either of the more common names.
Not so at school. Here, she was usually Alexandra. Even Theresa and Lucille, who she hadn’t grown up with, exactly, usually called her Alexandra more than they called her Alex.
“Not well,” she said about Valerie, “but we are in the same House.” She glanced at Melanie’s robes to confirm something and then added, “I hope she’s well. You know a relative of mine, too, I think. Lucille’s…my cousin, sort of.”
That was, Alex thought, exposition enough for someone not currently engaged or married to a Carey or seeming actively interested in genealogy. Alex’s great-great-grandfather’s father had been Lucille’s great-great-grandfather’s mother’s older brother; Alex didn’t even know if there was a word for that relationship. In Carey terms, they were cousins because they had hung out together during the last Reunion and had visited each other’s houses a few times since then.
“I’ve seen clabberts before,” Alex remarked when Melanie said she’d never dealt with animals before, “but never this close. Just as lights in the trees, usually.” She nodded to the suggestion about how to startle it. “That’s a good idea,” she said. “Then we run if it turns.” She said this lightly, but she would seriously consider it as an actual option if that did happen. There was just one problem before they got to that possibility. “Who’s going to get one out of the box?” she asked. “I’ll do it if you don’t want to,” she added generously, figuring it was her obligation as an older student. She wasn’t really afraid, but if Melanie wanted a chance to interact with an animal for once, then Alex would never be the one to deprive her of it.
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Alex
Good point, good point
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Alex
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Melanie
May 03, 2012 8:26 AM
Thank you, thank you. by Melanie
The Teppenpaw nodded, smiling. Melanie would never ever use Valerie's condition to gain sympathy the way their mother did, would never play the martyr while basically doing nothing with the elder girl, so she didn't discuss her sister's condition with others but she did appreciate Alexandra asking after her. That was kind. "She seems to be doing fine." Melanie replied. "Thank you for asking."Fine for Valerie, anyway. The older girl never seemed to truly be well. This morning when the Teppenpaw had seen her at breakfast, she'd thought the Crotalus looked a bit more tired,weak and pale than she usually did, and Melanie had urged her to go see the medic. Still, the first year didn't want to bog Alexandra down with that, when neither Lennox girl was close to the second year. Airing one's problems with virtual strangers wasn't polite or proper. Plus, it might make Alexandra uncomfortable and the first year didn't want that either.
"Oh, I know Lucille." Melanie replied. She completely understood what was meant by sort of cousin. The Teppenpaw only had cousins on her mother's side by the normal definition. Her father was an only child but he was the one with relatives here. Most of her mother's relatives went to school in New Orleans. "She's my roommate. She seems like a very nice girl so far, I mean, I don't know her that well yet." She looked at the second year. "Do you know Arabella or Evan Brockert? They're my cousins-sort of-and in your year."
Melanie went on. "Oh and Ryan O'Malley and Autumn Collins are my cousins too. In your house, I mean." She didn't mention Carrie. The Teppenpaw wasn't very quick to want to own her as a relative, given how unimpressed she was with the girl's behavior thus far, between her argument with one of the Pecaris in Potions and her attempt to leave in flying. Honestly, it was doubtful that a lot of the pureblood girls wanted to be in flying, but the amount of entitlement and gall that Carrie seemed to have astonished her.
The Teppenpaw looked doubtfully at the clabbert. "Thank you." Melanie said. She felt a tiny bit guilty about making the other girl do it, but the truth was, she wasn't comfortable with getting out of the box at all. In fact, nothing about Care of Magical Creatures made Melanie feel comfortable. She thought she could handle the dirt and the logs and whatnot-so long as she washed up and changed before going anywhere near Valerie-but something with sharp teeth was another matter. "I'll make it up to you." Melanie promised. "Somehow." She felt she owed Alexandra now.
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Melanie
Thank you, thank you.
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Melanie
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Alex
May 04, 2012 6:41 PM
You're welcome, welcome by Alex
Alex noticed that Melanie said only that Valerie seemed to be doing fine at the moment, but she just smiled again and didn’t call the younger girl out on it. It was really none of her business, especially with neither girl especially close to her, and she couldn’t say that she really wanted to know all the gory details of someone else’s health problems. The topic was depressing enough even when it didn’t involve people who were just their age, or just a little older.She nodded her understanding, too, that Melanie didn’t know Lucille very well yet. There had been a little time for getting acquainted so far, but most likely not for the girls to become close. That took longer, though she had always had the idea it was easier for Teppenpaws than for other people – something about their disposition, about the things they had to be in order to be Teppenpaws. She of all people, though, should have known that stereotypes were nothing to go by, and that no two people in a House were going to be exactly alike. Alexandra felt safe in saying that she had little in common with those of her own blood, even up to and including her own mother, who had been Crotali, never mind with the likes of Eliza Bennett, or Renee Errant, or that O’Malley brat – who would have been, Alex was convinced, either dead or a broken reed after one month in the Careys; her mother’s family was fervent in its support of the idea that everyone ought to offer at least a skin-deep curtsy to authority until the day a plot against it succeeded – in first year.
“She is,” she said of Lucille. And too nervous and eager to please by half, but if Lucy’s roommates hadn’t noticed, Alex wouldn’t be the one to tell them. She had been thinking more of her grandparents than of Meredith when she imagined how Carrie O’Malley would do in the Careys, but Lucille’s mother, too, had done an excellent job of stamping out any stores of independence and pride her only daughter might have been born with. Part of the reason she thought she and Theresa and Lissy let Lucille follow them around was pity for the younger girl seeming to live not so much in a gilded cage as in a very lightly gilded hell.
She was brought to more pleasant thoughts, though, by the mention of Arabella. “I do,” she said. “I don’t know Evan very well, but Arabella – “ she felt a flutter of something like nervousness at using the term to a relative of the other girl’s when she had no idea what Arabella might have said to her family over the summer, but she ignored it – “is a friend.”
She noticed the O’Malley brat was not mentioned as a relative when the fifth year O’Malley was, but perhaps they were relatives through only one side that didn’t include Carrie. Carrie and Ryan, after all, seemed to her to look nothing alike. Or perhaps Melanie merely recognized that Carrie had not made a very good impression on anyone so far and didn’t wish to be linked with her reputation, though in that case, Alex wouldn’t have mentioned Ryan O’Malley, either, if it had been her. It hadn’t been, though, so she just nodded and said, “I’d recognize them if I saw them, but I don’t really know either of them. Jane Carey – one of your prefects – is a very distant relative of mine, and Arabella’s roommate Theresa is another sort of cousin of mine. I know the Careys in Aladren, too – I guess they and Theresa are my closest relatives here, our great-great-grandfathers are identical twins.”
Arthur had once said he thought that made them somewhat more related than his great-great-grandchildren would be to his twin’s, but Alex didn’t know. That sort of thing didn’t interest her too much; genealogy had never been her strongest subject, if she’d had one. She had performed adequately in the lessons, but she hadn’t retained much of it. It just hadn’t seemed terribly important. Not like figuring out how to grab a clabbert without getting hurt.
“Don’t be silly,” she said absently about Melanie owing her as she contemplated the problem. “I’ll grab it from behind. If that doesn’t make it flash, then jump toward it and yell at it, please.” She added the ‘please’ just in time. “And stay on your toes,” she added further. “In case it gets away from me.” Alex had no idea how strong she was, after all; this was not exactly what she did every day.
She grabbed the clabbert, and her eyes were nearly closed, but she thought she saw a flashing red light. Whether it was hers or someone else’s, though, was the question. Another was why on earth it had toes; she could feel them against her arm, and she nearly threw the thing before she got a grip on herself and remembered she’d be throwing it at a first year. A problem with this arrangement occurred to her for the first time, and that was that now that she had it up, how exactly was she supposed to get the clabbert back down? Unless they were far gentler creatures than cats, anyway, she didn’t see how this story could end well, at least for her, and while in principle caring for others was all well and good…well, she didn’t have to sleep in their skins.
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Alex
You're welcome, welcome
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Alex
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Melanie
May 05, 2012 9:54 AM
Perhaps we should run... by Melanie
Melanie realized, perhaps a moment too late, that mentioning Ryan as a relative was possibly a mistake if she wanted to deny Carrie as one. They had the same last name and all, so people might assume that if she was related to one, she was related to the other.Not that there was anything wrong with being related to the fifth year. He had been nothing but kind and compassionate towards Valerie and to the Teppenpaw, that mattered much more than anything else. From what Melanie understood, he was a perfect gentleman in the true sense of the word. It was just that from everything she'd seen so far, his little sister was an absolute monster.
"I think Ryan, Arabella," she still didn't want to call attention to having Carrie O'Malley as a relative so she still didn't mention the other first year "and Alessa Hinckley are my closest relatives here, aside from Valerie, of course. Ryan's mother and Arabella's father are brother and sister and they're my father's first cousins and then Alessa's mother is their first cousin also."
Melanie admitted. "I don't really know any of them." Because of Valerie's medical condition, they really didn't attend many family functions. Her parents had attended Ryan and Arabella's uncle Seth's wedding to their Transfiguration professor, because the third year had been reasonably well at the time, at least well enough that them going wouldn't look bad, but they'd insisted on Valerie staying home and Melanie had chosen to stay with her instead.
"My sister has talked to Ryan some and she says he's really nice though. She says he helps her out when she needs it." The Teppenpaw added. "I don't think she's talked much to any of our other cousins though." Melanie assumed that if Alexandra was friends with Arabella, that she probably knew who else the first year's relatives were. After all, she and the Pecari had pretty much the same ones here at school, given that Melanie's mother's family and the grandchildren of Grandfather Lennox's siblings didn't go to Sonora.
She braced herself for the Clabbert's...liberation from it's box. The first year let out a yelp as Alexandra nearly threw it towards her. Melanie knew it wasn't the most proper thing to do in the world, but that... thing made her a bit anxious. It had sharp teeth and they were trying to startle it. The Teppenpaw knew that if it were her that they were trying to scare into a display, she would not react well. Or well, she'd try to act like a lady, but then Melanie was able to control herself, an animal was not.
She saw the creature light up."It's red!" The younger girl called out. "I'd put it down and run." The brunette was ready to speed away if it came towards her.
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Melanie
Perhaps we should run...
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Melanie
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Alex
May 07, 2012 9:11 PM
That might make something chase us, though by Alex
Alex tried for a moment to work out exactly how Melanie was related to the people she cited as her closest relations here – aside from her sister, of course. Ryan and Arabella were first cousins to each other, but they each had a parent who was a first cousin to both Melanie’s father and to Alessa Hinckley’s mother. So they would be…the child of your first cousin was your second cousin, so Melanie was their parents’ second cousin, so she was their third cousin? She thought that scanned, though she wasn’t sure. She didn’t think it mattered, since in any case they were all definitely more closely related than she was to anyone at this school, but now that she had thought about it she wanted to know. It irritated her to not be sure about something.She was not, however, an Aladren, so she didn’t risk being impolite by asking about it any further at the moment. She could, if it bothered her that much, look it up later, or ask one of her own cousins; the family would be delighted to see her taking an interest, if she wasn’t completely wrong. She was not an unsatisfactory daughter, not by any means, she had never thought that in her life or had any reason to, but nor was she perfect. Nobody was, except maybe Lissy.
She smiled slightly at the thought of her favorite cousin. It would have been easy to hate Lissy for being such a goody two-shoes, but she didn’t, no more than she’d initially understood why she had been chosen instead of Lissy to be the one who got to leave Louisiana. Thinking about why her father said she had been picked, though, wasn’t something she wanted to do, so she didn’t dwell on it.
“That’s understandable,” she said. “I don’t know half the Careys here very well. I’ve met Arthur before, and I’ve spent time with Theresa and Lucille, but the others are more distant.” Despite the fact that James was Theresa’s brother, and Arnold was Arthur’s twin. So it went in the family. She could see that it was unusual, but it was what she was accustomed to, so it didn’t bother her very much.
When she heard that it was red, Alex felt relief spreading through her, weakening her arms – which wasn’t really the best thing when she was holding something which was alive and had teeth. She couldn’t help but laugh anyway at Melanie’s advice to put it down and run. “I’m not sure there’s anywhere to go,” she said. One of the things about a boarding school in the desert was that while it might bloom, it didn’t offer students many opportunities to run away. If you had a problem with being at Sonora, then you’d better work out how to deal with it in some other way, because there was no way out without magic.
Taking a chance, she got the box in her sights and aimed for that as she began to maneuver the clabbert. It was bending its head, as though it wanted to sink its teeth into her wrist, but she got to the box in time and jumped back, only just catching her footing. She supposed it was hardly a sign of how much of a lady she was, but this mainly concerned her because of how she might need to move fast to get away if it came after her, not because of how undignified it would be to fall to the ground.
“Well,” she said, only a little breathlessly, a few wisps of straight brown hair loose around her face, “you can’t say the new professor is dull, can you?” She put her hands up to fix her hair, or at least smooth it out a bit. Alex wasn’t so preoccupied with her appearance as Theresa, who in her opinion took it a bit too far, she thought that was more than a little ridiculous, but neither was she a farm wife with messy hair and her sleeves pushed up over her elbows. She had to keep neat, at least, when it was reasonably practical to spend some of her time worrying about that.
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Alex
That might make something chase us, though
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Alex
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