Manfred Bulla
April 03, 2005 9:44 AM
Getting things started by Manfred Bulla
Manfred Bulla, Deputy Headmaster and Charms Professor, strode through the gardens with a peculiar lack on concentration for the task. He stopped here and there to check certain spots within the ground ascertaining that things were as they should be and whispering certain words, before moving on to the next spot. The students would be arriving soon – a couple from nearby settlements had contrived to arrive already – and there was much to be done. This was, after all, a particularly important year for the school.Sonora had reached its sesquicentenary. The school had stood in this spot for one hundred and fifty years. It was an achievement worthy of celebration. And celebration, Manfred knew, was what there would be.
Reaching the last of the ‘spots’ - markers perhaps, although no one bar himself, and perhaps the groundskeeper (Manfred considered this debatable) would have noticed them – he drew to a complete halt and looked up to the sky. The sun was two fingerbreadths from the horizon, as far as he could make out. The rumbling he could hear from behind him, towards the front of the school, announced the crowds of arriving students as covered wagons landed with a readily recognisable thud and the voices of the newly arrived children drifted through the slowly cooling air. He stood there, just listening for a couple of minutes in a relaxed pose. Then, his back straightened, his face took on its usual stern expression, and his wand was drawn.
“Aquula” he cast, voice strong for this final casting. A filament of light left the tip of his wand and joined with other filaments of light which streamed towards him, following the path he had recently trod. The light became stronger, and stronger yet, then, as the light became almost unbearable, Manfred dropped the wand to point at the ground just before the last invisible marker.
“Adfluere.”
The light dimmed, then sank into the ground. Manfred waited a couple of minutes, then nodded, pleased with the results. Putting his wand away again, he started the walk back to the school building.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
39
Manfred Bulla
Getting things started
2
Manfred Bulla
1
5
Paul Simon Tellerman
April 05, 2005 1:42 PM
Rounds by Paul Simon Tellerman
A young man of twenty-five years walked distractedly through the Sonora gardens, making the occassional gesture toward an overgrown bush, a clump of fallen leaves, or a mess of disturbed ground for one of the elves accompanying him to fix. But that was more habit than anything else.He was, first and foremost, hired to be the groundskeeper, and so it was the grounds where Paul Simon Tellerman could most often be found. His second responsibility was the maintence of the school itself, though he mostly left that up to his minions of darkness (also known as the school's contingent of prairie elves).
It was, however, the later set of chores and projects that was occupying his thoughts currently - with the upcoming celebration, the whole place was going to need a facelift and dedicated scrubbing, and that would require his personal observation and involvement - when he suddenly jumped aside into the prickly wall of the hedge maze as light suddenly flared up on the path he was walking.
"Scurry!" he yelped, immediately jumping to the conclusion that one of his more accident prone minions was responsible for the fireworks. They faded away quickly, but his heart was still racing and he put a hand over it for dramatic affect as he turned on the unfortunate creature, "What did you just do?!"\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
1
Paul Simon Tellerman
Rounds
14
Paul Simon Tellerman
0
5
Scurry
April 08, 2005 9:31 AM
duckling by Scurry
Life was always much better when there was Master Paul Simon to follow around. Here was a man who knew how to give orders! Scurry, keeping close to Simon's heels, following as exactly in his footsteps as was elvenly possible, found himself berefit of direction for a moment when a stream of light passed right through him. Astonished for a second only, he looked around, spotted Master Paul Simon in the hedges and followed suit."Scurry!" Scurry jumped back out of the hedge... Master Paul Simon didn't sound too happy. And - oh no!! - sir was clutching his hand over his heart. "What did you just do?!"
"Scurry did nothing!" he wailed, falling over himself trying to pull sir out of the hedge. But... Master Paul Simon thought he had... "Scurry was following Master Paul Simon, just like he is supposed to be doing, and then there was a light and Master Paul Simon is dying and Scurry didn't mean it!!"\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
39
Scurry
duckling
0
Scurry
0
5
Master Paul Simon
April 08, 2005 1:52 PM
counting backwards by Master Paul Simon
After letting himself be pulled from the hedge, Simon pinched the bridge of his nose and counted backwards from ten. Opening his eyes again, he sighed deeply and reminded himself that he needed this job to pay back his college loans. While he usually enjoyed the antics and eager fulfillment of his every bidding, sometimes dealing with the prairie elves reminded him of why he had planned to be an actor and not a director.He liked being the melodramatic one.
Not that he thought Scurry was being melodramatic - oh, no, he could deal with melodrama - Scurry was actually that way in real life. All the elves were. At least it kept his job interesting. Sort of like a chinese curse.
"I'm not dying," he said, because an apologetic Scurry was one thing but an apologetic freaking out Scurry was quite another. The very last thing he needed was one or more prairie elves trying to perform emergency first aid on him in a well-meant but misguided effort to neutralize a non-existant heart attack.
That misconception settled, he considered the possibility that Scurry was actually innocent of causing the light. He didn't doubt the truth of 'Scurry didn't mean it!' but he did doubt the accuracy of 'Scurry did nothing!' Of course, the other times Scurry, or any of the other elves, caused problems, he'd usually at least been aware that he did something even if he didn't know that what he had done was wrong.
Sighing again, he decided to give the little guy the benefit of the doubt this time. "Did any of you see what happened?" Belatedly recognizing that this would generate a chorus of 'there was a bright light!' or something equally unhelpful, he quickly clarified, "I mean, did you guys see where that flash came from or what caused it?"\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
1
Master Paul Simon
counting backwards
14
Master Paul Simon
0
5
Scurry
April 08, 2005 6:33 PM
duck, duck, duck, duck.... goose! by Scurry
"Did any of you see what happened?""There w-"
"I mean, did you guys see where that flash came from or what caused it?"
Scurry was left with a slight dilema. Having been following Master Paul Simon so closely, it was entirely true to say that the light had come directly from... but then it had still been there when sir had jumped aside. Playing it safe, Scurry pointed in the direction they had been walking.
"That way, sir. The light was coming from that way... but it is gone now, down into the ground," he looked up at Simon. "Has you any jobs for Scurry?"\n\n
39
Scurry
duck, duck, duck, duck.... goose!
0
Scurry
0
5