(Forest) Bon Mot

[Narcissus Drachen]

‘Now that was rude, angel.’ Narcissus pointed out, cupping his knuckles against his tongue, the blood coppery. Forest dirt was pressed into the minute wrinkles of his hands and he fretted over licking them clean. ‘Are you pleased with yourself? It’s a sign of great insecurity when someone feels the need to ruin another’s enjoyment. There was no need for that, now was there?’

The raven bobbed its tail and opened its hard black beak wide, cawing disinterestedly. High above him it sat, and under one talon skewered to the branch was Narcissus’s chocolate éclair. A blob of cream drooped to the ground, splattering over the dead leaves. ‘Birds don’t even like sweet things, do they?’ He sussed, fixing it with narrowed, earthen eyes. There was no bon mot for birds. Narcissus was then stuck, essentially.

[Nira Lanelle]

Now a fifth year, Nira had made the decision to take a break from all the hubbub going on inside. She preferred the company of the outdoors instead of the other students, not really having much friends. Well, close ones, anyway. Everyone still had lingering excitement from the holidays, and she did like hanging out with her parents. Life was so much simpler with her muggle family, she almost wished she didn't have to come back. But at her mother's protest, the Ravenclaw had returned, albeit reluctantly.

Further into the trees now, Nira's eyes landed upon someone she had never seen before. A boy, Slytherin perhaps. Attractive, too. Noticing his bloody nuckles, she followed his gaze up to the raven, gasping softly. "Fang!" She scolded, crossing her arms over her chest. He was so troublesome at times, causing havoc as well as he brought the mail. Snapping her fingers, the black winged bird lifted off from the branch, landing for a short time on her shoulder. "Dont do that again." Nira muttered to him, looking back at the stranger sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I can replace that." Yeah, it was an off day when a bird stole your treat.

"I haven't seen you around." She remarked casually, having never glimpsed his face among the crowds of students at the school. Being here for all of her five years, you'd think she might have. Then again, Nira wasn't the most popular girl, so maybe not. Okay, hes really pretty. She couldn't help but think to herself, nearly laughing at the word. The word hot, once used to describe a person, was so demeaning. She preferred not to use it.[/color]

[Echo Keir]

Finally, back to school and back to the forest! was Echo's elated thought when she entered the densely wooded portion of Hogwarts grounds. True, it was "forbidden", but all that meant was you'd get in trouble if you got caught. If being the key word when it came to Echo. She'd always found herself extremly comfortable in rugged natural extremes; woods, mountains, jungles, deserts--it was all the same to Echo. She'd grown up dancing through more difficult terrain than these woods, so this was a walk in the park for her!

She began humming the melody to one of her favorite french lullabies as she meandered, when she heard a greedy -caw- and a shout of pain from somewhere not far off. She ducked and leapt and side-stepped her way through the trees until she could hear voices, a boy and a girl, distinctly.

She swung around the trunk of a poplar tree and was greeted by the site of a lovely young lady, probably her own age or perhaps a bit older, and a young man with a quizzical look on his face. "Oh, dear. That looks pretty nasty!" she remarked, noticing the gash across his knuckles. "Oh, sorry for just bursting in on your conversation like that..." she shrugged. She had always been a fairly boistrous person. She had never really been shy about talking to people, "I'm Echo," she said with a smile, introducing herself to the girl, who she felt quite dumb for not recognizing. She was usually much more observant, but apparently this girl had somehow skipped her radar. "And you're Narcissus, right?" she asked looking at the boy. "We had Transfiguration together last year... if you'd like, I could take care of that cut for you?"

[Narcissus Drachen]

The raven gave a harsh flap of its wings, dust rising from the sleek feathers as it abandoned the taunt. Narcissus ducked cautiously to watch it swoop low over his head, coming to land upon the forearm of another Raven. ‘Fang? How endearing. I honestly thought he was a lady, actually. Perhaps I shouldn’t have called him angel, and then maybe he would’ve given me my cake back?’ On that thought he glanced back at it, still balanced on the high branch. Nothing here would eat it, and it would melt and sink in the moving sun. ‘I must have no tact.’ He decided, walking up to the girl and raising his cut hand to Fang, offering it for inspection.

Careful lines of make-up around her eyes, pale rouge pronouncing her lips? She belonged between concrete and neon lights, pulsing along to electronic music. Of course, Narcissus had never heard muggle music before. ‘I haven’t seen you before either,’ He replied. ‘Although, I’m so poor with faces. I’ve probably looked at you and never even knew you were there.’ He had eyes for only himself.

Someone approach and Narcissus grinned. How did people always manage to appear at the same time in these woods? This one was unambiguous and he turned to accommodate her, presenting her with his hand obligingly. Narcissus was better at… other kinds of spells. ‘Echo!’ He echoed, smiling instead at the Ravenclaw and smirking, riveted. He looked at Echo. ‘Echo of what, exactly? You’re not familiar to me!’ He joked apologetically, wincing as she inspected his finger. Her fingers were boney and accustomed to labour. ‘Fang, Echo and Narcissus. Will you complete the Motley crew?’ He eyed the Ravenclaw, taken with their undeniably charming names.

[Nira Lanelle]

Nira laughed, "Maybe you shouldn't have called him that." The raven cawed, but it was quieter now. Peering at the wounds on the boy's nuckles, it blinked its beady black eyes, wondering why she was making him do it. He really did have no shame. Then again, Nira had already apologised for him, so Fang must've assumed that was that.

Why was he watching her like that? Oh, well, that was nice to know, the not noticing part. But it was true. "For my first three years at Hogwarts I was a shadow, nobody knew me." She replied calmly, ready to tell him it wasn't the case nowadays. If he couldn't sense her confidence, she didn't know what else to do but up and tell him about it. Narcissus was strange, she had to admit. He wasn't being straight up rude to her for being in Ravenclaw, but he had that air about him.. You know, an off beat.

Breaking her collected expression with a smile as he echoed her name Echo, she wondered briefly how that girl thought she could heal wounds. For all she knew, maybe Echo did have the experiance. She was different too. "My name is Nira." The Ravenclaw added, doubting this was much of a motley crew. They were just names, really, though the bearers of those names were extremely different. She was more spunky and punky, while Echo seemed really unique.. A gypsy perhaps? And Narcissus was a mysterious, vain Slytherin. No wonder he landed in the serpent house.[/color]

[Echo Keir]

Echo grasped the boys hand gently, looking carefully at the wound. It didn't look infected, yet, but with a raven you could never be too careful. They were such dirty creatures... Brilliant, definatly. Ravens were suprisingly bright animals, but truly disgusting in her own opinion. Perhaps this was just a stigma she'd gotten form seeing Ravens tearing apart dead bodies while travelling through some of the less-than-civilised parts of the world, but she wanted to make sure that this boys surprisingly flawless hands, didn't get blemished because of the creature. "This may sting a little," she warned him as she placed the point of her wand just above the opening. "Aguamenti," she said softly, a gentle spray of water springing forth to clean the wound. "Episky," was the next thing she spoke, this time a cooling blue light engulfed the boy's hand, subsiding to reveal his hand, good as new and completly untarnished. "Little tricks you pick up when you have a younger brother," she shrugged humbly.

She giggled melodiously at his poor pun on her name, “I am and echo that will reverberate through your mind from this day forward,” she said cryptically. Raising eyebrow at the boy, intrigued at his nonchalant-ness, she couldn’t help but wonder at how unusually couth he seemed. She knew most slytherins were well-kempt and thought highly of themselves… but there was something else about Narcissus that she couldn’t quite put her finger on… she was now determined to find out what it was though. In time she would puzzle him out.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Nira,” she said with a warm smile. “That’s a beautiful name by the way. Is it from the Greek or Sanskrit root?” she asked curiously, supposing that it was probably derived from the word the meant ‘Luminous’, because this girl was obviously not only a bright young Ravenclaw, but she was quite stunning as well. She didn't usually display her knowledge of languages so freely, she didn't like people knowing about all her travels. That's why she was so careful to dress in socially acceptable ways as opposed to the vibrant costumes she wore when she was at home with her family. In fact, Echo was so skilled in acting as though she were just another normal student, you would never know her family were gypsies unless she told you so. None the less, Echo felt quite small standing in the shadows of these two, accomplishment emanating, older students, but she was stubborn and refused to shy away. On the contrary she decided to push the conversation forward, “So what are you two doing in the forest? It’s forbidden for a reason, you know,” she said in a deftly sarcastic tone.

[Narcissus Drachen]

‘We all need shadows, Nira,’ Narcissus replied with a soft shrug as he watched Echo’s magic on his marred skin, the process performed so casually he envisioned her kneeling before a little boy, much like her, a grateful smile parting the mess of tears on his dirty face. Sisters were Guardians and he watched her unblinkingly as he thought this, slightly alarmed that he was now a little boy of all things. Narcissus looked at Nira. ‘Who would stand in mine if I didn’t have one?’ He flexed his fingers, the skin of his knuckles astonishingly smooth. ‘Wonderful! I suppose you excel in Charms? That flirt of a professor will be all over you.' He mused.

‘How interesting it’d be if it were the Greek,’ Narcissus quickly commented, giving Echo a significant glance before he turned his attention back to Fang, whispering something inaudible in his ear and stroking his throat with the back of one finger. He pulled away, its black eyes heartless. ‘I’m here to stuff my face and read poetry I don’t understand in the slightest.’ He explained, dismissing the air with one hand. ‘The éclair was supposed to be a reward. Was there something I did to make him snatch it from me? Oh, and for what you said earlier, it'd be illogical to replace a cake. They’re so bad for all of us.’ He raised his eyebrows at Nira politely. 'And, fittingly, why are you here at all?'

[Echo Keir]

She shrugged again, "I'm not sure if I'd say 'excell' exactly. I just get a lot of practice." A lot of practice she thought, slightly disheartened, but keeping up her jovial exterior as she had such a knack for.

Echos eyes leapt to meet Narcissus' when he mentioned Greek. She bit the inside of her lip to keep from snickering as her gaze fell down to the earthy, leaf covered forest floor. "That it would," she agreed, a calm and placid tone coating her voice silkily. She turned to Nira awaiting a reply from the pretty young lady as to her intentions in the forest, curious as to why she was here; she'd heard rumours around the school that there was a Ravenclaw girl who'd nearly died in the forest courtesy of a rogue dementor. She didn't know if this was the same girl or not, but it might be best to clear that up before continuing any further excursions into the woods.

[Narcissus Drachen]

Narcissus looked slyly at Echo, enthralled she understood his observation. She stood with one hand draped over her hip and he stared for a moment, speculating the rise of one limb to another. She had shoulders like sculpted stone. ‘Well practice makes perfect, as we’ve now seen. I know seventh years who’d be furious at you for it.’ He admired his hand again, smiling wryly at the flawless complexion and arch of knuckles. ‘For once I think Cashew Dumbledorable will be unable to comment!’ He hoped, huffing sceptically.

Fang was cawing unevenly, wings stretching. It was a ghastly thing really. ‘I think I best leave now. Nira, Echo…’ He nodded to them, pausing to eye Fang flirtatiously. ‘I’m starving because of the angel here. I hope you have a better time than I did, not that I didn’t enjoy meeting you…’ Placing a hand on both their shoulders in farewell Narcissus walked toward the beaten path, strangely enough the road less travelled. ‘Bon voyage!’