The Call of The Wild on Labyrinth Gardens

Luka Anastanov

February 03, 2011 2:45 AM

The Call of The Wild by Luka Anastanov

Luka closed his eyes and smelled the air.

If he could close his eyes, calm himself and imagine the call of the birds he was hearing were the cries of the wild cranes that flocked in the trees around Lake Mzyorka, in the Korab, he could almost feel like he was back in the forests again. Sitting on the tree, with his green eyes flashing in the wait of a wildebeest or a caribou.

The wand in his hand was slim enough to remind him of the feel of the arrow he deftly strung to his bow, poised in an animal-like patience, waiting for the right moment to launch it. The scuffle of the squirrels sounded almost like wild hares scuttling around on the forest floor, seeking refuge and hiding food they would never be able to locate again.

His staunch belief was that no one would understand what he was feeling. They would never put him through this, if they could. It was sheer agony for Luka to not hunt, to not feel the urgency of making a kill. It was an alien feeling to think that he could enjoy four-square meal without doing one bit of hard work and still not be dragged to the Mayor to be whipped. Luka felt like a cripple – he was one without his bow and arrow. He knew how to survive on nuts and fruits and rabbit meat. He did not know how to live with ample food, good clothing and civility. He felt at ease every time someone said a ‘Hello’ or a ‘Good morning’. Like so many other amenities, Luka had learnt to not use words when it was not absolute necessary, over the years. It seemed strange to him that everywhere he went people were making small talk, which they would forget about the moment they left.

He was lost in his thoughts when he felt someone’s presence beside him. He did not move a muscle – he was not going to initiate a conversation.

Subthreads:

I'm receiving a different call by Josephine Owen with Luka, Josephine, Nic Sawyer

He'll be comin' 'round the mountain by Nic Sawyer with

0 Luka Anastanov The Call of The Wild 0 Luka Anastanov 1 5

Josephine Owen

February 03, 2011 9:18 AM

I'm receiving a different call by Josephine Owen

Josephine wasn't naturally an outdoors person per se, but she'd been sorted into Pecari house and she had to go through the first part of the labyrinth just to get to the common room. She did like to be outside when the sun shone, despite her fair skin that would burn easily if over-exposed, so she took the opportunity of a weekend morning with no classes to wander around the gardens. Though she liked her roomates well enough, Josephine hadn't exactly made friends yet, and so went for her wander alone. She decided not to stray too far into the maze in case she got lost, and she had her wand with her, even though she didn't really know how to use it yet.

The first year hadn't gone very far at all when she came across someone else, sitting on his own. With his eyes shut. Josephine paused while she looked at him, but the boy didn't open his eyes. She thought he recognised him from their classes, but she'd not been at Sonora very long and there were a lot of new people so it was difficult to be sure. She looked at the boy a bit longer, and he still hadn't opened his eyes. Weird.

Josephine hesitated. She didn't know if she should just continue her walk, or if she should stop. The boy might be meditating or something, in which case she didn't want to interrupt him. Or he could be ill, in which case she didn't want to leave him. She dithered a bit, and in the end she decided to just stay a while, and see what happened. If he told her to go away then she would, gladly, because she'd know he was okay. Until then, however, she sat on the floor facing the boy, pulling her long green skirt over her crossed legs, with her brown hair so loing that it touched the grass behind her as it hung down her back.

Noticing there were plenty of daisies on the ground aorund them, Jospehine picked a few and started to make daisy chains.

0 Josephine Owen I'm receiving a different call 196 Josephine Owen 0 5

Nic Sawyer

February 03, 2011 9:53 AM

He'll be comin' 'round the mountain by Nic Sawyer

Nic stopped short as he turned a corner in the Labyrinth and came upon another student. He held still for a long moment, dreading the 'hi, who are you?' that most unfamiliar people would turn on him before they realized he was Nic and he didn't actually enjoy conversation.

But no 'hey! I'm so-and-so, and I'm in whichever House, and I'm a first year! Are you, like, a seventh year?' came even after he waited what should have been an unusually long time.

The kid was, in fact, tensed as if for a fight, and Nic had mirrored that instantly and instinctively, so it now felt like they were in a stand-off. Nic had the clear height advantage - being a 5'10" thirteen year old gave him a height advantage even over many of the sixth years - but he was all skin and bone despite his best efforts to eat enough to give himself some girth as well as height. He wasn't convinced he had much more mass than the kid.

But his legs were long and if it did turn into a fight and it started going poorly for him, he was fairly sure he could run faster.

If it did turn into a fight - territorial, he assumed at this point, since he doubted the kid knew enough about Nic to hate him for his parents or his actions, especially since the kid had his back turned and hadn't actually seen who Nic was yet (which didn't mean he didn't know; living with Seers meant his parents always knew he entered a room well before they turned to look), but most of Nic's fights back home had been territorial before they became personal feuds and he wasn't going to back down from one here when he'd been at this school for two years longer than this guy - he did kind of want to know who he was fighting, so he said shortly, "Nic," and hoped the favor would be returned.

1 Nic Sawyer He'll be comin' 'round the mountain 165 Nic Sawyer 0 5

Nic

February 03, 2011 9:58 AM

OOC by Nic

Oh, Josephine got there first. Feel free to ignore this one or act like it took place sometime after the thread with Josephine when Luka's alone in the gardens again. Sorry, Josephine - Nic's not going to think a fight is imminent if a girl is sitting there playing with daisies.

1 Nic OOC 165 Nic 0 5

Luka

February 05, 2011 10:57 AM

That must be from the flower shop... by Luka

Luka opened his eyes, realizing that the interference was not about to go away. What he did see perplexed him.

A girl was sitting in front of him, picking flowers and making chains out of them! What was wrong with her? He frowned.

Yes, he was aware girls had an unnecessary attachment to flowers, while he had not use for them, unless they had some healing powers or something. But, still, this seemed quite weird to Luka.

Then, he realized, there was a third person around. “Nic,” said, a lanky boy, standing beside him.

Luka groaned inside. Why did everyone feel like introducing themselves to him. And why was everyone so goddamned weird? Yes, there was nothing weird with introducing himself, but he was sure he did not look like he was eager to have a conversation. He had been, thus far, quite convinced, that his tanned, rugged face with the scar on his cheek was not at all a sight of friendliness. But it seemed that he was not quite right. His fingers, instantly and unconsciously went to the Chimaera scale dangling from his neck, and he gave a slight nod towards the boy. “Luka,” he said.

Then turning towards the girl, he said, “What are you doing?” He just couldn’t help himself.

[OOC: So, is the posting order Luka/Josephine/Nic?]

0 Luka That must be from the flower shop... 0 Luka 0 5

Josephine

February 09, 2011 4:14 AM

They want my expertise by Josephine

Josephine was sufficiently engaged with her task of making daisy chains that she hadn't even noticed the older boy approach. She was startled when he said his name, and she sort of wondered why that was all the introduction he had given. He had his back ever so slightly to her, and from the angle at which he'd entered the clearing of the labyrinth she presumed it was possible that he hadn't seen her sitting there. However, the other boy - the first one who may or may not have been ill - responded by saying his own name, so at least Josephine knew he was okay.

The brunette wondered for a moment whether she should add her own name into the mix, but she hadn't specifically been addressed. She'd sort of abandoned her daisies in favour of watching the two boys in their limited exchange that so far had only consisted of names, and so was startled for a second time when Luka, the younger boy, asked her what she was doing.

"Oh," she replied, trying not to look flustered but feeling her cheeks turn a little pink anyway. "I was making a daisy chain," she lifted the string of flowers up to demsonstrate. "You know, just passing the time..." she trailed off, knowing it was probably unusual for her to pass the time silently in an already occupied space in gardens as extensive as these. Then again, it was equally weird for nic to have wandered in, intorduced himself, and said nothing else. Boys could be really weird.

"I'm Josephine," she added, because it occurred to her that she was the only one amongst them yet to introduce herself. "It's nice to meet both of you." She was uncertain that it was, in fact, nice to meet them both, but she didn't see the harm in saying it.

(OOC: Yes, the posting order is literally that - the order in which people have already posted, so you just stick to that and add new people in as they come.)

0 Josephine They want my expertise 0 Josephine 0 5

Nic Sawyer

February 15, 2011 11:52 AM

Flowers? What? by Nic Sawyer

Luka. Nic made a note of the name. But then the kid turned away from him again . . . and addressed somebody who was behind a hedge from where he had come in, so he hadn't seen them on his approach. O-kay. Maybe Luka was acting so oddly because he was already involved in a face off with somebody else. Nic shifted to be able to see this new assailant, and blinked a few times when he caught sight of some girl sitting there playing with flowers.

Luka's baffled tone suddenly made sense. As did his wariness. Nic likewise gave the girl a healthy berth. If she tried to put that chain of flowers around his neck he was out of here. He could definitely run faster than her.

Josephine. He made note of that name, too. He did not offer the opinion that it was nice to meet the both of them even though politeness sort of demanded it at this point. But lying was worse, and he was still uncertain what he should make of Luka and the girl was armed with a daisy chain. He'd only ever met one girl who made daisy chains and that was not an experience he had any wish to repeat.

He had already offered his name and he was truly at a loss as to what he should say next to end this stand-off one way or another. So he just crossed his arms and felt ridiculously tall and awkward since a fight was unlikely now that there was a girl involved (a girl who, as far as Nic could tell, neither he nor Luka felt any need to impress, which was entirely different than a girl being involved who might have been, say, Rachel - not that Rachel would be impressed by guys fighting over her, Nic was pretty sure, but once a girl like that got brought into it that wasn't really the point anymore).

He really should have slunk away relatively unnoticed while he'd had the chance. Now he was just being tall and silent and making things worse since he couldn't think of any way to make them better. Nic had never been in any danger of being sorted into Teppenpaw. A diplomat he was not.

1 Nic Sawyer Flowers? What? 165 Nic Sawyer 0 5