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Post by Hallie Keating on Jun 21, 2015 22:44:13 GMT -5
Hallie let out a genuine chuckle, then peered up at the sky above them. It was a soft baby blue, almost like the color of the shirt she had chosen to wear for the day. "Still though," she replied coolly, glancing at a few floating clouds before turning back to Elsie, her expression still very much interested in the topic they were discussing, "To work with dragons, even if they are only babies, is amazing. I've never even gotten the chance to see one...ever. My father claims he had seen a few on a mission to Spain a few years ago, but other than that, my family hasn't had much luck with her them. Do you get attached to them?" She asked. "I know I would. They would all have names the second they came into my possession, if it was up to me."
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 22, 2015 22:12:45 GMT -5
"They all have names. When we get the orphaned ones, there's this big competition to get to name them. And most of the time they're clever enough to learn their names. It's amazing to see a half-grown dragon turn around when you yell 'Bubbles' at it," she giggled. "Not my name, my smallest sister." Her crazy, unusual life seemed even more crazy and unusual when you compared it to people around here. Elsie couldn't imagine not having ever seen a dragon, that just seemed impossible. How could you get to sixteen and have just not ever seen one? "Everything is just so different here."
"Wait. Does it snow here? In winter?" The thought had just occurred to her, and it seemed absurd. Snow was something you heard about in stories, not something real. "Do you guys have White Christmases? That's so weird."
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Post by Hallie Keating on Jun 23, 2015 0:18:52 GMT -5
She kept her eyes and her full attention on her new friend as she shared a few stories with Hallie about the dragons she had the opportunity to work with. Her eyes stayed bright with wonder and intrigue as Elsie shared her memories, and her desire to see a dragon in her lifetime quickly sky-rocketed. Just hearing the excitement and joy in Elsie's voice was enough to make her want to have an experience like that as well. When was it going to be her turn to be able to name a dragon?
at the mention of snow, Hallie glanced at the sky, then back to Elsie, grinning widely while nodded her head. "Yes, it snows quite heavily here over the winter. One time, during my fourth year, it snowed for three days straight. By the time it was time to leave for Christmas break, then professors had to charm toboggans to help get us home!" She then laughed loudly
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 23, 2015 20:37:31 GMT -5
"I've never seen snow. Is that weird? I guess it's a weird for you as not having seen a dragon is for me." Imagine having so much snow that you had to ride home on a toboggan! How did that even work? "I've been tobogganing before though! We do it on the giant sand dunes in the desert. It's kinda terrifying, but really fun too." You could get up to some crazy speeds on a sand toboggan, and you got some pretty nasty bruises if you fell off. Her mother would have had a fit if she'd known that her daughters had gone sand tobogganing with some of the farm hands. More than a couple of times, too. It was a great way to pass the time when Quidditch got dull.
Elsie suddenly realised that tobogganing on snow was probably a lot safer, given how soft snow was supposed to be. In fact, a lot of the snow-replacement things that she had done at times were probably a lot safer on snow than sand. "Do you play Quidditch?"
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Post by Hallie Keating on Jun 25, 2015 20:39:30 GMT -5
Hallie shook her head curtly, letting a small smile pull at the corners of her lips. "Considering you're from Australia, no, that's not weird," she laughed a bit. "I always believed it to be hot whenever I think about it. You know what, though? I'd rather see a dragon than snow any day. I just feel like it would be a lot more memorable!"
It wasn't that Hallie didn't like the snow-on the contrary, she particularly loved it, especially during Christmas time, because she believed it just made the holiday season that much more special. Not to mention, of course, some of her favorite childhood memories were of her and her parents enjoying and playing in the snow. It didn't happen that often in fact, she only remembered two separate times in which her parents joined he in the fluffy white stuff, but nevertheless, they were definitely cherished and treasured memories.
Elsie's question rocked her out of her memories and Hallie looked towards the girl, shaking her head once more. "No I don't, sadly. I wanted to join the team when I was younger, but my parents just wouldn't let me. They claimed I was too fragile and graceless, which isn't true at all."
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 25, 2015 21:51:15 GMT -5
"Dragons are pretty spectacular. Though if you had a dragon and snow, you could dry out pretty quickly afterwards. That'd be neat." Elsie had thought that America was going to be a lot colder than it was, but it was very possible that things would change when they got into winter. A couple of the girls in her dorm had given her strange looks when she'd rugged up on a particularly cold morning- obviously it wasn't cold for them.
Her parents would let her join the team? Elsie would have just fabricated a signature and joined anyway, were she in the same situation. Not being able to play Quidditch would be a pretty harsh blow. She'd always loved chasing, flying through the air with the Quaffle under her arm. She was pretty hard to catch when she got in the zone, too. "That's terrible. How could anyone think that you were graceless?" Elsie asked, mystified. "I'm hoping to get on the Fuego team. But I don't know when tryouts are."
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Post by Hallie Keating on Jun 26, 2015 22:39:14 GMT -5
Having dragons and snow in the same place? Then it'd definitely be the best of both worlds...well, at least for Hallie, of course. Why couldn't the school work out a problem to have them brought to the Academy? Surely it'd be a positive addition and surely there was tons of professors willing to teach the subject itself. After all, it wasn't every day kids could go to a school that involved handling and learning about what everyone believed to be mythical creatures!
She then shrugged lightly, playing off a careless giggle and shook her head. "I'm not sure. My parents have never rally had a way with their words. They're not very affectionate either," she paused, reveling in what she had told Elsie before continuing. "I believe try outs start within a few days. Someone in Fuego should know. If you see Samuel later on in the common room," Hallie told her new friend, "do you mind telling him Hallie said hello?"
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jun 28, 2015 0:43:10 GMT -5
The excitement that Hallie clearly felt at even the notion of dragons anywhere near her was too great for Elsie to crush her dream. Bringing a dragon to Cascade would be a logistical nightmare, for a huge number of reasons. She'd heard her father complaining bitterly about a deal made with an American who had been spewing all kinds of serious threats if he didn't get a dragon of his own, and her father had been in charge of organising the handover. He'd been away for months, even though it wasn't one of his dragons. The dragon had to be put down not long after, though, when it ate the man and went on a rampage through his town.
"There's mincing words and there's using them to bludgeon people. Having parents with that little tact would be a nightmare. No offence intended." On a hunch, Elsie went to hug Hallie- and stopped right when she remembered all of the dirt and muck that she was still covered in. "That was nearly very, very bad. I'm sorry." She sat back in her place and blushed a bit, quite embarrassed. Samuel. Samuel? Elsie could understand why she'd appreciate his looks, but beyond that... She guessed she just had different expectations when it came to boys. "Um, yeah, okay. Thanks."
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Post by Hallie Keating on Jul 1, 2015 0:00:39 GMT -5
Hallie smiled brokenly at her apology, then shrugged her shoulders a bit. Maybe it was a bit harsh, but she realized that it was also a bit true. Elsie was right. Her parents never really made the effort to be in her life all that much...escape for the obvious, memorable times. It wasn't that they were bad people, a because she believed them not to be...it was just the mere fact that they had always made time for everyone else but herself. Sure, they would show up for piano recitals and Christmas morning, but besides that, Hallie rrally couldn't say that she had had a splendid childhood with them. She wondered if Elsie had been blessed with the opposite; parents who wanted to be in her life as much as they could.
With another laugh, she shook her head, then leaned forward to hug Elsie, covering the front of her uniform with mud, but it really didn't matter much to her. "It's not a big deal at all," she told Elsie, pulling away. "If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here."
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Post by Elsie Beren on Jul 6, 2015 22:36:38 GMT -5
Elsie laughed with Hallie as they shared the mud that they had accumulated. She had been at least a little bit wrong about this girl, she wasn't anywhere near as prissy or stuck up as Elsie had feared. "If you're that okay with mud, you've gotta come down to the herbology gardens sometimes. I've got clearance for all of the greenhouses, you wouldn't believe some of the stuff they have. Not quite dragons, but some of them can do even cooler things." Two friends. She definitely had two friends. This was going surprisingly well, all things considered.
"Thanks. I'm not much for talking about my issues though. I think it comes from living in a place where you can disappear for a week and be totally alone, and still on your parents' land. It's a strange and awesome kind of peace, being that alone." She'd done it a lot, whenever she got in trouble with her mum. Just up and vanished, with a little bit of food and a sleeping bag. Eating like the Aborigines did could be pretty gross, but she'd gotten used to it after a while. Toughened herself up, so she would never be a helpless, delicate flower. "I'm not sure there's anywhere around here that you could quite get that feeling.
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