Adventure time!

[Sierra Woodlock]

Sierra was so excited to be venturing to the Forest. She had never been in there before, but knew that a lot of her friends had, and so thought it was time for her to go. Luckily, Maddy was planning on going, and Sierra jumped on the girl constantly asking her when they were going on their adventure that she was promised in her rose. She had also invited a couple of her friends to come, and now stood, bobbing on the spot, waiting for the others to join. The Gryffindor girl almost felt like running around in circles she was so excited - she hadn't yet thought of the birds that might be there.

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

When Maddy had proposed an adventure with Sierra she hadn’t quite anticipated what a large party they’d gather, including a couple of people she didn’t even really know, but that was fine. It was great! She could definitely keep them all safe, and hopefully she’d make some new friends along the way. She had her backpack filled with all her usual gear, plus some extra food and water, and she didn’t care if Jasper teased her for it. Some of it was bound to come in useful. She waited until the whole group arrived, then led the way into the forest, impatient to begin. “Come on! This is going to be so. Much. Fun!”

 

[Jasper Night]

Sierra had told Jasper that a group of people would be heading into the forest, and he knew he had to be there. Maddy would be there too, and he couldn't just let that girl be the leader all by herself. She needed his help, obviously, and he simply wanted to go back into the forest. He honestly wasn't sure who else was coming, but looked forward to heading in with a group. The odds of running into something cool were a lot bigger with a group. He headed over to the group, then rolled his eyes as Maddy started leading the way. "You know, this was Sierra's idea. No one said you can be the leader." He told her as he caught up with her and started walking next to her. "You should be less bossy, forest fairy." He added.

 

[Elliot Briar]

To say Elliot was reluctant to go into the forest might have been a big understatement. But Maddy had seemed so excited and Elliot figured he'd worry more about everyone alone in the castle. At least down here he knew what sort of trouble they were actually getting into. Sticking close to Maddy and Jasper, Elliot nearly lost his balance trying to keep an eye on their whole group as they entered the forest.
"Guys-" he said, unsticking his foot from a root "-are we sure this is a good idea? Couldn't we go hang out at the lake or somewhere less..." Elliot trailed off looking over his shoulder anxiously, "Out of bounds."

 

[Clifton Ward]

Clifton wanted to branch out and make more friends at Hogwarts, but he really wasn't sure if this had been the right call to do so. He was practically clinging to Elliot's shirt as he followed his roommate, unable to quite suppress nervous chuckles that kept escaping him as he looked around. It was definitely a positive that he was doing something together with so many people, and none of them seemed especially interested in making fun of him, but Clifton wasn't entirely sure that breaking a school rule was the best way to connect with people. Although they were cousins, Clifton wasn't especially close with Matt, and he didn't want to think how angry the professor would be if he got caught. It was too late to go back now, and Clifton did his best to keep up, relieved as Elliot spoke that he wasn't the only one feeling a bit trepidatious about their plans. "You know, the lake does sound an excellent idea..." He added quickly, immediately second guessing the remark. Clifton didn't know any of these other people - it would be far too easy for them to turn on him as a wimp, and then this would all have been for nothing.

 

[Sierra Woodlock]

Sierra squealed in agreement when Maddy said it was going to be fun. She was excited to go into the Forest, purely from all the chat from Maddy and Jasper about it. Sierra didn't even really know what to expect from the forest but she shouted an almighty "No!" When the boys suggested going to the lake. She always went to the lake! She skipped up to Maddy and Jasper excitedly. "So what're we gonna see?! What're we gonna do? Climb trees? Find unicorns?!"

 

[Lauren Carter]

Lauren had been speaking to some students about the forbidden forest. She would go with Aonghas soon, but figured he would prefer to go alone with her. Because the more they came how bigger the chance was that they would get caught. Lauren was always in for an adventure. When she arrived at the beginning of the forest she noticed a lot of students there. Wow this was like all the adventure people together!! A group of adventure people, that was awesome!! She noticed Jasper and two girls from gryffindor that she had seen in classes. And she than saw some housemates including Clifton who she runned into at the kitchens. But he didn't seemed like the most brave type than. But Lauren didn't cared how more people how more fun! She heard Jasper discussing with the gryffindor girl. '' Hi everyone. I heard adventure. Well I love to explore the forest more. Have you guys already been inside? I did .. so I show the way if you'd like? '' She than asked to the group. Before the others would ask who she was she wanted to introduce herself, so that she could make more friends! She wondered if Aonghas would like to go too. But she did asked him to come along. But she didn't mattered to go many times, she felt free and not adult could tell her what to do and not. '' I am Lauren. I have seen you in classes. I would LOVE to find unicorns.. Didn't found those yet. So what are we waiting for!! Or is there more people coming?'' She than asked exciting.

 

[Jasper Night]

Jasper turned his head to look at Elliot as he suggested going to the lake. How lame! "You can go to the lake, we'll be going somewhere awesome." He said, grinning. "Don't worry, I'm an excellent leader." He looked at the other boy who talked about the lake, and shrugged. "You can go too, if you like boring fish." He then turned to Sierra, and grinned at her too. "We're going to find much cooler things than unicorns!" He boasted, hoping that saying it out loud would make it actually true. He was happy to take the lead now, but then Lauren showed up and also spoke about leading the way. He frowned and put his hands on his hips. "No! Me and Maddy are the leaders." He said, deciding that his position as leader was suddenly stronger if he shared it with the Gryffindor girl. He changed his mind a bit now that another challenger for the role was here, and figured being a team would be good. "We've also been before, loads of times. So you can follow us or have fun on your own." He stuck out his tongue at her, then glanced at Maddy, hoping she would back him up on this.

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy rolled her eyes at Jasper's posturing. She liked the boy, she really did, but sometimes he was more than a little annoying. "Actually," she told him, "Sierra asked me to take her on an adventure. So she did say I was the leader. Besides, didn't you say it was boring to be one thing all the time? Obviously I'm not a fairy today." She chuckled at Elliot's reluctance, and laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Come on, El, it'll be fine! I've been in loads of times, and I've only been caught a couple. We're gonna have fun!" She grinned at Sierra. "Unicorns would be pretty cool, but we can do better. I met a centaur last time I was here," she reminded her; Sierra and Jasper had heard the story already, but the others hadn't. "I had to go pretty deep for that, though. You keen?" She was about to lead the way in when Lauren, who she knew vaguely from classes joined the group. Maddy frowned; she didn't think she'd been in the original arrangement, which was already quite big enough, and she was already trying to take over as leader. She immediately banded together with Jasper. "That's right. I know what I'm doing, I've been in loads of times." Maddy supposed Lauren could join them; she didn't know her that well, but she seemed like fun.

 

[Elliot Briar]

All the talk of splitting up and leaders was making Elliot nervous. The last thing he wanted to deal with was their group splitting up for any reason and leaving their classmates strewn about the forest. If that meant letting Maddy and Jasper lead them through the forest, Elliot supposed that might be the lesser of the two evils. "No no, it's okay, we'll stay," He said, glancing back at Clifton with a commiseratory shrug. With his roommate so close at least he knew where the other boy was, which was one less body to keep track of.

Sensing the tension when Lauren also joined them, Elliot did some quick thinking, trying to find a compromise to keep their group together as much as possible. "Okay, Maddy, Jasper, uh, why don't you guys lead. Lauren," he turned to her, casting around for something she could do too. Why did all his classmates seem to enjoy going out of bounds so much? He suddenly missed Lily and Lars a lot. "You've been here before uhh, what did you do last time?" Hopefully everyone could just have a nice, quiet -he glanced nervously at Sierra- walk and no one would get lost or caught and then they could leave immediately.

 

[Lauren Carter]

Lauren just wanted to hang out with fun people and when she joined the group, she didn't knew if they had been planning to do this. From her housemates she wouldn't expect it. And if she hated something it was people who tried to have authority over others. It was something her father usually did on her and when there seemed to be a discussion about who was gonna lead, that was not at all what the blonde intended. So she frowned as Jasper tried to be bossy. Lauren was not gonna bend the knee for that. '' Chill out. You don't have to act bossy and all. That's really childish and stupid.'' Lauren said with a grin. She didn't intend something mean with it, but liked to fool around. And she didn't want to think of her father right now, and Jasper was making her. Lauren hoped she would not be like her father to others. So she was fine with walking along. If she didn't liked it, she would just go her own way. She was not afraid to go alone. '' I didn't knew you went before. Since you seemed pretty a chicken to Styx when you bumped into a very scary armor. '' Lauren than said and sticked out her tongue. And than focused on the others of the group. She liked Jasper, and often run into him and their walking backwards meeting was nice. But he was acting stupid right now. Maddie said she had met an centaur and that sounded pretty cool. If Lauren was gonna follow someone it would be Maddie than. ''' Wow a centaur. That's cool. '' Lauren responded excited on the Gryffindor. But she bonded with Jasper or something and Lauren rolled her eyes. '' Can we go now? I'm fine with anything. I'm just here for the fun.'' If they had to fight over who will go on front they could be childish. She wasn't gonna be like that. The blonde smiled to Elliot as he called her name. He didn't seemed so excited as she was, but it was nice if he would come along. '' I've been walking around. Saw some spiders, And just a lot of tree's. I became hungry so I left than.'' She wasn't really good prepared that time. And she learned from it because she brought food. But she wasn't gonna spoil that yet. Most of it was for herself, but in case anyone felt hungry she could give something.

 

[Clifton Ward]

Clifton didn't know most of the people in this group, but he was fairly sure the blonde girl who had joined them wasn't one of the names Elliot had mentioned, and wondered who had invited her. Everyone was talking a lot, and he couldn't shake the feeling that if they just hung around chattering loudly someone was going to find them. He was disappointed that Elliot folded so quickly on the idea of doing something less dangerous, but it seemed clear that the rest of the group was not to be dissuaded. So, looking around nervously, he piped up as best he could over the chatter. "If we're going to go, we need to go now or we'll get caught!" He said quickly, with a nervous giggle. "Don't really fancy spending the rest of the school year in detention!"

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy smiled at Elliot as he tried to delegate responsibilities. She didn't think it would work for more than five minutes, but it was nice of him to try. Maddy didn't really think it was realistic for Jasper to lead alongside her, since he had such a terrible sense of direction, but she'd go along with it for the moment. "Okay," she said cheerfully. She rolled her eyes at Lauren calling them childish: name-calling, now that was a childish thing to do. But she did seem to be appropriately excited about meeting a centaur, at least. "It was really awesome," she confirmed. She hesitated. "Spiders? Did you see the giant spiders? I nearly did, but I had to go in pretty deep, and that was when I met Aspen - that's the centaur, and she wouldn't let me go that way because of the spiders." Maddy's storytelling ability wasn't the most coherent, not like her little brother, but she thought she'd got her point across. If Lauren had really made it all the way to the acromantulas, that was much more impressive than Maddy would have expected of her, particularly if she hadn't brought food with her. She grinned at the other Hufflepuff boy - Clifton? She thought that was his name. He seemed more nervous than the rest of them, but Maddy could take care of him too. "Hey, don't worry, we'll be fine. But yes, let's go! I've got food, by the way. No one needs to get hungry on this trip." And with that, for the second time, Maddy began to lead the way into the forest.

 

[Jasper Night]

Jasper was frustrated with Lauren, and kind of wished she hadn't shown up. He looked at Maddy, hoping the girl would have his back. She did, and Jasper grinned at her. He was glad she hadn't said they couldn't be leader together in front of Lauren, that would have been embarrassing. He scowled at the Hufflepuff girl. "I was not chicken! You're making that up. You were the one who bumped into him, anyway!" He said, clearly frustrated. He was also not very happy the centaur story was being repeated again, as it made him feel very jealous. He wanted to meet a centaur too. He realized Elliot had said something about him and Maddy leading, and gave him a thumbs up. If he was honest, he hadn't really been listening that closely to the quiet boy. He was glad when they started to go, making sure to walk next to Maddy. "Thanks." He muttered. "Couldn't let her take over, right?" He glanced behind him at Lauren, and stuck out his tongue at her before looking at Maddy again. "Maybe we can go to where you found the centaur last time. Maybe we'll see another." He said, hoping she wouldn't immediately dismiss his suggestion.

 

[Sierra Woodlock]

When a new girl joined, Sierra grinned at her before giving a small gasp when she said she had also been in. Was Sierra the last one to go in?! The Gryffindor girl didn't really seem to notice the fight for leadership as she peered over the shoulders into the forest, suddenly realizing what lived in trees. If she climbed trees, would she see birds? What if the forest was filled with birds? Sierra snapped back to listening when Maddy mentioned Centaurs, thinking those would be cool to see. She nodded her head enthusiastically when Maddy asked if they were keen. "I want to see a Centaur! I'm okay with spiders - but - guys - will there be owls or, or, any other type of bird in there?" Sierra asked anxiously as she slowly followed the group in.

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy nodded as Jasper drew alongside her, pleased that he was agreeing with her for a change. She wouldn't mind co-leading with him, not really, although knowing how bad his sense of direction had been the last time they'd been in, he would be bowing to her superior knowledge sooner or later. "Yeah," she agreed, "that's a good idea. I went in quite a long way that time, though, it'll take us a while with such a big group." Maddy was fine with that, though, and promptly veered in the direction she had gone that time. It would be cool to see Aspen again, and introduce her to some of her friends. She grinned at Sierra's enthusiasm, but hesitated, confused, at her question. "Of course there'll be birds. Most of our native species are birds, and there are plenty of them in here. I've seen tui, and kereru, and fantails . . ." She trailed off, noticing Sierra's anxious expression. "Is there something wrong with that?"

 

[Elliot Briar]

Elliot paled at the mention of spiders, and centaurs didn't sound that much better to be honest. Weren't centaurs just as dangerous? Fretting about everyone back in the castle was starting to sound a little more appealing, but Elliot tried to summon up some courage, motioning to Clifton and Lauren to stay close as the group followed Maddy and Jasper into the forest.
Sierra's sudden drop in enthusiasm wasn't missed and Elliot tried to slow down a little as well to match Sierra, doing his best to keep the group in a semblance of being together. "I think I'd much rather see some birds than giant spiders," he said, aiming for jovial but missing by several feet.

 

[Jasper Night]

It was a relief that Maddy agreed to be a leader along with him, as he knew she could have easily refused. "Cool." He said, nodding. He scoffed when Sierra asked them if there would be owls or other birds in the forest. "What? It's a forest, of course there's birds." He told her, pulling a weird face. Maddy gave a much more detailed description of which bids, but was already moving on. "I would love to see a giant spider, I bet I could tame it." He told the Hufflepuff boy, though he wasn't sure that was the case at all. It was easy to make statements like that when there was no way he would be asked to prove it.

 

[Clifton Ward]

Any last hopes Clifton may have had that their excursion would be cut short evaporated as the group began to move into the forest, and he stayed close to Elliot as they began walking, grateful that the other boy seemed to share his nerves. He was a bit surprised that the Gryffindor girl seemed so anxious at the thought of birds, when there were likely plenty more dangerous things in here, but he kept his mouth shut, listening to the conversation. "If there are giant spiders, do you reckon there are giant flies too?" He piped up as they went on, trying to joke away his fear at the thought of a giant spider.

 

[Sierra Woodlock]

Sierra stopped when Maddy said there would be birds. She looked up in the trees, expecting to see one swooping at her, landing on her head, clawing at her eyes, eating her tongue for dinner...Sierra could hear the others talking, but they sounded so far away. All she wanted to do was run out of the forest, but her eyes stayed glued to the trees, her feet glued to the ground. Sierra could start to feel the wet of tears form in her eyes, and she decided that it was not good. The Gryffindor could not remember the last time she cried. She didn't enjoy it. Why did the forest have to have birds?! "I don't like birds." Sierra spoke out, quietly, her eyes still searching the trees.