Closed Amongst the Trees

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy had been into the Forbidden Forest several times with her big brother, but she hadn't gone in by herself since her first day at school, when she'd met Jasper there and been caught by a teacher. She and Wills had been caught a couple of times too, but it hadn't dissuaded them. The ban was stupid, she'd never seen anything dangerous in here. She'd never even seen anything magical in here, though she kept hoping she might. That first day, though, she'd meant to explore by herself, and while hanging out with Jasper had been a lot of fun, she still wanted to do that.

So one autumn afternoon, overcast but still moderately warm, Maddy ventured out to the forest by herself. She was well-prepared as usual, with scroggin, snacks, water, a spare jumper, raincoat, and compass in her backpack. This time, Maddy charged straight into the bush, tramping past the familiar areas she'd been before and deeper into the woods before she slowed down. The canopy stole more of the light as she got further in, shadowing the bushes around her. Maddy smiled and looked up into the dim, dappled light. She looked around, cheerful and keen to have an adventure. Maybe this time she would find something new and interesting.

 

[Aspen]

it had been a while since Aspen had wandered out of the depths of the forest. she used to spend a lot of time near the edge. because she was not part of the main tribe and was not allowed to enter their territory which left her the poor parts at the edge of the forest but also because she liked interacting with students. after her sisters and brother had graduated she spend less and less time at the edge and more time in the depths. of course, that was years ago. but now the local tribe had departed she was chieftain of the forest. It was weird. where she was in her home tribe before she had left was not a part of the power. she had been mainly destined to be a gatherer. it had been Rowan who would have inherited the place of power. except there had been no way she would have been allowed to. today Aspen was heading out towards the school she heard an unfamiliar clatter of running and made her way towards it. hand gripping the sword. she was heading toward the acromantunlar territory and would rather be armed if she came across one of those. instead of a giant spider, she saw a girl. "two hoof.. umm, girl,,, umm, student... slow down" she called sheathing her sword and running to try and cut her off. "watch where you are going. if you keep up that direction you are likely to run into acromantular" she said.

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy froze as she heard a noise from somewhere ahead of her, deeper into the trees. Someone came running towards her, and . . . wait, those weren't human footsteps. Two-hoof? And then she saw her. A centaur. A real, actual centaur, and she was talking to Maddy! And she had a sword. A real, actual sword, not like the makeshift wooden ones she and her brothers had played with. "Oh my gosh! Hi!" she said, stopping abruptly, a wide grin spreading across her face. "There are acromantulas over there? Cool! I'd love to see one of those!" Now, perhaps, it was beginning to make sense why the teachers said the forest was dangerous - but if after half a year of exploring it Maddy had only encountered anything remotely interesting now, she still didn't get why it had to be out of bounds. Maybe it was logical to forbid the deeper parts to students, but the outskirts where she'd been before were fine.

 

[Selene Le Fey]

ignore wrong account.

 

[Aspen]

aspen found peoples reactions when they first see a centaur are interesting this girl seemed almost nonplussed seeming more enthusiastic about the giant spiders. "If you saw one of them it would be the last thing you saw. and I don't want professors poking around in here after you become lunch" she said. she liked it when foals came and visited her. but adult humans not so much. there were some she trusted like Rowan, and Madlyn but not many. actually, neither of them were really two hooves. Madlyn was part giant and Rowan was a wolfskin. "I don't get many times to meet new friends and I can't loose one as soon as I meet them." she said. she may no longer be a teenager. "what did you come in here for? she asked. wondering why the girl wanted to come into the forest. her spirit reminded Aspen of her brother when he had been around. he too had gotten a little to close to the spiders for comfort. but thankfully had managed to fly out.

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy frowned; this centaur seemed awfully disapproving of her enthusiasm. This, however, would never dampen her excitement at getting to meet a real centaur. She shrugged. "I guess. But what other cool things are out here? You must live deeper in the woods, right? Are there other centaurs? Oh man, this is so awesome!" She bounced on her feet eagerly. "New friend? You wanna be friends with me? I'd love to be friends with you! I'm Maddy, what's your name?" She grinned. This was the best thing that could have happened, beyond her wildest expectations. She couldn't wait to tell Wills and Seb - and Jasper, he'd be so jealous. "I was just going exploring, I love to do that. The bush is so pretty, and so full of interesting stuff." She hadn't expected to find anything this interesting, though, and nearly said so, but at the last moment realised that that would probably sound rude.

 

[Aspen]

aspen thought for a moment when the girl asked what other cool things there were, what classes as cool. "there are pixies, doxies and bowtruckles, but if you have been in the forest before you will have probably seen them. she said. they probably didn't sound as cool either. "there are a few billywigs buzing around, and a couple of clabberts, some mooncalves, therstrals if you can see them, and unicorns. there used to be other centors but the local herd moved on so there is just me now" she said. hoping that one of the creatures would spark the girls fancy. probably one of the later ones.
It seemed like the offer of friendship was enough to distract the girl away from the spiders. "of course I want to be friends, if I didn't you would know about it." she said her hand still resting on the sword. "nice to meet you Maddy, I am Aspen" she said. "I had a sister called Maddy, well madlyn, I haven't seen her in years" she said. well, that wasn't entirely true. she had thought that she had seen her walking access the lawn the other day but that couldn't be the case as Madlyn had graduated years ago. the year after Rowan had. it must have been someone else. "exploring is good fun. there is a pretty clearing not too far away. i can show you that if you want" she said. thinking that the girl had called the woods the bush which made her think of Australia.

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy nodded knowingly, hoping to come off as intelligent and forest-knowledgeable. Which she was, but probably not so much in comparison to an actual centaur. "Oh, yeah, I've seen those. Love bowtruckles, they're adorable." She hadn't seen them here, though, only in the forest at home - but then, her journeys into this forest so far had been pretty rowdy. "My parents are magiconservationists," she said, hoping that would impress the centaur. "They care for creatures like that sometimes, if they're hurt or whatever. I haven't seen unicorns though! That's really cool - and thestrals, but I couldn't see those." Maddy had never seen anyone die, and though a part of her was curious, if only to see thestrals, she honestly hoped she never did. "Yay!" Maddy beamed, though part of her wondered if the centaur was threatening her with that sword. "Wonderful to meet you, Aspen! That's a good tree name. I have a tree name, too - my middle name is Tawhai." She wondered if many centaurs had tree names. Clearly Madlyn, Aspen's sister, didn't, but it would make sense for forest dwellers to pick tree names. At least, that was the theory Maddy used for her D&D characters. "That sounds great! Let's go!" She was going to be shown something by a centaur! Oh, this was such a good day!

 

[Aspen]

Aspen was glad that she had managed to distract the girl from heading into acreomantulars territory. she tried to avoid them as best as she could. "bowtruckles can be quite funny things" she said. they were fun to watch, as long as you didn't annoy them.
maddie said that her parents were magiconservationists she nodded. she didn't think that she was glassed as something that needed conserving. but there were a lot of creatures out there that she was happy that people were trying to help. especially as it was the actions of witches wizards and other two hoofs that was causing them problems. even the lands she was able to roam was getting restricted. "where do they work? Rowan said me there is a conservation park opened near here. is that where they work?" she said. when she had heard about it she had thought that maybe she should ask rowan if she could move there. but she decided that she had more chance of making friends in the school.
as Tawhai said that she had a tree name too she smiled. it had been a tradition in her tribe that everyone was named after the tree they were born under. a tradition that she would carry on if she ever had a foal. and one that Rowan had continued although the tree was not the one willow had been born under as she had been born in a sick-house. but the tree that had brought refuge to her. "Tawhai that is a good name" she said. she would call the girl that from now on. it was a better name than Maddie.
"this way" she said walking slowly in the direction of the clearing. she remembered that twohoofs couldn't walk as fast as her. but even her slow walk was fast compared to a girl's. "What kind of tree is a Tawhai? she asked. she knew all the European trees but when she had moved here she had not had any elders to teach her and she had only been young so while she had learned about the plants, what was edible and when they fruited she had made some names up for some of them.

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy smiled cheerfully and nodded. “They are, they’re so much fun to watch, if you can find them.” She’d gone bowtruckle-hunting - or, more accurately, hunting for anything interesting - with her brothers many times, but they hadn’t found them very often. Although, to be honest, they were probably too rowdy most of the time. Sebastian might have more luck on his own, maybe she should suggest that to him in her next letter. Maybe it would cheer him up. She was pleased that Aspen seemed to approve of her parents’ occupation; she had hoped she would. “Oh, I heard about that! I’d love to go there. They work down in Fiordland National Park, they do a lot of muggle conservation stuff alongside the magical creatures.” The muggle stuff wasn’t nearly as interesting from Maddy’s point of view - except the birds, birds were pretty cool - but she knew how important it was. She grinned and hurried after the centaur, having to trot to keep up with her stride. “Thanks!” She was surprised that Aspen didn’t know the native tree names; it seemed foreign to her to think that you could live in a mostly-native forest and not know their names. But maybe it was just that the more common name for tawhai was the English one. “It’s the silver beech,” she explained.

 

[Aspen]

Aspen nodded agreement that bowtruckles were fun to watch. it had been years since she had watched them. when she was still a foal when she was back home. when she had been new to the country she had enjoyed watching fairies flit about at night watching their glow as they moved between the trees. Willow had heard the name Fiordland before. she tried to remember where. it was obviously from Rowan but it took her a while to remember the details. "there are opaleyes there, one started getting a taste for sheep a few years ago" she said remembering the story Rowan had told her. that was a big case and Rowan had had to help with the incident as the magical creatures department was short on staff and she had enjoyed the break from werewolf support services. Aspen realised that the girl was almost running and slowed her walk to allow her to not get too out of breath.
As tawhai explained what the dree was she nodded. "I know that one. she said passing by a tree. "this tree, one of my old huts was made out of it" she said. she could tell that the girl was surprised that she didn't know the names of the trees. "my herd is not from around here. it is from Europe. I got kicked out when I followed Rowan so I ended up at the school." she said.

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy nodded gleefully as Aspen mentioned the dragons. "I know! I've never seen one there, though, I really want to. Dragons are the best. I'm gonna work with them when I grow up." The fact that they were dangerous was just exciting to her, and the way Aspen's emphasis was more on this fact went right over her head. How could she fail to share her enthusiasm with people, when dragons were so awesome? Maddy was grateful when the centaur slowed down a bit though also embarrassed that she'd noticed. Maddy was usually the leader, she didn't like having to struggle to keep up, and she liked it even less that this was being accommodated for. She tried not to let any of this show, though, nodding when Aspen at least confirmed she knew silver beech. She nodded. "Oh, cool." Maddy was interested to hear that the herd was from Europe, and wondered how they'd got to Aotearoa, but before she could ask Aspen was continuing with more history that Maddy didn't understand any more. "Wait, wait. Who's Rowan? Why did they kick you out?" Maddy didn't have any context, but that seemed terribly unfair, whatever it was that had happened.

 

[Aspen]

aspen could tell that she had touched on a topic of interest to the young two hoof. "dragons are cool. there was one place in my home forrests where if you looked out over a valley you could often see some horntails and longhorns flying." she said. remembering something she hadn't thought about in years. she rowan and fern would sometimes sneak off and watch the dragons when they should have been gathering food. the valley had been marked as a protected dragon area with strong magic around it to stop muggles getting near. she guessed as they were not muggles that had been able to approach. She remembered one day in particular when there had been a young dragon who had been struggling to fly. her thoughts were interrupted as Tawhai asked who Rowan was. "Rowan is my sister. she isnt like me. she is a two hoof like you. or she was" she said pausing. "she is now a moonwalker" she said, she couldn't remember the English term for the word werewolf. but in the forest language, it translated to moonwalker. "she was kicked out because when she was about your age she attracted witches to the herd who took her to the school here. I was kicked out because i followed her" she said. suddenly feeling proud of how she had come to new zealand to be with her sister. left her family behind. it had been hard and she had been an outcast both of her family and of the local tribe. but the school felt like the right place for her.