Closed Nature Loves Us Too Much

[Ryan Woodlock]

Ryan Kevin Woodlock often wondered how he found himself in situations like this. He often wondered yes, but he also knew. He loved his girlfriend, he really did. And he really loved that they've been going around the world. What he constantly wonders is why he doesn't make more of an effort to convince her that staying at a hotel would be just fine. It's not even that Ryan hated nature. It felt more like nature hated Ryan. Maybe animals were attracted to the pair of them cause Nora is a magizoologist, but Ryan just played the guitar for a living. And well, the animals that tended to find Ryan when Nora was away were usually not of the magical kind.

On to the matter at hand. It was already afternoon in Sao Thome das Letras, a quaint place in Minas Gerais, Brazil. It was apparently a pretty well known mystic area, so naturally, Nora was going to investigate. There were nice places to stay at in town, but of course, Ryan had eventually agreed to camp out with his girlfriend. And not at a town campsite either, but some spot in the wilderness his girlfriend had chosen. He didn't complain much at first, there was an amazing waterfall nearby. And he heard that there was a pretty cave nearby as well. It was a short walk and he had taken his chances with interacting with a tourist group and gone for a swim at the falls. He thinks he did a great job as muggle and he had an amazing time. It was coming back to their campsite was the problem. There was a big fat snake by the tent. Where his wand was. A big fat snake. Just coiled up right there. It was yellow. And black. And nope. He was not dealing with that. He just stood there, arms crossed, drenched, and glaring at the snake.

 

[Nora Blythe]

Nora knew she had been gone for too long when the air started to turn chilly - she had left Ryan in the wilderness for too long and try as she might to make him a little more sensitive to the way nature works, he didn't seem to be able to grasp the things she needed him to grasp. That was fine, she mostly kept him around because she liked listening to his music anyway (not really, but mostly) and she didn't mind that she had to sort out his dilemmas whenever they came up. Still, as she turned to head back she thought about what she was actually out here trying to do - research of course - but sometimes tracking down some of the rarer species of Brazilian Dugbog meant she was wading almost hip deep into some of the more meshy areas.

When she finally made it to Ryan, she couldn't help but to laugh at him, because he appeared to have taken up a rather apparent issue with Boa Constrictor who seemed to be beginning to coil up around his wand. "Ryan, please don't move," she warned him, carefully pulling out her wand to stun the poor thing. It was at time likes this that she wished she could speak Parseltongue because then she might have been able to have the snake move of it's own accord, and whilst a Constrictor was really the least of their snake problems in Brazil, it was still a snake, and they could be unpredictable at the best of times. Best left alone, she thought. "Are you okay? Did you go for a swim at the falls?"

@Ryan Woodlock​

 

[Ryan Woodlock]

Ryan knew he was saved when he heard his girlfriend's laugh. He didn't take offense, this was kind of a regular thing by now. Well, a snake taking his wand hostage was definitely new but it always did seem that animals were attracted to Nora's presence but always took issue with his. His ongoing theory was that animals had taken offense that he was Nora's boyfriend. He knows it sounds stupid but what else was he supposed to think? He hasn't even done anything most times to deserve animals' unwitting attention. He still shuddered at the memory of the spider in Australia. Or that squirrel in Thailand. And Merlin forbid, he swore there was a bear near the campsite when they were about to leave Canada. "Definitely gonna stay right here," he said at his girlfriend's warning. He didn't really know what snake it was and it would have just been his luck if the snake would be one that would lunge at him so he had settled for glaring at it from where he first saw it. He had not moved from his spot since seeing the snake getting cozy with his wand and he was definitely not going to move until he had his wand back in his hand or until it was sleeping.

His girlfriend, bless her soul, was a miracle worker and he couldn't help but sigh in relief when the snake was finally stunned. Deeming it safe, he headed straight for his girlfriend and gave her a kiss on the cheek with a "Hey sweetheart." Pulling back, he took a good look at her and noted that she definitely had a productive day working but thank Merlin she came back early enough that he wasn't dead by snake with a wand. "Perfectly fine except for the scare. And yeah, I went incognito as a muggle and met up with a tourist group that was headed to the falls. They were confused but I just told them I got left behind by another group," he explained. Ryan was pretty good with pretending to be a muggle, mostly cause his mother's side of the family were muggles and he saw them a lot growing up. "How was your search though? Hopefully went better than this," he said with a sheepish grin gesturing to the stunned snake who still had his wand. "Think I should get it now or..." with Ryan's luck the snake would miraculously shrug off the stunning spell and kill him in front of his girlfriend, which would just be plain embarrassing. It was just better to wait for Nora to tell him that it would be fine before he made any sudden moves.​

 

[Zennon Baros]

Zennon isn't here, its a dream.

 

[Nora Blythe]

With the snake now safely stunned, Nora carefully moved over to it and picked the wand up, tossing it over to Ryan. "Honestly love, you need to get better with these things because I won't always be here to come to your rescue," these days Nora forgot how long they'd been together. It didn't really seem to matter anymore, since all she cared about was that he was with her and she loved him. Even if he had no idea what to do with the animals they came across half of the time. "My search has so far been unproductive. I hope I will find what I am looking for soon, but it may require more time. I will have to write to the panel and ask them for guidance. Hopefully when all of this is over I will have something to show for my efforts, I would hate to think I have spent all of this time out here and have nothing to show for it." especially now that her mother was back on the scene. She'd gone MIA for a while after Nora's father had passed, but she seemed to be back up to her old tricks again now, writing stories about people in her life that she then published as a fantasy novel. Well, people the world over seemed to eat them up so maybe her mother was right after all.

Perhaps it was Nora who was wrong. "Help me to set up for dinner, I have brought tofu for the wok and we have soy sauce for the rice," she said, stepping over the stunned snake to pick up her bag. She returned to the snake and picked it up, moving over to a bush and placing it under there.

@Ryan Woodlock ​

 

[Ryan Woodlock]

Ryan grinned as he caught his wand and promptly used it to dry off. Thank Merlin because it was getting cold and he didn't really want to get sick in the middle of the Brazillian wilderness even if they did have a batch of potions. "I think I'm improving. I did well against that monkey in the Philippines remember?" he said with a grin. The monkey had tried to run off with his bag of toiletries and then his unmentionables. He couldn't tell why the animals seemed to target him but at least he'd managed to win against the monkey and had not gotten anything stolen. He listened to Nora and he felt disappointed for her that she was yet to find what they had come here for. He knew she was looking forward to some progress but she'd been hitting a wall for a few days now. He kissed her on the head before following her instructions, using his wand to summon their various kitchen tools so he could help her prepare dinner. He decided to avoid looking at her just casually picking up a huge snake to deposit somewhere else. Hopefully, the thing wouldn't return while they were sleeping. "Think it'd help with your search if I stand around to be bait? Every other animal seems to want a piece of me anyway."​

 

[Nora Blythe]

Nora laughed lightly. She wasn't sure why animals and creatures of all kinds felt the need to target him either, all she did know was they when they did, she was the one who normally had to come to the rescue. "I think it took pity on you after you chased it down, had he gone up the tree you'd have been screwed." Monkey's particularly seemed to enjoy targeting her boyfriend and sometimes she felt bad about it, but she did love him and he hadn't told her no yet about coming out and looking for animals with her. Truth be told if he wasn't with her she probably wouldn't have any human interaction at all, until the moments when she was with him. She'd probably have a very hoarse voice from all the not speaking she would have been doing in the moment. Still, she could admit that he had somewhat improved and she was proud of him for that. It wasn't easy to admit defeat amongst the creature community.

"I would rather you not play bait for a dugbog, they can be a little testy with people," She knew one of the reasons she had yet to find it was that it simply looked like a piece of dead wood when stationary and so if it could hear her approaching, then it would be able to still itself completely in the water and muck and she would be none the wiser, but a simple quieting charm wouldn't work because they wore off and it would only work potentially on her feet, and she wasn't wearing shoes anyway. She could keep her body from making any noise but stepping on something, brushing against something, these were all elements she would have to take into account. It was going to be a slow process, but she was determined. She loved Dugbogs, she thought they were terribly fascinating. "I think it best if I just continue my search on my own, I don't want to have to worry about you accidentally stepping on it- no offence love," she said with a grin.

@Ryan Woodlock ​

 

[Ryan Woodlock]

Ryan looked absolutely scandalized at the thought that the monkey let him win. No. No way. He told his girlfriend as much. "Nooooooo," he whined because he absolutely was not bested by a monkey. The snake he could admit defeat to. It had his wand. The monkey had his underwear. Nope. No way. "I won against that monkey fair and square sweetheart. I won fair and square," he insisted at his laughing girlfriend. He already had a lot of uncool moments in the wilderness whenever they were camping, and he'd had to run away from various things purely for the safety of everyone involved. He didn't win against creatures most days because, hello? Why would he fight a snake? Or a spider? He'd like to say that he'd face them all head on in the name of love, but honestly, his girlfriend would likely rescue him before he even becomes stupid enough to do so. Merlin he loved her.

"Will it eat me?" he asked quickly when he said they get testy. Squirrels get testy. And so did monkeys. It was just best to know which ones had the potential to kill him and which ones could just mess with him. The snake earlier fell in the former. The monkey was in the latter. Easy distinction. Thankfully, he had not had a run-in with magical creatures on their trip. So he was hoping that meant that he fared better with them than regular animals. "It will eat me, won't it?" he sighed despondently because that really was just his luck. And he supposed he could understand why his girlfriend would be worried about him stepping on the dugbog. He didn't even know what it looked like. "None taken love," he said, nodding over the dinner being cooked. "If you change your mind, just tie me up and dump me in the middle of the wilderness so I don't step on it, but please come back for me during mealtimes or my stomach will drive away the local wildlife," he said teasing.​

 

[Nora Blythe]

Nora giggled lightly to herself not really wanted to pop the delusion her boyfriend was living in. She supposed it wasn't really his fault that the monkey had bested him, but there didn't seem to be an immediate need to remind him either, maybe that was just cruel. "Okay, whatever you say Ryan," she said shrugging. She'd been at this a long time, since she'd graduated and this was fast becoming her life's work. She liked animals more than she liked people for the most part, but Ryan was one of the only people she liked enough to have around her. She wasn't really even sure she could remember at what point they'd gone from boy who travelled with her to boyfriend who travelled with her but they'd eventually ended up in this position and she wouldn't change it. The thought made her move over to kiss him quickly before she pulled back and proceeded to ignore him for a moment as she pulled the tofu out of the bag in little bits. "No, probably not, well, I mean it's hard to say," she didn't want to lie, they weren't known for eating people, but for some reason, unfortunately it was as though Ryan was a magnet for these sorts of things.

"I'm not going to tie you up and leave you to your own devices, I don't believe in bait darling," she said shaking her head, because that's all he'd be useful for at that point. Some of the creatures she had been researching in the past would love nothing more than to sneak up on his unassuming and just completely destroy him. Dugbogs weren't one of them, thankfully, but they did look like a big muddy log so they could be very difficult to see when they wanted to be. She couldn't leave him to his own devices like that, it would have been terribly cruel. She placed the wok on the fire pit and then pulled out her wand to light it before looking up at Ryan again, "Oh, do we have oil?"​

 

[Ryan Woodlock]

Ryan could tell that his girlfriend was only humoring him about the monkey, but no matter. That was fine with him. It wasn't his fault that he had such an amazing girlfriend that could probably give Snow White a run for her money! His ongoing theory was that the animals hated him because he was with Nora and they're all out to get him for that. Well. He wasn't going to give any of them the satisfaction! While he still thinks that they could be staying in inns and hotels rather than camping in the wilderness, he wouldn't exchange this for anything. Besides, he still all has his fingers and his toes, so he must be doing something right. He grinned like a lunatic when Nora came over to give him a little kiss while they both went back to preparing dinner. While talking about the possibility of him being dinner for dugbogs. With Ryan's luck, they would have evolved by now into man-eating creatures. He chuckled a little though at his girlfriend's assurance that he was not going to be used for bait. "I love you too," he says with a grin before going through their supplies to find the oil. It took a few moments, but he did manage to locate it. "Found it!" he says as he brings it over to Nora. "Might need to resupply though," he says as he takes stock of the remaining supplies that they had. "I have a gig tomorrow night in town so I can do it in the morning while you're on your search?"​

 

[Nora Blythe]

Nora grinned over her shoulder at Ryan as he called out that he loved her too. She sincerely loved that man, but he was an absolute menace if she left him on his own for too long. She couldn't even really remember why she had thought it would be a good idea to bring him along on the trips, but she loved him too much to risk never seeing him. She'd seen how relationships like that could fall apart and she'd seen what had happened to her mother when her father had died and she didn't want that to happen to her. She had to make sure Ryan was with her all the time so she could keep him safe. If that meant she had to drag him (well, he came willingly!) into dugbog infested waters then so be it. She knew how to protect him from animals, so it was hardly going to be a massive problem. She looked over when he seemed to locate the oil and she used her wand to Accio it as he headed over, unstoppering it and tipping a tiny amount into the wok before handing it back to him and tossing in the tofu. "Well, we will need quite a few things, we're running low on a lot." they would probably need to make a stop at one of the supply stores, but she was sure they could manage another day or two before it would be dire, after all, they could apparate, the only issue was apparating back to the exact spot they left, since apparating outside of cities could be hard, you never knew what you might apparate into accidentally and splinching was more likely. "I'll be coming to your gig, babe, don't be ridiculous, I wouldn't want to miss it!" she'd missed a few of them in the past, but she tried not to make a habit of it. She didn't always get musicians, but the least she could do was to support Ryan like he supports her. After all, how many girls could say their man follows them everywhere?​

 

[Ryan Woodlock]

Ryan took the oil and went back to taking stock of the supplies, summoning a notepad and a pen to write down what he would need to get in town tomorrow. "I think I'll be able to grab them all," he says absentmindedly as he lists down. "Any specific food stuff you want me to grab this time around?" he pauses as he looks at her. They had a regular list of supplies that they kept around every time but sometimes either of them would have a specific craving and Ryan always made sure to grab whatever each of them would like during the supply runs. "You focus on your search and I'll go around town tomorrow grabbing all the things. I can just shrink some of these so I can carry more," he said as he lists down the last of the things before walking back to her side watching her cook. He could cook well enough, but she was much better at it when they're in the wilderness. "We can go to town together in the afternoon after your search okay?" he says as he kisses the side of her head. He knew she wasn't really that interested in music as much as he was, but that was fine! Nora had her creatures while Ryan had his random guitar gigs. He loved that she frequently tried to go though. He had the most amazing girlfriend ever.​

 

[Nora Blythe]

"I don't want anything specific, so just grab whatever you want," she told him, focusing back on the food so she didn't accidentally burn something, which was easy to do out here. All she had was a fire to cook over and she waved her wand at the wok as it moved itself around to cook more evenly. Food cooked unevenly was awful, but she'd had to live on it before so she was well aware of that until she was able to come out and learn how to cook properly, especially now that she was out here so much. "Although actually, I could do with more screech snap leaves if you can get some, and some sallow leaves as well, they're good for scent detection, or at least making it seem like I don't have one," that might help her to get closer to the little beggar. She nodded at the mention of going to town, but sighed. She wasn't sure if she was ever going to find the thing, though she sort of knew what she was looking for, they were supposed to not be that hard to find, jumping out at weary travellers, and yet... maybe she needed to look at it from another angle, though she couldn't say she was quite sure what that angle was right now. "Will you play something for me?"​

*taking liberties with magic bc we've seen that food can essentially cook itself in fantastic beasts so...