Open Next Steps

[Apolline Fontaine]

Apolline had been very happy with her OWL results. she felt happy that she'd managed it, that she hadn't completely failed. She knew it would be unlikely, given that she had never failed before, but Apolline hadn't let herself run into that risk. She was now a sixth year, with only a couple of years left in her schooling, she was thinking about Jean, and thinking about her future. She didn't want to be like her mother. She had come to the lake, it was a nice day, she had her camera, and was taking pictures of the water in various lights as she leafed through a pamphlet of ministry jobs.

 

[Elise Ito]

Elise tried to go on walks around school ground at least every few days with Nyx so she could stretch her wings and get the kind of enrichment ravens needed. She was staring up at the sky where her bird was flying as she approached the lake. She also loved the lake for her own reasons. It was a perfect taste of nature for her, beautiful but only a short walk back to the castle. She reached down an picked a few flowers growing in the squishy soil and when she looked up she spotted Apolline and waved. She was still a ways from the other girl so she had to raise her voice. "Hello there!" she called and noticed the camera with her. "Trying to get a picture of the eel for the yearbook?"

 

[Apolline Fontaine]

Apolline glanced towards Elisa and then gave a little shark of her head. "Oh, no, just taking pictures," she said lightly. "The eel is a myth...isn't it?" she replied. she wasn't sure she'd ever met anyone who had seen the eel. She was sure it was just some rumour that people spread to keep kids out of the lake. Apolline would've thought the person dying in it was enough, but maybe there needed to be more. "Are you here to look for the eel?"

 

[Elise Ito]

Elise walked closer to Apolline and stuck one of the flowers behind her ear and spun the other between her fingers. She shrugged when the other girl asked if the eel was real. She didn't know. "Well something had to be in there for the rumor to start." she pointed out. "Maybe someone got spooked by a particularly large fish." she explained and waited a beat before cracking a faint smile. "No. Not looking for the eel. But if it made an appearance I wouldn't be disappointed." she said and raised her voice as she spoke, just in case the eel was listening.

 

[Apolline Fontaine]

Apolline looked out over the water after Elise had finished speaking. hoping in part to see the elusive eel that she'd just been talking about in case it opted to appear right at that very moment. But the water seemed to remain still. "Maybe it's very shy, and thus being in a lake with a bunch of school kids means it's rarely out," she reasoned. "If we all stop going in the lake for a little while maybe it'll appear,"