Open The Search For The Yorishiro (Oldest Tree)

Rowan giggled, and then frowned at herself for doing so. How embarrassing! Rowan liked Elio, she'd first noticed him when he was taking pictures in class and knew she'd found a kindred spirit, she loved photography too! Though she'd conveniently forgotten to bring her camera bag with her. "I mean, bragging rights are nice and all, but I want something to show for it! Oh, do you have your camera?" She asked, looking over him now, trying to see if maybe he'd hidden it in a pocket or something. "I'm not a champion climber, never done it competitively or anything, but... I mean I can climb a tree about as well as the next guy!" She'd never really spent any time alone with Elio and not that she sort of was, she was super nervous about it!
 
Felicita could only sigh in relief when two older students had joined them in their search. That would definitely help a lot especially when as Artemisa so eloquently put it, all they had use of their wands was a lousy distraction or something to stab with. Not very good options. At least the other first year boy had a plastic sword. That would probably be a lot more useful than their wands right now considering their age. "Yeah, thanks you guys," she told the older girls. "And cool sword," she told the boy that had accompanied them. "Got any more of those we could borrow?"
 
Saori was so happy it seemed like everyone was listening. The boy then asked a question of her that she was slightly afraid might single her out. "Well. When My grandma died a few years ago, my parents and I moved to New Zealand for my father to find more work. Then I got my letter and this was the closest school." She danced around the fact she was Muggleborn, knowing from reading that not everyone accepted her kind. "I like your sword though, I read about Godric Gryffindor last Saturday. He was very brave. Are you a GRyffindor then?" She asked.

@Lysander Summers @Elsie Baros @Felicita Raven @Agnieszka Norgaard
 
Artemisa was listening to the girl as she tried to keep an eye out for a tree that looked old. It was no use though. All the trees looked old to her and nearly identical too in the darkness, so really, by now, she was barely looking for the old legend tree thing. Mostly just listening to their group interact really. It was sort of a relief though to have older girls around with them. And a familiar boy with a sword. "Ooooh! That's right, we're housemates! I knew I recognized you," Artemisa told sword boy. It was such a nice plastic sword too so she was kind of wondering if he brought anything else with him. "Are you any good with that?" she gestured to the sword in his hand. She wasn't any good at it - or sports for that matter, but it would be interesting to know someone with some fencing capabilities.
 
The mention of the tree-girls grandmother passing left Lysander feeling awkward, and if not for the dim of the forest, his expression would have made it clear that he didn't know what to say beyond "that sucks". He was lucky not to have anyone pass away, that he at least knew of, so it was always a foreign topic whenever anyone brought it up. Thankfully the talk turned to his cool sword, and his frown twitched back up into a grin. "Thanks! I just have the one, unless anyone knows a duplicating spell?" He responded to the Ravenclaw, though his question ended up directed at the older students in the group. "Yeah, I'm a Gryffindor like Godric. Look!" The boy inverted the hood of his cloak to expose the crimson lining, the only telltale sign of his house without his uniform. The cloak had become something he was wearing with more than just the clothes he needed for classes. It made him feel heroic, like the cape of a superhero. He grinned at the other girl from his own house, and raised his sword once more. "That's right, I've seen you around the common room! I'm Lysander. Don't worry, I'm pretty much a ninja with this sword. If we run into trouble, I can handle it." He told her, taking the opportunity to introduce himself to all of the others. There were so many familiar faces from his classes, but he was still struggling to remember the names of everyone he met.​
 
Misha hated doing patrols, if only because they took up precious time where he could be doing other things, but they also tended to be boring. He didn’t particularly like when he had to give students into trouble because that was just a chore, there was taking them back to their head of house, maybe dishing out some loss of points and then having to repeat everything to several people. But as he headed to patrol the forest, the man became aware of a little noise, the noise of students trying to be quiet. He muffled his own steps as he followed his wand in the direction of where other people were in the forest. Using that plus his ears he was finding it quite easy to find the students, though of course as he approached, he realised this wasn’t just one or two students, it appeared to be half the school was out. One of the boys was brandishing some sort of sword. ”For merlin’s sake,” he muttered. He stepped forward just as one of the boys proclaimed that he was a ninja and cleared his throat, ”I thought ninjas were supposed to be quiet but it would be hard to be quiet with an entire quidditch team following,” Misha said, looking between the students trying to figure out who was who, though some were first years and he no longer taught them, so he could not say who they were, ”Would anyone like to try to explain this forest expedition?" he looked between them, a little mirth in his voice, as though amused by the entire scene in front of him.
 
Just as they were getting to the good bit, Elio heard a voice that was suddenly much deeper than any of the male students here, and he glanced over his shoulder to see Professor Haden had joined them too. As promised, the Gryffindor took one for the team, alerting the others to his presence. With any luck perhaps a few more souls could be spared. “PROFESSOR! SCATTER!” He shouted, knowing full well that it was probably going to get him caught himself if Professor Haden looked over. Darting begins a tree, he did his best to hide Rowan with him, but not wanting her to be caught up either, he released her hand and quickly scampered across to another section of the forest in an attempt to draw away attention.
 
Ilija wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry when a professor actually appeared on the scene. In the one hand he was glad this was going to come to a peaceful end without the students getting into danger, which was the reason he’d even come in himself in the first place, however he was painfully aware that he too was about to be seen within those trees. He wanted to speak up and tell him what had happened, but there were still much too many people in the vicinity for the fourth year to talk so loudly. Perhaps it was better to just see how this all played out and hope for the best. He could have told him exactly how this had all started, but Ilija still wasnt completely convinced being a tattle would do him any favours either.
 
Agnes had been following alongside Elsie, trying to keep up with what the little Hufflepuff was saying without tripping over and logs through the dark. A short distance away, she heard a new noise though, and adrenaline began pumping through her body. “Guys, shut up. Listen,” she peered between the students who moments before had been having a pleasant discussion, before straining through the darkness to see Professor Haden with the group too. “You never know, maybe he just wants in on this tree thing?” She whispered hopefully to those closest to her, trying not to move. Maybe there were enough of them that they would just go unnoticed?
 
Maggie had to do a double take to make sure she wasn’t seeing things in the dark when she was distracted by another figure in the bushes. “No it is very much not good,” she replied, pointing in the professors direction. “Maybe it will be okay if he helps us though,” she tried her best to remain optimistic. Yes she and Pippa has original come to explore, but if it had just been the two of them they definitely wouldn’t have been caught. “Professor, we are just looking.. for bugs. For homework,” she said, realising that last time she’d lied to a professor it had only gotten her in a worse state. It was obvious they weren’t even in the same years! “I mean, we all have homework. It is good to do homework together right?” She looked nervously to her newest companions, hoping they’d back her up.
 
By the time Zennon saw the Professor, it was already too late. “Damn,” he swore, looking over at the small group of students he had gathered. He was about to let the professor know that they were just trying to help when stall girls friend decided to try and make the situation worse. He frowned at her, what was she doing?! If they’d just owned up to their mistake they would have had an easier time! But Zennon wasn’t a lag and how he was going to have to help this girl with her completely terrible lie. “We know there’s bugs around here, Professor Haden,” He said, sounding as convincing as possible. “We wanted to study them so we’d know which ones to keep away from our Herbology plants!” He added, discreetly looking over he shoulder to see who might’ve gotten away. Elio has sounded the alarm, and Zennon could see him running across the Forest trying to keep eyes off the others. Not that it would do much good now. “We’re sorry, Professor.”
 
Elsie looked over at Agnes as they all stopped suddenly, the sound of a male voice drifting to them. From this far away, and because it was dark, Elsie couldn’t make out who it was. “Do we know who that is? Doesn’t sound like Styx,” she added. Of it was Styx they would probably be better off staying in the forest. She knew how scary that man was and if they were lucky he might’ve just left them all there to die. Probably the ideal situation. Zennon used to say he wasn’t that scary, but he was a Slytherin so what the heck would he know? He was also a lying liar and Elsie didn’t want anything to do with him. She grabbed the others and moved them deeper into the forest out of sight, hopefully her brother and that Elio boy would be enough of a distraction against everything else.
 
The fact that they could actually get caught hadn’t really crossed her mind and so whilst the fact that a Professor showed up shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise really, it was and Rowan jumped into Elio as he announced such and then tried to drag her quickly into a crouched hiding position. As he left though she reached out to him only to miss him and hiss. “Elio, wait, you’ll be seen!” She didn’t want him to get into trouble after all!
 
Corey could feel Felicita beside him freeze up at the voice of the professor addressing them. And then everything kinda sorta erupted into full blown chaos when someone yelled for them to scatter. Corey had a hold on Felicita and his fellow Hufflepuff's hand though and since none of them were keen to move just yet he started to quietly inch them further into the forest away from the professor. One of the older girls seemed to have the same idea as he did. "Come on, we have to get deeper into the forest to escape him so we could continue looking for your tree," he whispered to the Hufflepuff as he tried to pull her away from the professor and the erupting chaos.
 
Felicita shook her head at @Lysander Summers since she didn't know any duplicating spells. That would be useful in some cases indeed, especially for pranks. She was quite amused though at his antics but her amusement was quickly cut off by the arrival of a professor and had frozen for about a second. She was snapped out of it though by the yelling of one of the other students. A warning that had come too late. She could feel Artemisa though waiting for what they should do. One of the older students seemed to have the right idea though by sneaking away when chaos erupted so she and Misa followed, only to halt to wait for Corey who was trying to bring the Hufflepuff girl with them. They couldn't leave Corey so they would have to bring the girl with them since he was adamant to not leave her behind. "Come on, we gotta hurry. We'll have to make a run for it before the chaos dies down," she urged the Hufflepuffs. She hoped they would hurry up.
 
Artemisa had just been about to introduce herself to Lysander when the professor had arrived and the Gryffindor had to keep herself from straight out bolting deeper into the forest. Besides, Coco had such a firm grip on her hand right now that she doubted she'd be able to escape if she wanted to, not that she did considering that Corey was still trying to convince his housemate that they had to go. Thank Merlin that one of the older students had the sense to be sneaky and move away from the chaos. "Time to go," she told her fellow Gryffindor as their group continued to move with Corey having a little trouble and her twin urging the two of them to move. "Come on, come on, we gotta go, we won't find your tree if he catches us," Artemisa told the Hufflepuff girl as she let go of Feli's hand for the moment to grab the Hufflepuff girl's free hand to help Corey move her along.
 
Misha watched as students scattered, if he didn’t catch them it wouldn’t be a huge loss, but he would try to ensure most of the kids got rounded up, ”Please don’t run, I’m a charms professor not the quidditch instructor,” he said with reference to his own physical fitness level and really how much he would then be bothered. One of the older students, someone he’d had in his class the year before and would have again this year stepped forward and gave a rather poor explanation, he listened as another boy stepped forward and gave a little more detail on what they’d supposedly been doing. ”Okay, so a couple of fifth years, a few fourth years, some third years and a lot of first years now all suddenly have the same homework, is that what you’re saying?” he clarified, trying to not show in his voice how absurd he found it. ”Nope, let’s try again, can anyone else offer up an explanation as to what all of you, including those who are trying to either run or hide are doing?” He knew it didn’t really matter, all of these kids were likely to get into trouble, or as many of them as he could. He’d hear out another story and see what they tried before taking them to the head mistress.
 
An adult's voice had Lysander almost jumping out of his skin. His cheeks flushed with embarrassment. He'd wanted to get rid of everyone because of how loud they were being, and now here he was, becoming a major part of the commotion himself. The boy thought for sure he was in trouble, but Elio shouted and ran around, and a bunch of the older students were caught up by the professor. "What do we do?" Sander murmured to the others, though they were already prepared to run even further into the forest. Sander wanted to see this spirit tree, and rather than risk hanging around for a detention, he followed after the other kids in his year. There was only one adult and a ton of students, so surely he wouldn't be able to catch all of them. Besides, he wasn't a professor he knew from any of his classes anyway. "I'm coming." Raising his arms, the boy spread out his black cloak like a pair of wings, in part hoping to blend in with the dark of the forest, and hurried off with the others.
 
Saori knew that the people who had followed her and were getting in trouble, were her fault. So the petite first year took in a deep breath, adn like a proper soldier stepped forward. "Uhm, I came out here and maybe riled some up." She said, offering a weak smile. She offered the heavy rope up to the professor and explained. "Where I am from, old trees and mountains are often turned into shrines to honor and attract Kami, which are spirits that can give you good blessings. I wanted to find the oldest tree here and tie this around it to make it a nice place for a Kami." She said, even though it was crudely made. "Some of these students decided to accompany me. It's not their fault adn they should no be in trouble. This was my idea." She spoke, looking at the ground. "But if you're going to be mad at me and take me away from the forest, can you please at least find the oldest tree and tie this around it. It is very important to me."
 
Olivia hated the feeling of not being seen which seemed to be what was happening as the older students were splitting off into groups either to try and get the younger students out of the forest or to cause trouble themselves, that and the first years seemed to be sticking together in their quest for whatever they were looking for. The whole thing left Olivia alone and she didn't like it. She froze when one of the boys yelled the appearance of a professor. Olivia kept hidden in the crowd of students and listened to the man as he talked, he listed off groupings of year groups of the students out in the forest but he neglected to acknowledge the presence of a second year. Perhaps he hadn't noticed her, something that would usually irk her but on that occasion perhaps it would work for her benefit.
 
Zennon knew they weren't going to get away with that lie, no thanks to stall girl's friend. It was a shame really, because had they just told the truth, they may have come away unscathed. He looked over at the first year who spoke and shook his head, because that wasn't going to work either. He wasn't sure why Elsie was letting her talk, since she clearly had no idea how these things worked. "No, that's... no, stop talking." Zennon looked over at her. She was likely to get them into more trouble.​
 
Corey could not believe what just happened when his housemate escaped from their hold and approached the professor. He had been about to stop her but he suddenly felt one of the twins grabbing his arm, Felicita, most likely. The girl merely shook her head at him and Corey felt bad about leaving the girl to the wolves - or in this case, the professor. But Feli and Misa were more important to him and if he got caught now, then the twins won't be leaving as well and would get themselves caught faster. He just couldn't believe that Saori would give up just like that, she was technically giving them up as well like this, didn't she know? Corey could feel Feli's tugging more insistently on his arm and that's when they began to run away from the professor and deeper into the forest. It would be a little dangerous but they'd only have to get out of sight before circling back to the castle anyways. They could make it.
 
Felicita was livid when the Hufflepuff girl that Corey and Artemisa was pulling along, pulled away from them and went ahead to go surrender to the professor. She didn't think anyone could be that stupid. And poor Corey and his bleeding heart, would have gone and went with the girl if Feli had not grabbed onto his arm. Never mind that the Hufflepuff girl would have gotten all the other first years caught because Corey was just that nice and Feli and Misa would not leave him behind. "Corey, come on, we gotta go," the Ravenclaw hissed as she pulled at the boy harder. Finally, Corey seemed to have gotten the idea and they began to run as fast as they could just like they were back in Nightray manor. They just gotta escape the chaos, circle back and sneak into the castle then the dorms, no biggie. They'd hopefully manage. Feli would get revenge on that stupid Hufflepuff girl later on.
 
Artemisa was surprised when the Hufflepuff girl had escaped them and ran off to go surrender to the professor. Misa couldn't believe the girl and had been about to rant her indignation to her twin when she saw Coco grab Corey. Misa couldn't help but be annoyed at the Hufflepuff and she swore that vengeance would be served if she, Coco and Corey got caught tonight. At least Lysander was smart and already begun running. Misa did the same and followed her twin and their kind-of cousin deeper into the forest. They probably had a plan, and the Gryffindor already had a vague idea of what the plan was especially since they did not need to look for a stupid tree anymore.
 

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