Topic: LeaVeS CruNCHinG ((Feel free to join))

[Jackie Saylem]

Arianna, slunk through the forest, rubbing her hands against every tree she passed. She let her fingers trail against its rough exterior. She laughed, and felt her own skin. They were exact opposites, yet the same. Arianna kept walking until she saw it becomming more open. Perfect for running.

She took the chance. She removed her sunglasses and ran, hoping she didn't fall. She let her hair whip her face and took deep exhilerating breaths. She ran until she thought her lungs would burst and finally settled down against a tree, playing with her sunglasses. They were dark, so dark that you couldn't see her eyes when they were on.

The wind was still going pretty strong as she scooted out from under the oak tree she had leaned against. She lay flat on the ground, peering up through a gap in the trees. The constellations were gorgeous tonight. "Found the big dipper." She mumbled, but where was Orion? She sighed somewhat frustrated. She could never find that one.

[Seth Lockhart]

Axel was sprinting as fast as he could through the forest, speeding past the trees that looked like green and brown blurs of color. He could feel his muscles burning with every step he took, his chest aching. But he wouldn't stop until he absolutely had to. 
  He could feel his spikey red hair sticking to his face when he jumped over a tree laying in a pathway and over a few large rocks. When he got past all of the obstacles, he came to a stop and bent over, gasping for breath and wiping the perspiration from his head. He took off his blue hoodie, revealing a much more comfortable black t-shirt and gray shorts. 
  He walked past a couple of trees, searching for a place to rest his weak limbs. They felt shaky from running. As his sky blue eyes glanced around, he caught sight of a girl laying on the ground and almost tripped over her.

 "Oh! I'm sorry. Not really paying attention to where I'm going today." He said quickly.

[Jackie Saylem]

Arianna heard something coming and tensed herself, not having time to jump up. She clenched her hand into a fist and prepared to spring to her feet, running at a moments notice.

A boy emerged rather than the wild animal she was expecting. She let out her breath and closed her eyes immedietly, putting on the sunglasses again. It probably looked silly to be wearing sunglasses at this time of night, but it was a habit she had learned. Sunglasses go on around people. At least until they got to know her.

She stood up, attempting to smooth out her hair and get out the leaves. "No, it's ok." She said, smiling and almost laughing. "I'm Arianna. I'm kind of new here, but I think I've seen you around the grounds a few times... I remembered your hair. Kind of hard to miss." She said, almost speed talking. She paused for a moment, trying to remember what she was going to say next. "But I like it... Your hair, I mean."

Oh god! She thought, wishing she could bang her head on a tree. Way to look stupid Ari! She carefully touched her sunglasses, subconciously, making sure they were securely in place.

[Seth Lockhart]

Axel grinned when he saw Arianna in her sunglasses. It was a bit dark for that, but oh well. He leaned his hand against a neighboring tree. 
  "I'm Axel. I've been here for a few months." He said. Axel laughed softly when she brought up his hair. "Thank you." 
  He looked down at her, watching as she touched her glasses.  "So what's your year and house?" He asked. "I'm in Gryffindor. Seventh year."

[Jackie Saylem]

Arianna watched him as he spoke. It was somewhat hard to see through the dark lenses of her glasses, but not so hard that she would dare take them off. She smiled again when he told her his year and house. This was going much better than she had assumed it would, usually because people immediatly asked about her sunglasses, ending in her shutting down and not talking.

After a moment of amused contemplation, Arianna replied to the question. "Me too! Gryffindor, Seventh year." She said, studying his face again. God, how she wanted to take off her sunglasses to see him better. " So what brings you here to the forest at this time of night?"

[Seth Lockhart]

((I'm so sorry. I forget about topics and I haven't been on in...forevvveerrrr!!))

He took in a deep breath, smiling.  "I just came out to run before I got out of shape." He said as he watched a bird flutter to a branch, landing in a nest. "It's weird. I've never seen you before. And that's a shame." Axel was suddenly on the ground next to her, sitting indian style. He knew she probably had those sunglasses on for a reason, but the curiosity was bugging him.

 "So what color eyes are hiding behind these stylish glasses of yours, huh?" He asked with a grin. He always liked seeing what color eyes a person had.

[Jackie Saylem]

Arianna smiled and nearly jumped when he sat down next to her. She pushed her hair back behind her ears, letting only a few strands hang down. "They're green and probably like nothing you've ever seen before." She said with a laugh. Her voice was full of exaggerated mystery like a fortune teller with a crystal ball. It made her laugh again, a bubbly light laugh.

[Seth Lockhart]

Axel smiled and even chuckled. "Would this miss do me the honor of seeing such a rarity?" He asked her.

[Jackie Saylem]

Arianna laughed, her shoulders shaking slightly. Then she smiled tauntingly. "This miss will do no such thing." She said, pressing her lips together tightly. She spoke extremely lightly, attempting to shadow the seriousness about this. She was not going to take her glasses off, and she was sure of that one thing.

[Sky]

Axel smirked and crossed his arms, flexing them a little by accident as he did so. Axel moved a few strands of hair from his eyes and stared up at the sky.


((I'm on a PDA so I'm on Sky's account.))

[Jackie Saylem]

Arianna followed his gaze as he looked up. "Pretty aren't they? The stars, I mean." She said softly, turning her head away from him and taking off her sunglasses to see the stars better. Her eyes cast a slight eerie almost green glow over the forest in front of her. She tilted her head up slightly to see the stars, facing away fron Axel the whole time. "You know, whenever me and my father got in a fight, I would climb out my bedroom window and look at the stars on the roof.... But the only constellation I can ever find, even now is the big dipper... I would end up, laying on the roof for hours, wondering, sometimes about how it would be cool if I could somehow go up there and escape everything down here."

She shut her eyes, and the odd glow disappeared. It wasn't even really a glow, just a faint whisper of light, but it had been there. Her head snapped back to the present almost with a harsh whiplash; she had been too lost in her memory. "Sorry..." She said, lightly. "I don't mean to burden you with my thoughts. I'm sure you have many of your own."

[Sky]

Axel nodded.  "Yeah." He said quietly, his eyes gazing at one unusually bright star. He sensed her removing her glasses, but didn't look to see. When she wanted Axel to see what was there, then he would look.   

  "No. It's fine. It's not a burden at all." Axel smiled softly.

  "When I feel down or when nothing is going the way I plan, I go to the moon for comfort. It has that ability to just...soothe the soul. Ya know?"  This was true about going to the moon. Axel was trying to quit drinking his problems away and found the moon to be peaceful. So he turned to that for comfort instead of booze. Perhaps its the wolf instincts in him?

[Jackie Saylem]

"Yes, I suppose nature is a much better alternative than some other things people chose to get into... I've never really felt so down that I'd had to turn to something extreme like drinking, though. I've always had friends to talk to and pull me out of my rut." Arianna said, propping herself up on her elbows and looking at Axel again through her glasses. She tilted her head as if studying him for a moment.

She opened her mouth as if she was going to speak, but then stopped, stuggling inwardly about whether to speak. Finally the words spilled out. "Are you an animagus?" She asked.

[Sky]

Axel looked down, ashamed. Did she know about his problem? How could she? Not many people knew. Axel was good at keeping his drinking business to himself.

"I don't really have any close friends." He said softly. "But yes, I am an animagus."

[Jackie Saylem]

Arianna smiled softly. She saw his face and squinted, trying to decipher thhe emotion on his face. Fear? Surprise? No, not quite any of these, but something possibly close. She decided to ignore it and move on with the conversation. "You have a friend now... Who, by the way is also an animagus." She said smiling even wider.