Forbidden forest Field trip

Olive took two bags of those devilishly good cakes despite not actually being offered one. The second was personal and meant to imply something along the lines of : 'this is what happens when you don't offer me one you greedy bastard.' Olive listened to Llewellyn and Professor Drake chat as she pried open one cake and took a bite out of it, chewing it thoughtfully. Llewellyn had some points, they were certainly headed for death by just staying in the forest. She too wondered the purpose of these forest missions that never seemed to specify exactly what they were out there for. But then she caught the Professors comment and nearly choked. Fun??!?!

"You don't happen to be related to the headmaster or something... do you?" she asked, but her question was lost as the class immediately headed for a chase for the giant flying creatures. Yes lets RUN to the huge monsters of the forest.. better for them to eat us without the chase. she thought ruefully and ran after the rest, HEY, she was still excited to find out who would die first and if the Professor really was capable of killing a dragon with his bare hands as she'd been told.. not that they were running after Dragons or anything. But.. Dragons, Gryffins.. it all meant the same to her.

His friend brushed him off, and Kai paused a beat in his steps. Oh god, he was really mad, wasn't he?

Davina was dubious, and Kai could not fault her on that. Hell, he was a looming, tall boy offering her edibles, it was probably a bit weird as hell. Or very weird as hell. Kai was relieved she took one at all, as he would like to at least be friends with every single person he came across. Especially those as cool as Davina, but he saved his compliments for when they weren't mildly inappropriate. He nodded enthusiastically, but didn't know what to say, and maybe that was for the best. Olive snatched a few before he closed his bag, and he flashed her a smile and the devil horns with his empty hand, obliviously glad that his contribution to the group was appreciated.

However, as he slung his bag back over his shoulders, Kai couldn't help but glance over to his friend. Kai felt weak, both mentally and physically, though he knew very well he was fully capable of continuing the adventure. But his stomach churned once more. In the process of avoiding the disappointing gaze of his fake sister, he disappointed his real best friend. He knew he did. It left a bad taste in his mouth, and he covered it in the chocolaty outer layer of a snack cake. Llewellyn's words were muted now, as Kai avoided listening to them. He would distract himself with the forest around them instead.

Still, Professor Drake was right. This was still really fun. And as the professor kicked up into a run, Kai followed suit, snack cake shoved into his mouth unceremoniously. It reminded him of his life back home, skating down the London streets with the chill in his lungs. This was why Kai came, after all, he loved exploring nature and he loved exerting himself. Quick and enduring, Kai was behind Drake within seconds. "Are they, like, aggressive, Professor?" Kai began, calling over to the man, "Are we gonna learn how to gain their trust, or like? Something?" However, He was genuinely excited to see Griffins up close, no matter what.

John smiled "These griffins will attack if provoked" He said "So we'll stay back unless approached" He says "If we are place a hand out and look away if he brushes your hand with his body or head you can pet him and look at it" He says as he stops next to a tree looking at a large group of griffins. "Stop" he says looking back.

Puffles slithered into the tree hanging lazily above John swinging back and fourth. John looked at Olive "Trust me it is fun" He says before a griffin trotted up to him. "Alright" He mumbled lifting his hand up and looking away. The griffin brushed his head against the hand and John began petting him. "you guys can come over here to pet him. "Watch his wings and beak" He stated

"Fun," Llewellyn echoed slackly, nearly stumbling over his own feet as Puffles slinked between his footsteps. Contrary to presumptions, Llewellyn did not scare easily despite his unfortunate boggart incident. That is to say, the usual spooks weren't what unnerved the Hufflepuff who had poured countless hours of his life into films about boogey men and serial killers. While out here in the woods, the idea of running into a vampire or werewolf was corporeal and... kind of rad because of that. Not that Llewellyn was by any means capable of defending himself against those types of beasts, but fanboys weren't logical. Professor Drake's explanation stirred a giddiness within Llewellyn which helped clear the burn of fresh embarrassment. 

When the Professor took off, Llewellyn was slow to react, but kept up fine with the rest of his peers, even going as far as to dart past an eager Olive. He couldn't contend against Kai however, who was both taller and leggier than Llewellyn, though that hadn't always been the case. While Llewellyn stood at a stagnant 5'11 Kai had shot past Llewellyn the previous year in a matter of months, though up until that point Llewellyn had always been the taller of the two. When the Professor suddenly came to a screeching halt, he inelegantly collided in Kai's back, but managed to remain planted on his feet. Offering Kai a juvenile smirk he purposefully bumped elbows with him. Taking a few steps back, Llewellyn then shook out his hair and any foliage that might have gotten tangled during their mad dash. When he looked up, a griffin had approached the Professor.

Llewellyn's mouth hung open. If he counted the top coolest things to happen to him, this would easily make the top five. Moving past Kai he approximated himself about a foot away from the Professor and the Griffin, still hesitant to reach out and pet the beast, but obviously utterly enchanted. 

"Where were they migrating to? Have you met these dudes before? Are they, like, your bird bros?" he spouted out curiously, speculating how flippin' cool it was to be such a badass animal. The encounter with the boggart had slipped his mind entirely for now. 

Kaimana Ohme John Drake

The Professor had located the griffins they had been looking for, and they could all feel the mood instantly change. It was impossible to completely shake off her encounter with the boggart just a few minutes ago, but the sight of the magical creatures in the while had at least pushed the experience closer to the back of Davina's mind. Davina took her time approaching the beasts, watching the others step a little closer to them, asking their questions. Llewellyn managed to produce a smirk on Davina's face. He and Kai said the weirdest things, they almost reminded her of her brothers at home.

Waiting her turn, Davina took a few more steps until she was within several feet of the griffin that seemed to be the smallest one in the herd. The Slytherin admired its anatomy while another one approached the Professor. "Is this one just smaller or is it really young?" she asked, glad that her voice wasn't shaking. She was a little relieved and took a full breath, feeling better now that they were dealing with the subject matter of their class. Perhaps it would be enough for the rest of the lesson. Lifting her hand a little with a curious expression, Davina wasn't sure how close she should stand so she just kept her place; maybe one of them would come up to her like the other one had with the Professor, but she definitely wasn't going to chase one down.

Olive's brows lifted as the Professor read his instructions. They were supposed to just stick their hand out and look away? Whaaaat? she couldn't help but think of the many things that could happen in that instance, lose a finger or perhaps worse.. the entire hand. Were gryffins even capable of that, she wondered as she followed along, legs moving without any real idea of where to go, all she knew was that they were all like lambs being lead to slaughter. Suddenly a huge big beast appeared and Olive watched as Professor Drake willingly put out his hand, fearless as always, and why wouldn't he be? He'd lived in the wild since before the dawn of time, this was probably like petting a kitten to him, harmless, whimsical and not the least bit threatening. Still, she couldn't help but hold her breath in anticipation of what may or may not come...  he'd never said what happened if a Gryffin rejected you. Was a beheading in order should they choose? When the Gryffin nuzzled it's feathered head against the professors rough calloused hands, Olive was finally able to exhale a breath of relief that part two of the class didn't require running from the gryffin's who'd gone rogue.

"Maybe it's a he? My brother had a couple snakes growing up and the girl was more than twice his size" she added thoughtfully to Davina's comment on his size. Trying to not look so conspicious, she tilted to the side just enough to take a look at what was going on down there... when she spotted them and flushed. yepp male.. totally male..

"What do they eat anyway?"  she asked  curiously, trying to change the topic in her mind about Gryffin balls. She wondered if the Gryffin would want the other chocolate cake she'd nabbed from Kai's stash of goodies. Olive always felt more comfortable approaching animals by feeding them first and getting a good thing going before going out an petting them.

A giant loaf collided with Kai as he dug his heels into the dirt. With curly hair falling in his face, he turned back, confused and afraid he provoked, like, a giant spider or something. Instead, there was Llewellyn, joyful as he had been before. Kai snorted and smacked his friend back, halfhearted against the chest, as bros were wont to do after a gnarly crash. While he could muse about how relieved he was to see Llewellyn's playfulness, he instead focused his attention to the griffins before them, edging behind Drake to let him be the first to interact with the creatures.

"Where were they migrating to? Have you met these dudes before? Are they, like, your bird bros?"

"F'real tho, I read, like, eagles n' crows n' all that, like, remember people. Like, full on remember that, like, one guy that touched their beak a few years back," He nodded excitedly, "Griffins got like, eagle in them don't they? Or whatever? What if they remember us forever? Call us up on Christmas just to see how we're doing."

Drake insisted they all pet the griffin, but Kai stood back. "Won't we overwhelm it--" Olive suddenly popped from its underside, informing them that it totally got a schlong, "Overwhelm him if we swarm 'im?" Though, he knew they were all probably overwhelming the professor based on all the questions they were throwing at him. But they were all so curious, and Kai's eyes remained wide with wonder as he watched it react so calmly with the others.

"What do they eat anyway?"

Kai remembered now that they were supposed to have read a few pages in their books... But he, like the rest, waved it off. It was better to learn hands on, in his opinion. "Probably, like? Rabbits and stuff, right? That seems like something a catbird would agree on," Kai wondered, too. Would they eat deer and cows and whatnot, as a big cat would, as a big bird would probably like to? Or perhaps they were weird scavengers... But he remembered them being dangerous, so they seemed like they had to be hunters.

"They eat small animals, rabbits, gerbils, moles, gnomes." He said as he pet the griffins back. "It's a male probably just feathered" He said. He attempted to answer all the questions as he pet him. "Griffins are brave so their wont be anything overwhelming."

He looked to the other students. "Each of you examine him in any way you can. Take a few notes on physical characteristics." He looked at the group. "Then tell me what you learned" He stopped petting the griffin and sat down under the tree pulling out a small book, Magical creatures and where to find them. He enjoyed the book having read it several times.

Llewellyn's questions for the professor were quickly buried in the excited babble of his spirited classmates. Although Drake had ignored his questions, he heard Kai ring in from behind making Llewellyn feel his thoughts were at least heeded by someone. Llewellyn did not take the omission personally, as he often spoke without expecting answers. The young badger was very much the type to think out loud, and if someone heard his hodgepodge of brain gunk and helped him wade through the jungle of queries that sprung up in his mind then it was applauded by Llewellyn. Besides, it seemed he was always seeking answers for questions others never bothered to ask, or information that people warranted useless. He liked to dissect things in his head, interpret them thoroughly, and speculate alternatives - even the most negligible details that others discarded or deemed useless.

This was also the reason why Llewellyn quickly fell behind in his studies. Most just assumed, however, that Llewellyn had fried a hundred too many brain cells with his leisurely pursuits. Perhaps those that said that weren't entirely wrong. 

He nodded his head in response to Kai's input on crows, moving forward and taking the place of the Professor and tentatively extending his hand, following by the Professors example, though in truth he was apprehensive as hell to take the plunge. Evergreen eyes trained on the ground to his left. 

"I read an article in my mum's National Geographic that talked about crows and how not only will they remember individuals, but they also expand that knowledge to their crow community, so if one crow has beef with you, all his friends do too," he expounded idly, partially to distract himself. It was details like those that Llewellyn held onto, like an encyclopedia of useless shit.

"I mean, these dudes are way smarter than crows. You can tell from their eyes. You can totally see their soul," he commented, though to some the observation might have sounded like it came out of left field. He felt the beasts head nudge his hand and a wave of relief swept over him, lifting his circumspect gaze. 

The rest of Davina’s classmates soon followed with their own questions and comments, and their Professor easily filled in the blanks of everyone’s spotty knowledge with the breadth of his own. He seemed more at home out here than he did in the castle, which made sense now that Davina remembered what she’d heard about him.

After slowly approaching the smaller creature in the group she had been referring to, it lowered its head deeply for Davina to stroke the length of this smooth, feathered neck. He lifted his head until they were almost nose to beak, which made Davina’s mouth open in awe. She suddenly felt a little detached from the fear that had gripped her, staring at the griffin’s bottomless eyes. Llewellyn said it out loud just as the thought had sprouted in her mind. The griffin made a guttural noise, which she hoped wasn’t bad, and turned away to join his flock. “Do they come here often?” she answered watching him walk away. “Can we come back to see them again?”

He smiled "Whenever you like these guys come here a lot if you see them be respectful and don't approach unless approached, no matter what" He stated. He stood up and stretched. He looked at the group. "c'mon time to leave"

He laughed as he saw them fly off a younger one tripping over his feet then getting back up. "Puffles" He ordered as the snake slithered down the tree and around his shoulders hissing. You just became the coolest teacher with this stunt. John smiled as he began to walk down the path as he heard something rather unpleasing. several skittery footsteps coming in their directions. "students wands ready"

Drake didn't really answer Kai's question, or maybe Kai didn't really word it properly. Even the bravest of animals got pissed off when teenagers swarmed them with pets. But he nodded and took the professor's word for it, keeping to himself until everyone had their turn. It was like, his neighbor's dog. A great pupper with a fluffy face and a friendly disposition, but it would snarl and bite at people who didn't respect its limits. But... That dog wasn't nearly as smart. Then again, he knew the brightest of people who snapped under pressure. Like four people petting their body.

He listened to Llewellyn speak, and his gaze picked up from the ground to his friend. Timidly petting the creature, but obviously thrilled with the experience, and Kai smirked. "Man, that's beautiful, you're so right," He followed suit, finally reaching his hand up to the griffon and smiling softly. This truly made up for the rocky beginning to this trip. Kai only caught a few ginger pats before the griffon decided to trot its way back to its herd, and he waved goodbye, slow and emotionally. God damn, nature was, like, so crazy. He noted that he would have to come here again.

Did griffons like salami? His aunt mailed him salami and he totally was not going to eat it, and he would totally feed it to a catbird to see what was up.

"Maybe we can, like, totally butter one up n' you can ride it," He whispered to Llewellyn, nodding pseudo-seriously through his joke.

And, because things couldn't simply end well, the teacher tensed and turned to them, the smiley bearded face now stoic and commanding. Kai pulled his wand out quickly, bicolored eyes dancing around them in search of the danger. "Oh shit, dudes, what up now?" He whimpered, but remained vigilant through his wariness.